Wildlife

Recording Local Wildlife

Gallery Oldham is involved in gathering together data on Oldham’s wildlife. Over 6,000 recordings of plants, insects, birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals are stored on the gallery’s computer database and volunteers are always welcome to view and contribute to this. This year Gallery Oldham is supporting surveys of the water vole.

Conserving Local Wildlife

Gallery Oldham has been working with local volunteers to produce a plan to protect species and habitats across the Borough that have declined dramatically in population and distribution across Britain. These include plans for brown hare, skylark, water vole, great crested newt, lapwing and badger, and habitats such as ponds.

Athene Online

Due to a recent rise in local interest in natural history Oldham’s 1960/70s natural history journal Athene is being revived as an online journal. Edited by local pond expert Alan Price, the first edition is due soon.

Nield Herbarium

Gallery Oldham has recently recovered a collection of over 10,000 dried plants, known as an herbarium, which were collected mainly by local people from across Britain, USA, Norway and Switzerland over the past 130 years.

Many of these plants, including a number from the Oldham area, have now been lost from the locations from which they were collected and form a fascinating scientifically valuable snapshot of time.

Gallery Oldham Butterfly and Moth Collection

There are over 25,000 butterflies and moths in Gallery Oldham’s collection from across the world. Over the past twelve months an expert lepidopterist has been sorting through and rearranging the collection. If you would like to view this collection or carry out research please contact us.

If you would like more information or are interested in getting involved in Gallery Oldham’s wildlife and natural history activities please contact Alan Price on 0161 770 4662 or email alan.price@oldham.gov.uk.