As part of the new Wildlife Connections campaign led by Chester Zoo, volunteers and community group leaders are focused on preserving and helping a host of native species like bats, common toads, hedgehogs, garden birds and treasured wildflowers. 



The campaign encourages community group leaders from Manchester and the surrounding areas to develop new skills by recording sightings and linking green spaces for animals where they live – becoming ‘wildlife champions’.

One in five of Britain’s wildflowers is threatened with extinction in the UK. Our flora is the least protected, invested in and acknowledged part of our wildlife heritage. The current highly fragmented nature of our landscape is insufficient to maintain wild populations in the long term. 

Wildflowers are key to healthy habitats; important in their own right, and for other species they support indirectly while The hedgehog appears to be declining in the UK at the same rate as tigers are globally – at around 5% a year, in both rural and urban habitats. Around 30% of the population appears to have been lost since 2002, and it is likely that there are now fewer than a million hedgehogs left in the UK.

Manon Keir, Wildlife Connections project officer at the zoo, said:

“Wildlife Connections is giving people the opportunity to record the wonderful diversity of species living around them, as well as giving some of the wildlife a helping hand so that they can live happily alongside us. 

“When people think of extinction, they think about rhinos, lions and elephants that are all sadly fighting for survival overseas, but the UK has lost more than 400 different species in just two centuries, so it’s important that we try to preserve those that have survived.

“Over the course of the project our wildlife champions will take the skills, resources and inspiration from our zoo experts and partner organisations and encourage their communities to take action by recording wildlife in their area and creating and improving animal habitats.”

The zoo’s wildlife champions are supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), which support projects that encourage communities to develop new skills – helping to understand and improve their local area by working together.

Chester Zoo is encouraging everyone to link together gardens and green spaces like parks and playing fields so that animals can move freely around the area using newly-created wildlife corridors. By planting hedgerows and opening up gardens to wildlife, animals can use the areas like steppingstones between areas of healthy habitat and thrive. 

As part of the campaign, the zoo is asking community groups and schools to enter a new garden design competition. The winning entry will be the garden that benefits both the wildlife and local community the most, which will then be built by the zoo’s team of experts.

Over the Easter holiday the zoo is hosting a range of events which gives the public the opportunity to get involved in Wildlife Connections by bird watching, building bird boxes and creating new homes for toads and hedgehogs.

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