Mammal Group

It's summertime and mammals are adapting their behaviour to the changing season, which means they may be easier to see. Shorter nights mean some mammals like the fox and badger may be driven to find food in the day to support their young. Others may take advantage of the heat and be seen sleeping on a sunny bank, like the otter, or in a sunny glade, like deer. Other mammals such as rabbits and rodents are prolific breeders and because of their numbers they are more likely to be seen.

Mammals have adapted over time and can be found

on land, in the sea and in the air - as our Cornwall Mammal Group (CMG) logo illustrates. Some, however, attract more support than others and there is a well-established Bat Group which looks out for these often misunderstood species. The pioneering project Seaquest South-West is interested in all marine life, including the marine mammals - dolphins, porpoises, whales and seals.

The CMG liaises with both these groups, which leaves the focus of its attention as the terrestrial mammals. This involves five key orders of mammals: insectivores (shrews, moles and hedgehogs); carnivores (including weasels and stoats); rodents (voles, mice, rats and squirrels);

lagomorphs (rabbits and hares) and artiodactyls (deer).

To find out more about these mammals and their groups, support National Mammal Week (30th June to 8th July). On Sunday 1st July at Tehidy Country Park the CMG is organising mammal identification workshops and a mammal-orientated nature trail (with prizes donated by Imerys and the Pennon Group). Do come and join us - it promises to be a fun day for budding mammal detectives and experienced mammalogists alike.

Kate Stokes

Photographic Group

The new year started with a critique evening in January and as usual it was good to sit and discuss our own work, receiving valuable criticism (and occasional praise!) from fellow members. I also had pleasure in announcing an exhibition of members' work that I have arranged in the Truro Museum café for February 2002. This is a lovely venue for an exhibition and will include the largest selection of images that we have put together since the exhibition at Breney two years ago. Our intention is buy enough frames to stage this exhibition and then to loan them to other groups after this event, so if you need a selection of frames for an event of your own please contact me. In September we are to have a meeting at

Allet to establish the selection of the images for this exhibition; this is obviously an important night (see the diary of events for further information).

In February we enjoyed an evening with Adrian Langdon, who talked about some of the National Parks of America. His talk was very interesting and his slides were, as always, excellent. It was good to see some new faces at this meeting. A major focus for Stephen Westcott and the Seal Group is collaboration with the National Seal Sanctuary and local fishermen to resolve conflicts between seals and fisheries.Photo: David Chapman

Let's hope they might be encouraged to try their hands at photography as a result of this splendid evening.

Our thoughts are now turning to the summer programme. Please have a look through our field trips listed in the diary section. If you are interested in taking your photography a little more seriously, we are always happy to give advice on these days.

If you are planning ahead to the date of the competition in November, please note that we have agreed a couple of changes to the categories this year. There will be four categories for slide entries - Flora, Fauna, Field Trips and Composition and Form - but only one open section for prints. Remember when entering prints that they should be mounted no larger than 40cm by 50cm. More on this in the next issue ...

David Chapman