Nature detectives of all ages are being sought to take part in a nationwide hunt to identify 2012 species of flora and fauna ahead of next year’s London Olympics.
‘Meet the Species’, an online community set up as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad campaign to inspire people to discover their local environment is holding a series of events across the UK this spring and summer.
The marathon project will create a scientific record of everything from mini-beasts to sea mammals. By the time the Olympic torch reaches London, new species are hoped to have been catalogued.
To coincide with this, new research has been released today which shows that our knowledge of the wildlife in our local areas is sadly lacking.
Over 50% of people admit that they would not be confident of naming the wildlife that is most common in their area, while a huge number say they have never seen even some of the most common flora and fauna in Britain.
A quarter say they have never seen a Swift, a fifth have never come across a Hedgehog, while one in ten say they are yet to spot a House Sparrow in their neighbourhood.
This worrying lack of knowledge could have something to do with the fact that only one in ten people say they were regularly taught about local wildlife at school.
And instead of actually getting outside to explore, over half of those surveyed say they get their knowledge of local wildlife from TV documentaries and or the internet, with less than a third saying they actually visit natural sites.
Despite that, nearly 90% of people say it is important for all of us to have a good understanding of the local wildlife in our area so that we can learn how to protect it, engage with nature and teach our children about what is around us.
So how much do you know about your local environment?
In our podcast Charlie Dimmock discusses why our knowledge of our local flora and fauna is on the brink of extinction and joining her is Savita Custead from the Bristol Natural History Consortium with details on the Meet the Species Events in your area and how they hope to encourage people back to nature.