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Wildlife
- Close
- - We protect wildlife in Britain and around the world by bringing our most threatened species back from the brink of extinction. We do this through ground-breaking research, practical conservation and education, all with the help of our supporters.
Wild places
- Close
- - Some habitats contain such a richness of life that we need to protect them at all odds. We are working to preserve ancient woodlands, orchards and wood pastures and parklands, as well as the countless species they support.
What we do
- Close
- - Everything we do is based on scientific evidence. We gather this through surveys, which you can take part in, and by awarding research grants to the most inspiring scientists worldwide. This evidence guides our conservation efforts and is shared through our events and publications.
Who we are
- Close
- - People’s Trust for Endangered Species was set up in 1977 to save our wildlife. We are governed by a board of volunteer trustees and our team of staff are passionate about protecting endangered species and places.
Success stories
- Close
- - We strive to bring our most threatened species in the UK and around the world back from the brink of extinction. Our successes come from ground-breaking research, practical conservation and education, all with the help of our supporters.
Get involved
- Close
- - There are so many ways you can help save endangered species. Fancy taking part in a survey, joining us on a wildlife event or becoming a regular supporter?
Shop
- Close
- - Support our work in our shop with a range of charity gifts, home-ware, cards and more. 100% of the profits go directly to help wildlife both in the UK an overseas.
Donate
- Close
- - There is nothing natural about the alarming rate at which we are losing animals and their homes. It is absolutely avoidable. We can stop the loss of our wildlife – but we need your support. You can act now by choosing to give to our cause. Thank you.

Home // Research grants // Our internship projects // European stag beetle monitoring

European stag beetle monitoring

Working towards a guideline for practitioners on stag beetle conservation in urbanised areas and gardens with a network of 14 countries

The problem

The ‘European stag beetle monitoring’ initiative (www.stagbeetlemonitoring.org) was set up in 2016, with help from PTES. European stag beetles are elusive and saproxylic – this means they rely on dead wood to survive and this is what the larvae feed on whilst they live and grow for up to seven years. It’s a really difficult species to study because it has such a short activity period above ground, once the larvae have developed into adult beetles. Additionally, they are crepuscular (active at dusk and dawn) which only adds to the complexity of finding them.

european-stag-beetle-ptes

The solution

Despite these difficulties, our team has managed to create a simple standardised transect monitoring. This allows us to collect sufficient data using volunteers (citizen science). Because we were starting from scratch in most countries, and because some of these populations of beetles might be particularly patchy, we decided to be ambitious and create a network of volunteers across the full range of the species. This type of international network has many advantages. We will be able to detect small population declines more quickly and we can spread the costs of developing and implementing a monitoring network. We will therefore be able to use comparable methods between countries, which gives us very sound results. This network currently includes 14 countries.

PTES provided funds for an intern to work on this project for the first two years. Now we need to develop the work further PTES is supporting Natalia to take this project to the next stage. We aim to improve communication across the network, update the website and produce a second digital newsletter. Part of the second stage will involve analysing the data we already have and using it to collate all current knowledge on stag beetle conservation in urbanised areas and gardens to make an inspiring guideline for practitioners on this topic.

This project is possible thanks to our generous donors. Can you help us continue?

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