The potential extinction of a not so horrid spider

Vanessa Amaral-Rogers is the Campaigns Officer for Buglife. After finishing her Masters in Conservation Biology at the University of Derby on bat ecology, she now works on science communications, legislation, pesticides and pollinators.           In a quarry in the South-West of England, a small spider lurks. The Horrid ground weaver (Nothophantes…

Returning to vote?

The days are increasing in length, although there is plenty of winter to come. Last Saturday was the first day since 2 December when the official day length was over eight hours where I live. Our Cuckoos, on which I keep an eye through the excellent BTO study of them, are sitting in central Africa…

Vicarious liability – on the horizon in England?

At the moment it seems at least as likely that the Conservative Party will include a promise to introduce a law of vicarious liability for wildlife crimes in their election manifesto as will the Labour Party. Given that this would merely be catching up with Scotland it’s hardly the most radical of ideas but, it…

Guest blog by Hugh Webster: response to Tim Bidie

Mark writes; this was originally posted as a comment on yesterday’s Guest Blog by Tim Bidie but it seemed so good to me (and so long) that it might  be better to publish it this way.   Hugh Webster is a a biology teacher with a PhD in Behavioural Ecology, earned studying competition between large…