The Decline in Numbers, of British Mammals.

dennishasdoneit said:
Wild Deer can be so illusive. So graceful, and secretive.
Often the only sign they are in an area is their droppings. I know they travel great distances at night. But during the daytime, I've happened across single deer quite unexpectedly,maybe because the wind was in the wrong direction for them,and I've often surprised the odd solitary deer with a dog off the leash,most noticeably at Moodgreen,just outside Eastwood Notts DH LAWRENCE country if you like..my pet Doberman completely surprised one on a hill one afternoon and took great delight in chasing it into the woods.....no chance of getting anywhere near it of course.
I'll always remember seeing my 1st wild deer. Boxing day 1985,steeply woods Nottingham, I'd walked down a long path towards a conifer plantation of tightly planted trees and to my surprise came across a lone stag just at the edge of the wood. Again the wind must have been in my favour as the creature was taken by surprise, saw me, and effortlessly sped away,ghosting between the trees at speed ,I was completely blown away at how such a large creature could move at such speed amongst dense trees.....in 2 seconds it had disappeared.
Quite an astonishing sight ! Couldn't say what species it was...fleeting glance only...
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I’ve seen herds of elk disappear like that too, big bulls amongst them, gone in seconds. You could still smell them but gone
 
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We have a really small ermine around here, love seeing them in the winter when they turn white with just a tiny bit of black on the top of their tails, often see them up at the ski hill zipping around.
 
Had a weasel chancer stalking me and a pal walking, me pal scoffing a butty was its motivation...

A firm of deer ran through the lights at the nexen bridge at 5am one morning.

Odd one near the old fairfield golf club house...coypu lay dead, asked a few old boys and they told me one of the farms on kings rd bred em for the fur trade in the '60's...thinking about it i must have seen it/them a few years earlier but never dreamt coypu...thinking the hump was a mink with a dead fish swimming offski. Head scratcher.

You can wind deer about by looking at the trees they eat from..grounds flat round the base

Pair of muntjac scrapping oblivious the other yr up in marsden with me plotted up on mountain bike 5 yds away. You get close to wild life on rubber, their pre wired for impact noise so dont book ya to be dangerous
 
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idahoblues said:
I’ve seen herds of elk disappear like that too, big bulls amongst them, gone in seconds. You could still smell them but gone
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Ive always beem fascinated by wild animals that ,on the sight of Man
...just disappear into thin air ...like " Fuck that,I'm out of here "
No messing about. Survival instinct ,ingrained in them.
 
I gew up near the countryside, back in the 60's, and in those days we would walk in the fields as kids and see no end of wildlife. Ducks, Herons, Lapwings, Skylarks, Corn Crakes, water voles, etc and all in plentiful numbers. I particularly remember the Lapwings with their distinctive cry being present, and looking for the Skylark nests in the wheat fields after they had landed. Those crafty little birds land a good way away from their nests, so it was always a challenge to try and find where their young were nesting. Sometimes we found them, sometimes we didn't, but there were enough of them around we didn't have the same nests to try and find each time.

Later on, when we were a little older, we'd take a sheet with us to cover up with grass so we had a hide to shelter in, and we saw other species we hadn't seen before, like mice and weasels going about their business.

That was then.

I had to move back to the house I grew up in to look after my mother some 16 years ago, and I hadn't walked in those fields to watch the wildlife since the early 70's.

Taking her dog for a walk one day, I thought I'd go back to the fields I knew so well when I was young, and I was genuinely shocked by what I saw, or didn't, more accurately.

It was sterile. There was nothing to see or hear. The memories came flooding back to me, but it was hard at times to place the locations those memories came from. Half the hedgerows had been ripped up, ponds had been filled in, there were no crops, just grass, and compared to how it used to be, it was lifeless.

It was the only time I took the dog for a walk on those fields. The contrast was too stark for me to contemplate going back there again, and it really did emphasise just how much we have lost from the natural world.

It saddened me.
 
r.soleofsalford said:
I 1st heard that saying 39 years ago. I was in a customer house and their son who had whippets and ferrets told me the saying.

I use it now and again. Usually people roll their eyes and smile.
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Turning to The Weasel.....have you ever heard the old countryside saying
" catch a weasel asleep...piss in its ear !'

I imagine.because of the electric energy of this small predator ( the smallest carnivore in the British Isles...it basically never stands still...if u ever find one dormant ( which you never will )...piss in its ear, which of course is almost impossible.

The boundless energy of both weasels and Stoats is ,to me , fascinating . Born killers...always on the move.
The Weasel I've seen many a time In open country ,but mostly as you walk down a path ,with undergrowth on both sides....and suddenly ,this small box of energy ,throws itself in an almighty leap ..across the path
In front of you Into the undergrowth of the other side......but if you are patient ...and wait a few seconds....it's curiosity makes it always 're appear to have a 2nd look at you,briefly, before instantly disappearing....I've seen this quite a few times.
 
NPBlue said:
I gew up near the countryside, back in the 60's, and in those days we would walk in the fields as kids and see no end of wildlife. Ducks, Herons, Lapwings, Skylarks, Corn Crakes, water voles, etc and all in plentiful numbers. I particularly remember the Lapwings with their distinctive cry being present, and looking for the Skylark nests in the wheat fields after they had landed. Those crafty little birds land a good way away from their nests, so it was always a challenge to try and find where their young were nesting. Sometimes we found them, sometimes we didn't, but there were enough of them around we didn't have the same nests to try and find each time.

