University of Brighton launches campus hedgehog survey
Survey works see students placing "tracking tunnels", which use ink pads and paper to log paw prints, across the university's campuses in Falmer, Moulsecoomb and the city centre.The results will then be used to decide where to target support based on where the hedgehogs are living on the university's grounds.Ms White added: "It's about making practical changes like creating safe spaces and removing hazards to reduce the impact campus life has on local wildlife."We're proud to take an active role in protecting local biodiversity and equipping our students with the tools to make a difference."Experts from The British Hedgehog Preservation Society said in October that population numbers across the UK had halved over the space of the last decade.Steps people can take to help hedgehogs in their own back gardens include leaving small holes in the bottom of fences to help them get around and giving them leaves and foliage to hide under.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
43 minutes ago
- BBC News
Saving China's finless porpoise from the brink of extinction
Chinese scientists are in a battle to save one of the last large animal species living in the Yangtze River – and a complete ban on fishing in the region is helping the Institute of Hydrobiology in Wuhan, just 5km (3.1 miles) from the banks of the river, the preserved bodies of the now-extinct river dolphin (baiji in Chinese) and paddle fish sit silently behind panes of glass."Now that those have become extinct, we're going to save the Yangtze river porpoise," Professor Wang Xi tells the BBC. "It has become the most important animal here."It was in 2002 that the last known baiji died, 22 years after researchers at the Institute started caring for it. A year later, the last known paddle fish - a type of ray-finned fish which can grow to more than 3 metres - was accidentally caught by fishermen and, despite being radio tagged and released, goal now is to stop the Yangtze finless river porpoise - 1,200 of which remain in the wild, according to current estimates – from suffering the same fate."It's the only top-level predator left in the river," Professor Wang explains. "They are rare and their numbers reflect the health of the entire system's ecology." The idea of a halt on all fishing was first conceived by Professor Cao Wenxuan from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2006, but it took a lot more pressure from fellow scientists before a full 10-year-ban finally came into force nearly five years by police, the ban carries potential prison time for those caught fishing right along the Yangtze, as well as adjacent lakes and tributaries. It's been hugely disruptive, and put 220,000 fishermen out of the finless porpoise, which belongs to the oldest living branch of the porpoise family tree, remains critically endangered the BBC was shown at the Institute are being held in captivity to be studied by CAS. They can be seen from above the water or below, after taking the stairs down beside a deep tank where the observation area is scientists say they get excited in the company of humans, and they certainly appear to be showing off: racing through the water and swimming at speed, close to the glass with people on the other side. Swimming past, they seem to look at you with a mischievous the wild, they are still hanging on where other species could construction of the main part of Three Gorges Dam in 2006 didn't directly impact the finless porpoise, which don't have to go upstream to spawn, although it did affect the fish they eat. For other large marine animals, like the paddle fish or the Chinese sturgeon, the structure was Ding, a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), who specialises in cetaceans like the finless porpoise, has dedicated his life to preserving the health of the Yangtze. He can see the good and the bad with these dams – and recalls how things used to be."Every flood season we'd have to organise a team with strong muscles, using many men, to go to sleep on the bank of the river, just in case a flood came," he says. "Then, if the flood hit, everyone would do their best to try to keep the levy banks solid, to make sure they were not broken by the dangerous rushing water."Now, he says, the Three Gorges Dam mitigates against the Professor Wang points out, however, this massive, river-blocking structure also prevents the Yangtze's giant sturgeons from reaching their spawning the endangered fish had briefly seemed to find an alternative location, he says, this is no longer the case - and these days sturgeons are only in the river because researchers are pouring them in, 10,000 at a time. Despite over a million captive-bred sturgeon being released into the Yangtze last year, attempts to boost the population have been unsuccessful, as the fish are not reproducing by themselves in the the finless porpoise doesn't end up like this, Professor Wang and other scientists are hoping that the current complete fishing ban will continue after the initial 10 years is research, published in the Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, records a drastic increase in fish numbers since the ban came into effect in threat to the finless porpoise, however, might be harder to Xi pointed out that "ships are very dangerous for animal's brains because they are very noisy".This is said to produce a form of underwater noise pollution which distresses the scientists think that the sound from ships may have contributed to the demise of the Yangtze's baiji river dolphins, which used sonar to it's one thing to ban fishing - it would be quite another to completely stop the busy river traffic which delivers passengers as well as goods, and provides lifeblood for much of central China's achievable was forcing factories which produce chemicals to move away from the Yangtze. Thousands of these have been shut down or relocated over the past decade, in a move that is said to have significantly improved the river's water has also been community involvement in the porpoise preservation push. After retirement, Yang He took up amateur photography. Now, he says, he goes to the river every day with his camera equipment trying to spot the he gets some good shots he forwards them to the scientists, who say he's doing a better job than almost anyone tracking their Yang says he once saw a porpoise in distress which had been caught in some netting. He notified the local authorities, who shut down that section of river to all shipping until it could be rescued – and it turned out the soon-to-be freed porpoise was pregnant. He felt pretty good about that, he is the porpoise numbers, however, that tell the most convincing the 1990s there were 3,300 finless porpoises in the wild. By 2006 this had the fishing bans came in, the factories were moved and the decline stopped. Not only that, but over the last five years of records, porpoise numbers have gone up by nearly a are proud of these numbers – and the implications they hold for the health of the environment more broadly."We're saving the finless porpoise to save the Yangtze River," says Wang Ding. "This is like a great mirror, to have an idea how well we have been doing protecting this ecosystem."If the porpoises are doing fine, if their numbers are increasing, this means the ecological health of the whole river is also improving."
