Wildlife exhibition marks 150 years of county club

The organisers of a wildlife exhibition hope to teach children about a county's natural environment and inspire them to protect its future.

Wild About Hertfordshire marks the 150th anniversary of the county's Natural History Society, which included Charles Darwin as an honorary member.

The free exhibition at St Albans Museum + Gallery, which runs until 6 July, looks back at the Victorian origins of the society and ahead to challenges of climate change and habitat loss.

"There's no evidence that Darwin ever came to Hertfordshire but a lot of their early debates were about his evolutionary theory," said the society's secretary David Utting.

His own passion for wildlife began as a child, thanks to "a marvellous teacher who was a very skilled natural historian".

"I was very lucky that when I wasn't even 10 years old, I had this teacher. Anyone who came into contact with her got very excited about wildlife.

"It was mostly about birds to begin with, but I went out collecting all sorts of things – beetles, spiders, insects," he said.

Along with other volunteers, he now goes out to identify and record Hertfordshire's wildlife, discovering anything from lizards to firecrest birds.

"We pull everything together and publish it, produce county atlases and we also feed into national databases," he said.

"You can't miss the fact that wildlife is declining. Birds are obvious as they migrate and are vulnerable at both ends of the journey.

"The turtle dove has almost disappeared from Hertfordshire, and as far as we know we don't have any adders any more.

"But some things have been reintroduced. There are red kites all over Hertfordshire now, but in the 1980s, my wife and I had to go to West Wales to see them."

A model of a peregrine falcon will be on display along with a 3D model of the River Ver chalk stream and the county's Pasque flower.

There is also the chance to see rare HNHS botany books that date from 1479.

"We are excited to share our big birthday celebration and tell more people about our county's wonderful wildlife," Mr Utting added.

"We want to inspire them – young and old – to go out and discover the natural world for themselves."

Farhana Begum, head of St Albans Museums, said: "We hope this exhibition will help people to think about what is right on their doorstep and encourage them to get out into the natural world."

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