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Pete Cooper

@petemrcooper.bsky.social
1.6K followers 389 following 4.6K posts

Species Recovery Manager at the Wildlife Trusts. Naturalist, writer, Glow-worm keeper. Chaotic nature TikToks and mammal poo sniffer. (Views own)

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Reposted by Pete Cooper
Edward Pollard @epollard.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
What a great story. Nice work @petemrcooper.bsky.social and everyone at Lower Ure Conservation Trust. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Glowworms shine again in North Yorkshire after larvae reared in garden shed
Volunteer ‘glow-getters’ overseeing reintroduction of endangered beetles at Nosterfield nature reserve
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
BlueSky doesn’t have the numbers or life of old Twitter, partly why I’m so quiet. But I’ll round-up the sorts of thing that would’ve gone down well there. On my substack, you can read all 3 parts of my deep-dive into the native status of white storks here petemrcooper.substack.com/p/to-stork-o...
petemrcooper.substack.com
To Stork or Not to Stork? (Part 1)
White Storks are being released into Britain, but the government recently said they aren't native. Is this really the case, and can further releases be justified?
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
A follow up to my deep dive on the history of storks in Britain - Harvey Tweats provides a guest post looking into why it may have gone extinct in Britain but not Europe, and whether there is another explanation for its absence in folklore. petemrcooper.substack.com/p/what-did-t...
petemrcooper.substack.com
What did the Romans ever do for Storks?
A guest post by Harvey Tweats following the deep-dive into the past status of White Storks in Britain with hypotheses as to why they left little cultural mark.
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
After attending a lovely event for @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social’s new book last week, it made sense to start reading it in the landscape that inspired it while staying with friends in Sidbury. Feat the cliffs of Branscombe with Gylly the lab
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Reposted by Pete Cooper
Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
I thought I’d settle down to write something uncontroversial - so I wrote about stork releases. With Natural England recently declaring white storks non-native, can their releases be justified? A tale in 3 parts. petemrcooper.substack.com/p/to-stork-o...
petemrcooper.substack.com
To Stork or Not to Stork? (Part 1)
White Storks are being released into Britain, but the government recently said they aren't native. Is this really the case, and can further releases be justified?
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
I thought I’d settle down to write something uncontroversial - so I wrote about stork releases. With Natural England recently declaring white storks non-native, can their releases be justified? A tale in 3 parts. petemrcooper.substack.com/p/to-stork-o...
petemrcooper.substack.com
To Stork or Not to Stork? (Part 1)
White Storks are being released into Britain, but the government recently said they aren't native. Is this really the case, and can further releases be justified?
2205
Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
The temperatures taken in my Glow-worm rearing shed yesterday. Ambient conditions are better for breeding native invertebrates, but thankfully its shaded position keeps the shed at least 2-3 degrees cooler than outside. All are doing well.
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Reposted by Pete Cooper
Saving Wildcats @saveourwildcats.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
A study focusing on interactions between European wildcats and domestic cats found evidence of behavioural barriers for both hybridisation and disease transmission, including larger wildcats excluding domestic cats from their territories, and sexual selection by wildcat females 🐈
A female wildcat sits in tall green grass, looking back with its eyes partially closed and tongue out, conveying a playful and relaxed mood.
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
A snail puts up a bubble wall to defend itself from Glow-worm larvae, but the paralysis from the toxin is already beginning to take effect - more is delivered in another bit for good measure. 145 Glow-worm larvae have completed their second winter and are due to pupate in the next couple of months
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
This really does feel like a distant time now. 2 years into Brexit and Trump v0.1, we knew the world had taken a turn. But before that all got to its current extremes, before Covid, and when X was Twitter and it was a busy and generally nicer place to be as we hit the ‘sweet spot’ with social media
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
A stonker of a morning on the Mendips - Adders, Green Tiger Beetle and Bloody-nose Beetles all coming out to play
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
This is what I want on the £5 note. Truly the definition of British nature
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Reposted by Pete Cooper
Lee Raye @leafyhistory.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Book announcement!! 🎉 CREATURES OF STORY AND SONG looks through Britain’s stories and poems to rediscover our lost species. It’s time to remember what people thought about wolves, lynxes, great whales, great auks, sturgeon & more when they were all still here! 🐺🦫🐳💚 @reaktionbooks.bsky.social
Book cover - Creatures of Story and Song: Tracing Britain's Lost Species by Lee Raye. The cover is a dark turquoise or teal. At the top there is a picture of people and wolves walking together through a wood. They seem to be talking with each other. At the bottom there is a long spiky fish.  This flier offers 20% off at www.reaktionbooks.co.uk - code is CSS26
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Dreamt I was bitten by a Smooth Newt last night. Not sure what that foretells.
