We are biodiversity scientists– an ecologist, a mathematician and a taxonomist– who were locked down together throughout the COVID pandemic. Unable to leave our house, we became curious about the variety of plants and animals in our area and decided to count them all.
Surprisingly, we discovered a lot more than we expected. Our just-published research study reveals that we catalogued a total of 1,150 species on our urban property over the course of a year.
We found common animals like ibises, brush turkeys, and possums, as well as some that had rarely been recorded. In fact, three of the species we documented had never been recorded in Australia’s leading biodiversity database at that point.
Our yard turned out to be a haven for many species, including 436 types of butterflies and moths. Some were brightly colored, while others had fascinating behaviors that we had never noticed before.
