The fourth of the annual updates following the publication of Britain’s Mammals: The Challenge for Conservation for the launch of Mammals Trust UK in 2001 The State of Britain’s Mammals Written by David Macdonald and Sandra Baker Summary 1. The UK BAP (Biodiversity Action Plan) is undergoing revision in 2005; this involves updating the priority lists of species and habitats, and deciding, or revising, the targets for each. This is a mammoth undertaking: the original BAPs were published in 1995, and since then 427 UK action plans (31 for mammals) and 179 local BAPs have been produced. Knowledge has improved in this time and the review is essential to keep the BAP relevant. 2. We focus on one high profile BAP species, the water vole, and two less well-known priority species – Bechstein’s and barbastelle bats. We also highlight the pine marten, which, although not a priority for the BAP, raises tough conservation issues outside Scotland. l Water voles. Their decline is attributed to agricultural Pat Morris Pat intensification, and predation by American mink. Initiatives include National Key Sites, landscape-scale habitat restoration, are likely to be the main impacts of the Act on British mammals. raising public awareness, and potentially full legal protection of the The Act also repeals certain exemptions, for foxhunters, under the species. Protection of Badgers Act 1992. l Bechstein’s and barbastelle bats. A sudden increase in records for these rare woodland species is mainly the result of new 7. This year has seen much discussion of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) technologies. Priorities are to: maintain and improve connectivity in cattle, and the potential epidemiological role of badgers. In between woods; better adjust woodland management through November 2003, Defra halted the reactive treatment in their research on microhabitat use; and improve roosting opportunities ‘Krebs Trial’ following an apparent increase in cattle bTB under by retaining old trees and standing dead wood. that treatment. The trial will continue testing a proactive culling l Pine martens. The pine marten is Britain’s second rarest strategy against a no culling control until mid-2006. carnivore, and yet it is listed under the current UK BAP only as a Species of Conservation Concern. Martens have a few local BAPs, 8. The Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW) have but should be upgraded to priority species status nationally. awarded their first Wild Animal Welfare Award to Dr Jonathan Reynolds of the Game Conservancy Trust, for designing the GCT 3. The Tracking Mammals Partnership has launched its first report mink raft. The raft allows mink to be trapped efficiently while on species trends since 1995. Three native species, roe deer, reducing the risk of capturing non-target species. common pipistrelle and otter, are estimated to have increased by more than 50%. One, the water vole, is reported to have declined 9. In 2005, government payments to farmers are changing by this amount. fundamentally in ways that could presage profound impacts on the conservation of mammals in the countryside. 4. Surveying mammals killed on roads may provide useful l Subsidies are being decoupled from production, and linked information. We report on three surveys with different remits: instead to compliance with environmental, health, and animal l The MTUK/JNCC Mammals on Roads survey aims to detect welfare standards under the Single Payment Scheme. Farmers will relative changes in the abundance of different species. have greater freedom to farm to the demands of the market, and l The Vincent Wildlife Trust/Mammal Society survey of polecats environmentally-friendly farming will be better acknowledged and on roads is tracking their recovery across the UK. rewarded. l The National Deer Collisions Project records the scale and l In March, existing agri-environment schemes in England were location of road accidents involving deer in order to develop replaced with Defra’s new Environmental Stewardship Scheme, mitigation to reduce such incidents. including broad and shallow Entry Level Stewardship and Higher Level Stewardship, to deliver more focused environmental benefits. 5. We report three ingenious innovations in mammal monitoring. l The Game Conservancy Trust has developed a mink raft for 10. Research in Somerset suggests that hares would benefit from monitoring and trapping American mink. increased habitat heterogeneity, eg diversity of vegetation types, l Researchers from the University of Sussex have developed the within fields, to provide better year-round cover. Autobat, an ultrasound synthesiser that has revolutionised the monitoring of the rare Bechstein’s bat. 11. A radio-tracking study in Gloucestershire suggests that the l A retired forester from mid-Wales has devised a novel dormouse presence of cattle may be an important factor in foraging by lesser monitoring system, which may facilitate research on how dormice horseshoe bats. use the tree canopy. 