Great Yorkshire Creature Count

Great Yorkshire Creature Count 2024

The Great Yorkshire Creature Count returns Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th June!

Creature counting across Yorkshire returns for a fifth year!

Let's get more gardens, and communities taking part than ever before so together we can take action for wildlife on our doorstep.

It's fun and easy to do - head outdoors into your park, neighbourhood or garden then for just 30 minutes, spot, count and record what you find – starting with our list of 30 creatures great and small.

We’ll give you everything you need

A colourful checklist to help you get started

Lots of wildlife gardening inspiration and advice,

Activities for the kids.

Your counts will show how wildlife-friendly our collective outdoor patches are and give us an idea, over time, of how common species are faring in Yorkshire's gardens.

Spot it (with binoculars icon), Count it (with checklist and phone icons), Record it (with tablet icon)

How do I take part?

It’s really easy to join the Great Yorkshire Creature Count! Simply follow these three steps:

Sign up below and we'll send you our downloadable checklist or a link to our iNaturalist project depending on how you'd prefer to take part.
Head outside at any point over the weekend (15th and 16th June) to search for and record the wildlife in your outside space over 30 minutes.
Submit your sightings using our online form.

Want to delve deeper?

For experts or intrepid explorers wanting to delve that little bit deeper and record extra species, join the project group on the iNaturalist app to download and submit more findings. You’ll be joining a community of other wildlife enthusiasts recording valuable data right across Yorkshire.

Good for nature, good for you

We know that spending time in nature is great for our mental health and wellbeing, and by noticing and recording the wildlife where you live you’re helping nature too.

There are more gardens than nature reserves in the UK and they provide crucial corridors, nesting areas and places to shelter for many of our much-loved creatures. But nature needs us. With their habitats destroyed and the pressures of the climate emergency increasing, even our once-widespread creatures such as the common frog or the garden bumblebee are declining.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. We have a vision of a wilder Yorkshire where our towns, cities and countryside are connected and rich in wildlife. We can’t achieve our vision without you. Your creature-counting really counts – it gives us important information about how many different creatures are making themselves at home and what we all can do to protect them.