A nest of arm-sized sticks built on a precipitous crag by an octogenarian conservationist dangling from a rope has enticed a pair of golden eagles back to the Highlands of Scotland. The eyrie handmade by Roy Dennis, a renowned conservationist who has masterminded the revival of endangered species across Britain, helped the eagles successfully fledge […]
With all the disturbing stories in the news about extreme weather events, global politics and human rights abuses, it’s easy to overlook that there is also a lot of good happening in the world. One such area is in conservation, where we are seeing a number of great success stories. Here are just four cases […]
It is known as the Dutch Serengeti, a bold project to rewild a vast tract of land east of Amsterdam. But a unique nature reserve where red deer, horses and cattle roam free on low-lying marsh reclaimed from the sea has been savaged by an official report after thousands of animals starved. In a blow […]
To some it is a roe deer that eats meat: an adaptable animal capable of living peaceably alongside humans. To others it is a demonic killing machine that ruins farmers – and whose presence is a symbol of the city’s contempt for rural life. The wolf is on the rise in Europe. This winter it […]
For the first time in 400 years, beavers will be reintroduced to the Forest of Dean in a major trial project. Two adult beavers and two juveniles — known as kits — will be released into a 6.5 hectare enclosure in Lydbrook, England. This may be the first of several such rewilding schemes, as the […]
For anyone raised on Grimms’ fairytales – or wary of cows, hostile-looking geese – there have always been certain obvious difficulties with ambitious rewilding campaigns. Reintroducing beavers is one thing. Boars: maybe. But among the more appealing aspects of life in Britain, for the nervous, is the relative certainty of never encountering a wolf pack. […]
It’s a tableau reminiscent of First World War entrenchments, a narrow strip of land with North Korean and South Korean soldiers, tanks, and barbed wire lining each side. Said strip is about four kilometers across and 250 kilometers long, and neatly cuts the Korean Peninsula in two. It was formed in peace talks after the […]
The extraordinary ability of eager beavers to engineer degraded land into wildlife-rich wetlands has been revealed by a new study in Scotland. Scientists studied the work of a group of four re-introduced beavers over a decade and found their water engineering prowess created almost 200m of dams, 500m of canals and an acre of ponds. […]