The Manx Wildlife Trust is continuing to spread the word about the positives that are happening in the wildlife world.

With COP26 making headlines this month we have been exploring the relationship of Manx nature to climatic change.

It can all seem pretty scary, but if you are interested in wildlife and have a love of nature, naturally you will want to do something to help conserve it.

One important activity you could take part in is to record and share details of the wildlife that you see.

You would be helping the Manx Wildlife Trust who are gathering essential information to help protect and restore nature.

Decisions that are made about the environment, such as where to create a new nature reserve, or where to build new housing, depends on accessible wildlife information. By taking part in wildlife recording, you can help ensure that these important decisions are based on the best and most up-to-date information.

The Manx Wildlife Trust has an easy wildlife recording form which can be found at https://record.mwt.im/

For your own sighting, select casual records and then fill in the fields as best you can. There is even an easy ’drop pin map’ for where you saw the species.

Not sure of your species? Don’t worry, just have a go and be sure to take a photograph of the species, so it can be verified on line for you.

Most people visualise iconic species such as polar bears when they think about those in danger from global warming.

But unfortunately it will affect all life forms, even species we consider relatively common such as hedgehogs.

We teamed up with Vera Barber, the Hedgehog Lady of Peel and made a video to get you thinking about all the things that might affect hedgehogs due to climatic change.

Take a peek at it www.mwt.im/cop26-isle-man

The Manx Wildlife Trust also runs a hedgehog tunnel scheme to keep a track of hedgehog numbers on the island.

The tunnels are free to borrow, please email [email protected] if you are interested in the scheme.

The good news is that we don’t believe the same decline in hedgehog population is happening on island as in the UK.

However, this doesn’t mean we should become complacent and not track the population, especially with the pressures of global warming. So please do help us to keep an eye on this iconic species.

Other surveys which the Trust run are butterfly transects, based around our reserves.

Butterflies are key indicators of climatic change, as they are mobile and rely on different food sources as adults and as caterpillars. Plants will be affected by global warming resulting in butterfly species being lost.

Insects can be very plant specific so this will have a huge impact on insect species numbers too.

We are finding butterflies emerging earlier in spring and their ranges are spreading northwards.

By people recording and tracking these changes we are building up a more detailed picture about global warming effects. Come and join us tracking these changes!

Not confident on butterfly identification or recording methods?

No problem, as you can join us on a training session. Contact [email protected] if you are interested in helping us monitor butterflies.

If you would like to know more about the work of the Manx Wildlife Trust why not look at our website mwt.im and visit our Facebook page.