It’s magical for animals as our towns go quiet and they enjoy new freedoms
Stay at home is the message for Wales’ humans, but the nation’s wildlife appears to be getting bolder in this lockdown quiet, as Andrew Forgrave reports
LLANDUDNO’S hedge-nibbling goats have won global notoriety but they are not the only animals enjoying new freedoms in the Covid-19 lockdown.
Deer have invaded east London, peacocks are strutting down Bangor High Street and, in Monmouthshire, sheep had a whale of time on a playground carousel.
Feral goats are coming down from Snowdonia’s hills to seek better grazing and cyclists can now share sections of the A5 with the emboldened munchers.
Foxes and hedgehogs also appear to be venturing closer to homes. In Wrexham, to the despair of gardenproud gardeners, badgers have been laying waste to neatly striped lawns.
However the biggest beneficiaries in the natural world are pesky rodents that can transmit disease, contaminate food and ruin stock.
As waste piles up outside homes and businesses, populations of rats and mice have surged.
According to the British Pest Control Association, more than half the professionals it polled had seen more rodents since the lockdown began.
Gwynedd pest controller David Jones, from Penrhyndeudraeth, said empty buildings, deserted streets and reduced footfall were catnip for rodents.
Rat numbers are on the increase right across his patch – and they were getting braver, said Mr Jones.
“There are fewer people in the streets and more rubbish is being left around, so there is plenty of food for them,” he said.
“Takeaways have been leaving waste food outside which is piling up because collecting it is chargeable.
“I’m getting calls from people who have seen them in their gardens and even in their attics.”
For scientists studying humanwildlife interactions, the lockdown has become an unexpected opportunity.
With two-thirds of the planet shut down, it was like a “global experiment” for scientists, said Dr Graeme
Shannon, a zoology lecturer at Bangor University.
He believes animals and birds that are accustomed to people are swiftly adapting to deserted roads and town centres.
Driving the change is a decline in noise levels: with so many cars off the road, and businesses shut down, Wales has become a much quieter place.
In turn this is turning day to night for animals that previously only ventured out in darkness for fear of encountering humans.
“It is important to note that these animals are fairly used to human presence and this is not the first time that they have wandered into towns, having previously sought shelter during bad weather,” said Dr Shannon.
“But it is intriguing how this current foray is happening so soon after we have been restricted to our homes.”
Amphibians celebrating the lockdown might include migrating toads, spared the crush of rubber as they cross country lanes.
Another beneficiary, said Dr Shannon, could be hedgehogs, up to 335,000 of which are killed on Britain’s roads each year. Barn owls are other notorious roadkill casualties that might be enjoying a better spring.
However it is reptiles which are most likely to enjoy the absence of human – and canine – activity, according to Dr Wolfgang Wuster, senior lecturer at Bangor’s School of Natural Sciences.
Adders are his specialism, and he expects fast declining populations of Britain’s native snake to be enjoying a brief respite.
“Adders, like all reptiles, suffer badly from disturbance, such as dogs running nearby or people stopping to take photographs,” he said.
“For the first time in many years they will be having an uninterrupted breeding season.
“For them the lockdown is a godsend – hopefully we will see a bumper crop of babies this summer.”
The re-emergence of Welsh wildlife might also have something to do with the sunniest April on record.
Other apparent trends might also be red herrings: this spring’s burst of birdsong probably owes less to an incursion of lockdown-loving birds than a more prosaic lack of road traffic. As in Wuhan, people are just noticing it more.
Even so, there may be long-term benefits, according to Julian Hughes of RSPB Cymru.
“It’s conceivable it may benefit birds because we know their song is such an important part of avian breeding cycles,” he said.
The absence of hiking boots on mountain ridges may test the theory that the dotterel – a high-peak bird that once bred in Snowdonia – was displaced from the mountains by human disturbance.
However after the 2001 foot-andmouth outbreak, which also shut down rural Wales, there was no dramatic rise in the number of upland nesting birds.
For experts, the worry is that the opposite might happen when Covid19 restrictions are eased: those birds that have taken advantage of the solitude, and nested close to paths, might then be disturbed before they have fledged their chicks.
Certain to be grateful for the respite is flora – not least plants on roadside verges that have been suffered nitrogen blight.
On a walk from his home, Snowdonia Society conservation director John Harold has noted the changes at a nearby beauty spot car park.
“Without constant tyre pressure it has turned into a golden sea of dandelions, some already going to seed and attracting lots of goldfinches and other seed-eating birds,” he said.
Fewer vehicles on the roads might bring indirect benefits to wildlife in ways we don’t expect, said Dr Christian Dunn, senior wetlands lecturer at Bangor’s School of Natural Sciences.
Car tyres are one of the largest sources of microplastics, the tiny particles that find their way into rivers and oceans where they enter the food
chain.
With traffic reduced, Dr Dunn hopes to see an improvement in water quality. Already, according to anecdotal reports, some streams and lakes are becoming cleaner due to the shutdown.
In the same vein, a drop in footfall in the countryside ought to see less littering from single-use plastic such as coffee cups and takeaway wrappers.
“It’s almost as if nature is having a chance to breathe, a chance to reset itself,” said Dr Dunn.
For this reason it’s not surprising the #natureishealing hashtag is trending on social media. Welsh wags report the return of the country’s dragons while fake news peddlers push pictures of dolphins in Venice.
However most scientists reject the romanticisation of lockdown: not only are the gains likely to be temporary, there will be losers too.
Wildlife charities have furloughed staff and suspended the management of nature reserves.
Litter picking has been shelved and there is less footpath work, habitat creation and invasive species control.
Landowners everywhere are concerned about a plague of flytipping as tips stay shut and bin collections suspended.
And while some wildlife might be enjoying more freedoms, the same cannot be said about all pets. In the first month of the lockdown, RSPCA
Cymru dealt with 1,641 animal welfare incidents – more than 51 per day.
Studying wildlife behaviour during the lockdown is difficult for housebound scientists.
However one pre-pandemic animal tracking project was launched in the Elwy Valley, near St Asaph.
Using 40 camera traps arrayed across 200 sq km, Bangor University PhD students Owain Barton and Amy Gresham are studying the movements of fallow deer and their interactions with humans.
The 18-month project, overseen by zoology lecturer Dr Graeme Shannon, could offer unique post-lockdown environmental insights.
“It will be intriguing to see if there have been changes to the distribution of fallow deer in the area,” said Dr Shannon.
“However we haven’t been able to access the cameras for two months and their batteries are right at the limit of their capacity.
“We’re just hoping they’ve lasted long enough for us to get useful data.”
What happens next? In the shortterm questions still need answering on the best way to re-open rural Wales, especially in tourism honeypot areas like Snowdonia National Park.
John Harold of the Snowdonia Society suspects access will initially be limited to local people.
But the tourism sector will be pushing hard for wider access, he said.
“The unlocking of lockdown will, by definition, be trickier, more complicated and more liable to boil over if the balance between local community safety and wider economic interest is tested,” he said.
Most experts expect the environmental impacts of Covid-19 to be temporary.
If there is to be a lockdown legacy for wildlife, it’s likely to result from a change in human behaviour.
Perhaps, in future, everyone will drive less, meet virtually more often and show a greater appreciation for the environment, suggested Mr Harold.
In turn this may accelerate moves to mitigate climate change.
“The challenge now is to treat the climate emergency with the same urgency we’ve shown we can do with Covid-19,” said RSPB Cymru’s Julian Hughes.