Cold-blooded and Spineless

Celebrating and recording invertebrates in the North Pennines.

Cold-blooded and Spineless was an ambitious and exciting North Pennines AONB Partnership project which aimed to record and celebrate invertebrates in the area.

It was a five-year initiative, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which ran from 2014 until 2019.

There are 30,000 different species of invertebrate in the UK. According to the State of Nature report, 66% of invertebrates studied in the uplands have declined in the last 50 years. Yet for many species there is insufficient data to predict population health. Invertebrates are underappreciated for their contribution to the function of our ecosystems, from soil nutrient cycling and pest control through to pollination. Many invertebrates are a vital food source for all kinds of birds, fish and mammals.

Without data, we are unable to make fully informed conservation decisions on these small but valuable animals who live in our upland habitats. We worked with people of all ages and abilities to join in and discover the wonderful North Pennines invertebrate kingdom. We ran a community arts and science programme to support this.

Watch the final project film to find out about Cold-blooded and Spineless:

Cold-blooded and Spineless was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players: