Australian Scientists Manage to Identify 1,100 Species in their Backyards, Highlighting Value of Urban Biodiversity.

[Michie]

If you went out into the backyard of a house in a major metropolitan area, how many species of plants and animals would you expect to find there?

Well scientists who decided to conduct an experiment at their Brisbane suburban home in order to answer that question managed to find over 1,000 species of plants, animals, and fungi.

Dr. Matt Holden, a mathematician, Dr. Andrew Rogers, an ecologist, and Dr. Russell Young, a taxonomist, were roommates together in the city of Brisbane during the initial round of COVID-19 lockdowns in Australia.

The idea of the species count was born when Dr. Rogers went to vacuum cobwebs in his room and wondered how many spiders were on the property.

“We asked a large number of ecologists and conservation scientists how many species they’d expect to find in this setting and they predicted only 200,” said Rogers’ roommate, Dr. Holden. “But after 60 days of surveying, we’d already discovered 777 species.

Continued below.

Australian Scientists Manage to Identify 1,100 Species in their Backyards, Highlighting Value of Urban Biodiversity.

If you went out into the backyard of a house in a major metropolitan area, how many species would you expect to find there?

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[Bob Crowley]

Thanks Michie!!

I live near Brisbane and the news that there could 56 spider species running rampant through the house is going to keep me up all night!

To say nothing of "the moth Scatochresis innumera, which as a caterpillar spends its whole time feeding inside the dung of a Brushtail Possum before emerging as an adult..." The next moth that flutters onto the kitchen table could well be carrying a hospital load of Tularaemia.

We don't have budgies though so I'm probably safe from Psittacosis Minor