nature

England’s first official “hedgehog crossing” road signs have been unveiled amid a battle to save the species.

About 150,000 hedgehogs are killed every year on roads across the country, with experts believing that these deaths are contributing to the animal’s decline in the UK.

It is feared there are just one million hedgehogs left in Britain, compared with 36 million in the 1960s.

Last month, Kingston council in south-west London installed four newly approved crossing signs in Old Malden after discovering the ward had become a surprise “stronghold” for hedgehogs, with about 100 of the animals in the area.

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A red squirrel has been spotted in the central belt of Scotland in a rare sighting.

The squirrel was seen darting along a fence in Lanette Perry’s garden in Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire.

Saving Scotland’s Red Squirrels (SSRS), a project run by the Scottish Wildlife Trust, said it was one of the most southerly red squirrel sightings in Scotland’s central belt in decades.

It said the emergence of the species in the area could be due to conservation efforts.

Almost 455,000 trees have been felled across the country by local councils over the past 10 years, i can reveal.

Campaigners have said more must be done to preserve trees and have accused councils of prioritising planning developments over environmental concerns.

Freedom of Information (FOI) requests sent to all 382 councils in the UK revealed North Lanarkshire felled the highest amount of trees at 31,480, followed by Birmingham with 21,486 and Hampshire County with 18,535 trees felled over the last decade.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) and the Bee Friendly Trust have completed more than twenty ‘homes for nature’ at six Great Northern stations in and around north London and Hertfordshire: Bayford, Cuffley, Grange Park, Hadley Wood, New Barnet and New Southgate.

Great Northern aims to contribute to enhancing biodiversity on the railway by making its stations more nature friendly.

It hopes that its work will help to preserve wildlife, including the one in six species in the UK which are in danger of extinction.

A two-year project across three counties has uncovered more than 1,300 hectares (3,271 acres) of previously unknown ancient woodland.

These are woods that have persisted since 1600, packed with a range of forest-loving plant life, fungi, insects and micro-organisations, making up some 2.5% of UK land (609,990 hectares or 1,507,318 acres), external.

The project was run by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire. The total area of ancient woodland in the area is now known to be 12,552 hectares (31,016 acres).

Bee-killing pesticides have been banned for emergency use in the UK for the first time in five years after the government rejected an application from the National Farmers’ Union and British Sugar.

The neonicotinoid pesticide Cruiser SB, which is used on sugar beet, is highly toxic to bees and has the potential to kill off populations of the insect. It is banned in the EU but the UK has provisionally agreed to its emergency use every year since leaving the bloc. It combats a plant disease known as virus yellows by killing the aphid that spreads it.

Prof Dave Goulson, a bee expert at the University of Sussex, has warned that one teaspoon of the chemical is enough to kill 1.25bn honeybees. Even at non-fatal doses it can cause cognitive problems that make it hard for bees to forage for nectar and the chemicals can stay in the soil for years.