Reintroductions


Reintroductions – it’s not all bears and wolves


Oſten it’s the illustrious species that make the headlines. Here, Senior Reserves Officer Joe Murphy explains the Trust’s involvement in projects to bring lesser- publicised species back from the brink.


The idea of reintroducing a species draws on the fact that it is no longer there and therefore, to get that species back, it must be brought in from somewhere else. Most of the articles in this edition of Cumbrian Wildlife focus on the more iconic species oſten brought back from extinction, or the brink of extinction. But what does extinction mean? Extinct in the British Isles like beaver, wolf or lynx; extinct in England like the golden eagle; or extinct in Cumbria like the hen harrier? We can drill down further: yellowhammer missing from most of its previous range – or further still, most of our wild flower species missing from most of our countryside?


In the same respect, reintroduction isn't restricted to species that no one alive remembers. Much of our wildlife has disappeared in living memory and continues to do so at an alarming rate.


Photo: Tom Marshall 12 Cumbrian Wildlife | May 2019 Water vole


The iconic water vole, of The Wind in the Willows Raty fame, was once a common sight – or at least sound – in Cumbria, distributed widely in water courses across the county. Due to massive habitat loss and the proliferation of the predatory American mink, water voles have disappeared from nearly all of Cumbria, holding on in small numbers in upland, moorland streams in the north


Pennines. In 2004 the Trust set about capturing water voles from this extant population, breeding them in captivity and reintroducing them to the army training range at Warcop – an area of extensive suitable habitat that we knew would be favourably managed in perpetuity. Subsequent survey has shown a thriving new population.


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