Hull City Nature Challenge 2026
The countdown until Hull’s City Nature Challenge 2026 has begun! You’re in the right place to find out what the City Nature Challenge is, how you can get involved, iNaturalist training, recording locations, 2025 results and more…
The City Nature Challenge (CNC) is a global nature-recording event, taking place in cities and regions across the world, every year. Hull took part for the first time in 2023 and has done so since, and will be taking part again in 2026 from the 24th - 27th April. This four-day bioblitz event started in 2016 and has grown exponentially, from 2 cities participating in its first year to around 500 cities and upwards of 3 million observations. The challenge encourages people to discover the biodiversity on their doorstep and make useful biological records so that the data can be used to protect the biodiversity of the spaces we love and be used in decision-making about the environment.
Organised by NEYEDC with the help of a team of local partners, the aim for the Hull City Nature Challenge 2026 remains to promote the collection of biological data across the city and encourage people to connect with the nature in their local green spaces, back gardens, nature reserves, and more. You can find details of how to take part, and how to join the Hull City Nature Challenge 2026 project on iNaturalist, below.
How can I get involved in 2026?
The City Nature Challenge primarily uses the app iNaturalist to make records.
No experience is needed to get involved - everyone can take part! On the event weekend, get out and about in Hull and record the plants and animals you find. This can be as simple as a walk around your local nature reserve, green space, park, or even exploring your own garden. Even if you can’t identify the species you’ve seen, once you’ve taken a photo and uploaded your observation to iNaturalist, the community of users within the app can help you with your ID.
iNaturalist can be downloaded onto mobile devices for free from the Apple Store or Google Play, or accessed via web browser. Any observations made within the city boundaries of Hull during the long weekend of 24th - 27th April 2026 will count towards the City Nature Challenge. You can also use iNaturalist to submit records throughout the year.
You can download iNaturalist for Android here or iPhone here, or use the browser version.
This year, the City Nature Challenge is no longer allowing casual records to be included in the project totals on the iNaturalist website. This means any record that is submitted without an image or audio recording to go alongside it, for verification. In the past we have added records collected outside of iNaturalist (e.g. in traditional spreadsheet format) to the platform to contribute to our totals. This year, we’re not able to do that. However, we would still love to receive any other records in other formats and will be using these to create our own totals, statistics and figures outside of iNaturalist. Ideally, records would use our Recording Spreadsheet template, which is available from the link below, and can be sent to lucy.baldwin@neyedc.co.uk, where they relate to the City Nature Challenge.
To find out more about biological recording visit our General Interest page.
You can also get involved by helping us verify observations made within our iNaturalist project after the event. The verification period runs from 28th April - 10th May and will allow us to use more records in decision-making. If you are knowledgeable about a certain species or species group, why not visit our iNaturalist project after the event and offer your expertise? There are guides here and here which show you how to add your verifications - either agreeing with another person’s identification or suggesting your own.
iNaturalist support
We have various resources available showing you how to use iNaturalist, including…
How to use the platform:
How to use iNaturalist #1
How to use iNaturalist #2
How to use iNaturalist #3
How to make good observations:
iNaturalist tips and tricks
We also have some key tips to make recording on iNaturalist the most useful for data centres and other data users. This includes changing the license on your records from CC-BY-NC to CC-BY or CC0, and making sure your display name is the same as your real name. More details can be found on the document here.
Events
The following events will be taking place during the City Nature Challenge weekend. Please contact the relevant organisations for more information:
The Deep & East Park Animal Education Centre Bug Hunt Weekend - Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th April, 11:30 and 13:00, East Park Animal Education Centre, HU8 8JU
Join The Deep and East Park’s Animal Education Centre for a weekend of outdoor exploration and curiosity– the perfect family outing for little explorers and grown‑ups alike! Get hands‑on with nature by joining a pre‑bookable bug hunt, running at 11:30am and 1pm on both dates. Led by The Deep's friendly Guides and East Park Rangers, who know where the creepy‑crawlies love to hide! Search under logs, leaves, and stones to discover beetles, worms, woodlice and more, while learning fascinating facts along the way. Spaces are limited, so booking ahead is essential: Bug Hunt Weekend | The Deep
Friends of Alderman Kneeshaw Community Event - Saturday 25th April 2026, 11:00 - 15:00, Alderman Kneeshaw Park
A great day filled with nature-based activities, including a bug hunt using the iNaturalist app as part of the City Nature Challenge. We’ll be observing and documenting local wildlife to help inform future planting efforts in the park.
Other events
This section includes events that are running in conjunction with the City Nature Challenge but are outside of the official recording area.
Hull Mammal Group Footprint Tunnel Workshop - Saturday 25th April, 10:30 - 12:00, Humber Bridge Country Park
Celebrate National Mammal Week with Hull Mammal Group (coinciding with City Nature Challenge) and join them to explore the country park by recording small mammal tracks using footprint tunnels. The event is free but tickets are limited and you must register in advance here: Celebrating National Mammal Week: Recording Small Mammals | Humber Bridge Country Park | 25 Apr 2026, 10.30am
Recording locations
The map above shows confirmed survey locations across the recording weekend in green, with some additional ideas for locations in orange. However, you can record anywhere within the red boundary on the map - all records count, whether in your own garden, on the street, or in a park or nature reserve. Just because someone else is planning to visit an area doesn’t mean you can’t visit either!
2025 Results
Last year’s event built on the success of 2023 and 2024, with Hull placing 7th in the overall UK leaderboard and 8th for number of species, out of 26 participating cities and regions. Once again, the boundaries for our area were kept the same as in previous years, sticking to the official city boundary to gain a true understanding of the biodiversity within it, whilst also allowing us to compare our results and records year-on-year. Despite the small area and fairly limited range of habitats to explore, recorders across Hull made fantastic efforts to extract the maximum out of our area across the recording period of 25th – 28th April 2025!
Key statistics
A total of 7,050 observations were recorded last year, a very small increase of 7 records compared to 2024 (7,043). We also managed to beat our species total for 2024, recording 115 more species than that year, giving a total of 1,292. Another fantastic increase in numbers was seen in the number of observers (or participants) who made records on iNaturalist over the recording weekend, at 75, compared to 63 in 2024. It is encouraging to see the event growing from strength to strength with more people taking part across the city.
Hull remains one of the smallest City Nature Challenge areas in the UK, one of only three regions where the overall area totalled less than 99km2. Adjusting for area size, together we recorded 86.5 observations and 15.9 species per km2, significantly higher than the adjusted totals for the official top three cities, of which the next highest totals were 12.14 and 1 respectively.
You can read a full report of the 2025 event here.
Recording area
The boundary chosen by the Hull City Nature Challenge team reflects Hull’s official city boundary. Any records within this area made over the City Nature Challenge weekend will count towards our totals.