Patrick Barkham
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Guardian writer. Books, butterflies, Norfolk Wildlife Trust President. Latest is THE SWIMMER, biography of Roger Deakin. (The silver fox in the Speedos is Rog.)
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Articles by Patrick Barkham
‘It makes your heart sing': Can a pioneering project show that rewilding really works?
In the silent countryside south of Grantham, three vast steel barns rattled in the breeze. Gathered in a loose circle beside them were 15 landowners, land agents and a couple of young investors; all expensively dressed men, many with a sceptical mien.
British swallowtail split from European cousins much earlier than thought, study finds
The endangered swallowtail butterfly Papilio machaon britannicus, which is only regularly found breeding in Britain on the Norfolk Broads, has been a distinct subspecies for at least 200,000 years, according to a study. Smaller, darker in colour and much rarer than the continental swallowtail, britannicus was previously considered to have developed its distinctive form during its confinement in the wetlands of eastern England over the last 8,000 years, after the flooding of Doggerland.
Hunting the tardigrade: one small step in sequencing DNA of all life on Earth
Witek Morek is closely inspecting an old brick-and-flint wall on the Cambridgeshire campus of the Wellcome Sanger Institute. "We are going to use a very advanced tool designed by bioengineers and evolved over millions of years – the human hand – and grab some moss, and put it in an envelope," he says. This is tardigrade hunting, the first small step in a gargantuan, wildly ambitious scientific undertaking: to sequence the genomes of all life on Earth.
Nominate your invertebrate of the year
Step aside World Cup heroes, there's a bigger global competition in town. The whistle has been blown to launch the third Invertebrate of the Year contest. We want you to nominate your favourite spineless creature for the hugely popular annual Guardian jamboree which celebrates the wonder and importance of the world's invertebrates. Are you enraptured by earthworms? Do you have a crush on cephalopods? Are you barmy about beetles? Blown away by butterflies? Mad for moths?
‘Living laboratory’: Suffolk agroforestry farm seeks community ownership to survive
The aerial view of Wakelyns matches the experience of visiting it at ground level: in a region dominated by prairie fields of industrial agriculture, here lies a vivid green lung of land. Its sounds and sights in summer – the sleepy purr of the turtle dove, the vivid pink flash of a bullfinch – have vanished from most of the British countryside. But Wakelyns is not a nature reserve – it is a thriving farm, a "living laboratory" for agroforestry and a hub for innovation and business.
Estudo revela que andorinhões migratórios retornam fielmente todos os anos aos ninhos em edifícios
Foto: RSPB / Ben Andrew Segundo um estudo, os andorinhões migratórios retornam fielmente todos os anos aos seus ninhos em edifícios, o que destaca a importância de fornecer tijolos ocos para nidificação a essas aves ameaçadas de extinção, caso os locais de nidificação tradicionais sejam perdidos devido a reformas.
Migrating swifts loyally return every year to nests in buildings, study finds
Migratory swifts loyally return every year to their nests in buildings, according to a study, underlining the importance of providing the endangered birds with hollow nesting bricks if traditional nest sites are lost to renovations. The swift, which is on the red list of conservation concern, is one of Britain's most threatened species, having declined in number by 70% since 1995 because of the loss of nesting sites, often when old buildings are re-roofed or given better insulation.
Migrating swifts loyally return every year to nests in buildings, study finds
Migratory swifts loyally return every year to their nests in buildings, according to a study, underlining the importance of providing the endangered birds with hollow nesting bricks if traditional nest sites are lost to renovations. The swift, which is on the red list of conservation concern, is one of Britain's most threatened species, having declined in number by 70% since 1995 because of the loss of nesting sites, often when old buildings are re-roofed or given better insulation.
Blame the Enlightenment for species extinction
The Butterfly Season: On Beginnings, Endings and the Life in Between Particular Books, pp.320, 25 As if she hadn’t got enough on her plate already, the high-powered Danish journalist and mother of three Lea Korsgaard decides to track down all Danish butterfly species in a single summer.
