If you follow any wildlife or nature accounts on social media, then you may have noticed an influx of posts about beavers over the last month. So, what is going on and why are people excited? In a sentence: plans are being made to reintroduce beavers into the wild in the UK and grant them legal protection as a native species. But what makes this so great, beyond the obvious excitement of regaining a species we hunted to extinction?   Beaver Background   The Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) is the second largest rodent in the world after capybara and ..read more

If, like me, you live in the UK then you will have seen this spider. I am pretty confident that these guys are probably one the most frequently encountered spiders out there, yep that’s right I am talking about the cellar spider (Pholcus phalangioides). If you don’t believe me then go and open your airing cupboard, garage, or garden shed and I guarantee you’ll find one of these spindly spiders. However, being incredibly common, does not make them boring, in fact they display several behaviours that make them particularly interesting. So, I thought I would write a little post about why these co ..read more