This session of the European Curlew Headstarting Workshop was led by Chrissie Kelley from Pensthorpe Conservation Trust and discusses best practices for rearing chicks. Topics will include designing optimal enclosures, feeding and monitoring routines, and techniques for weighing, sexing, and ring/tagging chicks. The session will also examine the recommended timelines for keeping chicks in pens during various developmental stages. In this blog you can find the recording of Chrissie’s presentation as well as a summary of the Q&A and discussion that followed during the live conference in 2025.
Discussion with Chrissie Kelly
Chrissie Kelley has worked in aviculture for 30 years specialising in waterfowl and waders. She has been involved with species reintroduction projects for Eurasian cranes, corncrake and most recently, leading curlew headstarting in Norfolk UK.
Coming soon…
European Curlew Headstarting Online Workshop
This blog was produced as an output of the European Curlew Headstarting Online Workshop, a virtual event delivered by Curlew Action and the Biological Recording Company. Check out the other presentations and outputs in the other blogs resulting from this event.
This session of the European Curlew Headstarting Workshop was led by Tanya Grigg (Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust) and delved into the intricacies of egg collection, including the challenges of securing landowner permissions and ensuring donor populations remain unaffected. Discussion included innovative technologies used in incubation and hatching, exploring definitions of success, and exchange of practical solutions for common hatching issues.
In this blog, you can find the recording of Tanya’s presentation as well as a summary of the Q&A and discussion that followed during the live conference in 2025.
Discussion with Tanya Grigg
Tany Grigg is the Lead Aviculturist on the Dartmoor Curlew Recovery project and has worked on Curlew projects since 2019 at WWT Slimbridge and on Dartmoor. Before this, Tanya was been involved with projects such as Black-tailed Godwits and Eurasian Cranes in England and Madagascar Pochard in Madagascar.
Coming soon
European Curlew Headstarting Online Workshop
This blog was produced as an output of the European Curlew Headstarting Online Workshop, a virtual event delivered by Curlew Action and the Biological Recording Company. Check out the other presentations and outputs in the other blogs resulting from this event.
In this blog, conservationists will share their experiences and insights from headstarting projects taking place in England. Presentations will cover local population trends, the motivations behind their initiatives, and the duration of these projects. Presentations will also showcase examples of indoor and outdoor facilities, address veterinary considerations, and provide updates on post-release monitoring and survival rates (where these are available).
Based in the Shropshire Hills and Welsh Border, Curlew Country has been working closely with local land managers, volunteers, as well as the wider community to deliver real landscape-scale conservation in a short time frame. The presentation will discuss the Curlew Country journey to headstarting, a bit about the procedure and what they know so far.
Amanda Perkins designed and leads the Curlew Country initiative. Curlew Country is a comparatively small independent curlew recovery organisation operative since 2015.
With multiple partners including the government conservation agency (Natural England), WWT has been involved in an initiative to test the use for headstarting of curlew eggs that are licensed for destruction because they are a risk to aviation safety. Initially, WWT ran a trial in the Severn Vale during 2019, aiming to test the potential of headstarting to improve the fortunes of a small (~35 pair) and declining curlew population in an area of lowland floodplain grassland. From 2021, WWT has been a partner in a project to restore curlew populations in a farmed upland area in Dartmoor National Park, where the habitat is in restoration but the curlew population has reached critically low levels. We report on experience and results to date.
Eric Heath is the Senior Project Manager (Species Recovery) for WWT and leadatheir species conservation work. At the moment this is focused primarily in the smooth running of the various Curlew conservation projects they are involved in whilst also looking at the future of our Black-tailed Godwit and Corncrake projects. He sits in the UK Programmes team but work closely with Conservation Evidence, the Breeding Conservation Unit and the Reserves teams. His role is also forward looking, identifying and developing new species conservation projects. Eric has been working in the environmental sector for almost 20 years now. This has included roles as an ecological and arboricultural consultant. He has also worked as the Head of Land Management for Avon Wildlife Trust, a Senior Conservation Officer for Natural Resources Wales and a Planning ecologist for South Gloucestershire Council.
