people’s trust for endangered species WildliAUTUMNf 2018e WorldISSUE 14 UK ISSN 2049-8268 New mammal grants Bottlenose dolphins Lulworth skipper butterflies Solitary bees Relative values Overseas Discover the many Saiga in Uzbekistan Siamese crocodiles ways we’re helping Snow leopards threatened primates Indonesian elephants Hedgehogs vs badgers? Stag do Stable isotope analysis Badgers eat hedgehogs, but We’re proud to be beetle It’s one of the most are they contributing to fans at PTES, and we’re remarkable tools in modern hedgehog decline? We’re working hard to secure a conservation – but investigating this highly future for Britain’s biggest, what actually complex relationship. the magnificent stag beetle. is it? WILDLIFE WORLD Bringing the HEDGEROWS Hedgerows are vital for wild back to life wildlife, offering food and security for animals at all Wildlife World is published stages of their lives. by People’s Trust for Hawthorn, seen here, is a Endangered Species stalwart of many hedges. It fruits profusely, but only on Our wildlife is disappearing. Almost second year wood, so two thirds of species in the UK have rotation cutting should declined in the past 50 years. There’s happen every other year. © iStockphoto.com / Nigeldowsett © iStockphoto.com nothing natural or inevitable about this. We’re managing hedges on It can be stopped. And everyone can our reserves to provide the play a part. That’s why People’s Trust best long-term resource for for Endangered Species exists. wildlife. Please help us Find out more protect these unique www.ptes.org habitats. WILDLIFE WORLD 04 PTES people Our supporters come in all guises. Ben Andrew contributes through © Dennis W. Donohue / Shutterstock.com Donohue © Dennis W. his talent for photography © Ian Schofield / Shutterstock.com © Ian Schofield 05 Frontline Nature Capital: a curse or a cure in 21st century nature conservation? 19 17 06 Conservation news A quick roundup of recent news at home and abroad, and the view from Nelson’s column 08 Species focus In this edition Beetlemania – the various ways we’re working for stag beetles 10 Scrapbook We love hearing from friends of PTES, be they researchers or volunteers so, please, tell us your story © Victor Tyakht / Shutterstock.com / Shutterstock.com Tyakht © Victor 12 Our work with primates Primates are our closest wild kin and close to our hearts too. We’re funding several major projects to © Jihosuo Biswas © Jihosuo help them 12 18 16 PTES in action How we’re turning your support into positive action to help threatened species and habitats around the world and at home in the UK 22 Insider You are what you eat, and stable isotope analysis proves it, revealing details of animal diets over time © Peter Jones © Peter © Marie Louis from the elemental composition of 17 08 their tissues. Amazing science! Editor: Dr Amy-Jane Beer Editorial team: Jill Nelson, Zoe Roden, Nida Al-Fulaij, Welcome Rachel Lawrence Art editor: Zoe Roden Times are changing, I feel it. The ecological havoc wreaked by Illustration: Hayley Cove humanity is starting to bite in ways no one can ignore. Whether we Print: 4-Print are changing fast enough is another matter – almost certainly not Cover image: for the countless species whose abundance has declined drastically Lucy Radford in my lifetime. Our window of opportunity is small, but that’s no The opinions expressed in this reason to be downhearted – quite the opposite in fact. magazine are not necessarily those of © Dave Willis © Dave People’s Trust for Endangered Species. Let’s act while we can. Please keep up your wonderful support for Contact us PTES, and have a think about other ways you can help struggling PTES Wildlife World Magazine wildlife. Citizen science, backyard or community conservation 3 Cloisters House projects, spreading the word, lobbying your MP about the kind of country you want to live 8 Battersea Park Road London SW8 4BG in, considering the impact and environmental costs of consumer purchases. It all counts. ⚫ www.ptes.org [email protected] 020 7498 4533 people’s Dr Amy-Jane Beer, Editor facebook.com/ptes.org trust for twitter.com/AmyJaneBeer twitter.com/PTES endangered instagram.com/ptes_org species Wildlife World 3 YOUR PTES PTES PTES PEOPLE LOVES OUR PLACE Mark Cocker RRP £8.99/£19.99 Acclaimed nature writer Mark Cocker’s latest book - subtitled ‘Can we save Britain’s wildlife before it’s too late?’ is timely, daunting and inspiring in equal measure. Perhaps the most important book you’ll read this year. Naturalist and wildlife photographer Ben Andrew first approached PTES on a quest for beetles, and our relationship has turned out to be mutually beneficial. got in touch with PTES about five years ago to see if they could help put me in contact with a HEDGEHOG I scientist working on