The extent to which native mammal populations are being wiped out in so many locations across the planet from a combination of habitat deterioration and invasive species is profoundly worrying. Too often, extinction is an inevitability due to failed efforts to protect biodiversity; human encroachment on fragile habitats and pollution arising from pesticide use and poor water quality.
This is not some faraway trend deep in a tropical rainforest; it is happening across Ireland, as underlined this week by researchers from Queen’s University Belfast and Cornell University. Their study presents a persuasive case for restoring native predator mammal populations, including reintroducing the lynx and wolf to Europe, based on their ability to keep in check some of the most problematic invasive species.
The findings were reinforced by Dr Joshua Twining: “In a modern world that is daunted by environmental crisis and ecological collapse, it is more important than ever to realise the potential of restoring native predators to ecosystems from which they have been previously lost.” In Britain and Ireland “we have persecuted all our large-bodied predators into extinction with no natural means of recovery”.
Re-introducing the native lynx could help manage sika deer, which are considered a pest as they graze on crops, strip bark from trees and contribute to disease spread. The researchers have shown how recovery of the native pine marten in Ireland and the UK has resulted in landscape-scale declines of the invasive grey squirrel.
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Ireland’s record on population restoration, however, is poor – as indicated by some responses to the reintroduction of birds of prey, with acts of poisoning not uncommon. The idea of reintroducing the wolf has been greeted with ridicule and narrow arguments on potential impact on farm animals. A more considered State response is necessary, as native predator reintroduction and restoration is a viable nature-based solution to the invasive species crisis, and buffers nature against some of the worst of human impacts.