Treehugger Tuesday

From Mother Nature Network:

Los Angeles is Launching the World's Largest Urban Wildlife Study
April 20, 2016
Jaymi Heimbuch

Coyotes in Griffith Park Los Angeles, Photo: National Park Service

In the photo above, two coyotes in Griffith Park visit a deer kill made by P-22, the famous mountain lion. Two bobcats also visited the site. It's amazing to think about mountain lions, coyotes and bobcats live in one of the most urban parks around, but what about all the critters that live in the backyards, golf courses and even within the nooks and crannies of Los Angeles streets?

From frogs to flies, from snails to spiders, scientists are eager to find out about the biodiversity of Los Angeles. So the Natural History Museum is launching a huge project -- so huge that they actually named it the SuperProject.

The SuperProject enlists the help of citizen scientists to survey their yards and take pictures of every species they discover there. By pulling in this information along with everything the researchers find, they hope to get a thorough understanding of all the life a city can hold.

“There’s often a misconception that Los Angeles is a concrete jungle, when in reality the city is home to one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world,” Brian Brown, the museum’s curator of entomology, told the Los Angeles Times.

Everyone can follow along with what the city residents discover on NHM's site, which shows the latest findings sent in from citizen scientists. Visitors can also browse an interactive map to see what was discovered in various locations around L.A.