The City of Cape Town is offering four days’ free entry to its nature reserves during the Great Southern Bioblitz. The event is taking place from Friday, October 24, 2025 to Monday, October 27, 2025.
Reportedly, Cape Town is participating in the annual Great Southern Bioblitz challenge alongside other cities in the southern hemisphere. Their to participate is to record the local diversity of plant and animal life.
The Great Southern Bioblitz is a citizen scientist event. The high-level event takes place annually and encourages people to record and identify wildlife in the southern hemisphere. Anyone can who is interested can participate by uploading their nature observations onto the iNaturalist app.
Considering this, Deputy Mayor of the City of Cape Town and Member of the Mayoral Committee for Spatial Planning and Environment – Alderman Eddie Andrews said that each year, cities across the southern hemisphere went head-to-head to see who can capture the widest range of plant and animal species. Cape Town is always in the running to lead the way.
Eddie Andrews added that once again, they are opening the nature reserves to residents, completely free of charge, so that everyone can join in the fun of discovering and recording the incredible biodiversity of the City of Cape Town. He said that he has no doubt that Cape Town will shine, and he encouraged residents to bring their smartphones or cameras and help in showcase the unique wildlife that makes the city so extraordinary.
Residents can join by simply entering their plant and animal sightings on the iNaturalist app or website. Each observation taken on one of the four challenge days will automatically be included in the challenge. To join in and also see how Cape Town is doing, visit the Cape Town project page on the iNaturalist website. Also, the free entry to the nature reserves does not include recreational or other permitted activities, these will be charged as per normal.