Hundreds of endangered frogs have survived after reintroduction to the wild in Victoria
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The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘It's spectacular': volunteer Dorset divers see summer of surging seahorses
The divers emerged from the water smiling with satisfaction. They had found what they were looking for in the undersea meadows off the south coast of England. 'Seahorses are tricky to spot,' said Mark Fox. 'The seagrass sways and they blend into it pretty well. It helps if it's sunny and not too choppy but you have to get your eye in. When you see them, it's brilliant.' Fox is one of a band of volunteers (he is a semi-retired painter and decorator) helping survey the creatures that live in Studland Bay. Over the last two decades conservationists have worked hard to make conditions in the Dorset bay better for the seagrass – and thus the seahorses – including introducing almost 100 'eco moorings' that do not harm the habitat. Coming across a seahorse here used to be a rare event but this summer the divers have seen a surge in numbers, with 33 seahorses counted in one survey. 'It's spectacular to see so many seahorses here,' said Ken Collins, an emeritus fellow at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in Southampton. Collins has worked on globally important projects such as helping protect the water around the Galápagos Islands but is now a key member of the volunteer team monitoring the seahorses for the charity the Seahorse Trust. Studland Bay is a key spot in the UK for two species, the spiny seahorse and the short-snouted seahorse. The trust launched the Studland Seahorse Project in 2008 to try to boost help boost numbers and in 2019 the bay was designated a marine conservation zone. But a problem for the seagrass and seahorses is that the bay is also a fine area for boats to shelter in. 'And anchors tear out the roots of seagrass,' said Collins. 'It takes years to grow back.' Collins said there had been tension over the years with 'anti-conservationists', some with 'Trump-like views', who seemed to think the champions of the seahorses were intent on driving the boaters away. Relations have improved since the Studland Bay Marine Partnership was created in 2021, consisting of the Seahorse Trust, academics, boating organisations, community groups and local businesses. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion Funds were provided from the UK government and a Hampshire company that runs marinas, Boatfolk, to help set up 87 eco moorings, which are attached to the Studland Bay seabed without scouring it. Bare patches in the seagrass are starting to grow back. 'It's a long process but we're getting there,' said Collins. This week the survey team set up camp on a picnic bench at Joe's Cafe on South Beach before their dive. Volunteers, including a builder, a student and a usually desk-bound marine habitat project manager, hauled on wetsuits and scuba gear. Collins, not as young as he was, was not too proud to ask one of the younger divers to help zip him into his wetsuit. Jenny Mallinson, who used to run the aquarium at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, briefed the divers: when you spot a seahorse, don't take your eye off it or you will lose it; take a picture of the whole body so that the team can later try to identify if it is male or female; most importantly, don't distress the seahorses – if their colour darkens or they turn away, it's a sign that they are not happy and you should move away. Over the next three and half hours, three pairs of divers combed the seagrass, which lies about 100 metres out and 2 metres down and reported back to Mallinson. The total wasn't as dramatic as earlier this month but they saw seven, all spiny seahorses. Neil Garrick-Maidment, the executive director and founder of the Seahorse Trust, said they used to be pleased to spot one or two seahorses and often found none. 'Seven is brilliant. It is fantastic to start seeing seahorses back in Studland Bay. It has been an incredible team effort.'
