News
A win for barnacle geese
Yesterday WWT called out a proposal being made to the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention to downgrade protection for barnacle geese in the UK and Europe, which would make it widely legal to kill them. We featured this photograph of a suitabl
27 November 2018
It could become legal to kill wild barnacle geese in the UK in the future
It could become legal to kill wild barnacle geese in the UK in the future, if a proposal by Norway to the EU is adopted. The reason is that the species has increased through conservation efforts to stop it sliding towards extinction. UK numbers of Sval
26 November 2018
Annual 'swanfall' begins as Slimbridge welcomes over 50 migratory Bewick's swans
The annual ‘swanfall’ at WWT Slimbridge has kicked off with a flurry of Bewick’s swans checking in for the winter. A total of 51 birds completed the final leg of their migration during the recent crisp nights. They join Indri, the first of the Be
20 November 2018
What Brexit means for nature
Heard much about the environment in the Brexit debate? We haven’t either. However the next few weeks turn out with the current political turmoil, Brexit is likely to have serious positive and negative impacts on our wildlife and their habitats. Ai
20 November 2018
Latest WWT science journal shines light on lives of wetland birds
New details of the lives of wetland birds are revealed for the first time in the latest issue of Wildfowl, published by WWT. The charity’s scientific journal, published annually and first printed 70 years ago, is a way of sharing new research that co
20 November 2018
Wetlands key to biodiversity
Wetland loss is driving extinctions of animal and plant species, and contributing to the world’s imminent failure to reach its 2020 global biodiversity targets: But this could be reversed by creating new wetlands. That’s the message from WWT and ot
19 November 2018
Fishy goings on! Plaques highlighting river pollution snatched
Dozens of signs, fixed near drains by schoolchildren to encourage locals to protect the Salt Hill stream, have been stolen. The disappointing discovery was made in Chalvey by WWT Conservation Officer Claire Hutchison who has been working with local commu
6 November 2018
'Message in a bottle' bird found by friend over 3000 miles away
A spoon-billed sandpiper reared by a WWT conservationist in Russia was sighted by a friend in China just weeks later. The young bird was identified in Jiangsu over 3000 miles from the Russian east coast where it was raised by aviculturalist Jodie Clement
5 November 2018
First Bewick's swan returns to the UK heralding the arrival of winter
The first Bewick’s swan of the season has landed at WWT Slimbridge in Gloucestershire, having surfed the weekend’s first blast of winter winds from the Arctic. The bird, known as Indri, is making its third visit to the famous reserve, after arriving
30 October 2018
New handbook makes waves in the wetland world
Creating wetlands in cities around the globe just got easier, thanks to a new good practice manual launched this week at the Ramsar Convention in Dubai by WWT Consulting. The handbook, created with Nanjing University Ecological Research Institute of Chan
29 October 2018
WWT Snapshot September 2018
Thank you to the astounding 600,000 visitors who took advantage of the nice weather to visit our wetland centres over spring and summer 2018. Here’s just some of the good conservation work your support has enabled WWT to achieve in the last three months
26 October 2018
Conservation heroes given Marsh Award
Two unsung heroes of conservation were rewarded for their achievements today when they each received a Marsh Award for Wetland Conservation from the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) in partnership with the Marsh Christian Trust. Colin Gray and Mark Smar
11 October 2018
Aviaries Assembled: Homes for world's rarest duck ready ahead of release
Final preparations have been made ahead of plans to release the world’s rarest duck, the Madagascar pochard, into the wild this autumn. In no mean feat, our conservation team have managed to erect floating aviaries on the remote Lake Sofia. They will s
11 October 2018
"Can do" Kate is a President for WWT's future
Kate Humble today became President of wetland conservation charity, WWT. At the charity’s annual general meeting she promised to be WWT’s most active and most vocal supporter. WWT creates and protects wetlands to help wildlife and people to thri
11 October 2018
Vote Cambodia! Help save precious wetlands
The chance to help Cambodia’s endangered wetlands is open to a public vote. In just 15 years, half of Cambodia’s wetlands have disappeared. Bergans of Norway has kindly nominated WWT’s project to save two of the last natural seasonal wetlands in th
9 October 2018