Dr Katharine Bowgen (British Trust for Ornithology) Chrissie Kelley (Pensthorpe Conservation Trust)
The East of England Curlew Recovery Project is working in Norfolk to take eggs from airbases that were scheduled for destruction and rearing them for release as headstarted curlews. Their movements following release are monitored in the hope of seeing them return to breeding areas in Norfolk.
Dr Katharine Bowgen is a Senior Research Ecologist with the BTO, split between BTO Cymru and the Wetland and Marine Teams. She principally works with wader populations in the UK, observing their behaviours and habitat choices through the year.
Chrissie Kelley has worked in aviculture for 30 years specialising in waterfowl and waders. She has been involved with species reintroduction projects for Eurasian cranes, corncrake and most recently, leading curlew headstarting in Norfolk UK.
Charlie Mellor (Norfolk Estate, Sussex) Dr Christopher J. Heward (Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust)
The GWCT and Norfolk Estate, Sussex, have been headstarting Curlews to establish a breeding curlew population on the South Downs. The aim of the South Downs project is to determine whether headstarting is an effective technique for reintroducing curlew to southern England. this talk will provide and overview of the Southern England Curlew Project to date.
Charlie Mellor is the Head Gamekeeper on the Duke of Norfolks estate at Arundel. The Estate is renowned for its farmland bird recovery project in particular Grey Partridge. They are now starting their third year of a five year curlew headstarting project.
Dr Christopher J. Heward is the Head of Wetlands Research at the GWCT, and is responsible for the monitoring of the Southern England Curlew Project.
This blog was produced as an output of the European Curlew Headstarting Online Workshop, a virtual event delivered by Curlew Action and the Biological Recording Company. Check out the other presentations and outputs in the other blogs resulting from this event.
In this blog, conservationists will share their experiences and insights from headstarting projects across Europe. Presentations will cover local and national population trends, the motivations behind their initiatives, and the duration of these projects. Presentations will also showcase examples of indoor and outdoor facilities, address veterinary considerations, and provide updates on post-release monitoring and survival rates.
A Review of Curlew Headstarting Projects in Europe
Dr Sam Franks (British Trust for Ornithology)
Headstarting is now a commonly used tool in wader conservation, and over the last five years has become increasingly popular in efforts to conserve the Eurasian curlew, a wader species that has declined by 30-49% over the last 35 years in Europe. Here, Sam uses questionnaire and data request responses to review the reasons for, the methods used, and outcomes of eleven curlew headstarting projects from five European countries. Sam aims to provide an overview of current understanding and identify knowledge gaps to inform future headstarting projects.
Dr Samantha Franks’ interests focus on exploring how our changing environment is impacting threatened bird populations. She oversees BTO’s breeding wader research, with a particular focus on Curlew and working in partnership to develop evidence-based conservation management strategies for waders.
The Curlew Conservation Programme undertook a small scale pilot headstarting operation in a pre-planned and strategic manner back in 2022, in form of two pilot projects in counties Kerry and Monaghan. This presentation brings us up to speed with where headstarting is at in Ireland.
Donal Beagan is the Nest Protection and Headstarting Manager for Breeding Waders EIP, working on headstarting Curlew since 2022.
Curlew populations in Flanders are under great pressure. Only an estimated 170-230 bp currently remain and productivity is too low to sustain the local population. Since 2020, headstarting has been used to save nests that would otherwise be lost due to agricultural work, predation or weather conditions. This allowed a total of 20 young curlews to be released.
Griet Nijs works as an behavioural biologist for the nature conservation organisation Natuurpunt in Belgium where she studies the habitat requirements and breeding succes of the curlew in Flanders since 2020.
