Wetland Britain's Big Wildlife Revival

Britain's wildlife needs your help.

Many of our favourite wild creatures are under threat.

From persecution.

From pollution. And alien predators.

Others are losing their homes.

Suffering from injury or disease.

Or just struggling to survive in the modern world.

Some could be extinct within our lifetime if we don't act now.

There's nothing in the sky or even in the trees there, is there?

But you can help bring them back from the brink.

Together we can fight their enemies. Restore the places where they live.

And stop their decline in its tracks.

Release.

Whoa! Whoa!

So join our campaign. To save our wonderful wildlife.

For us all to enjoy.

Oh, look! SHE LAUGHS

Ah! Hello to you!

I mean, how can you not just fall in love with that?

BIRDSONG

This week I'm exploring one of the most mysterious

of all our wildlife havens -

a watery wonderland - the wetlands.

Water truly is the stuff of life.

Without water, we could not survive

and neither could every single wild animal on the planet.

And that's why wetlands like this are so precious.

Britain's wetlands are the veins of Mother Nature.

Our lakes, ponds, bogs and marshes are lush, fertile habitats

bursting with a wealth of wild inhabitants

feasting on the rich rewards found here.

The whole place is teeming with various types of flies -

crane flies, dragonflies, damselflies.

And they're food for all these birds and the fish underneath us,

which are food for bigger birds and the top predators like otters.

From warblers to water voles,

and herons to eels,

our wetlands may provide rich pickings for wildlife,

but they're also extremely fragile.

They've been under threat longer than any other habitat.

They can be destroyed in an instant simply by draining the water away,

which means our wetland creatures are living on a knife edge.

But if we don't do something to save them,

then some of them could disappear completely.

Together, we're determined that will not happen.

Our team of experts are championing

some of Britain's most threatened wetland wildlife.

Ben Fogle comes face to face with a creature

we need to stop from slipping away for ever.

You're a handsome boy.

George McGavin investigates an amphibian

that's losing its watery home.

There is the star of the show.

There is the star of the show.

And Mike Dilger shows you

how to witness the miracle of life in your own garden.

This has hatched out this morning.

Ohh!

I'm heading up to the very top of Glastonbury Tor

to get a view of this vast area of low-lying land,

the Somerset Levels.

This landscape is steeped in history.

It's famous for being one of the most spiritual sites in Britain,

where King Arthur

is said to be buried.

And it's also where the long, slow decline

of British wetlands first began.

Until the Middle Ages, our island was a water-soaked oasis

filled with vast swathes of wetland and our wildlife loved it.

Cranes and beavers were both native species before they disappeared from Britain.

They would have lived alongside other wetland creatures,

the numbers of which we can only imagine.

But sadly, this force of nature did not last.

Our ancestors saw wetlands as useless, unproductive land

that stood in the way of progress,

so over the centuries, ditches were dug, pumps were installed

and the water was drained away.

Over time, our wetlands have declined by 90%

as they were drained and turned into farmland.

Our wildlife is suffering as a result,

a victim of one of the greatest environmental disasters

in our nation's history.

Sadly, losing their watery homes

is still the biggest problem facing our wetland wildlife.

George McGavin has been searching for a fascinating amphibian

that is really struggling to survive in our modern world.

The entire British construction industry

is at the mercy of an extraordinary creature.

If just one individual was found in a pool of water on this building site,

it could bring all this activity to a grinding halt,

costing developers millions of pounds.

Yes, it's the underwater dragon, the aquatic stegosaurus himself,

the amazing, the incredible, great crested newt.

The great crested newt -

our largest and most spectacular amphibian - is disappearing.

Numbers have plummeted since the 1960s.

They now have full legal protection

and you can be fined up to £5,000 for harming them.

As a result of their power over British builders,

the poor, maligned newt has a black mark against its name.

But the real cost of development in Britain is the destruction of its natural habitat,

so we need to fight to stop its decline.

This is it. This is one of the most stunning things

you'll ever see in a pond.

This is the male great crested newt and if it was swimming freely,

you'd see the magnificent crest along the back.

And as it moves down, you'll see the big, flat tail

with this gorgeous silver stripe on it.

Stunning!

Here's what I love about these creatures.

They can live up to 17 years, can regenerate lost limbs,

scare off predators by secreting poisonous toxins from their skin,

and trek up to a kilometre on land to find a mate.

Now, despite all these amazing facts,

I do know that not everyone shares my passion for all things amphibian.

Up against a fluffy red squirrel or colourful kingfisher,

the newt rarely stands a chance,

dismissed as a slimy,

cold-blooded nuisance.

Since 1945, one million farm ponds

have disappeared from our countryside.

That's a lot of homes for newts gone.

And newts face problems on land, too.

They need damp environments such as compost heaps,

the bottom of hedgerows,

and rough grassland where they can forage for insects.

And it's these habitats that we're losing

in our bid to tidy up the countryside.

