Richmond Park & Wimbledon Common
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Photos by Tony Drakeford
These pages provide information on this Stag Beetle Project which was set up by a partnership of The Royal Parks, Conservators of Wimbledon Common, Royal Holloway College and local conservationists. The pages are produced by volunteers to tell you what we volunteers, together with the Common's & Park's Staff are doing to protect the beetles and how you can help.
Other pages on this website
that relate to Stag & Other Beetles Project
are listed below
Photos from Simon Cole's talk (loggery)
Photos from Simon Cole's talk (other)
Note all the links are to documents that are discussed and hyper linked in the text below. Current events are discussed at the end of this Webpage before the Questions & Answers Section.
what we have been doing
This study began in 2003 and has focussed on Richmond Park. In several subsequent years more than 30 volunteers and staff were involved each year. We have being working with researchers from Royal Holloway University of London some of whom have been making an in depth study of the various stages of the stag beetle' lifecycle. For more information on some of that work see http://www.stagbeetlehelpline.co.uk/.
The provisional totals are as follows, total findings 236 of these up to 36 were live Stag Beetle sightings. For 2004 the figures were 391 and up to 84 respectively. These differences are probably largely due to different weather conditions which delayed the emergence of beetle, leading to more being predated in ways which left no remains that we could identify. As in 2004 some of the live beetles were marked before release, but this time we did find one of them again. The 200 remaining finds were dead beetles, mainly only parts, many killed by birds and partly eaten. These two years of observations far exceed anything previously recorded here and we have prepared reports which you can access here 2004 & 2005.
We want your help in exploring all these results by asking questions as set out below. In 2004 we put considerable effort into trapping, using tried and tested systems, but caught no stag beetles. The two following years we did no trapping but concentrated on systematically looking in places where beetles were expected to fly in the park. In all three years the flying seasons were effected by sudden cold spells, in 2004 at the beginning of June which stopped many of the males flying in search of mates. Whilst in 2005 cool condition meant the season did not really start until the second week of June. Although we did have two stag beetles emerge in April and 2 flying beetles were seen on Friday 27th May. But buried beetles were still being found in local gardens, near the surface, at the beginning of June in 2005 & 6. Our focus in 2005 was on monitoring flying beetles and as discussed at the conference this proved to be very time consuming for relatively few observations. The feeling at the conference was that focused rather than transect based observations should improve our understanding about how beetles are using the Park and this we developed in 2006 by watching selective stumps for extended periods as described by Maria Fremlin in the 2005 Conference (see links above). 2006 was a particularly poor year and our focus turned to support work on other beetles for which the Royal Parks have obtained funding. However, several group members are continuing their monitoring in a more limited way.
The reality for beetles in the Park is that many of our stag beetles are eaten, mainly by birds and probably before they have a chance to contribute to future generations. Once this other beetle work is completed in 2007 or 8 we will return to Stag Beetles and with that work we hope to show if the population is increasing or declining.
Monitoring Richmond Park is not easy:
There are some 9,000 established parkland trees in this National Nature Reserve, of which about 1000 are veteran trees. In addition there are many more young trees and trees in the woodland areas, overall there is thought to be about 100,000 trees here. We devised nine circular walks to include about 250 of the trees and stumps that are thought likely to be used by stag beetles for underground nesting sites. Each walk was described, mapped and photographed to provide an information pack clearly conveying its route and stopping sites.
In 2004 Recorders put in a total of 500 hours surveying the Park. To put that figure into perspective this Park covers an area the size of approximately 50,000 domestic back gardens, so we only spent the equivalent of less than a minute per garden per year. (That 500 hours excludes time on monitoring traps and administrative matters such as training.) Comparable figures for 2005 are: we devoted 264 hours to looking for flying beetles along 6 routes crossing various parts of the Park. In addition volunteers spent over 400 hrs on predation surveys.
As discussed at the start of this page, we pulled much of this together at Conferences on 30th October 2004 & 19th November 2005, you can see our Reports on the events here & here.
We looked again at Beetle Flight in 2006 by focusing on stumps found to be consistently at the centre of beetle activitiy. We produced detailed maps of the immediate areas of 13 of these and arranged for volunteers to observe activity at these on as many promising evenings as possible. We also put more effort in to encouraging volunteer activity on Wimbledon Common. However it was a disappointing year for stag beelte sightings and no useful conclusions could be drawn from the Stump Watch approach, nor the limited work at Wimbledon Common.
Helping us explore the results of our efforts so far
Understanding how a habitat and species interact is very complex particularly here in a National Nature Reserve set in a city of more than 7 million people. We believe we need continually to ask ourselves 'what's wrong with our current view of these interactions?' as presented in our Statistical Report for 2004 (link provided above)..
An example may help - we associated beetles that were not airborne, with a tree or stump that they were on or near. One of these, a hawthorn (Crataegus_monogyna) stumps was near Ham Cross and we had 36 dead beetles (or bits as discussed in the Report) associated with it. This was also the largest set of finds at one location and no other identified hawthorn tree had any beetles associated with it. So the obvious question is 'why were the beetles bits found there?'. The geographical aspect is west facing steeply rising ground with road surfaces likely to catch the afternoon sun, so we now need to explore the microclimate associated with that location more thoroughly than planned.
Our point in raising this is not that we spotted an error, in fact we already had a BSc Student project looking at 'habitat features' but that our efforts raised more questions and we want people like you to think about our findings and raise more questions to help us plan next years work. We cannot promise to answer every question but we will post a selection of them on these pages. If you would like us to associate your name and details with your question then put them side by side in an email. It may help you to think about whether your question relates to a threat or a need, we have a list of some of these here or pictorially and you might wish to mention one or more of these.
