BRITAIN'S WILDLIFE AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
November 17th, 2003
The Natural History Museum launches online guide to British wildlife
Interested in insects or curious about carnivores? Dying to know what a depressed river mussel looks like or, how it got its name? A new online guide to British wildlife called Nature Navigator will be launched on Sunday 16 November by the Natural History Museum and will provide the answers to all your wildlife questions.
Nature Navigator (www·nhm·ac·uk/naturenavigator) is aimed primarily at children, students, gardeners and anyone else who wants to explore the richness of Britain's wildlife. It provides easy access to the scientific and common names of Britain's diverse plants and animals, useful research and educational information, plus links to related sites for those interested in learning more. There are also links to other organisations offering specialist advice, practical knowledge or local wildlife and conservation activities.
'Much of the UK's wildlife information is scattered over many internet sites and you often need to know scientific names of plants and animals to find what you want,' said Charles Hussey, Science Data Co-ordinator for The Natural History Museum.
'Nature Navigator covers over 8,000 species and uses names that people will be familiar with.'
To celebrate the launch, a series of live interactive events and talks will take place in the Museum's Darwin Centre on Sunday 16 November 2003. Visitors can explore Nature Navigator online with Museum scientists, and join Richard Mabey and Duff Hart-Davis, wildlife experts and natural history authors, to discuss their work and wildlife diversity.
Nature Navigator is illustrated with thousands of beautiful paintings and drawings from the Natural History Museum's unique collection of artwork, the world's largest collection of natural history artwork.
Sir Neil Chalmers, Director of the Natural History Museum, said, 'Nature Navigator is a fascinating and important website that also serves to make the scientific expertise and fabulous collections of the Natural History Museum available to all. The Museum, through its partnership in the National Biodiversity Network, is strongly committed to improving access to biodiversity information for the United Kingdom.'
The project has been funded by the New Opportunities Fund through the NOF-digitise programme. This £50 million programme has supported over 150 projects to digitise assets of museums libraries and archives. Nature Navigator is included in the EnrichUK network, which provides a gateway to all these projects.
- Ends -
Notes for editors:
- The Natural History Museum is one of the UK's top visitor attractions and a world-leading science research centre. Through its collections and scientific expertise, the Museum is helping to conserve the extraordinary richness and diversity of the natural world with ground-breaking projects in 68 countries. The Museum is committed to promoting public understanding of science. This has been greatly enhanced by the Darwin Centre, a major new initiative, which offers visitors unique access behind the scenes of the Museum.
- The New Opportunities Fund is the biggest of the National Lottery good cause distributors, providing Lottery funding for health, education and environment projects across the UK, with a particular focus on improving quality of life, particularly in disadvantaged communities. To date the New Opportunities Fund has committed over £2 billion in funding to schemes across the UK.
- EnrichUK (www·EnrichUK·net) is a gateway to the collection of websites, like Nature Navigator, supported with National Lottery money by the New Opportunities Fund.
- The National Biodiversity Network is a UK-wide partnership that brings together all those concerned with recording Britain's biodiversity.
If you would like further information or to reproduce any of the gallery artwork included in the project, please contact:
Chloe Kembery or Liz Woznicki, Science Communication PR
Tel: 0207 942 5880/5278 Email: c·kembery(at)nhm·ac·uk
(not for publication)
|
Guidance for Applicants • Project Grants • Digitise Launch • Advanced Search • Countries • News