Newts are also the gardener's best friend -

there's nothing they enjoy more than a nice, juicy slug.

And they play their part in the food chain,

keeping mammals and birds such as hedgehogs and herons well fed.

I'm about to meet a man who's as passionate about amphibians as I am.

Professor Richard Griffiths from the University of Kent

has devoted his life to studying these creatures.

And I'm thrilled he's letting me get involved

on a nocturnal newt-trapping mission.

This is a sort of a semi-experimental system

to monitor the colonisation of newly-created ponds.

The problems they've been facing are the same problems facing a lot of our wildlife,

it's basically habitat loss.

Loss of ponds, but also loss of terrestrial habitat.

It's almost like a double whammy that they're actually getting.

How is this going to help with the conservation of great crested newts?

What we're trying to do here is to sort of see

how well you can actually benefit newts by creating new ponds

and exactly what the impact is on the wider population.

And, in fact, a lot of newt conservation is actually very, very simple.

It's dig a hole and add water

and if you're in the right place,

you'll have newts turning up. That's it?

Richard's team is trying to discover more

about the newts' complex life cycle.

So they trap them, note down their vital statistics

and then let them go.

So the most important thing is to keep an air bubble inside.

We keep about a third air bubble in these little traps.

So tonight I'm going to set my very own trap,

which is not something you can try in your own pond at home.

Richard and his team have a special licence.

Is that about right? Er...yep.

Well, there, I've set my first newt trap and with any luck

tomorrow morning, when I come back,

that will contain a great crested newt.

So what have we got on here, Richard? This is the moment of truth.

That's right. This is the trap you set last night, George.

If you pull the funnel out. And...

Ah! Wow! Loads in there.

Well, I would say... Oh, there's more in there.

There is the star...of the show.

A male great crested newt.

It is, actually, one of the most beautiful things

you'll find in any pond anywhere.

This is the bit that I think is really, really smart.

You stick him on there...

Each newt has a unique set of markings on its belly.

We place this piece of sponge, which won't harm him at all, over the top.

And Richard's got a clever way of keeping them still

for their close-up.

And there's his pattern. That's just...brilliant!

And you get a unique fingerprint image, if you like, for each animal.

I think it's Denzel.

Yeah. It's very clear, isn't it? Yep. Named after Denzel Washington.

GEORGE LAUGHS

Wow! My first Hollywood star, right here in Canterbury.

Understanding how newt colonies interact is vital

if we're going to have any chance of protecting this remarkable creature.

And the good news is you don't need to be a scientist to save the species.

I'm off to the picture-postcard village of Sonning in Berkshire

to find out how.

Environmentalist Alistair Driver moved here 15 years ago

and realised the village was missing one vital ingredient for wildlife,

a pond. So he built one.

Which one of you is Alistair? That's me, sir.

Alistair, nice to meet you. Good to meet you, George. Good to meet you.

How did all this begin? How did this pond digging begin?

Well, I'm a bit of a wetland nut anyway,

so I was keen on having ponds.

They're one of the most bio-diverse habitats in the country,

so it's good to have one for wildlife reasons,

but they also become a focal point for the community.

When did you find your first great crested newt?

Well, that was a bit of a shock. And were you aware it was here?

No, no. There was no records at all for the whole of this parish.

And 2000 it was, we were doing the Millennium pond dipping.

I hoicked out a great crested newt. It was here? In this area?

Yeah, right in this very pond that we're now clearing.

And there are now eight sites in the village

where great crested newts breed.

What's actually happening here? Well, we're clearing out this nasty Australian swamp stonecrop,

this invasive plant. So it shouldn't be here? No.

It's come in of its own accord and we have to clear it out periodically.

It's great that Alistair's work has encouraged newts to make their home here.

It's not hard to do. This is conservation in action.

Local communities coming together

and just making a pond, maintaining a pond.

All of this is going to help the great crested newt

for many years to come.

I think we've got a newt over here.

What have you got? What have you got? Oh, look at that!

Wow! Tell me all about it.

I just looked into my net

and I see this newt scrambling around at the bottom.

I think it's a great crested newt... It certainly is.

..cos of the underside of the belly, which is orange.

This is a young one, yeah. Probably in its second year,

cos they do get a lot bigger than this.

And, of course, you can only handle these under a licence

or under supervision with a licence. That's right.

So I have a licence for this. Well found!

If you just put him down in that corner there.

And there he goes.

What they're doing here in Sonning is really inspiring

and it's something we can all learn from.

Saving Britain's threatened wildlife isn't always about campaigning,

sometimes it's as simple as putting on a pair of wellies

and taking note of what's on your doorstep.

So get involved and join your local wildlife group to help save creatures

like the magnificent, the truly incredible great crested newt.

After centuries of neglect,

our wetlands now only cover a tiny fraction of Britain.

