Do you know how many species of wildlife there are in Stanley Park? It’s not an easy question to answer. The number and the range will vary according to the season, and in some cases it might even change by the day. Never afraid of challenge, the Stanley Park Ecology Society decided to find out.
In August this year we held the second ever BioBltiz event in Stanley Park, in conjunction with Stanley Park’s 125th birthday celebrations.
Now, after weeks of pouring over the results, we are pleased to share the final tally with you!
Before we get into numbers – you might be wondering, how do you record Stanley Park’s wildlife? Well, it’s no simple task. If you’re going to identify species, the first thing you need are some expert recorders. Whilst many of us are good at identifying common species of birds, insects and plants, recording absolutely everything you see calls for some expert help.
So SPES enlisted the help of staff and over 20 volunteer scientists who scoured the park over a 24 hour period. The group set out to identify plants, fungi, insects, birds and everything else in between.
In total, 337 species were identified in Stanley Park and the most exciting part? 89 of them are new to the life list of Stanley Park.
The break down by category is as follows:
- 100 invertebrates (46 new to the life list)
- 6 marine algae and sea grass (1 new to the life list)
- 65 vertebrates
- 104 native Plants and Fungi (24 new to the life list)
- 1 plankton (new to the life list)
- 8 ornamental plants (4 new to the life list)
- 53 invasive plants – (13 new to the life list)
These results will help SPES staff guide future conservation work in Stanley Park including the management of the newly detected invasive plant species.
For a full list of all the species ID during the BioBlitz download the PDF.