Chester Zoo’s plant survey produced Cheshire’s first documented record of a wasp spider, confirmed by a British Arachnological Society expert. The zoo’s biodiversity manager says the species is moving north as southern European ranges warm too quickly for it to adapt.
Rosie Cooper, an estate biodiversity assistant, spotted the spider while surveying plants on the zoo’s 205-hectare estate. Chester Zoo and Cheshire’s environmental records centre, RECORD, systematically document wildlife there; the zoo says these records help specialists track range shifts and ecosystem responses to rising temperatures.
Ruby Merriman said some conservation organisations call animals driven to migrate by climate change “climate refugees,” and said their movement is linked to human activity. Chester Zoo field-programmes head Scott Wilson described the spider’s arrival as part of a broader, worrying trend and called climate change a major threat to biodiversity.
