Our woodlands are a key tool in the box when addressing climate change for their carbon storage potential, but are less well known for their potential to limit flooding events, with wet woodlands providing a great service in slowing the flow of water downstream after extreme rain events.
Known for its bandit-like appearance, the polecat was once so persecuted it was on the brink of extinction in the UK. Thankfully, numbers are now increasing in rural Wales and parts of England.
Weasels may look adorable, but they make light work of eating voles, mice and birds! They are related to otters and stoats, which is obvious thanks to their long slender bodies and short legs.
The stoat is a small mustelid, related to the weasel and otter. It has an orange body, black-tipped tail and distinctive bounding gait. Spot it on grassland, heaths and in woodlands across the UK.
Escaped or intentionally freed from fur farms in the 1960s, the American mink is now well established in the UK. Its carnivorous nature is a threat to our native water vole and seabird populations.
The sinuous otter is an excellent swimmer and can be seen hunting in wetlands, rivers and along the coast - try the west coast of Scotland, West Wales, the West Country or East Anglia for the best views.
Badgers are the UK’s largest land predator and are one of the most well-known British species. They are famed for their black and white stripes and sturdy body, using their strong front paws to dig for food and to perfect their hobbit-like burrows, called ‘setts’.
The green spaces of our towns and gardens bring nature into our daily lives, brightening our mornings with birdsong and the busy buzzing of bees. Together, the UK's gardens are larger than all of our National Nature Reserves combined, making them as important for wildlife as they are for our own wellbeing.
Heathlands form some of the wildest landscapes in the lowlands, where agriculture and development jostle for space, containing and limiting natural processes. Once considered as waste land of little value, lowland heathland is now appreciated and protected for its unique wildlife and austere beauty.
These wild, open landscapes stretch over large areas and are most often found in uplands. Although slow to awaken in spring, by late summer heathland can be an eye-catching purple haze of heather.
