Wildlife challenge: Devon and Cornwall’s lost and threatened species
11 March 2010
The most complete audit of hundreds England’s wildlife reveals some of the winners and losers in Devon and Cornwall. 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.
Dr Helen Phillips, Chief Executive of Natural England who produced the report, 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 that 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. In the South West, losses include the greater mouse-eared bat, natterjack toad, tawny earwig, corncrake and roseate tern. Habitat loss, inappropriate management, environmental pollution and pressure from non-native species have all played a part in the erosion of England’s biodiversity.
Despite these pressures, conservation efforts in Devon have achieved notable successes in protecting priority species and habitats. On Dartmoor a project led by Butterfly Conservation has been working to reverse the decline in three of our rarest butterflies, the Heath, High Brown and Marsh fritillaries which are found in areas of heathland, bracken slopes and valley mires. Numbers of these species are now on the up and their future is looking much brighter due in large part to scrub clearance and fencing which has recreated the open grassland habitats these rare butterflies require to thrive. Meanwhile, on Lundy Island a few miles off the North Devon coast, the Lundy cabbage has been brought back from the point of global extinction. The cabbage competes for space with rhododendron which was introduced to the island as an ornamental plant in the 19th century. This now covers much of the cliff top formerly occupied by the cabbage but rhododendron clearances by volunteers have led to a comeback by the brightly coloured if rather unpleasant tasting cabbage.
Cornwall was once a stronghold for the chough, an extremely acrobatic member of the crow family with distinctive red beak and legs. A decline in suitable coastal habitat and egg collecting led to its disappearance from Cornwall (and England) in 1973 . However, in 2001 four wild choughs were seen at Southerly Point on the Lizard and in early spring 2002 a female successfully incubated a clutch of eggs. The Cornwall Chough Project was established that year to secure the permanent return of the chough to Cornwall through encouraging farmers to reinstate traditional forms of livestock grazing on grassland and heathland along the coastal fringe. Since 2002, the pioneering pair of choughs has nested every year raising a total of 32 young many of which have survived and some have raised their own young. The return of the chough has attracted huge numbers of visitors down to the Lizard which has brought a valuable contribution to the local economy.
Another species that has clearly benefited from conservation intervention is the cirl bunting, one of Britain’s most threatened songbirds. The species is confined to a small area of Devon and Cornwall although their range once covered large parts of southern England but the population declined massively in the second half of the 20th Century. According to the latest figures the cirl bunting population has increased by 25 per cent since 2003, reaching 862 breeding pairs in 2009. The rise in numbers follows a joint programme by the RSPB and Natural England to help local farmers manage their farmland in ways that provide year-round food supplies and breeding habitat for these distinctive birds. The recovery of the cirl bunting shows what can be achieved when farmers and conservationists work together to target specific land management measures in the right place.
Despite these success stories losses continue and nationally 943 native species are now classed as ‘of conservation priority’ while the numbers of several hundred more are in significant decline. Well loved species like the red squirrel face a serious threat and it is highly likely that all mainland red squirrel populations will be lost within the next 20-30 years, unless effective action is taken. In the South West, the red squirrel is currently confined to the Isle of Wight and the Poole Harbour islands where there is no competition from its grey cousin.
To provide long term support for our wildlife, Natural England is working with a range of partners to adopt a “landscape-scale” approach to conservation which goes beyond the protection of small sites and individual species to embrace the management of entire landscape areas and the ecosystems that operate within them. This is seen as key to taking the pressure off individual site and reserve hotspots and provides broader support to wildlife in the wider countryside.
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Notes to editors
1. Natural England’s South West Regional Director, Janette Ward welcomed the report saying “This is a timely reminder of the fragility of life and how quickly species can disappear on our own doorstep, almost without being noticed. We can stop this happening and arrest declines but it does need everyone to recognise how important our environment is and to act together to minimise the stresses and strains on it. I believe that in the South West we have every chance achieve this.”
2. 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.
3. 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 are now globally extinct. The great auk was a large, flightless seabird which bred in large numbers on islands across the North Atlantic. By the 18th century it had become confined by relentless persecution (by sailors for food, feathers and fuel oil) to the most remote islands, notably off Iceland and, especially, Funk Island off Newfoundland. Great auks may well have bred in the British Isles. Evidence that the bird occurred in England comes from remains found in a cave in County Durham in 1878; a report of a bird caught on the Farne Islands in the mid-18th century; and eye-witness reports of breeding activity on Lundy until the 1820s. The last known birds were killed on Elday, Iceland in June 1844.
4. The undulate ray is found in the waters off the Cornwall coast but in such low numbers that it is currently categorised as an endangered species. The life history of elasmobranchs such as the undulate ray (late age-at-maturity, low reproductive rate, slow growth) makes them vulnerable to overfishing, combined with their large size which means they are susceptible to capture in fishing nets even from a young age. This year Natural England is establishing a recovery programme which will identify practicable solutions to target recovery for some of our most vulnerable marine species such as the undulate ray. In 2012, we hope to have in place a coherent network of Marine Protected Areas to protect our marine species and habitats of conservation importance. Other species under threat in the region include:
The red squirrel which was widespread disappeared from Southern England over the last 50 years
The cuckoo has declined in the South West by 69% since 1994
The polecat was driven out of England by persecution in the 19th century and is only slowly making its way back.
The corncrake which became extinct in Cornwall in the 1960’s
The shore dock found on a few coastal sites in Devon and Cornwall is one of Europe’s most threatened vascular plant
5. 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 Biodiversity Action Plan (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.
6. Copies of the full report - Lost Life: England’s lost and threatened species - can be downloaded from the Natural England website.
Natural England is also running a series highlighting England’s native plants and animals.
7. For more details, images and interviews please contact; Martin Gershon, Communications Specialist on 07900 608 364 or email: martin.gershon@naturalengland.org.uk
