Every year on October 14, the world community celebrates World Environmental Education Day, without which it is impossible to solve climate problems and improve the quality of life of all mankind. In some organizations, it is also celebrated on January 26 and May 12. The purpose of the holiday is to increase the level of environmental knowledge of society.
Environmental education is one of the priority tasks of Mykolaiv Zoo. We have done a lot in this direction, because zoos are one of the main centers of interesting and, most importantly, effective events aimed at increasing the environmental awareness of our visitors.
Today we will conduct a small excursion and tell what methods of environmental education were used in Mykolaiv Zoo.
We can only guess what the excursions were like in Mykola Leontovych's private Aquarium. Probably, the owner himself, the respectable stately Mykola Pavlovych, told about his wonderful fish to friends or guests from, for example, the Society of Nature Lovers (such an organization existed in pre-revolutionary Mykolaiv). But we know that already in the nationalized Mykolaiv State Aquarium, excursions were conducted under the close supervision of Politprosvit inspectors. And already with the arrival of the young researcher Fedir Hryhorovych Nichykov to the zoo, the ecological and educational work at Mykolaiv Zoo was put on a scientific basis. In 1937, he organized a group of young zoo biologists, developed excursions.
Throughout the history of Mykolaiv Zoo, various excursions, educational lectures, exhibitions were held here, Mykolaiv residents of middle and older age still remember our video lecture, during which documentaries about animals were shown. Today we bring to your attention some archival photos from that time.
Modern Mykolaiv Zoo develops and conducts ecological and educational activities of a very wide range. We conduct general overview tours for first-time visitors to the zoo and interesting highly specialized themed tours for regular visitors who need to be shown something new and unusual. We hold lectures for biology students and fun interactive quests for our youngest guests. A lot of attention is paid to demonstrative feeding and demonstrative enrichment of the habitat of animals, during which we talk about certain aspects of the work of the zoo.
In Mykolaiv Zoo, educational events dedicated to the events of our "ecological calendar" are held. In times of peace, mass holidays were regularly held in our zoo, many of which also had ecological and educational themes, for example, "Bird Day" or "Earth Day". We also held various conferences. Mykolaiv Zoo also conducted educational work during city-wide events.
The group of young biologists, which is one of the forms of environmental education, continues its work. Our young naturalists not only study nature themselves, but also regularly help employees in conducting educational events. This year, for example, the young biologists themselves developed and held a series of ecological and educational lectures "Zoo from reserves".
Modern technologies make it possible to reach a very wide audience with eco-educational activities. Dissemination of environmental knowledge through our website, pages in social networks, as well as with the help of educational visuals installed in the zoo is an important component of our work. Our photos, articles, and videos attract the attention of the public and are an interesting, effective form of environmental education.
In today's world, when the behavior of mankind, its unreasonable actions (including those related to war), unfortunately, increasingly lead to the deterioration of the environment, environmental education is extremely important. Perhaps, armed with knowledge, our descendants will still be able to save the planet!
