Welcome to The Vincent Wildlife Trust - Ireland
The Trust has been actively conserving Irish mammals, specifically Ireland’s bat species, since 1991, so we celebrate our 21st birthday here in 2012. What better way to mark this than by providing an Irish VWT website.
There has been a long standing interest in Irish mammals over the centuries, from the early discovery and descriptions of species by Barrington, Barrett-Hamilton and Moffat in the late 1800s, to the research underway today. The first book to highlight this was ‘An Irish beast book’ by J.S. Fairley in 1975, which he followed in 2001 with a second book on Irish mammals titled ‘A basket of weasels’.
Yet for many Irish people, their encounter with a terrestrial mammal is limited to glimpses of a furry tail disappearing into a hedgerow, or the sight of a dead badger, hedgehog or fox at the side of the road.
This website brings together contributions from experts throughout the island of Ireland and we hope it will help to reveal the world of thirteen mammal species, which in turn may assist their conservation and research. Professor Fairley, continuing his role of highlighting mammals, has kindly written an introduction to the species section.
The website also provides information on the work of the Trust in Ireland, including our lesser horseshoe bat reserves, our survey and research work, and links to publications and other organisations.
We see this website as complementing the work of the Trust, which specialises in focussed, long-term solutions for the conservation of rare or ‘difficult to track’ mammals, through conservation-led research and practical field applications.
Kate McAney
Mammal Development Manager (Ireland)