UK Nature and Environment

Further remains of an unusual deep-sea creature called a seven-arm octopus have been found on an Aberdeenshire beach.

Arms with rows of suckers were initially discovered by a member of the public at Forvie National Nature Reserve at Collieston, near Ellon, on 30 November.

Some detective work by conservationists led to the animal being identified as a septopus, a species with eight arms like other octopus - but in males one of the arms is also a reproductive organ that they attach to females when mating.

Campaigners who say salmon are close to extinction on a river say the species could be re-established if improvements are made to an old weir.

Fish cannot cross the School Weir on the River Sid in east Devon because it is too high to jump over, meaning that the species only exists in very small numbers, said the Westcountry Rivers Trust.

The trust said salmon were "functionally extinct" in the river and urged authorities to help them.

One of the world's oldest living animal species has been restored to a reserve on the Scottish Solway coast.

Recent wet weather has hatched a new population of the rare Tadpole Shrimp at Mersehead RSPB, Dumfries.

This represents only the third known population of the crustacean in the UK.

The latest update of the UK’s Biodiversity Indicators – published last week – tells a familiar and worrying story: we live in one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth. Birds and butterflies continue to decline, while the condition of protected wildlife areas see virtually no improvement. Without a major shift in how we build and invest, nature will keep deteriorating with huge consequences for our collective future.

Research shows the UK has just 53% of its biodiversity intact, placing us in the bottom 10% of countries worldwide – and the lowest in the G7. This means that one in six species across Great Britain is now at risk of extinction.

These numbers are not abstract warnings; they represent quieter dawns, emptier skies and hedgerows, and rivers that fail to support even once-common wildlife. And when ecosystems unravel, it affects everything from food security to public health, to protecting homes from floods.

Above the roar of traffic, the rumble of the tube and the juddering construction noise of a towering new datacentre in Dagenham, east London, will soon rise a beautiful and unlikely melody: the bill-clattering of white storks.

The birds will next year make a historic return to the UK capital as part of an ambitious rewilding effort to bring charismatic nature into busy city communities.

Following the successful reintroduction of the birds to the Knepp estate in West Sussex, 45 miles south of central London, the species will be helped back to the city in a project that will also return beavers to flooded former gravel pits in Eastbrookend Country Park, Dagenham.

Data from a china clay mining company is to be reviewed by the Environment Agency after a stream near Truro turned milky white.

The stream in Coombe is a contributory to the River Fal and after heavy rainfall on Friday turned from brown to white and opaque overnight.

A spokesperson for the Environment Agency (EA) said they thought the discolouration was "linked to water from the Imerys china clay operations".

A Santas Against Sewage swimming event had to be called off due to sewage in the water prompting an onshore protest over pollution instead.

Surfers Against Sewage Cornwall had planned the festive event at Gyllyngvase Beach, Falmouth for Sunday to raise awareness of water quality.

On Friday the campaign group said South West Water had released storm discharge into the sea and instead of swimming, it said supporters should protest on the beach. One protester said it was "ironic" they could not get in the water.

After a 66-year wait, the pond at Askham Bog nature reserve has been restored! Reserve Officer DAVE POWELL describes just how much planning went into the work…

PEOPLE often think of Askham Bog as being a really wet place, as the name implies - but it actually has very little open water.

The reserve does have hundreds of small ponds created from old peat cuttings, but these are full of sphagnum moss, sedges, rushes and other vegetation.

Rare birds could thrive again at a landmark north London reservoir if work to restore their habitats is successful.

A major conservation project is under way at the Welsh Harp (Brent Reservoir), a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The project aims to reverse years of decline by improving habitats for threatened bird species.

Environment Agency faces landfill tax bill worth millions to clear illegal waste

Exclusive: ‘extremely unhelpful’ policy seen as deterrent to clearing thousands of dump sites across England Sandra Laville and Helena Horton Sat 6 Dec 2025 07.00 CET

Millions of pounds in landfill tax owed to the government has to be paid by the Environment Agency (EA) if it clears any of the thousands of illegal waste dumps across the country.

