AnnualReportfor20251SeptCOMP2026 - Flipbook - Page 17
Other work to support our Ten-Year Strategy
Skills
Strengthening our approach
Our focus on evidence-led conservation helps to maximise
impact, contributing to maintaining and restoring biodiversity
and wider ecosystem resilience to bene昀椀t people and wildlife.
Our commitment is demonstrated through our role as an
Evidence Champion, through Conservation Evidence, which is a
leading network of organisations promoting evidence-based and
effective conservation practice. In 2025, VWT was awarded an
accreditation score of 9.5/10 by Conservation Evidence.
Our vision to be a catalyst for conservation and our mission to
conserve threatened mammals is strengthened by adopting
Conservation Standards across our work. The Conservation
Standards (Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation) is an
adaptive management framework developed by the Conservation
Measures Partnership to support effective conservation project
design, management, monitoring and learning to help improve
conservation practice. It is valuable in multi-partner programmes
to ensure that all participants are involved in the planning process,
that roles and responsibilities are clear, and that appropriate
indicators are agreed to evaluate project progress and impact. All
VWT staff have been exposed to Conservation Standards — most
through direct training.
11
5
PhDs
We maintained our research collaboration with a number of
universities and research institutes to ensure our conservation is
evidence-led. During 2025 we directly supported 昀椀ve PhD students
working with the Universities of Sussex, Exeter and Aberystwyth
and Queen’s University Belfast, and co-supervised several
other post-graduate students.
7
Reports,
lea昀氀ets and
articles
• Scho昀椀eld, H. (2025) The Lesser Horseshoe Bat Conservation handbook,
now with advice on greater horseshoe bat conservation (2nd edition).
Vincent Wildlife Trust
• Rogers, L., Bremner-Harrison, S., McPherson, J., Hargreaves, D., Carter S.,
McAney, K., Lawrence-Owen, L. and Wright, P. (2025) Making an impact
for wild mammals — past, present and future — Impact Report and Video
Vincent Wildlife Trust
• Marino, F., Auster, R. E., Barlow, C., Bavin, D., Consorte-McCrea, A.,
Dando, T., Hare, D., Holmes, G., Gaywood, M., MacPherson, J.,
McDonald, R.A., Pouget, D., Thomas, V., Turvey, S.T., White, R.L. and
Crowley, S.L. (2025) Evaluating Motivations and Outcomes in Conservation
Translocations. University of Exeter, PACT
• Wright, P., Guilfoyle, C., Smyth, D., Roche, N. & McAney, K. (2026)
papers
We continued to publish our research and scienti昀椀c work to share
with the wider conservation and scienti昀椀c community, with VWT staff
and students producing or contributing to 11 Peer-Reviewed Papers,
as well as a number of books and reports, including a second edition
of the Lesser Horseshoe Bat Conservation Handbook.
• Baker, M., Wright, P. G. R., Hanniffy, R., Knight, V., Lawton, C., McAney, K.,
McBride, K., MacPherson J. (2025) Mapping the Irish Stoat: insights from a
two-year citizen science survey Irish Naturalists’ Journal Vol. 42
• Birks, J., Johnstone, S., Snell, E., & Jenny MacPherson, J. (2025) ‘What
is the future for The Martes Complex (Guloninae) in the face of climate and
ecological breakdown?’ Stacks Journal, DOI 10.60102/stacks-25006
• Burgar, J. M., Yaegar, S., Anderson, E., Brainerd, S., Chabaud, N.,
Cotey, S. R., Croose, E., Fisher J.T., Hansen, I. J., Hapeman, P., Hofmeester,
T. R., Howell, B. L., MacPherson, J., Manzo, E., Monakhov, V. G., Poirson, C.,
Oleynikov, A. Y., Scopes, E. R., Spencer W. D., (2025) A path towards the
conservation and recovery of Guloninae species worldwide. Stacks Journal,
DOI 10.60102/stacks-25007
• Croose, E., Wright, P. G. R., Carter, S. P., Green, S. E. and MacPherson, J.
(2025). Comparing the ef昀椀cacy of two camera trapping techniques for
assessing the occupancy, detection and activity patterns of small mustelids
in Britain. European Journal of Wildlife Research 71, 32 (2025).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-025-01914-7
• Dando, T. R. McDonald, R. A., Young, R. P., Carter, S. P., and Crowley, S. L.
(2025). Cat owners’ perceptions of domestic cats and implications for European
wildcat (Felis silvestris) restoration. Conservation Science and Practice, e70056
• Dando, T. R. A., Crowley, S. L., Young, R. P., Carter, S. P., Denman, H. &
McDonald, R. A. (2025). Understanding farmers’ perspectives and engagement
with wildlife conservation practices: Insights from a European wildcat
reintroduction. People and Nature 7, 1987-2001; 00:1–15.
• Langridge, K., Kilshaw, K., Bacon, A., Barclay, D., Hughes, L., Scurrah-Price, A.
Semple, L., Sneddon, J., MacPherson, J., Campbell, R., Wilson, M.,
Gaywood, M., Hetherington, D., Kortland, K., Howard-McCombe, J., & Senn, H.
(2025) Saving wildcats in Scotland: 昀椀rst releases of captive-bred European
wildcats CATnews 84 Autumn 2025
• O’Malley, K. D., Scho昀椀eld, H. W., Wright, P. G. R. Daniel Hargreaves, D. Aaron
J. Corcoran A. J. & Mathews, F. (2025) Increasing canopy cover elevates vehicle
collision risk for barbastelle bats (Barbastella barbastellus) at roads. Scienti昀椀c
Reports | 15:37011 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-14315-2
• Scho昀椀eld, H., Zrnčić, V., Smith, D., Budinski, I., Hargreaves, D., Damant, C.
(2025) Full pelage Ultra-Violet 昀氀uorescence occurs in both lesser horseshoe bat,
Rhinolophus hipposideros (André, 1797) and Blasius’s horseshoe bat, R. blasii
Peters, 1967. Hystrix. https://doi.org/10.4404/hystrix-00737-2024
• Scopes, E.R., MacPherson, J., Wright, P. G. R., McNicol, C. M., Kingscott-
Edmunds, J., Ham, C., Kerecsenyi, N., Guy, M., and Chloe C. Bellamy, C.C.
(2025) Validating habitat suitability models for pine marten (Martes martes)
reintroductions to England and Wales. Journal of Applied Ecology
https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.70160
• Shaw, R., MacPherson, J., Kitchener, A. C., Etherington, G. J. and Haerty, W.
(2025) Characterisation of the historic demographic decline of the British
European polecat population. Molecular Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70091
The Lesser Horseshoe Bat - Mapping Landscape Connectivity to
facilitate Species Recovery and Expansion in Ireland. Bat Conservation
Ireland, Dublin
• How to Make a Pine Marten Den Box (2025) Vincent Wildlife Trust
• Marten Map Data Submission User Guide (2025) Vincent Wildlife Trust
• Have you seena polecat? — article for Scottish Wildlife Trust magazine. Vincent Wildlife Trust Annual Report and Financial Statements 2025 17
