LAST week I raised some issues about red squirrels in the Highlands and made reference to a report I was waiting for.
This was the report by the Oxford University's conservation unit for the People's Trust for Endangered Species (PTES). It is entitled the State of Britain's Mammals 2011 and is now to hand.
This review of UK mammals has been produced every year for the last 10 years and it has been fascinating to see their conclusions.
There are some fascinating accounts dealing with what we often regard as Scottish or even Highland species. These include pine martens, red squirrels, wildcats and mountain hares.
Many of the mammals in the report come under what it keeps referring to as the BAP, which means the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. This has resulted in action plans on several mammals and the report showed where these have been successful or failed as the case may be.
One of the problems interpreting such reports is in trying to relate them to the Highlands. Despite the huge land area involved, most sources on wildlife trends rarely reflect what is happening in the Highlands.
Some groups such as birds, plants and butterflies are reasonably well covered. Groups such as mammals lose out and one of the reasons is simply the lack of information and, to a certain extent, observers.
There is some light at the end of the tunnel on this when the long-awaited Atlas of Highland Mammals is published. Having spoken last week to the co-ordinator, Ro Scott from Cromarty who has had the Herculean task of drawing this together, she tells me that it should be published by December this year.
For the present all we can do is look at the BAP species update column in the PTES report. Eighteen species of mammal are listed, with seven of these being bats.
The mammals listed as declining include the mountain hare and the reason given is "Upland habitats susceptible to climate change". Whilst this, presumably, would include the last two winters which killed off a lot of these hares, there is no mention of the few estates that have carried out excessive and irresponsible shooting in the last few years.
One of these estates persistently refers to mountain hares as "vermin". I thought this was an old Victorian word that went out of fashion a long time ago.
Another declining species is the red squirrel and there are some interesting thoughts from the report's two authors. David Macdonald and Dawn Burnham indicate that 75 per cent of the UK numbers are in Scotland, primarily in the Highlands. They mention some UK reintroductions but no mention of the apparent success of the Dundonnell Estate programme of the last few years.
The authors go further and say that the "omen for the red squirrels in the UK is bleak." They also quote from another report that suggests the red squirrel "may be lost from the mainland in the next 20 to 30 years". Strong words indeed.
As for the other species, the otter is increasing whilst the wildcat has undergone a "substantial decline".
I was particularly interested in the accounts under what they call the "Invasive species". Under sika deer they indicate that these introduced deer now occupy 36 per cent of the native red deer range. This must be nearer 100 per cent in the Highlands.
The reports also mentioned that the hybridisation between red and sika deer is cause for "serious conservation concern". Disappointingly, there are no suggestions as to how to remedy this.
One comment in this section is rather sobering in that of the worst 100 species of invasive mammals in Europe, there are three in the Highlands, namely the mink, sika and brown rat.
A fascinating and well worth reading report and at £5 a bargain from PTES at 15 Cloisters House, 8 Battersea Park Road, London SW8 4BG. Tel 020 7498 4533.
l The highlight of the week for me was the few butterflies that came into the garden, mainly to feed on the variety of nectar sources we have planted but in particular the ice plants otherwise known as sedums.
Readers may recall my despair this summer over so few garden butterflies and I still have that view despite the few records at the end of September.
The warm sun shone for a few days and every time we looked out of the kitchen window we could see butterflies.
There were not many - at their peak only three red admirals, one peacock and one small tortoiseshell - but they were a welcome relief after such a poor year.
One reader said she had seen speckled woods in her garden north-east of Inverness and this was presumably an offspring from a second brood this year.
Speckled woods are one of the butterflies, along with orange tips, that have spread in recent years in the Highlands and nobody quite knows why. They are essentially woodland butterflies and seem almost to like flying in shade.
Their first broods are as early as early April, with a peak in mid May. Then there is a fall in numbers and then another peak, presumably from the second brood, at the end of July and the beginning of August.
The maps in the Atlas of Butterflies in Highland and Moray 2008 shows the marked expansion in their range. Incidentally, this atlas is still in print.
