Amazing mammals

Mammals are all around us, even if some of them are rarely - if ever - seen. We really need your help if we are going to gather enough information to protect them. Dolphins, seals and bats are mammals too, but we have to look for them in different ways.

Wild mammals may be living very close to us. If you're very lucky, you might have bats in your roof. If you're unlucky, you may be sharing buildings with less welcome species like house mice or even brown rats. Your garden could be home to hedgehogs or moles, and even such large mammals as foxes and badgers visit cities, towns and gardens to feed. Out in the countryside we find such adorable creatures as the otter and the dormouse.

Badger photograph copyright Ralph Hart

We all know that insects have six legs, reptiles are scaly and spiders have eight legs. So just what is it that is so special as to make mammals that bit different from other types of animal?

• mammals are warm-blooded - but so are birds
• mammals have a backbone and bony skeleton - but so do fish, amphibians, reptiles and birds
• mammals have lungs for breathing - but so do amphibians, reptiles and birds
• mammals can live in fresh or salt water or on land (but so can reptiles)
• Well there are just two things which apply to us all!
• mammals have skin covered with hair
• mammals produce milk for their young.
• You will need your eyes, your ears and your nose for this mammal detective work. We want you to find signs of both rare and common mammals. Some mammals and mammal signs are easy to recognise but others are more difficult.

Mammals need your help and one really fun way of helping them is to become a mammal detective. Our poster will tell you how to spot signs of mammals and to send "records" to the conservationists.

We all want to save wildlife but we can't do that unless we know where it is! We need people to tell us about the animals and plants that they see, so that we can look after the places where they live.

You can do something for mammals in your garden or school grounds by making them more wildlife-friendly.

We would like you to find out as much as you can about mammals - and to tell other people so that they will understand and care as well. Look out for mammal activities in our diary of events

If you're not sure what you've seen, please don't just guess because it might confuse us!

Remember, every bit of information you send will help us to conserve wildlife.

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