Information
Start Terug Volgende

 

Does night-life keeps you awake?

And...
you understand by nightlife a bat fluttering by, a fox noiseless huting, the cry of an owl, eventualy combined with some red wine and camenbert under a full moon?
Then you're welcome with the...

ZWG

Who are we?

ZWG is the abbreviation of Zoogdierenwerkgroep, whitch can be translated as Mammalworkinggroup. The ZWG is one of the workinggroups of the Jeugdbond voor Natuurstudie en Milieubescherming (JNM). The JNM, on organisation fo young people from 8 until 25 years old, occupies itself with everthing that blooms and grows. There are 45 divisions scattered over Flanders who organise weekly all kinds of activities. The workinggroups study the different aspects of nature (mammals, plants, birds, ...) and enviroment and constitute an important part of our organisation.

What do we want?

Although almost every lover of nature cares about mammals, few is known about the actual distribution of mammals in Flanders. We are working on that problem.

The goal of the ZWG can be summarized as the study and protection of the wild mammals and there biotope.

What are we doing?

Study and research:
Pellets of owls are collected and sifted out so we can determin the name of the species of each mammalscul. When rare species are found the area can be searched more intens.
An example of a more intens investigation is catching mammals with life-traps. Those traps are designed to trap the mice alive. After determining the species the mice are released.
A third methode consist of a focused search for bats. The bats are tracked with a bat-detector. This detector alows us also to determin the species of the bat.
All other kinds of recordings are ofcourse also collected. (eg. viewings, road-kills, tracks,...)
Protection:
Distributiondata are very imported. You can use them to:
inform the manager of a naturereserve so he (or she) can adjust the management in favour of the mammals.
inform the government when the status of a species is critical. The government will demand data before they will enact laws to protect a species or its biotopes.
inform an owner of a house when there is a colony of bats roosting in his house.

You want some more action? What about preparing ice-cellars, bunkers, ... as hibernacula for bats.

Our activities

Yearly there is a least one summercamp. During that camp we do a lot of investigations like: trapping mice, sifting out pellets, searching for bats with bat-detectors, searching church-attics for bats and owls,...
Throughout the year there are some weekend. These are most of the time a short editon of a summercamp. Sometime we combine them with a lecture.
During the winter we visit hibernacula, sift out pellets, process the collected data,...

Something for everybody

Activities:

If you want to expand your knowlegde about mammals, joining our activities is the best thing you can do. Throughout the year we have a large offer.

Eliomys:

This is the quarterly magazine of the ZWG. It contains all sorts of articles about mammals, sphere and scientific reports of summercamps and weekend, special investigations, press-cutings about mammals, announcements of activities, ... (Alas only in Dutch available)

The unique ZWG-T-shirt:

It makes every ZWG member recognizable. At the moment you can even choose out of two different designs!

Sphere en sociability:

You 'll find it on all of our activities, from summercamp upto committee-meeting, the ideal mix of information and relaxation. The ZWG is a firm circle of friends, and you are welcome to join us!

The recipe for a healty and witty live:
Join the ZWG with heart and soul!

Mammalinventory of Flanders

In 1995 the ZWG started with a largescale mammalinventory of Flanders. The goal is to publish a new and recent distributionatlas of the Flemisch mammals in the autumn of 2001. It wil cover the periode from 1986 until 2000. The previous atlas dates from 1986 and there changed alot since then. Meanwhile we publish in 1997 a priliminary atlas. it was also publish on the WWW. Click here to view it.

Membership costs yearly 200 BEF (4,96 €) (JNM members pay only 150 BEF (3,72 €))
Our accountnumber is: 447-0102511-04
JNM-ZWG
Kortrijksepoortstraat 140
B-9000 GENT
Belgium

More information

JNM Zoogdierenwerkgroep
Kortrijksepoortstraat 140
9000 Gent
Belgium
Tel. + 32 9 223 47 81
Fax. + 32 9 223 28 05
Website: http://studwww.rug.ac.be/~tonkelin/zwg/zwg.htm
Email: zwg@jnm.be