On Monday March 13th, Michael from the Wild Nephin National Park came to visit our school. He spoke with junior classes in the morning and then he did a lesson with the senior classes. In the junior room, he taught the children about the predator and prey relationship. He explained that the grey squirrel is bigger than the red squirrel, that the badgers skin protects him when he goes into the spiky hedges, and how the tadpoles eat the moss in the water so other creatures can come to live in the pond.
In the senior room, he showed us a slideshow of different animals that can be found in the Wild Nephin National Park. He brought in lots of small stuffed animals. There were also real antlers from a Stag. He also brought in little jars-one contained a dead mouse, another had a dead lizard, a dead bat and more. We were able to look in two microscopes where we saw two jaws of a mouse and we saw the bones magnified through the microscope. Michael taught us about a variety of different animals. He taught us about the grey squirrel that bullies the red squirrel but the population of the red squirrels is rising at the moment. He explained that the red squirrel goes for the Pine Marten to get help and the Pine Marten eats the grey squirrel. Michael taught us about the deer and how the stags sometimes fight with their antlers to see who is going to lead the herd. The Stag who loses has to find a new herd.
At the end of Michael’s presentation, we got to touch the different stuffed animals, look through the microscope and look in the jars.
Before Michael left, he spoke to us about the Night Sky over Ballycroy National Park. Ballycroy park is also called Mayo Dark Sky Park because it is one of the very few places in Ireland where you can see the stars at night very clearly because it has no light pollution. I found it really interesting and I was glad that Michael visited our school.