Innovative mammal conservation
It’s 3am on a Monday morning in June 2019 and I’m perched on a box in the cold dark of a small room, grateful for the many items of branded clothing I’d been issued with when I joined Vincent Wildlife Trust (VWT). I’m wearing them all now…and still I’m cold. I’m also struggling to keep Read More
24th October 2020
Thanks to funding from the National Lottery, VWT’s Back from the Brink (BftB) Pine Marten Project is facilitating and monitoring the natural recovery of the pine marten as it moves over the border from Scotland into northern England. Working with volunteers, landowners and land managers, we are surveying woodlands in Northumberland and Cumbria to collect Read More
19th August 2020
VWT in Ireland undertakes what you might call a soul-searching exercise in the first quarter of every year. This has nothing to do with setting New Year’s resolutions but relates to our completing an annual application form to join the Irish Environmental Network (IEN). The IEN is an umbrella network that supports Irish environmental NGOs Read More
27th July 2020
We are well aware that driving our cars around, perhaps in pre-Covid-19 times, can have negative effects on the environment by increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, reducing air quality, and increasing the likelihood of pollution in waterways; all of which can have significant effects on human health, but what about impacts Read More
14th July 2020
As conservationists, we often have to make important decisions in our work about what management actions to undertake – from putting up nest boxes to total habitat restoration. To do this correctly, we need to gather a wealth of information such as local site conditions, resource and policy constraints, and any past experience. We also Read More
29th June 2020
The European mink is the rarest terrestrial carnivore in Europe and is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Once widely distributed across Europe (but never present in Britain or Ireland), European mink now persist only in isolated fragments of its former range: in northwestern Spain and southwestern France, the Read More
16th June 2020
It is well known that bats are unique amongst mammals. Their ability to fly has allowed them to establish themselves in most continents and habitats, with the exception of Antarctica. Bats have also evolved a distinctive ability among land mammals to use echolocation as a tool for orientation. Both adaptations have allowed them to take Read More
29th May 2020
Update March 2022: Please note that volunteer opportunities to get involved with this barbastelle research have now ended. Please take a look at our Volunteer page for current opportunities. In summer 2019, I started my PhD at Sussex University in collaboration with Vincent Wildlife Trust, to study one of Britain’s rarest mammals, the barbastelle. Considered Read More
19th May 2020
I was just a few weeks into my Master’s degree in Ecological Management and Conservation Biology at Queen’s University Belfast when we were advised to start thinking about our work placement for the following summer. After class, I decided to call Kate McAney, Head of Conservation Development for Vincent Wildlife Trust in Ireland, to see Read More
7th May 2020
I am at the edge of a small mixed woodland in Herefordshire with Lizzie Croose, Vincent Wildlife Trust’s Senior Carnivore Conservation Officer. We are experimenting with a Mostela. This is a small wooden box with a plastic drainpipe tunnel running through it and a trail camera inside. The camera is set to video and focused Read More
24th April 2020