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National Mammal Week 2026
20 - 26 April • Nationwide
National Mammal Week is an annual celebration of Britain’s wild mammals, and the people working to monitor, protect and restore populations of these vital species.
Mammal Discovery Challenge 2026 is generously sponsored by Wildcare
Mammals are all around us, playing a vital part in balanced and resilient ecosystems, but are usually out of sight and out of mind due to their secretive and often nocturnal lifestyles. As a result, mammals are among the least recorded wildlife, hampering scientists and conservationists seeking to ensure their future. You can help change that!
By taking part in the Mammal Discovery Challenge throughout National Mammal Week you’ll help collect vital data on mammal populations, while having fun and learning about the fascinating wildlife on your doorstep. And you’ll be in with a chance to win Wildcare vouchers to spend on wildlife monitoring equipment, every day of National Mammal Week, thanks to sponsors of the challenge, Wildcare.
One in four UK mammals are threatened with extinction. But there’s hope. From gardens and parks to campuses and schoolgrounds, small green spaces act as vital lifelines—helping mammals move, meet, feed, and thrive.
Protecting wildlife starts with good data. When we know what species are present - and which are not - we can take the right steps to bring mammals back to the places they once called home. And no one is better placed to record them than the people who live, work, or study there every day.
This nationwide citizen science project aims to encourage and enable people of all ages to help address the lack of data on mammal populations in Britain by monitoring and recording the mammals visiting their gardens and local areas in National Mammal Week.
How to get involved in the Mammal Discovery Challenge
There are loads of ways to discover the mammals in your local landscape - anyone can be a citizen scientist! Register your interest in taking part in the challenge to receive information and inspiration leading up to, and throughout, National Mammal Week.
Use our free toolkits to detect and record mammals in your garden, schoolground or local greenspace. Look out for our free online training events in April to prepare for a busy week of mammal recording!
Learn how to spot, ID and record the mammals visiting your patch
Recognise and record the signs of mammals - tracks, burrows, feeding signs and droppings
Make a footprint tunnel and use our guide to detect which mammals have been visiting
Use trail cameras to capture your nocturnal visitors going about their business
Share your discoveries via our free Mammal Mapper app or by emailing them to science@themammalsociety.org for a chance to win Wildcare vouchers to spend on wildlife monitoring equipment, every day of National Mammal Week.
Download schools kit
Envisioning bringing back the wild to schools and record the mammals in your schoolgrounds.
Download partner kit
Celebration Britain’s mammals and raise awareness of the challenges they face.
Download local groups kit
Celebration Britain’s mammals and raise awareness of the challenges they face.
Other ways to mark National Mammal Week
1. Fundraise for mammal conservation
As we face an ongoing biodiversity crisis, our work to understand and address the threats and challenges facing native mammals across the British Isles has never been so important. Funds raised for the Mammal Society in National Mammal Week can make a huge difference to our work to study, protect and restore native mammal populations and their habitats across the British Isles.
In National Mammal Week, when we recognise and celebrate the importance of our wild mammals and the work to ensure their future, what better time could there be to bring people together to support this cause? Just like with the small mammals shaping our ecosystems, little actions can add up to big impact. Whether you’re planning a sponsored run or swim, a guided wildlife walk, a mammal-themed quiz night, or a bake sale, every little counts. Our toolkit is packed with ideas and guidance for individuals, schools and groups to raise vital funds for mammal conservation.
2. Take local actions to help mammals
Wherever you live, there are simple actions you can take to make your local landscape a more welcoming and supportive habitat for wild mammals. Your actions could provide a lifeline for a variety of species that would otherwise simply not be able to survive or thrive in your area. And your actions could inspire others in your community to think of mammals and take action too, so that together you can bring the wild things back.
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If you have a garden, this is an ideal starting point for supporting local wildlife. Simply creating access points through fences and leaving areas of long grass and leaf litter can make all the difference to mammals big and small. For tips on making your garden friendly check out this blog by author and wildlife expert Susan Young: How to make your garden wildlife-friendly — Mammal Society
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The campus of any educational institution can be a haven for varied wildlife if the needs of people are balanced against those of the animals in the surrounding landscape. There is often space for varied habitats and food sources to be created, and generally little human activity from dusk until dawn. And students can be involved in making positive changes and monitoring the wildlife their actions have encouraged. For guidance and resources visit our Schools Mammal Challenge page.
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If you can make a difference by making a few small changes, imagine what impact you could have if you persuade others in your community or network to do the same? You could start by speaking to your neighbours about nature-friendly gardening and turn a row of gardens into a ‘hedgehog street’, or you could contact your local council to propose changes that will help mammals - from leaving areas of roadside verge unmown, letting leaves rot under hedges and street trees, avoiding the use of pesticides in parks, and installing bat boxes in trees and on public buildings. You could also seek to challenge myths about mammals, for example dispelling myths about foxes being dangerous or helping people to understand why small mammals are fascinating and ecologically important rather than ‘pests’.
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Signing up as a member of the Mammal Society is a great way to ensure you stay informed about mammals, the issues that affect them, and the ways you can help. Standard membership is just £5 a month, which brings a host of benefits including discounts on our trainings and a quarterly magazine. most importantly, by becoming a member you ensure the Mammal Society is a stronger voice for mammals, and help us in our work to ensure a bright future for Britain’s mammals. There’s even junior membership for under 18s - just £45 a year, including an amazing welcome pack.
