Roadside verges, rivers and farmland need to be used more to help save animals from extinction.

Nearly 500 British species have become extinct in the past 2,000 years and many more are on the brink.

In Leicestershire, animals such as bats, barn owls, otters and some butterfly species are among the endangered species.

The county Wildlife Trust has already started changing the way it protects habitats to focus more on the county as a whole, rather than just the protected reserves.

Katie Field, a conservation officer with the Wildlife Trust in Leicestershire and Rutland, said: "In the past, conservation work used to concentrate on nature reserves.

"But the thinking now is that more should be done for the wider countryside.

"So we work closely with landowners and carry out surveys all over the county and then advise the owners how to make their land a better habitat for animals and plants.

"For example, we could advise them about cutting grassland for hay when it suits the wildlife best, or managing their hedgerows without affecting the berries, pollen and nectar that are important to wildlife.

"We can also help them get grant funding for creating habitat on their land.

"The new approach is working. Barn owls benefit from well-managed long grass because they use it to hunt small mice and voles. They have suffered a serious decline but things are looking up now.

"Bats eat insects so they need land that has no pesticides and hedges. And otters needed clean rivers."

In total, there are around 1,000 nature sites in Leicestershire and Rutland, ranging from single hedges to large nature reserves. But with the work of the Wildlife Trust officers and the organisation's newsletters, more agricultural land is being made wildlife-friendly thanks to landowners' extra know-how.

Conservation officers closely monitor all the threatened species to see if numbers are going up or down.

Leicestershire County Council keeps a list of endangered species at its wildlife headquarters at Holly Hayes, in Birstall.

Gareth Price, a community support ecologist at Holly Hayes, said: "We keep a species action plan to help us protect the plants and animals that are rare or declining.

"In most cases, it's very gradual decline over the years because of development and intensive farming – particularly the use of sprays and crops being planted right up to the edge of fields.

"Leicestershire is generally very arable and woodland is relatively rare here, so a lot of the focus is on habitats on farmland."