After a five-year long redevelopment, the Museum of Zoology is due to open on the weekend of June 23&24. To celebrate, we are hosting a free festival of zoology: Zoology Live! See live animals, discover the wildlife on your doorstep, hear from amazing animal authors, and be inspired by the wonderful collections on display.
On Saturday 23 June, we will be Exploring Zoology with a free, fun family science day. Visit the gazebos in the courtyard and see our friends from Shepreth Wildlife Park and the Raptor Foundation with their live animal demonstrations.
We have a wonderful series of talks in the Deaprtment of Zoology lecture theatre- book a free place so you don’t miss out:
Join zoologist, writer and Cambridge Science Festival regular Dr Matt Wilkinson as he shows you how getting creatures to propel themselves from place to place is one of the most important things that evolution ever did. You’ll never look at life in the same way again!
Book tickets for Restless Creatures
Delve into the complex lives of meerkats with ‘Meerkats: Secrets of an Animal Superstar’, a wonderful documentary narrated by Sir David Attenborough, and discover one of the longest-running studies of animal behaviour started here in the Department of Zoology 25 years ago by Prof. Tim Clutton-Brock.
Book tickets for Meerkats: Secrets of an Animal Superstar
Nick Davies, Professor of Behavioural Ecology, and his colleagues have been studying cuckoos in the fens for the past thirty years. Join Nick as he explores this fascinating research. Illustrated with film clips and some remarkable photographs, he shows how field experiments have revealed the tricks that cuckoos employ to deceive their hosts.
Book tickets for Cuckoo – Cheating by Nature
Red Alert for Endangered Species! Pick a place, choose a creature and help save it. From scaly pangolins to slippery snakes and cuddly pandas, nonfiction author Catherine Barr and illustrator Anne Wilson will share the stories of creatures fighting to survive. In a specially created YouTube film, they will learn to draw the most hunted animal on Earth, the pangolin.
Book onto a wildlife workshop as part of our Cambridge Urban Safari and find minibeasts in college gardens, or dissect an owl pellet to see the bones of their dinner inside. Check out our Eventbrite profile for details on how to book:
As well as these wonderful, bookable activities, you will find loads of drop-in activities taking place throughout the day. There are lightning talks in the new Discovery Space, stalls from natural history and conservation organisations, and hands-on activities from our friends at the Museum of Archaeology and Antrhopology, the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, the Darwin Correspondance Project and the Botanic Garden.
As the sun begins to set on June 23, we have an exciting late event for adult audiences. Starting at 8pm, hear live music by the Cambridge Corncrakes, and thanks to Star and Mouse Picture Show, watch Planet Earth II: Islands on the big screen underneath the whale.
Book tickets for Zoology Late!
On Sunday 24 June the celebrations continue with Inspired by Zoology, and explore zoology and the arts. Have a go at screen printing with artist Ricki Outis, adding to animal bunting we are making throughout the day. Drop in and draw in the Museum galleries, with artists on hand to guide and advise. Hear animal tales from the Cambridge Storytellers. Book onto a behind the scenes tour with one of our curators:
Online Bookings for behind the scenes tours
Inside the Cocoon 