Apart from all the bad news about natural habitats of animals being destroyed and the sometimes disastrous consequences of climate change on wildlife I finally read a news article with some positive news. It was titled; "Wildlife Comeback in Europe"
The wolf in The Netherlands
The article wasn't a complete surprise though. After being hunted down and being chased away by farmers, the wolf returned to the Netherlands in 2015. This large predator hadn't been in the country for over 150 years!
Image from raincarnation40/Pixabay
Wolves play an important role to keep the population of other species healthy.
Rewilding Europe
That's the title of the study from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). And it's all about opportunities and challenges for species recovery.
Back in 2013 ZSL created a report of European mammals and birds showing signs of recovery.
And now, almost 10 years later they did the same again to find out if the positive trend of recovery was still going on.
The researchers looked at 50 different species of birds and mammals and the population of almost every species had increased in the past few years.
Bevers
The animal that increased the most was the beaver. Last year there were almost 1,3 million bevers in Europe. That is a whopping 160 times as much as in 1960.
The reason for the increase is that governments invested in increasing their habitat since 1955.
This investment surely paid off.
Nature bounces back
The report shows that when governments take action, you clearly get results. In the past years many nature reserves have been linked together resulting in a larger area for the animals, making it easier to reproduce.
Most of the animals on the list are also protected by law. In the case of the wolf returning to the Netherland there are farmers that don't like the wolf being back because it kills their cattle. There are quite a lot of reports of killed sheep and chickens. But it isn't allowed to kill a wolf since it is protected by law.
If you want to read the report yourself; here is the link.
It has all the data, stats and some beautiful photographs as well!
https://www.rewildingeurope.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/wildlife-comeback-in-europe-2022/
A critical side note
Although this finally is some positive news about the nature in Europe we have to say that the biodiversity in Europe is still declining. The research has focussed on species that were already increasing. Climate change is a huge threat to all different species.
And it's not only the large industries that need to bring down the pollution. We also play a big role as consumers.
By changing the way we travel (Less by plane, more by train. More by bike, less by car) and just buying less things and recycle more would certainly help slowing down the pollution.
But one of the biggest causes of climate change is probably the production of meat. Forests get burnt down to plant soja to feed the cows and other cattle.
Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/940696/brazil-amazon-deforestation-rate-area/
And the cows produce large emissions of ammonia and methane. When ammonia and methane ends up in nature it has serious consequences for the biodiversity.
So, eating more plant based products would surely help to make the world a cleaner place.
And as someone who hardly every eats meat I must say; it's been easier as I thought. There are such a lot of good alternatives to meat, but also for dairy products. And they taste good as well.
I can recommend it to anyone!
FriendlyMoose
Photographing is my passion. Although I like photography in general, nature photography is one of my favourite subjects. I often go out with my camera for a hike to capture the beauty of nature.
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