British Fauna Threatened By Habitat Loss and Invasive Species

by Clive Wakely. Habitat loss and invasive species pose a deadly threat to native British wildlife it has been established.

A new study commissioned by a digital TV channel has concluded that up to ten indigenous species could become extinct in the British Isles within the next 40 years, unless preventative action is taken now.

The endangered species include much-loved favourites such as the red squirrel and hedgehog.

According to the report, the humble hedgehog, the gardeners’ friend, could become extinct by as early as 2025, due to a combination of habitat loss and road kill arising from ever increasing vehicle numbers on our roads.

Furthermore the current trend, prevalent in many of our towns and city suburbs, of selling off formerly large private gardens for development, has had an obvious and dramatic effect on reducing the number of hedgehog habitats.

Indeed, it is common practice for substantial suburban, often Victorian, houses with large gardens, to be acquired by developers.

Said developers having the sole objective of converting them into multiple “housing units” and their gardens into small blocks of flats or garage units, to maximize profits.

With ever growing demand for housing, largely arising directly or indirectly from immigration fueled population growth; this is a destructive process that will almost certainly continue, much to the detriment of the hedgehog and other wildlife.

It is also a process that could become even worse in the light of new government planning rules pertaining to development, which favour the developer over those who object to destructive development.

The native red squirrel is also a victim of immigration, albeit immigration of a different kind to that we nationalists are more accustomed to discussing.

Following the introduction of the larger, more aggressive, disease carrying North American grey squirrel into this country in 1879, the native red squirrel and its habitats have been under severe and sustained pressure.

Today, the red squirrel has all but been banished to the extremities of Britain.

Although it can still be found in parts of Wales, northern England and northern Scotland, the native red has been almost entirely replaced by the grey “tree rat” throughout much of the country.

Indeed, it is estimated that over 70 per cent of Britain’s remaining red squirrel population is to be found “north of the border”.

In 2009 Scottish Natural Heritage, backed by the Scottish Parliament, allocated some £1.3 million to a grey squirrel cull – a move opposed by some “non-interventionist” environmentalists; this has led to tens of thousands of the pests being either shot or trapped.

Although this has been semi-successful in restricting the further spread of the grey, it seems entirely probably that unless culling on a nationwide basis is undertaken that Britain’s remaining enclaves of red’s will succumb to the “grey invasion” at some stage in the not too distant future.

Other well-known native species identified as being at risk from either habitat loss or from invasive species include the brown hare, woodland grouse, natterjack toad, cuckoo and turtle dove.

Less familiar species under severe threat of extinction include red-necked phalarope (a wading bird), of which as few as 36 breeding pairs are thought to remain, the black-tailed godwit (50 breeding pairs remaining) and the Scottish wildcat.

Surprisingly the turtle dove, once a relatively common sight, has suffered a precipitous rate of decline since the early 1970s.

The species, which migrates to Europe from Africa over the summer months, has seen a 90 per cent drop in numbers through hunting (Malta, Italy and Spain being the main culprits) and through a general loss of habitat.

Similarly Britain’s only native crayfish, the White Clawed Crayfish, traditionally found in fresh water streams across the country, has all but been replaced by the highly predatory Signal Crayfish – another import from North America.

Studies indicate that the species has suffered a 50-80 per cent decrease in the last decade alone.

Although all this is very sad and shocking, one wonders why it is that any digital TV channel would want to commission such a survey when the issue of the effect of habitat loss and invasive species on the indigenous British family of nations, particularly the English, would be considered a matter of equal, if not greater, interest to most people.