Widnes worm Dave wriggles into record books

4 November 2016

An earthworm named Dave has wriggled into the record books as the largest found in the UK - measuring a whopping 40cm (15.7in).

Experts at the Natural History Museum bestowed the accolade upon the annelid after it ventured above ground in a vegetable plot in Widnes, Cheshire.

The Lumbricus terrestris was studied at the museum before being killed in what staff called "the sad bit of science".

It is now in a jar and will be "kind of immortal", the museum said. Image copyright Harry Taylor/NHM London Image caption Natural History Museum scientist Emma Sherlock said she was "bowled over" by Dave's size

However, not everyone was delighted with Dave's scientific sacrifice, and social media sites have been flooded with tributes.

Thousands of people have posted comments on Twitter using the hashtags #justicefordave and #justicefordavetheworm.

Within hours, a spoof @PoorDaveTheWorm Twitter account had also been created.

Watch video and read on

My father, the zoo builder

Chester Zoo was the brainchild of a shopkeeper who started it in his back garden. It meant a remarkable childhood for his daughter, writes Ellen Tsang.

June Williams was just four in 1930 when seven acres of land in Cheshire were bought by her father. His name was George Mottershead and he had a dream - to build a "zoo without bars".

Born in 1894, as a boy Mottershead had felt sorry for the caged animals at Bellevue amusement park in Manchester. He returned from fighting in World War One to set up a market garden and florist's shop. The business flourished, especially when he started selling pet birds. He decided to put his private menagerie of animals on display.

The family moved into Oakfield House with a pair of goats and a gibbon, and were soon joined by two bears bought from a wildlife park in Matlock, Derbyshire. But Mottershead's mission was fraught with difficulty from the beginning.

Continued ...

White-faced darter dragonfly reintroduced to Cheshire

A project to reintroduce a rare dragonfly to Cheshire has had "a successful start", a wildlife trust has said.

The white-faced darter dragonfly was last recorded in the county in 2003.

Cheshire Wildlife Trust (CWT) have placed 100 larvae into pools in Delamere Forest in the hope that they will thrive.

It is only the second time a dragonfly reintroduction has been attempted, following a project in Cumbria in 2010.

'Long-term hope'

The dragonfly, which CWT said was "one of the UK's rarest", is only found in Cumbria, Staffordshire, Shropshire and Scotland.

Dr Vicky Nall, who led the project, said it had been a "tense" time for her team, as they waited to see the "first tentative emergence of the darters and begin the painstaking process of counting the dried larval cases they leave behind".

Continued

Couple introduce Himalayan yak to Britain

An enterprising farming couple believe they are first to introduce the Himalayan yak to Britain.

Helen and Matthew Worth have imported the fearsome looking bovid, usually found on the Tibetan plateau, to the rolling fields of rural Cheshire.

Unlike domestic cattle, yaks can be left out in all weathers, happily dealing with temperatures as low as minus 40C.

They also sport four foot wide horns, are very nimble on their feet and are quite capable of jumping a five bar gate if spooked.

Mr and Mrs Worth imported a bull and three female yaks from Germany and Holland. They have already produced two pure-bred calves and hope to produce another bull.

They plan to visit local gastropubs and farmers' markets to promote the meat- said to be incredibly lean and low in cholesterol and saturated fat.

Mrs Worth, a 38-year-old vet, said her fascination with yaks began when she discovered they had been bred for thousands of years in the Himalayas.

She said: "Families would have originally had a yak as their house cow to be used for things like milk and butter.

"Pure-bred yaks only produce enough milk for their calves however, so they started crossing them with cows. This resulted in a hybrid that produced enough for the family.

"Not only does breeding cows with yaks make the gestational period shorter but the meat itself is very lean and low in cholesterol."

http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Couple_introduce_Himalayan_yak_to_Britain

Rare dragonflies reintroduced into Cheshire

White-faced darter dragonfly back in Cheshire's Delamere Forest

June 2013. One of the first stages of an ambitious five-year plan to reintroduce one of the UK's rarest dragonflies back into the region - after a decade of absence - has been successfully completed.

The white-faced darter dragonfly was last seen in the wild in Cheshire over the pools of Delamere Forest in 2003. The Cheshire Wildlife Trust project team has now announced that in recent days they have seen adult white-faced darters flying, and recorded evidence of a number of other individuals emerging from the water in a specially selected pool where they were translocated earlier in the summer.

