Whenever I want to get away from the sights and sounds of New York, I head to the most visited urban park in the United States.
Expanding across 843 acres of land, Central Park feels like a nature refuge in many ways. Towering trees hide the skyline from view and various species of animals populate the area. On any given day, you will come across domesticated carriage-pulling horses, as well as a wide variety of wild birds and aquatic animals, such as tortoises.
In one day, this is what I came across:
Of course, these animals comprise only a small fraction of the total wildlife population in Central Park. Back in 2013 volunteers, working alongside scientists and the Central Park Conservancy, attempted to catalogue the animals in a decennial census called the BioBlitz. In 24-hours, they were able to identify 173 newly-spotted or returning species.