But now at last some really good news,

because down here in the West Country,

in the shadow of Glastonbury Tor,

our wetlands are being reborn and so is their wildlife.

The Somerset Levels

are a vast, low-lying swathe of the West Country,

much of which is now underwater.

It's funny when you first come here, you think,

"Well, there's a handful of birds out there. Very nice."

But the more you sit still, the more you realise there is here...

Oh, look, there you go.

Got a cormorant up there just sitting on this dead tree.

Looking really...prehistoric!

Or even some kind of...creature from a graphic novel.

SHE LAUGHS Cormorant Man.

BIRDSONG

There's a cuckoo. Can you hear it?

That's a sound everybody will recognise.

BIRDSONG

Just down here in the middle of the water

there's a beautiful great crested grebe sitting on a nest.

The most aquatic bird, they just don't come on land.

Ooh!

Mute swan too close...to the great crested grebe nest!

Look, they're having a little stand-off!

SHE LAUGHS

Feeding just too close to this nest for the grebe.

There's another pair of great crested grebes

and they're displaying to each other,

which is just brilliant to see!

Oh! What a beautiful dance.

You don't have to be a birder to appreciate this place.

Pretty much everyone likes birds

and, in that case, you'll like wetlands too.

During spring and summer, a whole host of species breed here,

including otters, which up until

the 1970s were on the brink of disappearing.

And the conservation triumphs do not end there.

Just over here is a great white egret

flying really low to the ground.

Very elegant.

Great white egrets are a spectacular species of heron

that have always been a very rare visitor to Britain,

but in 2010, a small flock of these stunning birds turned up here.

And to everyone's surprise, last summer two pairs built nests and reared young -

the first time in recorded history that great white egrets have ever bred in Britain.

The success story of great white egrets breeding in Britain

shows just how important it is to protect our wetlands.

It's crucial we save these precious natural habitats,

as I discovered when I investigated the tragic decline

of one of my favourite mammals.

There's an animal that I'm sure you'll care about

if you ever knew Kenneth Graham's Wind In The Willows as a child.

It's a creature that feels like it's knitted into the pattern of idyllic British countryside

and yet no matter how much we care about it, this is Britain's fastest-declining mammal.

The water vole. Poor old Ratty has now been virtually wiped out

with a staggering 90% fall in numbers...

and it's all our fault.

For the past century, they've suffered this two-pronged assault.

From one side, habitat loss, where their wetlands have been drained

and left isolated populations

and from the other side, alien predators that are fast,

sleek and effective hunters.

That predator is the American mink.

In the middle of the 20th century, mink were imported from the USA to make fur coats.

Hundreds of mink farms reared tens of thousands of animals,

but they were let loose, causing ecological anarchy in the UK.

Because the mink's a newcomer to Britain, the water vole hasn't evolved a defence against them.

When you think about its native predators like herons,

which can stand here motionless in the water ready to strike,

or raptors which could swoop down from above,

the water vole still has the chance to dash back into its burrow to get away.

Or its land predators like foxes or weasels, he can jump into the water.

But with mink on the other hand, not only can they get into the water vole's burrow,

but they can also get into the water, giving them a hugely unfair advantage.

And it's a competition that the water vole rarely wins.

And now it's on the brink of extinction

and you won't see them in many of their former haunts.

So I've come to a wetland reserve in Sussex,

one place where I might just catch a glimpse.

Despite my love of water voles,

I've never actually seen one in the wild before.

This is a rare opportunity.

Cos you know that they can duck under at any second,

it's really up to them how long you get with them on the surface.

So we saw it then just for a little while and then... There it is!

There it is! There it is! Yeah! SHE LAUGHS

It's so fantastic to finally see a water vole in the wild.

I thought I'd missed my chance before we lost them completely.

It's rare that you get more than just a few seconds with a water vole,

particularly when you're in an aquatic environment like this.

And just then we got one just trucking right across the centre.

Always looking busy, always off to feed,

always off to get back to their burrows.

This creature may look... Well, rat-like, but that's deceptive.

Water voles have lovely, thick hair, which traps air

when they dive underwater, keeping them warm.

And they're surprisingly buoyant,

which is good, as they don't have webbed feet for swimming.

But water voles aren't just cute, they're vital.

They bring our wetlands to life.

By munching on the wetland greenery, they let in sunlight

and their burrows bring life to the soil.

This is awesome seeing a water vole this close,

but if we want to see them in the places they used to be,

where they used to live,

it has to be much bigger scale than this. This is a nature reserve.

Wouldn't it be amazing to see them in ponds and rivers and wetlands right across Britain?

So let's stop dreaming.

If we're going to save the water vole from total annihilation,

we need to think big.

We can't just release a few water voles into a reserve,

we need hundreds of these little beauties.

Water voles have been lost right across the UK.

Down in Devon, they're virtually extinct.

But there is a farm where they're being bred

for nationwide release projects.

Rebecca Northey has been breeding them here for six years.