12. Four years after its launch, MTUK has funded research on 6. Hunting wild mammals with dogs was banned in England and bats, red squirrels, water voles, dormice and otters. In January Wales under the Hunting Act from 18 February 2005. Elimination 2005, MTUK awarded over £88,000 for eight new projects, and of long chases, and of ‘digging out’ (eg of foxes from their earths), £4,000 internships to each of five graduates. 2 The State of Britain’s Mammals 2005 Preface IT HAS BEEN FOUR YEARS since publication of the report amongst animal welfare issues, the political tumult that has Britain’s Mammals: The Challenge for Conservation. Although much surrounded the debate about fox hunting can leave no doubt about useful work has been done in the meantime, all the major issues just how philosophically central wildlife issues can be to society (see highlighted in 2001 remain current. That said, the fact that the p12-13). same issues remain topical - monitoring, farming and wildlife, predator control, diseases, planning and development, welfare, These two examples of very different facets of British conservation pesticides, etc - does not suggest that nothing has changed or been in 2005 meet, so to speak, on farmland. Radical upheavals in accomplished. Indeed, 2005 sees major punctuation marks in the farming policy are now set to alter the countryside and its unfolding of various significant episodes in the history of mammals management for British and their management in the UK. The entire script for British mammals. Nobody could conservation has changed within a decade or so, so much so that it fail to see, in this topic, is literally now written in a new language. the link between wildlife, the lives of individual In the pages that follow we suggest that the current diversity of citizens, and grand high-level political initiatives indicates that there may be increasing politics. The desire to focus on mammal-based (indeed, biodiversity-based) definitions of join up nature sustainable development in Britain. Thus questions are being asked conservation and the not only about how land management contributes towards the rest of society’s production of food, but also about how it can contribute to (especially rural) safeguarding wildlife and people’s enjoyment of wildlife. enterprises resonates in the Draft Natural First, there is the decennial review of the UK’s BAP and of the Environment and profusion of species, habitat and local BAPs that cascade from it. Rural Communities Bill The BAPs are remarkable for several different reasons. Foremost is (February 2005). That bill that these plans were only conceived in 1992 as the procedural seeks to integrate English Whittaker Terry fruits of the Rio Convention on Biological Diversity, and yet Nature, The Countryside already they are a widely understood and completely embedded Agency and the Rural warp and weft to the fabric of conservation. In little over ten years Development Service in a new the very word "biodiversity" has become general parlance, agency called Natural England. illustrating how central an issue conservation has become to society. A huge, inter-linked machinery of government and non- By next year conservation could governmental organisations, and associated national and be carried out in a countryside international processes, now underlie the BAP process and its governed by a very different, and review, as explained on p4-5. integrated, agency. It will remain important, nonetheless, that A second punctuation mark this year has been the enactment of policy is appropriately informed the Hunting Bill in England and Wales. While many may once by the research and observations have thought (and may still do so) that on the stage of of the conservation community. international wildlife issues, hunting with dogs in Britain had little direct relevance to conservation, and was somewhat parochial David Macdonald & Sandra Baker Acknowledgements We are very grateful to the following, who graciously gave of their time and expertise: Nida Al-Fulaij (PTES), Rob Atkinson (RSPCA), Jessa Battersby (Tracking Mammals Partnership), Johnny Birks (Vincent Wildlife Trust), Laura Bonesi (WildCRU, University of Oxford and University of Newcastle), Colin Booty (RSPCA), Clare Bowen (PTES), Paul Bright (Royal Holloway, University of London), Hugh Brown (Scottish Natural Heritage), Fiona Caryl (University of Stirling), Colin Catto (Bat Conservation Trust), Andrew Cooke (defra), Dave Cowan (Central Science Laboratory), Ruth Cox (WildCRU, University of Oxford), Allison Crofts (The Wildlife