The Curlew Headstarting Programme of Tierpark Nordhorn (Germany)
Dr Heike Weber (Tierpark Nordhorn)
Tierpark Nordhorn zoo in Germany have a Curlew Headstarting Programme and this presentation will cover what they do, how their programme works, the problems they have experienced and the results to date.
Dr Heike Weber has been a zoo veterinarian and curator for more than 20 years in a small zoo in North West Germany, next to the border of the Netherlands, called Tierpark Nordhorn. The zoo hosts also a small rescue center for injured wildlife species as well as confiscated or located protected exotic species. One of the zoos conservation programs is the headstarting program of curlews for which they are also responsible.
Przemysław Obłoza (Polish Society for the Protection of Birds)
The headstarting of the Eurasian Curlew started in Poland in 2014 as a response to the rapid decline in population. he program is carried out by cooperating non-governmental and governmental organizations. Over ten years, several hundred birds have been released. The effects of the program are becoming increasingly visible.
Przemek Obłoza is an employee of the Polish Society for the Protection of Birds and research coordinator in the Life project “Curlew in danger – protection of the Eurasian curlew Numenius arquata in Poland”. They are also a doctoral student at the University of Siedlce.
This blog was produced as an output of the European Curlew Headstarting Online Workshop, a virtual event delivered by Curlew Action and the Biological Recording Company. Check out the other presentations and outputs in the other blogs resulting from this event.
Headstarting is a crisis conservation technique for endangered species in which eggs are removed from areas in which they are unlikely to survive, reared in captivity and the young birds fledged back to the wild.
In February 2025, Curlew Action brought together conservationists and organisations from across Europe who are involved in headstarting the European Curlew to share knowledge and discuss the feasibility and best practices of curlew headstarting projects. This blog is the first of 8 that will disseminate the presentations and outputs from this 2-day virtual event.
Headstarting: The Big Picture
Dr Geoff Hilton (Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust)
Geoff puts curlew headstarting into context as a conservation intervention. What is the problem we are trying to solve with headstarting? Why is it a promising technique and what are its limits and constraints? What does all this tell us about when and where headstarting might be a sensible option for curlew conservation?
Dr Geoff Hilton is the Head of Conservation Evidence at WWT, the charity for wetlands. He has worked for 25 years on the science of threatened species recovery, and for the last six years has been involved in work to understand and Eurasian curlew declines and devise solutions.
Donaldson, L. Nicol-Harper, A., Lee, R., Jarrett, N. & Hilton, G.M. (in review). When and why to give shorebirds a headstart. Conservation Biology. In review
Headstarting as a Conservation Measure: Opportunity or Aberration?
Dr Helmut Kruckenberg (Institute for Wetlands and Waterbird Research, Germany)
Headstarting is a relatively new method used in species conservation. It is successfully used in reptiles and amphibia, but is this also useable for birds? This talk presents more questions than answers but gives an overview of the problems, as well as pros and cons.
Dr Helmut Kruckenberg is a biologist and Head of Institute for Wetlands and Waterbird Research.
Headstarting in the UK: Licensing and Restrictions
Richard Saunders and Graham Irving (Natural England)
All wild birds, their eggs and nests are protected in the UK. Therefore, all headstarting projects require a licence. This presentation shows how licence applications for headstarting projects are assessed and describes the different types of headstarting project. It then focusses on one bird licensing issue – air safety. A change in approach has been used to the Curlew’s advantage. Through headstarting and translocation, hundreds of Curlew eggs and chicks have been rescued from sites where the birds were at risk. Is this situation unique to England, or might such opportunities exist elsewhere in Europe?
Richard Saunders is a Senior Ornithologist at Natural England, leading on Curlew and Avian Reintroductions for Natural England’s Birds Team.
Graham Irving is a Senior Advisor in the licensing team within Natural England. He liaises with the airbases and collects the curlew eggs in a portable incubator and delivers them to Pensthorpe.
