Wildlife Records
Tullie House Museum established what may be the first ever local biological records centre in 1902 at the instigation of the curator at the time - Linnaeus Eden Hope. Today the Museum maintains a local biological records database covering the county of Cumbria, which holds information on the distribution and abundance of wildlife in the county.
Over 200,000 records are currently held on the RECORDER database. The information mainly concerns mammals, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies, moths, dragonflies and various other insects found in the county. Records deriving from the museum collections give an historic perspective, but the bulk of the data has been collected from recent surveys and contemporary naturalists. The Museum welcomes additional records and information concerning wildlife in Cumbria.
Information is made available through publications, exhibitions and other media as appropriate. It is also made available to national recording schemes and to a network of professional users in Cumbria for conservation and planning purposes. Enquiries from individuals and organisations are welcomed.
Tullie House Museum has launched a major new interactive web site providing information on the wildlife of Cumbria. The site is called The Virtual Fauna of Lakeland and can be found at
www.lakelandwildlife.co.uk
The web site draws on the Museum’s data base of over 300,000 wildlife records to make information on Cumbria’s wildlife available to everyone in a new and exciting way. Some records date back over 200 years but the vast majority of information is recent - collected since 1990.
The web site allows the user to quickly gain access to a large body of wildlife data and information for Cumbria in an entertaining and stimulating way.
People are able to look up photographs and information on particular species of mammals, butterflies, dragonflies etc, discover where they are found in Cumbria and see when the species are seen.
There is also an interactive map of Cumbria which enables people to see what wildlife has been recorded from each different parish in the county.
People can also send in their own wildlife sightings via the website.
Stephen Hewitt, Keeper of Natural Sciences at Tullie House Museum said
“The Museum has been collecting information on the wildlife of Cumbria for over 100 years. This information is very useful for monitoring the status of the wildlife in our county and also for planning and conservation purposes. We want the website to be fun to use as well as informative so that it will encourage more people to get involved in recording the wildlife they see."
