The State of Nature in the UK

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Campaigns, Flowering Plants, Surveys, UK

This week, a coalition of 25 organisations which campaign and research on wildlife in the UK have launched a landmark report – The State of Nature.  This is the first time that the UK’s wildlife advocates have collaborated to produce such a comprehensive overview of the current status of native species, and it represents a significant achievement in biological monitoring.

The headlines from the report aren’t encouraging.  60% of the 3000-plus species studied have declined over the last 50 years, with 31% showing a strong decline.  There have been some alarming recent drastic declines, including some well-known species; numbers of Hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) have fallen by around a third since 2000, for instance.

Of particular concern is the fate of a selection of species from the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, which have been a priority for active conservation efforts since at least the 1990s. The abundance of these 155 species, most of which are birds or lepidopterans, have been aggregated into a “Watchlist” which indicates the population trends of these priority species.

As the graph makes clear, the general trend is a steady fall – despite some welcome gains shown by certain species such as Bittern (Botaurus stellaris), the overall pattern is a 77% decline in these 155 species over the last four decades.  Of course, most would have been in trouble before this period (that’s why they were chosen as conservation priorities!), but it’s chastening to realise that despite 40 years of conservation efforts, these species have continued to struggle.

Overall, this impressive report paints a sobering picture of biodiversity in decline, but it also highlights how little we actually know.  There was sufficient data on 3,148 species to allow them to be included in the report, but this is only 5% of the estimated 59,000+ species in the UK, with some groups (such as invertebrates) particularly underrepresented.  This strikes me as a remarkable statistic.  The UK is densely-populated and relatively small, and has a long natural history tradition and an enviable network of both amateur and professional recording – and yet we have a good understanding of such a small fraction of our biota.  The data deficit in larger, less studied and more biodiverse regions such as the tropics must be larger still.

So, we can’t really say how 95% of UK wildlife is faring, and that worries me as much as anything.  It seems to me that if we don’t know enough about a species to evaluate its conservation prospects, it’s unlikely to be quietly doing well.  One of the findings of the State of Nature report is the fact that adaptable generalists are doing better that species with more specific requirements – and little-studied and under-appreciated species are unlikely to be adaptable generalists.  It’s not at all surprising that adaptable species are at an advantage.  Dramatic environmental changes (including climate change) are the harbingers of the Eremozoic, and so adaptability to change will be a crucial factor in ecosystems.

Despite the limited data available, this important report is the best overview yet of the fortunes of UK biodiversity…..and it’s not looking good.  So, have UK conservationists lost the battle?  David Attenborough‘s introduction to the report smartly navigates the terrain between crisis and optimism, presenting it as a “stark warning” whilst taking “hope and inspiration” from the conservation efforts it highlights.  I wonder which message will predominate in reaction to the publicity gained by the report.

I choose to see The State of Nature as a call to arms rather than an inventory of defeat.  The biodiversity crisis is incredibly daunting, in the UK as elsewhere, but for me this report itself is a weapon in the fight against the crisis.  Knowing more about what’s at risk is an essential first step in trying to change things, and I hope the report will help to inspire people to appreciate what may be lost, and thus consider what might be done.

As a personal example, I’ll highlight the plight of poor, unloved Corn Cleavers (Galium tricornutum), which the report cites as an example of one of the most dramatic plant declines.  It was formerly widespread as an arable weed, but is now found at a single site in southern England, and classed as Critically Endangered.  For some reason I was particularly struck by the plight of this unglamorous, obscure plant, forced to the edge of extinction by agricultural intensification, and which looks very similar to its extremely abundant relative Cleavers (Galium aparine).  I’ll probably never get a chance to try and tell the two species apart, but I’m now engaged by the story of Corn Cleavers and will be watching its progress with interest.  There’s one more person now who would notice, and mourn, if it were to go extinct, and that’s a tiny spark of hope.  Perhaps conservation efforts need to start by capturing the imagination.

New Snake Species found in Biodiversity Hotspot

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Ecuador, New species, Snakes

Finding a new species always excites conservationists, especially when the species is as distinctive as Imantodes chocoensis – a previously undiscovered blunt-headed vine snake found in north-western Ecuador.  The species is described in a recent paper by scientists from Quito, who confirm it as a novel species, differing from the very similar Amazonian snake Imantodes lentiferus in only minor anatomical details.  This has led to the theory that the two snakes, which occur on different sides of the Andes, are descended from a common ancestor, populations of which were separated by the uplift of the Andes millions of years ago and evolved into different species.

Blunt-headed vine snakes, which are only found in Latin America, are beautiful slender creatures which “swim” through foliage by balancing their long bodies against branches and lianas; they can hold themselves rigidly against vegetation using the lower part of their bodies, thus leaving their head and neck free to seize prey, which are generally frogs, hunted by night.

The Chocó region where the new snake was discovered, and after which it is named, is one of the wettest and most biodiverse areas of rainforest on the planet, and is part of a global biodiversity hotspot.  The area is, predictably, threatened by deforestation – mostly for agriculture – but it’s certain that more species unknown to science still hide in its tangled forests.  It is, sadly, all too likely that some unknown number of these will become extinct before scientists get a chance to catalogue them.

Street art on the extinction crisis

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Art, Campaigns, Frogs, Mass extinction, Panama, UK

I’m not aware of much street art which highlights biodiversity depletion, so it’s refreshing to discover London artist Xylo.  His interesting and provocative work addresses a number of subjects, but species extinction is a particular focus.

