The Urban Naturalist Workshop

11 May 2017

This month, Professor Amanda Bamford, in collaboration with Matt O’Donnell at Manchester Museum, led a group of 15 adults around campus to study the urban biodiversity on our doorstep and to identify species living within the University grounds.

The group used the brand-new biodiversity recording app called UMAPIT, developed by Amanda and a group of Manchester academics on the University’s Living Campus group, to explore the idea of citizen science and contribute to our knowledge of the local flora and faunal communities found in the urban centre of Manchester.

This was a 2 hour event, after a brief talk on biodiversity, explaining why we should be care about it and how we can study it, the group were led on a walk around campus to observe and record species, finishing at the Michael Smith Building.  The group then met Dr. Cecilia Medupin who helped with aquatic invertebrate identification.

Amanda Bamford said "It was a lovely day (which was a bonus!) and the group really enjoyed being outside and were pleasantly surprised at the range of wildlife we saw including the native bluebells in our quad."