Going Wild about Scotland through April

21/05/2016 in RZSS

The theme of this year’s Edinburgh International Science Festival was ‘Building a Better World’. The festival looked at how science is helping preserve the world we live in and what we could all do as responsible citizens.

The Wild about Scotland team was stationed across the city for two weeks encouraging children and adults alike to consider their impact on our surroundings. With various activities such as mini-beast safaris, pine cone bird feeder creation and reusable shopping bag design, we got very wet, muddy and sticky all in the name of habitat preservation!

With nearly 2,000 people joining in with these activities, we had a very productive and, most importantly, enjoyable experience at the Edinburgh International Science Festival.

Along with inspiring thousands of people at the Science Festival, we have also continued our tour delivering our popular sessions at schools across the country. We had two big trips, first to the Black Isle and the second to Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, where we met some wonderful classes and  encountered some spectacular wildlife; bottlenose dolphins, short-eared owls, dippers and crossbills! We have been very lucky this month to see a lot of the amazing wildlife we talk about every day. The schools in the Black Isle were also particularly interested in the Scottish wildcat, as there have been probable sightings of them in the area. We managed to discuss the problems wildcats are having with domestic and feral cats, and enthuse the local children to be aware and vigilant when it comes to neutering their pets and caring for their local wildlife.

Finally, thanks to the kind donation from the Woodland Trust, we have been able to start planting trees in the grounds of the schools we visit. This has been an excellent opportunity for us to offset our carbon emission, as well as improve the wild areas of primary schools across Scotland. At most schools we plant the native trees with the school’s Eco-group or Green Team and then hand over responsibility of caring for the trees to those pupils. This will encourage the teams to become responsible citizens as well as take pride in their school grounds to preserve these potential habitats for future generations.

Planting Woodland Trust trees across Scotland

See you next month,

Jamie and Lindsay
Wild about Scotland Education Officers