Living The Wildlife

Pygmy Shrew, Bank Vole and the Wood Mouse (2x4)

Air date: May 23, 2009

Colin takes a close look Ireland's hedgerows and discovers a staggering amount of wildlife while doing so! Irish hedgerows are absolutely teeming with wildlife! Insects, plants, mammals, birds – they all share this incredible habitat that just screams diversity! And the best thing is that they are all around us. In this episode of Living the Wildlife Colin Stafford-Johnson takes a close up look at our hedgerows, and discovers a staggering amount of wildlife…some old and some new. Travelling first to Donegal, he meets up with Stuart Dunlop who has been photographing his hedgerows for the past few years. Since Stuart started observing his local hedgerow, he has set up a website to log his findings and discovered an incredible 1,501 different species. Colin takes a look at this wonderous world of wildlife, and spots such insects as the solider beetle with its military uniformed appearance, and also the mimicing hoverfly that tricks its predators into thinking it’s a wasp. As well as insects, he meets some fascinating creatures such as Irelands smallest mammal, the Pygmy Shrew, the common wood mouse and the cute bank vole. He also gets to witness Ireland’s newest mammal since the 60s, the elusive Greater White Toothed Shrew. While looking at hedgerows, Colin also goes in search of an enemy to these natural habitats, the Rhododendron plant, and doesn’t have to look far! It quickly becomes evident, that this plant is really taking over our countryside, and needs to be addressed sooner rather than later!