Great Crested Newt Tracking Dog

The project team are building a new 6.5 km relief sewer in North Bristol to ensure their sewerage network can cope with ongoing and future development in Bristol and South Gloucestershire.

The Wessex Water region is a stronghold for Great Crested Newts and therefore of particular concern during the sewer’s construction so an initiative has been implemented to locate these protected creatures.

Wessex Water have use of an in-house great crested newt detection dog called Freya, owned and trained by ecologist Nikki Glover.

If construction works are within 250 metres of breeding ponds and we are likely to cause an offence under the legislation, we must apply for a licence from Natural England. We would then be required to fence off the construction area and carry out pitfall trapping (buckets sunk into the ground), which could take around 30 days to complete.

Having a great crested newt detection dog within the company is a massive benefit because she can find the newts more efficiently and effectively, and it’s a non-invasive method.

Nikki and Freya will be working alongside the team from Murphy’s during the construction of the new sewer as an additional tool alongside current mitigation measures.