This year marks the 90th birthday of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust and, as part of the celebrations, the Trust are running a two-week long ‘Wild in the City’ event at The Forum in Norwich between 21st May and 5th June.
Alongside exhibitions by some of Norfolk’s most renowned wildlife artists, indoor pond dipping and nature-inspired story-telling, each day, an expert in a particular area of Norfolk’s wildlife is on hand to answer questions and offer information and advice to the public. They also give a lunchtime talk in the auditorium.
Our Principal Ecologist, Dr Rachel Saunders, was asked to come along as the mammal expert on Tuesday 24th May. Rachel has a wealth of experience working with mammals, having worked in the field for over 18 years. Previous research has involved radio-tracking badgers, foxes and mink, undertaking a wide range of surveys from harvest mice to otters and investigating the value of gardens for wildlife. She is a licensed bat and dormouse ecologist and has run courses on a number of mammal-related topics for The Mammal Society since 1999.
Rachel’s lunchtime talk focused on how to identify Norfolk’s mammals which proved very popular with the public. Those attending are now fully acquainted with the important identifying characteristics of deer bottoms and how to tell a weasily recognisable weasel from a stoatally different stoat. Rachel’s mammal collection, largely comprising a variety of poo, skulls and other mammal signs, also provided an interesting topic of conversation for all ages.
More information about the event and forthcoming talks can be found here.
