Nature Connections: A moment I'll never forget

From RZSS, Chloe Gillings writes about some unforgettable moments as a Nature Connections volunteer at Highland Wildlife Park:

From first seeing the Amur tigers back in 2014, to celebrating Caramel the camel’s 21st birthday last March, Chloe Gillings highlighted moments at Highland Wildlife Park have come through Nature Connections, a community programme that creates an encouraging environment for people to explore the park and engage with its animals. Some of Chloe’s favourite memories have been, “watching a wolf recall and seeing animals being fed, like polar bears”.

She adds, “Nature Connections helps me feel close to nature and learn how we can all make a difference.”

Chloe has also had the opportunity to meet Highland Wildlife Park’s discovery and learning team who provide a wide range of activities for Nature Connections participants. She has particularly enjoyed the animal enrichment experiences.

“I loved helping Caramel the camel celebrate her 21st birthday by painting a box for her, and a large 21st key out of cardboard.”

Chloe has also taken part in different seasonal activities such as the Bumblebee Conservation Trust’s bee transect (a fixed monitoring route). For this she helped to track bumblebees in the park to record important conservation data, while interacting with and learning more about their buzzy brilliance. “I even had my nails painted with bees!”

Kirsty Strugnell, one of Highland Wildlife Park’s learning and community officers, used to come to the park as Chloe’s support worker from the Richmond Fellowship Scotland. After enjoying her time at the park and having seen how it benefited people such as Chloe, Kirsty applied to become a part of the park’s discovery and learning team.

“It brings me joy to see the faces of the people we work with light up when we’re exploring the park, meeting animals and doing activities such as enrichment. We always have a laugh and a lot of fun,” says Kirsty.

Chloe visits the park often with her group including John, Ali, Alan and Mark.

Her favourite animal at Highland Wildlife Park is the Przewalski’s horse and if she could describe Nature Connections in just one word, it would be “Smiles!”