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Many species that are habitat specialists – organisms that rely on specific environments or food sources – are declining in what is becoming a worrying trend. One such specialist facing this threat is hazel dormice (Muscardinus avellanarius), a species intimately linked with certain woodland habitats. Dormouse populations in Britain have plummeted by a staggering 78% …

Overall 2024 was a warm and unsettled year for the UK. It was the fourth warmest year on record in Britain. Eight months had temperatures above their usual average, with February being the second warmest on record, May the warmest, and December the fifth warmest. Winter and spring were both well above average for mean …

New applications for the Sustainable Farming Initiatives (SFIs) have been suspended with no warning. A Defra press release optimistically framed this as ‘having reached its completion’ as the budget had been ‘successfully allocated’. There will be a reset and a new scheme will be announced in summer this year. But what does this mean in …

Road casualties tell us something about the living You might think a field guide to identifying ‘roadkill’ was unnecessarily macabre, but as Roger Knutson explains in his 1987 book, Flattened Fauna, ‘in becoming part of the road fauna … an animal loses not only its life but also … most of its mass and much …

“The recent freeze to these capital grants has undermined the financial security landowners vitally depended on. It’s a huge step backwards that will damage our chances of preventing further loss of this vital countryside network and the ambition to extend and improve it.” Hedgerows need our help We’ve had hedgerows for almost as long as …

Bridging the knowledge gap Hazel dormice have long been the focus of conservation efforts in Britain. In the 1990s Pat Morris and Paul Bright studied them, laying the foundation for the understanding of their ecology and behaviour. Over the years, the scope of research has expanded, not just through academic studies, but also through the …

Lily is a member of the Nottingham Wildlife Trust Keeping it Wild youth team. Having done a diploma at Brackenhurst, Lily has been accepted at Bangor University to study ecology and conservation. In May, 2024, The Nottingham Dormouse Group invited Lily on one of their sessions and this was her experience. Nestled away in the …

A deadly conflict In the middle of the vast Brahmaputra River in Assam, just off the sprawling city of Guwahati, there’s a tiny, wooded island little more than 100 metres from one end to the other. Called Umananda, it’s chiefly renowned locally for the temple which is dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva and was …

The tradition of celebrating orchards As gathering swallows twitter in the skies ere their winter flight, orchard owners and managers across the UK are preparing to open their gates to the public for the year’s biggest celebration of orchards – Apple Day. In 1990, motivated by the relentless loss of traditional orchards in the post-war …

The National Dormouse Monitoring Programme (NDMP) primarily focuses on tracking the population of hazel dormice and gathering essential biometric data on this endangered species to assess the health of Britain’s dormouse population. However, dormouse nest boxes are often utilised by other wildlife. Over the past 20 years, we’ve regularly asked dormouse monitors to record any …

A major step forward for hedgehog conservation The State of Britain’s Hedgehogs 2022 report, published by People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), revealed that the UK’s hedgehogs have declined by between 30-75% in rural areas since 2000. We stepped into action to identify the key threats these hedgehogs are …

‘A common pipistrelle can eat over 3,000 tiny insects in a single night.’ It’s a stat that gets repeated a lot. It’s a common sight on summer evenings, a little after sunset, to see pipistrelles feeding overhead on small flies, midges and mosquitos. Pipistrelles are aerial hawkers, catching and eating their prey on the wing, …