Results of the National Whale and Dolphin Watch 2017

Short-beaked common dolphins
Rebecca Knee/ Marine Discovery

As announced on TV’s BBC Countryfile last night, results of the 2017 National Whale and Dolphin Watch are in!

During last year’s event, which took place 29^th July – 6^th August, a record-breaking 1,529 hours of dedicated watches took place. Some 300 hours more than any previous occasion, this represents 2,500 volunteers all around the British Isles getting involved to report on the UK’s whale and dolphin species.

2017 was the sixteenth year that this huge citizen science scheme had taken place and clearly the event is building on popularity year on year. “It’s so important for people to join in helping us to track

Rare high-altitude money spider discovered near Loch Ness

Rare money spider Hilaira nubigena © Jens-Kjeld Jensen

Surveys at Trees for Life’s Dundreggan Conservation Estate in Glenmoriston near Loch Ness have revealed a rare money spider in a find described by experts as “spectacular”.

The discovery of an adult male of the species Hilaira nubigena at the native forest restoration site in Inverness-shire is the first record of the spider west of the Great Glen for more than 25 years.

The rare arachnid has been recorded from damp moorland above 400m and up to 700m, but little is known about its habits. It may be characteristic of high-altitude habitats such as ‘montane woodland’ – a

Crucial work to help save Scottish wildcats

 Pete Cairns - The Big Picture

This press release was issued on the 16th January 2018 so I'm a bit late posting, but better late than never. January was not a good month.

DNA collection and genetic analysis of wild Scottish wildcats is taking place this winter to help guide current and future conservation efforts for this endangered Scottish species.

Scottish Wildcat Action (SWA) and the Royal Zoological Society for Scotland (RZSS) will take part in a short period of wildcat trapping over two months in three of the project’s five priority areas.

The focus of this work is on targeted trapping of