Michael Morris ’22 Shatters School Record to Win BioBlitz

Shattering his own School record with a remarkable 777 species identifications and 1,744 observations, Michael Morris ’22 is the winner of the 2021 Lawrenceville BioBlitz contest. Fourth Former Hanaway Croddick was just three observations behind with 744 species identifications, putting her in a close second.

To compete in BioBlitz, School community members downloaded the app iNaturalist to their smartphones, created an account, and began uploading their photographic observations to the “2021 Lawrenceville School BioBlitz” project. The photos are visible to naturalists from around the globe, who help identify each species of plant or animal. BioBlitz is the brainchild of Harvard University scientist E.O. Wilson. Wilson’s vision for the BioBlitz is, a "treasure hunt designed to find and identify the largest number of species possible in one place.”

Morris topped his own 2020 School record of 749 species during a compressed BioBlitz timeframe. Some of the species he photographed included a Big Brown Bat (Eptesicus fuscus) and a Meadow Jumping Mouse (Zapus hudsonius).

Rounding out Lawrenceville’s top ten 2021 BioBlitz finishers were:

Anthony Gadzi ‘22: 355 species
Juliette Peel ‘22: 297 species
Science Teacher Julie Mellor: 227 species
Maddy Laws ‘23: 175 species
Nikita Coppisetti ‘22: 169 species
Mathematics Teacher Noelle Niu: 144 species
Zachary Kalafer ‘24: 141 species
Kate Dillard ‘22: 134 species

For additional information, please contact Lisa M. Gillard Hanson, director of Public Relations, at lgillard@lawrenceville.org.