Species

Our database includes over 4.5 million species records of which over 1,050,000 are protected and notable species.

We collect wildlife sightings from a wide variety of groups and individuals. All species records received by TVERC are stored, filed, processed, validated and verified in order to make them suitable to be entered into the TVERC Recorder 6 database.

About 84% of our species records are from the last 30 years, and 20% from the last 5 years.

Many of our records come from expert recording groups or professional surveyors. We believe that encouraging recording and the experts of the future is also important, find out more about sharing your records.

What are protected & notable species?

Some species of wildlife are protected by UK and also sometimes European legislation because of their rarity or historical persecution. These species are called ‘protected species’. Species with conservation designations, but no legal protection are called 'notable species'. Further information on protected species and the planning system is available from the Natural England website.

The Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) is the public body that advises the Government on nature conservation. The JNCC has produced a list of UK species and their conservation designations.  TVERC uses the JNCC list to report species designations (both protected and notable). Their website also gives some historical background to the creation of the list and information about how it is updated.

Protected and Notable species in Berkshire and Oxfordshire

Our entire database (including historic records) includes 563,931 records in Oxfordshire and 493,342 records in Berkshire of legally protected and notable species. In Oxfordshire, these records comprise 223 different protected species plus 1,932 notable species, while in Berkshire there are 228 protected species and 1,095 notable species included. Species that are both protected and notable are only counted as protected.

The reason for the difference in the number of records for each county is due to the big difference in recording activity in the two counties. The higher number of notable species in Oxfordshire is due to the large amount of recording of less popular insect taxa such as bugs, beetles, flies and hymenoptera.

More detail on these records is available by downloading this Excel spreadsheet which lists all the protected and notable species recorded in Berkshire and Oxfordshire.

We are always interested in obtaining new records. See Share your records for more information.