wildlife plummeting

stevoman

i just seen this article on the BBC website. What do you lads think of this and how does it make you feel knowing that the best part of us do enjoy wildlife.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7403989.stm

togster

It's really sad and frustrating. I tend not to read articles like this as it makes me depressed.:mad:

Hezz700

That i quite a shocking figure in last than 40 years:(

foxshooter243

To be honest lads its no great shock, just look around you at whats been happening the last decade in ireland..everywhere you look theres development..I constantly drive past places where i used to hunt and im
sure yous guys are the same,,places that held snipe and an odd rooster are now estates or are private developments with half the houses lying empty..good habitat covered in concrete.
a farmer in my area turned 3 fields into one recently , clearing hedgerows
and some cover to create one big field of emptiness surrounded by a barbed wire fence, economics have driven farming towards intensification,
and the use of herbicides wiped out insects that fed chicks in the early stages of their development when they most needed a high protein intake.
this is one of the reasons for the huge decline in the grey partridge in britain.
I watched a documentary recently that was discussing the loss of the brazilian rainforest ,you hear stories of x number of acres of rainforest are lost each day, when the interviewer put it to the brazilian president that
there was only 75 percent of the rainforest left, he answered by saying
" yes we have 75 per cent of our forests left, but your country has none!"

ivanthehunter

foxshooter243 wrote: »

To be honest lads its no great shock, just look around you at whats been happening the last decade in ireland..everywhere you look theres development..I constantly drive past places where i used to hunt and im
sure yous guys are the same,,places that held snipe and an odd rooster are now estates or are private developments with half the houses lying empty..good habitat covered in concrete.
a farmer in my area turned 3 fields into one recently , clearing hedgerows
and some cover to create one big field of emptiness surrounded by a barbed wire fence, economics have driven farming towards intensification,
and the use of herbicides wiped out insects that fed chicks in the early stages of their development when they most needed a high protein intake.
this is one of the reasons for the huge decline in the grey partridge in britain.
I watched a documentary recently that was discussing the loss of the brazilian rainforest ,you hear stories of x number of acres of rainforest are lost each day, when the interviewer put it to the brazilian president that
there was only 75 percent of the rainforest left, he answered by saying
" yes we have 75 per cent of our forests left, but your country has none!"

Well said foxhunter, its game over i think.. Seen a study that showed all marine life was contaminated with plastic particles and i have also heard of CCD (colony crash disorder) in bees which is probable one of the most frightening thing i heard in 20years of hearing bad environmental news.
Some years back a famous intellectual person said that "No Bees means No Plants & No Plants means No Animals & No Animals means No humans.............:eek:
But don't loose all faith just yet because in chapter 10 of my New proposed survival skills book you will be able to find details on tracking, trapping, hunting, gutting, cooking and persevering of human and their fatty flesh, I also hope to include tips on the avoidance of diseases at the cooking stage as well as at the preparation stage:p
I'd give it a hundred years.

meathstevie

Hello there Ivan, as per usual your own unique angle and seasoning But one thing you mentioned there is definitly a serious problem. That's the bees, any organism can live with a certain level of contaminants in it's body so the plastic bad as it is isn't going to stop the world from turning.

The whole problem with bees at the moment is that there's a couple of parasites and diseases running riot on a very serious scale and you don't have to be a PHD in biology to know that these lads are crucial for polination.

Grizzly 45

Dunno where they are getting this idea that snipe are becoming scarce.This year alone I have counted over 150 and somthing like 60 odd woodcock on my farm alone.[Seeing that I missed most of them over the season accounts for my accurate accounting:)] Now if that is one place,what is it like on the rest of the country.
I hate to say it.But these surveys are done by organisations that have a vested intrest in doom &gloom mongering.
take this rainforest story.20 years ago I remember Greenpeace stating that the rain forest was being lost by one square mile per hour.Well do the maths yourselves,but by my math the lumberjacks should be on the borders of Mexico by now,if they were cutting a straight line.Another one was the Whales would be extinct by 2000.Still seem to be there in the oceans.Iagree we shouldnt be abusing our habitat and the critters thereon.
But I wouldnt take it all as gloom.Yes,we have lost and are losing habitat,but belive it or not our wildlife is pretty adaptable.EG Urban foxes,Wild boars are living quite contendly and creating havoc in surburban gardens in Berlin.Vast amounts of EU countryside has been denuded of hedges for more agricultural land.But there is still an abundance of large game living quite contendly on this crop land,bisected by freeways and railways.However it is the loss of insects that are the biggest problem for gamebirds due to insectisides.
All in all the Forest is still greener than the Greens would have us belive.

ivanthehunter

meathstevie wrote: »

Hello there Ivan, as per usual your own unique angle and seasoning But one thing you mentioned there is definitly a serious problem. That's the bees, any organism can live with a certain level of contaminants in it's body so the plastic bad as it is isn't going to stop the world from turning.

The whole problem with bees at the moment is that there's a couple of parasites and diseases running riot on a very serious scale and you don't have to be a PHD in biology to know that these lads are crucial for polination.

Over all its GM based crops that are blamed for the down turn in bee numbers and not just a few mites

meathstevie

ivanthehunter wrote: »

Over all its GM based crops that are blamed for the down turn in bee numbers and not just a few mites

Of course there's underlying causes for the vulnerability to diseases and parasites. The same goes for other insects that are essential for biodiversity and habitat quality in general. We should not forget that insects are quite often if not nearly all the time the foundition for omnivorous and carnivorous food chains and that they are essential to plant life as well.