Innovative mammal conservation

twitter facebook instagram linkedin youtube vimeo

Blog

Mustelids, Mostelas…and lots of mice – Volunteer Blog

Having never seen a weasel or stoat for more than a few seconds at the most and, also never having captured one with a trail camera, VWT Volunteers’ newsletter about ‘Mostelas’ was very intriguing. Following a quick email exchange with Laura, Volunteering and Community Engagement Officer at VWT, I soon had the plans to make Read More

26th January 2022

My work placement with VWT

I am a PhD student at Durham University and I work with the citizen science project MammalWeb to better understand how we can use camera traps to monitor wild mammals and engage members of the public in the process. I am enjoying my studies but unfortunately, as I am in the final year, I am Read More

15th December 2021

Building up a picture of weasels and stoats

Why weasels and stoats? Despite their undeniably charismatic appeal, small mustelids like weasels and stoats, are some of our least studied mammals. In part, this is because they are notoriously challenging to study, and populations have historically not been of conservation concern. However, whilst both species are considered to be widespread and common in Britain, Read More

9th November 2021

Encouraging signs from our greater horseshoe bat population

Although times have been difficult over the last 18 months and we’ve all had to adapt our working lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s good to see that greater horseshoe bats are still showing encouraging signs of population recovery. During July 2020, we documented record bat numbers at four of our six greater horseshoe bat Read More

7th September 2021

First evidence of Welsh pine marten kits in 2021 – Volunteer Blog

For many years my wife and I had walked regularly in local woodlands enjoying the spring carpets of bluebells, the autumn crunch of beech nuts under foot, the scamper of squirrels and the cheerful chatter of birds in the treetops. ‘I wonder if there are otters here?’ we would muse. ‘That’s a big hole – Read More

5th July 2021

The return of pine martens

It is more than five years since I drove from Scotland to a vast expanse of woodland in mid-Wales with a precious cargo of four pine martens − of varying temperaments! Feeding blueberries to a pine marten in the car park of a service station on the M6 is something I will always remember. This Read More

12th April 2021

A new way to volunteer at VWT’s bat reserves

In recent years, volunteers have played a vital and ever-increasing role in Vincent Wildlife Trust’s mammal conservation efforts. When it comes to our pine marten projects, volunteers have contributed thousands of hours of their time: walking forest tracks looking for evidence of marten presence in the form of scats; maintaining camera traps and trawling through Read More

15th March 2021

Volunteering in the time of COVID

Last year, 2020, started off like any other year but all outdoor work suddenly ceased in mid-March when COVID-19 restrictions were enforced and lockdown began. All planned work for the spring months had to be cancelled and my highly anticipated season of field work was in fact spent indoors working on spreadsheets. Although these jobs Read More

24th February 2021

Leaving VWT – thoughts of a Trustee

Sally Ford-Hutchinson shares her thoughts about her time as the Vice Chair of VWT’s Board of Trustees. During my career in advertising and market research, I have always been involved in voluntary work for the professional organisations; it was always about giving back. I arrived at a point in my life when I thought I Read More

10th February 2021

My time with Vincent Wildlife Trust as a Trustee

Matt Norman reflects on his time as a Trustee with VWT. In 2010 I spotted an advert online placed by a charity seeking a new Trustee with investment experience. There soon followed a cup of coffee with the CEO and Chairman, a meeting with the remaining Trustees to see if there was a fit…and before Read More

26th January 2021
3-4 Bronsil Courtyard, Eastnor, Ledbury, Herefordshire HR8 1EP
01531 636441 | enquiries@vwt.org.uk