Red squirrels among native mammals facing extinction
A QUARTER of Britain’s native mammal species, including red squirrels and Scottish wildcats, are at risk of extinction.
The first official Red List for British Mammals, which meets international criteria used to assess threats to wildlife, shows that 11 of 47 native mammals could be wiped out. Threats to their existence include persecution, development, habitat loss, predation from nonnative species and pesticide use.
The list, published today and accepted by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, has been produced by the Mammal Society for Natural England and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.
Professor Fiona Mathews, who chairs the society, said: “Right across the whole of the landscape, whether it’s urban or rural areas, we are making space so other animals can get the resources they need, so they have food and have shelter, because that’s the only realistic way forward.
“Once an animal becomes endangered or critically endangered, it’s really a scramble for time to put measures in place to rescue them, so we need to be taking a hard look at the species on the next level down so that it doesn’t become a crisis.”
According to the list, there are fewer than 20 pure wildcats left in Scotland and only one greater mouse-eared bat remains in the whole country. Beavers, which have been reintroduced in recent years after being hunted to extinction in the 1600s, are still classed as endangered, as are red squirrels, water voles and grey long-eared bats.
Hedgehogs and hazel dormice are among those classed as vulnerable, and a further five species, including mountain hares and harvest mice, could become at risk in the near future.
The European wolf, which vanished from Britain in the 17th century, is classed as extinct in the assessment, which goes back as far as the year 1500, but lynx and bear are not included as they died out before then.