Dormice, water voles, red squirrels and otters, among various other mammals are legally protected. Generally walkover surveys and mitigation plans can be undertaken at any time of the year, though some specialist surveys are seasonal.
Our experienced team of surveyors cover all areas of the UK.
Our attention to detail, investment in technology and sheer scale allow us to keep prices low.
Your planning authority will accept our report, or you get your money back!
Instant quotes. Enquiries responded to in hours, not days. Surveys in days, not weeks.
Our efficiency and expertise has saved our customers tens of millions of pounds in delays on site.
We provide thousands of ecological or arboricultural surveys each year.
We know speed is important to you. That's why we are obsessed with delivering the fastest, most efficient service possible. Here's how it works:
We will take your details and send you a quote explaining everything you need to know. We will also send a booking form along with the quote.
Complete the booking form and email it back to us. We'll then arrange a date for your survey and get to work.
Once your Other Mammal Surveys (inc Dormouse, Water Vole, Otter) is complete we will write your report. You can make payment via a bank transfer or by card over the phone.
Jon was professional from the outset and responsive for the duration of the process; this helped us align approach and inform the design further. Pleasure working with Jon and would happily have him on our jobs going forward. Great work and many thanks!
I live in Berkshire and was asked to provide a tree survey by my architect, to go with our planning application. I think that it was a bit much considering there was only one tree, but there was nothing we could do.The planning officers has...
I needed a scoping bat survey to meet the requirements of a local planning authority within a tight timeframe. Jo Gregory carried out the survey within 24 hours of my formal request and issued a focused report early on the third working day following which...
Yes Ask Us No
Surveys for mammals such as dormice (Gliridae ssp.), water voles (Arvicola amphibius), otters (Lutra lutra) and red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) are not common. If your local planning authority has asked you for a survey for any of these animals, you should contact one of our ecologists to talk about your site and how it could be impacted upon.
Field mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) caught during a study for dormice.
Each of these mammals presents its own unique constraints to development applications and their surveys can have stringent seasonal restrictions that may present you with considerable site delays if the matter is not addressed as early as possible.
In the case of water voles and otters, clearly you are less likely to put the habitat these species use at any significant risk unless you are looking to develop proximate to the bank of slow moving streams and rivers (even ditches).
Likewise, the distribution and ranges of red squirrels is not broad and being constrained by their presence across large areas of the UK is unlikely. Dormice however, have a much wider distribution across the country, especially in England and Wales. Most surveys that your local planning authority will ask you for in respect to mammal species will either involve trapping, which is seasonal, or will be scoping exercises.
Scoping exercise aim to provide sufficient justification for trapping to be employed, or to provide some scientifically valid study that justifies the lack on any further action. In the case of the latter, this might be the absence of burrows, latrines and footprints, as well as other field signs including e.g. half-eaten vegetation and/or prey remains.