Banking on Change

A GOOD WEEK FOR UK WILDLIFE

Nature lovers in the UK were feeing uplifted this week after three pieces of good news: i) an 'extinct' butterfly species has recently been spotted across southern England, ii) thanks to the voting public, British Wildlife will soon be celebrated on our bank notes and iii) researchers from Oxford University have discovered that hedgehogs can hear high-frequency ultrasound which could be used to protect them by deterring them from roads.

1) Photographs of large tortoiseshell butterflies classed as extinct in the UK for over 30 years were snapped by nature lovers in Kent, Hampshire, Sussex, Dorset, Cornwall and the Isle of Wight over the past fortnight.

"This is great news," said Prof Richard Fox, Butterfly Conservation's head of science. "I think it's reasonable to assume that the species is now established in several parts of Britain."

2) Meanwhile, Oxford University researchers playing short bursts of sounds to 20 rehabilitated hedgehogs recorded electrical signals travelling between the inner ear and the brain and discovered that hedgehogs hear sounds at a much higher frequency than previously thought. Humans can hear up to 20kHz, dogs hear up to 45kHz, whilst hedgehogs can hear up to 85kHz!

This could lead to a real reversal in their decline (hedgehogs are classed as near threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature), as targeted sound repellents can be developed for cars or gardening equipment, avoiding their thousands of unnecessary deaths on the roads. More development needs to be done on the type of sound that's used and this research also opens the door to new studies on whether they use their hearing to search out prey and hedgehog communication, perhaps to one another at frequencies we just can't hear.

3) Finally, Nature was the most popular theme among 44,000 respondents in a public consultation run by the Bank of England of what to feature on its next series of banknotes - endorsing the view that wildlife is worth celebrating! The Bank will incorporate images of animals native to the UK on its £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes and has engaged a panel of wildlife experts who will help create a list of wildlife for the public to consider as part of the next consultation this summer. Scottish notes already include animals such as mackerel, otters and red squirrels (as below):

(Pic of Large Tortoiseshell by Adam Gor, courtesy of Butterfly Conservation)