site design: Anu West

Welcome to The Nature Collection!

The Nature Collection is an extraordinary collection of animal bones, feathers, antlers, skins and photographs, based on the wildlife in Richmond Park, Surrey. It is a travelling natural history museum, which can be set up in schools, nurseries or clubs to provide an intimate view of our local wildlife. Normally wild animals are elusive and hard to spot. This collection enables children and teachers to study all kinds of wildlife objects close up, from all angles, inside as well as out! It shows Nature as you have never seen it before...there in front of your eyes, not in a book or on a screen. Children of all ages will have an unforgettable hands-on experience, which will inspire them to go out and explore the world around them.

The display celebrates the beauty, colour and intricate detail of a huge variety of British mammals, birds and insects. There are deer antlers, shrew skulls, owl feathers, duck wings, woodpecker feet and snake ribs. There are butterflies, bees, beetles and wasps, owl pellets, nests and foxes' teeth...

The display fills a classroom or hall, spreading over twelve large tables. Everything has been thoroughly cleaned and labelled. Most items are in acrylic cases or mounted on display boards. For primary schools, the collection brings to life a wide range of topics in the National Curriculum, such as Animal Adaptations, Bones, Flight, Food Chains and Habitats. There are workshops with slideshows and activity sheets, tailored to different age groups. All are brightly illustrated with photos of the local wildlife.

Children can try on antlers and touch enormous deer bones, feel the teeth inside a skull, see tiny vole and shrew skeletons, reassembled from inside owl pellets, feel how light bird bones are and understand how they can fly. They learn other ways that bird skeletons are adapted for flight, examine the beaks of a duck, pheasant, woodcock and jay, each adapted to feed in different ways.

They are able to feel the softness of owl feathers and discover why woodpeckers have stiff tail feathers, compare the wings from a magpie, robin and woodcock. Learn how to tell where on the body a feather comes from. See sparrowhawk, kestrel, pheasant and parakeet tails, see the backbones from a grass snake, frog, tawny owl, fox and rabbit. Which are biggest? Compare teeth from a deer, fox, vole and shrew. Guess what they eat! Are they herbivores or carnivores? Examine butterflies, beetles and hornets with a magnifying glass. Look at their antennae and legs, hunt for the crow's tongue, caterpillar skin, sparrowhawk talons...

The Nature Collection has already amazed more than 7,500 children in local schools and nurseries and thousands more at local fairs and events. Teachers enjoy the collection as much as the children.

Most exhibits in the collection have come from Richmond Park. The Royal Parks have given special permission to create this collection for educational purposes. Richmond Park's status as a National Nature Reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest means that visitors must not remove anything from the Park.