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Adaptation Biodiversity Habitats

Badgers – Engineers of the Forest

‘“You really needn’t fret, Ratty” added the Badger placidly. “My passages run further than you think and I’ve bolt-holes to the edge of the wood in several directions, though I don’t care for everybody to know about them.’ (Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows)                                                           Those of us who read, or had read to […]

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Adaptation Food chains Habitats

Animals Education session

Explore habitats, adaptations and food chains with downloadable materials for use in the classroom or at home, featuring items from the Eton College Natural History Museum. Resource pack: Animals at Eton College Powerpoint presentation Animals at Eton College Collections – Student worksheet Animals at Eton College Collections – Teacher/educator guide More digital learning resources from the Collections can […]

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Activity Adaptation Food chains Habitats

Creatures of the Wild Wood family learning session

Habitats, adaptations and food chains are covered in this free educational session on Creatures of the Wild Wood, from George Fussey, Curator of the Eton Natural History Museum. Recorded in the museum, Mr Fussey looks at adaptations of woodland creatures, including the well-known Badger but also the lesser-known woodland parrot from New Zealand, the Kakapo! […]

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Adaptation

The song thrush, the snail, and polymorphism

The Song Thrush, Turdus ericetorum, eats a variety of prey but the clear favourite is the Brown-lipped Snail, Cepaea nemoralis. The shell colour and patterning of the snail is highly variable; it may be brown, pink or yellow and either unbanded or with up to 1-5 dark brown bands. In the early 1950s, scientists from Oxford investigated the relationship between the thrush and the colours of the snails they ate. The bird opens snails by smashing the shell against a hard object (often a […]

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Adaptation

Adaptations: The Mandarin Duck

The Mandarin Duck was originally from the Far East. Whether by accident or on purpose, Mandarin Ducks were released into the wild in the UK in the 20th century. The ducks would have been in private collections, but once they were in the wild it is harder to control population. There are now thousands in […]