Reasons to be hopeful for wildlife in Scotland

Pine hoverfly reintroduction

The pine hoverfly, an insect important for pollination and waste removal, is so endangered it had not been seen in Scotland in recent years in its adult form.

But a reintroduction project this year has changed that.

In March, 3,000 pine hoverfly larvae were released into three forest habitats in the Cairngorms National Park.

Surveys this autumn found larvae in previously unoccupied tree stump showing that at least some had completed a full breeding cycle.

Mar Lodge regeneration

When the National Trust’s Mar Lodge began its zero tolerance approach to deer 17 years ago, the idea received a major backlash.

Now the site is seeing landscape-scale natural regeneration of native woodland (mostly Caledonian pinewood) for the first time in 200 years, with around 2,000 hectares of naturally regenerating native woodland recorded in 2021.

Since 2011, it has seen a 436 per cent increase in the number of Scots pine seedlings.

White-tailed eagle

Following intense persecution through the 19th century, white-tailed eagles, the largest UK bird of prey, were driven to national extinction in the early years of the 20th century.

Following reintroduction successes in both east and west Scotland, the species now has a growing native breeding population once more.

The first successful breeding took place on Mull in 1985 and the majority of the breeding population is on the west coast.

Lamlash no-take zone

Since 2008, following a campaign by the Community of Arran Seabed Trust, there has been a fishing “no-take zone”, where fishing is not allowed around Lamlash bay.

A 2020 study led by the University of York found that lobster were now over four times more abundant than in the adjacent areas and that king scallop density was four times higher than in 2013.