We are celebrating conservation heroes from around the world who are doing amazing work with Bristol Zoological Society to protect some of the most threatened species and habitats on the planet.

Our Philippines and Equatorial Guinea spotlights introduced you to some of our inspiring team members and partners who are working to conserve wildlife and their crucial habitats. As a conservation charity, we are proud to work across the globe in nine countries, and that includes protecting native species and habitats on our doorstep. Our incredible UK Conservation team focuses on projects within the South West of England, including native species recovery, habitat restoration, and control of invasive non-native species in combination with science and research, as well as community engagement and outreach.

Coming from a wide range of different backgrounds, our UK conservation heroes are dedicated to conserving and protecting the beautiful nature and wildlife around us.

Jen Nightingale, UK Conservation Manager

I have been working for Bristol Zoological Society for over 25 years, and my role is to manage the UK Conservation Programme which consists of several conservation projects based mainly in South West England.

I have a team of fantastic Conservation Officers, and we work with a diverse range of projects and people, focusing on species recovery and habitat restoration. It ties really nicely into the Field Conservation and Science team here at the Society because we underpin all of our projects with research, ensuring that our work has a positive impact on the native species and habitats, with the ultimate aim being to increase biodiversity.

Even as a small child, I was massively into nature and wildlife. I did estuary cleanups, translocated snails, kept fish and regularly wrote to my local council about cleaning up local wetlands and other areas of nature. I started volunteering at a fish shop because I really wanted to learn about aquarium fish and as a teenager I volunteered at a vet surgery, which is where I decided that I wanted a career in conservation. After studying Zoology at the University of Bristol, I went to Canada and volunteered at Stanley Park Zoo and Vancouver Aquarium, and I think that is where I really developed my passion for fish species and breeding for conservation.

When I came back to the UK, I got a job in a commercial aquarium, but I soon realised that wasn’t for me and then I found Bristol Zoo, or did Bristol Zoo find me? – a bit of both I think. I was so impressed by the fact that the Society had conservation programmes for little brown fish and not just the larger, more charismatic animals. I had been so used to looking after sharks and the showstopper species and to go to an aquarium where it was all about captive breeding and safeguarding Endangered species – holding populations of species that could be reintroduced to the wild was amazing. It was totally different working for a conservation organisation that cared about the little guys, which is why I came to Bristol Zoo, and I have never looked back. During my time with the Society, I have done a MSc in Wildlife Management and Conservation and a PhD in crayfish aquaculture. The zoo has been brilliant and have supported me during both these academic endeavours!

As part of my UK Conservation Manager role, I manage the UK conservation programme, which is split into different projects that each of my Conservation Officers leads on. We’ve got a variety of projects, including the Crayfish Conservation Project, Avon Invasive Weed Forum, AQUA, and Lower Severn Vale Invasive Initiative. We also have our Linking the Levels project, which focuses on conserving the environment directly on our doorstep and delivering habitat and species restoration close to the Bristol Zoo Project site. We also have our project work right here at Bristol Zoo Project, and that’s where we make sure that all of our development and exciting new transformation and habitat plans are not compromising our native biodiversity. Then there is our Avon Gorge and Downs Project, where we are monitoring the silky wave moth, a species only found in one place in England within the Avon Gorge.

My hope for all our fantastic UK conservation projects is that they continue long-term. Our crayfish project has been running for nearly two decades, and that is one of the reasons it is so successful in the South West. Because of that longevity and continuity, it means that we can really deliver an effective strategy long-term. I hope that through our projects we can spread positive conservation messages and excite and inspire, our visitors and wider audiences, so that they can also understand the important actions they can make towards conserving nature.

For the future of conservation as a whole, I hope that the next generation understands the urgency of this situation. I truly believe that those small actions that we do can make a big difference for the future. We know we are up against climate change, but every one of us can take positive actions and steps to help reverse this situation. Nature has an amazing way of recovering if we just allow it to. Every time we have a massive win, for example, when we release crayfish back into a special nature reserve, it gives me so much joy and hope for the future, and I know that we can change, but we have to work together.

I am so delighted that there is now a Natural History GCSE coming online. This is a brilliant way to engage with younger people, so they can understand what’s here. Once people notice and grow attached to the wonderful nature, we have around us, they will notice when it is gone. It is really important that we invest in the younger generations to make sure that they know and care about what is here so that they will take action to stop it disappearing in the future.

Neil Green, UK Biosecurity Conservation Officer

My journey to where I am now is long and winding, from building balconies in Bondi to being a Sports Coordinator in Cumbria, running a landscape gardening business of my own and leading onto the University of Bath where I studied Environmental Management. From here I worked for the National Trust, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and finally joined Bristol Zoological Society around 13 years ago.