Headstarting: WWT Perspective, Feasibility and Justification
Nigel Jarrett (Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust)
Nigel Jarrett will explain why he thinks headstarting is a justifiable and feasible conservation intervention that could help halt/reverse the decline of Curlew in southern England if the causes underlying the species’ declines are absent or controlled. He will touch on the costs of headstarting – it’s an expensive undertaking, as are many species conservation interventions.
Nigel Jarrett is WWT’s Conservation Breeding Manager. He has been involved in Curlew headstarting projects on Dartmoor and in the Severn and Avon Vales, as wel as headstarting projects for the Black-tailed Godwit and Spoon-billed Sandpiper. He has also worked on the reintroduction of the Madagascar Pochard. Eurasian Cranes translocations of the Layan Teal from Laysan Island to Midway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean and McQueen’s bustard in the UAE.
This blog was produced as an output of the European Curlew Headstarting Online Workshop, a virtual event delivered by Curlew Action and the Biological Recording Company. Check out the other presentations and outputs in the other blogs resulting from this event.
Earthworm ecological categories (anecic, epigeic, endogeic) based on morphology are commonly used as proxies to describe their effects on soils without validation of their actual behaviour. The first and main effects of earthworms are physical, they are physical ecosystem engineers so it makes sense to use a system where groupings are based on the physical behaviour of earthworms. This presentation will delve into an experiment that investigated the burrowing, feeding and casting behaviour of 50 species of earthworm under laboratory conditions and proposed new functional groups of earthworms based on their bioturbation behaviour.
Q&A with Yvan Capowiez
Yvan Capowiez is a researcher at INRAE (the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment in France). He specialises in earthworm ecology and the physical roles of earthworms in (agricultural) soils.
What is the deepest that earthworms can burrow?
Our work was done in the lab of course, so the worms could not go very deep. But if you ask archaeologists, earthworms can go very deep. For some Scherotheca species, we observe burrows at 1 to 2 metres down. However, we don’t have a lot of information, only indirect evidence, for the really deep burrowing species, so this is a very difficult question to answer.
Are the deep burrowers good for agricultural soils?
The deep burrowers are, I think, very lazy. They only do a few burrows. But they are powerful. For the farmer, it’s not that they make a lot of burrows (they don’t), but that they can go through very dense soil. I think that Lumbricus terrestris could support a bit of tillage so for farmers, these would be good earthworms. In pastures, the intense tunnellers are better because they tunnel a lot, letting in more water into the soils, which you want.
How much of the burrowing behaviour do you think was constrained by the soil cores that you used for your study?
Their behaviour was likely impacted by the soil cores. With the Scherotheca spp especially, we could see that they were burrowing a lot on the bottom and edges, trying to escape. Bigger soil mesocosms would obviously be better, but these are also more expensive. We are also looking at climate change, so the impact of soil moisture is something we do look at. We noticed that when the soil cores started to dry out, the behaviour of the anecic worms didn’t change but the behaviour of the endogeic species did – they dug deeper down to get to the moister soils.
Which of the six functional groups contributes the most to soil carbon fixation?
This is not an easy question because all groups have different roles. In terms of organic matter, I think it’s the burrowers. They’re the ones that take the most litter into the soil and bury it, more so than the intense tunnellers.
Earthworm Functional Groups taken from Capowiez et al (2024)
entoLIVE webinars feature guest invertebrate researchers delving into their own invertebrate research. All events are free to attend and are suitable for adults of all abilities – a passion for invertebrates is all that’s required!
entoLIVE is delivered by the Biological Recording Company in partnership with the British Entomological & Natural History Society, Royal Entomological Society and Amateur Entomologists’ Society, with support from Buglife, Field Studies Council and National Biodiversity Network Trust.
Check out more invertebrate research, publications and events from the entoLIVE partner websites:
The West European Hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) was once a common sight in British gardens and the countryside. These nocturnal mammals feed on invertebrates and have been declining in numbers, with the International Union for Conservation of Nature recently adding them to the list of near threatened species on their Red List.
