What’s a BioBlitz?

A BioBlitz is a large scale event that engages people with biodiversity, inviting them to get directly involved in surveying and monitoring their local wildlife and green spaces. During a BioBlitz event scientists and members of the public work together to survey a natural space; looking for, identifying and recording as many species as possible over 24 hours or sometimes a shorter period of time.

They are a fun way to create a snapshot of the variety of life that can be found in an area and bring together members of the public and scientists to share knowledge of wildlife. BioBlitz’s take place all over the world in urban and rural areas, inland or coastal locations, and upland and lowland settings. They first started in the in the USA in 1996, BioBlitz’s are now held regularly in many countries and have been taking place in the UK since 2006.

Hundreds of BioBlitz events take place across the country, although there have been very few in the local area, events are registered and advertised through a central website: www.bnhc.org.uk/bioblitz.

A BioBlitz relies on attracting volunteer naturalists and biologists to the event and then using the general public to help collect data. They enable the public to be involved in biological survey work, learn about a wide range of species and learn more about the ecology of their local environments. Often, they also include family friendly events related to biology, such as making insect houses, pond-dipping and face painting.

Our first BioBlitz ran in 2015 at our Park Campus in Cheltenham together with Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust and other local groups. The event was funded by a grant from the Janet Trotter Trust. The event was organized by Dr Richard Rolfe together with a team of 8 undergraduate and postgraduate students. On the day we also had over 30 students from the university helping out with our surveys.

During the event we recorded over 530 species and these records not only provide a valuable snapshot of the wildlife on our campus but will also help in the management of the site. We had 2 features on BBC Radio Gloucestershire and features in the Gloucestershire Echo and the Citizen.

Highlights of the days included a huge 227 plant species, 24 species of fungi and 10 mammal species.

You can view our full species list here:

https://gloucestershirebio.wixsite.com/pittville-bioblitz/2015-results