nature

Hedgehogs are disappearing from many parts of the countryside.

Lancashire Wildlife Trust has reported a significant decline in hedgehog sightings, with numbers down seven per cent compared to the previous year and a 33 per cent drop since 2022.

The decline is believed to be linked to habitat loss caused by building developments.

Lydia German, senior communications officer at Lancashire Wildlife Trust, said: "By recording where you have (or even where you haven’t) seen a hedgehog, you can help us to build up a fuller picture of how the population is faring across our region.

Huge tracts of precious riverside habitats for water voles and other wildlife in England are being lost as they are not covered by post-Brexit farming rules, campaigners warn.

New analysis by the Wildlife Trusts found more than 400 square km of riverside habitat in England may have been lost since the UK left the EU in 2020.

Under the common agricultural policy (CAP), which subsidised farming when the UK was in the bloc, farmers had to keep a 2-metre buffer between their fields and the rivers. But with the UK’s exit from the CAP, farmers may try to increase their income by ploughing to the edge of their field – an area that, at present, is unprofitable for them.

A rare white stag linked to legendary King Arthur has been spotted in woodland in the UK. The huge animal with a full set of antlers was spotted by animal lover Brian Johnston on a quest to find it.

He had been on a mission to see it again after first coming across it a year ago. A friend of his had spent five years unsuccessfully looking for it.

White deer are extremely rare and are the subject of many myths and legends. Incredibly, Mr Johnston spotted two of them together as the older stag was with a white juvenile.

A wild beaver has been spotted in Norfolk for the first time since beavers were hunted to extinction in England at the beginning of the 16th century.

It was filmed dragging logs and establishing a lodge in a “perfect beaver habitat” on the River Wensum at Pensthorpe, a nature reserve near Fakenham in Norfolk.

It is the first time a free-living beaver has been recorded in the county since the species began to re-establish itself in the English countryside in 2015, when a litter of wild kits was born in Devon.

Shooting hares in England will be banned for most of the year as part of sweeping changes to animal welfare law.

At the moment, it is legal to shoot the animals during their breeding season, with pregnant hares left to bleed out, and leverets – their young – often orphaned as a result.

Ministers are also expected to announce the implementation of a ban on trail hunting, where hounds follow a scent rather than pursue a live animal. This was a manifesto commitment, and the new animal welfare strategy that will be announced on Monday is understood to outline a planned legislative pathway to the ban.