Hi, Rebecca. Hello. Are you all right? Yes, thank you.

You, you know, become attached to the water voles and their plight,

because we've bred so many water voles.

The girls get to go out on release programmes,

so you see the whole project going from the breeding right through to the release stage.

And, you know, it means so much to you to actually be able to see the animals surviving

and going out into the distance to be able to breed in the wild.

There we are.

By the tail, very efficient.

And that's a male.

The water vole has a trick up its furry sleeve.

110, that one.

It can breed...like rabbits.

They've got something which is postpartum estrus,

which means that as soon as the female's given birth,

she can be mated immediately.

And the gestation's only three weeks, so, of course, pretty much it's one litter per month.

So, obviously, they can produce really high numbers of young, which is really important for them,

because with things like herons and pike and mink, otter, stoat, everything will eat them.

So they're going to lose so many when they're out in the wild,

so we need to produce huge numbers so that they can survive.

In fact, water voles breed so quickly

that families have to be re-housed regularly

so that the next generation can have some space.

So just move the... I'm quite nervous, actually. THEY LAUGH

So gently, gently? Yeah. That's it. Support it. Yes!

Oh, come on, on you go. There we go.

You don't get to do this very often,

be quite so up-close with a water vole.

You get a really chance to have a good look round.

So they're part of the order of rodent

and they're defined by having a pair of incisors at the top

and a pair of incisors at the bottom there.

They keep growing, they're open-rooted, so they have to keep them short by gnawing.

What a fine beast!

Each year, this farm produces hundreds of voles

for release projects across the UK,

but the harsh reality is that half of them

will be killed and eaten in the first few days.

So it's vital we keep a close eye on those that do survive in the wild.

Back in Sussex, I've joined a team of volunteers

for the great water vole fight back.

A huge population, yeah.

There's been a programme to cull mink around here for a few years.

Today we're checking traps, hoping to catch some of the last remaining wild water voles in Sussex

and see how they're getting on.

It's a project led by PhD student, Drewella Baker.

OK. Then what we'll do.... Argh! Sorry!

That's all right. What we'll do is...give it a shake.

There he is. There we are. There we go.

So if you can hold the bag tight at the top, I'll take the trap away. Well done.

I'm pretty sure that went through my glove, then. Are you all right?

Yeah, I'm fine. OK. Good. It's a badge of honour, you know.

Absolutely.

So the hair you're teasing out here, why is this important?

I've got hair plucks from all the individuals that I capture

and I will then take it to the lab at the University of Brighton and extract the DNA from it.

and I will then take it to the lab at the University of Brighton and extract the DNA from it.

And the hope is that the water voles from Arundel will eventually be able to mix even as far as here?

So eventually what we're hoping to see is that the two colonies will start to mix genes

and also they'll spread the other way as well

run riot, then we wouldn't have any native species left.

So, you know, personally, I wouldn't want to do it myself,

but that isn't really the case.

The fact is they've been here for hundreds of years.

They've had a massive assault in recent years.

Numbers have dropped massively.

This place looks so natural,

but amazingly, 30 years ago, it didn't exist at all.

Today, thousands of acres of reed beds, marshes and ponds

make up a paradise for nature.

And amazingly, it's all down to our intervention

and a substance we're more accustomed to seeing in our gardens,

peat.

Peat is dead trees and vegetation from thousands of years ago

that has rotted into the ground.

The Somerset levels are full of it

and, by the 1960s, peat extraction had become a booming business here.

When we first came here, what you had was an old industrial landscape.

So there were diggers digging up peat and that was surrounded by fields.

There was no nature here.

The RSPB's Tony Whitehead was involved with a huge challenge

of returning the Levels to their former glory.

We got the whole local community around here

involved in growing reeds, and it was an amazing effort they put in.

They were planting reeds in their own greenhouses and looking after them.

Planting them out here, and basically, after that, you add water

and this is what you get. Hundreds and hundreds of acres

of pristine reed bed dripping with birds.

Are there any other benefits beyond what we see in front of us?

There are just lots and lots of benefits. It's not just about the wildlife.

There are people coming here and loving being here. Loving the companionship of the birds

and the creatures in a place like this. It really makes people's days.

In a wetland system like this as well, whilst the water is here

it's also not flooding people's houses or people's farms,

so there's a benefit to having it in terms of flood alleviation, as well.

You make it sound really easy,

but there must have been some challenges.

Oh, of course it's had challenges.

You know, one of the key creatures we needed here was bittern

and yet it took over ten years for the bittern to return

and I think there are times in that period when you think,

"Are they actually ever going to return?"

But they did, and eventually the birds bred, which is fantastic

because they hadn't bred in this part of the world since the late '60s.

The population then just exploded, and that was from nothing.

That's from standing starts and its one of those things -

you've just got to trust it.

If you provide the habitat, if you provide the places, the birds will come.

So how does it make you feel

having seen this place from the very beginning to what it is now?

