Innovative mammal conservation
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
VWT has been working with partners in Spain to trial innovative methods of detecting the presence of European mink, a critically endangered mammal. ‘I’m learning to think like a European mink!’ I call out to Harry, who is close by on the river bank. We are on the banks of the Rio Ebro in northern Read More
27th January 2020
We were recently asked to write a guest blog for Scottish Invasive Species Initiative, after they caught a couple of polecat-ferrets in their mink traps. This blog is reproduced below. What is a polecat? The polecat is a native mustelid (member of the weasel family) and is closely related to the pine marten, stoat, weasel Read More
12th December 2019
As part of the launch of the new State of Nature report, VWT’s Hilary Macmillan reflects on how the fortunes of Britain’s carnivores have changed. For once we have an environmental good news story – thanks to Britain’s carnivores. In recent history, there was a very real danger of saying goodbye to a sizeable number Read More
12th October 2019
Rob Lucas reflects on his time as a Trustee with VWT. How did you first become involved with VWT? I met Vincent Weir briefly around 1980 when he came down to Slapton Ley Field Centre in Devon where I worked. He had come to see Johnny Birks, who was doing his PhD on American mink, Read More
2nd October 2019
Eurobats 24th Meeting of the Advisory Committee While we may be preoccupied with Brexit, our fellow species, especially highly mobile species like bats, have no such awareness of political boundaries and their effect on freedom of movement. All in all, there are 53 European bat species that are found across continental Europe (from the Caucasus Read More
7th May 2019
Having reached historic population lows by the end of the 19th century, the carnivores of Britain are for the most part enjoying a period of recovery. This recovery was reported in a paper published last month by Katie Sainsbury at the University of Exeter, on which VWT was a key collaborator. In particular, British mustelids have Read More
24th April 2019
My volunteer experience with Vincent Wildlife Trust’s (VWT) Pine Marten Recovery Project (PMRP) came about partly through my connection to Coed y Bont Community Woodland when it started in 2008. This is a community-led woodland project that has seen the creation and maintenance of a 25-hectare woodland site, complete with a picnic site and various Read More
4th April 2019
