Tallinn Zoo nature club offers adults a therapeutic way to learn

An adult nature club at Tallinn Zoo has become a therapeutic way for participants to focus on the natural world, ERR’s Vikerraadio reported. Nature education specialist and club leader Kaari Uibomägi said the programme teaches people to observe nature calmly, while participant Liis Auväär said it helps them look beyond themselves and their problems.

“It makes perfect sense to direct your attention to nature, because then you focus on something beyond yourself and your problems. One of the great burdens of people today is that we become too wrapped up in our own troubles,” Auväär said.

Uibomägi said that when people are taught to recognise and observe nature calmly, they learn to love it and, as a result, want to protect it.

Uibomägi, who also leads tours at the zoo, was often asked whether Tallinn Zoo offered a nature club for adults. It did not at the time, but the questions inspired her to start one. Auväär had even written to the zoo asking for such a club to be created.

After the club was established, Auväär recommended it to her husband, who is passionate about polar bears. “Now, for our relationship anniversary, we are going to a polar bear-themed park in Denmark, where you can spend the night next to polar bears and observe them. It seemed like the best gift to celebrate our love,” she said.

Uibomägi said she encouraged participants to reconnect with their “inner child” and sometimes included handicrafts in the sessions. “You may be adults, but I intend to treat you like children, so you have to find your inner child. Sometimes we also make things. It really does sound like therapy,” she said.

She said visitors to the zoo and people observing nature must slow down and pay attention to their surroundings. Sitting quietly can allow birds, insects or even reptiles to come closer, she said. Rushing past an animal enclosure can mean missing an animal that is hidden behind a tree.

Uibomägi also stressed the importance of asking questions. “Children ask the most difficult questions,” she said, adding that working at a zoo meant lifelong learning.

For Auväär, one of the highlights of the year was meeting her favourite natural scientist, Uudo Timm, whom she described as Estonia’s undisputed authority on flying squirrels. The meeting allowed her to ask all the questions she had about the animals.

Members of the nature club have also agreed to volunteer at the zoo. Uibomägi said their participation had been a great help to the zoo and a source of joy for the volunteers, and that it could eventually grow into a larger volunteer group.