Later on, when we were a little older, we'd take a sheet with us to cover up with grass so we had a hide to shelter in, and we saw other species we hadn't seen before, like mice and weasels going about their business.

That was then.

I had to move back to the house I grew up in to look after my mother some 16 years ago, and I hadn't walked in those fields to watch the wildlife since the early 70's.

Taking her dog for a walk one day, I thought I'd go back to the fields I knew so well when I was young, and I was genuinely shocked by what I saw, or didn't, more accurately.

It was sterile. There was nothing to see or hear. The memories came flooding back to me, but it was hard at times to place the locations those memories came from. Half the hedgerows had been ripped up, ponds had been filled in, there were no crops, just grass, and compared to how it used to be, it was lifeless.

It was the only time I took the dog for a walk on those fields. The contrast was too stark for me to contemplate going back there again, and it really did emphasise just how much we have lost from the natural world.

It saddened me.
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Your observations mirror mine,over the years.

And it is why I created the thread with its rather dramatic title...
For me, as a keen observer of natural history for some 4 decades,I can say,without a doubt ...we are in decline.
. Turning to birds ...I can remember in the mid 80s,on open arable land
The Grey Partridge, when disturbed would rise in a covey of up to 20 birds.....this figure gradually declined to the present day when , a quite pathetic 2 or 3 would take to the skies. Something is quite wrong..

Turning to mammals again , in the mid 80s, I recall fields of maybe 40 Rabbits , lots and lots of rabbit warrens,well used down the years...
It's not something I see now out on walks ...the odd rabbit here and there.
As I've mentioned before in this thread, The Rabbit being the staple diet of many many predators,this is worrying ... the food chain is depleted ,with obvious effect ...

This saddens me too.

The decline of Nature is something which will effect us all....in time.

Thanks for your candid observations...
 
dennishasdoneit said:
Ive always beem fascinated by wild animals that ,on the sight of Man
...just disappear into thin air ...like " Fuck that,I'm out of here "
No messing about. Survival instinct ,ingrained in them.
Click to expand...
I’m an avid hunter, I have spent years wandering through huge tracts of forest in Idaho, that might sound a contradiction but I have killed 6 elk in that whole time. I have been lucky enough to have seen some crazy things, wolves, bull elk fighting, owls, eagles, coyotes blah blah…
There are strict regulations on what I can and cannot shoot, only one animal. To be able to harvest the finest wild game imaginable and actually get it out, butcher it myself might sound weird but it is a wonderful thing.
 


Archibald Thorbourn is my favourite wildlife artist.
I have never seen an artist capture it's subject with such realistic impression. He really was a brilliant interpreter of natural history.
in my opinion, no one else comes close.
in my collection I have a framed print of The Scottish Wildcat, and a drawing of both The English and Irish Stoat....I'll try and find both pics to post up here. Thorbourn was a brilliant artist. The Scottish Wildcat is particularly realistic,showing the creature ...in the aftermath of devouring a Grouse. Superb capture of wildlife at its finest,imo
 

I couldn't find either the wildcat or Stoat drawings ..

But this short video gives an indication of Thorburns obvious brilliance
I've never seen any artist come close to captivating the reality of natural history...
 
I've kopt a fox asleep in the sun during the day...about a month later i kopt a small wild dog asleep in virtually the exact spot half 6 of a morning.
The spot was down near the waters edge of a reservoir in a corner section...then i realised how gormless i was in my chippie tea, electric blanket life....the spot was below wind level..not something that is instinctive wrapped in gortex.
 
for OP, lots of stuff in here ;

stateofnature.org.uk

State of Nature 2023 - report on the UK’s current biodiversity

The State of Nature 2023 report uses data from biological monitoring and recording schemes to provide a benchmark for the status of wildlife in the UK.
stateofnature.org.uk stateofnature.org.uk

publications.naturalengland.org.uk

A Review of the Population and Conservation Status of British Mammals - JP025

This report presents the first comprehensive review of the status of British mammal populations for over 20 years. The population size, range size, temporal trends and future prospects of Britain’s 58 terrestrial mammals are assessed. The review presents the most up-to-date assessment of...
publications.naturalengland.org.uk publications.naturalengland.org.uk



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Water voles all but gone in the Shire.
Rabbit numbers way down, I was told a kidney disease had done for a lot of them.
Haven't seen a hare in yonks.
Hog numbers down too.
Stoat/weasels about the same.

Muntjack deer numbers are rising like mad, which is surprising as the dopey fuckers are always getting killed on the roads.

Don't start me on the amount of beavers.
 
Did anyone watch winterwatch last night? That old boy filming Blue fin tuna off the Devon coast blew my mind. Amazing fish, I’m not eating tuna again.
 
idahoblues said:
I’m an avid hunter, I have spent years wandering through huge tracts of forest in Idaho, that might sound a contradiction but I have killed 6 elk in that whole time. I have been lucky enough to have seen some crazy things, wolves, bull elk fighting, owls, eagles, coyotes blah blah…
There are strict regulations on what I can and cannot shoot, only one animal. To be able to harvest the finest wild game imaginable and actually get it out, butcher it myself might sound weird but it is a wonderful thing.
Click to expand...
Well it is unless you're the wild animal being filled with holes.
 
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