06-10 | More Than 150 Species of Greatest Conservation Need Documented in Texas During the 10th Annual City Nature Challenge

June 10, 2025

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AUSTIN — For the fourth year in a row, several Texas cities ranked in the top ten globally during the City Nature Challenge (CNC), one of the world’s largest community science events.

This year, fourteen Texas metropolitan areas participated in the challenge and logged a whopping 342,913 observations. Participants recorded more than 9,800 different species with more than 150 of those being species of greatest conservation need, including the Texas horned lizard, Cascade Caverns salamander, cave myotis and Texas tortoise.

Globally, the 102,945 participants of the 2025 CNC recorded more than 3,310,131 observations with 73,765 species documented, including 3,338 rare, endangered or threatened species. The CNC had participants from 669 cities in 62 countries and six continents.

Four Texas urban areas ranked in the top 15 globally for number of observations, and Texas as a whole accounted for 10 percent of global observations.

The San Antonio Metro Area ranked second in both the number of observations and species observed and the Dallas/Fort Worth Area ranked fourth in number of observations and sixth in number of species observed.

CNC is a global community-based scientific effort, co-organized by San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. It invites current and aspiring citizen scientists of all ages and backgrounds to observe and submit pictures of wild plants, animals and fungi using the free iNaturalist mobile app.

TPWD’s Texas Nature Trackers program supports the CNC in Texas.

Visit the City Nature Challenge online to find links to Texas projects and learn more about the global project on the website.