News

Survey results reveal the secrets to creating a hedgehog’s perfect home…. School’s out for the summer so what better way to spend an afternoon than by creating your own hedgehog house, to help the nation’s favourite mammal from further decline. The Hedgehog Street team is urging people to help hedgehogs by building them the perfect …

The State of Britain’s Hedgehogs 2018 report, published earlier this year, showed that hedgehogs in rural areas are in severe decline with numbers plummeting by half since the millennium. Now, along with the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), we’ve published an illustrated guide offering advice to the farmers and other landowners on how to help …

In June, we coordinated the release of 39 dormice in a woodland in Warwickshire as part of the Natural England Species Recovery Programme. It was a big day for the dormice and everyone involved in the release – and it all went according plan! This is our first dormouse reintroduction update for 2018. The first …

Today, Thursday 14 June 2018, we are releasing hazel dormice into a woodland in Warwickshire in partnership with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and others. Today’s release follows last year’s reintroduction, which took place in June 2017 near Wappenbury. This was the first phase of the wider Dunsmore Living Landscape Scheme – a project coordinated by the Warwickshire Wildlife …

The problem The slow loris is now among the world’s top 25 most endangered primates. Having lost 90% of their tropical forests, exposed and vulnerable lorises are captured and sold illegally through the pet trade, for medicine or exploited as props in tourist photos. Traders cut out their venomous teeth, so even rescued animals can …

Wood Pasture and and Parkland is one of our most important habitats but it is one we are only beginning to understand. As a part of the Wood Pasture and Parkland Network (WPPN) we have made a series of videos to shine a light on this forgotten habitat. The WPPN, is a new national network …

Water voles hold the unfortunate title of being the UK’s fastest declining mammal. Once a common and widespread species in Britain, a recent report has revealed an estimated 30% decline in water vole distribution across England and Wales between 2006 – 2015. However, there is some evidence that conservation work, including strategic habitat restoration and …

We need your help Please respond to this Government consultation to help shape the future of our countryside and ensure there’s a better deal for our wildlife. We need a farming system that both grows our food and looks after our environment. Just as we depend on the UK’s farmland for much of the food …

The water vole survey is starting this week, records are coming in from across the country to the BIG hedgehog map and the first dormouse checks are under way. Spring might have been slow to start this year but it has definitely sprung now!  So what are the favourite signs of spring from staff here at …

National Water Vole Monitoring Programme starts 15 April 2018. We are calling on all wildlife enthusiasts to help monitor signs of the UK’s disappearing water voles as part of our annual National Water Vole Monitoring Programme. Affectionately portrayed as Ratty in childhood favourite Wind in the Willows, water voles were once a common sight along …

Winter might look like a quiet time for orchards but it is a busy season for orchard management. Laura Bower, Conservation Officer, gives us an update on Rough Hill and the work to convert this once neglected orchard into a wildlife haven. Since we were last at Rough Hill, it has been flailed and looks …

Bechstein’s is one of the rarest British bats as their preferred woodland homes are being destroyed or intensively managed. The challenges of studying an elusive night flying animal means much remains to be learned about this wonderful species.   In this guest blog post Patrick Wright, PhD researcher at Exeter University, gives us a glimpse …