birding-aus

Parakeets Get the Shove in the UK

To: <>
Subject: Parakeets Get the Shove in the UK
From: "Liz" <>
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2011 10:54:49 +0100
Hi Carl

You're obviously far too subtle for me! Many apologies. Got you now. Maybe I'm being a little over-sensitive considering what may happen to the UK under this current government! I think it is a case of the government having to play catch-up with legislation as far as the conservation and legal status of some species in the UK is concerned.

According to DEFRA (Dept. for Env. Food & Rural Affairs) Coypu became extinct in the UK in December 1989. However, some people claim it is still holding on in the Norfolk Broads, its original stronghold but this has never been officially corroborated. There are still plenty left in Europe. There is currently a project to re-introduce Beavers to the UK and the first ones are now back in the wild in western Scotland.

Mink are a serious problem and seen to be partially responsible for the massive decline in our Water Voles and probably the final nail in the coffin preventing re-establishment and population recovery from habitat loss and aquatic pollution. They are particularly voracious predators with serious attitude, not backward in coming at you if you get near their young, as I can testify to. The other mustelid problem is feral ferrets. Released by idiots to control rabbits, they prefer eating ground-nesting waders and their eggs. Not only a problem due to their predatory nature, but probably seriously hampering the re-colonisation of "proper" native Polecats due to hybridisation. And then we have the idiot who released Hedgehogs in the Outer Hebrides, although a native species, not on those islands where, again, ground-nesting waders are suffering.

I could go on and on.........

Once again, apologies for misunderstanding you.

Cheers
Liz


-----Original Message----- From: Carl Clifford
Sent: Monday, April 25, 2011 9:57 AM
To: Liz
Cc: Birding-Aus Aus
Subject: Parakeets Get the Shove in the UK

Hi Liz,

Sorry, it was just my attempt at a pun. The Parakeets are green and I
was playing on the words of the song "Bein' Green", sung by Kermit the
Frog in an episode of the Muppet Show, which contains the line "It's
not easy being green".

I was not criticising the culling of the Monk Parakeet, on the
contrary, I am all for it and would go for extermination rather than
the apparently preferred option of "relocation". Relocation to where?
I think perhaps you need the British equivalent to Singapore's House
Crow Squad.

I am amazed that the Monk Parakeets and other exotic bird species
actually enjoy a protected status in the UK. Does this protected
status extend to exotic non-avian species such as Nutria and Mink etc. ?

Sorry about the misunderstanding.

Cheers,

Carl Clifford

On 25/04/2011, at 5:26 PM, Liz wrote:

Hi Carl

I'm not quite sure what you mean about "being green".  It's about
conservation and biodiversity, not about not being "green" and it's
hopefully becoming less easy to be a a sentimental "bunny-hugger",
blind to the bigger picture,  in the UK.  The UK signed up to the 1992
UN Convention on Biological Diversity, The Habitats Directive (Europe)
and recently signed up to the new UN target set at Nagoya to halt
biodiversity loss and restore ecosystems by 2020, plus we have (for
the moment -see below), in place many other national and local
biodiversity targets.  I see absolutely no difference between the UK
trying to remove damaging species, and I stress damaging, and the
efforts being made in Australian  to remove non-natives.  We have our
fair share of damaging non-natives, the impact of which is probably as
serious and significant in our crowded island with little space left
for natural and semi-natural habitats and the wildlife they support.

The really important thing to be worrying about in the UK at the
moment is not the removal of a relatively small number of individual
animals but the new coalition government's "Red Tape Challenge" which
is basically looking to remove 278 regulations which protect species,
biodiversity, climate and habitats.

Priorities, that's the important thing in these days of austerity.  A
few parakeets getting the bump is not something worth expending worry
on, in my view.

Liz
Cumbria, UK



-----Original Message----- From: Carl Clifford
Sent: Monday, April 25, 2011 3:53 AM
To: Birding-Aus Aus
Subject: Parakeets Get the Shove in the UK

The UK Dept of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)  has
declared two species of Parakeet persona non grata. DEFRA has
announced plans to remove the UK population of Monk Parakeet, by
relocation, nest destruction or shooting. See 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13181503

DEFRA has also declared open season on  Rose-ringed Parakeet, removing
their protected status and allowing landholders to shoot them without
a licence. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/8284962.stm
 &  
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/surrey/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_8286000/8286707.stm

It certainly is becoming less easy being green in the UK.

Cheers,

Carl Clifford


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