Thursday 31 October 2019
Endangered bird species are faring far better in England’s original National Park than worrying national trends otherwise suggest.
Bleak findings of the latest State of Nature report found that 43 per cent of all bird species in the UK are under threat.
That concerning statistic is part of a wider trend outlined by the report’s contributing consortium of leading conservation groups who suggested that the abundance and distribution of UK wildlife species has, on average, declined since 1970.
However, new research provides fresh hope in the Peak District National Park where the numbers of 21 species - most notably golden plover, snipe and lapwing - have increased over the last 28 years.
Numbers of curlew, which suffered a 48 per cent decline nationally between 1995 and 2017, rose by a huge 252 per cent between 1990 and 2018 in the Peak District.
Buzzard populations are also thought to be booming. Sightings rose from just one in 1990 to 239 last year.
Similarly, 157 ravens were recorded compared to zero at either end of the same period.
The survey involved a 500 sq km patch of the Peak District, an area of the equivalent size of about 70,000 football pitches in the South Pennine Moors Special Protection Area.
No comments:
Post a Comment