Of the £15m that taxpayers are paying for the clearance of the only site the agency has committed to clearing up – a vast illegal dump at Hoad’s Wood in Kent – £4m is landfill tax.

John Russell, a Liberal Democrat peer who helped push the agency to clean up Hoad’s Wood, described the situation as ludicrous.

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.

A pair of tiny moths have been recorded for the first time in Hampshire.

The two moths, the chocolate-brown Gelechia scotinella and Haplotinea insectella with shimmering scales were found at Pamber Forest Nature Reserve, near Tadley north of Basingstoke.

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust said the "first-ever Hampshire records" of the "micro-moths, often overlooked because of their small size and difficulty of identification...had made county history".

An alien species has been discovered in Norwich.

The creature – which has a two-tone body, scorpion-like pincers and wiry legs – may be the stuff of sci-fi nightmares, but at just 2-3mm long, it fortunately doesn’t pose a threat to humanity.

In fact, the critter was found living quietly under deadwood at Sweet Briar Marshes near the A140.

Britain’s street names are being inspired by skylarks, lapwings and starlings, even as bird populations decline.

According to a report by the RSPB, names such as Skylark Lane and Swift Avenue are increasingly common. Using OS Open Names data from 2004 to 2024, the conservation charity found that road names featuring bird species had risen by 350% for skylarks, 156% for starlings and 104% for lapwings, despite populations of these having fallen in the wild.

Between 1970 and 2022 the UK lost 53% of its breeding skylarks, 62% of lapwings and 89% of nightingales. The RSPB’s chief executive, Beccy Speight, said the analysis “shows councils and developers are happy to name streets after the nature we love while efforts to prevent these birds disappearing from our skies remain woefully inadequate”.

The motion, brought forward by Cllr Ginny Boxall, commits East Hampshire District Council to embedding river rights principles into future policies and decision-making. The Council will also host a dedicated rivers workshop early next year to explore how these principles can be practically applied at a local level.

The decision recognises rivers as living ecosystems deserving of legal protection and highlights the importance of safeguarding Hampshire’s globally rare chalk streams, including the River Meon, which runs through the district and supports a wide variety of wildlife.

The movement draws on the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Rivers, which recognises fundamental rights such as the right to flow, to remain free from pollution, to support biodiversity, and to regenerate.

An ambitious scheme to restore England’s nature over coming decades has been undermined after the government inserted a clause allowing it to terminate contracts with only a year’s notice, conservationists have said.

The project was designed to fund landscape-scale restoration over thousands of hectares, whether on large estates or across farms and nature reserves. The idea was to create huge reserves for rare species to thrive – projects promoted as decades-long commitments to securing habitat for wildlife well into the future.

Conservationists have warned these changes, as well as underfunding, will lead to low take-up and less land protected for nature. They say allowing contracts to be ripped up after a year is unworkable, as it would leave landowners with rewilded land they can no longer farm and too little time to reconvert it.

Back in 2009, red squirrels were thin on the ground in Aberdeen - instead grey squirrels were a common sight in the city's trees and parks.

Today the red squirrel population is thriving thanks to the efforts of a group of volunteers and their "citizen science".

It is thought the invasive, non-native greys have been almost eradicated locally - and there is now evidence of red squirrel activity yards from the city's main thoroughfare.

A major conservation project has reached its first milestone with vital improvements completed at two of West Sussex most important nature reserves as thousands of migrating birds arrive for the winter.

Work at RSPB Pulborough Brooks and RSPB Pagham Harbour has delivered new wetland habitats, improved visitor facilities and better water management in a project worth £300,000. The work forms the first major phase of the wider £2.4m Downs to the Sea programme, which began earlier this year.

The project aims to restore and create a network of blue spaces across the region. It is supported by a £1.7m grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, with additional funding from Southern Water and DPD.

