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Saving Species

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Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Examining the world of nature and the challenges of wildlife conservation

Saving Species: Series 1: Episode 23

Series 1

Episode 23

BBC Radio 4 - Saving Species, Series 1, Episode 23

Saving Species goes on a fungus foray in West Wales.

Saving Species reports from a woodland in Wales amongst erupting fruiting bodies and discovers the importance of conserving fungi for the health of woodlands.

23/40. We go in search of fungi this week with expert Lynne Boddy. We have previously reported the importance of microbes in Saving Species. "It's the little things that run the world" Aaron Bernstein from Harvard University told us. Fungi belong to that group of little things - but some fungi are not so little. One type forms the largest terrestrial living organism on earth with its matrix of underground roots [hyphae] spreading across an area the size of a football pitch. We're in a west Wales woodland looking for the wonderful fruiting bodies, at the time of year when the otherwise hidden fungi emerges from the ground with their beautiful, odd, weird and strangely shaped and coloured mushrooms. And they have as many intriguing common names as they are varied in appearance.

We discover the crucial role fungi have in keeping woodlands alive.

We're also back in Africa with a report from Tessa McGregor about the successful conservation of the Grevy's Zebra in the Samburu National Park in Kenya.

Presented by Brett Westwood
Produced by Sheena Duncan
Series Editor Julian Hector.

Saving Species: Series 1

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Brett Westwood examines the world of nature and the challenges of wildlife conservation

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