More than 80 per cent of Scotland’s population live in the Lowlands, a vast swathe of the country stretching from Aberdeenshire in the north east to the border with England in the south. This is a landscape characterised by sprawling urban centres, huge areas of agricultural farmland, fragmented forests and mighty rivers. The Lowlands are the most intensely managed part of Scotland’s landscape. But wildlife still survives here, clinging on, and in some places a few species are beginning to stage a comeback.

• Thoren Ferguson