Once upon a time — before the age of industrialisation — the North Sea teemed with marine life. But go back further still, and the land beneath the sea itself was a thriving ecosystem, home to a rich diversity of terrestrial species. Until the end of the last ice age, people and animals could move freely between Britain and continental Europe across Doggerland — a vast land bridge with hills, valleys and forests, abundant wildlife, and a significant human population. Then great ice sheets melted, sea levels rose, Doggerland slipped beneath the waves, and Britain became an island.

The highest part of Doggerland, and therefore the last part to disappear, is an area now known as Dogger Bank. Today, this vast submerged sandbank — which spans UK, Dutch, German, and Danish waters — is located around 100 kilometres off England’s east coast. Just 15 metres below the sea surface in many parts, this vital marine ecosystem serves as a nursery for sharks, rays, herring, and cod, and also forms a rich feeding ground for whales, porpoises, and seals, as well as seabirds such as puffins and gannets.

It's that time of year when you might glance up on your evening commute to see a swirling mass of starlings soaring through the air.

Starling murmurations are a natural phenomenon still only partially understood by zoologists and have intrigued us for centuries.

Even in Roman times, they fascinated Pliny the Elder, who wrote: "It is a thing unique to starlings to fly in troops and to be turned round in a circle just like a ball."

Cosy up with a wild read this winter, as The Wildlife Trust's Meg Dobson guides you through some of our best loved titles from Bloomsbury Wildlife.

This winter, unwind and reconnect with the natural world – all from the comfort of your home. As frost glitters on every surface and the low winter sun casts shadows across the ground, it feels only fitting to reach for a good book. One that will deepen our understanding of the landscapes, species and stories that shape and inspire us.

Discover a wide selection of new and notable titles from Bloomsbury Books – works that illuminate the untamed, celebrate the overlooked and offer fresh perspectives on our relationship with nature. These books promise exploration from the comfort of your favourite reading spot, so get cosy and lose yourself in nature without leaving the glow of your Christmas tree.

Red squirrels have expanded their range across the Highlands by more than a quarter after a 10-year reintroduction programme moved hundreds to new homes.

The species once came close to extinction in Britain when foresters killed them as pests and their natural habitat was destroyed. A deadly virus carried by invasive grey squirrels has hampered their recovery.

Scotland is the red’s heartland, home to 80% of the UK’s population of about 200,000. The reintroduction project, run by the rewilding charity Trees for Life, has established more than a dozen thriving new sites, from Ullapool to Morvern to Lairg.

LONDON — It is not just worshippers who are attracted to the United Kingdom’s network of traditional stone churches. Increasingly, they are also playing host to hundreds of bats.

Research carried out by the Bat Conservation Trust has revealed that over 8,000 churches provide bats with a home. The reasons for this popularity are easy to find — churches offer lots of safe, hidden places to roost within the nooks and crannies of church roof spaces. The surrounding areas offer plenty of insects to eat.

As a result, churches are proving irresistible. Over 12 bat species representing two-thirds of the native bat species, including some of the rarest, now live in churches. In the West Country, DNA analysis of droppings has revealed that some churches are home to the rare grey long-eared bat, living alongside the more common brown long-eared bats. Often, there are several different types of bats happily cohabiting the same church. It is believed that some of the roosts have been used for centuries.

What appeared to be tentacles washed up on an Aberdeenshire beach are the remains of a deep-sea creature called a seven-arm octopus, say experts.

A local member of the public spotted the arms with rows of suckers at Forvie National Nature Reserve at Collieston, near Ellon, on Sunday and alerted reserve staff.

Detective work led to the animal being identified as one of the world's largest species of octopus - although experts remain puzzled about how it washed up on the beach.

Plans have been submitted to turn an area of flood-prone grassland into a wetland nature reserve.

Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust has applied to East Lindsey District Council (ELDC) for the change of use of land off Jubilee Way, Horncastle, with the plans including landscaping and a viewing platform.

The applicant said the proposal aimed to create a "natural environmental amenity" and "visual access area" for residents.