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From brown bears to grey wolves, Europe’s persecuted carnivores are bouncing back
In the latest of what can often seem like the “final nails in the coffin” of
biodiversity across Europe, we heard in recent weeks that UK environmental
protection is under threat. But while the global scale of the climate crisis and
biodiversity loss remain alarming, vital new research, which I helped lead,
shows there are also heartening examples of European wildlife bouncing back from
the brink.
For the past two years, we at the Zoological Society of London’s Institute of
Zoology, along with colleagues at BirdLife International and the European Bird
Census Council, have been investigating the fortunes of 50 European wildlife
species over the past 50 years, from humpback whales to Iberian wild goats to
white-tailed eagles. Each of these species are incredible comeback stories, and
researching how they have recovered has been a refreshing and inspiring
endeavour – the Eurasian beaver and European bison, for example, have both
increased in average relative abundance by more than 16,000% since 1960.
Among the 50 species we followed, all five of Europe’s large carnivores – brown
bears, grey wolves, Iberian and Eurasian lynxes, and wolverines – showed
increases in their average relative abundance over recent decades, from a 44%
increase for brown bears to a 1,871% increase for grey wolves.
Now, while it might sound counterintuitive when referring to predatory species,
the increase and expansion of large carnivores across Europe is actually
positive for biodiversity and for the health of our wider ecosystem. Predators
hold great influence within ecosystems – regulating other species in the food
web from the top down. Through predation and scavenging they also contribute to
vital ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling and carbon-storing processes,
and can help control disease and invasive species. What’s more, large mammal
species (both carnivores and herbivores) significantly influence the structure
and composition of natural habitats. These factors all contribute towards
boosting the capacity of an ecosystem to withstand changes and diversifying the
provisioning services upon which we depend.
Increases in large fauna, especially carnivores, are exciting for Europe. Grey
wolves, brown bears, wolverines, Eurasian and Iberian lynx were hunted and
persecuted, affected by habitat loss and fragmentation and, as a result,
suffered severe declines until around the mid-20th century.
Centuries of agricultural expansion and industrialisation, in addition to
hunting, have dramatically changed the shape of Europe’s nature. With so many
degraded habitats, and one in nine species in Europe threatened with extinction,
wildlife has had to adapt. Many species have retreated into refugia – islands of
wild spaces within human-modified landscapes. This was the trajectory for most
of Europe’s large carnivores – persecuted and hunted to near eradication – so it
has been remarkable to examine their comeback.
But what has made these remarkable recoveries possible? Our team found that
legal protections were key to species survival across the board. For the birds
in our report, habitat protection and restoration, as well as reintroductions
and translocations, were important factors in their recovery, while for mammals,
the top factors were natural expansion, recolonisation and species ecology.
Carnivore comeback is not without challenges and contention – accommodating
their return will often require human communities to adapt their behaviour and
ensure we prevent risks of damages or impacts on livelihoods. However, the
comeback of large carnivores can bring opportunities for local employment and
investment through wildlife tourism. Participatory approaches, financial
compensation schemes, education programmes and policies to support communities
as they transition towards coexistence with these revived carnivores are vitally
important for acceptance. These challenges are not new, or unique: coexistence
with wildlife is a global issue, one which is increasingly important to work
towards if we want to bend the curve of biodiversity loss and meet commitments
to confront the climate crisis.
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/13/brown-bears-grey-wolves-europe-carnivores-wildlife-legal-protections