Environment Wildlife

ANIMALS etc include - Common Frog Common Toad Water Vole

To walk beside the Basingstoke Canal is a delight for anyone. For the wildlife enthusiast it is sheer joy. [photo: Peter Bickford] The vast range of plants, which give sustenance to innumerable creatures, owe their existence to the changing soil types the water runs through and to the purity of that water; from the bubbling chalk springs at Greywell, the canal crosses clays and acid sands before reaching the River Wey Navigation. [photo: Peter Munt]

DRAGONFLIES include - Broad-bodied Chaser Hairy Dragonfly Ruddy Darter Downy Emerald Brillian Emerald   BATS Natterer's Brown Long-eared Daubenton's Whiskered Brandt's   PLANTS Water's edge - Reedmace Yellow Iris Purple Loosestrife Yellow Loosestrife Bogbean Flowering Rush

The Basingstoke Canal is recognised internationally as a vitally important site for wildlife. It has more species of aquatic plants than any other waterway in Britain, and its 25 dragonfly species (two-thirds of the British total) include several rarities and make it one of our best dragonfly sites. [photo: English Nature] Unused since a roof fall in the 1930s, the Greywell Tunnel, is renowned as the largest winter bat roost in the country, including the second largest colony of Natterer's bat in Europe. [photo: Arthur Dungate] Having both alkaline and acid water content, the canal supports 102 species of water plants, more than any other waterway in Britain, of which 44 are regional or rare species. [photo: English Nature]

BIRDS include - Kingfisher Mallard Moorhen Coot Dabchick Grey Heron Grey Wagtail Great Crested Grebe Swan see also - Brookwood swans

The canal's unpolluted water supports a variety of course fish including some heavyweight specimen, such as Carp over 30lbs and Pike of 27lbs. [photo: Arthur Dungate] More information can be found in the booklet "Wildlife on the Basingstoke Canal" which is published by the Basingstoke Canal Authority. BACK

Last updated May 2000