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Update - Beavers are now woke! And a dam sight more useful than Farage
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
We should be remembering the beauty of the natural world around us in this dark time - it’s more important than any other time that people can find respite and beauty and no what they stand to lose. Also Churchill probably would’ve voted Reform tbh.
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Reposted by Pete Cooper
Saving Wildcats @saveourwildcats.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
🪪 European wildcat (Felis silvestris) One of the UK's rarest mammals | Accomplished mesopredator | Cultural icon | UK's last native cat species | Experienced camera trap model | Working parent | Species reintroduction specialist Cairngorms National Park, Scotland
Split image of a wildcat’s face on a white background. Left text "Reality" with the wildcat scowling; right text "LinkedIn" shows the same wildcat with tie. Both images have job description text underneath. There is a humorous tone.
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Maybe it’s a sign of the times we’re in - first time I’ve seen this used as a rewilding justification. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Countries can rewild borders to deter invasions, says EU environment chief
Jessika Roswall cites Poland and Finland, which have made border areas near Russia or its allies ‘more hostile’ to cross
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
They also look like Glow-worm larvae you ordered from Wish.
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Reposted by Pete Cooper
Helen Macdonald @hjm.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
I will never not adore "and allies" in a fieldguide title. Don't mess with the grasshoppers or the earwigs and crickets and cockroaches will fuck you up
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
When your proposed source of birds comes from a different subspecies from Scandinavia, an area even cooler than the region where you want to release is and warming climate is likely to be the major extinction driver, genetics matters very bugger much actually.
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
I was really happy to be involved with writing the strategy for Sonja and Perrin’s land in Wiltshire, which contains some absolutely stunning chalk downland. And I managed to find the DoBs last year! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
The farmers fighting to save the Duke of Burgundy butterfly
Sonja and Perin Dineley are working to restore biodiversity to their agricultural land.
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Reposted by Pete Cooper
Asher HELLbein @asherelbein.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
I just don't see how this wasn't intentional on the BBC's part
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
If you zoology folks haven’t found metazooa yet, welcome to your new morning routine. Who needs wordle? 🐜 Animal #937 🐅 I figured it out in 2 guesses! 🟥🟩 🔥 18 | Avg. Guesses: 5.7 metazooa.com #metazooa
metazooa.com
Metazooa
Become an evolutionary detective to find the Mystery Animal!
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Reposted by Pete Cooper
Richard Smyth @rsmythfreelance.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
That guy who wrote The Peace Of Wild Things simply never considered the blue balls of the dunnock in late winter.
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
If you loved Detectorists and you haven’t yet watched ‘Small Prophets’, get on iplayer and do so immediately. It’s classic Mackenzie Crook with his gentle appreciation of nature sown in subtly and beautifully at times.
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
A well-run project that restored the north-west European population of Dalmatian Pelican would be a massive boost to the global population of this threatened species and is supported by the chair of the IUCN pelican specialist group. But no, let’s take pot-shots.
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
As someone who had past affiliation with Goldsmith, I very much endorse this message. The threat posed by Reform now is too great to ignore any boost given to it ‘within’ our sector. Sitting back and watching is how very dangerous things happen.
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Further indictment that the conservation and rewilding need to drop further involvement with Goldsmith right now. Political allies for nature will not be found in the far right.
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Pete M 🌳 @pete-m.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Well of course. Ben Goldsmith working with Reform. Red flags waving madly. It is incompatible to be a voice for nature and a voice for Reform. Environmental justice and social justice are intertwined.
A news article image showing Ben Goldsmith in a dark suit holding a handheld microphone and speaking on stage against a dark background. Below the photo is a headline reading “Reform UK enlists Boris Johnson ally to write party nature policies,” with a subheading stating “Exclusive: Ben Goldsmith will work on issues including fishing and green belt preservation to attract green Tories.” The byline reads Helena Horton and Kiran Stacey, dated Friday 30 January 2026, 06.00 GMT.
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Helen Macdonald @hjm.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
(from www.instagram.com/nobodyssweet...)
constructivist-inspired banner in red and cream with black lettering bearing the legend STOP FORCING AI INTO FUCKING EVERYTHING - nobody asked for it everyone hates it
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
One of my new procrastination pastimes is timelapsing ecological restoration/wilding projects on agri-reversal land. The @nationaltrust.org.uk riverlands restoration at the Holnicote Estate, Somerset (1/4)
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Gregory Norminton @gregorynorminton.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
