Cardiff Council is encouraging residents to take part in the biggest wildlife survey ever carried out in the city.
The Cardiff Garden Wildlife Survey aims to find out about the hidden wildlife in the capital, and is asking every household to help discover the wildlife in their gardens. Amongst the roads and buildings of the capital city our gardens are offering food and shelter to some of our most exciting wildlife. They create a corridor for wildlife to move between parks and green spaces.
The survey which is published in this month’s edition of Council newspaper Capital Times asks residents to identify different species of birds, mammals, butterflies, reptiles and amphibians in their garden. It is hoped that the results will lead to a greater understanding of garden wildlife and will give experts an idea of just how important gardens are to urban wildlife.
The project is a partnership between Cardiff Council and the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales with funding from the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW). The survey will feed into Cardiff’s local biodiversity action plan which sets out how to conserve and protect wildlife. Anyone wishing to complete the survey online can visit www.cardiff.gov.uk/biodiversity which also includes some handy identification guides to help people filling in the form.
Members of Cardiff Biodiversity Partnership will also be at the National Museum Cardiff on Saturday 21 May between 10am – 4pm to answer questions about the Cardiff Garden Wildlife Survey and offer information and advice on how to encourage wildlife into gardens. Visitors will have the opportunity to meet and handle reptiles and learn about some of the creatures that can typically be found in the garden.
Cllr Margaret Jones, Executive Member for the Environment said: “This is an exciting opportunity to take part in a survey which will really help to shape the future of wildlife in Cardiff. I urge anyone living in the city to complete the survey, even if you don’t have anything in your garden as all information is important in building up a picture of Cardiff’s wildlife. It can be difficult to put a measure on gardens as a biodiversity asset but we are hoping that this will help us generate some valuable data and that the survey can be repeated in the future to get an idea of how important gardens are.”
