More than 1,400 species have been recorded at a Dorset nature reserve in just 24 hours.

Wildlife volunteers taking part in a bioblitz at the RSPB’s Arne reserve recorded the first confirmed sighting of a Brandt’s bat at an RSPB reserve and the critically endangered lichen Bacidia subturgidula that in recent years has been recorded only three times in the New Forest, once in Devon and once in Ireland.

Fifty two volunteers spent all or part of the 24-hour bioblitz recording everything they could find, entering 1,403 records on the reserve’s database.


They identified 667 individual species, 336 of which were new to the reserve and 37 on the Species of Conservation Concern Red List.

Among other species on the Red List are two that are near-threatened; the blue-tailed damselfly and the flower sticky catchfly (sometimes called clammy campion); and four that are vulnerable. These include the pale dog-violet, smooth cat’s ear, dodder, and the very rare black sweep moth, which only occurs on heathland in Dorset and Hampshire.

Dante Munns, the RSPB’s Dorset area manager, said: “It is pretty impressive if you can get one-and-a-half thousand records in 24 hours with a relatively small number of people.

“Everybody involved was able to make a meaningful contribution, find a species that is new to the reserve, or has been overlooked before, or find a species that is staggeringly rare.

“It shows we are a very rich area for wildlife, not just the rarities but commonplace species too, and it’s not just about Arne but about the wider area, you can find these across the Dorset heaths and in the Isle of Purbeck.”

The bio-blitz results take the total number of species recorded at Arne to 2,565. Minsmere in Suffolk, where Springwatch is broadcast from, is currently top of the biodiversity league table of RSPB reserves with a staggering 5,798 species.

The results were broadcast on BBC's Springwatch programme last week.