{"id":624101,"date":"2026-10-08T06:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T06:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/624101\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T06:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T06:40:12","slug":"next-uk-banknotes-to-feature-barn-owls-bumblebees-puffins-and-hedgehogs-bank-of-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/624101\/","title":{"rendered":"Next UK banknotes to feature barn owls, bumblebees, puffins and hedgehogs | Bank of England"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bees, barn owls, puffins and hedgehogs have been picked to feature on the next generation of banknotes, the Bank of England<\/a> has announced.<\/p>\n

The quartet of creatures were selected after a large-scale consultation settled on wild animals as the theme, with members of the public then asked to pick their favourites out of 18 options divided into three categories.<\/p>\n

The buff-tailed bumblebee got the most votes in the insects, fish and amphibian group; the barn owl won the bird division; and the European hedgehog was named top mammal. The Atlantic puffin was added to celebrate Britain\u2019s coastline, the Bank said.<\/p>\n

The barn owl won the bird division. Photograph: Nature Picture Library\/Alamy<\/p>\n

It is as yet undecided which species will adorn which banknote. An image of King Charles will continue to be represented on the other side of the \u00a35, \u00a310, \u00a320 and \u00a350 notes, which are expected to take several years to design.<\/p>\n

Victoria Cleland, the Bank\u2019s chief cashier, said: \u201cI am delighted that nearly half-a-million people responded to our wildlife imagery consultation, showing that cash still matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the public had chosen \u201cfour distinct and inspiring animals\u201d that not only showcased the great variety of wildlife in the UK but would \u201calso enhance the security of our banknotes\u201d.<\/p>\n

The European hedgehog was named top mammal, the Bank said. Photograph: Ian Forsyth\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Among the species losing out were the basking shark, the common frog and the red fox \u2013 the latter celebrated in David Attenborough\u2019s recent Wild London documentary, but seen as a pest by some.<\/p>\n

Atlantic puffins, with their distinctive multicoloured beaks, spend much of their lives at sea, coming ashore in summer to nest in burrows on islands off the coast including the Farne Islands and Lundy.<\/p>\n

With their numbers declining, the bird is classified as \u201cvulnerable\u201d on the International Union for Conservation of Nature\u2019s red list of threatened species.<\/p>\n

The decision to replace the historical figures on the banknotes \u2013 including Winston Churchill and Jane Austen \u2013 prompted a backlash when first announced in March<\/a>, with the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, accusing the Bank of \u201cerasing our history\u201d.<\/p>\n

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The Atlantic puffin is classified as \u2018vulnerable\u2019 on the IUCN red list of threatened species. Photograph: chris2766\/Getty Images\/iStockphoto<\/p>\n

Badenoch called it \u201ca silly thing to do\u201d, adding: \u201cI absolutely do not support it.\u201d Her Reform UK counterpart, Nigel Farage, described the move as \u201cabsolutely crackers\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, joined in, issuing a social media video in which he brandished a fiver and claimed that Churchill deserved \u201cbetter than being replaced by a badger\u201d.<\/p>\n

The badger was not among the 18-strong shortlist of animals eventually published by the Bank in June<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That selection prompted the RSPCA to complain about the choice of animals on offer, calling for less obviously cute creatures to be included.<\/p>\n

\u201cGulls, badgers, rats and pigeons all divide opinion, but this would have been a great opportunity to discuss these fantastic animals,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bees, barn owls, puffins and hedgehogs have been picked to feature on the next generation of banknotes, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-624101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}