Recording the whereabouts and population strength of any species is vitally important. The data gathered allows scientists to measure the growth, or decline, of a population, its distribution, and potentially a whole host of external factors that drive the success of those populations.

The key element of species recording, is that from location to location, the work is predominantly delivered by teams of volunteers, whether they be naturalists, ecologists, photographers, students or people from many other walks of life. The data gathered is usually cleansed and administered locally (within region or vice-county), and then fed up the chain where it ends up in both National and International databases that can be access and shared across the world.

Anyone can submit a species record or sighting, however, there are a few essential pieces of information it is necessary to provide…usually summed up as When, Where and What:

• When – Make a note of the date on which you observed the specimen

• Where – If the site has a name then provide this, usually along with a grid reference number (a six digit grid reference indicating a 100 square metre plot is fairly standard)

• What – A common name, and scientific name if known, for the species observed. Photos can also be a massive aid to identification, and a selection from different angles should be taken if at all possible

In addition to these pieces of information, it is also useful to record the following:

• Abundance – How many individuals of the species did you observe

• Identified By – As the species observer, it is useful to have the right point of contact for any queries coming from the record

• Confidence – How sure are you that the specimen recorded is the species you believe it to be. Good quality photographs will really help here

If you don’t know who to pass on the information to, once you have recorded the above, then try Googling for your local recorder information e.g. A Google search for ‘Leicestershire species recorder’ returns links to the correct points of contact at the local council, as well as the Naturespot website dealing with records for Leicestershire and Rutland (VC55)

More nationally targetted recording schemes can be found here on the Biological Records Centre website

And here is an example of one of my own records, submitted to the Naturespot website – Species Record – Pamphilius betulae

In Britain, the recording of species is generally organised in accordance with the system of Vice-counties, a system of division of Britain and Ireland into geographical units based upon traditional counties. They are sometimes called Watsonian vice-counties as they were introduced for Great Britain, its offshore islands, and the Isle of Man, by Hewett Cottrell Watson who first used them in the third volume of his Cybele Britannica published in 1852.

Large traditional counties were split into several Vice-counties to produce units of approximately equal size across the country. Thus large counties such as Devon and Lincolnshire each comprise two Vice-counties, whereas smaller counties such as Bedfordshire and Monmouthshire are each single Vice-counties. Yorkshire contains five Vice-counties and the modern county of Highland fully encompasses six Vice-counties and parts of another three.

Vice-counties are still used by recorders because they provide historical stability. The borders of Vice-counties do not change, whereas those of political counties have changed dramatically and continue to do so. Species recorders will typically work to Vice-county boundaries.

How do you find out which Vice-county you are recording in?

The Botanical Society of the British Isles has an online tool that will assign a grid reference to a Vice-county, click here

The Biological Records Centre website has a useful feature that will produce a list of Ordnance Survey grid squares in each Vice-county, click here

Great Britain
VC Vice county
1 West Cornwall with Scilly
2 East Cornwall
3 South Devon
4 North Devon
5 South Somerset
6 North Somerset
7 North Wiltshire
8 South Wiltshire
9 Dorset
10 Isle of Wight
11 South Hampshire
12 North Hampshire
13 West Sussex
14 East Sussex
15 East Kent
16 West Kent
17 Surrey
18 South Essex
19 North Essex
20 Hertfordshire
21 Middlesex
22 Berkshire
23 Oxfordshire
24 Buckinghamshire
25 East Suffolk
26 West Suffolk
27 East Norfolk
28 West Norfolk
29 Cambridgeshire
30 Bedfordshire
31 Huntingdonshire
32 Northamptonshire
33 East Gloucestershire
34 West Gloucestershire
35 Monmouthshire
36 Herefordshire
37 Worcestershire
38 Warwickshire
39 Staffordshire
40 Shropshire
41 Glamorganshire
42 Breconshire
43 Radnorshire
44 Carmarthenshire
45 Pembrokeshire
46 Cardiganshire
47 Montgomeryshire
48 Merionethshire
49 Caernarvonshire
50 Denbighshire
51 Flintshire
52 Anglesey
53 South Lincolnshire
54 North Lincolnshire
55 Leicestershire (with Rutland)
56 Nottinghamshire
57 Derbyshire
58 Cheshire
59 South Lancashire
60 West Lancashire
61 South-east Yorkshire
62 North-east Yorkshire
63 South-west Yorkshire
64 Mid-west Yorkshire
65 North-west Yorkshire
66 County Durham
67 South Northumberland
68 North Northumberland
69 Westmorland (with Furness)
70 Cumberland
71 Isle of Man
72 Dumfriesshire
73 Kirkcudbrightshire
74 Wigtownshire
75 Ayrshire
76 Renfrewshire
77 Lanarkshire
78 Peebleshire
79 Selkirkshire
80 Roxburghshire
81 Berwickshire
82 East Lothian
83 Midlothian
84 West Lothian
85 Fifeshire
86 Stirlingshire
87 West Perthshire
88 Mid Perthshire
89 East Perthshire
90 Angus
91 Kincardineshire
92 South Aberdeenshire
93 North Aberdeenshire
94 Banffshire
95 Moray
96 East Inverness-shire
97 West Inverness-shire
98 Argyllshire
99 Dunbartonshire
100 Clyde Isles
101 Kintyre
102 South Ebudes
103 Mid Ebudes
104 North Ebudes
105 West Ross & Cromarty
106 East Ross & Cromarty
107 East Sutherland
108 West Sutherland
109 Caithness
110 Outer Hebrides
111 Orkney
112 Shetland