Improved habitat

The return of the dragonflies comes after several years of dedicated work to reinstate and improve lost habitats in partnership with the Forestry Commission, Cheshire West & Chester Council and a meticulous translocation process and carefully planned reintroduction. Such a scheme has only been attempted twice before in the UK, again with white-faced darters in Cumbria and with the southern damselfly in Devon.

It's hoped the combined approach of creating suitable areas for the dragonflies to survive in pools within the forest, coupled with annual translocations and careful monitoring will see a self-sustaining population of white-faced darters back in the region within ten years.

Continued

Red squirrel sighted in Cheshire for the first time since 1980s

Has a Lancashire squirrel gone wandering?

December 2012. A red squirrel has been sighted in Cheshire for the first time since 1980s. Cheshire Wildlife Trust has described the sighting of a wild red squirrel in a Daresbury garden between Runcorn and Warrington as ‘extremely exciting'.

The rare mammal, which is mostly confined to Scotland and small populations scattered elsewhere across the UK, was last seen in the Cheshire region during the 1980s. The sighting was confirmed by members of the Warrington Conservation Forum and Cheshire Mammal Group (see the footage here), after a video was captured of the furry visitor making the most of local bird feeders.

A captive population of red squirrels is kept at Walton Gardens, but the nearest wild population is on the Sefton Coast, Lancashire. This group of red squirrels suffered a devastating recent drop in numbers after the squirrels succumbed to an infection of pox.

Adult squirrel
Expert Paul Hill of the local Mammal Group said that it was typical for young squirrels to explore beyond their usual territories during the autumn and winter, however the footage appeared to show an adult which was particularly interesting.

Special nut feeders
A team has now installed specialised nut feeders in the area which allow red squirrels to feed, but exclude the larger grey squirrel. Motion detection cameras will also be inspected over the coming weeks to see if the red squirrels return and to determine if there may be more than one.

Tom Marshall from Cheshire Wildlife Trust said: "This is a fantastic good news story and we really hope this visiting red squirrel is not alone. Our colleagues at Lancashire Wildlife Trust have worked hard on the recovery of red squirrels on the Sefton Coast, and to know that the squirrels are potentially exploring beyond this territory could be amazing for the Cheshire region."

Red squirrels are continuing to suffer from the intrusion of their larger, non-native American cousins into their historical haunts in northern Britain. Bolder and more aggressive, grey squirrels are also able to exploit many nuts earlier in the season, reducing supplies for red squirrels.

Recent conservation strategies have included culling the non-native greys across a ‘firewall' in parts of Scotland and northern England to try and minimise the northern spread in efforts to safeguard remaining populations of red squirrels.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/cheshire-red-squirrel.html

Police confronted by alligator having a bath on cannabis raid in Cheshire

From the outside, it looked just like a normal suburban semi, but when the police raided the three-bedroom family home they weren’t expecting to find something altogether deadly lurking in the bathroom.

A 2.4m (8ft) alligator splashing around in the bath is what ‘greeted’ officers acting on a tip-off about a cannabis factory.

They also found a poisonous king cobra, three monocled cobras and a rattlesnake after a series of raids on shops and properties nearby.

Wildlife officers and specialist reptile handling staff were brought in to deal with the animals and they are now being cared for elsewhere.

Yesterday, a 33-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of cultivating cannabis, abstracting electricity and possessing dangerous wild animals.

He was released on police bail pending further enquiries.

Insp Dave Gordon, of Cheshire Police, said some of the animals seized were ‘potentially lethal’.

He added: ‘This operation was initiated by information we received from members of the community.

‘We were concerned for the safety of the public, so swift action was taken.’

The raids on Friday took place in the Cheshire towns of Runcorn, Widnes and Warrington.

They also uncovered some minor breaches of legislation under the Pet Animals Act.

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/902800-police-confronted-by-alligator-having-a-bath-on-cannabis-raid-in-cheshire#ixzz1yclVAEVA 

Badgers in Shropshire and Cheshire to get TB vaccine

Badgers on a Shropshire nature reserve are to be vaccinated in a bid to stop the spread of bovine tuberculosis.

Shropshire Wildlife Trust will start a five-year vaccination scheme on one of its reserves this autumn.

The trust said the move would help control the disease long term and was in response to two trial badger culls by the government which it opposes.

The government said the culls aimed to fight a disease which in 2010 lead to the slaughter of nearly 25,000 cattle.

Announcing the trial culls in December, Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said she knew there was "a great strength of feeling on the issue", but action had to be taken before the situation got worse.

The Shropshire trust said it was conscious of the "impact of this disease" on the farming community and the need to put measures in place.

