Wildlife

Book Review – The Lives of Bats: A Natural History

The Lives of Bats is part of Princeton University Press’s series The Lives of the Natural World that has grown to 14 volumes. Technically speaking, it is designed and produced by UniPress Books, which I have described elsewhere as the spiritual successor of Ivy Press and which is similarly known for producing good-looking books. As with the other volumes, this one is chock-a-block with full-colour photos, to the point that you would be hard-pressed to find a single page of plain text. It follows the same formula as other volumes, ending each chapter with a short species gallery that profiles four or five relevant or noteworthy species.

Professor of biology DeeAnn M. Reeder’s research programme encompasses physiology, immunology, disease ecology, behaviour, evolution, and conservation, and bats are often her model organism of choice. She is only all too aware of the dislike and fear that bats instil, especially as reservoir hosts of diseases, so an important focus of this book is to demystify and (if that is even a word) de-demonise bats by giving a factual and up-to-date primer on their biology. After a brief introduction, Reeder picks seven topics—evolution, anatomy, echolocation, diet, thermoregulation, reproduction, and disease—before ending with a chapter on past and present interactions between bats and humans.

If there is a unifying theme to this book, it is how much the biology of bats is shaped by the demands of flight. Anatomical adaptations are the first to come to mind, from the ankle spur (a calcar) that supports the wing membrane between the hind limbs (the uropatagium), to the five extra muscles that control the tautness and curvature of the wing membrane. Reeder’s favourite overlooked adaptation is the hind limbs that are rotated 180°, meaning the soles of the feet face forward and the knees bend backwards compared to other mammals.

The demands of flight extend far beyond anatomy, though. To conserve energy, bats can go into torpor, lowering their metabolic rate and body temperature. This can be as brief as a few hours or be extended for weeks on end, at which point we call it hibernation. Like humans, bats generate their own body heat (endothermy), but unlike us, they can conserve energy by allowing their body temperature to track the environmental temperature (heterothermy) while we maintain a steady body temperature (homeothermy). The need for energy conservation even impacts their reproduction. Bat pups are huge compared to their parents, meaning pregnancy is energetically costly on two fronts: foetal development takes energy, but so does flying around with all that extra mass. To make sure birth coincides with peak food availability, female bats can store sperm (a well-known trait in many organisms) but also slow down or even pause (!) foetal development.

Reeder features many other notable traits, adding an extra layer of information to the basic facts that will be rattling around in most people’s heads. Sure, bats echolocate, but what I did not realise is that some groups emit sound out of their mouth and others out of their nose. The family Pteropodidae, the fruit bats, have lost echolocation (fruit tends not to move), yet some species have secondarily re-evolved it, relying on wing-clapping or tongue-clicking to help them navigate their cave roosts. And where many bats issue a call and then listen out for the echo, some bats do not separate the two in time but in frequency, calling at a different frequency than the echoes return at. This nifty feat of sensory biology allows them to produce sound while simultaneously receiving and interpreting the incoming echoes.

I also came away from this book with a much better appreciation of the family Phyllostomidae. When the University of Chicago Press published a book dedicated to this family in 2020, I was admittedly nonplussed: what is so special about them? The incredible diversity of their diet. This family includes carnivorous bats dining on small reptiles, birds, and mammals. It includes the three species of vampire bat whose sanguivorous habits have become the stuff of legend. More relevant but less appreciated is that, by eating fruit, pollen, and nectar, they are important pollinators, including of many cacti and important crops.

Reeder is at her most strident when it comes to the role of bats in diseases, including COVID-19. Yes, bats harbour viruses and other pathogens that impact public health, but spillovers are a human problem caused by our relentless destruction of wildlife habitat. We should be wary of “the sometimes sensationalistic portrayal of bats, writ large, as hosts of deadly viruses” (p. 250); the same can be said of many other animal groups, including primates, rodents, and birds. Reeder is a proponent of the One Health framework that recognises that you cannot tackle human, animal, and ecosystem health in isolation because they are all interconnected.

Given the format and aim of this series, Reeder only has the space to go so deep on these and other topics. However, as with the book I reviewed previously, this is not just a regurgitation of popular information. You can tell this is written by a specialist in her field who is carefully weighing up how much information to give you and how much to hold back. The resources section recommends some of the many technical books if you want to read deeper, plus a two-page reference section to journal articles, including studies up to 2023 and 2024.

Bats are particularly photogenic, and the editorial team at UniPress Books has scoured several stock photo libraries, as well as the work of numerous individual photographers, credited in the back of the book. There are memorable photos here while a small number of neat infographics are contributed by illustrator Sarah Skeate.

