Britain's Rare Species In Grave Danger Of Extinction - Independent

[hatrack]

EDIT

"Studies of badger setts have shown that dry springs in 2002 and 2003 resulted in the lowest numbers of surviving badger cubs ever recorded. This was believed to be partially because they were unable to find sufficient numbers of earthworms, their staple food, and the lack of water led to dehydration in cubs, which suffer from a diarrhoea-inducing gut parasite.

A different kind of problem is affecting the Scottish wildcat, one of Britain's rarest mammals and confined to the Scottish Highlands. The report says that, in some cases, it is no longer possible for scientists to state accurately that a cat is a wildcat because interbreeding with feral domestic cats has diluted the gene pool. "British law is not adequate to ensure the conservation of Scottish wildcats," says the report. Only 400 true wildcats may survive but many more "wild-living" cats with wildcat characteristics exist and the law should be amended to allow their protection, the report says.

But the report's direst warnings are reserved for the red squirrel, which has been in decline since the introduction of the American grey squirrel in the 1920s which competes for its habitat. The report says: "The red squirrel's precarious situation and its eventual extinction in mainland England, Wales and southern Scotland seems inevitable." It is already largely extinct in southern and central England. Large-scale control of the grey squirrel population and the development of a vaccine against squirrel parapoxvirus - which has particularly hit the Merseyside population, one of the largest left in England - are required urgently, says the report. Greys are also spreading through the Cumbria and Kielder Forest areas and have been sighted on the Isle of Wight, previously a grey-free area.

Some animals, says the report, are beginning to thrive again, thanks to the careful management schemes. The otter, which was once in danger of dying out is breeding again in many parts of north-west Scotland and England due to their successful reintroduction. A by-product of this is that the American mink population has declined - reducing by about 65 per cent between 1989 and 1998 - while that of the otter has increased, because both compete for aquatic prey, such as fish. As the density of otters increases, minks shift towards terrestrial prey, such as rabbits and voles, but when these are scarce, the mink will often be killed by otters or abandon the area. Mink are also predators of water voles, so their decline helps this creature, now scarce in many parts of Britain due largely to farming techniques and competition from livestock. Conservationists have created 14 reed bed and marsh sites which offer better protection against the mink for the water vole than open water."

EDIT

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=515282

[blindpig]

1. we're next

Britian has had industrialization and high population density for roughly 100 yrs longer than us. The other shoe will drop. How many species native to your area have you never seen? Saddest of all, few will even notice.