It’s day three of our 12 Days of Winter Wildlife and we are exploring insects that are active in the cold weather, and in particular, winter moths. These are amazing animals, but how do we study moths? Join moth expert Annette Shelford as she shows us why moths are important and how to monitor them with this film from our Zoology Live festival that took … Continue reading 12 Days of Winter Wildlife: Active Insects
For day two of our 12 Days of Winter Wildlife, we are celebrating our feathered friends. Winter can be tough for birds. As the temperature drops, they need more energy to keep warm. But once the bounty of berries and seeds of the autumn is over, food can be in short supply. Provide birds with food in your garden or outdoor space and you can … Continue reading 12 Days of Winter Wildlife: Garden Birds
Take a look out of your window – what wildlife can you see? Over the next 12 days we will be exploring local wildlife over the colder months, giving you some tops tips on how to support it, and also celebrating winter wildlife with sustainable crafts and more. Catch up with our live launch of the 12 Days of Winter Wildlife that took place on … Continue reading 12 Days of Winter Wildlife
In this blog for Lost Species Day 2020, Geography PhD student Anna Guasco explores the question of: How do we tell stories and remember histories about natural history, extinction, and species endangerment in museums – and why does this matter? Today is Remembrance Day for Lost Species, or ‘Lost Species Day’. This label memorialises dodos, thylacines, passenger pigeons, and other icons of extinction – as … Continue reading Natural History, Extinction, and Storytelling at the Museum of Zoology
Alec Christie, PhD student in the Conservation Evidence group of the Department of Zoology writes: Go to your doctor and they’ll give you the best treatment based on the scientific evidence. So why can’t we do the same for biodiversity? Recently we’ve seen a flurry of important work highlighting the continuing decline of biodiversity, including David Attenborough’s documentary Extinction: the facts. It’s also very encouraging … Continue reading We know conservation is working, but do we really know what works?
Last month in Nature Classroom we went on a guided tour of the skeleton, looking at the all the different bits and what they do. Today we are going to focus in on the arms and legs. Why? We can tell a lot about the animals they belong to, the way they move and sometimes even the way they eat when we look at the … Continue reading Skeletons: Arms and Legs
Join us as we count animals in the Museum of Zoology. From the one and only Fin Whale, a whopping 21m long, to shells, birds, beetles and more. With fun animal facts along the way. Continue reading Puggle Club Counts to 10
This year we are taking our Winter Wildlife event online. Join us for the live launch on our YouTube channel at 4.30pm on Tuesday 1 December or catch up here: Get your questions ready for a LIVE Q&A with Rob Jaques from the British Trust for Ornithology, who’ll be talking about birds and other winter wildlife, and ways you can get involved collecting important data … Continue reading Coming Soon: 12 Days of Winter Wildlife
Are you missing the Museum of Zoology? We are in lockdown again, but we have the next best thing for you here: a virtual tour with Assistant Director Jack Ashby. See our fabulous fin whale, get up close to specimens collected by Charles Darwin, and discover Diprotodon, the largest ever Australian mammal. You can find more highlights of the Museum in our online Highlights Trail. Continue reading Virtual Museum Tour
Look out of your window and you are probably seeing some big changes happening in the natural world outside. It is getting dark in the early evening. The leaves on the trees are changing colour from green to orange and yellow then falling to the ground. You might have spotted bunches of berries, or conkers and other nuts. And the temperature is dropping too. It’s … Continue reading The Changing Seasons
For October half term this year, we hid eight sloths in the displays at the Museum of Zoology. We had planned for these to be up until November 7 for you to find, but circumstances have changed and we have had to close our doors once more. But we can’t leave you without access to our wonderful sloths, so here’s a Puggle Club story all … Continue reading Sleepy Sloths
If you have ever visited the Museum of Zoology, you will have seen that we have skeletons big and small, from our enormous fin whale greeting you as you come into the Museum, to tiny mice and the exoskeletons of insects. In this Nature Classroom we will be exploring what a skeleton is, why skeletons are important, and taking you on a guided tour of … Continue reading Skeletons!
The Museum of Zoology is open to the public again, pre-book only and with additional measures in place to keep visitors, staff and volunteers safe. Visit our website for more information and to book your free timed entry slot (tickets are released every Thursday for the following week). The Museum is home to a wonderful collection of animals, with thousands of specimens on display. Download … Continue reading Highlights of the Museum of Zoology
To celebrate the Museum reopening on September 24, for pre-booked visits only (for details and how to book, see our website), we have developed a new trail around the galleries taking in some of the amazing adaptations on display. Not able to visit the Museum? You can explore these adaptations here, with some extra ideas on ways you can discover more about animal evolution at … Continue reading Amazing Animal Adaptations
It’s easy to think of ways animals need plants. We need them for food and shelter, and they provide us with oxygen to breathe. But plants need animals too, and one way they need animals in for pollination. What is pollination? How does it work? Why is it important? Find out in this week’s Nature Classroom. These activities support learning in the following areas: Identify … Continue reading Pollinators
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