{"id":299566,"date":"2025-11-22T12:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T12:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/299566\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T12:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T12:03:10","slug":"uk-wildlife-photographers-rally-to-highlight-habitat-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/299566\/","title":{"rendered":"UK wildlife photographers rally to highlight habitat loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vanessa PearceWest Midlands<\/p>\n

\"MarcMarc Freebrey<\/p>\n

The photographer said watching otters chase fish was like witnessing “a frantic, elegant dance”<\/p>\n

Some of the UK’s top wildlife photographers have come together to highlight the dwindling of habitats needed to support wildlife. <\/p>\n

A book containing dozens of images has been produced as a “manifesto to what is at stake,” said Irene Amiet, who heads the Wilder Britain project. <\/p>\n

“We can only feel nature’s losses if we know what we stand to lose,” she added. <\/p>\n

Photographers “continuously observe the changes in our local landscapes and how wildlife numbers keep diminishing,” she said. <\/p>\n

\"IreneIrene Amiet<\/p>\n

Lancashire-based photographer Irene Amiet is behind the Wilder Britain project<\/p>\n

The photographer, who lives in the Ribble Valley in Lancashire, said she had been focusing on her local owl population, which had “decreased rapidly” following last year’s cold winter. <\/p>\n

“You can’t take anything for granted,” she added, “one minute you think you have a healthy population but then everything can change”.<\/p>\n

More than 60 photographers had donated images for the book, with all profits going to the Rewilding Britain organisation, she explained. <\/p>\n

Photographer Rob Read captured this image of a great tit in his Hampshire garden.<\/p>\n

This common frog was spotted in a Glasgow pond by Mark Kirkland.<\/p>\n

Across the country habitats are rapidly disappearing due to “expanding towns and construction,” said Worcestershire photographer Sarah Drury. <\/p>\n

“Each lost piece takes with it irreplaceable biodiversity and a little of our shared natural world,” she added. <\/p>\n

“Yet through local conservation efforts and community awareness, there remains hope to restore habitats before they’re gone forever.”<\/p>\n

\"SarahSarah Drury<\/p>\n

Sarah Drury spotted this Exmoor pony in Somerset<\/p>\n

\"AndrewAndrew Mason<\/p>\n

It is estimated that there are only just over 500 capercaillie left in the UK<\/p>\n

Staffordshire-based Andrew Mason said he had witnessed a “worrying” decrease in wildlife in his local area. <\/p>\n

“We’re losing our butterflies, we’re losing our bees, our insects,” he explained. <\/p>\n

“We’ve seen a reduction in the birds because the farmers are cutting the hedgerows, taking away their food source for the winter. <\/p>\n

“It’s really quite upsetting,” he added. <\/p>\n

There are some positive conservation efforts going on, he added, “but we really have to work at this if we stand a chance of saving what we’ve got left.”<\/p>\n

\"MikeMike Phelps<\/p>\n

Britain’s only venomous snake, the adder, was captured on a still March morning in Staffordshire.<\/p>\n

Shropshire photographer Andrew Fusek Peters said it took several years of searching to find and photograph black darter dragonflies <\/p>\n

Their favourite spots to roost include the reed beds on the Long Mynd, in the county. <\/p>\n

“Sadly, climate change and the drying up of the shallow bog pools they favour for breeding has seen a precipitous decline of this iconic species,” he said. <\/p>\n

“Dawn is a magical time and if you are lucky, you might find a male and a female drenched in dew, glittering like Faberge broaches in the early sunshine,” he added. <\/p>\n

“Determined conservation efforts are underway to reverse their fate.”<\/p>\n

\"AndrewAndrew Fusek Peters<\/p>\n

A pair of Black Darter dragonflies were snapped on the Long Mynd in Shropshire<\/p>\n

\"AlistairAlistair Marsh<\/p>\n

An image of two brown hares boxing in the snow was the culmination of spending a week lying in freezing snow, said Alastair Marsh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vanessa PearceWest Midlands Marc Freebrey The photographer said watching otters chase fish was like witnessing “a frantic, elegant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-299566","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}