The Lives of Bats continues the series’ successful formula: challenge one or two subject experts to write an accessible introduction that can serve multiple audiences. For novices, this is a great first stop on bats that will give you a well-informed introduction to their unique biology (and equally, it is a book that you can safely gift them). However, the book is also rewarding for biologists who just happen to have studied other organisms but have a hankering for bats. I enjoyed The Lives of Bats more than I thought I would, and by the end, I felt it had subtly enriched my knowledge.

Dave Ellacott – Reserves Warden for Wild Planet Trust

NHBS has teamed up with the Wild Planet Trust as part of our ongoing commitment to support wildlife and conservation. We have donated over 30 habitat boxes alongside wildlife cameras for use both on their local reserves and zoo sites.

We recently had the opportunity to speak with Reserves Warden Dave Ellacott, who is responsible for both the Primely and Clennon reserves. This week, we chatted to him about the work of the trust, his plans for the donated boxes and what successes and challenges he faces in his work.

Firstly, can you tell us a little bit about Wild Planet Trust, what you do and how the organisation began?

Wild Planet Trust – previously called the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust – operates zoos, but we also manage nature reserves. I look after two of them: Primley and Clennon. Primley is what remains of the old garden and parkland that surrounded Primley House, the former estate of the Whitley family and residence of the zoo’s founder, Herbert Whitley. In 1995, the first warden was brought in to transform it into a local nature reserve and public open space. It’s been a popular spot for locals ever since. Clennon serves a slightly different purpose. For the most part, there is no public access. This allows us to safeguard the habitat from disturbances caused by human presence. However, Paignton Zoo’s Nature Trail, which zoo visitors can access, offers the public the opportunity to experience a small corner of this reserve, including our traditionally managed coppice woodland. Both reserves play their part in supporting local ecosystems while offering people genuinely rewarding places to connect with nature.

What are you hoping to achieve with the installation of our habitat boxes across your three nature reserves?

These sites already have considerable natural assets – caves, some magnificent veteran trees, and areas we deliberately leave undisturbed. The habitat boxes should provide those additional ecological niches that might otherwise be absent. It’s about creating opportunities for species that need very specific conditions for nesting or shelter. Every habitat has its gaps, and these installations should help fill some of those spaces. We’re curious to see what takes up residence and how it might shift the balance of wildlife we’re already supporting.

A large part of the work that Wild Planet Trust does is focused on educating the next generation on the natural world. Why do you think this is so important?

While education isn’t really my area – I’m more focused on the practical side of habitat management – I can see how these reserves function as living demonstrations of what healthy ecosystems actually look like. When families explore the Nature Trail at Clennon or spend time wandering Primley’s varied landscapes, they’re experiencing woodland, meadow, and wetland habitats firsthand rather than just reading about them. There’s something valuable in that direct encounter with nature that you simply can’t replicate in a classroom. People need to feel that connection before they truly understand why conservation matters.

What conservation challenges have you faced over the past few years?

Ash Dieback has been particularly challenging – it’s an ongoing process of assessment, removal, and replanting that’s fundamentally altered the character of our woodlands. You’re constantly weighing safety against habitat value and planning for a very different canopy structure than what was there before. Then there’s the perpetual balancing act between maintaining public access and protecting sensitive habitats – you want people to engage with these places without compromising their ecological integrity. But we’re increasingly seeing the impact from climate change too, which adds another layer of complexity. From gradual shifts in species behaviour and plant communities, to the sudden loss of our 230-year-old Lucombe oak in Primley during Storm Kathleen last year – we’re continuously having to adapt our management approaches while working within realistic resource constraints. All of this means being strategic about where you can make the most meaningful impact.

Halting species decline and preserving vital ecosystems is a key aspect of the work you do. Do you have a favourite success story that you can share with us?

The transformation of Primley’s meadowland over the past three decades is probably our most satisfying long-term achievement. It’s been a simple but persistent approach – removing the annual hay crop to gradually reduce soil fertility and allow a more diverse plant community to establish. What was once a rather monotonous sward dominated by aggressive grasses has evolved into diverse wildflower meadow. The change has been incremental but vital for native biodiversity, supporting insects, birds, and small mammals. It’s a perfect example of how patient, consistent management can restore ecosystems, even if the results take decades to fully appreciate.

Finally, are you working on any other conservation projects at the moment that we can hear about?

Maintaining what we have certainly keeps us occupied, but we’re also developing some thoughtful enhancement projects. We’re planning watercourse improvements across both sites – installing leaky dams and other features that should improve flood resilience while creating diverse wetland habitats. The Ash Dieback situation, while challenging, has also created opportunities to diversify our woodland structure with more resilient native species. We’re thinking carefully about connectivity too – how these reserves can better serve as stepping stones in the broader landscape for wildlife movement. It’s about working pragmatically with the challenges we face while looking for those opportunities to genuinely improve what we can offer.

