What is the City Nature Challenge?

The City Nature Challenge began in 2016 as a friendly competition between Los Angeles and San Francisco to see which city could observe the most biodiversity. More than 600 cities across the world now participate every end of April, including Tiohtià:ke/Greater Montreal. Technoparc Oiseaux and the Montreal-based Campus Biodiversity Network have organized the Greater Montreal City Nature Challenge since 2022.

The next edition of the challenge will take place from April 24-27, 2026. To participate, simply take photos of wildlife or wild plants during the four days with the free, non-commercial iNaturalist application or upload your photos directly to the website iNaturalist Canada. Your observations will be used for international biodiversity and urban ecology research and can make a difference for urban conservation!

Curious to see whether your neighbourhood is located within the observation area for Greater Montreal ? Use the map below or consult the list of cities in the Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM) here.

How to make observations with iNaturalist

• Find WILD animals and plants
• Take a photo using the application or your camera
• Submit your observation with the app (for Android et iPhone) or directly on iNaturalist.ca
• The application can identify the type of species you’ve observed, and experts in the participatory science community will help, too!
• All iNaturalist observations will automatically count for the Greater Montreal project if taken within Greater Montreal over the four days of the challenge (and submitted on or before May 4).