‘Love zoo’ hits the right note at Green Man festival

This summer the Society entertained more than 1,100 festival goers with hands-on activities related to hormones and mating.

The Society delivered a range of activities from within 'the Love Zoo', a mobile library that has been specially converted for the annual Green Man music festival near Abergavenny in Wales. Originally a folkmusic festival, Green Man has for many years included a large science and learning area called Einstein's Garden.

Assisted by staff from the Society for Endocrinology and the Royal Veterinary College, the Society offered craft activities for children related to nuptial gifts and sexual dimorphism, and games involving pheromones in moths.

Festival goers were encouraged to 'groom a gorilla' to learn about the role of grooming in male and female bonding.An expert in rainforest fauna brought along live animals, including poison dart frogs, a goliath bird-eating tarantula and a giant millipede.

Young visitors queued up to get aboard the Love Zoo vehicle, while adults were entertained by a 'weirdest mating ritual' ballot and a Love Zoo sing-along.

Feedback from visitors was extremely positive, with most visitors spending a long time at the stand, looking at the animals, playing one of the games, voting in the mating ritual poll or being part of the sing-along.

The stall provided an excellent opportunity to raise awareness about biology and the Society in audiences not often reached, and many people signed up to receive more information.