UK churchyards are havens for rare wildlife, finds conservation charity | Wildlife | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/26/uk-churchyards-are-havens-for-rare-wildlife-finds-conservation-charity
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Caring for God’s Acre mapped out 20,000 cemeteries and recorded 10,000 species
Helena Horton Environment reporter
Thu 26 Dec 2024 07.00 CET
Churchyards are vital havens for rare wildlife including dormice, bats and beetles, according to an extensive audit of burial grounds around the UK.
The conservation charity Caring for God’s Acre mapped out 20,325 cemeteries, with 800,000 wildlife records submitted and more than 10,800 species recorded.
They discovered that these quiet sites are home to a huge variety of rare wildlife, with over a quarter of species recorded featuring on the Red List of endangered species. More than 80 of these were classified as threatened, vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered.