Discover the secret lives of Australia’s plants and animals

Want to know more about Australia’s amazing plants and animals? Try a little citizen science with CVA by exploring nature where you live. Learn some ‘citsci’ skills and help us restore nature as a wildlife spotting volunteer.

There’s a choice of in-person and online events to get you started, no matter where you live. Your photos, recordings and observations help researchers uncover how biodiverse an area is and then make a recovery plan and measure its success. Citizen scientists do the legwork that enables critical research to happen.

 

Join the City Nature Challenge with your work team

 

Be part of one of the world’s biggest community science events for nature. 

Round up some colleagues, get outside and take action for nature with a CVA expert. Upload as many photos as you can to our citizen science apps, and give nature a helping hand as we uncover the incredible diversity of life where you’d least expect it – right in the heart of Australia’s biggest cities. 

When and where: Join CVA for a couple of hours in Melbourne (Westgate Park), Perth (Bibra Lake), Sydney (Londonderry Reserve, Bowman Road), and Brisbane (Oxbow Wetlands) on Friday the 28 April, and in Adelaide (Woorabinda Reserve) on Monday 1 May 2023.

Registrations will open at the end of March.

 

Join a public City Nature Challenge volunteering event on Saturday the 29th of April

Find out more

 

Online citizen science with DigiVol

This work can be life saving, with volunteers watching over some of Australia’s rarest animals, like the Eastern Barred Bandicoot. 

 

By joining our team of wildlife spotters on a DigiVol expedition, you can help identify any threats to the bandicoots breeding program, including if foxes or cats break into the predator-proof enclosure.

Recently, an eagle-eyed CVA volunteer noticed a fox in the Woodlands Bandicoot sanctuary that had chewed its way through the fence.

This citizen scientist helped us take immediate action to protect our threatened bandicoot population from being eaten by a fox, and repair the damaged fence.

 

Want to help?

Ready to get started? Just in case you haven’t used DigiVol before, we’ve put a tips-sheet to make it easy to find your way around the system.

Show me how

 

Comfortable with DigiVol already? Use this link to find your way directly to CVA’s virtual expeditions.

Go there now

 

 

‘In-nature’ citizen science with iNaturalist

iNaturalist is a global nature App through your phone or computer, with artificial intelligence built in to help identify the plants and animals around you and added into Australia’s Atlas of Living Australia. The App connects you with over 1,200,000 scientists and naturalists who will help identify and verify what you find and record.

CVA helps you get involved in iNaturalist citizen science BioBlitz events.

 

Want to help?

Show me what a BioBlitz is

 

‘In-nature’ citizen science with Litter Stopper

CVA has partnered with Beach Patrol – a network of volunteer groups using the power of community spirit to clean local beaches and streets – who have created an app to help you record information from your clean up activities.

Recording information on the amount and type of litter you find is to identify where it is coming from and identify types of litter and places with high litter loads. With this information we can start planning action to reduce litter at the source.

 

Want to help?

Show me how to use the Litter Stopper App