News

David Talbot describes his experience volunteering this summer with the Back On Our Map (BOOM), Natural England and Morecambe Bay Partnership (MBP) during the landmark release of the 1000th hazel dormouse in Britain, as part of PTES’ National Dormouse Reintroduction Programme. Getting involved in citizen science My experience as a volunteer started pre Covid-19 in …

Our nature reserve on the Isle of Wight, Briddlesford Woods, is an ancient woodland which has a rich array of woodland flora and rare invertebrates, but is best known for its unique assemblage of mammals. It provides a home for red squirrels, 9 bat species and hazel dormice. This means we have to balance the …

Supporter Kenneth Phipps sheds light on some of Britain’s smallest and often overlooked mammals. The British mainland has three species of shrew, common, pygmy, and water shrew, and all of these little insectivores have intriguing lifestyles. Shrinking shrews Common, pygmy and water shrews undergo a sudden reduction in body weight during winter. This isn’t due …

In Western Java our Conservation Partner, Anna Nekaris, has been learning more about slow lorises. Slow lorises are one of the few mammals around the world that have a toxic bite. Other venomous species include solenodons: long-snouted, golden, burrowing creatures and water shrews: tiny, dark divers. Studying play Many young animals learn life skills through …

Guest author, Anna Shaw, looks at the importance of insects in the diets of mammals, and what we can do to stock up our garden larder. Insects make up a lesser or greater part of the diets of many British mammals. Badgers, hedgehogs, shrews and some voles and mice, for example, consume insects as part …

Yadav Ghimirey works for Friends of Nature, a youth-led wildlife charity based in Nepal. PTES has been providing support for Yadav and his team as they help endangered dholes, or Asiatic wild dogs, return to their region. Wild dog numbers plummeted across their range, mostly due to persecution and habitat loss. But in recent years, …

Research shows brown hares are predicted to take over mountain hare habitat as temperatures rise Climate change is putting the future of our Peak District mountain hares at risk. This important but alarming research has been carried out by Carlos Bedson, at Manchester Metropolitan University, with support from PTES. The Peak District’s altitude and colder …

Neighbours, however good, don’t always rub along smoothly and sometimes the attentions of our wild ones can be unwanted. But lethal pest-control methods are often indiscriminate and don’t necessarily solve the problem. Kevin Newell, from Humane Wildlife Solutions, looks at the more humane and ecologically-minded alternative to discourage rats in your garden. Sadly, when someone …

Dormice reintroduction June 2021 We were delighted to team up with various partners to release the 1000th hazel dormouse in Lancashire last week. Thirty animals were released into a woodland in the Arnside and Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (a nationally protected landscape covering parts of north Lancashire and south Cumbria). Reintroductions are crucial …

Along with our partners at Natural England, PTES collate records from over 400 dormouse monitoring sites across the UK. The NDMP now has hundreds of trained monitors regularly checking dormouse boxes throughout the year. We’re extremely grateful to all our dormouse monitors for their great contribution to dormouse conservation. How long have you been monitoring for? …

All organisms shed DNA into the environment. Sources of DNA include mucus, hair or fur, skin, urine and faeces. This environmental DNA, or eDNA, can be extracted from samples taken in the wild (usually soil or water) and used to detect different species, measure biodiversity, and even look at the abundance of different animals. It’s …

A project at Fingle Woods A woodland conservation scheme that PTES is funding in partnership with the Heritage Lottery Fund is making new discoveries about how dormice colonise recovering habitat. The project is located in Fingle Woods, a site jointly owned by the National Trust and Woodland Trust, in the north of Dartmoor in Devon. …