I think the feeling I get most is one of pride here,

that we have turned this place into a wonderful nature reserve.

Also, it gives you hope as well.

If you can do it here, in a place like this, you can do it anywhere.

Our ambition now is to break out

beyond the boundaries of this nature reserve and other nature reserves.

We need to be joining these places together. We need to be looking to the wider countryside,

but we have to do this to reverse the declines of nature -

not just here in Somerset, but across the UK.

Until today, I kid you not, I hadn't seen a single bittern before.

I must have seen half a dozen already.

They look a bit like a sort of brown heron when they're flying.

In fact, I've heard them called a toasted heron.

And what's brilliant is that until ten years ago,

there weren't any here

and now they've got 35 booming males and that's because they've created

a habitat like this on this enormous scale.

But homes for wetland wildlife don't always have to be as big as this.

You too can make a difference in your own back yard,

as wildlife gardener Mike Dilger demonstrates.

People frequently ask me

the single best way to make their garden more wildlife friendly.

This is easy. Put in a pond.

It's been said that a wildlife garden without a pond

is like a theatre without a stage.

And you really don't need a big pond.

A small stage still puts on a great performance.

In fact, you can create one out of an old sink like this which I've actually filled with medicinal herbs.

Or you can use half a barrel or even an old washing-up bowl.

Simply stick it into the ground, fill it with water

and if you have small children and you're worried about them

falling into it or stepping into it,

build the sides up with soil or rocks or stones

and, hey presto, it's a wildlife pond.

Water provides a drinking spot,

somewhere to bathe, a nursery

or an entire home.

A pond is the magnet that pulls life into your garden

and it's astonishing how quickly the animals arrive.

This is my wildlife garden which I've been developing

over the last couple of years and one of the very first projects

that I carried out was putting one of these in.

It was just a question of digging a big hole, putting a liner in,

filling it full of water and within 24 hours,

I had pond skaters whizzing around all over the surface.

In time, of course, far more creatures will take up residence.

Just down the road from me in Somerset, Sally Monkhouse

has a well-established wildlife pond that she built 11 years ago.

It's amazing. It's beautiful. It's massive!

It is quite big. And it's full of life. Wow!

It's very deep in the middle because we wanted to try and encourage

different species to live here. You've got lots of native plants.

You've got a bogbean over there.

Marsh marigolds here and you've got rushes in front.

Yes. We put in a few native species. Just tiny bits of reed.

I remember the man delivering it. I said, "Do you think that'll be enough?"

as there was just one bit here and there,

and this is what happened really quickly.

It's gorgeous. Any tricks that kind of really help it work well?

If you can use rainwater as opposed to the chlorinated water,

that makes it much healthier.

Does it require much maintenance? Not very much.

It's quite easy gardening actually, because it's quite a big area

and so it's one area that sort of takes care of itself.

Sally, look what I found just emerging from your pond.

That is just the most stunning, beautiful creature.

You know what it is, surely. I know what that is, but what's that? That's the damselfly

and that's the case that it's just hatched out of. Right.

And this has hatched out this morning.

Oh! And what is it? What sort?

It's a large red damselfly.

Well, that's amazing because look at the size of that compared to...

You're saying it came out of that.

When it first emerges, the wings are tiny. They're completely shrivelled

and then it pumps them full of blood.

The wings are quite hardened now.

This will actually take off very soon. This is the perfect day for it.

Hot, dry, warm, still. Perfect for drying wings.

Wonderful. There's another one! Just overhead.

Oh, yes! I caught sight of it, too. Surrounded by them!

This is the first sign of summer.

My first damselfly in your garden. Oh, that's amazing. I'm totally thrilled.

I'll put this little chap down until he's ready for take-off.

Well, I can see plenty of stuff buzzing around the top of the water.

I think we should go down below and investigate a bit deeper.

I think we should delve a bit deeper.

We've got a few toys and I think we should use them on this pond.

You're actually meaning going inside? Inside and under. Do you fancy having a go?

Seeing what's underneath? Oh, I think that would just be so exciting to do that.

To take us into the world below the surface,

I've got a special underwater camera.

Have you got a picture there? I have. What can you see?

Wow. I can see tadpoles already.

Absolutely huge numbers of tadpoles.

Yes. There's loads. I can see them all.

There they go! And they've just emerged from the frogspawn.

Amazing. It looks beautiful.

Oh, fishes just going from the left to the right. Really sweet.

It's sort of magical, the underwater world, isn't it?

You see it on telly, but when it's your own pond, it's really amazing.

Can you see the snail there, Sally? Yep.

Bobbing up and down a bit

and its mouth parts or something I can see.

I think you've got some mating ramshorn snails.

Oh, yes, that's right. That is them mating.

I think that's exactly what they're doing.

I think it is. There. Amazing.

The camera can explore the open water, but to show Sally the life amongst the thick vegetation,

I'm going to bring the animals to us.

