The cross-border "Species Olympics" challenge began on January 1, 2025. It will run until December 31, 2025. Interested parties are invited to capture wild plants, fungi, and animals on camera. The person who reports the most species will receive a prize.
This challenge is organized by the LWL Museum of Natural History in Münster of the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe (LWL) (Germany), the Haus der Natur in Salzburg (Austria), and the Naturmuseum Solothurn (Switzerland). Partners include the Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research and Applied Ecology at the University of Münster. The challenge is supported by a donation from the Sparda-Bank Münster Foundation.
The Hessian State Museum Darmstadt and the initiators of the "Species Olympiad 2025," together with the international nature observation platform Observation.org, are calling for a cross-border competition via the ObsIdentify app and the Observation.org website. The aim is to work together to document the diversity of nature with fun and curiosity, in order to gather insights into the distribution of different species.
“Research should be fun, and so a competitive element is essential: There will be a ranking among the participants in the 2025 Species Olympics, and attractive prizes to be won at the end,” says Dr. Jan Ole Kriegs, museum director and biologist at the LWL Museum of Natural History in Münster.
Why a species Olympics?
Nature is incredibly rich and diverse. Hundreds of plant and fungal species grow in the immediate vicinity, and thousands of animal species live here, from insects, spiders, mollusks, and worms to birds and mammals. The diversity at the microscopic level is even more incredible. This cross-border challenge aims to encourage as many nature enthusiasts as possible in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland to record the enormous biodiversity around them and report their observations on Observation.org or via the app.
And this is how it works
The person who photographs the most species wins the grand prize: free participation in a course of their choice at the LWL Museum of Natural History's Heiliges Meer Education and Research Center, including one accompanying person and meals. Further prizes will be announced shortly by the organizers on the website: https://www.arten-olympiade.lwl.org
Only wild species documented photographically or acoustically in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland in 2025 will be considered. Care should always be taken to ensure that the organisms are disturbed as little as possible and are not injured. Images can be uploaded until December 31.12.2025, XNUMX. Please do not report plants planted by humans or animals in enclosures! When reporting plants, fungi, and other species groups that are difficult to identify, please ensure that all relevant characteristics (for plants: leaves, flowers, habit, for mushrooms: top and underside, etc.) are recognizable.
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