Piglet, it’s a purple, psychedelic shapeshifter! The wild new creature prowling Winnie-the-Pooh’s wood
Poppet … more interested in devouring gorse than children.Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian (Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian) The rolling idyll of heath and forest, spinney and stream that gave us the Heffalump, the Woozle and, most famously of all, Winnie-the-Pooh, has a new fantastical resident. Creeping through the bracken, making strange cooing and purring noises, is a shapeshifting creature with a huge tubular nose and eyes inspired by adders.
‘Emotional and horrific’: volunteers ‘live’ as Somerset animals to study wildlife risks
What does a kestrel make of the dog sniffing in the long grass below? Why does an exhausted salmon pause before a weir? How will an otter experience the rumble of a passing train? Eighteen people have spent six weeks swimming, slithering and soaring as otters, salmon, earthworms, red deer and kestrels in an attempt to better document the risks for wild animals in our human-dominated landscape.
‘I'm 90 for goodness sake': Rainforest activist to pedal 104 miles down Thames
Pedalling on water for more than a hundred miles in a heatwave, pushed back by east winds and having to navigate 31 locks would be a challenge for anybody. But when that body is 90 years old, with a bad knee, failing balance and malfunctioning arms and shoulders, it's a herculean feat.
‘Most famous tree in the world’: Sherwood Forest’s 1,000-year-old Major oak dies
The Major oak, one of Europe's oldest, largest and most celebrated ancient trees, has died. The huge tree, which has grown in Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, England, for at least 1,000 years, failed to produce any leaves this year, after becoming stressed by a series of hot, dry summers. Thousands of visitors admire the oak each year, with its great age, enormous 11-metre girth and 28-metre canopy inspiring a forest of folklore.
Honeybees make specialised ‘baby food’ to give larvae balanced diet, study says
Honeybees blend a special "baby food" to give their larvae a balanced diet, with adult bees also able to regulate their feeding to avoid overconsuming certain nutrients, according to a study. Researchers have discovered that bees can adjust how much they eat when pollen sources do not provide them with the ideal balance of essential amino acids, the essential building blocks of protein that animals cannot make for themselves and must obtain from their diet.
Britain’s favourite butterfly revealed – and it’s a familiar backyard beauty
The votes are in on Britain's favourite butterfly, and it is one of the most ubiquitous yet spectacular backyard beauties that has flown to victory. With its lavender, yellow and maroon eye spots and luscious rusty red and black colouration, the peacock butterfly is both beautiful and commonplace, flying throughout spring, summer and autumn in all corners of the British Isles.
Subterranean fungi networks more than 100 quadrillion km in length, study finds
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are networks of tubular cells called hyphae. Photograph: Alf Jacob Nilsen/Alamy Our planet’s soils contain enough of the subterranean fungi that sustain plant life and help regulate the climate to stretch from the Earth to the sun almost three-quarters of a billion times, a groundbreaking new study has found. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are networks of tubular cells called hyphae that sustain life on Earth by forming critical partnerships with more than 70% of plants.
Subterranean fungi networks more than 100 quadrillion km in length, study finds
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How the ‘Picasso of ponds’ went from shaping golf courses to making freshwater homes for wildlife
He is known as “the Picasso of ponds” but the tableaux being created by Shaun Hancox in a boggy field in Somerset currently looks more like a building site. An orange and black excavator is rhythmically removing lumpy clay soil and sculpting it into brown banks. The result looks like a scar of bare earth on what was once green pasture – but the magic happens as soon as rain fills the newly created depressions.
How the ‘Picasso of ponds’ went from shaping golf courses to making freshwater homes for wildlife
Patrick Barkham Sat, June 6, 2026 at 7:00 a.m. UTC 6 min read Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. He is known as "the Picasso of ponds" but the tableaux being created by Shaun Hancox in a boggy field in Somerset currently looks more like a building site. An orange and black excavator is rhythmically removing lumpy clay soil and sculpting it into brown banks.
