The University BioQuest is now part of Guardians of Earth’s global BioQuests.
Get in early and start practicing.
Fun FOR ALL. FREE to Play.
A competition to protect life on earth
Which university has the best wildlife spotters and identifiers? Who can map the most biodiversity? Which student or staff member can find and identify the most unique species relative to their time and location?
An Annual, Global Competition
How the #UniBioQuest
Began
What started with a QuestaGame competition between two universities (UC Santa Barbara and Sydney University) in 2017, expanded to 20 universities in 2018, with hundreds of participants submitting over 70,000 sightings and identifications from around the world. The April 2019 competition involved 50 universities, generated 95,000 sightings and identifications, mapped over 2500 species, with the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, taking top honours.
The resulting biodiversity data is shared with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF.org) for scientific research and conservation.
Play
A fun way for your community to engage with their natural surroundings...
Learn
...and learn about the plants and animals around them...
Protect
...while collecting species data that helps map biodiversity for scientific research and conservation.
“It made me more aware of interesting species around me, and I felt like I was contributing to research.”
“Terrific to see more researchers/academics encouraging participation (and some getting pretty into it themselves). Volume of sightings and variety of species was great.”
“I discovered that I love to photograph wildlife. I learnt so much more about species in my attempt to identify them.”
“It got me out discovering new species on campus - dragonflies were a whole new field for me.”
“Much excitement among the students about the Bioquest, and many did far more work than we ever expected.”
“A good excuse to get out of the office and spend time with friends on campus finding wildlife.”
“I was suddenly really observing my surrounds and being able to identify genus species through research.”
“Trying to obtain good quality photos of some organisms is challenging. I enjoyed it.”
“Very proud of what the @CharlesSturtUni #QuestaGame clan put up for the #UniBioQuest. We learned a heap about what calls our campus home. We eagerly await the final results ”
“A great opportunity to see sightings from around the world.”
“A top job Questagame! Congratulations to all involved. The ‘game’ is constantly improving and growing - and that’s just sensational! Thank you.”
“A liked actually learning what all these hideous bugs are called!”
