The population of a rare butterfly species has increased by more than 90 times in Kent over two decades, according to a conservation charity.

There were fewer than 50 Duke of Burgundy butterflies in 2005, but this rose to nearly 600 last year, Butterfly Conservation said.

Dr Dan Hore, director of nature recovery at Butterfly Conservation, said this rise is a positive sign for the local environment.

Thousands of hectares of precious moorland and peatland in the North York Moors National Park are to be restored following the unprecedented Fylingdales wildfire of summer 2025, helping to better protect nearby communities, homes and critical infrastructure from future fires by slowing their spread and reducing flood risk.

The government is providing up to £3.2 million to the North York Moors National Park Authority through the Nature for Climate Peatland Grant Scheme. The funding will repair 17 kilometres of firebreaks dug to contain the blaze, stabilise damaged slopes, restore key peatland species such as sphagnum moss and reinstate public rights of way across the moor.

The Fylingdales wildfire burned for over six weeks between August and September 2025 and was declared a national incident due to its proximity to critical national infrastructure. At its peak, the fire measured around 20 square kilometres and roads in the area were closed due to smoke and to allow emergency access. The official Fire and Rescue Service report, published earlier this year, indicated the fire began from a campfire and spread undetected through deep peat, causing widespread damage to biodiversity and the wider landscape.

Four owlets have hatched after hundreds of wildlife enthusiasts watched a barn owl incubate her eggs and her mate bring in food via a live stream.

The National Trust set up a camera last month after nine eggs were laid in a bird box at Arlington Court near Barnstaple, Devon.

The first three eggs hatched on Monday and the fourth hatched on Wednesday.

Here is the stream

A Kent nature reserve is marking its 20th anniversary by holding events and activities and appealing for local people to get involved with the site.

Ranscombe Farm Nature Reserve near Strood has become known for its rare plants and habitats since wildlife charity Plantlife began its administration in 2006.

The site covers 622 acres of arable, grass and woodland offering wide-ranging views of the Medway valley and Kent Downs.

Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth, home to the world's largest colony of northern gannets, has been bought by the conservation charity RSPB Scotland.

The island, three miles off the coast of North Berwick, has been owned by the Hamilton-Dalrymple family for 320 years.

A grant of £586,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund has helped pay for transfer of the rock's ownership along with neighbouring Craigleith Island, which is home to about 10,000 puffins.

Thousands of Britain’s most charismatic and protected marine wildlife, including whales, porpoises, dolphins, seals and seabirds are being killed as “collateral damage” by fishing vessels every year, according to the first-ever analysis of bycatch data.

The analysis, by the Wildlife and Countryside Link, a coalition of voluntary conservation groups, reveals the devastating toll bycatch, the accidental capture and killing of non-target species by fishing vessels, is having on marine species.

The “shocking” scale of annual deaths in the report, Hidden in the haul: The true scale of bycatch is likely to be “the tip of the iceberg”, it said, as only a fraction of the UK fishing fleet monitor bycatch. Only 0.05% of dredging vessels monitor this. They, like the bottom trawlers exposed in the recent David Attenborough film Oceans, drag heavy gear across the sea floor and are known for doing damage to marine life on the sea bed. Non-UK vessels operating in UK waters were not included in the data.

Simple tips to help the UK's butterflies

The latest results of the National Bat Monitoring Programme have been released. Run by the Bat Conservation Trust, in partnership with the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), the NBMP includes survey results gathered by more than 700 dedicated volunteers, monitoring around 7,500 bat roosts, field and hibernation sites and waterways.

The NBMP monitors 11 of the 17 breeding species in UK and results show that six of the 11 regularly monitored bat species have increased across Great Britain (GB) since 1999, with five species remaining stable. However, patterns at the country-level and over the short-term (the last five years) may give more cause for concern.

Only two of the 11 species have increased in GB over the last five years (the lesser horseshoe bat and the soprano pipistrelle). The lesser horseshoe bat is one of our smallest bat species and is particularly affected by disturbance to roosts and intensive agricultural practices. Whilst populations have been doing better in Wales, the lesser horseshoe is no longer increasing in England.