Get set for a painted lady summer: big year for orange butterflies in Britain
If you've spotted a pale orange butterfly dashing at frenetic pace through streets, fields or gardens, you've noticed the new migrants that will add colour to the summer in record-breaking numbers. What is expected to be the largest arrival of painted lady butterflies in Britain for 17 years is under way after heatwaves and favourable winds ushered thousands if not millions of the insects northwards. The painted lady flies north from sub-Saharan Africa at the start of every year.
‘Hold your nerve and trust nature’: birds, bats and butterflies rebound at Somerset rewilding farm
Three years of rewilding on a former dairy farm in east Somerset have seen recorded bird species soar from 67 to 94, butterfly species rise from 11 to 24 and small mammals grow in number. Heal Somerset, the first site acquired by the charity Heal Rewilding, has produced a state of nature report mirroring a national survey by environmental charities that has tracked the decline in nature.
Gaslit, shamed and swindled: the play about Eleanor Glanville, persecuted for her love of butterflies
Pulse-quickener … a Glanville fritillary; writer Claire Jackson hunts for silver-spotted skippers.Composite: Alamy / Phillip Nangle (Composite: Alamy / Phillip Nangle) ‘There’s nothing wrong with having a hobby, or even what you might call in this case a hyperfocus,” psychiatrist Dr Godrick tells Eleanor Glanville in a claustrophobic therapy room. Outside the Phoenix theatre in Hampshire, a summer heatwave is delivering perfect conditions for butterflies.
Britons to vote in inaugural contest to find nation’s favourite butterfly
Will it be the rapidly disappearing former garden favourite, the small tortoiseshell? Or the poet John Masefield’s “oakwood haunting thing”, the charismatic purple emperor? Or perhaps the brimstone, the ultimate harbinger of spring? The question of which is Britain’s favourite butterfly is being put to a popular vote for the first time.
Yorkshire’s WallFest launched to protect crumbling boundary wall of ‘world’s first nature reserve’
John Whitaker and Barbara Phipps on a collapsed section of the wall. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian Over four years in the 1820s, Charles Waterton built a 9ft-high, 3-mile-long wall around the parkland and lake of Walton Hall. The fox- and poacher-proof boundary enclosed what could be the world’s first nature reserve, completed in Yorkshire 200 years ago.
Yorkshire’s WallFest launched to protect crumbling boundary wall of ‘world’s first nature reserve’
Over four years in the 1820s, Charles Waterton built a 9ft-high, 3-mile-long wall around the parkland and lake of Walton Hall. The fox- and poacher-proof boundary enclosed what could be the world’s first nature reserve, completed in Yorkshire 200 years ago. Waterton, an eccentric, controversial and pioneering environmentalist, built nest boxes, special banks for sand martins and innovative bird hides, and offered local people sixpence for every hedgehog they brought into his reserve.
Tiny parasitic wasp named after David Attenborough for his 100th birthday
He has lizards, bats, frogs, weevils, flatworms, snails and spiders named after him. But now Sir David Attenborough can celebrate his 100th birthday with an entirely new genus named in his honour. Scientists from the Natural History Museum in London have paid tribute to the world-renowned broadcaster for his 100th birthday on 8 May by describing a new genus of parasitic wasp and a new species found within the museum’s collections.
ANDA - Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais
Kariba, uma elefanta africana de 40 anos, vive sozinha em um zoológico belga. Foto: Nicolas Coulon/Crolle/Pangea O primeiro santuário de elefantes em grande escala da Europa, que está sendo inaugurado para oferecer um ambiente mais natural para alguns dos 600 animais ainda mantidos em cativeiro em todo o continente, receberá seus primeiros visitantes.
