Awards for WWT Arundel
Arundel Wetland Centre won 2 Gold Awards at the recent British & Irish Association of Zoos & Aquariums (BIAZA) awards held in June.
The first was a Gold award in the Education category. This was shared among the WWT centres that run "Generation Wild", the WWT nature connection project for primary schools.
Pic above: Pupils interact with Eva, the bird-girl,during Generation Wild, the award winning education program at seven WWT centres.
The Generation Wild project engages with primary school children from disadvantaged areas through story-telling, technology and nature connection activities at school, on site and back in the community. Generation Wild: Ava’s Destiny is a WWT project that was conceived and created in partnership with Stand + Stare and is delivered by the Learning Teams at Arundel and six other WWT sites.
100% of teachers who fed back said that they would recommend Generation Wild to others and one of the judges stated that the “awesome” results have made them keen to develop their own nature connection programme for children. This a project that we are very proud of so we are overjoyed to get this recognition. We have seen for ourselves the impact that this project has had on children and how they feel about nature.
A joint submission from WWT Arundel Wetland Centre, WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre, and WWT London Wetland Centre on the comparison of wild and captive duck behaviour won a Gold Award for Research.
The research involved WWT staff plus undergraduate and postgraduate students who helped collect data on wild and captive birds at WWT Arundel, Slimbridge and London. Birds across all different types of duck ecology were observed (dabbling ducks, diving ducks, whistling ducks, sea ducks, saw bills, stiff tails and perching ducks).
This research shows the usefulness of having a diverse range of species in WWT's collections, adding something new to science. And it helps others reserves and attractions, who also manage such species, ensure they have proven methods and new information.
