From Zoo Time to Springwatch: Wildlife on Screen
Schedule
Tue Jun 23 2026 at 06:00 pm to 07:30 pm
UTC+01:00Location
Huxley Lecture Theatre, ZSL Meeting Rooms | London, EN
About this Event
How has wildlife on screen changed the way we see nature?
From ZSL’s early role in natural history broadcasting to today’s citizen science, this event will explore how storytelling brings people closer to wildlife - and why it matters for conservation.
ZSL has a long and rich history with natural history and wildlife broadcasting, from kickstarting David Attenborough's career, to launching our Inside Nature educational resource, to finding creative ways to engage citizen scientists with our research. Through presentations, panel discussions and audience Q&A, this event will explore our fascination with UK wildlife through the lens of broadcasting and how bringing people closer to nature through TV, social media and more, can impact citizen science, and contribute to British wildlife conservation.
Hosted by Billy Heaney, zoologist, wildlife presenter and filmaker.
Speakers
Kate Scott-Gatty, London HogWatch Project Manager, ZSL
Kate manages the London HogWatch project, and specialises in biodiversity monitoring using camera traps. Her work focuses on how monitoring data can aid conservation efforts by gaining insights into population trends and spatial distributions of species. HogWatch engages a large number of volunteers, providing the opportunity for members of the community to get out into nature and help wildlife local to them. Additionally, the project uses citizen science data to better understand hedgehog habitat use across the capital.
Dr Katharina Seilern-Macpherson, Wildlife Veterinarian and Postdoctoral Researcher, ZSL
Katharina's main area of interest is wildlife conservation. In particular, Katharina focuses on infectious and non-infectious diseases that pose threats to free-ranging wildlife populations, and the role of human-wildlife interactions in disease emergence and potential species declines. Katharina works on the collaborative Garden Wildlife Health project, which relies on citizen science to monitor the health of, and identify disease threats to, British wildlife, with particular focus on garden birds, amphibians, reptiles, and hedgehogs. The project counts on the public to submit reports of sick or dead wildlife and to submit samples for analysis.
Dr Miles Kempton, Charles Darwin and Galapagos Islands Junior Research Fellow, University of Cambridge
Miles Kempton is a historian of modern science with a special interest in the history of zoology. He holds a BA from Royal Holloway, University of London, an MSc from the University of Oxford, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. His doctoral thesis, ‘London Zoo, Commercial Television, and Primate Ethology from the Launch of ITV to The Naked Ape’, is a cultural history of science broadcasting and animal behavioural research (ethology) in postwar Britain. Focusing on the dynamics of mass-mediated science, it examines the close historic links between the rise of postwar ethology and commercial entertainment - a history which casts fresh light on widespread notions of humanity’s ‘apish’ nature in the wider culture, both then and now.
Where is it happening?
Huxley Lecture Theatre, ZSL Meeting Rooms, Zoological Society of London, London, United KingdomEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00