This Week in Biodiversity News – 9th July 2025

Proposal to reintroduce Eurasian Lynx to Northumberland
A draft proposal for a trial reintroduction of Eurasian Lynx to Kielder Forest, Northumberland has been released by the Lynx UK Trust. The organisation ‘s previous application to reintroduce lynx to the same site in 2018 was rejected by then incumbent environment secretary Michael Gove. He cited the proposal’s failure to properly address the ‘social feasibility’ of reintroduction as reason for rejection. A trial release of lynx may be ecologically feasible but concerns relating to the potential of sheep predation persist. Tony Juniper of Natural England has stated that are introduction of lynx “should be looked at” but “we need more engagement to understand how communities that would be living with these animals would be able to continue with what they do”. Paul O’ Donohue, CEO of the Lynx UK Trust, believes that further attempts to engage farmers and stakeholders would be a waste of time, stating “sheep farmers will never change their position on lynx reintroduction, making more calls for more engagement utterly futile”. Meanwhile, Lynx for Scotland, a separate charitable organisation has coordinated a 100page report which seeks to address the concerns of farmers and other stakeholders, they hope to release a substantiated proposal in the future if social and ecological feasibility for lynx reintroduction can be established.

Environment

Peatland Protection
Danes Moss, a lowland raised bog on the outskirts of Macclesfield, is among the scarcest and most threatened habitats in the UK. The carbon storage capacity of the deep peat is invaluable and the open bogland hosts a biodiverse flora and fauna. With disregard to the habitat’s ecological significance, the peatland continues to be targeted as a site for housing development.

A recent planning application from Cheshire East Council has been withdrawn following a campaign from the Danes Moss Trust. CEC have cited ‘incompatibility with its climate and peatland policy’ as reason for the turnaround. The withdrawal has been positively received but campaigners and stakeholders remain braced for a revised proposal. If passed without amendment, ‘part 3’ of the proposed Planning and Infrastructure Bill could make it easier for developers to build on Sites of Special Scientific interest (SSSI) such as this.

Wet Farming

The Fens, Cambridgeshire was once Britain’s largest wetland and has been almost completely drained to facilitate traditional ‘dry’ agriculture and the growth of cereal crops. The Great Fen, between Peterborough and Huntington, represents part of a peatland restoration project within the Fen county and along with four other sites across Europe, has been selected for a wet farming or ‘paludiculture’ trial.
Under the project banner of ‘PaluWise’, the wet farming operation will run for four years under close monitoring. It aims to establish whether rewetted peatlands can be agriculturally productive whilst retaining the biodiversity and carbon storage capacity unique to wetlands.

Policy

UN Ocean Summit 2025
Representatives from nearly 200 countries met in Nice, France to discuss marine protection. The summit has culminated in fifty countries ratifying the High Seas Treaty, an international agreement to conserve and sustainably use high seas which lie outside of national jurisdiction. The fast tracking of the treaty has been welcomed as a positive development but significantly China and the US have not agreed to ratify.
Commitments made at the summit represent a small step in the right direction but silence from global superpowers and a litany of feeble sentiments like Emannuel Macron’s announcement that France will “limit” bottom trawling and seek to protect just 4% of its metropolitan waters- shows that we are a far cry from meeting marine protection targets.
A study from Dynamic Planet has suggested that 85 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) would need to be notified every day if there is any chance of meeting the 30 x 30 target (an agreement to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030). This figure increases with every passing day of inaction.

This Week in Biodiversity News – 2nd June 2025

Wildlife

Poole Harbour’s osprey pair have hatched their fourth chick of the year. The only breeding pair of ospreys on the South Coast have laid a clutch of four eggs for the second year running, and the Birds of Poole Harbour charity has announced that the final chick successfully hatched in the past week. In 2022, female CJ7 and male 002 became the first nesting pair on the south coast in 180 years as part of a reintroduction scheme.

Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) by Birds of Gilgit-Baltistan, via flickr.

Golden Eagles are spreading their range from southern Scotland into England. Around 50 Golden Eagles have been translocated across Scotland since 2018 in an attempt to save this species amidst major population decline. In the past 7 years, South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project (SSGEP) have successfully translocated 28 juveniles and 15 sub-adult golden eagles from the Scottish Highlands to the Scottish borders. Satellite tagging has revealed that a number of birds are beginning to venture into Northumberland, the North Pennines, the Lake District and even as far south as Lancashire and Yorkshire, offering hope for the future reintroduction of Golden Eagles into England.

