News

Arnaud Desbiez and his team are working in the Pantanal region, Brazil, to protect giant anteaters from habitat degradation and fragmentation as part of the Anteaters & Highways project. Giant anteaters are classified as vulnerable to extinction. Our colleague, Arnaud, sent us this recent wonderful and rarely seen footage. We’ve heard of many animal species …

Since spring 2016, 184 red squirrels have been released into the wilds of the Scottish Highlands. Becky Priestley and Alan McDonnell, from Trees for Life, have been spearheading a mission to return reds to the north and establish a stronghold for them. Further south, and in England and Wales, our native red squirrels are not …

Creating a future for Siamese crocodiles In 2000, Siamese crocodiles, thought to be extinct, were rediscovered in the wild in Cambodia by a team from Fauna & Flora International (FFI). Found in the Cardamom Mountains, one of the last intact rainforests of Southeast Asia, there are estimated to be just 250 adults in the wild. …

Surveying the elusive mountain hares Having completed all his field work for his PhD researching a small population of mountain hares in the Peak District, we caught up with Carlos Bedson of Manchester Metropolitan University to find out how his work is progressing. Carlos has now gathered sightings of mountain hares over several years. This …

Their value to wildlife As a conservation charity, our primary interest in hedgerows lies in their remarkable capacity for nurturing wildlife. To bats, birds, bees, butterflies, hedgehogs, dormice and thousands of other species alike, hedgerows play a crucial role. They provide home, food, shelter and safe passage across the countryside. Their enormous value to wildlife, …

Hibernation strategy There are three main strategies that animals use to help them get through the winter months. They migrate and move away from harsh weather; they adapt by growing thicker fur and storing food, or they hibernate. Hibernation is often referred to as a ‘sleep’ but it’s a very special type of sleep. The …

We’ve been funding Mohammad Farhadinia and his team in Iran since 2013. Their work has been a pioneering effort to understand conservation needs of Persian leopards, to apply novel and practical solutions to resolve the conservation problems and to raise the awareness for leopard conservation in Iran, and abroad. Face to face In mid-December 2019, …

Living alongside predators When you live alongside large cats, it’s not always easy to be a fan of wildlife. “A lot of people are simply unaware of the devastating impacts that a single crop loss or livestock predation incident can have on a family. If a herd of elephants come by, they can wipe out …

Despite the fact that Scotland’s red squirrel numbers have dropped hugely in recent decades, it is still home to 75% of our UK population. This makes it extremely important that we ensure Scotland’s endangered red squirrels have a secure future. We’ve been funding intern George Porton, who is part of the Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels initiative. …

How wild are wildcats? Our wildlife faces many different threats which all come with their particular challenges. Hybridisation between a wild animal – particularly one which has very few individuals left – and a domestic animal can be really problematic to deal with. Are the wildcats in the wild, really wild? Are there any true …

Lemurs’ need for trees Across Madagascar 90% of littoral forest – that’s the forest found on the shore that has adapted to grow on the sand– has been lost due to human activities. Much of it is still under threat, mainly from slash and burn agriculture and mining projects. There are some animals which are …

In the fields and forests of Bulgaria, Nedko Nedyalkov and his team have been avidly looking for evidence of Roach’s mouse-tailed dormouse over the past year. This mouse-tailed dormouse is one of the Europe’s rarest mammal species and is only found in the border area of Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. For forty years there had …