Wilder London
Dan O\u2019Neill is a wildlife expert and biologist. He\u2019s also the first openly gay wildlife presenter. In this Open Country he\u2019s in London to discover what \u2018rewilding\u2019 means for the capital.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, launched the \u2018Rewild London Fund\u2019 to help make London a leader in urban rewilding, from restoring rivers to reintroducing species currently absent from the capital. One of them is the beaver and at Paradise Fields in Ealing, just down the road from the busy Greenford tube station, a family of five beavers have just been introduced to their new home by conservationist and vet Dr Sean McCormack. Together they will transform a gritty urban wasteland into a wildlife haven with ecosystem benefits for residents' wellbeing and flood defences.
The beavers are just one example of the huge growth in biodiversity in the city. As Dan travels from Ealing in the West to the east of the city at The Paddocks in Tottenham Hale, he discovers that there is also growing diversity in the conservation community. He meets LGQBT conservationist Izzy Knight who shares his passion for everything wild and celebrates the \u2018Queer Nature\u2019 festival at Kew, before heading back to Ealing to see whether he can spot those elusive beavers in their new home.
Produced by Helen Lennard