stag beetles, a species I was Pat Morris keen to photograph. Not only did I get some great RRP paperback £65; hardback £65 images of the beetles (see page 8), I was able to learn If one of my The latest in the celebrated Collins New a great deal more about the species from an expert. images helps Naturalist series, number 137 no less, is by As a thank you, I offered PTES the photos to use for a leading hedgehog expert and friend of their own work – an arrangement that has since PTES raise vital PTES - a must for hedgehog enthusiasts extended to include a number of other species I funds for their and book collectors alike. photograph, such as water voles and harvest mice, pictures of which have appeared on the website and conservation in the PTES calendar. As an amateur wildlife photographer I think it’s work then I’m important to put a value on your work so I certainly happy don’t give my images away for free to just anyone. But, I also think it’s important to support conservation organisations and work alongside them when possible. One way to do this is by donating financial support, but fortunately I’m also in a position to help through my photography skills. If one of my images helps PTES to raise vital funds for their conservation work then I’m happy. I hope to TURTLES SNAKES & OTHER work with PTES more in the future, maybe REPTILES/ photographing some of the other species they’re THE A-Z OF WILDLIFE working to save or documenting some of the WATCHING amazing conservation projects and researchers Amy-Jane Beer whose efforts they support.⚫ RRP £8.99/£19.99 A busy year for Wildlife World Editor Follow Ben on Twitter Amy, with two new books on offer – one @benandrewphotos for children, another for the coffee table. 4 Wildlife World FRONTLINE Solution or part of the problem? A debate rages in conservation circles over Nature Capital, Against... a concept that attempts to value nature in financial Miles King terms. Will doing so help policy makers take nature more Environmental seriously, or frame it as an asset to be exploited? policy researcher and advocate here’s something beguiling about the notion that valuing nature in financial Tterms will help to save it. ‘We have to talk to business and government in their own language’, I am told, repeatedly. My question is – if we need people in society to develop ethical stances as to the value of nature, are accountants really the best choice? I have nothing against accountants. But the behaviour of the ‘big four’ accountancy firms: tax avoidance; money-laundering and failures to audit large corporations, suggests we should look elsewhere for ethical / RomoloTavani © iStockphoto.com guidance. The green economist Kate Raworth suggests that there are four elements to the economy: the household, the market, the commons and the state. Very few would suggest that a global ‘common’ like the In favour… Do we really want Tony Juniper CBE, Executive Director for nature sold to the Advocacy and Campaigns, WWF highest bidder? ow is it that after all the scientific reports, media coverage and decades of oxygen we breathe should be given a hand-wringing that the destruction of nature continues? The answer is in financial value, or that love and care within Hlarge part down to how some regard the liquidation of nature as an households should be monetised. Why then, inevitable price of progress. While many politicians, business figures and would we do so for nature? The risks are economists see the destruction of nature as regrettable, they also believe it is significant. necessary for economic growth, job creation and competitiveness. In this frame, One is that financial value becomes looking after nature is seen as an unaffordable cost and a drag on development. price. Do we really want nature sold to the This is quite wrong of course. Healthy natural systems are vital for our health, highest bidder, or the cost of its loss to wealth and security. Nature supplies our food and water, inspires innovations in become just another business expense? In medicine, design and engineering. Nature plays vital roles in the carbon cycle and ethical, emotional and spiritual terms the protects us from extreme weather. If you add up the value of all that and more – value of nature is literally immeasurable, the dividends we derive from intact natural assets, or natural capital – then and yet these reasons for protecting nature economic arguments against protecting and restoring nature evaporate. could easily be crowded out by financial The benefits we derive from intact natural capital easily outvalue global GDP ones. and, when viewed from that perspective, the conservation and restoration of It’s vital that we understand why nature nature flips from being an unaffordable luxury to a practical necessity.