Environment

Reservoir projects fast-tracked in an attempt to secure England’s water supplies. Two major new reservoirs in East Anglia and south Lincolnshire have been fast-tracked through the planning process as they are now declared as ‘nationally significant.’ As such, the final decisions for these projects will be taken by Environment Secretary Steve Reed, rather than at a local level, with the aim of securing water supplies for future generations. These stores would provide resilience to future droughts in particularly dry areas of the country where water demand is high, and may be completed by 2036 and 2040 respectively. The water industry has welcomed this announcement, but some communities are concerned about increased bills, as well as the potential clearing of homes and farmland to make way for the necessary infrastructure.

Howgill Fells by Robert J Heath, via flickr.

Areas of common ground in the Yorkshire Dales are being restored to their ancient glory. A groundbreaking tree-planting programme is uniting farmers and rewilders alike to bring species back to ‘ghost woodlands’. Howgill Fells had been heavily grazed for hundreds of years, but in just over a decade, an extensive rewilding project has planted 300,000 native trees across common land in 64 acres of sheep-free enclosures. Ecologist Mike Douglas recently conducted his first of four annual surveys monitoring birds in the enclosures. His results have revealed the presence of 11 new breeding bird species since his original survey in the early stages of the project in 2016, and numbers continue to increase year on year.

Policy

Labour have rejected a proposal to provide every new home with at least one swift brick to help endangered cavity-nesting birds. The proposed amendment to the governments Planning and Infrastructure bill requested that every developer provides a single £35 hollow brick for swifts, house martins, sparrows and starlings in every new build home. This was previously supported when it was tabled on Conversative government legislation in 2023, however the current Labour-dominated committee have now stated they are not convinced it is the right approach. A petition calling for these bricks to become mandatory has now reached 80,000, demonstrating the public’s concern on the matter.

Pacific Swift by Stuart Price, via flickr.

Nature-friendly farming fund to be cut in UK spending review. Labour initially promised £5 billion over two years for the post-Brexit farming fund, which will be honoured until 2026, however in the years following it will be slashed in line with wide-scale budget cuts. This nature-friendly initiative replaced the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy and rewards farmers for stewarding nature, soil, and other public goods, rather than solely for land ownership and cultivation. While DEFRA have stated they are planning a new scheme aimed at smaller farms, many larger-scale ones will miss out on these incentives.

#NoMowMay 2025

2025 marks the fifth year that NHBS has participated in Plantlife’s #NoMowMay campaign which encourages people across the UK to put away their lawnmowers and let their grass grow wild throughout the spring, with the aim of providing vital habitats for a wide range of species. As in previous years, we requested that the verges and lawns surrounding the premises be spared from mowing or strimming from late April and all through May to allow more plant species to flower.

We’ve seen good numbers of daisies, buttercups and Germander Speedwell alongside a handful of charming clover species including Red and White Clovers and Black and Spotted Medick. Ribwort Plantain, Common Vetch, Ox-eye Daisy and docks are adding height in places and a handful of common grass species are present and swaying nicely.

We do have one beautiful Common Spotted Orchid flowering now as June begins, though sadly, there’s not been returning Bee Orchids this year, for the first time while we’ve been participating in the campaign.

There’s been a fair few bees, wasps, flies and beetles visiting the flowers, though invertebrate activity all round has felt somewhat diminished from previous years. Through May we had scattered sightings of Orange-Tip, Peacock and Tortoiseshell butterflies, and now as June is arriving Meadow Browns have emerged.

#NoMowMay is a fantastic initiative by Plantlife that has highlighted the importance of giving wild plants places to thrive through a crucial stage in their lifecycles and therefore enrich and advance the opportunities for pollinator species, and the wider web of life that depends upon green spaces, including us humans. It’s vital that spaces are left wilder for longer than May, and to encourage this, Plantlife are encouraging the public to let their lawns or grassy areas continue to bloom through June (and again, ideally beyond) with #LetitbloomJune! We’re hopeful that our lawn will be left to flower throughout the summer too.

Outside NHBS at the beginning of June 2025

At NHBS we offer a large variety of books for learning more about habitat maintenance, the importance of species who rely on the restoration and reinvigoration of wilder spaces and many helpful field guides for identifying who’s growing in and visiting your local park or garden!

Suggested Reading

A Field Guide to Grasses, Sedges and Rushes
Spiralbound | April 2016
£13.99

Harrap’s Wild Flowers: A Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of Britain & Ireland
Paperback | February 2025
£20.00

Collins Wild Flower Guide: The Most Complete Guide to the Wild Flowers of Britain and Ireland
Paperback | June 2016
£24.99

The Book of Wilding: A Practical Guide to Rewilding Big and Small
Hardback | May 2023
£35.00

The Biodiversity Gardener Establishing a Legacy for the Natural World
Hardback | April 2023
£25.00

This Week in Biodiversity News – 19th May 2025

Wildlife

A mosquito-borne disease has spread to the UK and is now affecting wild bird populations. The deadly Usutu virus was first detected in southern Africa over half a century ago and spread to the UK in 2020. Blackbirds are specifically susceptible to the virus, with mass die-offs occurring as a result of the disease across Europe, and it has recently spread across the UK as far as Dorset and Cambridgeshire. Scientists are now monitoring the spread of the Usutu virus amid concerns that climate change may turn Europe into a breeding ground for its host species, mosquitoes, therefore exacerbating the reach of the disease.

