GREEN dragons gave their gold to an intrepid young inventor.

Eco entrepreneur Keri Langridge won a £5,000 investment at a Dragons' Den-style competition in London organised by an Oxford charity.

Her project Catch Me if You CAM is based around working with schools to set up camera traps nearby and discover what wildlife is in their area.

She was one of five entrepreneurs who pitched for investment at the competition dubbed Lost Connection – How Can We Re-engage People With Nature?.

The event, held at the Royal Geographical Society in London, was partly organised by Oxford charity Earthwatch, which normally connects volunteers with environmental projects around the world.

As part of her prize Ms Langridge has now won a partnership with the charity which will help her to bring her dream to life.

She impressed a panel of dragons by showing them camera footage of wildlife where she is based in Inverness, Scotland.

This included rarely-seen red squirrels, wild cats and even a non-native raccoon which must have escaped captivity or been illegally released into the wild.

Her £5,000 prize money will enable to buy up to 30 more cameras and get her project off the ground.

She said: "I am completely in shock with this win. It is huge and I cannot be more thrilled.

"It’s not just about the money, just knowing that what we want to do has support from the public and now from a big organisation like Earthwatch is just amazing.

"Using camera traps is direct evidence of the amazing wildlife under our noses. Badgers, red squirrels, wildcats, and otters are animals people rarely see in the wild but need to know how beautiful and important they are."

The event on Thursday, September 15, was chaired by television presenter and National Geographic expedition leader Paul Rose.

Five hopefuls pitched ideas based around innovative ways to get people more involved in nature.

The expert panel of dragons was made up of Countryfile presenter Ellie Harrison, TV presenter Nigel Marven, CEO of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust Estelle Bailey, Consciam founder Phil Clarke, and Andrew White, associate dean of Oxford University’s Saïd Business School.

They praised Ms Langridge for her "brilliant" idea and encouraged her to make sure data captured on film could be used by conservationists, and to use the footage to inspire behaviour change beyond the classroom.

The other projects pitched include "talking trees", which involved putting audio devices into trees to give information around the history, art and culture associated with that tree, "tiny doors", which would invite the people of Bristol to be "poet laureates" for nature, and "To My Roots", a community-led tree planting program.