Oh, look, there's a newt. Oh, yes! Wow!

We've got - I think - two smooth newts.

Is it a female? Because she's fat. I'm assuming it's a female?

That's definitely a pregnant female newt.

You can see there and there that she's very heavily pregnant.

You can see she has a fantastic orange belly.

Oh, yes. Oh, ho! Really lovely. A little flash of orange.

What's that horrible thing? That looks really weird.

It really is. This beast is a larva of a dragonfly.

This is a top predator of the pond.

That's amazing! What a creature.

And they've got a jaw mechanism called a mask and they shoot out

with pincers, grab the food and bring it back to their mouth part.

They are brutal.

What's that?

They're little tiny back swimmers, because they swim on their back.

Oh, look here, damselfly larvae.

So you know we saw the large, red damselfly?

And now we've seen the immature form. Yes. That's amazing.

There seems to be so much in it and it's just been so exciting.

That piece of water behind you is the equivalent to the Serengeti

in terms of the amount of animals.

Oh, I suppose it is. It's just wonderful.

These animals have found their way to this pond and set up home.

It's just incredible how much life water brings to any garden.

You know, ponds have been disappearing

right across the British countryside

with often disastrous consequences for wildlife.

They represent drinking spots for mammals, bathing places for birds,

nurseries for frogs and newts and a whole world for aquatic insects.

So why not get a bucket, dig it in the ground,

fill it full of water,

turn over a dustbin lid or even create a pond like this?

It's the single best thing that you can do

to attract wildlife to your own back garden.

If you've been inspired to turn your garden into a haven

for wildlife, Mike has lots more advice on our website

along with more information about what's happening where you live

in the BBC Summer of Wildlife.

Still to come on Britain's Big Wildlife Revival,

Ben Fogle wades in to help our fastest-declining fish.

Why can I sense I might end up wet here?

'And I get a privileged view of a species that's vanished from Britain

'for more than 400 years.'

There we go! It's so cute!

What always amazes me about the natural world

is how complex it is when you peer beneath the surface.

This place feels so peaceful.

This area of wetlands is like nature's own city.

It has thousands of different species living here

and all too often it's easy to be seduced

by what's right in front of you.

To appreciate how much hidden wildlife there is here,

you need to come back after dark.

Roughly half of all species on Earth are insects.

They are amazing in themselves,

and without them, the whole food chain would soon collapse.

'During the day, there is a natural source of light,

'so it's difficult to attract insects, but at night-time,

'a lamp and a white sheet are all you need

'to discover a whole hidden empire.'

Already, just with the car headlights, there's loads.

Let's see what happens with even more light.

'In a matter of seconds, these illusive creatures come flocking.'

Wah!

Oh, wow. Here we go.

We've got a lot of different types of true flies. Here there's some bigger ones.

A caddis fly there. There's a stonefly here.

Daddy-longlegs, and this is just a tiny fraction

of the flying insects that are out there.

And these are food for the more charismatic animals

like fish and birds and mammals.

And this is an elephant hawk-moth

with beautiful pinks and greens.

It looks incredibly exotic,

but actually they're found really commonly in gardens

and they're called an elephant hawk-moth

because its caterpillar has what looks like a trunk on the front.

It's a fabulous moth.

There's always this misconception that moths are the dowdy ones

that fly about at night,

but actually there's more day-flying moths

than there are butterflies in this country,

and scientists see butterflies and moths in the same category.

It's just us who make the difference.

Look at that. What a beaut.

Seeing all of these flying insects here in such a short amount of time

could easily lead us to thinking that there were plenty of them

and that their numbers were absolutely fine, but that really isn't the case.

Certainly for moths and a lot of other groups of flying insects,

their numbers are massively down

and THAT has a huge impact through the food chain.

We have to remain vigilant in protecting our wetlands.

The species that thrive in these special places are essential

to maintaining a natural balance,

and if we upset this, the results could be catastrophic.

And that's exactly what happened over on the East Anglian Fens,

where Ben Fogle has been in search

of one of our most enigmatic and slippery wetland creatures.

When I was a young lad, I spent many hours swimming

and fishing in the wetlands of East Anglia.

I'm not quite sure if I'm going to be as lucky fishing today.

That's because in the last 30 years, what was once the most common fish

in these waters has become critically endangered.

The European eel.

The number of these fish has dropped by a staggering 98%.

If nothing's done, they could be wiped out in a few years' time.

They may not be beautiful,

but eels are integral to the ecosystem of the wetlands.

They really are remarkable creatures.

They travel thousands of miles across vast oceans.

They can cross fields.

They can go for months without eating.

This really is an astonishing animal, and their decline

raises important questions about what we're doing to our environment.

You're a handsome boy!

Eels have the most extraordinary life cycle of any British creature.

They spend up to 40 years living in our wetlands,

feeding and growing up to a metre long.

