Surveys

‘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, …

The National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme (NHMP) is an exciting new project aiming to calculate robust population estimates for hedgehogs. The project officially launched at the end of March 2024 and the pilot phase is currently running for three years, until May 2026. We started our first surveys last year (2023) and are looking forward to …

The first mammals made an appearance around the start of the dinosaurs’ heyday, 200 million years ago. Then (as now), most dinosaurs were diurnal (active during the day) and keeping out from under their feet was probably a smart move. So, mammals adopted an alternative lifestyle, busying themselves at night. Goats town For a lot …

Help is needed across the country to protect Britain’s fastest declining mammal, before it’s too late Wildlife conservation charity People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) is calling for volunteers in all corners of England, Scotland and Wales to survey endangered water voles, whose populations have plummeted by a staggering 90% since the 1970s. Despite being …

A pioneering new three-year pilot project – the National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme (NHMP) – has been launched. For the first time, this will enable robust estimates of hedgehog populations in different habitats across the country, show how these are changing year on year, and, in time, give a national estimate of Britain’s hedgehog population. The …

This spring, leading wildlife conservation charity People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) is calling for volunteers across the UK to take part in its popular annual Living with Mammals survey, in a bid to track changes in our wildlife. ­Volunteers are needed to record sightings of any wild mammals they see each week in their …

Charity calls for help recording endangered wildlife in gardens and on local riverbanks This spring, leading wildlife conservation charity People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) is calling for volunteers across the UK to take part in their annual spring surveys in a bid to help endangered wildlife and the habitats they call home. From March …

Veronica and John‘s medium-sized suburban garden is about two miles outside a city in the north of England. ‘We read a lot about the importance of gardens as potential spaces for wildlife to flourish, so we decided to join the Living with Mammals survey. That was in 2006, and we’ve been going ever since.’ Fifteen-year-old …

One of the most useful things to be able to do is predict the future. This is made easier, of course, when the future repeats itself, when spring follows winter, follows autumn, follows summer, follows spring, and lots of animals are adept at predicting future circumstances. You might remember Paul the Octopus who successfully predicted …

The annual Mammals on Roads survey underpins wildlife conservation, and can be done on a smartphone Wildlife charity People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) is calling for volunteers to record any sightings of roadkill via a free app, in a bid to aid wildlife conservation. From late August onwards, families, friends or colleagues travelling by …

Moles get an unfair press. As part of our native fauna, there’s a lot to be said for moles, and molehills are more useful than you might imagine… Moles (Talpa europaea) are a common insectivore, akin to hedgehogs and shrews, living an almost entirely subterranean existence. Perennial stories of the mole population ‘exploding’ usually originate …

…the barks, screams, snorts, and chatter of our wild neighbours, says David Wembridge In the roundup of local crime figures in St Elwick’s Neighbourhood Association Newsletter Podcast, Mike Wozniak reports a case of mistaken identity: ‘On the night of the twelfth, at about two AM, police received several reports of a fight between an old …