Nearly 3,000 species in the country of Wales, in the U.K., are now found in just a handful of locations, according to a recent report. These species include hundreds of plants, fungi and mosses, as well as 25 bird, six mammal, five freshwater fish and one amphibian species.
The report, produced by Natural Resources Wales (NRW), a Welsh government-sponsored body, notes that 114 species were last seen in Wales in the 1950s or later. Since 2000, 11 of these species have gone locally extinct, including the whiteworm lichen (Thamnolia vermicularis), belted beauty moth (Lycia zonaria), and birds like the corn bunting (Emberiza calandra) and European turtle dove (Streptopelia turtur).
“This report makes it clear that we aren’t simply ‘at risk’ of seeing species going extinct in Wales, it’s already happening. As a country, we need to take the threat seriously,” Mary Lewis, head of natural resource management policy at NRW, said in a statement.
NRW found that nearly 3,000 species are currently found in just five or fewer locations; 1,262 species survive in just a single site.
Not all the 3,000 species are necessarily declining. Nearly half may appear spatially restricted because they’re underrecorded, the report notes. However, 77 species are “decliners” — once widespread, they’ve declined drastically recently.
The decliners include birds like the black grouse (Lyrurus tetrix) and yellow wagtail (Motacilla flava), insects like the high brown fritillary butterfly (Fabriciana adippe) and strandline beetle (Eurynebria complanata), and plants like the grass-wrack pondweed (Potamogeton compressus) and fen orchid (Liparis loeselii).
Agriculture and climate change are systemic pressures on Welsh biodiversity, the report finds. But more local threats that drive wildlife population declines include the loss of deadwood in woodland, tree planting in grasslands, changes to peatlands, pollution in ponds and lakes, and changes to coastal and riverine habitats.
However, local conservation actions can turn the tide. For example, in two national nature reserves, clearing scrub is helping to protect the only British population of upright apple-moss (Bartramia aprica) and the last surviving Welsh population of dog screw-moss (Tortula canescens), the report notes.
In fact, the majority of the 3,000 species examined in the report are found across Welsh national nature reserves and other legally protected areas called Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). This underscores the importance of managing and restoring these sites, a key goal of the Welsh government-funded Nature Networks Programme, NRW said in its statement.
Conservationist Tyler Hallman from Bangor University in Wales told state broadcaster BBC that such conservation actions could be successful.
“The European turtle dove is extinct in Wales but, over the last few years, their population in Europe has increased greatly so who knows — that one might come back,” Hallman said. “You might see things coming back as conditions improve and the species as a whole do better.”
Banner image: A black grouse, currently declining in Wales. Image by Vnp via Wikimedia Commons (CCBY-SA3.0)
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