UK Wildlife In Steep Decline From Variety Of Trends, Chiefly Land Management & Farming - Independent

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An indication of the stress on British mammal populations came earlier this year when nine new species were added to Britain's wildlife conservation blueprint, the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. The hedgehog, the mountain hare, the pine marten, the polecat, the Scottish wildcat, the harvest mouse, the noctule and brown long-eared bats, and the harbour seal (formerly the common seal), were added to the list of British mammals already requiring conservation action, such as the red squirrel and the water vole.

The lengthening list of environmental problems is increasingly hitting mammals, say the report's authors, David Macdonald and Dawn Burnham from the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the University of Oxford. "The roll call of environmental topicality seems more strident in 2007 than ever before, and wild mammals are touched by every topic on the list," they say. "How are agri-environment schemes to deliver food, biodiversity and rural livelihoods, how is society to balance its respect for individuals and humaneness with its desire to use, manage and develop, how is this nation to provide its evermore urban citizens with contact with nature that is increasingly recognised as important for their well-being and health?

"The glimpse of a small furry creature may seem a trivial thing, but it is increasingly the hallmark of quality of life issues." They also point out that mammal populations are likely to have been hit extremely hard by the floods last summer. "Innumerable small bodies floated on the many square kilometers of water that immersed the fields around our homes," they say, speculating that this may represent the future, if the record-breaking rainfall was a sign of approaching global warming.

"The sight of rabbits clustered on diminishing islands, wood mice shivering in the upper branches of hedgerows, and a roe deer splashing waist deep across a field all give a sense of meaning to concepts like mitigation and adaptation in the face of climate change, not to mention the planning implications for those three million new house that the Prime Minister hopes to see swiftly built – hopefully all with an eye to sustainability, green spaces and urban nature."

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http://environment.independent.co.uk/nature/article3298381.ece