Male blackbird (Turdus merula) perched on a branch by hedera.baltica, via flickr.

Scientists warn about numerous new threats affecting bee populations. A study from the University of Reading has highlighted that war zones, microplastic and air pollution are posing some of the greatest threats to our pollinators. An increase in worldwide conflict has forced countries to grow a smaller variety of agricultural crops, leaving pollinators without a diverse range of food sources throughout the year, whilst investigations into air pollution has revealed that is affecting the survival, reproduction and growth of our key pollinator species. Researchers also tested 315 honey bee colonies and found traces of microplastic contamination within most hives. Professor Simon Potts, the lead author of this report, stated that identifying these news threats and finding ways to protect pollinators early is the key to preventing further population decline.

Extinction risk

‘Vulnerable’ cockatoo species facing further habitat loss due to bushfires. Conservationists have warned that the planned burning of 13,000 hectares of forest in East Gippsland, Australia, may jeopardise declining Glossy Black Cockatoos populations. 64% of this species habitat was burned in the 2019-2020 black summer bushfires, resulting in the population becoming wholly dependent on the 48,000 hectares of unburnt coastal forest around Lake Tyers. Glossy Black Cockatoos feed almost exclusively on the cones of black sheoak trees, which are often subject to planned burning programmes. Australia’s biodiversity, wildlife, and habitat are currently under threat from bushfires, prompting ecologists and nature campaigners to highlight the urgent need for careful management, especially with Victoria’s cockatoo population now estimated at a mere 250.

Glossy Black Cockatoo by Merryjack, via flickr.

Welsh Celtic rainforests under threat. A 2024 survey investigating the ecology of Welsh rainforests has revealed that only 22% of the temperate rainforests found in this area are in ‘good’ condition, with many others under threat due non-native species, storms and inappropriate grazing of livestock. These rare habitats are only found in isolated areas across the world, including the Woodland Trust’s Coed Felenrhyd near Gwynedd, however it is vital that the remaining 33,024 hectares of rainforest left in Wales are protected. Natural Resources Wales manage seven Celtic rainforest reserves in the Meirionnydd area, and have now stated that these ‘exceptionally important sites’ need conservation and landscape scale management to ensure their preservation.

Climate change

The worlds coastlines are still in danger even if climate targets are met. Even if the world achieves the ambitious goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, researchers project that sea levels are still likely to rise by several meters. New investigations into how ice sheets respond to future climate changes suggest that even with stabilized global warming, this rise may not slow down. A major concern is that melting could accelerate past a viable ‘tipping point’ due to intensified warming from human activity, though scientists are yet to pinpoint this critical threshold. The consequences for coastal communities would be catastrophic, as approximately 230 million people currently live within one meter of high tide lines.

This Week in Biodiversity News – 5th May 2025

Wildlife

Captive-bred axolotls have successfully adapted to the wild, offering hope for the future of this critically endangered species who have been on the verge of extinction for nearly two decades. In an attempt to trial their reintroduction, scientists have recently conducted a study involving the release and monitoring of 18 captive-bred axolotls into Lake Xochimilco and its neighbouring artificial wetland. Volunteers tracked their movements for roughly 40 days, and the results of this study have revealed that not only have all 18 individuals survived, but those that were recaptured for monitoring have gained weight, suggesting they have successfully adopted natural hunting behaviours. Whilst this study has revealed that species reintroduction is a viable option, ecologist Luis Zambrano has stated the team’s first priority is to improve habitat conditions for axolotl’s already living in the wild.

Ambystoma mexicanum by Ruben Undheim, via flickr.

The only breeding pair of Ospey in southern England have laid four eggs for a second year running. The Osprey reintroduction programme began in Poole Harbour in 2017, and in 2022 female CJ7 and male 022 became the first nesting pair recorded on the south coast of England in 180 years. With the eggs expected to hatch at the end of the month, the Birds of Poole Harbour group have stated that a repeat of all four eggs successfully hatching would be a very promising outcome for their recolonisation, however every hatchling should be celebrated.

