2013 Ontario BioBlitz - Rouge Park | September 14-15

The inaugural “Ontario BioBlitz” at Rouge Park, The 2013 Ontario Bioblitz in Rouge Park engaged even more professional and amateur nature lovers alike of all ages, drawing double the participants of the 2012 BioBlitz. From 12pm September 14 to 12pm September 15. The total number of species documented in the park also increased, with the teams finding more than 1700 species!

Highlights:

• over 430 registered participants
• 1791 species identified
• broke the record that had been held up until September 2013 for the number of species counted during a BioBlitz (a title which was overthrown by National Geographic in 2014... for now)
• At least 80 spiders, 7 of which have never before been documented in the park;
• Many plant, insect and fungi species never documented in the park before, including a rare plant found at the mouth of the Rouge River;
• A Smoky Shrew (Sorex fumeus), never before seen in the Park, was found dead along a road;
• 60 painted turtles were observed, the most abundant reptile during the survey

Members of the BIO team work tirelessly in the species depot to identify species brought back by field teams. Photo by Brennan Caverhill

The Biodiversity Institute of Ontario (BIO) joined the Ontario BioBlitz partnership in 2013 and assisted with species identification through the use of DNA Barcoding. With DNA Barcoding, a small portion of an organism’s DNA is analyzed and compared to the same piece of DNA in other specimens. This comparison helps us to identify patterns in the DNA and tell different species apart from one another. For more information, visit  http://ibol.org/about-us/what-is-dna-barcoding/

Sector Map used for Rouge Park       

Click the map to embiggen

2013 Host

2013 Partners