Briefly 805 EUROPE
Making a comeback: rewilding in Europe gets a funding boost.. . The environmental organization Rewilding Europe is looking to expand its number of re- wilding landscapes—areas where threatened wildlife is reintroduced and protected—after being awarded a grant of GBP 4.1 million by the Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin. The grant has been pledged in the hope of scalingup rewild- ing efforts throughout several parts of the continent. Rewilding can have benefits for local economies, for example through wild- life and nature-related tourism, such as the European Safari Company, whose locations include several Rewilding Europe landscapes. The non-profit organization already operates projects in the Affric Highlands in Scotland, Swedish Lapland, the southern Carpathians in Romaniaand theGreater CôaValleyin Portugal. With the help of the funding, a new rewilding landscape will be launched at the end of the year, and a further five should be opened before 2030. Source: The Guardian (2022) theguardian. com/environment/2022/jul/29/making-a- comeback-rewilding-in-europe-gets-a-4m- funding-boost
.. . and wild bison return to UK for first time in thousands of years In July 2022, three gentle giantswandered out of a corral in theKent countryside to become the first wild bison to roam in Britain for thousands of years. The aim is for the animals’ natural behaviour to transform a dense commercial pine forest into a vibrant natural woodland. Their taste for bark will kill some trees and their bulk will open up trails, letting light spill onto the forest floor, while their love of rolling around in dust baths will create more open ground. All this should allow new plants, insects, lizards, birds and bats to thrive. The Wilder Blean project, near Canterbury, is an experiment to see how well the bisons can act as natural ecosystem engineers and restore habitats for wildlife. The UK is one of the most nature- depleted countries in the world. Amore nat- ural woodland should also absorb more car- bon, helping to tackle the climate crisis. The three released females were fitted with track- ing collars that will allow researchers to plot the animals’ movements and glean insights into their interactions with vegetation and the wider environment. Source: The Guardian (2022) theguardian. com/environment/2022/jul/18/wild- bison-return-to-uk-for-first-time-in- thousands-of-years
New species of giant waterlily discovered at Kew Gardens A breaking botanical discovery has come to light, as the famous giant waterlily genus Victoria welcomes a new species. Victoria boliviana has been in Kew’s Herbarium for 177 years, previously mistaken for Victoria amazonica, the waterlily named after England’s Queen Victoria in 1837.A team of experts now found that Victoria boliviana is a species new to science, and is now the largest waterlily in the world, with leaves reaching 3 m wide in the wild. As the name suggests, it is native to Bolivia, where it grows in one of the largest wetlands in the world, the Llanos de Moxos. In 2016, two Bolivian institutions donated seeds froma suspected new species of water- lily. As these were grown at Kew Gardens in the UK, side-by-side with the two other known Victoria species, the differences be- cameevident: Victoria boliviana has a differ- ent distribution of prickles, and its seeds are a different shape from those of the other members of the genus, making it distinct. Source: Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (2022)
kew.org/read-and-watch/new-giant- waterlily-victoria-boliviana-discovered- at-kew
Balkan activists keep fighting for Europe’s last wild rivers It took a decade of court battles and street protests, but Balkan activists fighting to protect some of Europe’s last wild rivers have scored an important conservation vic- tory in Bosnia. A new electricity law, which passed in July, bans the further construction of small hydroelectric power plants in the larger of Bosnia’s two semi-independent en- tities. Still, the new law only highlights the long road ahead to protect such rivers across the entire Balkans from being degraded, diverted and commercialized by people with connections to the region’scorruption- prone political elite. Since it was launched in 2013, the campaign has brought together environmental activists, conservation groups and local people to jointly fight for protec- tion of what it calls one of the most impor- tant spots for European biodiversity. There are over 28,000 km of waterways in pristine or near-natural state in the Balkans, with ex- tensive gravel banks, untouched alluvial for- ests, deep gorges, spectacular waterfalls and even karstic underground rivers. Overall, more than 2,700 large and small hydropower plants are projected to be built on these Balkan rivers, including someinside national parks. Source: Independent (2022) independent.
co.uk/news/ap-europe-sarajevo-people- vienna-b2119747.html
Pet cats classified as invasive alien species by scientific academy The Polish Academy of Sciences now main- tains that from a purely scientific perspec- tive, domesticated cats in Europe, and therefore in Poland, should be considered an invasive alien species. Felis catus was domesticated c. 10,000 years ago in the ancient civilizations of the Near East. The presence of cats in Europe is a result of human activity, meaning it can be classified as an alien or non- native species to Europe. The Institute of Nature Conservation in Poland noted the clear scientific evidence of the negative impact that domesticated cats have on native biodiver- sity, leading to their classification as invasive. Poland’salien speciesdatabaseincludesalmost 1,800 species, many of which are classified as invasive, although this does not necessarily mean they are a threat to wildlife in Poland or the EU. One of the easiest ways pet owners can reduce the impact of their cats on native wildlife is to limit how much time cats can roam freely, especially during bird breeding seasons. Source: Tweak Town (2022) tweaktown. com/news/87724/pet-cats-classified-as- invasive-alien-species-by-scientific- academy/
index.html
Blue tits in France less colourful than 15 years ago Researchers have found that blue tits in two separate populations in southern France, one near Montpellier and one in the north- west of Corsica, are on average less colourful now than 15 yearsago. The researchersgath- ered over 5,800 observations on several char- acteristics of the blue tits, including their striking colouration: the birds have a blue crest and a yellow breast. The results showed a decrease in the intensity of these colours in both populations over the study period from 2005 to 2019. The change in plumage colour was associated with a rise in temperature and a decrease in rainfall, suggesting a potential effect of climate change. The observed trend towardsdullercolours wasmorepronounced in male than female tits. Although the phys- iological processes behind these associations are not yet fully understood, a potential driver could be a reduction in food availability or quality during hot and dry summers. Further research is needed to examine the link between climate and ornamental traits in other bird species and other taxa, to eluci- date the mechanisms linking climate to the observed phenotypic changes. Sources: The American Naturalist (2022)
doi.org/10.1086/719655 & Independent (2022)
independent.co.uk/climate-change/ news/birds-colour-change-climate-
change-b2137877.html
Oryx, 2022, 56(6), 803–808 © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605322001168
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