Winner of the Acorn Ecology Prize for Best Student Presentation announced

The 2011 State of Britain’s Mammals annual update marks the 10th Anniversary of the original report, published by the People's Trust for Endangered Species (PTES). This edition examines the effectiveness of targeting for Britain's mammals over the last ten years, as well as surrounding issues such as invasive species and disease. Reviewing work carried out by numerous organisations over the last decade, we show that four of the mammals listed in the mid 1990s – otters, water voles, pipistrelles and greater horseshoe bats – have achieved, or in some cases, even more remarkably, exceeded their targets. On the other hand, new species have been added to the list and many are still declining, including some of the most endangered species: red squirrels, Scottish wildcats, mountain hares, harvest mice, hazel dormice, and in rural areas, hedgehogs.

WildCRU's Director, David Macdonald, who co-authored the report with Dr Dawn Burnham, remains optimistic: "If one could roll back and look at what in 2001 we might have expected the picture to be, I think it's amazingly positive," he says. "I think it's now widespread for people to consider the importance of science and evidence for informing decisions and making the best science-led policy."

The report can be accessed from the PTES website.

WildCRU team photographs elusive Saharan cheetah in the Termit massif of Niger. After many months studying the little known carnivores of the Sahara, including the fennec, pale fox and sand cat, our efforts paid off and one of our camera traps caught a glimpse of a cheetah, the first ever in this part of the vast Sahara desert.

Read more at the beeb http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9306000/9306399.stm