CALLING all budding young artists – Marwell Wildlife needs your help.

The park is celebrating its 40th anniversary next year, and to mark the occasion, a giant wildlife mosaic is being built there.

The Hampshire charity is inviting children who love wildlife to help with its design by sending in drawings and paintings of their favourite animals for a special competition.

The winning pictures will be included on the 12-metre long anniversary mosaic and will be on view to hundreds of thousands of people who visit the park every year. A grand unveiling of the mosaic will take place in May 2012.

The competition is open to anyone under the age of 16 and, because of the planned size of the mosaic, lots of animals are needed.

Your drawing or painting must be a work in colour of the whole animal (from any angle), and it must be of any animal that can be seen at Marwell Wildlife. You can draw either the animal in its habitat or on its own.

You can include as many of the animals as you want and the designs can be any size as the mosaic artist will upscale or downscale as necessary.

The closing date for entries is January 6, 2012. Winners will be notified by January 20. Please note that unfortunately entries cannot be returned. Also, whilst the mosaic will be inspired by these designs, the artist may make changes when translating it from paper to tile.

Send your entry to: 40th Anniversary Mosaic Competition, Marwell Wildlife, Colden Common, Winchester, SO21 1JH, including your name plus a contact phone number and email address.

Artwork scans can also be emailed to marks@ marwell.org.uk.

Further information about the competition can be found online at marwell. org.uk/mosaiccomp.asp.