Royal Mail Stamps, Endangered Mammals and Conservation in London – all in one blog!

Conservation and rescue efforts are helping several of the animals featured on Royal Mail’s set of ten Mammals stamps issued on 13 April. They include otters, water voles, hedgehogs and bats.

“Mammals” is Royal Mail’s fourth Action for Species stamps series. It turns the spotlight on the UK’s mammal population and their struggle for survival in a changing world.

All 10 featured mammals, including the seemingly prevalent hedgehog, are the subject of conservation programmes. Their decline has caused by pollution, the growth in roads and housing developments, and in some cases, the introduction of non-native species. The UK has become increasingly aware of the threats to our mammal populations. Many now benefit from legal protection including otters, bats, polecats and since 2008 water voles too. Together with active conservation measures endangered mammals are showing encouraging signs of recovery.
By 1990 water vole populations had declined by 90 per cent. This was one of the most rapid and dramatic declines of any British wild mammal and occurred across the country. This huge decline over the last 50 years has been due to damage caused to riversides and predation by the American mink – a species that was introduced to this country for its fur. Nowadays, though, mink control and improved management of waterside habitats are encouraging their survival.

The Biodiversity Action Plan for London includes the water vole as a key species. The London Wildlife Trust's Water Vole Project started in March 2001 and is dedicated to the conservation of this species throughout Greater London. This project has had initial success and has contributed to London being a stronghold for this rare mammal.

In Greater London water vole distribution is sparse, however the project has identified a number of important locations where water voles still thrive. The most significant populations can be found in dykes in the marshes at Rainham and Crayford to the east of London. Other healthy populations live on rivers such as the Ingrebourne and Beam in the Havering area, the Crane, Colne and Frays in West London and waterways in the Lea Valley, North London.

The RSPB Reserve at Rainham, Wennington and Aveley Marshes is a key national site for the water vole. A united effort between the London Wildlife Trust and RSPB Rainham has helped to arrest the decline of the water vole population at Rainham.

In 2001, 147 voles bred in captivity at Wildwood, Kent were released by the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) at their wetland centre in Barnes. Two further releases were subsequently carried out in order to mimic a natural immigration and diversify the gene pool. The water vole population at the London Wetland Centre has expanded successfully and the ultimate aim is to connect this population with others across London to ensure the species’ long-term survival in the region.

London Wildlife Trust’s London Water Vole Project also involves working with landowners, developers and relevant authorities throughout London to protect, enhance or create water-side habitat where water voles are living. Education is also important to help people recognise differences between water voles and rats to avoid the accidental destruction of colonies through pest control.

Otters, also featured on a stamp, are a rare site in London because of farming chemical seepage and road and housing developments. However during water vole surveys the London Wildlife Trust has found recent evidence of an otter at the River Wraysbury at Harmondsworth Moor, near Heathrow and at Denham Lock Woods, on the River Colne, Denham. The only two other fairly recent sightings in London were at Redbridge in 2002 and Enfield in 2003.

Featured on the new Royal Mail stamps are two types of bat; the brown long-eared bat and greater horseshoe bat. Over the last 50 years, Britain’s bats have suffered severely from disturbance to vital breeding and hibernating places as well as from a lack of insect food caused by changes in land management and pesticides.

Conservation efforts to protect and increase roosting sites, appropriate habitat management and raising public awareness are helping to stabilise and increase bat numbers. Bats can be seen in all of the London Boroughs, especially the tiny pipistrelle which manages to hang on even in the more built up areas of central London.

The sculptural Berkeley bat house opened last year at WWT’s London Wetland Centre in Barnes. The architects, Jorgen Tandberg and Yo Murata were chosen from an open competition to design a building of aesthetic and environmental excellence, using sustainable materials, which offers a home to bats and an educational visitor attraction for people.

The bat house offers a dry roosting area for pipistrelles and a damper area underneath the building for Daubenton’s bats - the species also known as the water bat – which only roost above water. Water is crucial for providing food for bats. The London Wetland Centre is important for the number of different bat species found there and also for the sheer number of soprano pipistrelles – the newest species of mammal to be identified in the UK.

More than 100 local ‘bat groups’ have been formed throughout Britain. These groups assist with the monitoring of existing bat colonies and the discovery and protection of new ones. Special bat boxes have been put up to provide secure roosting sites. Underground hibernation sites, including caves and old mine tunnels, are also being protected from disturbances by fitting steel grilles over the entrance. These activities are all co-ordinated by the Bat Conservation Trust, which runs various projects and initiatives, as well as operating the National Bat Helpline.

Many people do not realise that hedgehogs are in significant decline which is why that mammal is also featured on the stamps and has been included in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. The number of urban hedgehogs is falling with more gardens covered over for parking, or flower beds and lawns replaced with low maintenance decking and patios, and with every green space that is developed for housing or commercial use. Urban hedgehogs have fewer places to forage, and their routes are blocked by fences, new and busier roads and denser housing.

So as you place your stamp on your next letter – appreciate the beauty of the wildlife pictured and the need to ensure we don’t lose these mammals for ever.


You can hear interviews with many of the UKs leading conservation organisations on PASSION for the PLANET