News

Conservationist, William Isebaidu, has been in contact from Uganda to report on his work at Koome Island on Lake Victoria. William and his team, from wildlife organisation Hope for Nature, are working hard to restore the fortunes of Singida tilapia fish, which were historically harvested in the lake. Over fishing and illegal fishing practices have …

Hazel dormice build different nests for different purposes: hibernating, breeding or just resting. Sometimes they don’t build a nest at all. But the different types of nests they do build might help us work out how much time dormice spend in different habitats. As part of my work at Fingle Woods, owned by the Woodland …

Voles, rats, shrews, mice, and hazel dormice can be difficult to study. Their size and behaviour make them hard to find and, living predominantly in the shrub layer and being nocturnal, makes hazel dormice even more tricky. Occasionally though, these small creatures give themselves away by their vocalisations. Whilst we may hear an indistinguishable high-pitched …

You might stumble upon a slightly frazzled looking person in a tatty woolly hat and a big purple jacket held together in places by duct tape. She may well be muttering to herself as she walks, very slowly, up and down between two lines of tape. At first glance, she appears to be metal-detecting – …

Ian Powell and the Arun Countryside Trust Few people know the woods on Tortington Common in West Sussex as well as Ian Powell. A local man, interested in natural history, he has lived his life with a passion for conserving the ancient woodlands of the Arun Valley. For two decades Ian, the principal dormouse monitor …

After a difficult start to last year, compounded by vast flooding, Amy Dickman and Ruaha Carnivore Project’s team in Tanzania retuned to work with a vengeance. Giving direct benefits to communities for the presence of wildlife is at the core of their work. They believe if people see wildlife as a resource, they’ll tolerate the …

Birdsong can play a crucial role in tackling post lockdown re-entry anxiety this spring. Though experts warn over 90% of some songbird species have disappeared from the UK, partly due to urbanisation destroying habitats. Birdsong is set to play a crucial role this spring in tackling ‘re-entry anxiety’, which is predicted to become more common …

As last year drew to a close we received a lovely message from Rebecca Klein of Cheetah Conservation Botswana (CCB). With your kind support, we’ve been helping Rebecca build a brighter future for cheetahs. Thankfully there have been relatively low COVID-19 infection rates in Botswana. Despite the government restricting movement, Rebecca and her team were …

Slow lorises may look cute and cuddly but these large-eyed primates are deadly and use venom to injure and even kill other slow lorises. Recent research has shown that slow lorises use venom as a defense mechanism against others of its kind, something that has previously only been seen in four other species worldwide. Only …

Pete Etheridge writes about the importance of coppicing for woodland conservation and biodiversity. A decline in coppicing Coppicing has been practised in the UK for hundreds (if not thousands) of years. In 1905 (decades after the peak in coppicing activity), it was estimated that there was somewhere in the region of 230,000 ha of actively …

Robin Redbreast – the UK’s ‘national bird’ – is under threat, and wildlife experts are encouraging the public to support robins and other native birds in their gardens this winter. There’s warning of a ‘perfect storm’ for winter birds this December, with reports of a La Nina event set to cause harsh cold spells alongside …

Lorna Griffiths, from the Nottinghamshire Dormice Group (NDG), describes how the dormice in her county are delighting the group members. In 2016 I wrote an article for The Dormouse Monitor about the hazel dormouse releases in Nottinghamshire. Since then, the Nottinghamshire Dormouse Project, which focuses on the three reintroductions, Treswell Wood (2013), Eaton Wood (2014) …