Worcestershire Record No. 25 November 2008 p. 24

WORCESTERSHIRE MAMMAL ATLAS

Harry Green

Slow progress is being made by the group putting together the Worcestershire Mammal Atlas. The group is meeting regularly about every two months and draft accounts are being prepared for each mammal species.

Having prepared a style guide each species will contain sections entitled:

Introduction (brief comments on appearance, national status and distribution, and basic ecology.
Habitat (brief description of favoured habitats)
Recording issues (Comments on main recording and detection methods used for the species and how these effect determining distribution)
Distribution maps (Monad maps of data collected 1995-2007) and tetrad maps based on data collected to 1984)
Comments on the distribution maps (endeavouring to interpret the maps explaining patterns of distribution and when possible commenting on changes that have occurred between the two maps.
The future (to speculate on future prospects for the species, conservation and ways of improving recording)

In addition there will be special accounts for species that have been studied in more detail in Worcestershire. Possible species are Dormouse, Otter, Polecat, Deer, and Water Vole.

Other sections will probably include:

Introduction
What is the Atlas for?
Possibly a brief description of Worcestershire
The problems of recording mammals.
Special recording methods
A short history of recording mammals in Worcestershire
Conclusions and the future

To date no decision has been taken on illustrations or on the format of the final publication. Main work at the moment is concentrating on drafting species accounts.

The Group working on the Mammal Atlas on behalf of Worcestershire Recorders and the WBRC is:

Johnny Birks
Harry Green
Jenni Schenke
Geoff Trevis

Progress is fairly slow because we are all rather busy but we are slowly but surely progressing!

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