Environment - Page 4

The past week found efforts to conserve the critically endangered Scottish Wildcat hampered somewhat by infighting between conservationists boasting different ideologies on how best to deal with feral cats – the single biggest threat to Scotland’s remaining Wildcats.

This week saw the launch of a new petition, one aiming to have the Common Raven (Corvus corax) added to the general license – a move that would allow landowners to control (by lethal means) ravens in the same manner as other corvid species.

More than 1,100 species of sharks and rays, in both marine and freshwater habitats, are facing extinction. Threats to their survival include pollution, habitat loss and overfishing.

Deer are never far from the press in recent times; debated tirelessly and inspiring fierce devotion from people both sides of the cull or not to cull divide. Some seek to control deer, to cull them in aid of economic or environmental gains; others to preserve them for sport or out of sheer goodwill.

Since 2005, the population of Giant Petrels has halved from over 5,800 nesting birds to around 2,600 in the South Orkney Islands.

Overall, an area the size of around 4,500 football pitches is still being lost every day.

When I talk of being a conservationist, one of the most common assumptions is that I am also somewhat of an ecological hippy.

Though welcomed by farmers, the decision to implement such large scale lethal control on Islay has proven controversial and has been met with scorn by conservation bodies, recently prompting both the WWT and RSPB to take the issue to the European Commission in the hope of halting the plans.

A short video on how Dr Lynn Dick (Cambridge University) & Natural England are working to counter our declining bumblebee populations.