The Art of Saving Species – Projects
Conserving endangered species is more than just direct practical action – being inspired to talk, write, paint, sculpt or take part in any creative activity by nature is a step towards securing it.
We protect what we care about, and we care about we see, what moves us, and what inspires us.
The Art of Saving Species has been a crucial part of Back from the Brink - it allowed us to offer creative opportunities to local communities in which they could create relationships with species and explore those emotional connections, creating a legacy of lasting impact.
Back from the Brink has spent the last four years tirelessly working to save England’s most threatened species from extinction. Through nineteen projects scattered across the country we have been securing and restoring the fortunes of our most endangered wildlife; reintroducing extinct species, rediscovering lost populations and reinvigorating habitats. Explore the sample of projects below and get a feel for some of our species and the events and artworks that they inspired.
Grey Long-eared Bat
These enchanting little creatures are among the UK’s rarest mammals. They are intelligent animals which hunt for moths and other insects by night over wildflower meadows along the south coast of England. They are long-lived and social, the females giving birth to their single babies in maternity roosts. But there could be as few as 1,000 of these bats left, and we know their numbers are still falling.
Willow Tit
Small, stocky and quietly coloured, this is the UK’s most threatened resident bird. We’ve lost 94% of them since the 1970s, and they are now extinct in most of their former haunts in the south and south-east of England.
As these birds are so sedentary, they are very vulnerable to loss and fragmentation of habitat. They like old industrial areas which generate scrub and young woodland, but these are often considered wasteland, and not worthy of conservation effort. Even if these areas are not developed, this will eventually turn to mature woodland if not managed, and become unsuitable for Willow Tits.
Shrill Carder Bee
The Shrill Carder Bee is probably England’s rarest species of bumblebee. Fluffy, with black and straw-coloured stripes and a warm orange tail, this species was once found throughout southern Britain. However, areas that were once filled with wildflowers, on which these bees depend, have been lost to changing land management and expanding development.
Only tiny clusters of the bee’s former population remain. Three of these are in South Wales, and two are in England. The English sites, Somerset and the Essex/Kent border, are where Back from the Brink has been working to understand and safeguard this species.
Why is it ‘shrill’? The Shrill Carder Bee buzzes at a higher pitch than the much more frequent and widespread Common Carder Bee.
Shifting Sands
The Brecks straddles the Norfolk and Suffolk border. It is one of the most unusual landscapes in lowland England, with vast conifer plantations and large arable fields edged with lines of crooked pines. It developed from an ancient landscape of sandy, chalky soils, wide open heaths, sheep walks, medieval rabbit warrens and shallow river valleys. This is one of the most important areas for wildlife in the UK, including birds such as the Stone Curlew, Nightjar and Woodlark.
Roots of Rockingham
Rockingham Forest covers more than 200 square miles, and has long been part of the natural and cultural heritage of Northamptonshire. It was designated a hunting forest by William the Conqueror back in 1086. Much of the once-vast ancient broad-leaved forest remains, but in separate woodland patches, dotted through the arable landscape. These are wonderful places, where nationally rare plants, bats, birds, reptiles and butterflies can still be found.
Pine Marten
Elusive members of the weasel family, they are half a metre long, weighing about the same as a rabbit. Pine Martens live in woods. They are agile climbers, and raise their families in tree holes. Resourceful and inquisitive, they eat many things, including small mammals, berries and birds. Once very common, their numbers were devastated by clearance of woodland and control by gamekeepers and landowners.
Limestone’s Living Legacies
The almost magical beauty of the Cotswolds in spring and summer defies the term “unimproved grassland”. Growing on soil that is based on limestone, these grasslands can be brim-full of wild flowers, butterflies, bees and many more creatures. They are lost when they are “improved” for farming by reseeding and fertilising. Created long ago when humans cleared the forests, this is a fragile haven for species that could not survive without it.
Little Whirlpool Ramshorn Snail
Its name is surely bigger than the animal itself! This aquatic snail is rarely more than 5mm in diameter, but it’s one of the rarest, most restricted and most vulnerable freshwater molluscs in Britain.
Lesser Butterfly Orchid
This delicate, beautiful and sweetly-scented plant, with its single spike of pale flowers, grows in a wide range of places, from bogs to grassland, and even into woodland. It’s widespread, but has declined drastically – disappearing from more than half of its former range in just 50 years, especially in the east of England.
Ladybird Spider
This colourful creature lives on lowland heathland, building vertical, silk-lined burrows, crowned with a silk canopy which they use to ambush the insects they feed on. Females and immature males are mostly black; the males develop that glorious red abdomen with black spots once they are ready to breed.
The Art of saving species
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