News Archive

Polecats and Jellyfish

Two students from the universities of Bangor and Swansea have won Natur Cymru’s University Challenge ‘Inspired by Nature’ competition and share the £500 prize for wildlife writing. Dave Wright, from Bangor University’s School of Biological Sciences, wrote an intriguing story about ‘comb jelllies’ and Owen Bidder, from Swansea University’s Department of Environmental and Molecular Sciences, developed an interesting argument about Polecat awareness and identification.

The competition was organised by Natur Cymru, the quarterly journal which flies the flag for wildlife and the environment in Wales. James Robertson, the editor, said: “We have many contributors to the magazine from people passionate about nature or who are working in some form of research or conservation. What we wanted to do through this competition was to make contact with and encourage the rich seam of young talent coming through the universities in Wales.”

The £500 prize was funded by WWF Cymru and its director, Morgan Parry, said: “We are pleased to sponsor this competition which has helped to stimulate discussion and debate about topics of vital importance to Wales.”

Students were invited to submit articles in Welsh or English of about 1,000 words. In reaching their decision the panel of judges were looking at: originality of content, use of plain language, presentation of argument and the degree to which the article engaged with the reader.

Andrew Forgrave, Rural Affairs Editor for the Daily Post was one of the judges and commented: “The future of bio-science writing in Wales is in safe hands. Each of the finalists presented well-crafted articles that were based on sound research and fine writing.”

The winning articles will be published bilingually in the Spring and Summer editions of Natur Cymru.

The prizes were presented by Iolo Williams at an event hosted at Bangor University on Thursday 12 March 2009.