Calling on everyone in Scotland!  The Scottish Wildlife Trust is asking you to take part in the Great Scottish Squirrel Survey from 2 to 8 October 2023.

Please take part in this squirrel survey
from 2nd to 8th October 2023.

The survey is the 5th one, and Saving Scotland's Red Squirrels is a partnership which is led by the Scottish Wildlife Trust.  It works in priority areas to protect red squirrels from the spread of grey ones. 

So all you need to do is to 

1. Get outdoors
2. Get squirrel spotting - you can find out how to tell red squirrels and grey squirrels apart here
3. Add sightings of squirrels to scottishsquirrels.org.uk wherever you see them - in your garden, in wilder areas etc

This a really important survey.  It helps compare yearly distributions of red and grey squirrels.  

Red squirrels are making a come-back in many areas of Scotland and we need to keep that going!  

You can join a local group here  to help red squirrels.  Visit the Saving Scottish Red  Squirrels website here.

This is to let everyone know that there's the Big Wild Walk 2023 taking place in the UK from 16 to 30 October.

The aim is to raise funds for the Wildlife Trusts.  They are a federation of 46 independent wildlife conservation charities and they cover the UK, from Alderney down in the Channel Islands to Scotland, and south and west Wales to Norfolk and Suffolk.  They have over 911,000 members and over 35,000 volunteers, as well as staff and trustees.  They are formed by groups of people getting together and working with others to make a positive difference to wildlife and future generations, beginning with their own area.  Find out more about the Wildlife Trusts.

You can find your nearest Wildlife Trust here.

Find out more
Image copyright the Wildlife Trusts.

The Wildlife Trusts have set out an ambitious goal to protect at least 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030.  And they need our help to make this happen - they cannot do it alone.  

So why not sign up and set your own Big Wild Walk Challenge?   

This could be a great chance to get children outside and away from those screens, as the Trusts are also giving children a chance to join in with their Hedgehog Walk and Timmy Time.  This challenge is to walk 3km a week - this is the same distance a little hedgehog travels every night!   

Remember, wildlife up and down the country are counting on all of us to do what we can do help them.  Even if you can't do the challenge, why not donate something? 

Find out more from the Wildlife Trusts

Imagine 2,000 southern white rhino – and then imagine them being re-wilded.  Now, these 2,000 rhino make up to 15% of the word’s wild population, so they are important.

Enter African Parks.

They are now the official custodian of these 2,000 southern white rhino and their goal is re-wild them over 10 years. They want to move them to several well-managed protected areas across Africa and in so doing, to establish and supplement strategic populations.  This should help secure the future of the southern white rhino species in Africa.

How did this happen?  Well, African Parks purchased the world’s largest captive rhino breeding operation to try to rescue and re-wild these amazing animals.

African Parks manages 22 protected areas in partnership with 12 governments across Africa.

“Platinum Rhino” was a 7,800 hectare property.

It sits in the north-west province of South Africa.  It went up for auction in April 2023 but sadly there were no bids. This put the rhinos at risk of poaching and fragmentation so African Parks were asked by a number of concerned individuals from the world of conservation to help. 

African Parks undertook due diligence, and with the support of the South African Government and with emergency funding to make everything possible, African Parks agreed to buy the farm AND the 2,000 rhino!7

Read all about it!

The breeding programme is to be phased out and after all the rhino have been released into the wild, the project will come to an end.  African arks will be working with multiple governments, funding partners and conservation organisations.

Southern white rhino had reached a terrifying 30 to 40 animals in the 1930s, but conservation measures enabled their numbers to rise to about 20,000 by 2023.  Poaching for their horns  has led to their numbers declining to below 13,000. 

Non-profit conservation organisation African Parks takes on the responsibility for the rehabilitation and long-term management of protected areas, in partnership with governments and communities.  It manages 22 national parks and protected areas in 21 countries, covering over 20 million hectares in ngola, Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Visit African Parks here.

Well, 2023 has been an incredible year for the Koala Clancy Foundation in Australia.

They have a mission, you see:  to plant 300,000 trees by 2030 in order to save koalas from extinction.

They started planting in 2016 and since then, they’ve constantly surpassed the number of trees they’ve planted every year.   And now, they’ve planted 129,422 trees!!!

Every tree counts!
Working together to achieve a goal really makes a difference.
Find out more 
Image © Koala Clancy Foundation

2023 has been no exception – these are ALL records for the Foundation:

• 33,518 koala trees total in one season.
• 10,663 koala trees on one site in one season.
• 1,931 Koala trees in one day.
• 3,618 Koala trees in one weekend.
• 5,891 koala trees in 7 days – their biggest week ever

The work doesn’t stop there, however!  The Koala Clancy Foundation will be busy weeding in the You Yangs – a vital activity to restore koala habitat – and they are running regular bonus events for Koala Clancy members.  For instance, they’re doing visits to past tree planting sites to collect tree cards so that they can use them in future projects.

You can become a member here, and if you live outside Australia, why not support the work of the Koala Clancy Foundation and simply donate?

Visit the Koala Clancy Foundation here.

Ancient woodland now covers just 2.5% of the UK.   And Butterfly Conservation say that the Small Pearl-bordered and the Pearl-bordered fritillary are finding their habitat is reducing at a horrifying rate:  the small pearl-bordered have gone down 66% and the pearl-bordered Fritillary 64%.

Butterfly Conservation purchased Rowland Wood back in 2010.  They’ve been working hard to reverse years of damage to it.  But it still risks losing one of the last remaining colonies of both the small Pearl-bordered and Pearl-bordered Frilliary in the south east.

The good news is that the butterflies have appreciated this effort – there have been successful reintroductions of both species – but Butterfly Conservation know they really need to keep going.

Help save the Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

They need to raise £12,000 to keep this conservation work going. 

Unfortunately, back in the 1960s, critical points of the wood were planted with non-native trees, and this ruined the natural eco-system.  

In 2017-2019, the charity reintroduced both species.   Traditional woodland management techniques such as coppicing have reopened sections of canopy.  This has created open spaces which has helped the butterflies to thrive.  

We need to keep this effort going.    Rowland Wood is one of the last places in southern England where you can see both these species of butterfly.

Please help Butterfly Conservation carry on this vital conservation work, regenerating Rowland Wood and increasing the amount of habitat available for both species of butterfly.   Please donate to this appeal today.  Thank you