Natural History Museum and Botanical Garden news

The Estonian research infrastructures roadmap

„Natural History Archives And Information Network“ (NATARC),

Estonian Naturalists´ Society, and

Estonian Academy of Sciences

are pleased to invite to participate in a Symposium organized within the 1^st Estonian Taxonomy Days

Published 24.04.2019

The exhibition The World in a Rucksack by the University of Tartu Natural History Museum, is scheduled to open on 26 April at Tallinn Zoo and dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Estonia’s national university. The exhibition will open at UT Natural History Museum on 27 November 2019.

Now is available our latest Index Seminum 2018.

Published 17.10.2018

On 2 August 2018, a new species was added to the list odonate species found in Estonia. A specimen of the new species, the Willow Emerald Damselfly (Chalcolestes viridis – Vander Linden, 1825) was caught by Mati Martin, chief specialist for systematic zoology of the UT Natural History Museum, in the vicinity of Karula (south-east Estonia) on the bank of a water body dammed up by beavers.

Published 09.10.2018

On 11 September 2018, six new priority projects of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures were announced in Vienna. One of these projects includes the University of Tartu, Tallinn University of Technology, the Estonian University of Life Sciences and the Estonian Natural History Museum.

The project Distributed System for Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) aims to create access to the natural history collections and data held by Europe’s major museums, universities and research institutions.

Today, on 26 April 2018, the 263-member electoral council elected Professor of Neurosurgery Toomas Asser as rector of the University of Tartu with 187 votes.

Published 22.08.2018

The University of Tartu (UT) researcher Andro Truuverk caught the first Wall Brown butterfly (Lasiommata megera) on the 8th of August 2018 in Treiman, Pärnu County. 

Published 16.05.2018

Starting today, the portal eBiodiversity that brings together data on the living nature of Estonia in a single virtual environment takes on a new, more user-friendly look.

UT Natural History Museum was awarded the special Rat Trap prize as the most tourist-friendly museum at the Estonian annual museum awards ceremony at the Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn on 19 January 2018.

With great sorrow, the University of Tartu announces the unexpected death of Rector Volli Kalm on Saturday, December 23.

Volli Kalm was born on February 10, 1953 in Vändra. He graduated from the University of Tartu in 1976 with a degree in geology. In 1984, Kalm earned his PhD in geology from the Estonian Academy of Sciences after successfully defending his doctoral thesis "Formation, composition and usage of glaciofluvial deposits in Estonia."

From 1988-1989, he attended postdoctoral studies in the geology department of the University of Alberta.

The University of Tartu Botanical Garden will open an exhibition, which is dedicated to the oil palm and seeks answers to the question why manufacturers prefer palm oil and whether consumer choices can save the environment.

Among all the goods in shops and stores it is not easy to find a product that does not contain palm oil. However, to found oil palm plantations, rainforests – the most species-rich places on our planet – are cut down. If the use of palm oil is constantly increasing, the question how long the rainforests survive is asked more and more often.

Once in a century!

Umbrella bamboo (Fargesia nitida) is flowering in the Botanical Gardens of the University of Tartu.

On 17 November, all members of the University of Tartu are welcome to celebrate the European Academic Heritage Day. The University of Tartu as well as the University of Tartu Natural History Museum and Botanical Garden introduce the university’s unique and rich academic heritage through the theme of this year’s Academic Heritage Day – University Heritage at War. All the activities are free for the employees of the University of Tartu and their family members as well as for the students of the University of Tartu.

Citizens in democratic society are no longer just passive bystanders when science is in focus. They show interest in results, ask for consultation and contribute with data. For many fields of research citizen science data is valuable additional information.

Engaging citizens is a challenge both for society and for researchers. There are new tools and methods which allow to manage citizen science projects, collect data and provide feedback for citizen scientists.

The oldest museum in Estonia, UT Natural History Museum, which was founded in 1802, opens its new exhibition on 16 January 2016. After four years of renovation works, the new permanent exhibition "Earth. Life. Story" and two seminar rooms were completed.

Riin Aljas, Research in Estonia, 19.10.2015

It’s a mixture of both physical and virtual collections, bringing natural archives to everyone’s home, both in Estonia and elsewhere, as digital tools for archiving, analysing and sharing the natural history collections are used all over the world.

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The Nordic Mycological Congress takes place in Kääriku and during the event, 60 researches will go into nature to collect fungi and determine the DNA of the collected species. The gathered data will be entered in a global database which is developed by the University of Tartu researchers.

The first Tartu Nature Week invites all city dwellers to notice nature, value green urban environment and learn about biodiversity. The nature week takes place from 23 to 30 May and its highlight is the family day in the park of Tartu Environmental Education Centre.

During the week, nature and environmental organisations of Tartu county organise trips, lectures, exhibitions and other events. From Monday to Friday, birdsong mornings take place in Raadi, Supilinn, Annelinn, Toome hill and other places of natural beauty.