It’s official: The 24-hour Santa Monica Mountains inventory has come to an end, but the party’s just beginning!

Teams turned up 1,364 unique plant and animal species by
noon today–more than twice the hoard volunteers ID’d in the same time at Rock Creek Park last year. More
still will come in the days ahead as bio-sleuths resolve the identities of a
slew of mystery species.

For now, at least, the breakdown looks like this:

Algae – 22
Amphibian – 4
Arthropod – 628
Bird – 86
Fish – 6
Lichen – 3
Mammal – 12
Marine Invertebrate – 91
Other Invertebrate – 2
Plant – 495
Reptile – 15

TOTAL – 1364

The Celebrate Biodiversity Festival’s in full swing, with
the Banana Slug String Band on the main stage. We’ll have more updates in the
hours to come, so stay tuned!