AN ambitious scheme has been launched to record every single living species in the St Clement’s area of Oxford.

And it will be the first time a ‘bioblitz’ will be carried out in an urban residential area.

The event, which will take place over 24 hours from noon on Saturday, June 23, is the brainchild of Science Oxford.

Head of public engagement Dominic McDonald said: “Within a stone’s throw of the museum you’ve got a park, a meadow and the river. There’s an awful lot of wildlife that lives in people’s gardens and we suddenly realised we had the perfect opportunity to do something that nobody had ever done before.”

The scheme is completely reliant on people getting involved, whether by recording the insects, birds and other wildlife in their own back gardens, helping map the flora and fauna of the park or meadow, or taking part in events such as moth trapping and bat walks.

Mr McDonald is hoping up to 1,000 people will join in.

Entomologist Darren Mann, from the Oxford University Natural History Museum, the London Natural History Museum’s head of biodiversity John Tweddle, and ladybird expert Helen Roy from the Biological Records Centre at Wallingford have all got on board.

Mr McDonald said: “It’s the sort of thing wildlife experts can’t do on their own.

“Even if you got a thousand wildlife experts to do the whole of the St Clement’s area, it would take them years.”

And there is a chance to make it in the history books – at a bioblitz in a London park, a new species of fungus was found by a dogwalker.

Mr McDonald said: “Part of what makes it exciting is we have no idea what’s out there, it’s not an area that is well recorded.

“Although St Clement’s is smack bang in the middle of town, it’s a very diverse environment ecologically.

“In South Park, a preliminary survey indicates there are about 100 species of plants and in the meadow, you have the meadow area, the river, a boggy swampy patch and also woodlands which have been pretty much completely untouched for what appears to be decades.”

Moths, bats, flowers, trees, fungi birds, insects, rodents and even household pets like cats will come under scrutiny. Most can be logged in situ, but some will be captured so experts can take a closer look and identify them.

The RSPB, Big Lottery Fund, Oxford City Council, Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre, BBOWT, the British Ecological Society, Oxfordshire Science Festival, Meet the Species and Tesco are all backing the project, the cash cost of which will be just £3,000 as most supporters are giving contributions in kind.

To find out more about how to get involved, visit scienceoxfordlive.com/bioblitz