Ant Boy Xander keeps collecting awards as well as wildlife records
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Aviemore's very own 'Ant Boy' has picked up another major conservation award.
Xander Johnston, a pupil at Kingussie High School, was yesterday named the winner of The National Biodiversity Network Young Person's Award for 2020.
The winners and runners up of the NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording 2020 were announced at an online ceremony.
Xander (14) is one of the Youth Ambassadors involved in the 2019 State of Nature report.
Judges said Xander’s enthusiasm for nature is infectious and his presentation skills match those of a seasoned professional nature presenter.
The teen told the Strathy: "It was such a nice surprise to end the year on a high."
“Biological surveying and recording has been such a large part of my life since moving to the Highlands six years ago.
"Specialising in insects, which I believe to be the foundation of the whole ecosystem, I believe that my surveying and recording is my way of contributing towards scientists restoring the natural world.
“It is also really exciting when I manage to find some of the more rare species which I survey for, which most people don’t ever get the opportunity to experience.
"Finally, to top it all off, being outdoors is not only great for my physical health but also my mental health!”
Xander uses his own YouTube channel to promote the importance of insects as well as educating viewers on ‘how to rewild your garden’ or ‘how to make an insect hotel’.
Over the past three years, he has recorded more than 800 hours of volunteering, surveying, and recording for a number of different projects and he has identified many new sites for rare insects.
The national awards recognise and celebrate the outstanding contributions adults and young people are making to wildlife recording and data sharing, which is helping to improve our understanding of the UK’s biodiversity.
The runner up of the NBN Young Person’s Award was 17 year old Reuben Nebbett-Blades, from Garboldisham, Norfolk.
He has been a very active recorder for a number of years.
Since 2017, Reuben has submitted over 1300 records of almost 700 species into iRecord. Flora is Reuben’s speciality, although his records cover an impressively wide range of taxonomic groups with birds, bryophytes, fungi and all major insect groups also well represented.
The National Biodiversity Network has been championing the sharing of biological data since 2000. The NBN is the UK’s largest partnership for nature, with over 200 members and more than 235 million wildlife records available through the NBN Atlas.
