Highland Hike: Teens Walk 154km to Save Wildlife
By Charities Correspondent
Two of the Mammal Society’s Youth Ambassadors (Felix Ford, 18 and Liane Rouys, 18) will be undertaking a 154km wildlife survey in the Highlands from 23rd to 30th June 2025, as they trek the iconic route of the West Highland Way.
Along the route these intrepid young wildlife enthusiasts will be looking out for wild mammals and the signs of their presence, including tracks, scat, burrows and feeding signs, and recording them on the Mammal Mapper citizen science app.
Liane and Felix will be walking the entire route, camping each night, and will generate a line of biodiversity records from Milngavie to Fort William, a route that includes lowland moors, forests, woodlands, lochs, rivers, waterfalls, and hillsides.
The pair are two of the founding members of the Mammal Society’s Youth Ambassador programme, started in 2024.
They’ve already taken part in marine mammal surveys from the Ullapool-Stornoway ferries in 2024 and helped shape a new ‘Junior Membership’ for the Mammal Society.
One in four native mammals in the British Isles is threatened with extinction, yet they’re among the most under-recorded wildlife due to the difficulty of monitoring elusive, mostly nocturnal, and often underground species. This lack of data hampers conservation efforts, as population sizes and ranges remain unclear, and threats like habitat loss, roads, disease, and climate change are hard to track. As a result, mammalogists must work hard to build an accurate picture.
Citizen science can help fill the gap.
The Mammal Society’s free app, Mammal Mapper (available on Android and Apple), allows anyone to record sightings or signs of mammals.
Records, ideally with photos for expert verification, contribute to research, are shared with local record centres, and feed into the National Biodiversity Network (NBN), improving open-source biodiversity data.
To encourage people to record mammals while walking or exploring their local area, the Mammal Society provides resources, training, and a nationwide network of volunteer-led Mammal Groups that survey and raise awareness.
The Scottish Highlands remain especially under-surveyed due to their sparse population and rugged terrain.
By taking on this incredible 154km trek, Liane and Felix hope to inspire others to download the app and help map mammal populations across the British Isles.
They also aim to raise £5133 to support the Mammal Society’s vital work — a figure Liane chose because 5,133 blue whales (each 30 metres long) lined up would stretch the length of the West Highland Way.
That number represents roughly a fifth to half of the remaining global blue whale population, which has dropped from over 100,000 a century ago to just 10,000–25,000 today.
Liane and Felix aim to raise £1 for every ‘blue whale walked’!
TO SEE MORE ABOUT THE MAMMAL SOCIETY CLICK HERE
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