Ever wondered how bees communicate with each other to work as a team? Learn about the important job these pollinating insects carry out. Play our ‘Talk like a Bee’ game and discover how bees can ‘smell’ each other when visiting flowers, and find out how we can give these insects a helping hand by building your very own bee-friendly winter refuge. Insect communication Insects can … Continue reading Busy Bee Communication
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Go on safari in Cambridge’s urban jungle and search for animals of land and sea in the buildings. Follow the map and clues below to discover animals in the architecture of the city’s buildings. Our Urban Safari Trail can be followed on a smartphone here, downloaded to your own device, or printed at home before your expedition: Use the Cambridge Safari map and the clues … Continue reading Cambridge Urban Safari Trail
Sara Steele, Museum learning assistant says: With 400,000 named species of beetle found across the world and over 4,000 species in the British Isles, beetles are a diverse bunch even among invertebrates. They come in all shapes and sizes, from long and thin soldier beetles to rounded ladybirds. This diversity points in part to their distribution; being found in every habitat except the sea and … Continue reading Basking Beetles
Thank you to everyone who took part in our Zoology Live iRecord challenge. We asked you to send in wildlife sightings from where you live and we received over 100 entries, which included 86 different species. Our involvement with national insect week clearly struck a chord as 79 of these species were minibeasts and the most common sightings were hoverflies. We also had sightings of … Continue reading Zoology Live: your sightings on iRecord
Join our Curator of Insects, Dr Ed Turner, as he explores the wildlife in his garden after the sun has set. Want to find out more about nighttime wildlife? Watch our Zoology Live broadcast with moth expert Annette Shelford and bat expert Henry Stanier: And find more activities related to nighttime wildlife on our post about Day 5 of Zoology Live. Observe the moths in … Continue reading Garden Wildlife After Dark
Thank you to everyone who joined us for Zoology Live! last week. Your questions for our experts were wonderful, and we all really enjoyed sharing our love of wildlife with you. We would love to know what you thought of the event. Please do complete our online survey: Please note that the survey prize draw for a Wildlife Explorer Kit has already taken place. The … Continue reading Zoology Live! A Wonderful Week of Wildlife
Welcome back to our online Zoology Live festival. Today we will be exploring the wildlife living in ponds. Join us TODAY at 4pm for pond-dipping advice and tips of filming wildlife on a budget, and LIVE interviews with your chance to ask Dr Frances Dipper your questions about aqautic wildlife, and quiz Ellie Bladon on wildlife filmaking. Find Out More About Pondlife The Museum team … Continue reading Zoology Live Day 3: Pondlife and Wildlife Films
Welcome back to our online Zoology Live festival. Continuing our celebration of all things insects and invertebrate, today we will be exploring insects on the wing. Join us TODAY at 4pm when we will have new films and LIVE interviews with Museum Research Assistant Matthew Hayes, who will he sharing butterfly-spotting tips with us, and dragonfly expert Duncan Mackay, here to answer you questions about … Continue reading Zoology Live Day 2: Minibeasts part 2
Welcome to our online Zoology Live festival. To celebrate National Insect Week, we are starting our Zoology Live online festival with a two-day celebration of minibeasts. Joins us at TODAY at 4pm for tips on finding minibeasts on the ground and in the trees, and LIVE interviews with Dr Ed Turner, Dr Richard Preece and Kate Howlett from the Museum. Zoology Live Wildlife Challenge! Take … Continue reading Zoology Live Day 1: Minibeasts part 1
Join our Curator of Insects, Dr Ed Turner, as he searches for snails in the rain, and find out about some of the fascinating biology of banded snails: Join us on YouTube Live on Monday 22 June as we talk to Ed about all things minibeastsas part of our Zoology Live Online Festival. Got any questions you would like to ask our curator? Send them … Continue reading Banded Snails
The Museum may be closed, but there is amazing wildlife on your doorstep waiting to be explored. As we can’t celebrate our annual Zoology Live festival at the Museum this year, we are bringing it to you online instead with a week of films, interviews and activities. Every day at 4pm, join us on YouTube Live for wildlife films and live interviews with experts, and … Continue reading Zoology Live! 22-27 June
Bumblebees are among the best pollinators of any flower-visiting insects. This is for several reasons. Firstly, they are quite large and can fly long distances between flowers, transporting pollen. Secondly, they are covered with long hairs that help the bee to gather pollen but also transfer it from flower to flower. The third reason is because of a special buzzing technique the bees have (sometimes … Continue reading Early morning bumblebees
Kate Howlett, PhD student: Kate Howlett, PhD student at the University Museum of Zoology, talks about why she’ll be taking part in the Wildlife Trusts’ 30 Days Wild challenge. She’ll be doing one ‘random act of wildness’ each day this June and seeing what effects this has on her happiness and health. Click the button below to read her piece about why she’s never taken … Continue reading 30 Days Wild Challenge
Roz Wade, Learning Officer at the Museum, writes: I do love all things aquatic, so watching of the wildlife in our garden pond has been a real treat. On warm afternoons, the newts have been active and almost posing for me in the middle of the pond. And there is exciting newt news this week: baby newts! They may be small but they are beautiful, … Continue reading Pondwatch Episode 5: Newt Babies
It’s been a treat every Friday to share with you some of the wonderful close-up photographs of insects from Prof Bill Amos of the Department of Zoology. Scroll down for the latest batch from his insect photo diary. These beasties have some pretty amazing stories to tell! Why not have a go yourself? We would love to see your photos of wildlife where you are. … Continue reading An Insect A Day continues
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