Come into the garden

For many readers who love the countryside, or live in towns and encourage birds and other wildlife into their gardens, the decline in some species is unarguable and troubling. How many of us remember animals, insects and flowers that we simply no longer see in the same numbers, if at all? The hedgehog, once a common visitor, has vanished from many areas. Changes to the way people manage their gardens, with artificial lawns and no wild areas, may be to blame; so might the liberal use of slug pellets. Certain butterflies, birds, amphibians and reptiles, especially lizards, have all but disappeared from places where they were once commonplace.

Who has failed to notice how the insects that would once have accumulated on the car windscreen during a long drive are no longer there? We begin a short series today charting this decline, but with some advice on how it might be arrested or reversed.

Our reporter Joe Shute opens his account with a search for the dormouse, which has always been elusive but now faces extinction. Populations have fallen by 70 per cent since 1995, and the rodent has been declared absent from 17 English counties. A recent study warned that one in five British mammals are at risk of extinction. In the past 50 years we have lost an estimated 56 per cent of our wildlife.

This need not be a counsel of despair. We can all do something to help recreate the environments in which flora and fauna can flourish, whether it be farmers planting hedgerows and using fewer insecticides or homeowners building wildlife ponds and worrying less about the pristine nature of the garden. Let’s save our species if we can.