Wildlife challenge: England’s lost and threatened species
11 March 2010
Natural England has launched the most complete audit of hundreds of years of England’s wildlife winners and losers to an audience of leading conservationists at the London Zoological Society today (11 March).
Lost Life: England’s Lost and Threatened Species identifies nearly 500 animals and plants that have become extinct in England – practically all within the last two centuries. On top of this, nearly 1,000 native species have been given conservation priority status because of the severity of the threats facing them.
Dr Helen Phillips, Chief Executive of Natural England, said: “Coinciding with the International Year of Biodiversity, this report is a powerful reminder that we cannot take our wildlife for granted and that we all lose when biodiversity declines. Every species has a role, and like rivets in an aeroplane, the overall structure of our environment is weakened each time a single species is lost. Biodiversity matters and with more and more of our species and habitats confined to isolated, protected sites we need to think on a much broader geographical scale about how we can reverse the losses of the recent past and secure a more solid future for our wildlife.”
The Lost Life report highlights how habitat loss, inappropriate management, environmental pollution and pressure from non-native species have all played a part in the erosion of England’s biodiversity. All of the major groups of flora and fauna have experienced losses, with butterflies, amphibians, and many plant and other insect species being particularly hard hit – in some groups up to a quarter of species have been become extinct since 1800.
Despite these pressures, conservation efforts have achieved many notable successes in protecting priority species and habitats, including the return of the large blue butterfly and the red kite, which has had hugely successful re-introduction at Harewood. Nevertheless, losses continue and 943 native species are now classed as of conservation priority while the numbers of several hundred more are in significant decline. Some of England’s most familiar species - including the red squirrel, common toad, and European eel - face an uncertain future.
Peter Nottage, Natural England’s Regional Director for Yorkshire and the Humber, said “Although this report highlights some successes, it really emphasises just how much there is still to do. In the International Year of Biodiversity we need a step-change in conservation that goes beyond targeted protection of individual sites and species and that focuses on restoring the health of ecosystems across entire landscapes. Here in Yorkshire and the Humber, we’re looking forward to working with farmers, landowners, local authorities and all of our other partners to stop the loss.”
To provide long term support for our regional wildlife, Natural England is working with a range of partners in the Yorkshire and Humber Biodiversity Forum to deliver wide-scale restoration of habitats and ecosystems. By linking habitat areas the pressure is taken off the biodiversity hotspots of individual sites and reserves and wildlife in the wider countryside gains firmer footing.
Species loss in Yorkshire and the Humber
The report shows that extreme declines have already led to the loss of some species on a national scale. However, far more species have been lost on a regional scale, as a result of historic and more recent decline. Some of the species lost from our region include:
The stone curlew vanished from Yorkshire and the Humber by the end of the 1950s
The marsh fritillary butterfly vanished in the 1870s
The astonishing lizard orchid hasn’t been found here since 1940
The world’s largest tuna, the northern bluefin may not survive much beyond 2011 (see case study)
The enigmatic corncrake is restricted to Lower Derwent Valley National Nature Reserve (see case study)
Case study – northern bluefin tuna
The northern bluefin tuna is the largest of the tunas. It can grow to a length of over two metres and weigh more than 500 kg. In England, observations of bluefin tuna in the North Sea date back to 1912, when government fisheries staff recorded bluefin schools feeding on the herring falling from fishing nets as they were being hauled aboard. They had little value then and were often used for pet food or discarded.
This began to change during the 1930s as a tuna sport fishery developed between Scarborough and the Dogger Bank, with annual catches ranging from 20 to 80 fish per year. At roughly the same time, the Norwegians were developing a bluefin fishery and by 1949, 43 boats were involved. In just one year, this leapt to over 200 vessels. Annual catches of over 10,000 tonnes were common during the 1950s and represented a large proportion of the entire North Sea tuna catch. By the 1960s catches had collapsed and the abundance of bluefin tuna in the waters around England is now considered too low to support commercial or recreational fishing. Whilst factors such as ocean temperature changes may have affected the population, the main reason for the collapse would appear to be over fishing.
Recent calculations suggest that the adult population in 2011 will be 75 per cent lower than 2005 and that fishing quotas will permit the capture of all the remaining adult fish. There would seem to be little hope for the survival of the northern bluefin tuna.
Case study – corncrake
The corncrake once bred in meadows and grasslands in almost all English counties. The males arrived from their African winter quarters in late April and their loud, rasping call, delivered with particular vigour at night, gave many a country dweller sleepless nights. A decline in numbers was readily apparent by the start of the 20th century. A ‘Land Rail Inquiry’ undertaken in 1911 found that although large populations were found in the north of the country, they were already scarce or absent from much of central and southern England. They had vanished from Yorkshire and the Humber by the 1950s.
The cause of decline was the mechanisation and intensification of grassland management. Corncrakes are extremely reluctant to break cover, so many adults and chicks were killed and nests destroyed by machinery. The simple measures of cutting fields from the inside outwards, late cutting and the provision of tall vegetation at field margins have seen corncrake numbers increase substantially in the Western Isles of Scotland and such management has been introduced on a number of nature reserves and adjacent farmland in England.
Last year, Natural England’s Lower Derwent Valley National Nature Reserve near York enjoyed the best breeding year for corncrake in over 20 years. The reserve, which includes lush wetland and sweet smelling hay meadows around the banks of the River Derwent holds a significant proportion of England’s breeding corncrake population. Three birds are thought to have nested around the North Dufffield Carrs area of the reserve. Not content with staying on the reserve however, one couple has decided to raise their young on adjoining farmland, where Natural England has been working with the landowner and provided funding through its green farming schemes to improve the habitat for these birds and other wildlife.
