British wildlife in steep decline as man-made activities take their toll

Several of Britain’s best-known animal species, ranging from the hedgehog to the harbour seal, are now suffering declines that require serious conservation action, according to a comprehensive report on the status of British mammals.

The report, from the Mammals Trust UK, which is funded by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, identifies an assortment of factors including climate change, the spread of infectious diseases, agricultural and forestry practices, and not least, human activity, as combining to place ever increasing pressure on already fragile wildlife populations.
The result is that declines are accelerating in animals once considered common, such as the hedgehog, as well as those which are already scarce or localised, such as the Scottish wildcat.

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.

Independent