Only when they are finally ready to breed

do they make an epic journey out to sea.

Incredibly, once they reach the open ocean,

they travel halfway around the world,

across the entire Atlantic Ocean to this spot - the Sargasso Sea.

Here, they hatch thousands of eggs before dying.

The baby eels then begin the miraculous voyage

back across the entire Atlantic Ocean to this spot here -

a voyage of more than 3,000 miles.

Peter Carter is the last full-time eel-catcher

on the Cambridgeshire Fens,

but now he's struggling to make a living

and is very worried about the eels' future.

I'm in a coracle. I imagine this boat is pretty useful

for these very thin little stretches of water here.

They come in handy. Especially when you've got to walk across the fields to get to the dykes,

because you can just chuck it over your back.

If I pass the line down to you,

if you can see where the stick is and lift the net up...

Why can I sense I might end up wet here?

I'm going to get it.

So, have you been catching eels all your life?

Yeah, my family started...

Well, the earliest we can go back so far is 1475.

1475?

Yeah, there were thousands and thousands of eels,

because The Fens weren't drained then.

The biggest drop of eels is actually when they did drain The Fens.

They reckon that dropped by about 70-80%.

I'd like to think they would, eventually. My daughter might do it,

but at the moment, as it stands there's no money in it any more.

Are you optimistic?

Er, yeah, you've always got to be optimistic, haven't you?

Er, yeah, you've always got to be optimistic, haven't you?

I don't want to be the last one.

I don't want to get up there and get a kick up the butt by all my relatives for not keeping it going.

Despite work to restore our wetlands, there's a mystery surrounding these curious fish

because we know so little about them once they go out to sea.

One man who's helping change all that

is eel scientist Julian Metcalfe.

He's leading a cutting-edge research programme

to tag and track them once they leave our shores.

So, why do you think there's been such a decline in the eels in habitats like this?

There are obstructions to migrations - dams and weirs.

There's the possibility of pollution.

In some cases, there can be over-fishing.

And then when they go out into the open sea, we know nothing about the perils that they face out there

and we need to understand all these components of a life history to put it together as a jigsaw puzzle

to try and find out what's been going on.

So how do you find out more about their oceanic habitat?

Well, we've been using an electronic tag and when they get to the Sargasso Sea, the idea is

they will spawn and die as they naturally do, and that tag will then

float to the sea surface and it will drift back on the ocean currents

like the eel eggs and larvae do, and eventually wash up on a beach

somewhere in Europe or in England and there's a reward label inside.

How much...? £50 reward!

£50 reward. I'll take one of those! HE LAUGHS

And they send that back to us

and then we can download the data so that we can start to understand

whether changes in ocean currents are likely to have any effect on their migrations.

There you go. Remember, next time you're walking along the beach

and you spot one of these, not only could you get a £50 reward,

you might be benefiting science.

'So we're learning more about them

'when they leave the UK, but how do we help eel stocks recover?

'One of the most crucial things

'is helping them with their epic migration back home.'

Now, imagine you're a baby eel, known as a glass eel or an elver.

You're smaller than my little finger.

You have just completed an epic journey

across the Atlantic Ocean all the way from the Sargasso Sea to this.

It's impossible to pass.

Weirs and locks are essential flood defences,

but they also stop baby eels travelling upstream

and into wetland areas

where they make their home while they mature.

'There are solutions, in the form of eel ladders,

'made from bristles that allow the eel to climb upwards.

'But with thousands of obstructions on our waterways,

'there simply aren't enough ladders to go around.'

So something needs to be done.

Here in Gloucestershire,

on the banks of the River Severn, eel fishermen

have come together to not only save the eel, but their livelihoods.

Hi. How are you doing? Getting the nets ready? Good to see you.

'The scheme is championed by fisherman Richard Cook

'who along with his colleagues has been working closely with the Sustainable Eel Group.

'Elver fisherman work at night, when baby eels are at their most active.

'But because of over-fishing and poaching,

'they have a slightly tarnished reputation.

'But now the responsible ones are working with the conservationists.

'Last year, they donated more than two thirds of their catch

'to help restock our wetlands.'

The decline in eels and elvers affects you guys

and that's why you're trying to help.

Yeah, there is this change of opinion, yeah?

That actually by engaging the fishermen, then everybody

can pull together and try and get the fish out of this river

and put them into somewhere where they have a better chance of survival.

'After several hours sitting by the fire,

'it's time to check the night's catch.'

And correct me if I'm wrong,

has this tiny, tiny little thing crossed the entire Atlantic Ocean?

6,000km. It's incredible, isn't it?

I mean, that is staggering. Is it significant there's only one?

HE LAUGHS

All the baby eels are brought here

to a special processing plant near Gloucester.

If you tip that tray to face me, Ben.

OK. Yeah. And I'll gently tease them out.

A third of these elvers will eventually end up on dinner plates

all across Europe, but last year 70% of them

were put back into our wetlands to help restock the eel population.

