Killarney National Park Wins 2011 Bioblitz

The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has congratulated Killarney National Park on their success in the 2011 Bioblitz which took place over 24 hours in 5 different locations throughout Ireland.

Some 300 scientists and many more volunteers worked extremely hard to identify and record as many different wildlife species as they could over a 24 hour period.

Congratulating everyone on their combined effort Jimmy Deenihan TD Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht said: “The effort which was put in by all the scientists and volunteers whom I met when I launched the 24 hour Bio blitz in Killarney National Park certainly paid off handsomely. With an increase from 542 identified species in 2010 to a staggering 1088 identified this year. The Raven Nature Wood Reserve came second with an equally impressive count of over 800 varieties recorded”.

Minister Deenihan also acknowledged the work of Dr. Liam Lysaght and his colleagues at the National Biodiversity Data Centre. He said: “This event could not have taken place without the team of experts who provided the necessary skills to manage a project of this scale. This is only the second year that this initiative has taken place and I think that it certainly will catch the imagination of more and more people, particularly families who want to spend time out and about enjoying the beautiful countryside which we all too often can take for granted.”

(BMcN/GK)