Times
5 hours ago
- Times
How the UK's rarest bat species are staging a comeback
In a dark network of tunnels in West Sussex you'll find a pair of greater mouse-eared bats. By all rights, these large bats shouldn't be there. One of 18 bat species found in the UK, the greater mouse-eared was thought to have been pushed to extinction in Britain during the 1980s. However, one male was found in the disused railway tunnels in 2002, leading him to be called the UK's loneliest bat. Assuming he was still alive — they can live for 35 years — he became a bit less lonely when a second was spotted and the known population doubled. In January it became practically a party, when conservationists were delighted to find a third at an undisclosed location in Sussex. Even better, it was an adult breeding female. In ecologists' parlance, the foothold is still so fragile that the greater mouse-eared is considered a 'vagrant' rather than a 'resident' British species. However, Daniel Whitby, a bat conservationist, said the third offered huge hope. 'It does indicate some tiny residual population that could have clung on, just a few individuals, and there could be something here,' he said. The greater mouse-eared is one of several bats showing potential to become that most critically endangered of species: a conservation good news story. Not all of the 18 bat species are monitored well enough to tell how they are doing. But for those that are, the populations of five have increased since 1999, and six remained stable. Just last week there was welcome news for the second-rarest species, the grey long-eared bat. Down to about a thousand individuals nationally, the droppings of one was found in Kent, the first evidence of the species in the county for four decades. However, the bat may simply have been a migrant that strayed over from Sussex, which Whitby said would not be surprising given the males of the species are known to wander far. 'What would be really interesting, a real success story, is if it's a breeding colony [in Kent],' he said. The health of the grey long-eared is far from a tale of unalloyed happiness. In recent years the only known breeding colony in Sussex, in the Petworth area, was destroyed by builders. 'The [Sussex] population, if anything, has probably gone down,' Whitby said. Some rare species have benefited from a helping hand. The greater horseshoe, which is about the size of a small pear and whose numbers crashed 90 per cent in the last 100 years, declined largely owing to timber insecticide treatments wiping out its food. However, there are about 13,000 today, up from a low of roughly 4,000 in the 1980s. Their stronghold is southwest England and south Wales but, aided by projects such as Vincent Wildlife Trust's Horseshoes Heading East, their numbers are growing further east too. Though there have always been some in Sussex, in the past 14 years Whitby and other experts including Scotty Dodd discovered several roosts in the county. In some cases they installed heaters, or incubators, to increase the chances of healthy pups being born. Strict planning laws, habitat protection, bat-friendly modifications to buildings and a reduction in the use of toxic chemicals are aiding bats too. Ryan Greaves runs bat safaris at the Knepp estate in West Sussex, where rewilding efforts have increased the number of species from five to 13, including rare Bechstein's bat and barbastelles. He was part of a project with the Sussex Bat Group that bought up a building home to greater horseshoes in the village of Lodsworth, to save it from being sold off for development or knocked down. Volunteers at Vincent Wildlife Trust making roosting boxes and pots to go inside DANIEL HARGREAVES DANIEL HARGREAVES • Why the Knepp rewilding project is truly magical Bats are harder to detect, monitor and count than birds, but technology is helping. Whitby used ultrasonic lures to call Bechstein's bats for the first national survey of the species two decades ago, discovering seven colonies in one summer. A citizen science project in Chichester used detectors in people's gardens to detect the ultrasonic chattering of rare bat visitors. The nascent recoveries of some bat species are still tentative: 4 of 11 native British mammals at the most imminent risk of extinction are bats. And a bat renaissance is far from a foregone conclusion, with ministers accused of being 'nasty' to them with Labour's planning reforms and rhetoric about HS2's £100 million 'bat tunnel '. But there is hope that our bats may be a little less lonely in the future.
BBC News
a day ago
- BBC News
Plans to demolish 400-year-old Coventry building for new home
A historic building, parts of which are thought to be more than 400 years old, could be demolished to make way for a new have been submitted to the city council to knock down The Langleys, in Stoke Green, Coventry, which was built in property, most recently used as a care home, was put up for sale for £800,000 in 2023.A statement included in plans submitted by Warwickshire firm Agility Planning & Design Ltd said that once the property was demolished, a self-build house would be put in its place. The replacement building would be of "high-quality design" that would "potentially enhance the conservation", the heritage statement said."The existing building has had extensive alterations and much of the original features have been lost over time," it added."Although the historical age of the property dates to the 17th century, changes have been unsympathetic and diminished the overall quality and attractiveness of the heritage asset."The building, which is located near to the Joseph Levi Clock in the Stoke Green Conservation Area, has been considerably altered and extended prior to being opened as a care home in to the Coventry Society and Stoke Local History Group, owners Jeffrey Graham and his brother Leonard Rawnsley spent £30,000 converting the house into a retirement Graham said he had been told that the house was once known as The Bowling Green Inn, with historic records mentioning a Bowling Alley House at Stoke Green in 1641. This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which covers councils and other public service organisations. Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