Science and Environment

A government grant from the Nature Restoration Fund is set to facilitate the eradication of American mink from the Outer Hebrides. Over 2,000 individuals have been captured since the Hebridean Mink Project began in 2001, and in 2018 it was thought that their population had been reduced to a level that was no longer functional. However, data has revealed that 20-30 mink are still trapped annually. The Scottish Government’s grant will enable the installation of more traps, ensuring the eradication of this invasive species from the islands and supporting the recovery of ground-nesting birds and other native wildlife.

American Mink Huron Wetland Management District South Dakota by USFWS Mountain-Prairie, via flickr.

Policy

Sandeel fishing ban remains in place in the North Sea. Sandeels are a vital source of food for a wide variety of the UK’s marine life and coastal sea birds, and in early 2024 English and Scottish authorities implemented trawling bans due to concerns about declining populations. The EU have now challenged this ban, arguing that the motion was ‘discriminatory,’ ‘disproportionate’ and could threaten commercial sandeel fishing in Denmark. Several key organisations including the RSPB and DEFRA have since advocated for the measure to remain in place, and judges have ruled that there is no legal obligation to reverse this order.

Sandeel in seabed by Crown Marine Scotland, via flickr.

Housing developers in England may be able to build on protected green spaces without needing to replace nature lost locally. The proposed Planning and Infrastructure bill could allow developers to pay into a fund for off-site habitat creation, potentially outside the local area, or even in a different county. While the Labour government aims to streamline development to meet housing targets, concerns are growing that this could harm poorer rural communities and lead to a “cash to trash nature” system, undermining local access to nature and potentially ignoring crucial environmental protection.

Pollution

UK is falling behind on its commitment to reduce microplastic pollution. Scientists have revealed that these pollutants continue to infiltrate our food sources, ecosystems and bodies. Researchers are now warning that the UK is falling behind both Europe and the US in the introduction of enforceable targets on microplastic in wastewater and drinking water. As a result of this, they are now encouraging ministers to develop a comprehensive approach to reduce plastic pollution, whilst also providing funding for vital research into safe microplastic exposure thresholds.

Author interview with Merlin Hanbury-Tenison: Our Oaken Bones

Haunted by war and loss, Merlin and his wife Lizzie leave the bustle of London and relocate to his childhood farm in Cornwall, only to find new battles awaiting them; crippling debt, a fragmented ancient rainforest, and Merlin’s father struck down by COVID-19. Drawn into the rainforest’s depths, they discover a desperate fight for survival, aiming to save this magical habitat while trying to heal from their own battles.

Merlin Hanbury-Tenison is a Cornish conservationist and veteran who founded The Thousand Year Trust, Britain’s rainforest charity. The charity’s mission is to catalyse the movement to triple Britain’s rainforest cover to one million acres in the next thirty years. His work has been featured in National Geographic, the Guardian and on the BBC. Merlin lives in a rainforest in Cornwall with his wife Lizzie, an entrepreneur and business leader, and their two young daughters.

We recently had the opportunity to speak to Merlin about his first book, including how he came to write it, how important he thinks species reintroductions are in Britain, which challenges he’s faced and more.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, and what inspired you to write Our Oaken Bones?

I was born and brought up on Bodmin Moor on a small upland hill farm with a slice of stunning and rare ancient Atlantic temperate rainforest at its heart. I left to join the army when I was 19 and served on three tours of Afghanistan. After returning, I began to suffer from complex PTSD and found the rainforest to be the best place to escape to and heal. At the same time my wife, Lizzie, was also suffering psychologically having gone through two traumatic miscarriages and my father had almost died from very severe Covid. All of us found the rainforest to be the best place possible to heal, restore and recover. I was inspired to write Our Oaken Bones as I want everyone to have access to the kind of healing that we experienced, and for all of us to use that knowledge to heal the rainforests of Britain in return. We used to be a rainforest island with 20% of our landmass covered by this beautiful habitat but almost 99% of it has been cut down and destroyed. I hope that Our Oaken Bones might act as a catalyst to ensure that this is the bottom of the bell curve and that we don’t destroy any more of this vital habitat. With every year that passes I hope that we will see more rainforests being restored and planted across our western uplands.

Merlin as a child high in the rainforest canopy, exploring with his father. — Merlin and his father in the rainforest as a child.

This book blends elements of biography, natural history, and scientific discussions to combine your personal journey with biodiversity and the pioneering research being undertaken at Cabilla. What motivated you to adopt this multi-faceted approach to writing?

We are all a part of nature, not apart from it – I am passionate about helping people to realise and remember this. It’s easy to say but much harder to feel. I thought that writing a book about trees would appeal to a small audience who are already interested in that subject. Writing a book about the people who live in, and are working to save these rainforests, felt like a subject that would be more engaging and would capture people’s interest. Rainforests are stunning, vital and rare. All I hope for is that people who didn’t even know that we have rainforests in the UK will read this book and finish it in love with the habitat and passionate about saving them. These are our most romantic and folkloric spaces, but many people are unaware of them or their decline. I hope that by weaving personal, historic and scientific narratives together we can shine a light on this important subject.

