Botswana’s biodiversity shines: join the Great Southern BioBlitz 2026
Botswana achieved its strongest Great Southern BioBlitz results to date in 2025, demonstrating what a small but dedicated community can accomplish.
Across the Botswana Central, Northern Botswana and Botswana South projects, participants contributed:
📸 1,925 observations
🌿 934 unique taxa
👥 25 observers
These results represented a substantial increase from the 1,019 observations and 503 taxa recorded in 2024, establishing new GSB records for Botswana.
Exploring biodiversity across Botswana
Each of Botswana’s three regional projects made an important contribution.
Botswana Central recorded the most observations, with 934 records, while Northern Botswana documented the greatest taxonomic richness, with 536 unique taxa from 773 observations. Botswana South contributed a further 218 observations and 177 taxa, expanding the geographic coverage of the BioBlitz.
Animals dominated the national results, accounting for 1,516 observations and 671 taxa. Plants were also well represented, with 395 observations and 254 taxa, alongside records of fungi and bacteria.
Insects were a particular highlight, contributing 1,296 observations representing 511 taxa. Butterflies and moths led the way, with 679 observations and 192 taxa, followed by beetles with 245 observations and 102 taxa.
Participants also recorded an impressive range of vertebrates, including:
74 bird taxa
23 mammal taxa
12 reptile taxa
Six amphibian taxa
Together, these observations provide a valuable snapshot of Botswana’s extraordinary biological diversity.
Celebrating Botswana’s contributors
Botswana’s results were driven by a dedicated group of observers who explored their local environments and shared their discoveries through iNaturalist.
A special thank you to the leading contributors:
botswanabugs — 922 observations and 338 taxa
robert_taylor — 263 observations and 169 taxa
rianafourie — 199 observations and 154 taxa
lyn_francey — 165 observations and 142 taxa
johndalziel — 124 observations and 100 taxa
david2000jones — 70 observations and 64 taxa
wormlizard — 51 observations and 50 taxa
murphy_tladi — 32 observations and 28 taxa
ianwhite — 18 observations and 18 taxa
chillieinthebushes — 13 observations and 10 taxa
We also thank rosshawkins, cwellsobots, gtubatsi, richardlomapa, stevemills and everyone else who contributed observations or helped with identifications.
Every contribution matters. Whether someone uploaded one observation or hundreds, each record helped improve our understanding of Botswana’s biodiversity.
Join the Great Southern BioBlitz 2026
The Great Southern BioBlitz is returning in November, and everyone is invited to participate.
📅 Observation period: 27–30 November 2026🔎 Upload and identification period: until 14 December 2026
You do not need to be a biodiversity expert to take part. All you need is a camera or smartphone, an iNaturalist account and an interest in the natural world.
During the observation period:
Explore your garden, neighbourhood, local park, nature reserve or another natural area.
Photograph wild plants, animals, fungi and other organisms.
Upload your observations to iNaturalist.
Join your local GSB 2026 project.
Help identify observations submitted by other participants.
Experienced naturalists and identifiers can also make an important contribution by helping participants identify what they have found.
Visit the GSB 2026 global umbrella project to find a participating project and follow the results from across the Southern Hemisphere.
Can Botswana set another record?
Botswana’s achievements in 2025 showed how much can be discovered when people come together to observe and document nature. In 2026, we hope to welcome back previous contributors while encouraging many new observers to take part.
Join us from 27–30 November 2026 and help reveal even more of Botswana’s remarkable biodiversity.
Every observation is a discovery—and every observer makes a difference.
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