On the 8 June, the West of England Nature Partnership and the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority published the 2026 West of England State of Nature report.

This is the most ambitious and comprehensive study of the West of England’s wildlife ever undertaken. The State of Nature report highlights where habitats are under pressure and where urgent action is needed to reverse species’ decline.

Over 33,000 records across 359 species, collected by volunteers and local recorders, supported by the natural history community, were used to create the West of England’s first Wildlife Index. Underpinning the State of Nature report, analysis of this data found that since 2000:

15% of species are declining in the region, and 4% are increasing
62% of fish species are declining
44% of birds are declining
Only 1% of insects are increasing

The region’s woodland cover stands at 7.5%, below the overall UK level of 13.5% and Europe’s 38%.

Plantlife Scotland has carried out an emergency translocation of a rare moss Aspen Bristle Moss Nyholmiella gymnostoma after a fallen Aspen tree put the species’ Scottish population at risk.

Without intervention, the moss on this tree would die as the bark deteriorated and other mosses outcompeted it, creating a time-critical chance to test whether it could be translocated.

The moss, which is known at just three sites in Scotland, was moved onto nearby living trees after a storm brought down an Aspen supporting as much as 5% of the known Scottish population.

Animal welfare campaigners have called for talks on phasing out the “inhumane” hunt for infant gannets known as guga, which are killed by hunters on a remote Scottish island once a year.

OneKind and the League Against Cruel Sports said it should be slowly phased out in dialogue with the Hebridean islanders who see the hunt, which has been carried out for at least 400 years, as a cultural pursuit and as sustainable food harvesting.

Both groups are highly critical of a “stunt-driven” campaign launched earlier this year by Protect the Wild, an anti-hunting group formed in 2015, and other activists, to force the case for a ban higher up the political agenda.

Research by Bat Conservation Trust and the University of the West of England on behalf of Natural England has helped achieve a major conservation milestone. For the first time in the UK, approval for an offshore wind farm (Dogger Bank South) includes a requirement to monitor migratory bats.

Offshore wind farms are an important way to produce clean energy and help fight climate change. However, research funded by and undertaken on behalf of Natural England showed that they may harm bats, especially bats that migrate across the sea.

The research, led by Dr Jack Hooker, was published in Global Ecology and Conservation in 2025. It finds that migratory bats are likely to pass through areas where offshore wind turbines are built. This means bats could be harmed by turbines, either by hitting the blades or being affected by changes in air pressure nearby.

Water voles have been reintroduced into a nature reserve for the first time in 40 years.

Harpenden Town Council said it released 200 water voles in the Upper River Lea, at Batford Springs, Hertfordshire.

The project involved preparing the land, creating new ponds and working with other organisations.

Saving Wildcats has announced a third consecutive year of wild births, with several released females confirmed to have given birth to new litters in the Cairngorms National Park this June.

The project, led by wildlife conservation charity the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), celebrated these new arrivals as a huge accomplishment for wildcat restoration efforts in Scotland. This news follows breeding successes in 2024 and 2025.

Louise Hughes, Saving Wildcats field operations manager, said: “There is so much anticipation when you first suspect there have been kitten births. It is a truly exciting event and seeing kittens on trail cameras really lifts the whole team and spreads a genuine buzz throughout the many communities across Scotland that support wildcat restoration.”

On the English-Scottish border a small species of butterfly, the northern brown argus, has fended off one of the biggest investors in the UK.

Todrig, with its heath moorlands and hundreds of species of flora and fauna, represents an investment that could save Britain’s wealthiest families millions of pounds in inheritance tax.

But first the ground needs to be cleared, and sown with commercial tree saplings – a plan that has been defeated, for now, by the tiny butterfly.

Photographers have shared their favourite wildlife shots taken in the North East and Cumbria.

Iain Turner said it was "good to see" a pregnant common lizard at Roudsea Wood near Haverthwaite, while Dan Haley came across three "gorgeous tawny owlets by accident" in Northumberland.

Paul Murdock's plans involving an early start were thwarted by heavy rain, so he headed back home and spotted a deer just before it "hopped over the fence" in Dean, west Cumbria.

