First, a quick thanks to Dave Baldwin for highlighting this on Facebook.
The Telegraph reported on 6th March on a dossier released by Natural England (the public body responsible for protecting and improving England’s natural environment), which contained reports of over 100 exotic animals in England. The reports are from 2001 to 2007 and cover pretty much the whole of England. By far the most commonly reported exotics were Alien Big Cats, with wild boar a distant second. Some of my favourite species sighted are capybaras and racoon dogs in Reading, a coatimundi in Cumbria, a prairie dog in Buckinghamshire and a walleroo in Cornwall.
What amazes me is how few reports there are! Reports of both wild boar and ABCs seem to be miniscule in number compared to the number of sightings (and trace marks) that I am aware of. I’m sure that Neil Arnold’s book Mystery Animals of the British Isles: Kent has more reports of ABCs just in Kent than Natural England have had reported across the whole of England! There has to be some link in the chain missing between the person who has evidence for an animal and the governmental body in place to collect the reports. Someone with a better knowledge of the police force and government policy would know more than me about if the police have to report sightings reported to them to Natural England, or if Natural England only collects reports from the public if they contact Natural England specifically.
Anyway, you can read the whole dossier here, as well as the Telegraph’s coverage:
http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/Images/exoticsstatssummary_tcm6-4154.pdf
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/7384536/Britains-big-cat-X-files-revealed.html
Maybe it is just a case that "Natural England" are as incompetent at doing their work, as "English Heritage" are at doing theirs.
ReplyDeleteWell, now here's the thing, when it gets to the level of politics the government don't want to have to properly recognise that there are big cats in Britain.
ReplyDeleteCertainly that's the case in the Welsh assembly government whose press releases about the 'beast of Baglan' are somewhat at odds with the evidence collected by them when a police superintendent saw a bobcat and brought his offices to the spot the next day where they did a proper scene of incident investigation obtained photos of prints a plaster cast and DNA evidence which was tested by the university of Aberystwyth and found to be from a bobcat. for more information see my 'strange animals of Swansea Bay' article in (I think) the 2008 CFZ yearbook.