Bobs & Crow Lakes Bioblitz

Larry Arpaia | Sep 04, 2013

On August 16 & 17 the Greater Bobs and Crow Lake Association, with the help of Toronto Zoo's Adopt-A-Pond Program, held its very first BioBlitz. With 103 participants connecting with 17 experts who meandered the trails on the Crown Lands between Mud Bay and Crow Lake, BioBlitz 2013 was hands down the environmental hit of the summer! What a success! Hundreds of species were tallied, including a number of very rare ones. Some of the exciting finds included two Species at Risk reptiles: juvenile Five-lined Skinks (Plestiodon fasciatus), Ontario's only lizard, and an Eastern Ratsnake (Pantherophis spiloides) along with 3 shed skins from other

Ratsnakes. One skin was close to 2 meters long!

Summer is a very exciting time to be out in the natural world. A BioBlitz is a community event where naturalists from all fields of wildlife expertise come to survey a specific parcel of land. They list all the plants and animals they can find, and usually take community participants on a short walk to share some of their knowledge. By repeating a BioBlitz every few years, communities can track changes in their local environment and monitor the presence of Species at Risk that may be living in their area.

Species Lists are being collected from the BioBlitz 2013 experts and will become part of a permanent environmental record for Bobs and Crow Lakes. BioBlitz 2013 was a great way to engage the local community in environmental education while they learn about new and familiar things that live right in their own back yard. It was also a social event where persons from around the 800 km of shoreline on Bobs and Crow Lakes gathered together to celebrate the uniqueness of their lakes.