You only have to look at when Thomas Austin released 24 wild rabbits at his Barwon Park property near Geelong in Victoria in 1859. This small population rocketed to cover Victoria and New South Wales by 1886, and by 1900, rabbits had reached the Northern Territory and Western Australia. This rapid spread led to the destruction of large tracts of vegetation, leading to the extinction of many plant species. Loss of vegetation leads to soil erosion as the exposed soil is washed or blown away, removing valuable soil nutrients required for new plants to develop. This soil is typically deposited in waterways, causing siltation and destroying aquatic ecosystems. The wanton destruction of habitat contributed to the demise of many native marsupial species, and the Pest Animal Control Cooperative Research Centre recently estimated the direct cost of rabbits to the Australian economy at $113.11 million; however other estimations have suggested that the costs could be much higher, at closer to $600 million.

On Friday 29th May 2009 – The Scottish Beaver Trial (SBT), a partnership project run by the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT), the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) and host partner Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS), officially began, and the first beavers to live in Scotland for over 400 years were released into the wild.

Marking the first formal reintroduction of a native mammal species into the wild in the UK, three beaver families were released at carefully selected sites in Knapdale Forest, Mid-Argyll. The beavers, originally from Norway, were chosen because they are considered to be the closest type to those once found in the UK, and all completed a six-month statutory quarantine period.

And while a great deal of research has already gone into the reintroduction, this work is far from over. Observations and data collection over the next five years will play a crucial role in assessing the long term future for beavers in the Scottish landscape – The work is being independently monitored by Scottish Natural Heritage

The release is for a time-limited trial period and comes after years of lobbying by ecologists and conservation experts who believe that the beaver has been a missing part of our wetland eco-systems since being hunted to extinction in the 16th Century. The trial is mostly funded thanks to private donations and grants, including up to £1 million from Biffaward and support from People’s Postcode Lottery and People’s Trust for Endangered Species.

Allan Bantick, Chairman of SWT and Chair of the Scottish Beaver Trial partnership, said: “The release of the beavers today means that we are one step closer to rebuilding the natural biodiversity of Scotland. Beavers are a native species made extinct by man and we are hoping that our trial reintroduction is a step towards seeing this corrected. Beavers are a species worth having in any ecosystem as their presence is known to bring a vast number of benefits to other native Scottish wildlife as well as wetland and waterside habitats. Our reintroduction follows in the footsteps of 24 other European countries, who have already reintroduced beavers to over 150 different sites.”

The time limited nature of the reintroduction is very useful. It will allow a reasonably thorough assessment of the effects they have on the local environment, and how well they settle into the new habitat. The data recorded will then be used to assess impacts to the local habitats, the biodiversity, and any benefits they have brought with them that improve the locality. It has been thought that beavers might pose a risk to migratory fish numbers, including salmon, however this has not been found to be the case anywhere else in Europe, and cannot be tested with this trial because there are no Atlantic salmon present in the trial site – See also Salmon & Trout Association – Reintroducing Beaver – Briefing Paper

The habitat of the beaver is the riparian zone (A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream), inclusive of stream bed. The actions of beavers for hundreds of thousands of years in the Northern Hemisphere have kept these watery systems healthy and in good repair, although a human observing all the downed trees might think that the beavers were doing just the opposite.

The beaver works as a keystone species in an ecosystem by creating wetlands that are used by many other species. Next to humans, no other extant animal appears to do more to shape its landscape.

Beavers fell trees for several reasons. They fell large mature trees, usually in strategic locations, to form the basis of a dam, but European beavers tend to use small diameter (<10 cm) trees for this purpose. Beavers fell small trees, especially young second-growth trees, for food. Broadleaved trees re-grow as a coppice, providing easy-to-reach stems and leaves for food in subsequent years. Ponds created by beavers can also kill some tree species by drowning but this creates standing dead wood, which is very important for a wide range of animals and plants.

It is also proven that beaver ponds, and the wetlands that succeed them, remove sediments and pollutants from waterways, including total suspended solids, total nitrogen, phosphates, carbon and silicates – See HERE

Check out the Blog on the Official Scottish Beaver Trial site (below) for more up to date information, but for now, I look forward to seeing the results of the initial 5 year trial in 2014…

Official Home of the Scottish Beaver Trial

Edinburgh Zoo – Scotland welcomes back the Beaver