Read more:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-17448472

Saving frogs in a shipping container

Critically endangered green-eyed frogs from Costa Rica have taken up residence in an unusual home in the Cheshire countryside.

Conservationists at Chester Zoo have converted shipping containers to mimic the amphibians' rainforest homes.

The frogs were thought extinct until a single breeding pond was discovered in 2005.

Experts are hoping to breed a "safety net" population that can be transferred back to their natural environment.

Lead keeper of herpetology at the zoo, Ben Baker has followed the frogs' journey from start to finish.

After researchers from Manchester Museum discovered the vulnerable population, spawn was sent to the zoo to preserve future hopes for the species.

Little data is available on the species but their dramatic decline is linked to the Chytridiomycosis fungus that is affecting amphibians worldwide.

Read more:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/17299523

Rare bats discovered in Cheshire for first time in half a century

Found during routine check

February 2012: The discovery of a lesser horseshoe bats in Cheshire for the first time in more than half a century has been described as ‘extremely exciting' by the county's Wildlife Trust.

The bats were found during a routine ‘hibernation check' by volunteers from the Cheshire Bat Group at English Heritage's Beeston Castle.

The species was last recorded in the Cheshire region at the same site in 1948. The bat gets its name from its horseshoe-shaped nose.

Casualties of Sixties Silent SpringLike several species, including birds of prey such as the peregrine falcon, lesser horseshoe bats have suffered through the inappropriate use of certain pesticides, which culminated in the ground-breaking study Silent Spring in the early 1960s.

Fragmentation of their favoured habitats and the use of timber treatments in their preferred roosting areas also led to a reduction in numbers.

Today, lesser horseshoe bats are restricted to Wales, the West Midlands and the South West. The most recent record from the North West was from East Lancashire, where lesser horseshoe bats were discovered in 2009.

Geed Ryan, of Cheshire Bat Group, said: ‘We have always known that lesser horseshoe bats were across the border in Wales and that this area of Cheshire has suitable habitat and feeding grounds for them - so we had hoped to find them one day.

Bats found hanging freely in caves‘Lesser horseshoe bats do not use boxes and these individuals were hanging freely in the caves, so although only the size of a plum, they were quite easy to spot.'

Fellow enthusiast Mike Freeman said the group would now carry out further monitoring to see where the bats are moving to and from. English Heritage have also confirmed the site at Beeston Castle will continue to be managed for the benefit of bats.

Sarah Bennett from Cheshire Wildlife Trust added: ‘It's often easy with familiar wildlife such as otters and birds to understand when numbers are in decline, but with a challenging group of species like bats it takes time and dedication to monitor their numbers.

‘We're thrilled that the Bat Group have made this discovery, and it also demonstrates the importance of maintaining high quality natural habitats throughout our countryside, as we may not always know when wildlife is slowly making a recovery behind the scenes.'

Mrs Bennett added: ‘It's especially heartening in the trust's 50th anniversary year to hear that species are continually making a comeback, despite the challenges that have been thrown at our wildlife during the past 50 years.'

All bats are protected by law, and anyone inspecting areas for bat activity or handling bats must hold an official licence.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/bats-cheshire.html

Puma-like cat spotted in fields (via Paul Cropper)

Puma-like cat spotted in fields
22 April 2010
Cheddar Valley Gazette
(c) 2010 Cheddar Valley Gazette

The Big Cat of Banwell Wood has been sighted.

Felicity Saunders, who has chickens in her garden, said residents need to be warned about the puma-like cat which she watched pounding across the field and into the woods. The big cat, which was black, has now been seen twice in fields at Banwell.

Miss Saunders, who saw the cat on Thursday, also heard a growling noise as she walked her dog later that evening in Banwell Wood. Her home in East Street adjoins a field which backs on to the wood.
She said: "My nephew, James Galloway, drew my attention to it.

"At first I thought it was just a pet cat but when it started to run I realised it was far too big, with a long body and big tail. It was puma-sized, bigger than a Labrador dog. It ran into the wood. The vicar says a lady saw it up in Dark Lane a few days ago. It's jet black. I want to warn people to be careful with their pets. I keep chickens which might have attracted it."

There have been 100 sightings of alleged exotic and unidentified animals in the UK in the last five years. Last month Charlie Wilson, who co-ordinates reports of sightings for English Nature, the Government agency responsible for investigating them, said some sightings are plausible and he is prepared to believe that occasionally exotic animals have been dumped in the countryside or escaped. But he said he does not believe there are breeding populations.