From June 3 to 30, 2025, we held a month-long BioBlitz event, “IKIMON GO UTokyo”, to explore the biodiversity of the University of Tokyo campuses 🦋

In this event, UTokyo students and faculty members used the species identification app iNaturalist to share photos of living organisms they encountered around campus.

The project was launched with the hope of encouraging people to notice the biodiversity around them and to realize that we are all part of the ecosystem.

Over one month, 52 participants recorded 1,047 observations of 405 species, mainly plants and insects 👏✨.

We saw seasonal favorites like hydrangeas, as well as rarer urban finds such as stag beetles and Japanese rat snakes. Participants even spotted the invasive spotted lanternfly.

In our participant survey, people shared:

“It was exciting to find and record new species.”

“I’ve started paying more attention to the nature around me.”

“It felt great to be connected to other nature lovers.”

Although the event has ended, we hope you’ll keep observing whenever you feel like it.

A big thank-you to everyone who took part!

👑 Observation Leaderboard (iNaturalist username/number of observations)

🥇 taiga32039 / 247 observations

🥈 naturalist181134 / 130 observations

🥉 naturalist187092 / 127 observations

Congratulations ✨ and thank you for all your amazing observations!

📷 Photo 2: Japanese Rat Snake spotted at Yayoi Campus

Photo by coco56476, taken on June 12, 2025