This blog features presentations from two Hedgehog specialists, that will explore the biology and ecology of these fascinating animals, before highlighting the threats that our hedgehogs face and what we can do to help them.
The British Hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) is a nocturnal mammal known for its unique spiny coat and ability to roll into a ball when threatened. This presentation explores their ecological role, focusing on their habitat preferences, foraging strategies and diet. We’ll also uncover their seasonal behaviours, including hibernation and breeding cycles, providing insight into how these small mammals interact with their environment and contribute to the UK’s ecosystems.
Hedgehog Threats and Conservation
Grace Johnson (Hedgehog Street)
British hedgehogs face threats from many angles: habitat loss, reduced connectivity between gardens, roads, pesticides, bonfires… the list goes on! There are lots of things that the general public can do to help, from linking your garden to a Hedgehog Highway to adding your sightings to the Big Hedgehog Map. Grace will take us through the various threats to hedgehogs and how we can mitigate these risks through the implementation of conservation actions and simple changes to our gardening techniques.
Q&A with Hugh Warwick and Grace Johnson
Hugh Warwick is an ecologist and writer with a particular fondness for hedgehogs. He has authored several books on hedgehogs and other British wildlife: A Prickly Affair (2010), The Beauty and the Beast (2012), Hedgehog (2014), Linescapes (2017) and The Hedgehog Book (2020). Hugh also does a lot of public speaking (from primary schools to postgraduate research groups via the WI and Wildlife Trusts) and delivers training on hedgehog conservation and creative writing. He is also the spokesperson for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.
Grace Johnson is a Zoology graduate who is passionate about wildlife conservation. Following university, she worked in bat conservation before moving on to hedgehogs. Grace is the Hedgehog Officer for Hedgehog Street, a joint campaign by People’s Trust for Endangered Species and The British Hedgehog Preservation Society, where she works with a wide range of partners, stakeholders, volunteers and the general public.
Aside from invertebrates, what else do hedgehogs feed on?
Hugh: Hedgehogs will eat what they find in front of their inquisitive snouts – so if there are lots of invertebrates, then that is what they will eat. Other natural food includes carrion, small mammals (probably already injured ones), birds eggs and chicks. We also know that they will very happily tuck into any meaty treats we put out for them … kitten kibble is what I recommend.
Are changes to weather patterns impacting hibernation patterns of British hedgehogs?
Hugh: There is clear evidence from hedgehog rescues that youngsters are being seen in January – which implies mating taking place in November and December when we would normally expect them to be in hibernation. We do not know whether this is evidence of more people being aware of the risks hedgehogs face and therefore bringing them in – or evidence of a warning climate keeping them active for longer. There is no NEED for a hedgehog to hibernate – they do it for longer in Norway than they do in Spain for example. I think the biggest risk comes from hedgehogs being pulled out of hibernation more frequently – thus using up the fat reserves vital for their survival.
What is the best way to monitor local hedgehog populations?
Grace: We’ve launched a National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme and need your help to tag hedgehogs and other wildlife in camera trap images, more info here: https://ptes.org/campaigns/hedgehogs/nhmp/. If you spot a hedgehog out and about, logging it on the BIG Hedgehog Map also helps us understand hedgehog distribution: https://bighedgehogmap.org/.
What is the one thing you’d advise people to do to help hedgehogs?
Grace: Think hedgehog! Would a hedgehog be able to access your garden or do you need to install a hedgehog highway? Could a hedgehog be nesting in the messy area you’re about to strim? Definitely worth checking! Are there enough creepy crawlies in your garden for hedgehogs to feed on, or could you improve this with a log or leaf pile? We need to think more about sharing our gardens and greenspaces with hedgehogs and other wildlife.
Hugh: Get rid of the ‘cult of tidiness’ – embrace a bit of wildness, some might call it mess, in your garden … or accept that local parks should have areas set aside for sharing with nature rather than manicured deserts!
