This weekend sees the launch of ’Wildlife Week’ a series of free guided walks and ecologically-minded events, designed to spread the word and collect valuable information about the Isle of Man’s unique environment.

This Sunday sees a lab study of leaf litter, and the chance to find out about the many insects and mini-beasts that live within it at the Wildlife Park, from 1pm to 3pm.

A pollen-collecting session at the Ballaugh Curraghs from 11am on Tuesdsay morning will give clues to what life was like on the island 10,000 years ago.

There will be a wildlife expo, held at the iMuseum, Kingswood Grove, on Wednesday afternoon, from 7pm, and on Saturday there will be two sessions designed to help you find out more about the smaller members of our environment.

Volunteers from the Manx Wildlife Trust will provide an afternoon getting to know hedgehogs better, at the iMuseum, from 1pm, and later that day, a guided bat walk will take groups through the Raggatt, along the river Neb, near Peel, in search of the bat populations that live in the area.

The week finishes with on Sunday morning with a guided walk along the Ayres nature reserve, beginning at 10am at the Ayres visitor centre.

Organised by a combined team from Manx National Heritage, Manx Wildlife Trust and the 2018 Year of Our Island project, the weekend is held to mark the Isle of Man joining the National Biodiversity Network Atlas, a large online database of species and habitat data, and Laura McCoy, Natural history curator with Manx National Heritage says that help fro the general public is vital to the success of the project.

’The reason why we’re asking people to help us monitor wildlife is because, if we do not know what we have, how do we know what we are losing, or improving upon?’ said Laura.

’Where do we need to focus our efforts, how do we show future generations what works and what needs to be worked on if we do not have the data to back it up?

’Manx Wildlife Week is a great way to get involved and we’ve got lots of events throughout the week to suit all ages and different interests.’

More information is available from manxnationalheritage.com