Living with Mammals results
What have you helped us find out so far?
Since Living with Mammals began in 2003, 7000 sites have been surveyed and 14,000 annual surveys recorded.
The findings have shone a light on urban mammal populations, highlighting the importance of towns and cities for hedgehogs (in our 2022 State of Britain’s Hedgehogs) and used as an indicator of the ‘green health’ of urban areas in the Office of National Statistics’ urban natural capital accounts in 2023 (‘Compositional species indicators’).
Annual updates for the survey between 2003 and 2019 can be found here.
Records of a few urban mammals, such as foxes and grey squirrels, have changed little over the last two decades. Some, however, like rabbits and hedgehogs, have declined. Hedgehogs are found at fewer sites now than when the survey began in 2003, but where they are still recorded, weekly counts have recovered in the last ten years.. Rabbits, often found on the edges of urban areas, are similarly reported at fewer sites, but counts, too, are also down on those when the survey began.