The changing history of Kent’s mammals - A talk by Anne Riddell

Anne is an ecologist working on riparian mammals in Kent and was head of education at Wildwood Trust for 15 years. Anne’s talk looks at how Kent’s mammal fauna has changed over the last 12,000 years, starting with our primeval past and continuing to the present day. It will cover the rapidly changing climate at the end of the last Ice Age and Kent’s mammal fossil finds. Neolithic forest clearances and the impacts of habitat loss on woodland species, the effects of medieval hunting, the vigorous fur trade, vermin control, and the development of 19th century shooting estates. It tracks the loss of all our large and many of our not so large mammals and uses manuscripts, old books, journals, churchwarden accounts, and local newspaper accounts to reflect changing attitudes to wildlife in Kent from medieval times to now. It ends with some hopes for the future as a handful of previously missing species start to make their comeback.