The Critically Endangered Panamanian Golden Frog (Atelopus zeteki) symbolises the extinction crisis for Xylo, and has appeared in various guises in London streets…..

This species is an all-too-appropriate choice as an icon of the looming Eremozoic.  It has long been seen as a rare symbol of good luck in its native Panama, and is a popular symbol there, appearing on lottery tickets, for instance.  The animal itself is running low on luck, however, and it’s likely that the golden frog is now functionally extinct in the wild; it is sobering to reflect that there might now be more of these frogs painted on walls in London than there are living free in Panama.

Xylo has also brought his work into the aisles of supermarkets, with several cheeky interventions…..

It’s good to see a street artist addressing biodiversity in novel settings and through a variety of creative approaches. The slide into an Eremozoic future, though arguably one of the most pressing issues of the 21st Century, remains poorly recognised or discussed in general culture, and Xylo’s imaginative tactics are a welcome intervention.

Is the Pepperpot past?

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Fungi, UK

As we come to the end of the mushroom season in the UK, it’s good to reflect on the strange beauty (and often, downright wierdness) that the fungal kingdom often displays.  Members of the Geastraceae family (Earthstars) are distinctive fungi; in outward appearance their fruiting bodies are not unlike those of the more familar Puffballs, but are a rarer, and more spectacular, find in the UK.

The rarest and most striking Earthstar of all is the Pepperpot, Myriostoma coliforme, which is the only member of the family to have multiple holes in its spore-sac, giving rise to its common name.  The force of raindrops falling on the spongy spore-sac causes clouds of spores to be ejected from the holes and dispersed.

Although this species has a global distribution, it is rare in most of Europe, and was thought to be extinct in mainland Britain – until it was found in Suffolk in 2006.  It is still classified as Critically Endangered in the UK, and its future has to be considered uncertain; but it’s good to think that the species is probably still around, patiently extending its mycelia somewhere beneath the grass, waiting.

First Welsh Pine Marten in 40 years found

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Forests, Pine Martens, UK

The first Pine Marten (Martes martes) carcass in Wales since 1971 was found recently near Newtown, Powys, as roadkill.  Although rare species killed on the road are always to be mourned, it represents an exciting find, as the best evidence in recent decades that the rare mustelid survives in Wales.

Around 6,000 years ago, the Pine Marten was one of the most abundant British carnivores, with an estimated population of almost 150,000.  However, extensive habitat loss through deforestation, persecution (especially by gamekeepers), and trapping meant that by the end of the 19th century the species was confined to the more remote areas of the British Isles, especially north-west Scotland, with a total population of perhaps around a thousand.

Encouragingly, in the latter half of the 20th century the Pine Marten’s distribution has slowly increased across Scotland and Ireland. In the rest of the British Isles the story is different; there has been evidence of its occurrence in parts of Wales and Northern England, in the forms of sightings and possible scats (faeces), but these have been sporadic and not always reliable, and it is now certainly the rarest carnivore in England and Wales.

It is good news that unequivocal evidence of the animal’s presence in Wales has recently been found.  Nonetheless, it seems that populations in England and Wales are so low as to be functionally extinct – in other words, the species will not form viable long-term populations in these areas without human intervention, or some other large change in external circumstances.  The Vincent Wildlife Trust is currently doing much work developing a comprehensive conservation strategy for the Pine Marten, and this will hopefully lead to positive moves to work for its increase in Wales and England.

There is another benefit to this prospect; the Pine Marten is a specialist of mature native woodland, and heightened interest in protecting this attractive, iconic animal will place a higher premium on the conservation and increase of biodiverse woodlands in general. In the poorly forested UK, that has to be a good thing.  Hopefully the interest in the corpse of this one creature may help to build momentum for conserving its live fellows and their habitats.

World’s rarest whale found for the first time

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Cetaceans, New species, New Zealand, Oceans

The Spade-toothed Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon traversii) is the world’s rarest whale, and has, until recently, been known only from findings of three skull fragments over the last 140 years.  However, research published in the scientific journal Current Biology reveals that two whales found beached in New Zealand in 2010 were members of this most elusive of cetaceans.

When the beached mother and calf were found two years ago, they were misidentified as the much more common Gray’s Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon grayi), but DNA analysis on the skeletons has now revealed that the unfortunate pair were the first individuals of M.traversii to have ever been seen, albeit after death.  The skeletons, along with photos taken of the beached whales in 2010, have enabled researchers to provide the first satisfactory description of this species.

Although beached dead cetaceans are always a sad find, it’s exciting to have real recent confirmation of the existence of this species, which some had suspected of being extinct. The immense South Pacific Ocean covers 14 per cent of the earth’s surface, and it is not so surprising that this whale, thought to live and feed in deep water, has not been encountered before.  We must hope that its mysterious populations remain robust in the face of all the pressures on marine biodiversity, and can only wonder at what other species remain unencountered beneath the waves.

Ethiopian Wolf populations genetically fragile

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Ethiopia, Habitat loss, Wolves

A recent study into the genetic make-up of populations of the Ethiopian Wolf (Canis simensis) has worrying implications for the conservation of this endangered canid, only 500 of which are thought to remain.  The 12-year study found that populations of the species are relatively isolated from one another, which means that the populations are less robust in the face of pressures such as disease or environmental change.

The Ethiopian Wolf is the world’s rarest canid, and Africa’s only wolf, and is threatened by the degradation and fragmentation of its highland habitat.  It would be a tragedy if this species loses its struggle for survival.