The Vincent Wildlife Trust

General information

The Vincent Wildlife Trust was founded by the late Honourable Vincent Weir in 1975 and has been active in wildlife conservation ever since.

For more than 40 years, the Trust has made major contributions to the conservation of many of our rarer mammals. Historically, this included the otter, water vole and dormouse. Today, the Trust’s focus is on the small mustelids, including the pine marten and polecat, together with rare woodland and horseshoe bats.

Since the 1980s, the VWT has been active in bat conservation in Britain and Ireland. The Trust has invested much of its resources into locating and protecting important summer roosts and hibernation sites for horseshoe bats. Over 40 roosts are being cared for across south-west England, Wales and Ireland to ensure long-term protection.The Trust has also funded a series of research projects on the feeding and roosting requirements of rarer bats, such as the horseshoe bats.

Since the 1990s, a series of studies have been carried out focusing on the recovery of the polecat in Britain. The latest survey was completed at the end of 2015.

For more than 30 years the Trust has been investigating the status of the pine marten. In 1983, the VWT undertook the first survey of the pine marten in Britain, providing evidence that subsequently helped to achieve legal protection for the species.

The Trust’s current flagship project is the restoration of viable populations of pine marten in Wales and England. In the autumn of 2015, the Pine Marten Recovery Project (www.pine-marten-recovery-project.org.uk) translocated 20 pine martens to Wales from Scotland. During autumn 2016, we captured and released another 19 pine martens.