More than 150 species of greatest conservation need documented during the 10th annual City Nature Challenge

AUSTIN — For the fourth year in a row, several Texas cities ranked in the top ten globally during the City Nature Challenge (CNC), one of the world’s largest community science events.

This year, fourteen Texas metropolitan areas participated in the challenge and logged a whopping 342,913 observations. Participants recorded more than 9,800 different species with more than 150 of those being species of greatest conservation need, including the Texas horned lizard, Cascade Caverns salamander, cave myotis and Texas tortoise.

Globally, the 102,945 participants of the 2025 CNC recorded more than 3,310,131 observations with 73,765 species documented, including 3,338 rare, endangered or threatened species. The CNC had participants from 669 cities in 62 countries and six continents.