In Chapter 6, you detail your successful journey reintroducing beavers to Cabilla in 2020. How important do you think reintroducing native species to the UK will be in restoring our natural world, and are you hoping to introduce any other species to Cabilla?

I believe this is a vital area. We live on an island – if important native species are removed and new, non-native species are introduced the results can be catastrophic. This is well understood on islands like Australia and New Zealand, but in the UK, we seem to have a bit of a societal blind spot about it. Returning beavers to the Cabilla Valley has created the most wonderful explosion in biodiversity and habitat abundance. The change was near immediate and very evident. I believe that we can create similar improvements in the British countryside with the slow and careful return of other species, like Pine Martens and wild cats. This should never be rushed, and the most important focus area is ensuring that everyone in a catchment or a release area is on side and positive about the changes. This is all part of the effort to return to a more equilibrious state of British flora and fauna where species that evolved here are interacting in a more natural way together. It’ll be a very long process, multi-generational, but I’m positive that as long as we all remain optimistic we can restore much of what we’ve damaged and lost over the previous centuries.

There is often friction between conservationists and farmers in relation to the effects of livestock on landscapes, but I really enjoyed hearing about your work with farmers to create a blueprint for new farming methods focusing on ecological and economic benefits. How important do you think the shift from working against farmers, to working with them, in conserving our shared landscape will be?

This will all be impossible without the farming community. About 70% of the UK is farmland so we will never be able to combat climate change, restore biodiversity or bring back our rainforests if we don’t work closely and compassionately with farmers. This should never have been an issue historically and I believe it comes from a place of misunderstanding and poor communication. Conservationists and farmers should be the closest of collaborators and colleagues. We are all striving for the same goal; a Britain which provides food for all those who live in it, has an improving and resilient countryside and is full of some of the most stunning natural habitats on earth. Farmers are the key to making this happen and we can help them by ensuring that Government is providing them with the support and guidance to farm in a way that meets all these goals.

The Cabilla Cornwall Retreat offers a unique space for wellness groups, veterans, key workers and individuals to experience the wonders of nature. What are the key benefits of connecting with nature for well-being, and how does this align with the broader goals of the Thousand Year Project?

There is some simply stunning research underway which demonstrates how spending time in native rainforest environments can be beneficial for human psychological and physical health. I am a living example of this, as are many of my family. We have brought a large number of people into the Cabilla Valley as part of the retreat business here and the impacts have always been heart-warming and invigorating. We always do this work with a focus on the habitat first to ensure that we aren’t bringing people into the rainforest at the detriment of the habitat. This is very important. We are currently living through a mental health pandemic and an obesity crisis. There are many reasons for both of these issues and there are also many cures and methods to help alleviate them. The natural world, and rainforests in particular, are a key weapon in this fight. I would never claim that they might replace clinical or pharmacological healing, but we must begin to view all the options side by side and not in isolation. I have seen such marvellous healing impacts in the valley here and I believe that everyone in the UK, especially those who live in urban areas, should be encouraged and assisted in accessing nature as part of their general health and wellbeing.

Have you faced any significant challenges over the past few years that you can share with us?

So many! This would be another book in itself. Running a small business has been an adventure but I won’t pretend that it hasn’t been extremely difficult. The state of our economy and the environment for small business owners is pretty dreadful in the UK right now. When you add that Cabilla is a hospitality business set up during the Covid lockdowns and have then had to survive through all the financial conniptions that our country has been going through, it has resulted in many sleepless nights. Setting up a charity is also a very challenging undertaking and the ability to fundraise at the moment in the UK is particularly difficult. It took me over a year to convince the Charity Commission that we even have rainforests in the UK and that’s before we even entered into the treacle-like bureaucracy of the charity sector. Running a farm is also very challenging at the moment as we have departed the EU, therefore the subsidy systems are changing which has created a number of very difficult financial implications that we’re still trying to work through. This is all before I even come to the difficulty of reintroducing beavers and then keeping them in their government mandated enclosure – but there’s a whole chapter on that in the book, and I don’t want to spoil the fun here!

What do you hope other landowners can learn from the pioneering and vital work you’re doing?

