Natural History
| Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
| Area of Search | Bedfordshire |
|---|---|
| Grid reference | TL005205 |
| Interest | Biological |
| Area | 73.36 hectare (181.27 acre) |
| Notification | 1987 |
| Location map | Natural England |
The downs are home to a wide variety of wildlife including many rare wild flowers, such as the Bee Orchid, and different butterfly species, like the Marbled White and the Chalkhill Blue.
Areas of the west-facing slope were notified in 1987 under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) called Dunstable and Whipsnade Downs. This includes parts of Whipsnade Zoo.
Read more about this topic: Dunstable Downs
Famous quotes related to natural history:
“To a person uninstructed in natural history, his country or sea-side stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of art, nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall. Teach him something of natural history, and you place in his hands a catalogue of those which are worth turning round.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“The use of natural history is to give us aid in supernatural history: the use of the outer creation, to give us language for the beings and changes of the inward creation.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)