City Nature Challenge
All day
Join the Santa Ana Zoo and the Santiago Creek ECO Center for the 2025 City Nature Challenge! We need your help to document the amazing biodiversity in Orange County from April 25-28, then identify those observations from April 29-May 4.
What is the City Nature Challenge?
Started in 2016 as a competition between San Francisco and Los Angeles, the City Nature Challenge has grown into an international event, motivating people around the world to document wildlife in and around their cities, using biodiversity recording platforms like iNaturalist. Run by the Community Science teams at the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the CNC is an annual four-day global bioblitz at the end of April, where cities are in a collaboration-meets-friendly-competition to see not only what can be accomplished when we all work toward a common goal, but also which city can gather the most observations of nature, find the most species, and engage the most people in the event. In 2024, 690 cities participated, with over 83,500 people making 2.4 million observations of nature in the four days of the challenge. The 2025 City Nature Challenge is gearing up to be the biggest one yet!
How can I participate?
Anytime you see or hear wildlife, take a photo or make a sound recording and upload it to iNaturalist. Participate from wherever you are, or join us for an in-person bioblitz:
- in front of the Santa Ana Zoo
- Friday, April 25 from 10AM-12PM or 2PM-4PM
- Saturday, April 26 from 10AM-12PM or 2PM-4PM
- at Santiago Creek ECO Center
- Sunday, April 27 from 10AM-12PM or 2PM-4PM
- Monday, April 28 from 10AM-12PM or 2PM-4PM
- All programs are free to the public and do not require purchase of Zoo admission. You will still need to purchase a ticket if you wish to enter the Zoo.
There will also be mini-challenges throughout the event, so make sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram!
Contact asuto@santa-ana.org or jparsons@santa-ana.org for more information.