How did you become interested in hedgehogs?
Hugh: I started working with hedgehogs as an ecologist – doing the 3rd year project for my degree at Leicester Polytechnic. I ended up in Orkney, on the island of North Ronaldsay, seeing whether the imported hedgehogs were having a negative impact on the breeding success of the ground nesting birds. That was back in 1986 and got me hooked! Actually, what REALLY got me deep into the hedgehog world was the realisation that as people love them so much, the hedgehog then presents a way of talking about other, maybe less popular subjects – such as macro invertebrate population declines, the choices we make over what we eat, speed limits, planning law … talking about hedgehogs means we can talk about so much more!
Grace: In my first conservation role I worked with bats, which was fascinating. In this role my knowledge of mammalian ecology and hibernation grew, and so hedgehogs were a brilliant next step. Working with such a popular species is a fantastic gateway to encourage people to care about the natural world more widely, and how we can all protect it.
Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) is an approach to development that aims to leave nature in a measurably better state than before. This is achieved by embedding the mitigation hierarchy into development design through a biodiversity metric, highlighting impacts on, and opportunities for nature.
Each year, we host a Biodiversity Net Gain Virtual Symposium to bring together professionals from a range of sectors to discuss their experiences and lessons learned from working with BNG.
The next event will take place on Wed 18 Mar 2026. We’re currently looking for speakers for this event and are particularly interested in ecologists that would like to present case studies of offsite and onsite BNG delivery. Submit a speaker application through our short Speaker Application Form.
The presentations from our 2023 and 2024 Biodiversity Net Gain Virtual Symposium events are now available to watch below. The 2025 event presentations will be available later in the year.
Biodiversity Net Gain Virtual Symposium 2025
BNG: A Big Issue for Small Sites? with Peter Massini (Future Nature Consulting)
Assessing Habitat Condition for BNG: How Consistent Are Ecologists? with Ivonne Salamanca (Bangor University)
Considering Bats in Biodiversity Net Gain with Jo Ferguson (Bat Conservation Trust)
Mandatory BNG in Practice: Findings from an Early Research Project with Ellie Savage (Institution of Environmental Sciences)
Biodiversity Net Gain Virtual Symposium 2024
Biodiversity Net Gain: March 2024 Update from Natural Englandwith Dr Nick White (Natural England)
Biodiversity Net Gain: The Warwickshire Way with David Lowe (Warwickshire County Council)
Local Innovation: How LERC Services Are Shaping Upwith Mandy Rudd (Association of Local Environmental Record Centres)
Habitat Condition Assessment Methods for BNGwith Dr Dan Carpenter (Digital Ecology)
Biodiversity Net Gain Virtual Symposium 2023
Biodiversity Net Gain: A Policy and Metric Update(March 2023)with Dr Nick Ian White (Natural England)
Delivering Biodiversity Net Gain for Infrastructure Projectswith Dr Julia Baker CEnv MCIEEM (Mott MacDonald)
Biodiversity Net Gain: The Wiltshire Council Perspectivewith Rachel Jones (Wiltshire Council)
The Wildlife Trusts Habitat Banking Investment with Martin Varley (Cheshire Wildlife Trust)
Biodiversity Net Gain: March 2024 Update from Natural England
Dr Nick White (Natural England)
An update on the implementation of mandatory BNG for major developments under the Town and Country Planning Act and the latest about the extension of BNG to minor (small sites) developments.
Warwickshire was one of the pilots of Biodiversity Net Gain and has been the first local authority to successfully implement it in practice. Warwickshire’s metric has been used to form the approved metric for national use. Bold claims indeed! So how has Warwickshire achieved BNG so far and what else is there left to do?
Local Innovation: How LERC Services Are Shaping Up
Mandy Rudd (Association of Local Environmental Record Centres)
For the past few years, the Association of Local Environmental Records Centres (ALERC) and its members have been advocating for the use of local data services to inform the design, delivery and ongoing monitoring of biodiversity net gain in England. This talk will provide an update on key developments at a national level and will provide examples of innovation at a local level.
