Stark warning: Species like the wryneck are dying out every fortnight as modern life takes its toll on the English countrysideAt least one plant, bird or animal is dying out every fortnight as modern life takes its toll on the English countryside, experts have warned.
Pollution, intensive agriculture, housing development and the changing climate are wiping out around 25 species every year – ten times more than previously thought.
The roll call ranges from imposing mammals such as the northern right whale, to species of beetle and butterfly and other minnows of the natural world.
With the rate of extinction showing no sign of slowing down, the Oxford University researchers say there is no time to be lost in trying to save endangered species.
Researcher Clive Hambler said: ‘Biodiversity loss is arguably much more serious and more permanent than climate change.
‘These losses will impact on human welfare and I’d say conservation needs a profile and resources even bigger than climate change.’
Mr Hambler, an ecologist, used natural history records to gauge extinction rates among well-studied groups such as birds, fungi and flies since 1800.
This showed that no matter what plant, animal or insect grouping was being studied, between one and five per cent of species have been wiped out in the last 200 years.
For birds, for instance, the figure is three per cent, the journal Biological Conservation reports.
Birds to have fallen victim to modern life include the great auk, often nicknamed the ‘original penguin’ and last seen in Britain in the 1820s, the wryneck and the
red-backed shrike.
Mr Hambler believes the same levels of extinction are likely to be found among lesser-studied wildlife, such as worms and mites, because the factors that have placed birds in peril are also harmful to other creatures.
If this is the case, it means that we are losing one native species of wildlife each fortnight.
This equates to 25 a year, 250 a decade or 2,500 a century.
Mr Hambler said: ‘Birds are beautiful creatures but they are also diverse and many of them are specialised to particular habitats.‘This makes them sensitive to changes in their environment, such as loss of mature trees, or the drying out of swampy ground, or coastal development.’
He added: ‘What makes them special for monitoring extinction is that they are also exceptionally easy to study, anywhere in the world.
‘So we can detect declines in their populations long before we notice losses of more obscure things like slime moulds or mosses.
‘It’s no coincidence that they can signal environmental change.’
Mr Hambler’s figure is ten times higher than one produced earlier this year by Natural England, which advises the Government on environmental issues. This is because Natural England relied solely on documented extinctions of well-known species, while
Mr Hambler included projections for lesser-studied plants and animals.
Mr Hambler said: ‘People tend to be hesitant in declaring extinction, which leads to problems assessing the current rate.
‘Many ancient and important habitats in Britain are threatened today because of human activity and population growth – whether it’s an increase in water use, growing use of wood fuel, or the growth of urban sprawl.’
‘Despite conservationists’ efforts, it’s very likely extinction rates will continue to rise in Britain and globally for many years,’ he added.
source: dailymail
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