To summarise BBC reporting on the collapse of the American Republic: "It's unclear who is to blame for the killing, the victim or the people who shot him." Such 'balance' aids the fascist war on epistemology. Reality does not reside halfway between a lie and the truth.
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Reposted by Pete Cooper
Tyron @tyron.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
was briefly so excited reading this until I realised he meant Davos
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
If you try and get a quote for professional indemnity insurance or such like from the major market comparison sites, entering ‘ecologist’ into the trade search will come back with ‘sorry, that’s not a trade we know!’ Despite them claiming to have over 1k options. Hmm.
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Started watching Years & Years 7 years late to the party… oof, I suppose there was never a good time to start was there?
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
I’m part of the local toad patrol, which brings to joy to dozens in the community doing their bit to maintain one of the increasingly vulnerable populations of this species. Sadly they could be under even more threat beyond the roads if the golf club gets their way. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Environmentalists oppose golf club expansion near Bristol - BBC News
Golf club representatives say there is no evidence the plan will negatively impact local ecology.
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Reposted by Pete Cooper
Pete M 🌳 @pete-m.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
The rewilding movement needs to distance itself from bigots like Goldsmith. There is no climate (and environmental) justice without social justice. When these people show us who they are, we need to pay attention.
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Thought you might enjoy this @georgemonbiot.bsky.social - you may even have snuck into the narrative!
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Trying to be more active here again. So starting my comeback with a short story in the form of a news feature from an alternative universe - one where the Pleistocene megafauna of mammoths, sabre-toothed cats, giant wombats and so much more survived to today petemrcooper.substack.com/p/the-last-b...
petemrcooper.substack.com
The Last Behemoths
They have survived humanity against all odds for millenia. But in an age of extinction, is hope now beyond reason for the charismatic megafauna of planet Earth?
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
My brother’s put forward the first motion to give a British river the same legal rights as people! Very proud and would love to see more of this from other local authorities. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Laws of nature: could UK rivers be given the same rights as people?
As more and more countries grant natural features or ecosystems legal personhood, the UK’s fight to pass nature rights laws is quietly gaining pace
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Ian Parsons @ianparsons.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
Thanks to @petemrcooper.bsky.social who reviews our book Great Misconceptions - Rewilding Myths and Misunderstandings in this. @markavery.bsky.social @irishrainforest.bsky.social @chrissperring.bsky.social @iancarter67.bsky.social @landethics.bsky.social #books #rewilding
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
This is a really satisfying image. A new Dalmatian Pelican colony established themselves on artificial islands in Bulgaria, but this photo looks like it could easily be in front of a retail park in Norfolk!
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
Behind all that Lynx chat, Britain’s more successfully ‘bombed’ mammal have come a wee bit closer to home.
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Alexander Lees @alexanderlees.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
So this is instant dystopian #Anthropocene #ClimateChange gif material 👇
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David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 27/12/2024
The red-backed shrike, known as the butcher bird for its habit of impaling prey corpses on thorns etc, has been virtually extinct as a UK breeding species for decades. That it was once common is apparent from Richard Jefferies’s description of taking the train from London to Brighton in the 1880s.
Butcher-birds or shrikes are frequently found on the telegraph wires; from that [Pg 183]

elevation they pounce down on their prey, and return again to the wire. There were

two pairs of shrikes using the telegraph wires for this purpose one spring only a

short distance beyond noisy Clapham Junction. Another pair came back several

seasons to a particular part of the wires, near a bridge, and I have seen a hawk

perched on the wire equally near London.
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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
The wood is wild. The wood is wyrd. In childhood we know it as the living border with Faerie. As adults we still half-suspect it is a pocket of high strangeness. Any examination of the living current of folklore would give us plenty of reasons to reinforce this summation. – Dr. M. Benn, 1982 #Woods
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
Christmas Eve Eve present yesterday in the form of two White-tailed Eagles at Keyhaven - who needs Santa when you have Roy Dennis. Cherry on top of great morning’s birding with pals which included Spoonbill, Curlew, hunting Kingfisher and 100s of Brent Geese and Golden Plover.
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Pete Cooper @petemrcooper.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
I used to watch Barn Owls, which nested in the barn and hunted just outside, in this meadow as a teenager 13 years ago. It’s now about as far from optimal barnie habitat as you can get. But at least the Little Egrets poking round the cattle, which I’ve never seen here before, were happy.
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