Summary
It is strange how some small incident from early childhood remains indelibly stamped on the memory whatever else is forgotten as the years go by. In my case, whenever I see the caterpillar of the garden tiger moth, that large hairy caterpillar commonly known as a "woolly bear", I am immediately taken back to the day when, as a three or four year-old, I attempted to pick one up and was quickly told not to touch it as it could give me a rash. I have never discovered whether that was true or not, but to this day, if I see a "woolly bear" crossing the road looking for somewhere to pupate, I avoid touching it and find a suitable leaf to move it to safety. Now, if I saw a small child about to pick one up, I would also tell them to leave it alone, not that it might cause a rash but because to do so might technically be breaking the law.
I only discovered this when reading the new habitat regulations recently issued by Defra. Under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, two new sites, traditional orchards and ponds, have been added to the list of 63 priority habitats and three new species, the garden tiger moth, the house sparrow and the grass snake are now classed with the 1149 species considered to be in decline or under threat. I was aware that house sparrows were having a hard time of it in urban areas, thanks to the lack of nesting sites on new houses, but I am surprised at the inclusion of the other two species which I would not immediately think of as endangered.See the full content of this document
Extract
Irritation Over More Red Tape
We have always had a resident flock of house sparrows on the farm; roughly how many I have never bothered to count, but I will take note thi...
See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
