Public competition: who finds the most species?

Public competition: who finds the most species?

The biodiversity on your own front door is surprisingly large. © Jan Ole Kriegs

Not only in the Amazon rainforest, but also on your own front door there is an incredible biodiversity. In order to make this visible, the cross-border “species Olympics” started at the beginning of the year. In this competition, nature lovers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland are called to count as many different ways as possible. As with the real Olympiad, several prizes are waiting for the eagerest species collectors.

Around 72,000 different types of animal, plant and mushrooms live in Germany- from insects, spiders and worms to birds, trees and mushrooms. The biodiversity in the microscopic area is even greater. But more and more local species end up on the red list of endangered species, including many amphibians and reptiles. Knowing the size of your stocks is therefore essential for your continued existence.

An Olympics for nature lovers

In order to make more people want to look at nature, the LWL Museum for Natural History in Münster, the House of Nature in Salzburg and the Naturmuseum Solothurn in Switzerland have now launched the first “species Olympics”. Nature lovers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland have been called to find as many different types as possible since the beginning of the year and either to submit Observation.org or Obsidentify app via the international natural observation platform. The app and website automatically take over the identification of the various species and at the same time convey new knowledge of the diverse life on your own front door.

All find data is provided at the end of research and nature conservation. But: “Research should be fun and so a competitive character should not be missing: There is a ranking among the participants in the 2025 species Olympics and in the end also attractive prices,” says Jan Ole Kriegs from the LWL Museum for Natural History. Anyone who has photographed most of the species by the end of 2025 wins the following prize: Free participation in any course in any course in the Bildungs ​​and Research Center in the Holy Sea of ​​the LWL Museum for Natural History, including an accompanying person and meals. Further prices for the second and third place places will be announced by the organizers shortly.

Please do not disturb photo motifs

Only wild species that were documented in 2025 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland are documented photographically or acoustically in 2025. Plants or animals planted by humans, on the other hand, do not count. When reporting plants, mushrooms and other difficult -to -determine groups of species, the competition participants should also make sure that all relevant features are recognizable. For plants, for example, leaves and, if there are flowers, the top and underside of their hat should be seen. This is the only way to reliably determine the AI ​​used, what types it is. And most importantly: When collecting species, the photographed organisms should always be disturbed as little as possible and never violated, as the organizers emphasize.

Further information on the competition and participation in it can be found at: https://www.arten-olympiade.lwl.org

Source: Hessian State Museum Darmstadt

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