How over 400 British species have become extinct over the past 200 years

Britain has lost almost half of its biodiversity since the Industrial Revolution and more than 400 species over the last 200 years.

Worse still, that is just the beginning. A further 1,188 could follow over the next century unless rapid action is taken to reverse the impact of humanity and man-made climate change.

Of the 8,431 species in Great Britain that have been assessed by conservationists, 13 per cent have been classified as threatened with extinction.

That includes 440 plants (18 per cent), 232 fungi and lichens (15 per cent), 111 vertebrates (40 per cent) and 405 invertebrates (12 per cent). 

Since 1970 alone, 133 species have been lost, from ants, bees, beetles, butterflies and dragonflies, to fish, fleas, fungi, mammals, moths, shrimps, spiders and wasps. 

Experts now say more than a quarter of the UK’s 107 species of mammal are at risk of extinction, while 68 of the fish species found in Britain are on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) red list.

At least one in seven reptile species in Britain is also threatened with extinction or has recently become extinct.

Birds are not safe either. A massive 43 per cent of the country’s birds are at risk of extinction, according to the National Biodiversity Network.

Not only that, but the British Trust for Ornithology’s latest report – Birds of Conservation Concern 5 – has placed more species onto its red list than ever before.

MailOnline has put together a list of some of Britain’s wildlife that has been lost over the past 200 years – including 421 in England – as well as animals and birds that are at risk of going extinct over the next two centuries without better conservation.

Mammals

There are 107 species of mammal in the UK, according to a charity called The Mammal Society, of which 47 are terrestrial and native to Britain.

More than a quarter of these (26 per cent) are under threat, experts say, with the wildcat and greater mouse-eared bat the most at-risk.

The beaver, grey long-eared bat, red squirrel, and water vole are also all endangered, while the hedgehog, hazel dormouse, Orkney vole, Serotine bat and Barbastelle bat are deemed vulnerable.

Hedgehogs, in particular, have experienced a harsh decline over the last 70 years. In 1950 there were an estimated 36 million in the UK, but this had dropped to just one million in 2013 — a third of levels at the start of the century. 

There are even fears for the likes of mountain hares, the harvest mouse and the lesser white-toothed shrew, all of which could soon come under threat without action.

Meanwhile, the red squirrel has been in decline since the early 20th century and has dwindled to an estimated population of only 140,000. It is now only commonly found in the far north of England and Scotland.

These numbers compare to the 2.5 million-strong North American grey squirrels that exist in Britain following the species’ introduction to the UK. 

Marine mammals such as sperm whales, bottlenose dolphins and the sei whale are also on the first official Red List for British Mammals.

Produced by the Mammal Society for Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, it shows that 11 of the 47 mammals native to Britain are classified as being at imminent risk of extinction. 

A further five species are classified as ‘near threatened’ — meaning there is a realistic possibility of them becoming threatened with extinction in the near future.

Professor Fiona Mathews, of the Mammal Society and University of Sussex, led the report. She said: ‘While we bemoan the demise of wildlife in other parts of the world, here in Britain we are managing to send even rodents towards extinction. 

‘Things have to change rapidly if we want our children and grandchildren to enjoy the wildlife we take for granted.’

Why are these mammals at risk?

Humans are a big part of the problem. Although there are many reasons for the decline of mammals across Britain, man-made pollution is one of the key causes.

Species such as bats and the hazel dormouse have also been deprived of their habitats by people building on natural lands, while others have been hunted by humans for centuries.

The water vole, red squirrel and Orkney vole suffer from the combined effects of habitat degradation and the introduction of non-native species.

Dominic Price, director of The Species Recovery Trust, told MailOnline: ‘The main reasons are habitat loss (leaving populations fragmented and with far less space to live in) and climate change, which is happening too fast for species to adapt to.’ 

Lisa Chilton, chief executive of the National Biodiversity Network Trust, added: ‘We’re in the midst of a nature emergency, and it’s every bit as damaging as the climate crisis. 

‘In fact, they’re two sides of the same coin — you can’t fix the climate crisis without solving the nature emergency, and vice versa. We need to tackle these life-threatening emergencies hand in hand, with equal priority.’

She told MailOnline the UK’s wildlife had been ‘in worrying decline for decades’. 

‘It’s down to a combination of many, many factors — from urban growth and unsustainable farming practices, to overfishing and pollution,’ Ms Chilton said.

‘For some species, climate change could be the last straw. Arguably the biggest threat, though, is simply that we don’t value wildlife enough. 

‘If we truly understood and appreciated all that nature does for us, as a society we’d make better decisions about looking after it. 

‘So this is also a “nature-connectedness” emergency. We urgently need to rediscover the joy, inspiration and wonder that nature brings, and place a higher value on everything that it provides for us, for the future of people and the planet.’

What could go next?

Birds 

It may seem hard to believe but almost half (43 per cent) of birds in Britain are at risk of extinction.

Not only that, but a report by the British Trust for Ornithology also saw more species placed onto its red list than ever before.

It now includes 67 species – 15 more than in the last report, which came out just six years earlier – with the Atlantic puffin, whimbrel and turtle dove among them.

The latter has nosedived by a massive 97 per cent in numbers since 1970. Such has been the speed of this decline that the bird is now on the Global Red List for Endangered Species.

Seven species of breeding birds have been lost to extinction over the past 200 years, including three in the last 25 years alone.

‘We’ve lost several species of birds and mammals over the past few centuries,’ David Noble, the principal ecologist for the British Trust for Ornithology, told MailOnline.

‘Some like oriole were always quite rare in Britain but the once common and widespread wryneck is gone and the iconic turtle dove, one of the UK’s most rapidly declining species, seems on its way out.’ 

What could go next?  

