- Fauna of Great Britain
The island of
Great Britain , along with the rest of the archipelago known as theBritish Isles , has a largelytemperate environment. Animal diversity is modest due to several factors including; the size of the land area, seasonal changes and the age of the habitats found on theisland . The fact thatGreat Britain has such a small area, means that the number of species that can evolve is severely limited because there is not enough land mass to support extensive animal diversity. The environment and the ecology is also very young due to the appearance of anIce Age , which means that there has been much less time for such diversity to develop. In most of Great Britain there is a temperate climate which receives high levels ofprecipitation and medium levels of sunlight. Further northwards, the climate becomes colder andconiferous forests appear replacing the largelydeciduous forests of the south. The seasonal changes that occur across the country means that plants have to cope with many changes linked to levels of sunlight, and this has led to a lack of plant diversity. Ultimately this has limited animal speciation and diversification because there are fewer edible types of vegetation in the habitats found on the island. Since the mid eighteenth century, Great Britain has gone throughindustrialisation and increasingurbanisation . This has had a major impact on indigenous animal populations. Song birds in particular are becoming more scarce and habitat loss has affected largermammalian species. Some species have however adapted to the expanding urban environment, particularly theRed Fox , which is the most successful urban mammal after theBrown Rat .Molluscs
There are 209 species of non-marine molluscs in the wild in Britain, and two of them ("
Fruticicola fruticum " and "Cernuella neglecta ") are locally extinct. In addition there are 14 gastropod species ingreenhouse s. [cite journal
journal = Journal of Conchology
pages = 607–637
title = An annotated list of the non-marine molluscs of Britain and Ireland
last = Anderson
first = Roy
coauthors =
volume = 38
issue = 6
month =
year = 2005
issn = 1753-2205
doi =
url = http://www.conchsoc.org/pages/n_m_list.htm
language = English
accessdate=
format = dead link|date=June 2008 – [http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=author%3A+intitle%3AAn+annotated+list+of+the+non-marine+molluscs+of+Britain+and+Ireland&as_publication=Journal+of+Conchology&as_ylo=2005&as_yhi=2005&btnG=Search Scholar search] ]Insects
Birds
In general the avifauna of Britain is, of course, similar to that of
Europe , consisting largely of Palaearctic species. As an island, it has fewer breeding species than continental Europe, with some species, likeCrested Lark , breeding as close as northernFrance , yet unable to colonise Britain.The mild winters mean that many species that cannot cope with harsher conditions can winter in Britain, and also that there is a large influx of wintering birds from the continent or beyond.
There are about 250 species regularly recorded in Great Britain, and another 300 that occur with varying degrees of rarity.
Mammals
Large mammals are not particularly numerous in Great Britain. Many of the bigger species, such as the
Grey Wolf and theBrown Bear , were hunted to extinction many centuries ago. However, in recent times many of these large mammals have been tentatively reintroduced to some areas of mainland Britain. The largest mammals that remain in Britain today are predominantly members of theDeer family. TheRed Deer is the largest mammal native species, and is found commonly throughoutEngland ,Scotland andWales . The other indigenous species is theRoe Deer . The commonFallow Deer is in fact not native to Britain, and was brought over fromFrance by theNormans in the early 9th century and has become well established. TheSika Deer is another small species of deer which is not indigenous, and instead comes fromJapan . It is widespread and expanding in Scotland from west to east, with a strong population inPeeblesshire . Bands of Sika exist across the north and south of England though it is absent in Wales. [cite journal|author=Ratcliffe, P. R. |year=1987 |title=Distribution and current status of Sika deer, "Cervus nippon", in Great Britain |journal=Mammal Review |volume=17 |pages=39–58]There are also several species of
insectivore found in Britain. Thehedgehog is probably the most widely known as it is a regular visitor to urban gardens. Sadly it is also vulnerable to road traffic, and many are killed crossing busy motorways and dual carriageways. The mole is also widely recognised and its subterranean lifestyle causes much damage to garden lawns.Shrew s are also fairly common, and the smallest, thePygmy Shrew , is one of the smallest mammals in the world. There are also several species ofBat found in Britain, and thePipistrelle Bat is the smallest and the most common of them all.Rodent s are also numerous across Britain, particularly the Brown Rat which is by far the most abundant urban animal after humans. Some however, are becoming increasingly rare.Habitat destruction has led to a population decrease in the number ofdormice andBank Vole s found in Britain. Due to the introduction of the alienGrey Squirrel , theRed Squirrel had become largely extinct in England, with the last population existing in parts of Scotland, North West England and Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour in Dorset.Rabbits andHares are also abundant in Britain. There are a variety of carnivors, especially from the weasel family (ranging in size from theWeasel ,Stoat andEuropean Polecat to theBadger andPine Marten and including the introducedMink and semiaquaticOtter ). In the absence of the extictWolf andBrown Bear the largest carnivores are theRed Fox , the adaptability and opportunism of which has allowed it to proliferate in the urban environment, and the ScottishWildcat whose elusiveness has caused some confusion over population numbers, and is believed to be highly endangered.Various species of seal and
dolphin are found seasonally on British shores and coastlines.ee also
*
Fauna of Europe
*Atlases of the flora and fauna of Britain and Ireland
*Institute of Terrestrial Ecology atlases
*List of endangered species in the British Isles
*List of extinct animals of the British Isles References
External links
* [http://delta-intkey.com/britmo/ The Families of British Non-marine Molluscs (Slugs, Snails and Mussels)]
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