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Image source Burrard-Lucas Photography

Wild dogs are one of the hardest species of the savannah ecosystem to protect. This is because they live at low densities. They have been exterminated by humans in the misguided belief that wild dogs were killing more of their domestic livestock than other predators and they are highly impacted by illnesses that they can get on the rare occasions they have contact with domestic dogs. The last of these is a particular problem as because wild dogs are highly sociable, when an illness enters a wild dog population it can rapidly spread throughout Continue reading “Wild dogs impacted by domestic dog illness”

When one thinks of snakes and lizards, the UK is not the first place that it would occur to look for them, and indeed they tend to be rarer and less seen than in hotter countries. This is partly down to the climate here – reptiles are mostly cold blooded, which means that they get their heat from the environment. While they can survive low temperatures they are incapable of doing much until they warm up.

To add to their problems in the UK, much of the heathland and moors that made such good habitat in the past has been given over to housing and other destructive uses. Continue reading “Reptile watching in the UK”

In 2006 there were 36 rhinos poached within South Africa. This is important, as South Africa has the vast majority of remaining Southern White Rhinos living within its borders (over 90%). In 2007 only 13 were killed, and it was thought that the poaching problems for the rhino was largely over. Unfortunately was is not the case, 2007 was a success in terms of limiting rhino poaching but it did not last. Continue reading “The rise of rhino poaching within South Africa”

Wall on the border of Denmark

Denmark is to build a wall/fence along its border with Germany, to stop boar from Germany crossing over as these animals carry an infection called African Swine fever. This is highly contagious and while no cases have been found in Denmark, there is concern that it could threaten the domestic pork industry. Hunters will also be encouraged to hunt wild boar at night Continue reading “News in brief – Wall on Denmark border, Cleanup of Tesso Nillo, Great Pacific Garbage patch, Columbia highway, Leopards to control Rabies”

The Lynx is thought to number around 10,000 individuals across Europe. There are more smaller populations that have been created following reintroduction programmes so I will not break these down in the same way.

There are two species of lynx within Europe (these are significantly different animals and would likely be incapable of breeding together, unlike for instance Iberian wolves and French wolves). Continue reading “Predator recovery across Europe – Part 3 – Lynx”

The decline in bear numbers occurred earlier than wolves in many areas, and as bears are slow breeders compared to wolves it can take a long time for populations to recover.

In this post I will outline the main populations in Europe. Continue reading “Predator recovery across Europe – Part 2 – Bears”

In the United Kingdom it would take an act by humans to reintroduce animals that have become locally extinct. This is due to the English Channel, it is not possible for an animal to wander across the border. In theory wolves and potentially bears are capable of swimming the channel, but Normandy and Brittany are some of the least wild parts of France and so are unlikely to ever have significant populations of the predators. This means that we in the UK have a requirement to decide if we wish to reintroduce predators, which do not exist elsewhere. I have discussed this in depth in other articles. What I wish to talk about here, is the natural spread of predators back across Europe since the 1970 when increasing numbers of people moved to cities, leaving behind spaces to be filled. Continue reading “Predator recovery across Europe – Part 1 – Wolves”

Image by Ikiwaner

The last surviving male Northern White Rhino died recently. Sudan was 45 which is a good age for a rhino. Indeed were he not the last male of his species his passing would be unremarkable. He is survived only by his daughter and grand daughter. They live on the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya.

This should serve as a warning, as the Continue reading “Death of the last male Northern White Rhino”

A few years ago, on BBC Spring Watch, the presenters were talking about pine martens, and in the aftermath of the piece they did, it was discovered that there were still two populations of pine martens outside Scotland.

One of these was in Wales, where sightings were made on 40+ occasions.

Continue reading “Discovery of pine marten populations in the UK”

In order to fulfil their purpose of giving a place for large mammals to live naturally, many national parks and nature reserves are very large. Often this is a great draw for tourism, and when done right can create a healthy income for many people living in the area around the park.

However, this area is also a something that often takes a great deal of time to drive around, adding cost for the rest of the economy and so often the road is built across the park. In the short term this can often appear like a good idea, but can have serious problems.

Continue reading “Roads through protected areas”