Well, we've had loads of stuff on the show recently in relation to the International Year of Biodiversity... including the news that most Irish people don't know what biodiversity is.
Anyway, last weekend was the first ever national 'BioBlitz', when scientists at six locations across the country took part in a race to record the most plant and animal species in 24 hours (with a frantic surge in activity reported in the last hour).
Teams of botanists, zoologists, entomologists, mycologists and other-ologists were drafted into Newbridge Demesne in North County Dublin, where a grand total of 441 different species was recorded.
- 180 plants
- 40 butterflies and moths
- 46 birds
- 20 other insects
- 7 mammals
- 148 'others' (fungi, lichens and so on. This was the highest 'others' figure in the competition.)
An impressive tally, but the Dubs were left in the ha'penny place by winners Connemara National Park, where 542 species were found, including 351 different plants. (Dublin came second last. Not that it matters, of course, since the point of the exercise is to compile useful information for the National Biodiversity Data Centre. Although, according to Earth, Wind and Spire's sources the competitive aspect of this supposedly 'fun' event was taken terribly seriously by certain elements of the scientific community.)
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