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Notes to editors
For further information, photographs or interviews contact: Lyndon Marquis on 0300 060 4236, 07786 277223, lyndon.marquis@naturalengland.org.uk or Emma MacDonald on 0300 060 4231, 07900 608071, emma.macdonald@naturalengland.org.uk.
For further information about Natural England please visit: www.naturalengland.org.uk
Copies of the full report - Lost Life: England’s Lost and Threatened Species - can be downloaded from the Natural England website at http://naturalengland.etraderstores.com/NaturalEnglandShop/NE233 from Thursday 11th March.
Copies of Natural England and Defra’s joint publication: Securing Biodiversity A new framework for delivering priority habitats and species in England can be found at: http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/biodiversity/protectandmanage/framework.aspx
Lost Life: England’s Lost and Threatened Species attempts to document all known species lost from England in the last two millennia. For some species groups, including certain invertebrate groups and fungi, the number of species in England is unknown, so it is impossible to say exactly what has been lost. Consequently, this report cannot be comprehensive for all groups but we have collated all available data, including those for the less known groups. For some groups, we were able to assess species losses separately for each English region. We have also analysed data relating to those species that have declined significantly.
We estimate that at least 55,000 species are native or probably were native to England. We know that 492 of these have been lost within historic times, most within the last 200 years. The proportion of native species now lost in the better-studied groups varies from zero to almost a quarter of known species
The England Biodiversity Strategy sets out the action and co-ordinating framework needed to halt biodiversity loss and to rebuild our natural environment. At UK level, Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) priority species have been identified, to give strong direction on where we need to focus our conservation efforts. The UK BAP prioritises a significantly large number of UK species that are globally threatened and species whose populations are in rapid decline (by 50 per cent or more in range or numbers over the last 25 years). It also identifies species that occur in the UK in internationally important numbers but are in ’moderate’ decline (by at least 25 per cent or more in range or numbers), and other species whose populations are considered to be under extreme threat in the UK. The UK BAP species in England are listed as “species of principle concern” for the conservation of biological diversity under section 41 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act (2006) and contains 943 species.
Recent extinctions in England have included the chequered skipper butterfly, the mouse-eared bat and the great yellow bumblebee which have joined the ranks of earlier extinctions like the black tern, northern right whale and Gypsy moth. Some of the lost species - such as the great auk and Ivell’s sea anemone - are now globally extinct. The latter was lost from its last known site in the world, a brackish lagoon in West Sussex, as recently as the 1980s.
Targeted conservation efforts over the past fifteen years have made a number of real improvements in the status of the 390 species that appeared on the original BAP priority species list. The latest assessment in 2008, reported that some 45 species (12 per cent) were increasing, 128 (33 per cent) were now stable and for a further 22 (6 per cent) the decline was slowing in England.
Bittern numbers, for example, increased from 19 booming males in 1999 to 75 in 2008 (at a similar level to the 20th century peak in the mid-1950s). A major programme of reedbed restoration and creation has fuelled this increase.
Similar efforts to conserve lowland heathland and chalk grassland have undoubtedly assisted the recovery of a number of species, including the woodlark, sand lizard, early gentian, ladybird spider, Adonis blue and silver-studded blue butterflies.
Some conservation initiatives, including those for the large blue butterfly, corncrake and pool frog have involved the reintroduction of the species to England. Reintroduction techniques are also used to boost populations and expand the range of species that have become threatened. Examples include the field cricket, lady’s slipper orchid and dormouse which have all been introduced to areas which were formerly occupied, together with habitat management and protection.
Largely as a result of this conservation effort, a number of BAP species, including the pipistrelle bat, Adonis blue, silver-spotted skipper, pink meadow cap, slender green feather-moss, western ramping-fumitory and Killarney fern were not re-selected for inclusion in the revised BAP list in 2007 because their conservation targets had been met.
| Species group | Number of native species lost | Number of extant native species | Number of extant species on the UK BAP list | Number not on BAP list but with historically depleted populations | Proportion of extant species with historically depleted populations or appearing on BAP list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reptiles | 0 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 100% |
| Mammals – regularly occurring whales and dolphins | 2 | 11 | 11 | 0 | 100% |
| Amphibians | 2 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 57% |
| Freshwater fish | 2 | 35 | 13 | 2 | 43% |
| Mammals – terrestrial and seals | 6 | 43 | 15 | 1 | 37% |
| Bumblebees | 4 | 20 | 5 | 2 | 35% |
| Butterflies | 18 | 75 | 23 | 2 | 33% |
| Breeding birds | 10 | 175 | 40 | 8 | 27% |
| Vascular plants | 20 | 1297 | 121 | 194 | 24% |
About Natural England
Natural England is the government’s independent advisor on the natural environment. Established in 2006 our work is focused on enhancing England’s wildlife and landscapes and maximising the benefits they bring to the public.
We establish and care for England’s main wildlife and geological sites, ensuring that over 4,000 National Nature Reserves and Sites of Special Scientific Interest are looked after and improved.
We work to ensure that England’s landscapes are effectively protected, designating England’s National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Marine Conservation Zones, and advising widely on their conservation.
We run England’s Environmental Stewardship green farming schemes that deliver over £400 million a year to farmers and landowners, enabling them to enhance the natural environment across two thirds of England’s farmland.
We fund, manage, and provide scientific expertise for hundreds of conservation projects each year, improving the prospects for thousands of England’s species and habitats.
We promote access to the wider countryside, helping establish National Trails and coastal trails and ensuring that the public can enjoy and benefit from them.