Habitat condition is a key component of the data required to calculate BNG units in the DEFRA metric. Criteria for habitat condition are provided with the metric, but no method for condition assessments accompanies these criteria. How then do we collect robust data to support condition assessments to ensure regulators have confidence in our condition assessments? Dan will introduce an emerging method for condition assessments that takes a standardised approach to data collection to ensure condition assessments are underpinned by robust data and evidence.
Biodiversity Net Gain: A Policy and Metric Update (March 2023)
Dr Nick White, Natural England
The presentation will update the audience on the forthcoming mandatory approach to biodiversity net gain, encompassing the latest Government policy announcements and what these mean for ecologists, developers, planners and land owners. It will also provide an update about the biodiversity metric that will be used for mandatory biodiversity net gain.
Delivering Biodiversity Net Gain for Infrastructure Projects
Dr Julia Baker CEnv MCIEEM, Mott MacDonald
To design Biodiversity Net Gain, Ecologists must balance the unit calculation of the Biodiversity Metric with the Metric’s trading rules, whilst ensuring the habitat creation and enhancement of a BNG design are feasible, will endure for at least 30 years and contribute towards conservation. This presentation explores this balance, with key considerations and pitfalls to avoid for BNG to genuinely deliver long-term and meaningful outcomes on the ground.
Biodiversity Net Gain: The Wiltshire Council Perspective
Rachel Jones, Wiltshire Council
Wiltshire Council have been moving from securing no net loss to net gain and offering solutions to developers to help deliver nature recovery across Wiltshire. Rachel Jones will discuss Wiltshire Council’s approach to Biodiversity Net Gain and how they have been offering solutions to developers to help deliver nature recovery across Wiltshire. These solutions include opportunities on our own land holding, working with wider landowners and farmers for strategic sites, and securing on-site enhancements on development sites. Wiltshire Council are also looking at how to combine solutions with wider community and environmental benefits and how to address the expected resourcing implications for the Council.
The Wildlife Trusts Habitat Banking Investment project aims to create new financing structures to meet near-term demand for BNG credits and prepare to accelerate delivery when national policy is implemented. Their partnership has developed a new model to enable Trusts to leverage private finance and secure biodiversity unit agreements with developers to secure strategic land and create new habitats, reducing current reliance on piecemeal grant funding and offset payments.
Molluscs are the second largest group of animals in terms of species diversity but probably one of the most poorly understood thanks to their diversity of form, enigmatic evolutionary history and generally cryptic nature. This talk will introduce you to the marvellous mollusca as well as look at some of the ways the mollusc collections at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History have been used to inspire, enthuse and engage a wide range of audiences with the greatest animal group there ever was, is and will be.
Q&A with Mark Carnall
Mark Carnall is one of the Zoology Collections Manager at Oxford University Museum of Natural History responsible for the non-entomological invertebrate and human remains collections. His research interests are digitisation in museums, public engagement and natural history, sector-wide advocacy for collections, models, casts and replicas as well as the implications of 3D printing on museum collections.
Can you share some recent research projects that have used your museum collections?
One of the wonderful things about working at the Museum is that there’s no such things as a regular day and we welcome researchers of all kind. For the mollusc collections at Oxford University Museum of Natural History, recently I have one artist come to use the collection to illustrate poorly known UK species which are facing decline. I’ve also had a poet and researcher come through exploring how cuteness and perceived cuteness in different animal species is important (I tried to convince them that the critically endangered in the British Isles glutinous snail, Myxas glutinosa was ‘cute’). I’ve had zooarchaeologists use the collection to sample marine molluscs that were collected before the carbon record was permanently skewed through atomic bomb testing in the 1950s in order to provide baseline carbon isotope references for the east coast of the UK. I’ve also had several archaeologists and biologists through using our UK mollusc reference collections to identify species from archaeological and soil deposits. We have a steady stream of researchers from all over the world coming through working on systematics and taxonomy- describing new species, sorting out older, enigmatic species and there are recent papers on pen shells, saltwater clams and octopuses referencing specimens in the Museum collection.