And it's thanks to people like Andrew Kerr

from the Sustainable Eel Group

that the eel is being given

the best chance of survival.

The Severn this year has probably had

something like 100 million eels come up it.

100 million. Yet the number that can actually get through

into the wetlands, you're talking of a fraction of a fraction of 1%.

And when we talk about the wetlands, that direction is the wetlands.

Perfect habitat for these young guys.

Absolutely. The fishermen have given a million glass eels for restocking.

They have GIVEN them, and this is part of a Europe-wide programme

of 50 million being released this year.

So this little box could be the future of the European eel?

That could be the one that gets back with 5 million eggs.

They may not be sweet and cuddly,

but what they lack in the "ah" factor,

they make up for in their astonishing migration.

Do not underestimate the eel.

It is a remarkable species and we need to save it.

I'm ending my journey through our wetlands

with a truly incredible success story

of a mighty bird that was lost from this land

for over 400 years and it's now making a hard-earned comeback.

Like so many iconic species, the crane is a victim of man's greed.

During medieval times, this large bird

was so prized for its meat, it was ruthlessly hunted down

and by the 16th century, it was extinct in the UK.

But miraculously, in the late 1970s, a small group of cranes

drifted off-course during their migration through Europe

and landed in Norfolk.

This was the first time cranes had nested in Britain for centuries.

Here at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust headquarters at Slimbridge,

to help boost this new population,

baby cranes are being hand-reared to be released into the wild

in a hugely ambitious reintroduction programme.

But before I'm even allowed to go face to face with them,

I've got to go through some pretty strict security controls.

This might look rather space-age,

but it's vital to protect the cranes and every visitor has to wear it.

(What's with the ridiculous costume?)

(So these costumes are just to conceal the human form

(so we're not trying to look like cranes,

(but we're just trying to make ourselves not look like humans.)

The suits help shield the cranes from human contact,

preparing them to be self-sufficient and fearful of people in the wild.

We've just got these models as well,

so everything that we do with them from the day that they hatch,

they're fed and walked and stuff with these.

(Oh, wow. That's fantastic.)

(It's so cute!)

(This little guy is about three weeks old now. Oh, look at that!

(Look at those enormous feet!

(It's crazy to think that in a few months,

(this bird will be bigger than me.)

(I spend about 15-20 minutes twice a day exercising them,

(because they grow about a centimetre a day,

(so it's a real fast rate of growth and they really need the exercise

(to strengthen the muscles to support the growth.)

(It's quite a strange job you've got really, being a crane mum.

(It's true! What's it like, being the mother figure to these cranes?

(It's a weird feeling because you are working with them so closely

(and then you worry a lot about whether they're going to get injured or whether they're feeding properly,

(but it's really rewarding at the same time

(to see them getting on with it because you know you've kind of

(taught them well and got them healthy enough to fledge properly.

(So all the worry of traditional motherhood? Yeah!)

Each year, 20 young cranes are released onto the Somerset Levels

by Nigel Jarrett and his colleagues on the Great Crane Project.

We've got 20-odd birds in a field. I can't see who they are, Damon.

Maybe you can pick that up on the aerial. 20?! There's a bunch in the distance, about half a mile away.

You're not likely to see more than grey blobs.

SHE LAUGHS

That's enough though, right? It's enough to make your heart soar.

This must be amazing for you, Nigel? You've been there since the very beginning.

It feels fantastic.

It's the realisation of what we want to do,

which is put cranes back where they belong. Most people, like me,

if they hear a crane or see a crane, they will fall in love with it.

And if we can get people doing that, they'll begin to value wetlands

and value our wild spaces where lots and lots of wildlife can survive.

Is there a chance cranes could have just come back on their own,

just done this naturally?

Yeah, but it might have taken 1,000 years. They belong here

and if we can restore some of those wetlands,

we'll have cranes once again up and down our country.

We CAN re-wild Britain.

Our country has been damaged over time,

but it doesn't take long to return habitats to the way they once were.

We can have once again the lush meadows and marshes

alongside our rivers,

and lots of species would benefit from that, including the cranes.

So it can happen? We just need the ambition? We just need the ambition

and that vision and willingness to let Britain become natural once more.

What has been achieved here is truly remarkable.

This is the biggest project to recreate lost habitat

anywhere in Britain - and it's worked.

How better to end my journey through Britain's threatened wild places

than by sharing the rebirth of this spectacular bird

in a landscape that people-power

has helped to restore?

Our nation is full of majestic landscapes

and breathtaking natural spectacles.

From our woodlands to our wetlands,

our cities to our farms

and our rivers to our coasts...

..these precious places are the source of life

for tens of thousands of species.

We all need to play our part to protect them

for generations to come.

So if you care as much as we do about our wild creatures

and the places that they live, then please join our campaign

to save them in Britain's Big Wildlife Revival.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd