Environmental updates for the A417 Missing Link scheme

Dear Stakeholders and Residents

Environmental updates for the A417 Missing Link scheme

July

July brought a change in the weather compared to the sunny month of June. Therefore, we’ve been able to begin the Roman snail translocations.

The team have been out early in the morning or late in the evening moving as many as they could find. The picture below shows a snail using the newly established hibernacula in the receptor site. The translocation will continue to take place this week with more rainy weather due.

For the badgers, further encouragement is needed to try and get them into the new sett. Over 20kg of peanuts has been distributed between the old and new sett so far, however the footage gathered shows no badgers entering the sett yet. Perseverance is always needed to encourage badgers to move, so more updates to follow.

What’s coming up in August?

All species translocations will continue well into August. The area of suitable habitat for the reptiles is becoming smaller, so it should become slightly easier to start trapping out the remaining animals. Alongside the translocations, the stone walls are continuing to come down and will do so until September. Many species have been found inside the stone walls with the most common being toads.

Over the next month, we will start to install new bat boxes. They will provide extra places for them to roost away from construction areas

Bats use night roosts when they are away from the maternity roosts. Night roosts are thought to extend feeding ranges and provide additional shelter and feeding perches.