My hope is that the Thousand Year Project that we have started in the Cabilla Valley will act as a blueprint for other interested farmers and landowners on the uplands who are looking to evolve and transition their farming techniques to one that works with nature rather than against it. We are a small farm and below the average farm size across the UK, so this isn’t some unachievable large-scale project that the average farmer wouldn’t be able to do. Everything that we have done here has been designed to not only repair biodiversity and the habitat but also to create a more resilient farming business model under the new subsidy and farm payments system. My hope is that others will take some of what we’ve done here and implement it on their own farms. This is how we will one day come to see rainforests across the uplands and once again view them as a bedrock of our cultural landscape.

Finally, what are your hopes for the future of Cabilla?

I would love to find a way to bring the valley into some form of public ownership so that the work that has begun here will be guaranteed and continue long after I have gone. The whole point of the Thousand Year Project was to create a multi-generational effort. This should be how all land strategy is viewed and conceived. I want my own children to feel free to do whatever they choose to with their lives in the knowledge that the rainforest restoration that we have begun at Cabilla will outlast all of us. I hope that this will become a national project that truly continues until our rainforests have returned across much of our uplands.

Our Oaken Bones is available from our online bookstore.

Author interview with Susan Young: Night Vision and Daylight Camera Systems for Wildlife

This comprehensive guide describes how wildlife can be monitored and recorded in a non-intrusive way using well-developed and reliable technology. Detailing key techniques for capturing high-quality footage of a range of species, from nocturnal mammals to elusive birds, this practical resource is ideal for both professional ecologists and amateur naturalists alike who are seeking to enhance their understanding of the natural world.

Susan Young is a photographer and writer based in South Devon, who has a wealth of experience in wildlife photography. She has authored several books, including CCTV for Wildlife Monitoring and Wildlife Photography Fieldcraft, and is currently carrying out research with Natural England, the Woodland Trust and Mammal Society on the use of remote cameras for wildlife monitoring.

We recently spoke to Susan about her latest book, where she explained how she first started working with visual systems, how ecological and wildlife-watching camera systems differentiate, and more.

Firstly, could you share a little bit about yourself and your background working with visual systems?

My background is in physics and engineering, but I have had a keen interest in wildlife from a very early age. Since moving to Devon some years ago, I developed my interest in photography and wrote several books on various technical topics. I used trail cameras before they became ‘famous’ and finding some aspects frustrating, moved to bird box cameras – I then became interested in using security cameras with separate recorders as they had more useful features.

In 2015/2016 I started as a volunteer with Natural England and the Woodland Trust where I was encouraged to develop my ideas for portable CCTV systems, which led to the discovery of three calls of Barbastelle Bats not previously recognised. Further work with dormice, otters, deer, small mammals and birds showed just how well the systems performed, being much richer in features than trail cameras and much less expensive than thermal systems.

Your previous book, CCTV for Wildlife Monitoring was published in 2016. What inspired you to revisit the topic for a second book, and what advancements or changes does your latest title encompass?

My book in 2016 was more of an introduction to CCTV technology, which was just taking off and becoming more readily available. Since then, the technology has advanced dramatically, with HD cameras giving very high-quality images, and recorders becoming available with solid state drives making them very portable.

There are many other features not found in other visual systems – in particular, security recorders have inbuilt video analysis which can be controlled by the user, greatly reducing the amount of video data to analyse. My book has detailed step-by-step instructions for all aspects of the night vision camera systems with the aim of flattening the learning curve.

Night Vision systems are commonly associated with ecological research and wildlife watching, how do the camera systems you describe differentiate from them?

The systems I describe have a raft of features, as described above, making analysis much easier. They can also be left outside unattended and are particularly useful for remote areas. They are also relatively low cost and portable.

Why did you feel that it was important to include a section on public engagement and education in this book?

Public engagement is important for raising awareness of the plight of our wildlife, as well as for attracting funding. High-quality videos from security camera systems, particularly of protected or rarely seen species, have proven successful. My book gives step-by-step instructions to encourage the use of this technology without the need for costly specialists.

Regarding schools, introducing children to technology at an early age makes use of the systems less daunting in later life.

Have you come across any emerging or under-utilised applications for this technology that you believe hold potential?

Many of the applications I have developed using my camera systems are new and I believe hold great potential. Because the systems can be set up and left for long periods, it means little or no disturbance to wildlife – for example monitoring breeding birds of prey in remote habitats, observing dormice behaviour in dormouse boxes, or surveying bats in hazardous environments.

Have you encountered any particularly memorable or exciting wildlife captures? Can you share any highlights from your experience?

On the conservation front, discovering new Barbastelle calls was very exciting, as was viewing previously unseen dormouse behaviour. On the naturalist level, filming four young Fallow Deer running round and round my rural garden in play was very heart-warming.

Finally, what’s next for you?

I am planning some research using my systems for small mammals which are often under-recorded. I am also producing educational material for the Mammal Society.

Night Vision and Daylight Camera Systems for Wildlife is available here.