The mammals of Malta will come under the spotlight during a webinar that Heritage Malta will be livestreaming on Facebook on March 9 at 6.30pm.

Entitled ‘Mammals in Malta – From the Ice Age to the Present’, the webinar will consist of a 20-minute presentation by John J. Borg, senior curator for Natural History at Heritage Malta, followed by a short question and answer session.

The presentation will be delivered in Maltese but there will be English subtitles.

Participants will be taken on a virtual tour in and around Għar Dalam, Wied Dalam and the National Museum of Natural History to discover Malta’s mammalian fauna.

The topics covered in the presentation include the arrival in Malta of Ice Age mammals such as elephants and hippopotami; the extinction of a number of species due to rising water levels, isolation, food shortage and the arrival of the first humans, among other factors; and the survival of other species that still exist.

Borg will also give a brief overview of the work currently under way in the compilation of the first National Atlas of Maltese Mammals, describing the different techniques used in finding and recording mammals, explaining the digitisation process involved and how to submit one’s findings on the National Museum of Natural History’s Facebook page.

For more information visit www.heritagemalta.org.