Wildlife on the Brink

Sometime in the 1980s the last St Ivell’s sea anemone died, the last one in the whole world that it is; it became globally extinct and it happened right here on our doorstep, in Sussex.

Now, I am the first to admit that as individuals, this extinction has not impacted on our lives in any way, and it is true that a just a tiny handful people knew of its existence in the first place. But, there are implications of its extinction, which are highlighted in a report recently published by Natural England called ‘Lost Life: England’s lost and threatened species’.

This report by Natural England, the Government’s advisors on the natural environment, highlights the species that have been lost from England - nearly 500 in the recent past. The greater majority of these have been in the last 200 years, and it is the loss of the St Ivell’s anemone that sets the tone of the document.

It is the first time that this loss has been comprehensively correlated and documented and while one extinction may or may not be considered important, the loss of such a number on a national scale should engender much greater concern; if life for other life forms is going downhill then life for us is going the same way.

A majority of the species are those which people will not have encountered or heard of, covering as they do mosses, lichens or liverworts or insects and flies all of which are known to just a few experts and enthusiasts so their demise goes un-noticed. The extinction of a high profile species, a big mammal, bird or well-known flower will cause much more widespread concern.

One of my first jobs on arriving at Woods Mill all of 25 years ago was to do something with an inherited nest and egg collection - mainly taken from around Henfield, including two nests and clutches of red-backed shrikes eggs dated 1905. The last pair of this species to nest in England was in the late 1980s and its extinction as a common English breeding bird has taken less than a century.

Recent losses in England include the great yellow bumblebee, the chequered skipper butterfly and the mouse-eared bat, the last one being recorded in Brighton in the early 1990s. The reasons for these extinctions are many and varied, but undoubtedly the biggest causes relate changes in management of the landscape and loss of habitat. Some species have simply been wiped out by man, hunted to death or persecuted as vermin, while changes in climate will have in increasing impact into the future.

Without in any way mineralising the importance and downright depressive nature of this report there are some wins in terms of wildlife, either through nature conservation measures, a much more sympathetic approach to wildlife and in some cases, re-introductions of once native species. This does provide a small counterbalance to the rather doom-laden content of this report.

Locally, some rare species such as adonis blue, water vole, nightjar and even the otter are fighting back and their numbers increasing through conservation measures backed up by greater knowledge of habitat requirements and sympathetic landowners. In the case of the red kite a re-introduction scheme has had the same effect.

by Mike Russel.

However, this does not let us off the hook. Loss is still greater than gain, with much of that gain being at considerable expense and until we revert the balance then our link to this planet is on the same level as all the other species, and that is tenuous.

Return To News Page