Unnatural Arrivals: New Orkney Museum Exhibition Brings Art and Conservation Together in Response to Stoat Crisis

The Orkney Museum will present a timely new exhibition, "Unnatural Arrivals - The Stoat Crisis in Orkney", opening on 9 May and running until 20 June 2026. The exhibition is a collaboration between a selection of Orkney-based artists and the Orkney Native Wildlife Project, responding to the ecological impact of the recent arrival of stoats in the islands.

Stoats, first confirmed in Orkney in 2010, are not native to the archipelago. Their arrival has had serious consequences for an ecosystem that evolved without mammalian predators, placing internationally important populations of ground-nesting birds, birds of prey, and the endemic Orkney vole under severe threat. Orkney is now the focus of one of the world's largest invasive species eradication programmes on a populated island group.

Unnatural Arrivals brings together contemporary artworks in a range of media - including painting, sculpture, photography, and three-dimensional work - alongside interpretive material from the Orkney Native Wildlife Project. Information panels, audiovisual content, and artefacts such as stoat traps provide vital scientific and practical context, allowing visitors to explore both the human response to the crisis and its wider ecological significance.

The participating artists have been invited to engage with the stoat issue from multiple perspectives: ecological, emotional, ethical, and symbolic. The resulting works explore themes of invasive species, island vulnerability, balance, and disruption. Some works respond directly to scientific research and local conservation practice, while others offer more poetic or speculative reflections on coexistence, loss, and intervention.

The Orkney Native Wildlife Project - a partnership between NatureScot, RSPB Scotland, and Orkney Islands Council - contributes authoritative material charting the arrival and spread of stoats, the rationale for eradication rather than control, and the scale of the current programme. To date, thousands of stoats have been removed as part of a long-term plan aiming for a stoat-free Orkney, protecting biodiversity of local, national, and international importance.

By placing artistic responses alongside scientific evidence and field equipment, the exhibition highlights the complexity of conservation in a lived landscape, encouraging informed discussion rather than simple answers. It also demonstrates the role that museums and artists can play in helping communities engage with urgent environmental challenges.