rarest

Peter Martin, Buckinghamshire Council’s Deputy Cabinet Member for HS2, said: "Whilst the council wishes to protect species such as Bechstein's bats, one of the country’s rarest species, it was never supportive of what seemed like extremely excessive costs for a single structure."

"Many concerns quite understandably relate to our rarest wildlife and habitats, such as ancient woodland and bats," he said.

Some of the bats benefitting from the 1km-long shield are Bechstein’s bats, one of the world’s rarest bat species.

One of the world's rarest types of lemur has been successfully bred in Oxfordshire.

The route: Start at Del Mar City Beach, hiking to the Torrey Pines State Beach parking area and Los Penasquitos Lagoon, where you’ll see our unique native tree, the torrey pine, which is the rarest endemic pine in the New World, growing only at this area and on Santa Rosa Island near Santa Barbara.