Durban - Art, bingo or knitting are just some of the things usually associated with the elderly.
However, residents of the Renishaw Hills retirement eco estate at Scottburgh on the South Coast have turned to citizen science and are getting recognition for documenting the fauna and flora they encounter where they live.
Ecologist and former lecturer Peter Small said many of the residents on the eco estate were interested in nature and learning more about it.
Initially residents had a WhatsApp group where they posted pictures of animals, insects and other things related to the area’s biodiversity and helped each other to identify what they had seen.
“From there we decided there was enough interest to formalise it and for all of us to learn a bit more about the wildlife on the estate and that is how we then formed the Nature Action Group.”
Small said the Nature Action Group gave rise to the Renishaw Rangers where volunteers could formally register with the Nature Action Group and then submit their nature photographs and information. This was used to start a database of the biodiversity on the estate, including those on the surrounding cycle tracks and walking trails in the area.
Currently there were 19 registered Renishaw Rangers, but several other people had contributed without being registered, said Small.
The Renishaw Rangers were also encouraged to submit their photographs and information to the iNaturalist platform.
This global platform is a meeting point for citizen scientists and experts who share their interest and knowledge on biodiversity, contributing to a worldwide database.
“The whole idea of the project is to learn about our natural diversity, to become enthusiastic about the life around us, and to develop a reference library of life on our estate,” said Small.
To date the Nature Action Group has made about 5 600 observations in the area and identified 1 100 species.
Small said they had seen some amazing sights, like the rare and vulnerable peregrine falcon breeding near the Mpambanyoni River.
They also observed a bottletail dragonfly on the river, which was at least 500km south of any previous distribution record for this near-threatened species, he said.
The Renishaw Rangers are participating in the Great Southern BioBlitz, which started yesterday and ends on Monday.
The event is an opportunity for all countries in the southern hemisphere to “record organisms during spring and showcase our beautiful biodiversity to the world”, according to the event’s official website, which states that “proceedings are run by a grass-roots network of keen citizen scientists from across the globe”.
It said a BioBlitz was a survey of biodiversity within a specified area time frame. During this period, participants aimed to find and record as many species as possible within the time frame.
BioBlitzes were a great way to learn more about the biodiversity of an area, including discovering new species and recording species’ range extensions, the website explained.
Small said the Nature Action Group would next focus on rehabilitating a wetland in the area which used to be a sugar cane plantation.
“The idea is that in the end there is a wetland that people can visit.”
The Independent on Saturday