A 400-million-year-old "living fossil" has been reintroduced to heathland in Hampshire.

Marsh clubmoss, a prehistoric and endangered plant species, has returned to Eelmoor Marsh near Farnborough, thanks to restoration efforts led by conservationists from Marwell Wildlife.

The team has managed the 195-acre site for more than 30 years, working to recreate the wet, open conditions the plant and other species needs to survive.

DEMONSTRATORS gathered outside the Scottish Parliament on Thursday to call on MSPs to “act urgently to restore Scotland’s nature”.

Campaigners wearing bumblebee, red squirrel and bat costumes and holding puffin, curlew and swift puppets were joined at the demonstration MSPs from across political parties.

A 2023 NatureScot report revealed a 15% decline in average species abundance across closely monitored wildlife since 1994. It also found that in the last decade alone, 43% (172) of the species have declined strongly.

He is known as “the Picasso of ponds” but the tableaux being created by Shaun Hancox in a boggy field in Somerset currently looks more like a building site. An orange and black excavator is rhythmically removing lumpy clay soil and sculpting it into brown banks.

The result looks like a scar of bare earth on what was once green pasture – but the magic happens as soon as rain fills the newly created depressions. Plants seed swiftly, invertebrates and amphibians rapidly find the water, and life explodes.

Britain has lost at least 400,000 ponds over the past century, according to the Freshwater Habitats Trust. A similar number remain but many are overgrown, degraded or affected by nutrient pollution.

White storks (Ciconia ciconia) are a majestic bird with a two-meter wingspan and an enormous circular nest.

The recent release of these stunning birds at multiple sites in England, with more releases planned and a public consultation under way has kicked off a debate about whether non-native birds should be part of rewilding projects.

The government advising body Natural England says it does not consider white storks to be native birds. But some experts disagree and say it is a native species and was hunted into extinction in the 1400s.

If you’ve spotted a pale orange butterfly dashing at frenetic pace through streets, fields or gardens, you’ve noticed the new migrants that will add colour to the summer in record-breaking numbers.

What is expected to be the largest arrival of painted lady butterflies in Britain for 17 years is under way after heatwaves and favourable winds ushered thousands if not millions of the insects northwards.

The painted lady flies north from sub-Saharan Africa at the start of every year. Successive generations breed in north Africa and then the southern Mediterranean before reaching northern Europe later in the summer. In September, the offspring of these migrants fly south again.

An internationally-important nature reserve faces "disaster" after being flooded by seawater because of failing coastal defences, conservationists have said.

The 120-hectare (300-acre) Farlington Marshes Nature Reserve near Portsmouth is designated as a Special Protection Area (SPA), Special Area for Conservation (SAC) and Ramsar site.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust has highlighted a failing tidal valve and crumbling sea wall which are letting salt water flood grazing marshland and wash away birds' nests and reed beds.

The six police officers arrived at the Snilesworth estate in two pickup trucks last week, according to one account. They asked to go up on the moors, a source said, and “so off they went”.

A vast expanse of spectacularly undulating lands on the western edge of the North York Moors, Snilesworth is globally renowned for its grouse, partridge and pheasant shooting. It is known locally for attracting “rich people from London in helicopters and blacked-out SUVs”.

This time, though, it was another rarified flying visitor that had drawn the police’s interest: the North York Moors are at the centre of a mystery surrounding a missing bird of prey.

It's been a happy ending for the eggs of an elusive bird that were just inches from the flames of a large wildfire earlier this year.

Saved by firefighters during the blaze in Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, the four curlew eggs have now hatched.

The chicks will eventually be released into the wild, and conservationists are delighted.

The poorest and most nature-deprived communities in England will be further left behind in their access to green spaces if proposed changes to planning laws go ahead, a report finds.

More than 7.4 million people in England live in areas completely devoid of immediate biodiversity, including 1.4 million children under 15, the report commissioned by a number of wildlife and environmental NGOs says.

The severe nature poverty is driven not by the rural-urban divide, but by extreme environmental disparities within towns and cities, and new “loopholes” for developers will exacerbate it, it says.