My role as UK Biosecurity Conservation Officer involves leading on a number of projects, one of them being AQUA, which is a biosecurity accreditation scheme where we are working to enhance the biosecurity of different waterbodies here in the UK and protect these sites from the threats of non-native invasive species.

Since 2012, I have also been working on the Avon Invasive Weed Forum (AIWF), which works with local action groups around Bristol and the region, to protect our local biodiversity and biosecurity with the help of local communities. The most recent project that I have been involved with is Linking the Levels, which is a South Gloucestershire council, Bristol Zoological Society, and Bristol Avon Rivers Trust partnership project which works on the areas around Bristol Zoo Project all the way up to Oldbury Naite in South Gloucestershire, monitoring and mapping mink, crayfish, invasive plants and other invasive species, to get them under control and raise awareness on how people can help with the threat of invasive species.

The main aim for the future of these projects is to keep delivering and developing them alongside our partners, as well as embed them within organisations in the region, making it front of mind rather than an add-on.

My hope for the future of conservation is that everyone realises what they have got on their doorstep and they all know that they can do something to help that, that they have got the power within their own local communities to make a difference to native species, developing a passion for the protection of local wildlife and its habitat.

Alex Atkinson, UK Conservation Officer

I got into conservation through university, having studied Conservation at Bangor University. I have since gone on to do a range of jobs in the conservation sector. I began as an ecologist, before becoming a tree surgeon, and then found myself at Bristol Zoo where I specialise in habitat management.

As a UK Conservation Officer for Bristol Zoological Society, I lead on the Linking the Levels project, which is a feasibility stage project about linking the estuary habitat to the inland farming habitat.

The Severn estuary is a globally important habitat, and the project targets priority species like water voles, eels, and estuarian birds, increasing their ability to use the habitat by improving the environment inland.

My hope for the future of this project is that we can secure funding so that we can improve the habitat along the whole estuary.

My hope for the future of conservation is that nature can be restored to a point where everyone gets as much joy out of it as I do and that everyone feels inspired to take action and preserve it.

Nicola Cooke, UK Conservation Officer

I have always been interested in nature, and I love being outdoors. I used to be a zookeeper, but I wanted to get out into field work and get involved in native species conservation.

My role as UK Conservation Officer for the Native Species team involves lots of different surveys, mainly as part of the white-clawed crayfish reintroduction programme, where we breed crayfish to be returned to their natural habitat and environment.

We currently have around 500 crayfish in the hatchery, 350 juveniles that we will be rearing up for the next couple of years, and we also have some that are ready to be released, which we will be doing in the autumn. I am also working to map glow worm populations in South Gloucestershire. I have already surveyed quite a lot around Bristol Zoo Project, and we will be using this information to inform a new reintroduction programme.

For the future of conservation, I hope that there will be more wildlife, that we can protect some of these threatened species, and that it’s not uncommon to see hundreds of butterflies in your back garden.

Georgina Jarman, UK Conservation Officer

I have always been interested in native wildlife and I am lucky enough to work here with the Native Species team, working on surveying and conserving the nature at the Bristol Zoo Project site. I also help with the white-clawed crayfish reintroduction programme.

When I was younger, I started volunteering at Bristol Zoo with Animal Encounters and the Aquarium before going on to study Ecology and Wildlife Conservation at university. After that I ended up in more of a husbandry role, and the skills from here led me to work on reintroduction projects. I now work on the white-clawed crayfish reintroduction project, as well as using my university survey skills to survey native wildlife at the Bristol Zoo Project site.

As a UK Conservation Officer, I work at the Bristol Zoo Project site, monitoring our native wildlife, including some of our rarer species, great crested newts, as we work to ensure that we our managing their habitat in the best way possible to benefit our native wildlife. I also help with the husbandry in the crayfish hatchery, monitoring, and assisting with translocations of this species as part of the wider project.

For the future, I am setting up long-term monitoring projects, which include audio monitoring on-site, both for birds and bats, and I am also setting up more nest boxes on-site so we can monitor our nesting species and make use of our woodlands.

For the future of conservation, I hope that people start managing their native wildlife more sympathetically so we can support our native species. Hopefully, if we can improve the quality of habitats, we can encourage species that we’ve lost to come back to those habitats and use reintroduction projects to help bring them back as well.

At Bristol Zoological Society, we are always inspired by the passion and dedication of our teams and love sharing conservation stories and the journeys of our conservation heroes.

Find out all about the UK Conservation projects below.