In 2005 we had a somewhat different anomaly, with a similar number of beetle remains being found in one of the Park’s Gate Gardens. These ornamental gardens have little signs of dead wood except the use of chippings as a flowerbed-mulch. It may be that such chippings concealed emergence holes or that the beetles were coming from somewhere else possibly brought by birds wanting to eat them in the tranquillity of the garden. However, the locations of these finds had no association with feeding posts or other likely feeding places, so the mystery remains.
Project Members were sad to hear in July 2005 of the sudden death of Dave Donohue.
What else happened here in 2006
We continued to broaden our focus to include other Dead Wood Species as well as the Stag Beetle. This beetle is the largest British invertebrate dependent on dead wood and will continue to be a key part of our work. However, many other species use and maintain Dead Wood Habitats so are important to the continuing health of our woods and parklands, as explained here – where you can also download an detailed booklet. We also want to collect better information on other species here are some recent examples, which may take some time to load as there are several pictures.
In 2005 the London Wildlife Trust has run a London Wide Survey on Stag Beetles and asked for all sightings to be reported on their website http://www.wildlondon.org.uk/stag_beetle.php. If you were involved with the Richmond Park Stag Beetle Project do not include sightings in the Park on that site as project results have now been collectively transferred. In 2006 PTES repeated their National Survey – watch their webpage http://www.ptes.org/work/baps/stag-beetle.html.
Event
At the Richmond Park Open days on 15th & 16 July 2006 in the park we sold predrilled Pots for the “Bury Buckets for Beetles” (See link http://www.ptes.org/?page=211 for further information from PTES). We also awarded prizes for a Children’s Art Competition and show many beetles and beetle habitat initiatives.
What is happening here in 2007/8
Following 2006's poor spring and subsequent poor Stag Beetle sightings our work on them will be left for a year or so. Intially this was mainly to allow the project to extend to cover more species of invertebrates. In 2006 we expanded our aims to draw attention to other species dependent on dead wood as this habitat is in serious decline in many areas because so many people fail to understand its importance. The Royal Parks obtained funding to run a detailed trapping exercise, the field work for this was finished in 2006. The first stage of the analysis of the results, covering beetles, has pushed Richmond Park up several places in the Saproxylic Index, leaving us second only to Windsor Great Park. Work on the analysis of other species will take us well into 2008.
The Royal Parks held another Openday at Richmond Park on Sunday 21st September - The Beetle Group exhibited live beetles and sold Bucket Kits as discussed above and at the following website; http://www.ptes.org/?page=211
question & answers about the project
We have produced a series of questions and answers about the project which you might like to consider and comment upon, if so click here. To learn more about beetles and larvae try http://www.stagbeetlehelpline.co.uk/ or http://www.ptes.org/ or http://maria.fremlin.de./stagbeetles/lindex.html.
If you want to know more about the Richmond upon Thames Species Action Plan for the Stag Beetle see http://www.richmond.gov.uk/stag_beetle_sap1.pdf
Description of Scope of Areas of Focus of the Project.
This is the strategic document – please come and help us make it live.
Summary of Aims
To protect, conserve and enhance nationally significant populations of stag beetle in Richmond Park, Wimbledon Common and associated areas. By establishing networks and resources to:
- study stag beetles and associated wildlife & their habitats to ascertain: the reasons for the stag beetles declining population and ways to improve the habitat and increase their numbers; and
- alongside this to promote habitat improvements and other benefits for stag beetles and associated wildlife, including providing public information and community education so they are increasingly seen as valued species.
Areas of Focus
1 Population Monitoring
Very limited information is available on Stag Beetles in both Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park. Both here and nationally, there have been few sightings in the two years prior to 2004. The following needs have been prioritised:
- Staff and volunteers should be trained in the identification of adults and larvae and to be ready to begin monitoring early in 2005.
- Traps should be checked daily and beetles marked and freed (researchers from Royal Holloway College to advise and assist).
- The development and implementation of standardised monitoring procedures such as standard walks to pick up remains and to count beetles in flight.
- The involvement of other volunteer monitoring groups as appropriate.
2 Local Habitat Monitoring
There is currently insufficient information available on the beetles’ use of particular locations within sites. The following needs have been prioritised:
- Data on the distribution of sightings and the mobility of the beetles.
- Information about how the beetles are affected by changes in weather, taking into consideration the geology and hydrology of the sites
- The establishment of a recording protocol for incidental records e.g. accidental discovery of larvae during ground maintenance works
- The facilitation of observation and recording of all stages of the beetles life cycle and the further improvement of survey and monitoring methods in parkland environments.
3 Education and Interpretation
There are a various related educational aims for a variety of audiences. At its simplest the provision of show-case loggeries with interpretative signage will be constructed in locations with good public access and information about saproxylic invertebrates will be incorporated into public walks and nature trail leaflets.
4
However we will target primary and secondary school-based activities, as well as local societies and community groups. This builds on current community initiatives by Wimbledon Common and the Royal Parks. Education will be delivered both on- and off-site employing a range of learning styles and supported by displays, posters, leaflets and other media.
5 Training to develop expertise
To develop and provide for staff and volunteers suitable, timely training, information and support for the work set out in items 1 to 6.
6 Habitat Creation and Protection
A review of the latest research findings combined with data from the monitoring studies above will be applied in the creation and protection of high quality habitat for stag beetles and other saproxylic species.
7 Funding
Some limited funding for habitat management and creation will be available as part of each site’s continuing programme of conservation management. However, significant additional sources of funding are essential to deliver the aims of this plan. Suitable sponsors will be sought and approached.
