Last Updated: October 22, 2024 – Updated compiled dataset file posted. Spelling corrections and new species added. See file for full details. 

Prior Updates: October 1, 2024 – initial data file posted

Below is the current species and observation lists for the 2024 Macaulay Honors College Van Cortlandt Park BioBlitz. If a file preview does not appear, click below the blank space where it says “Download (XLSX, 450KB)”.

Download (XLSX, 450KB)

The first sheet in the file above is a summary page with our species count (currently now at 385 species!), then there is a full species list compiled from our data sheets and confirmed iNaturalist observations (as of 10/22/24), a list of all data sheet observations (includes multiple observations of the same species), a list of all confirmed iNaturalist observations, and then the individual observation data sheets for each BioBlitz team.

The iNaturalist data will be more current if you download it directly from iNaturalist, as the lists can change as more of the community leaves identifications. You can check out the iNaturalist observations at the project page for this BioBlitz. There is a button on the right side to download a csv file of all of the observations. For step-by-step instructions on downloading iNaturalist data, check out our Data Download Guide. As the iNaturalist community confirms more IDs, it is possible that the species number listed here will change.

Here is a sample of what you can download from iNaturalist (as downloaded on October 22, 2024): Van-Cortlandt-Park-BioBlitz-ALL-iNaturalist-observations-2024_10_22.xlsx and a file that explains the columns: iNaturalist-Observation-File-Help-2024. Remember that these observations are geotagged, so you can map them if you are interested. You can always download an updated list from iNaturalist by going to the project link and clicking on Observations and then “Export observations” to the right of the screen (see the Data Download Guide mentioned above). We strongly recommend that people interested in using our species list data use the species list generated by students and scientists in the park during the BioBlitz and/or the Research Grade observations from iNaturalist. A combination of those two sources of confirmed identifications can be found in the main BioBlitz results data file at the top. The full iNaturalist observation list contains MANY unconfirmed observations. The confirmed Research Grade ones have been extracted from that list and added to the main results file.

Van Cortlandt Park Alliance has an iNaturalist project to document all of the biodiversity of the park: Van Cortlandt Park Biodiversity Project. There was a non-Macaulay BioBlitz conducted at VCP from 6am-9pm on May 3, 2015. Those data were collected on paper, not iNaturalist and on data sheets that are slightly different than the one we use. The final data set reported to NYC Parks is lost to a now defunct webpage, but a nearly finalized version was recovered from an email archive. You can view it here.

You can find a map of the Forever Wild part of the park here.

Even More Data:

The Data menu (left side panel) links you to all previous Macaulay BioBlitz data sets. Click here to see all of those posts together. Please keep in mind that 2020 and 2021 were Remote BioBlitzes and the data were collected differently in those years (i.e. not in single park over a weekend).

The NYC arm of the global City Nature Challenge, a four-day city-wide public BioBlitz run entirely on iNaturalist, is organized out of Macaulay by Dr. Kelly O’Donnell. The City Nature Challenge: NYC umbrella project will link you to all eight years of previous CNC:NYC results. Download those data in the same way you would download iNaturalist data for the BioBlitz.

There also have been some non-Macaulay-affiliated BioBlitzes in NYC. Including:

For some historical biodiversity information, check out the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

iNaturalist Research Grade records get uploaded into the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), an open access global repository for species occurrence data. Students and faculty can visit this site to search for relevant data. For example, NYBG uploads their digital herbarium records here. iDigBio is another source for digital collections. For both of these, you can search for Van Cortlandt Park to find records.

Other Useful Resources:

  • iNaturalist – a global database and social network for ecological observations
  • NYBG’s C.V. Starr Virtual Herbarium – represents almost 200 years of botanical documentation. All have coordinates if you are interested in mapping the records to see what was found in some previous BioBlitz locations.
  • NYC Open Data – a collection of public datasets collected by the city and its partners. Includes tree censuses, water quality measures, and other environmental data.
  • Natural Area Conservancy Map – a map featuring data on green space and built space across the five boroughs of NYC.
  • Encyclopedia of Life – a curated encyclopedia of every multicellular species on earth.
  • Arctos – this is an access point to a number of online museum collections.
  • eBird – this database features data from user-contributed bird sightings.
  • USDA PLANTS Database – a database kept by the USDA that reports many useful characteristics about plant species, including their status as native or exotic/invasive.