The Launch of the "Meet Animals — Find Nature in 2024" by the Shanghai Natural History Museum

On March 31, 2024, the "Meet Animals — Find Nature in 2024", sponsored by the Shanghai Natural History Museum, jointly initiated by the Environmental Entomology Laboratory of Shanghai Normal University, the Lab of Animal Behavior and Conservation of Nanjing University, and the Big City - Small Insect Studio, and co-organized by Tongli National Wetland Park, was launched, inviting citizens to unveil the city's secret places. The activity encourages people to participate in public scientific actions, draw a "Shanghai Insect Family Tree", trace the dancing "Shanghai Butterflies", and pay attention to and reduce the phenomenon of "animal roadkill".

Against the background of popular science education of biodiversity conservation, this year's activity focuses on urban animals, upholds the concept of public participation in science, and co-sponsors three public science projects, namely "Shanghai Insect Family Tree", "Shanghai Butterfly Monitoring" and "Animal Roadkill Survey", and "Natural Treasure Chest, Green Yangtze River Delta", a series of ecological science popularization activities to promote the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta. Through cross-border cooperation, it also creates the first regional online platform for the aggregation of citizen science projects linking "the public and professional scientific researchers".

With both online and offline formats, this activity provides various content including a series of popular science education, lectures, nature liaison workshops, science fairs and exhibitions to help the collection of urban biodiversity monitoring data, enhance the local investigation of biodiversity, and improve public participation and the dissemination efficiency of popular science activities. It forms a new model of "public participation in scientific research" that can be replicated and promoted and fully demonstrates the leading and exemplary role of Shanghai Natural History Museum in nature education.

In addition, "Find Nature" also introduces high-quality science popularization resources, such as "Insects in the City" exhibition, science fair, curly-feathered pelican public art installation and nature liaison workshop, to Tongli National Wetland Park, which is located in the Yangtze River Delta Eco-Green Integrated Development Demonstration Zone, contributing Shanghai's strength in promoting the high-quality development of science popularization in the Yangtze River Delta Integrated Zone.