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Scientists invent ‘superfood' they hope will save honeybees and boost global food security
Scientists have devised a food supplement for bees that they say will have a wide-reaching effect on global food security. The experts say the yeast strain will help honeybees live longer as intensive farming and the climate crisis rob the insects of flowers and pollen. It is hoped the breakthrough will stem the decline in populations of wild bees, which are important pollinators. They help contribute to the production of at least 70 per cent of major global crops such as almonds, apples and cherries. But severe declines – caused by nutrient deficiencies, climate change, mite infestations, viral diseases and pesticides – pose a significant threat to food security and biodiversity. The scientists in Oxford genetically engineered a strain of yeast called Yarrowia lipolytica to produce vital nutrients called sterols that are absent in the artificial pollen substitutes that beekeepers use. Commercial supplements, made of protein flour, sugars and oils, lack the right sterol compounds. After a three-month trial, the scientists found the colonies fed with the sterol-enriched yeast had reared up to 15 times more larvae to the viable pupal stage, compared with colonies fed controlled diets, and reared brood for significantly longer. 'The use of this method to incorporate sterol supplements into pollen substitutes will enable honeybee colonies to produce brood in the absence of floral pollen,' they wrote in the journal Nature. 'Optimised diets created using this yeast strain could also reduce competition between bee species for access to natural floral resources and stem the decline in wild bee populations.' The yeast diet provides honeybees with all the nutrients, in six sterols, that they need to survive, the researchers concluded. Lead author Elynor Moore said: 'For bees, the difference between the sterol-enriched diet and conventional bee feeds would be comparable to the difference for humans between eating balanced, nutritionally complete meals and eating meals missing essential nutrients like essential fatty acids. 'Using precision fermentation, we are now able to provide bees with a tailor-made feed that is nutritionally complete at the molecular level.' Sterols are hard to reproduce, so the experts who spent 15 years developing them said the success of the trials was a huge accomplishment. They say further large-scale field trials are needed to assess long-term effects on colony health and pollination efficacy, but that potentially the supplement could be available to farmers within two years.
The Sun
3 hours ago
- The Sun
Thousands of RAF air cadets will be offered training to be drone pilots
THOUSANDS of RAF Air Cadets are to offered training to be drone pilots. Around 40,000 will have the chance to get qualified, in a move designed to boost job prospects in science and engineering while spotting future pilots. Courses recognised by the Civil Aviation Authority will be offered to all existing cadets. Alex Williamson, the head of Air Cadets drone training, said pupils that reach the top level would 'be able to walk straight into a job in industry'. Around a third of RAF cadets go on to careers in the military. Cadet Corporal Charlie Stewart, 15, said he now wants to be an RAF drone pilot after the training. He said: 'If we're going to be the best military, we're going to need the best drone pilots.' It comes as the Government has pledged £70million to recruit another 40,000 cadets across the RAF, Army and Navy over the next five years. It plans to increase total cadet numbers to 182,000 by 2030 to boost recruitment and links between the military and society. At the National Air & Space Camp in RAF Syerston, Newark, yesterday, veterans minister Al Carns said: 'The cadets provides children with experiences and opportunities, everything from leadership, Stem skills, teamwork, discipline, boundaries and principles. 'It's about preparing children for the challenges of later life." 1
