Polar explorers
Summer is usually quiet news time and a break from teaching. Not so for
Biology staff at St Andrews and the good folks of the Cupar Churches Holiday Club. The latter organised a polar explorer week for kids, and Dr Sonja Heinrich, one of St Andrews’ regular polar explorers stepped up to the mark to share some stories of the Great White and its amazing inhabitants with around 40 well-behaved and very enthusiastic 9 to 12 year olds. The Cupar Old Church was a beautiful and serene venue: it’s not every day that a biologist gets to speak in church about identifying whales by their tails to help understand their migration patterns and about seals helping scientists to study the Southern Ocean and climate change. Brandishing baleen plates, a leopard seal skull and all sorts of whale and seal tag gadgets (courtesy of the SMRU) in front of the pulpit was a little bit surreal. O
ne of the higlights no doubt was the appearance of a life-sized minke whale brought to “life” (well unfolded) by dozens of helping hands. An extra session was needed to answer the future explorers’ diverse and well-informed questions, and both older and younger participants seemed to very much enjoy the stories from the frozen South, and the insights that polar explorers come in all shapes and sizes, and many are flippered, with blubber or fur…..For more stories about seal explorers and how to get a whale to wear a data logger or getting your hands on life-sized creatures click the embedded links or email us.
(photos courtesy of MacJ photography)