Project Dates: 15.05.24 to 15.05.25

Enabling Keep it Wild CIC to create an ambitious new Species Recovery Centre to collate lost and rare species into a central location, then build captive breeding knowledge and expertise to produce high volumes of these important species to restore Britain’s nature depleted landscape.

There are many exciting landscape recovery projects happening across the country, but they will not be able to reach their full vibrant potential due to several key species missing from existing ecosystems. The Species Recovery Centre seeks to breed and release lost and rare species at scale to suitable nature restoration projects across the UK.

They have already proven the model with water voles, releasing 3,000 annually to suitably restored sites. They will now expand their focus to storks, wildcats, adders, beavers, red backed shrikes, black grouse, turtle doves, glowworms, and mole crickets.

The team will build expertise in breeding, caring for, and releasing these lost and endangered UK native species. They will work with partner landowners to create satellite breeding and release facilities, to make the operation more resilient and breed the animals closer to their potential release sites.

Image credits: Keep it Wild CIC.

IMPACT SUMMARY MARCH 2026

Project Activities:

• Breeding Endangered Species: The primary focus of the center is breeding endangered and extinct UK species in volume for reintroduction
  . The facility currently breeds a wide array of wildlife, including wildcats, beavers, turtle doves, black and white storks, harvest mice, twites, red-backed shrikes, adders, glow worms, and mole crickets.
• Species Reintroduction: The project facilitated several successful wildlife releases in 2025, including eight beavers at locations such as Cefn Garthenor, Foley Estate, and High Fen. Other notable releases included 400 harvest mice, 550 glow worms, 10 white storks in Devon, and 50 turtle doves.
• Education and Public Outreach: A significant element of the project involves educating young people and the general public about nature and reintroductions. To support this mission, the center held one major conference and hosted 200 universities and schools, reaching over 400 students.
• Collaborations and Satellite Breeding: The center actively collaborates with partners such as the Beaver Trust, multiple UK wildlife trusts, and the team at Cannwood in Sussex. They also support satellite breeding centers at OC Aviary in Staffordshire and Cannwood, and work closely with Ben Horne’s team at Tiverton.
• Media and Publicity: The project generated extensive media coverage over the reporting period to raise awareness for their cause. This included features and reports on their work with wildcats, captive breeding of glow worms, water voles at Seaton Wetlands, and the London Stork Project.
• Additionally, as part of their ongoing project management, the team had to navigate operational challenges, such as managing storm damage to their Black Stork breeding pens caused by Storm Darragh.

 

Project Impact:

• Increasing the amount of land for rewilding through the acquisition of Tamarstone Meadown, Holsworthy, a species rish wetland; Panson Middle Bridge, 26 acres of wet meadow; and Beer Mill to be targetted in 2025, a 110 acre plot of rare culm grassland and mature oak.
• Increased populations of rare and endangered UK species including white and black storks, wildcats, adder, black grouse, turtle doves, beaver, red-backed shrikes, twites, glow worms and mole crickets.
• Ecological Restoration and Reintroduction: The centre achieved a direct impact on local ecosystems by successfully breeding and releasing numerous endangered or extinct UK species into the wild.
• The establishment of a pool of knowledge pertinent to the techniques required to keep, breed and propagate threatened native wildlife.