In collaboration with the University Museum of Zoology and conservation partners across Cambridge, the Botanic Garden held Bioblitz events in 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019 and 2020 during which experts and the visiting public join forces to discover, identify and record species resident or passing through.
The Botanic Garden is a habitat actively managed for wildlife and Bioblitz events can give a good idea of which species we have present in the Garden at a particular time of year.
Bioblitz 2020
In September 2020, we ran a very different event to what was previously possible due to the restrictions in place at the time as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic. Although we could still run a limited number of small socially distanced nature walks, we could not run our usual hands on workshops such as minibeast hunts and pond dipping. Instead we asked for permission to film some of our wildlife experts while they were surveying the wildlife in the Garden, so that we could share with you how they discovered some of the 694 species that were recorded in 2020.
We have put together a series of mini-films from the footage taken in September 2020, and hope you enjoy watching them as much as we did making them. We start with a brief video highlighting what we did and a few of the species we found. You can then learn how we surveyed for butterflies and small mammals, explored the fascinating world of plant parasites, hunted for slugs and snails, enticed spiders from their hidey holes and finally see what we found in our light trap.
