A country house and farming estate in one of England’s driest and most nature-depleted areas has an “abundance” of wildlife with more than 5,000 species recorded, the National Trust has said.
Rare species, including barbastelle bats, great crested newts and corn buntings, have been spotted at the Wimpole Estate in Cambridgeshire in the last six years.
General manager David Hassall said the number was “remarkable in any landscape, but particularly here in Cambridgeshire, where wildlife is facing the combined pressures of habitat loss and increasingly hot, dry conditions”.
The government said the East was one of seven UK areas in drought, external, with hosepipe bans in force across parts of the region.
The charity said 5,242 species were recorded across the estate’s parkland, farmland, woodland and wetlands.
Hassall said the number “reflects five decades of careful stewardship and shows that nature can flourish alongside farming, public access and heritage conservation”.