\n The findings come from a nature recovery project led by the New Forest National Park Authority as part of the \u00a31.3 million Species Survival Fund scheme.\n<\/p>\n
\n It focused on land around the forest, enhancing 321 hectares – equivalent to 418 football pitches – through habitat restoration.\n<\/p>\n
\n A pine marten (Image: Russell Wynn)\n<\/p>\n
\n Professor Russell Wynn, director of Wild New Forest, said: “There were multiple sightings of pine martens during surveys in 2024 and 2025, as well as a pair marking their scent on the same rhododendron stump an hour apart in October 2025.\n<\/p>\n
\n “A nearby camera also recorded a female pine marten transferring at least three kits between den sites which suggests breeding took place locally.\n<\/p>\n
\n “As a result, we were able to warn colleagues at FHT and sub-contractors about their presence and to ensure any potential den sites were protected during removal of rhododendron.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Among the 28 mammals recorded were a rare sighting of a water shrew and three brown hares, plus otters which are now widespread in most river catchments in the New Forest.\n<\/p>\n
\n Survey work also logged more than 140,000 individual bat passes, confidently identifying all 14 bat species found in the New Forest.\n<\/p>\n
\n Nearly 100 bird species were recorded, including 13 \u2018priority\u2019 species such as the Dartford warbler, kingfisher, and woodlark.\n<\/p>\n
\n These species are given special protection during the breeding season.\n<\/p>\n
\n Seven reptile and amphibian species were found, including two sand lizards which are nationally red-listed as endangered.\n<\/p>\n
\n A small colony of the nationally rare 13-spot Ladybird, the first New Forest record in over 15 years, was among the 431 invertebrate species logged.\n<\/p>\n
\n A brown hare (Image: Russell Wynn)\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Wynn said: “Rare woodland fungi were discovered next to areas where dense rhododendron had been cleared.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It is not yet fully understood how fungi responds when rhododendron is cleared, but opening up woodland is expected to boost their long-term survival prospects in the New Forest.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The project was funded through the government\u2019s Species Survival Fund.\n<\/p>\n
\n This fund was developed by Defra and its Arm’s-Length Bodies, and was delivered by The National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with Natural England and the Environment Agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The findings come from a nature recovery project led by the New Forest National Park Authority as part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-546754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}