Fish

Only one species of fish has become extinct in Britain in the last 200 years and that is the burbot.

It once thrived at the bottom of cool lowland rivers across eastern England but was last seen in Britain in 1969.

Climate change, pollution and historical overfishing have all been blamed for this — while also putting a number of other types of fish around the UK at risk of extinction.

In fact, 68 species are on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s red list.

These include the Atlantic halibut, European eel and Atlantic bluefin tuna.

Multiple sharks, such as the angel, thresher, and smooth hammerhead, are also under threat, while salmon has suffered significant declines since the 1960s. 

Once widespread in UK rivers, even European sturgeon are now critically endangered because of river dams, fishing and pollutions.

‘Acidification, caused by the uptake of CO2, has reduced the pH of waters around Europe, apparently more rapidly so in UK waters than in the North Atlantic as a whole,’ according to a major report called the State of Nature, published in 2019.

‘This has the potential to adversely affect organisms that require calcium carbonate. Acidification is also of particular concern as it could further reduce the rate at which CO2 is absorbed from the atmosphere, thus aggravating climate change.’  

Multiple studies have shown that acidification stops fish reproducing and can also be deadly.

It is not just the UK’s seas that are putting fish at risk, either. Every river in Britain falls short of European Union standards on chemical pollution.

This is mostly due to agricultural pollution such as nitrates and phosphorous, physical modifications to waterbodies, such as dams, and sewage. 

Dave Tickner, chief adviser on freshwater at WWF, said: ‘Nature is in freefall and the UK is no exception: wildlife struggles to survive, let alone thrive, in our polluted waters.’ 

What could go next? 

Amphibians and Reptiles

When it comes to amphibians and reptiles, Britain actually fares a lot better than the rest of the world.

Half of amphibians globally are currently at risk, but in the UK all seven native species are deemed to be of ‘least concern’, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

The main loss is the natterjack toad, which is one of only two species of toad in Britain.

However, it now only exists in small areas of Norfolk and Lincolnshire, as well as the western coast from Lancashire to Dumfries. 

Female natterjacks are actually able to lay up to 7,500 eggs during breeding season, but despite this the species is still considered endangered here.

With reptiles, none of the 1,439 at-risk species worldwide are native to the UK. Some, like the leatherback sea turtle, find their way to Britain but the six types that live exclusively here are considered ‘least concern’.

These include the grass snake, common European adder, smooth snake, common lizard, sand lizard, and slow worm.

What could go next?

Invertebrates

Thousands of invertebrates call Britain home, from insects such as ants and spiders to bees, praying mantises and moths, as well as crustaceans like crabs, shrimps and lobsters.

At total of 405 invertebrate species (12 per cent of the overall number) are currently at risk of extinction in the UK.

Among them are cicada, which are common throughout Europe but struggling here — with no recorded sightings of the bug in more than 20 years.

The wart-biter cricket is also at a high-risk of extinction because of the loss of its habitat on heathland and chalk landscape, as well as its prey. It can only now be found in four locations across East Sussex, Dorset and Wiltshire.

Both the cosnard’s net-winged beetle and the bearded false darkling beetle are also at risk of disappearing from Britain, along with the v-moth.

This insect is still present across the UK but its population is believed to be less than 1 per cent of its 1960s levels.

Half of the country’s species of butterfly are also now at risk of extinction. A red list published in May this year named 29 at-risk butterfly species out of the 58 currently living in Britain.

Eight species were added to the list since the last assessment in 2010, including the Scotch Argus and Swallowtail, which are both listed as ‘vulnerable’.

Of the 29, eight of the species are categorised as ‘endangered’, 16 as ‘vulnerable’, and five as ‘near threatened’. 

This represents a 26 per cent increase in the number of at-risk species, according to wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation, which compiled the list. 

A species that has particularly suffered is the small tortoiseshell. It was once one of our most common butterfly species, but in 2013 experts revealed its numbers had dropped by 77 per cent in a decade.

In Victorian times the large tortoiseshell butterfly was widespread in southern England, but it became extinct in 1953 due to Dutch elm disease, which eradicated the main larval food source.

The black-backed meadow ant, meanwhile, became extinct in 1988 due to urban development and inappropriate land management.

What could go next?

Fungi, lichens and plants 
Seventy species of fungus have become extinct in England in the last 200 years, while many more are still being threatened by habitat loss and pollution.

A total of 232 fungi and lichens (15 per cent) are currently classified as being at risk across Britain, along with 440 types of plants (18 per cent of those seen in the UK). 

The Gomphus clavatus or pig’s ear fungus became extinct in 1927 due to habitat loss and degradation, while Cladonia peziziformis disappeared in 1968 due to human disturbance, inappropriate use of burning for land management, the natural succession of heathland vegetation and high grazing levels.

The plant Davall’s Sedge was once found at a site in Somerset, but in the 19th Century it was drained for development and has never again been seen in this country.

Meanwhile, Ivell’s Sea Anemone, which was only ever found in England, has become globally extinct following changes in water quality at its one known site.

Professor Richard Gregory, head of monitoring conservation science at the RSPB, said: ‘Prior to 1970, the UK’s wildlife had already been depleted by centuries of persecution, pollution, habitat loss and degradation. 

‘But there is no let-up in the net loss of nature, with data showing that 41 per cent of species have declined since 1970. 

‘The biggest threats to nature now includes significant and ongoing changes in the way we manage our land for agriculture, the ongoing effects of climate change and pollution.’

He added: ‘Whilst the data that the State of Nature report shows are alarming there is also cause for some cautious hope. 

‘Many exciting new conservation initiatives with partnerships are delivering inspiring results for some of the UK’s nature. Species such as Bitterns and Large Blue Butterfly have been saved through the concerted efforts of organisations and individuals.’

What could go next?