Talk notes: Conservation at Longleat Estate

The first of our series of autumn talks was given by Dr. Tom Lewis, Conservation and Research Manager at Longleat, who came to speak to us about his conservation work on 11 September. This followed on from our excursion to see the beaver territory at the estate earlier this year.
 
Most of us living locally will know of Longleat as a Safari Park, where they also do a popular light display over the Christmas period. What most of us don’t know is that there is more at Longleat than that! And thanks to Tom we gained a better understanding of what is going on there, and the role that large estates like this can play in local nature conservation.
 
Tom started to become interested in conservation by joining bird ringing groups and witnessing the disappearance of willow tits. He then spent some years abroad working in conservation projects in exotic locations, and saving species from extinction. Back in the UK, after two years at Longleat, he has witnessed the re-occurrence of two key native species which have been virtually absent for centuries: beavers and pine martens!
 
None of these two species were released by the Longleat estate. They either made their way there from other locations where they have been reintroduced, or were unofficially released by unknown persons. But the important thing for us is that they are welcome there and thriving, and perhaps we will have them soon established in our immediate area too (if we don’t already!).
 
Tom showed us some stunning aerial footage and told us how every 200 metres of waterway at Longleat now has evidence of beavers. Beavers have transformed small streams of barely 1 m width, fast flowing in winter but which used to dry up in summer, into wetlands with bodies of water of about 20 m wide and which retain water throughout the year. The slow moving waters now support minnows, toads and newts for example, and the species that feed on them.
 
One of Tom’s jobs was to find out how healthy the beaver population is, so he set up trail cameras to try to find out how many beavers were actually living there. Although his first attempts were not very successful at recording beavers, many other interesting species were recorded. The birds included: kingfishers, herons, grey wagtails, egrets, canada geese, marsh tits, jays, crossbills, sparrowhawks, spotted flycatchers… The mammals, foxes and otters. We saw beautiful footage of all these creatures displaying natural behaviours and were finally rewarded with the beavers and their kits, 4 babies in 2024! 4 babies is the upper range of beaver litters, and Tom attributes the high number to the quality of the habitat. It seems this year only 3 beaver kits were born, and one was sadly found dead.
 
Next, Tom told us about his pine marten work. Pine martens were discovered in the estate through some unusual poo, and this was later confirmed by trail camera footage. Tom has since been trying to establish how many are present and he showed us some interesting footage of 2 playful pine martens having a romp this year. Recently, a pine marten with a tracker from Exmoor (the Two Moors Pine Marten Project) has been found in the New Forest by Wild New Forest, showing how large distance movement is possible.
 
Tom mentioned future plans in his work, including analysis of bib patterns (the white marks on the chest of pine martens, unique to each individual) and DNA of scats. He fleetingly mentioned dormice footprint tunnel surveys, bat surveys, wild boar and bird counts. We are happy to hear all this is happening at Longleat and would like to hear more in due course. There is other information on their conservation projects in their website: https://www.longleat.co.uk/things-to-do/animals/conservation/uk

Inés López-Dóriga