Who’s your favourite Wildlife presenter? My personal favourite has always been David Attenborough who inspired me at a young age to connect with nature. Through his programmes and many other wildlife documentaries I felt inspired to watch real wildlife and undertake some nature surveying of my own, and whilst it was only my back garden in my young and creative imagination it was every bit as exotic as the jungles on the TV documentaries.

My passion for the natural environment stayed with me and eventually led me to a job working for a wildlife charity. Whilst my job is office based and involves fundraising and some marketing as opposed to being a qualified conservationist conducting surveys, my enthusiasm and eco adventure remains and I still participate in exotic surveys……… ok they are still in my back garden.

However such amateur survey skills can come in very handy, for example the conservation charity ‘People’s Trust for endangered Species’ is currently trying to recruit volunteers in the UK to help them with their annual ‘Living with Mammals’ survey which runs through the UK during April, May and June.

Through the project they aim to find out how wild mammals use the built environment and the green spaces within it so that they can begin to understand – and encourage – the biodiversity on our doorstep. Participants are being asked to choose a site in the built environment (such as their garden, allotments, a playing field or churchyard) and to record sightings and field signs of mammals for eight or more weeks in the survey period.

So if any of you GGG readers are keen wildlife enthusiasts like me and you would like to undertake some surveying  then I encourage you to participate. For further details about the Living with Mammals survey click here. If you want to brush up on your mammal knowledge then I highly recommend David Attenborough’s ‘Life of Mammals’.

I will definitely be participating and yes my childish behavior will most likely not have progressed as my back garden in my mind will be just as exciting and important in terms of biodiversity as the Galapagos Islands.