3. Write to your MP or set up a meeting
The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, and to change that we need wildlife to be a priority consideration in all areas of policy. It is important that MPs hear from constituents that nature recovery is a key priority for them, and that they are given guidance and information that allows them speak up in parliament to ensure that the needs of mammals and their habitats are considered.
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It is easy to write to your MP, but the most effective way to ensure that they pay attention to what you have to say is to meet them in person. You may find it easiest to meet them during one of their constituency surgeries, which they hold at least once a month - many hold them most Fridays. This is when your MP meets their constituents to talk about things affecting them and for people to raise concerns about politics or local issues, so it's the perfect time to tell them why nature's recovery matters to you!
The first step for organising a meeting is to contact them or the people who work in their constituency office. You can find out who your MP is and their contact details by using this tool:
You can write to their constituency office by letter or email or call them on the number provided. If no contact details for their constituency is provided, simply write to the email address or call the number of their Parliamentary office. You could also write a letter requesting a meeting to this office - their Parliamentary address is:
[MP's Name]
House of Commons,
London,
SW1A 0AAFailing this, other options available include visiting your MP's website or your local library for more information about where the surgery is held.
When you ask for a meeting, explain what you want to meet your MP about and offer some times and dates you’d like to meet. You may have to be flexible about meeting - MPs have full diaries but are good about making time for everyone.
Don't forget to put your full postal address on anything you write to your MP so they know you live in their constituency.
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Make it personal and locally relevant:
MPs are tasked with representing the needs and priorities of their constituents, so it helps to speak from personal experience and make your point relevant to your life and the local area.Have a clear ask:
To make your meeting as successful as possible, make sure you have some clear things to ask your MP to do for you. For example, you could ask them to write to their Party Leader, and their environment team to attend the reading of any environmental Bills. You can also use the opportunity to find out what they currently think or know about nature recovery and how to achieve it.Don’t worry if you’re not an expert:
It’s your MP’s job to listen to you and you will probably know far more than them - just be passionate about the issue and be patient if they need help to understand a concept or issue. If you help them understand it, they can explain it to others!Amplify the conversation locally:
Let the local community know that you have been engaging with the MP on this issue. Ask your MP if you can take a photo with them to share on social media or with the local paper - this is a great way to let others know that people have been speaking to them about nature’s recovery, and to encourage them to do the same. The MP may feel more pressure to respond and to update constituents on the actions they take as a result of your meeting. -
You may wish to raise an issue of personal interest or concern with your MP, or just use the meeting to increase their awareness of the importance of mammals and the issues that affect them to put this on their radar. It is best to have at least one specific request for them, since this becomes something tangible they can take away and do, and something that you can follow up about to ask for a status update.
Here are a few topics you may wish to raise:
The Planning & Infrastructure Bill
This bill is currently being debated in parliament, and proposes that current requirements to mitigate the impact of development on local protected species and habitats could be bypassed to allow the development to move ahead, provided money is paid into a central ‘nature recovery fund’ to be used for national projects to restore nature. This poses a threat to vulnerable mammal species that need widespread habitat and connected landscapes. There has also been a lot of scapegoating of wildlife as the cause for delayed or failed development projects, which is undermining public understanding of the importance of protecting wildlife. Use or adapt our template letter to raise this important and urgent issue. Template LetterNature-friendly farming
Over 65% of the UK landscape is used for farming, and intensive agriculture often makes these vast swathes of landscape unfriendly to mammals and other wildlife. Agricultural land can deliver for humans and wildlife if there is consideration of connectivity, habitat at field edges and in hedgerows or tree lines between fields, space left for nature around water courses, and an avoidance of pesticides that obliterate soil life and lead to a lack of food for mammals. Farmers can struggle to make changes while protecting their livelihoods, so government support in this area is vital. However the budget to support environmental land management schemes (ELMS) is under threat of being reduced, hampering the efforts of farmers who would be willing to do their bit to protect wildlife and make landscapes more resilient.Hare close season
A Bill awaiting its second reading proposes to ‘Establish a close season, from the start of February to the end of September, during which the killing or taking of hares is prohibited; repeal the seasonal prohibition of the sale of hares in the Hares Preservation Act 1892; and for connected purposes.’
The Mammal Society supports this change in legislation, which we hope would reduce the unjustifiable killing of hares in the landscape. Though brown hares are non-native, they now occupy an important ecological niche and rarely cause serious crop damage. Shooting is often for sport rather than pest control, and this close season would give them a layer of protection currently denied them.
More information
Celebrate National Mammal Week with Magnificent Marine Mammals
This National Mammal Week, explore the fascinating world of marine mammals with Magnificent Marine Mammals. Discover the incredible features, behaviours, and challenges of these iconic and endangered creatures.
Written and illustrated by Colin Marshall of Living World Education, this resource brings marine mammals to life with captivating illustrations and insights, inspiring a deeper appreciation for the diversity, intelligence, and conservation of these extraordinary animals.
About the Mammal Society
Established in 1954, the Mammal Society is Britain’s leading charity devoted to the science-led conservation of mammals. They work to raise awareness of the issues mammals face, sharing scientific research so that populations can be protected and restored across the British Isles and Ireland. Ensuring a bright future for British mammals, the Mammal Society inspire conservation projects, empower stakeholders through training and resources, and raise public awareness through education and campaigns.
Mammal Society | Website | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter
All branding and designs seen here were kindly produced by Whistlejacket.
