The medieval folklore of Britain’s endangered wildlife ‘omens’ – from hedgehogs to nightjars

By Jessica Lloyd May, PhD Candidate in History, University of Nottingham
Matthew Jones, PhD Candidate in Conservation and Biodiversity, Nottingham Trent University

As the seasons turn and the nights draw in, the countryside of the British Isles seems alive with omens: an owl’s screech, or a bat above the hedgerows.

For centuries, such creatures were cast as messengers of fate, straddling the boundary between the natural and the supernatural. Yet today, the omens these animals bring are no longer warnings of ghosts or witchcraft, but of something far more tangible: their own survival.

The very species that once haunted our imagination and foretold ill-fated futures are now haunted by habitat loss, climate change and pressure from…

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