- The short-haired bumble bee was last
seen in Britain in the early 1980s
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- The short-haired bumble bee is thought
to be the latest in a growing list of wildlife now extinct in the UK.
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- The country has lost 154 species this
century - with three dying out every two years, according to the World
Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
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- The organisation has published a doomsday
list of likely extinction dates for surviving species in the next two decades.
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- It includes: 2003 - water voles, the
high brown fritillary butterfly 2007 - pipistrelle bats 2009 - skylarks.
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- The WWF fears extinction rates will increase
because of development pressures, climate change and the effects of the
EU's common agricultural policy. It wants stronger laws to half the decline.
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- The short-haired bumble bee was last
seen near Dungeness on the Kent coast in the early 1980s.
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- Intensive survey work around the UK over
the last two years has found no trace of the bee, whose habit of nesting
on the ground made it vulnerable to modern farming methods.
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- Possible comeback
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- But the bee was exported to New Zealand
in the 19th century and still thrives there.
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- It could be re-introduced in the UK if
there was a suitable habitat.
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- Other species not on the WWF's list also
face a bleak future.
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- Of 15 UK bat species, two are at severe
risk and others are becoming increasingly rare. The greater horseshoe bat
has declined by 99% this century.
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- Three of the UK's 12 native reptiles
and amphibians are under threat of extinction.
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- Four dragonfly species are thought to
have died out, with six others endangered.
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- And WWF says that 20 plant species have
been lost in the last century, with 300 more facing extinction.
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- Its report paints a sombre picture of
decline, both of species and of the habitats which support them.
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- Between 1947 and 1985, for example, 175,000
km of hedgerows in England and Wales - enough to stretch nearly four times
round the world - were removed.
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- Half of Britain's natural woodlands have
been destroyed, and 95% of its peatland and grazing marshland.
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- In the last 50 years half of all farm
ponds have been lost, and 97% of ancient meadows.
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- WWF also lists some of the species which
have already died out during this century.
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- They include the white-tailed eagle,
the large tortoiseshell and large blue butterflies, a moth called Blair's
wainscot, and the mouse-eared bat.
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