Richmond Park is a site of both national and international importance for wildlife conservation. It is London's largest Site of Special Scientific Interest, a National Nature Reserve and a Special Area of Conservation.
Richmond Park is a top UK site for ancient trees, particularly oaks, which have great historic and wildlife importance. The trees and associated decaying wood support nationally endangered species of fungi, as well as a remarkable range of nationally scarce invertebrates such as the cardinal click beetle and the stag beetle. Over one thousand species of beetle (more than one quarter of the British list) have been recorded in the park.
This incredible environment has been created by centuries of grazing by herds of red and fallow deer.
Richmond Park, originally a deer-hunting park, still has 300 Red Deer and 350 fallow deer. The deer in the park are wild animals.
Bird life in Richmond Park is hugely varied with around 144 species recorded over the last 10 years and 63 breeding species, including all three native woodpeckers, kestrels, owls and a range of waterfowl.
Richmond Park covers almost 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of Greater London and supports over 100,000 trees making it an incredibly important site for bats.
Centuries of grazing by deer have helped us to maintain a very special habitat - the largest area of Lowland Acid Grassland in the London area.
A remarkable range of invertebrates lives in the Richmond Park. Records so far include 139 spider species, 546 butterfly and moth species and over 1350 beetle species.
