Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Pioneering Dundee course will offer chance to work with lemurs and bears

Course leader Chris Ditchburn, David Grant (SQA) and lecturer Kirsty Crouch with the park's Ruff Lemurs
Course leader Chris Ditchburn, David Grant (SQA) and lecturer Kirsty Crouch with the park's Ruff Lemurs

A pioneering new course has been launched in Dundee giving students the chance to work directly with threatened species such as lemurs and bears.

Dundee and Angus College (D&A) will begin offering its zoo animal behaviour and welfare course from January next year in conjunction with Camperdown Wildlife Park.

Students will be offered the choice of working with any of Camperdown’s 21 animals, from European brown bears to red-bellied lemurs, on the six-month SCQF level 6 course.

Sparsholt College Hampshire is currently the only other institution in the UK which  offers anything similar.

Those who enrol will get to analyse the behaviour of the creatures, as well as producing  research and reports on their findings.

They will film their work throughout the six months, producing a video diary or documentary counting towards the final grade.

The college will even offer up use of wildlife spy cams for students.

Chris Ditchburn, who has taught at the college for more than 10 years, said studying zoo animals academically was a completely new idea north of the border.

He said: “What we’re trying to do here has never been attempted before in Scotland and we’re glad to have the support of the SQA and the staff at Camperdown who have been with us every step of the way to make our students’ dreams a reality.

“We spent many hours with Camperdown Wildlife Centre and working out what would be useful for people to learn.

“They have given us permission to work with all of the animals which is great.

“At first, we feared they’d come back to us and say ‘you can work with the goats — but that’s it’.”

Admissions for the course will open from mid-October with work beginning in January 2019.

The course could potentially expand and work with other wildlife parks in the future, depending on demand.

Mr Ditchburn added: “The response already has been amazing. So many people have said they would love to do it.

“We already have three students signed up and we haven’t even advertised it yet.

“This course will give learners who wish to work in the field of zoo animal care the tools they need to thrive in an ever evolving career path.”

Aileen Whitelaw from Camperdown Wildlife Centre, added: “We’re thrilled that D&A College have worked with us to put this together.

“At Camperdown Wildlife Centre we’re always looking for better ways to care for our animals and working with our talented young people is the best way to bring in some fresh ideas.”