Good day,
Attached is a press release from the city of St. Ingbert with a request for publication.
Traveling exhibition "Welcome to Saarland - The Return of the Otter" in the dome hall of the town hall
Until May 22, the traveling exhibition "Welcome to Saarland – The Return of the Otter" can be seen in the dome hall of the St. Ingbert town hall. The exhibition, organized by the BUND, is presented by the Biosphere VHS St. Ingbert. At the opening, the MINT Campus also surprised with a special contribution.
The exhibition showcases the entire lifecycle and habitat of the otter but does not shy away from the dangers it faces. Nearly extinct in Saarland, it has been increasingly observed again in recent years. This monitoring is carried out, among others, by Hardy Welker from BUND, also known to many as the "Otterspotter," who observes the otters on the Blies River with wildlife cameras and records their behavior. Together with Heike Sicurella from BUND, he designed the exhibition. Idea initiator Adam Schmitt from BUND established the contacts with the VHS as exhibitor and the MINT Campus.
The otter on the Blies – exciting for young and old
“We are presenting this exhibition as part of the VHS sustainability program,” said Frank Ehrmantraut, deputy head of VHS St. Ingbert. The opening lectures already provided an informative start and supplied the numerous visitors with surprising facts and films about the agile predator. On 16 banners, exhibition visitors can now learn about the life of the nocturnal European otter during the town hall’s opening hours for two weeks. The exhibits are exciting for adults but also captivate children thanks to child-friendly materials. In addition to the exhibition, there are special 45 to 60-minute guided tours for children, for which seven school classes from St. Ingbert schools have already registered.
The nocturnal and shy otter is rarely seen. It lives by floodplains and rivers and only settles where it finds clean water. This reminds us to handle nature with care. "As a biosphere city, it is our task to show how important environmental balance is," opened Deputy Albrecht Hauck the exhibition.
MINT Campus detects otter presence using eDNA tests
Another highlight of the opening event was the presentation by 16-year-old Lara Scherer, a 10th-grade high school student, within the framework of the STEM Campus. Under the guidance of biologist Dr. Johannes Becker-Follmann, she is pursuing a project in which she detects the presence of nutria in bodies of water using eDNA tests (environmental DNA). She will present her research at the federal "Jugend forscht" competition at the end of May. The next step is to find out whether the test can also be used to detect otters in bodies of water – thereby supporting the BUND in otter monitoring. The project is also continued within the STEM Campus under the series "Citizen Science," where all interested citizens can carry out corresponding scientific detections and thus make an important contribution to current research.
Photo: Martina Panzer
Caption from left to right: The opening of the traveling exhibition was accompanied by Adam Schmitt, Frank Ehrmantraut, deputy VHS director, Dr. Johannes Becker-Follmann and Lara Scherer, both from MINT-Campus, and Hardy Welker from BUND.