Do molluscs feel pain?
This is an interesting question – we still struggle with working out how smart, conscious or sensitive other organisms are. There is something called taxonomic chauvinism, a kind of bias which is where, broadly, we prioritise our species, our group, and what we are good at or use well known species to make general assumptions about how larger groups behave. There’s still a kind of ‘surprise’ when we find evidence of behaviour that we think is unique to primates or specifically our species especially when it comes to things like complex behaviour, intelligence, sentience and sensitivity.
Whether or not they sense pain in a way that we would be able to understand, we can debate endlessly, but they do show a response to things that we would assume cause them pain. I’d be surprised if the list of organisms we think can feel pain doesn’t steadily grow the more we look and don’t making sweeping assumptions. Cephalopods, the octopuses, squids and nautilus already have extra protections in some countries for when they are kept in captivity on the basis of their intelligence and possibly capacity to feel pain.
Are mollusc species declining or do we not really know?
Molluscs are one of the groups with the highest numbers of described extinctions. Of all the modern organisms (excluding fossil species) documented to be extinct to date roughly a third of them are molluscs. However, the overall picture is really limited, globally there are fewer mollusc workers looking at distribution data or documenting decline and it’s really difficult to assess any marine species particularly those with wide ranges or cryptic habitats. There is a ‘classic’ conservation article: Not Knowing, Not Recording, Not Listing: Numerous Unnoticed Mollusk Extinctions’ documenting many of the issues with our understanding of how molluscs are faring globally. Although it is from 2009 much remains relevant today.
Freshwater molluscs are particularly impacted by pollution and waterway use, globally and nationally and are used as an indicator of environment health. So, they are disappearing. Molluscs have also been the ‘poster species’ for when biological control goes wrong, i.e. deliberately introducing one mollusc species that leads to the extinction of many others in some cases introduced to control another mollusc species that was also introduced. There are concerns about the rising acidity of oceans particularly for shell growth and the impact on mollusca.
So essentially, yes, where people have looked, there is evidence of decline as well as some species which are expanding their ranges with climate change but there are big gaps in how often they are assessed. At the national level, there is a lot of great work being done but there is also patchiness, in terms of baselines of where things were versus where they are now. For example, there isn’t currently an up to date national red list for UK mollusca and there’s never been a comprehensive checklist.
How old is the longest-lived mollusc that we know of?
A very well known mollusc (well in mollusc circles) is the specimen of ‘Ming’ an ocean quahog or Icelandic cyprine clam, Artica islandica, which I think you can still see at the National Museum of Wales. From growth lines counts and subsequent isotope work it was aged at 507 years at the point it was collected, breaking the Guinness World Record as oldest animal in the world.
How do museums ensure the vibrant colours of some molluscs, such as nudibranchs, are recorded since they lose their colours when preserved?
One of the downsides of preservative liquids is that you lose those colours. These days, when people are in the field, they collect that information, while the animal is alive and, in their environment, through photography. Traditionally, lots of drawings would have been done. But it should be noted that while colour is interesting, it’s not too important in terms of diagnostic characteristics in many mollusc groups.
entoLIVE webinars feature guest invertebrate researchers delving into their own invertebrate research. All events are free to attend and are suitable for adults of all abilities – a passion for invertebrates is all that’s required!
entoLIVE is delivered by the Biological Recording Company in partnership with the British Entomological & Natural History Society, Royal Entomological Society and Amateur Entomologists’ Society, with support from Buglife, Field Studies Council and National Biodiversity Network Trust.
Check out more invertebrate research, publications and events from the entoLIVE partner websites:
Biological Recording 