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Wildlife and Greenspaces

The NTU estate is made up of over 260 hectares of land, ranging from the urban city centre to rural farmland. A rich variety of habitats and species can be found across the estate which are valuable assets to the University, community, and the local environment.

NTU has a strong commitment to sustainability and environmental conservation and actively aims to protect and enhance the natural habitats found within the university campuses. Find out more below.

Campus Biodiversity Monitoring

Discover and help to monitor the biodiversity found within the Nottingham Trent University estate.

Help monitor the biodiversity found on campus by posting your observations on the NTU iNaturalist Campus Biodiversity Network Project.

By recording and sharing your observations, you’ll help to inform conservation work across the estate and create research-quality data for scientists working to understand and protect nature.

Hedgehog Friendly Campus

In 2020, the British Hedgehog was declared vulnerable to extinction and listed on the IUCN Red List for Britain's Mammals. NTU committed to making further improvements across the estate to help the UK’s Hedgehog population as part of the Hedgehog Friendly Campus initiative. In 2023 we achieved Gold Award for Brackenhurst, Clifton, and City Campus.

Numbers of hedgehogs have fallen by up to 30% in urban areas and 50% in rural areas since the year 2000.

Peregrine Falcons

Over twenty years ago, a pair of breeding Peregrine Falcons chose a window ledge of level 9 on NTU’s Newton building as their nesting site. These beautiful birds of prey are legally protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. NTU has partnered with the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust to protect the peregrines and have had the opportunity to follow the falcon's journey through both successful and difficult breeding seasons.

Peregrines can reach over 200 miles an hour while diving to catch prey, making them the fastest animal in the world!

You can watch their day-to-day behaviour via our falcon webcam.

NTU's Natural Dye Garden

Technical colleagues and students from the Nottingham School of Art & Design have turned a pocket of empty space outside of the Waverley building into a sustainable natural dye garden. The idea centres on the need for more sustainable fashion and how textile dyes could have a lower environmental impact. These natural dyes benefit from being non-toxic, renewable and biodegradable, and they require less water to produce.

The garden is an organic, chemical-free and self-sustained area for growing plants, which can then be harvested and used to make natural dyes for student projects and practical teaching.

Some of the plants that are growing include chamomile, woad, corn flowers and lady's bedstraw. The beds contain QR codes which you can scan for more information about the plants and even recipes.

Follow the garden on Instagram and contact naturaldyegardenstaff@ntu.ac.uk to get involved.

Our Campuses

Find out more about our Wildlife and Green Spaces at City, Clifton and Brackenhurst

Share your Wildlife Sightings and Suggestions

Contact the Sustainability Team via email to share your wildlife sightings and ideas on how to conserve and enhance biodiversity at NTU