Good news for mammals

The authors of a major new report on British wildlife say that they are optimistic about the current state of the nation?s mammals.

The tenth annual update of The State of Britain?s Mammals was written by scientists from the University of Oxford?s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) and published by the People?s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES).

The report found that four of the mammals listed as endangered when the report was first published ? otters, water voles, pipistrelles and greater horseshoe bats ? had achieved or, in some cases, exceeded their conservation targets.

WildCRU director David Macdonald, who cowrote the report with Dr Dawn Burnham, said: ?If one could roll back and look at what in 2001 we might have expected the picture to be, I think it?s amazingly positive.?

Dr Macdonald also said it was now more common for people to consider the importance of science and evidence when making decisions that affected British wildlife.

The rest of this article appears in the 12th October issue of Shooting Times.

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