Slug identification course with TWIC

A railway museum seems an unlikely venue for a slug identification course – not too many slugs on display here – but we are always keen to explore different ways to make our site accessible to the community and make links with other organisations which could bring mutual benefit. The Wildlife Information Centre’s proposal, to bring a dozen people to explore the enigmatic world of slugs living along the railway, seemed like an offer too intriguing not to look into.

TWIC’s area of responsibility stretches from the borders to the Trossachs National Park but as the headquarters are in Pathhead planned activities tend to be south of Edinburgh. Bo’ness offered quick and convenient access to people to the north west of the region.

The species identification workshop began in the museum which, though closed to visitors for the winter, is still open for behind the scenes volunteering and group events by appointment, and saw the whole site well searched by the end of the day.

Without live specimens an identification course would not work at all well.  Attendees brought in slugs from their gardens to examine under supervision.  In the afternoon, the group ventured outside for some practical recording in the field.  The specimens collected, once identified, provided species records for TWIC’s data set.

A few specimens will be donated to the Museum of Scotland’s research collection of molluscs. Although this collection of 720 preserved slugs has examples dating back to 1879, no new specimens have been donated in the last 20 years.  We hope that our efforts have made some small progress to change this.

What next? TWIC staff were very keen to help us record the wildlife in the museum’s new biodiversity enhancement area and hope to bring an expert botanist next spring to record what we have.  Perhaps we will find more surprises to  more surprises to rival this year’s orchid.

Find out more about TWIC’s work at www.wildlifeinformation.co.uk/