European champion of biodiversity: Graz takes top place in City Nature Challenge

Professionally equipped biology students like Katharina Brüllmeir documented animals, plants and fungi in Styria as part of the City Nature Challenge. Photo: Saskia Kollegger

Over 43,000 nature observations in four days: this puts the "Graz to Southern Styria Nature Park" region in first place internationally outside of America in this year's City Nature Challenge. In terms of registered species, Styria is also the European champion with 4,065 and is in third place worldwide after La Paz (Bolivia) and Hong Kong.

"We are very pleased that we have found some new species for Styria, but also some that were thought to be extinct, such as the crow's-foot plantain," reports organizer Gernot Kunz from the Institute of Biology at the University of Graz. The leaf beetle Pachybrachis fimbriolatus, which had not been observed since 1950, and the shield beetle Cassida aurora, which was last seen in 1973, were also rediscovered. Several tree fungi, wasps and beetles as well as the jumping spider Pseudeuophrys vafra have been recorded for the first time in Styria. "This is a southern species that may have been introduced unintentionally," suspects the biodiversity researcher. Kunz and his students contributed significantly to the documentation and identification of the animals, plants and fungi.

All discoveries are available online .

International call
The City Nature Challenge is an annual friendly competition between cities and regions around the world. Participants try to document as many wild animals, plants and fungi as possible. The uploaded specimens are identified and evaluated. Graz and the surrounding area took part for the fifth time this year. In 2025, the observation area will be extended to Murau and south-eastern Styria. All uploaded data records remain stored on the iNaturalist reporting platform and are available for nature conservation and scientific purposes.

Dagmar Eklaude

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