Tens of thousands have been reached by the Wilderness Watching (Vadonleső) Programme, Deputy Minister of State for Nature Protection Bertalan Balczó stated at the opening ceremony of the programme series Mammal of the Year on Saturday in the Hungarian Natural History Museum (MTM).

At the event, Mr Balczó reminded his audience that the Wilderness Watching Programme launched the Mammal of the Year initiative six years earlier. The aim of the programme is to deliver the message of the preservation of our natural heritage to as many people as possible through our protected and specially protected mammal species, popular or burdened with superstitions. According to the Deputy Minister of State, we can protect only what we understand/get familiar with and not in the last what we come to like. He added that the first species targeted by the programme was one of our most popular small mammals, the eastern hedgehog. That was followed by the gopher, then the bat, the hazel dormouse, and last year the rat-mole was given the honorary title of Mammal of the Year. Bertalan Balczó underlined that this year they would like to introduce the Eurasian lynx, a rare big cat of our undisturbed forests, to as many people as possible to make them like it and, not in the last, to promote its preservation.

András Béres, CEO of Herman Ottó Intézet Nonprofit Kft. (HOI) said at the event that, during the year, attention will be called to the protection of not only the lynx, but of other species.

The award “Ambassador of Nature protection” was handed over to Franz Liszt Prize winning performer Ágnes Szalóki, and the children’s drawings contest of the Wilderness Watching programme was also announced there.

(AM Press Office)