‘Somehow you become the chicken’: inside the film about people-smuggling told through the eyes of a hen
Grieving for her stolen eggs ... a moment from Hen. Photograph: Pallas Film If oppressive regimes inadvertently give rise to striking artistic works of resistance, then Hen might just be a parting gift from Viktor Orbán’s far-right regime. This compelling, original film, told from the perspective of a hen, was only made because Hungarian film-maker György Pálfi could no longer create anything in his home country.
Rewilding giants: captive elephants rehomed in Europe’s first sanctuary
Europe’s first large-scale elephant sanctuary, which is opening to offer a more natural environment for some of the 600 animals still held in captivity across the continent, is to receive its first arrivals. Julie, Portugal’s last circus elephant, will be moved next month to the animal charity Pangea’s multimillion pound sanctuary in the Alentejo, 200km (124 miles) east of Lisbon, close to the border with Spain.
‘It's a special tree': Campaign to save mother of beloved Bramley apple for nation
Patrick Barkham Campaigners have launched an appeal to try to save for the nation the mother tree of perhaps the most popular cooking apple in the world. Theoriginal bramley apple tree, which grows in the garden of a cottage in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, is for sale, withthe cottage put on the marketby its owners, Nottingham Trent University.
To give young people wings: The Lost Words duo reunite for book of birds
Patrick Barkham When the artist Jackie Morris collaborated with the writer Robert Macfarlane tocelebrate the names of plants and animalscontroversially removed from the Oxford Junior Dictionary, they never imagined their book, The Lost Words, would become a cultural phenomenon. Grassroots crowdfunding ensured the book was bought and donated to more than three-quarters ofprimary schoolsin England, Wales and Scotland and to every hospice in the country.
To give young people wings: The Lost Words duo reunite for book of birds
When the artist Jackie Morris collaborated with the writer Robert Macfarlane to celebrate the names of plants and animals controversially removed from the Oxford Junior Dictionary, they never imagined their book, The Lost Words, would become a cultural phenomenon. Grassroots crowdfunding ensured the book was bought and donated to more than three-quarters of primary schools in England, Wales and Scotland and to every hospice in the country.
Gen Z leads birdwatching boom as more Britons reach for the binoculars
Patrick Barkham Birdwatching is the second fastest growing hobby for generation Z after jewellery making, according to a multiyear study of more than 24,000 people. Almost 750,000 gen Zers (16 to 29-year-olds) in Britain regularly enjoy watching birds, a 1,088% increase since 2018, according to research by Fifty5Blue published by the RSPB. Regular birdwatching has been embraced by all generations over the past eight years, with a 47% increase overall.
Am I a deluded attention-seeker? Why I'm running the London Marathon dressed as a badger
Patrick Barkham Delusion. That's the crucial prerequisite for running a marathon in fancy dress, according to the ultramarathon competitor and cancer survivor Jonathan Acott, who is attempting the fastest marathon dressed in a clanking suit of armour. So that's what it was when I decided to run this year's London Marathon dressed as a badger. I've run a marathon once before, 19 years ago.I hated the suffering. I injured myself. And now I'm 51. Why was this a good idea? It started last year.
England wildlife watchdog ‘has stopped designating special sites for protection’
The government’s wildlife watchdog for England is failing to save nature because it has stopped giving protection to rare wildlife and habitats, according to a new report. No new sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) have been designated by Natural England since 2023. SSSIs are nationally or internationally important places for rare wildlife and habitats. Without the designation, endangered species can be at risk of being lost to development.
‘How much have we missed?’: book tunes in to overlooked world of female birdsong
When we hear the beautiful call of a bird from a high bough, we’re told it’s likely to be a male – singing for territory, or belting out tunes to woo a female. But as the annual dawn chorus reaches a crescendo this spring, a new guidebook is urging us to think again – and turn our ears to the hidden world of female birdsong. The songs, sounds and sights of female birds have historically been overlooked in field guides and sound archives.
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