tracking mammals partnership
There are about 60 terrestrial wild mammal species in the UK. Many are predators, close to the top of food chains, and whether they are thriving or not, can be an important indicator of the health of the environment. Surveying all of them is beyond the resources of any single organisation but the efforts of many of the academic groups, government agencies and NGOs involved are linked through the Tracking Mammals Partnership (TMP), funded by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. At the heart of the Partnership are the many thousands of volunteers whose enthusiasm and experience underlie the surveys that take place.
The TMP acts to inform national conservation and wildlife management policy, contributing in 2007 to the review of the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. In this way, the efforts of everyone involved in the surveys have gone into shaping conservation policy at the highest level.
More information about the TMP can be found at their website www.trackingmammals.org which provides an excellent overview of mammal monitoring in the UK.
