Welcome to our ARG UK 2024 Annual General Meeting (AGM), an online event held on Tuesday 16th July starting at 7:30 pm. As always, all of our affiliated ARGS and their members were very welcome. The event ran in three parts starting with an update on the ARG network and our various projects including: The Scottish National Adder survey (funded by NatureScot), Dragons in the Hills (funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund), Re-connecting prisoners with the natural world (funded by HMPPS) and the Cannock Chase Adder Conservation project (funded by Farming in Protected Landscapes) as well as a financial review and election/re-election of trustees.
Part 1 recording 'ARG UK Updates' can be viewed on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/Ds_F33b7Cjo
The theme of the meeting was to be on developing novel survey and monitoring techniques, and in Part 2 we were delighted to welcome a very special guest Nikki Glover, Senior Ecologist at Wessex Water who told us more about her work as a great crested newt, dog detection handler in a presentation titled, ''GCN Detection Dogs, a viable method to locate great crested newts (Triturus cristatus) terrestrially?'. Nikki provided a fascinating insight into how she trains the dogs, and how they work together as a team.
Part 2 recording ''GCN Detection Dogs" can be viewed on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/YBE8NCqnqrE
Responding to a recurrent question, in Part 3 of the event, we ran an interactive online workshop on 'Spotting amphibians and reptiles - getting your eye in' supported by some of our most experienced ARG surveyors. As well as a quick quiz, we also welcomed contributions from the audience, sharing everyones' experiences, as we found out more about how different surveyors go about finding our cryptic species, and what cues they use to spot animals that may be well hidden.
Part 3 recording 'Top Tips for Spotting Amphibians and Reptiles' can be viewed on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/cn_kZHNjI-M
pdf The outputs of the workshop are also summarised in this document (474 KB)
With huge thanks to: The National Lottery Heritage Fund, The Garfield Weston Foundation, Habitat Aid, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Ministry of Justice/HMPPS, Nature Scot, and all of our generous individual donors for their continued and kind support throughout 2023-24.
(Photos Nikki Glover, Nick Upton, Christian Moss, Andrew Mossop, Stephen Corcoran)
