The European Beaver Castor fiber once occurred throughout Europe, but in many countries was exterminated or greatly reduced by over‐hunting. In the UK, Beavers were last recorded in Scotland in the sixteenth century. Thirteen countries have carried out reintroduction programmes to restore the range of the Beaver in Europe, We provide a basis for discussing the feasibility and desirability of reintroducing the Beaver to Britain. The basic biology of the Beaver is described, followed by summaries of reintroductions in Europe and an evaluation of their successes and failures. We address the fundamental questions of propagule size, habitat requirements, habitat size and provenance of Beavers to be released, before examining in theory whether reintroducing Beavers to Britain is likely to fulfil UKCINC and IUCN criteria relating to environmental impact, socioeconomics and conservation. We then make suggestions as to how a reintroduction to Britain could proceed. Essential work outstanding includes site assessment and public consultation. The restoration of the Beaver to Britain could be a fitting start to the millennium.
Wood mice Apodemus sylvaticus are potentially useful indicators of change in arable ecosystems. Here we focus on changes resulting from removal of land from arable production under the set-aside scheme. Wood mice were radio-tracked to compare: (a) their use of set-aside, crop and hedgerow before and after harvest; (b) set-aside con®gured as margins and as a 3 ha block; (c) cut and uncut 20-m wide set-aside margins. Males had larger home ranges, and were more mobile than females. Ranges were larger, and animals more mobile, before harvest than afterwards. There were no differences in range sizes of breeding and nonbreeding animals after harvest, suggesting that changes in habitat use were not a function of cessation of breeding. Before harvest, wood mice used habitats within their ranges at random, and their ranges contained a high proportion of cropped area. After harvest they preferred hedgerow and avoided margin set-aside within their ranges, but did not similarly avoid the set-aside block. The proportion of cropped area within their ranges decreased after harvest, and the proportion of margin increased. Our evidence suggests wood mice avoided using the area adjacent to the hedgerow, perhaps to avoid predators. Uncut set-aside patches were favoured and cut patches avoided, possibly in response to differences in food availability and levels of protection from predators. These results con®rm that wood mice are useful indicators of change in arable landscapes.
Summary 1.Farmland is readily divisible into linear habitats such as hedges, and non-linear habitats such as fields and woodlots. In agricultural landscapes, conservationists have generally focused on enhancing linear habitats, but there are few data from which to judge whether or not this is a good strategy for biodiversity. 2. We investigated whether the linear or non-linear character of habitat patches, mediated by edge effects, has an impact on the abundance, diversity and richness of the small mammal communities that live within and between them. 3. In particular, we hypothesized, first, that edge effects cause narrow linear habitats to be avoided by specialists such as the bank vole Clethrionomys glareolus , but not by generalists such as the wood mouse Apodemus sylvaticus ; secondly, that edge effects lead to specialists being present in atypical habitat, through excursions at the interface between two habitats. 4. We tested these hypotheses by live-trapping small mammals in grids in the centres of three non-linear farmland habitats (woodlots, set-aside and crop fields) and in field boundaries consisting of a series of adjoining linear habitats. We compared mammal communities in the non-linear habitats with the field boundary as a whole, and with the individual linear habitat elements within the boundary. 5. There was no evidence that specialists avoided linear habitats. Indeed, the field boundary was the most species-rich habitat surveyed, and bank voles were more abundant in linear hedgerow than in non-linear woodland. Bank voles were present in linear set-aside and in the crop edge, but never in non-linear blocks of set-aside or crop, implying that they diffused out of the hedgerow into the adjacent habitats. There was no evidence of an effect of habitat linearity on field voles Microtus agrestis , wood mice or common shrews Sorex araneus . 6. Our results suggest that on uncropped land such as set-aside, the linear or non-linear character of habitats will make little difference to small mammal abundance and diversity. We advocate similar assessments for other taxa so that the effects of farm management and habitat configuration on biodiversity can be understood more fully.
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