City Nature YYC
Promoting Parks, Stewardship, Citizen Science, and the Appreciation of Nature in Alberta.
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2025 Results
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The 2025 City Nature Challenge is a wrap, and the results are in!
This marked Calgary’s seventh City Nature Challenge year of participation, and we couldn't be prouder of our community. We extend our heartfelt thanks to all participants, observers, and partner organizations for your unwavering support!
2025 was another incredible chapter in Calgary’s journey, during which we collectively helped put our city’s biodiversity on the map. A special congratulations goes to La Paz for their outstanding performance across all categories—your city continues to inspire with its strong community of conservationists and naturalists. We also saw amazing efforts across Canada, and it’s exciting to have such strong national competition pushing us every year. Kudos to Vancouver, Montreal and Victoria for shattering Canada’s all-time records.
We also want to give a big shoutout to the global CNC organizing team from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles and the California Academy of Sciences. This incredible team of organizers provides year-round support, guidance, and momentum for the challenge. 2025 marked the 10th year anniversary of the City Nature Challenge and it continues to grow into a global phenomenon. 2025 saw 669 cities in 62 countries across 6 continents taking part. Over just four days, participants made a stunning 3,310,131 observations, identifying more than 73,765 species—including over 3,338 rare, endangered, or threatened species—with contributions from 102,945 observers. You can view the full global summary at www.citynaturechallenge.org.
2025 Global Highlights:
Top cities by number of observations:
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La Paz, Bolivia – 148,865
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San Antonio Metro Area, Texas, USA – 133,953
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Cochabamba, Bolivia – 109,423
Top cities by number of species:
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Cochabamba, Bolivia – 7,134
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San Antonio Metro Area, Texas, USA – 5,409
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Hong Kong, China – 5,033
Top cities by number of participants:
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La Paz, Bolivia – 3,321
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Cochabamba, Bolivia – 3,230
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San Francisco, California, USA – 2,866
Most observed species globally:
Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
Heading 4
2025 CNC Calgary Global Rank:
From 669 cities in
62 countries on 6 continents
Observations: 15,915 (47th)
Species: 822 (178th)
Observers: 339 (78th)
2025 CNC Calgary Canada Rank:
From 39 Urban Areas
Observations: 15,915 (4th)
Species: 822 (7th)
Observers: 339 (6th)
Jump to 2025 Results Section:
YYC Observations (15,915)
2025 saw our largest number of observations collected of any year so far! A whopping 15,915 observations were made within the Calgary Metropolitan Region during the four days of CNC! Compared to other Canadian cities, we had fewer observers than cities such as Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto, but thanks to our dedicated iNaturalist observers in our area, we managed to break some records and make it into 4th position!
This year, 339 people helped to put Calgary's biodiversity on the map! The Prairie Pasqueflower was (again) our number one observed species followed by Spiny Phlox and Golden Bean! What can we say, plants are easier to photograph and we're very pleased to see the usual culprits (Mallard and Canada Goose) move down into fourth and fifth position!
At the time of the results, we documented 927 total species (820 wild species). Of this, 101 species are on the IUCN threatened list which were from 964 observations. Pretty Cool!
YYC Species
(820 Documented Wild Species)
YYC Observers
(339 iNaturalist contributors)
Calgary placed 6th across Canada for number of observers! Congratulations on your massive accomplishments and contributions to mapping out Calgary's biodiversity!
Top Observers
User | Rank | Observations | Species |
|---|---|---|---|
wowokayyes | 1 | 2342 | 296 |
norbertkondla | 2 | 1802 | 63 |
unraisedshelf | 3 | 1200 | 229 |
justin734 | 4 | 956 | 47 |
sav_vy | 5 | 774 | 80 |
bob73 | 6 | 659 | 162 |
cllynn101 | 7 | 506 | 72 |
stephalina | 8 | 502 | 53 |
michaelheuchert | 9 | 438 | 189 |
oracleofdelphi | 10 | 400 | 90 |
Notable Observations:
Burbot (Dead) with Tennis Ball in Mouth by: mathis3
American Mink Exploring Shoreline by: unraisedshelf
Osprey Consuming Large Northern Pike by: ccfisher
Black-Capped Chickadee Preparing Nest Box by: zenbirds
A Mysterious Long-eared Owl by: malamutepoint
The Perfect Crepe Recipe? (with American Robin) by: bill_mckeeman
Mountain Cottontail on the Move! by: rbbrummitt
A Viral Virile Crayfish Along Nose Creek by: cllynn101
The Breath of a Red-winged Blackbird: by: amber54534
Visit the 2025 Calgary CNC iNaturalist Project to view all of the incredible observations made!
Summary
It's amazing to see how far we've come since starting out on our CNC journey in 2018. To date, we have added nearly 55,000 observations of biodiversity within our Calgary Metropolitan Region. What started as a small initiative to keep track of what we have living in our urban area has now become a living atlas of our flora and fauna. It's a critical tool for understanding how our urban form reflects on the natural environment. And most importantly, a tool that we can use to the benefit of our remaining natural areas and communities that depend on them.
Thank you to everyone who took part and don't let up on your iNaturalist observations throughout the year! The 2026 CNC is scheduled April 24 - 27, 2026 – put it on your calendar!
Contact
Get in touch to help plan and prepare for City Nature Challenge 2026!