Routes to the River Tone - North Taunton Murals

The North Taunton Art Trail consists of 4 very large murals of 4 native wild animals, all of which are currently declining in numbers: bees, water voles, bats and hedgehogs.  All 4 murals were painted in August 2015 by Brazilian artist Louis Masai.  They are part of Somerset Wildlife Trust's Routes to the River Tone Project and were done in conjunction with Somerset Art Works.

Two water voles are located on the side of the Priorswood Co-operative store in Eastwick Road; the bees are on the side wall of the fish and chip shop on the corner of Cheddon Road and Wedlands; the bat is on the side of a house in Grange Drive (the Lyngford Road end) and the hedgehog is on the side of a bungalow down a service road where Wedlands meets Grange Drive.

I don't think the North Taunton Art Trail has been particularly well publicised, as I live in the same part of Taunton and had not heard any mention of it, until a chance comment by a colleague a few days ago. Admittedly I am not an avid reader of the Somerset County Gazette.

More information about the Routes to the River Tone Project, which has the aim of "connecting local people with the amazing wildlife of Taunton's waterways" can be found here:
http://www.somersetwildlife.org/routestotherivertone

 

 

Fish and Chip Shop, Cheddon Road

 No food for bees, no food for humans

 Hedgehog

"Hedgehog decline. 36 million to less than 2 in 60 years."

Hedgehog Close-Up

 I think this is the least realistic of the murals but I do like the flowers in his/her ears!

 

 Water vole no 1, Priorswood Co-op, Eastwick Road

It may look like he has been covered with graffiti but I think it was painted like this. The writing says "9 out of 10 water voles have disappeared in my lifetime."

 Water vole 2

 Bat

I'm not sure what kind of bat this is.  

The writing says "50 million years alive, now endangered."