London’s streets ‘better for wildlife than national parks’

URBAN wildlife is more diverse than that in many national parks, a leading naturalist who works with Sir David Attenborough has said.

Benedict Macdonald, an author and nature specialist who produces wildlife programmes, said a typical urbanised area in London contains more wildlife than a similar area in the Peak District, Snowdonia or Exmoor.

He said these “wild” places are heavily “exploited and degraded’’, so life fails to flourish, while areas of London, by contrast, can burst with life because they are largely left alone.

Mr Macdonald, who has worked on BBC’S Springwatch and the Netflix Our Planet series, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, said it is a disgrace that Britain’s national parks are “silent”.

He believes that the spots are now used largely for non-native timber production, sheep and cattle rearing, and the breeding of grouse and deer hordes for hunting in “unnatural densities”.

Urban parks, docklands and even industrial estates were found to have thriving or sustainable populations of threatened species on the RSPB’S Red list. These included the lapwing, lesser spotted woodpecker, tree sparrow and marsh warbler as well as adaptable predators such as peregrine falcons, and even otters, living right in the city

The naturalist said: “Walking through a national park, you should expect a deafening diversity of natural life to greet you. Instead, there is little more than silence.

“Speaking generally, our national parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty are little more than green deserts that are being exploited as natural factories at the cost of native wildlife. This in my view is a national disgrace.”

Mr Macdonald has, for a new book, examined the diversity within an approximate 11-square mile area of the Dark Peak in the Peak District, Dunkery Beacon on Exmoor, Snowdon and its foothills in Snowdonia, and Loch Lomond in the Scottish Trossachs.

He then compared his findings with a similar-sized region across the London boroughs of Camden, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Southwark, Westminster and the City of London.

The results were “astonishing and saddening in equal measure”, he said.