A new marine wildlife visitor centre has been launched in Tobermory on the Isle of Mull by conservation charity Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust – to strengthen conservation action for whales, dolphins, and porpoises, and to develop the Hebrides’ appeal as a wildlife tourism hotspot. The Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Centre on Tobermory’s picturesque harbour front was formally opened this month, and will be a learning, training and volunteering hub, as well as providing a major attraction for visitors, including families and children. The building’s transformation has been funded as part of a grant of almost £220,000 from the UK…

An iconic but once derelict mountain bothy in Glen Affric has been transformed into an eco-friendly rewilding base by Trees for Life – creating the springboard for an ambitious 25-year programme of forest restoration which will extend Scotland’s Caledonian Forest towards the country’s west coast. Around 100 people gathered at the remote Athnamulloch Bothy – which lies west of Loch Affric, on the National Forest Estate managed by Forest Enterprise Scotland – on Sunday 29 May to celebrate the building’s £137,000 renovation, which has been funded by generous donations and grants. Broadcaster, writer and Trees for Life Patron Vanessa Collingridge…

Project Wolf – a unique new conservation programme in which volunteers replicate the natural disturbance effects of Scotland’s extinct predators – has been launched in the Highlands near Loch Ness by Trees for Life. Project Wolf is being trialled at the charity’s acclaimed Dundreggan Conservation Estate in Glenmoriston, Inverness-shire, lying to the west of Loch Ness. It involves volunteers operating in teams of three ‘wolves’, regularly walking through the ancient woodlands during the night and at dusk and dawn, creating disturbance that will keep deer on the move. “Grazing pressure on young trees by too many deer, today undisturbed by…

The nesting pair of ospreys at the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Loch of the Lowes Wildlife Reserve near Dunkeld have hatched their third chick of 2016. Volunteers at the reserve got their first glimpse of the chick just after 1pm today (Monday 23 May). It follows the first chick which hatched on the afternoon of Wednesday 18 May and the second, which came in the early hours of Friday 20 May. The nesting ospreys have continued to bring back salmon and trout to feed their growing brood. The webcam trained on the nest and supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery…