Gareth Morgan, the mid-Wales badgerman, speaking to Hugh Warwick. He features in Hugh's new book, The Beauty in the Beast - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beauty-Beast-Britains-Favourite-Creatures/dp/0857203959/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_1

Badger edit

I was planning this to be an in depth look at the wildlife management implications of releasing beavers back into Scotland - but then I listened to the story that my beaver-man, Paul Ramsay, told me about how his family is reputed to have come into the land on which the beavers have been set free, and, well, if you want beaver natural history, you will have to buy the book (The Beauty in the Beast).

Beaver

Professor David Macdonald, the leading fox expert not just in the UK but arguably in the world, took me for a walk on his old stomping ground outside Oxford. Here is a snippet of a fascinating discussion - we even saw a fox!

My amazing robin man has many talents - Dr Andrew Lack is a specialist in pollination as well as being a concert violinist ... and author of Redbreast. This photo of him was taken while he was playing the wonderful Lark Ascending. Shame it was not a piece about robins!

Robin

Ingrid Twissell is the dragonfly recorder for Gloucestershire and took me around the Cotswold Water Park. The best view we got was from a common darter that formed a strange fondness for her hat! 

Dragonfly

Adder man Bernard Dawson took me to Holt Lowes nature reserve in north Norfolk where we found what I thought was a great many snakes - but six is nothing, he can often see over a hundred. 

Adders

Miriam Darlington's new book on otters, Otter Country, is going to be poetic and wonderful - rather like she is ... she took me to an otter sanctuary in Buckfastleigh and then deep into a cave on the River Dart ... all in search of the magical thing ... otter poo!

Otter

Gordon Maclellan is an inspirational environmental educator, a dear friend, and a dancing shaman who was willing to let me into his world of toad in a way very different to my other ambassadors. 

Toad

Dr Kevin Robinson has set up the Cetacean Research and Rescue Unit to be a self-sustaining research project operating principally on the Moray Firth. I joined his team for an amazing experience bouncing around in a rigid inflatable boat - I even got to name a baby bottle-nose dolphin. It is hard to capture the thrill of this experience here, so all I can do is recommend you go and join them, because that is the delight, you can book a holiday of a lifetime and in so doing help support their vital work.

Dolphin

Denis Summers-Smith is over 90 and is the world's leading expert on house sparrows. But when we met it was impossible to just talk about the birds, because this is a man who has done so much with his life. Here is just a brief insight into what it is possible to do if you are determined. 

Sparrows

Chris Sperring can talk to the owls - he even can call foxes to him. We had a fantastic time out around Portishead despite seeing rather fewer owls than we had hoped! He works for the Hawk and Owl Trust http://www.chrissperring.com/

Owls

Kate Long is the bestselling author of books such as The Bad Mothers Handbook and, most recently, Before She was Mine ... but she is also a water vole obsessive. We met and talked in her Shropshire home before heading out on a hunt in a nearby stream.

Hugh Warwick

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