Wildlife and the Flooding

[protector20]

flooding will cause immense destruction.....you are caring for the animals....i think you have forgotten about the humans....

[rscott74]

Be fair Protectot20 - this is a wild life forum. I hope you accept that the needs and greed of us humans have caused greater harm to the environment than the recent floods have to humans.
I have great sympathy for those adversely affected by flooding but looking after the total environment is important for our suvival. This forum, I believe, plays a part in that respect.

[Billy Wobble Dagger]

Originally Posted by Kymba

I have just watched the news about all the Torrential Rain and Flooding all around the Country and am wondering what and how will this of effected our Wildlife...
How many young and different Species will be Lost.. Will some species of been completely wiped out ????
So Much natural habitat will of been Destroyed and washed away..

I visited the River Windrush on Sunday, the first time since the floods started a week last Friday, and two weeks after I filmed the water vole. (See Water Vole Video thread). What a difference a week makes, most of the river had burst its banks and where it hadn't the fields behind were underwater. An old boy I met on one of the bridges said the water had dropped by at least 8". I don't think any of the water voles could have survived that amount of water, not only would the fast flowing water be a problem but looking at what’s visible of the bank, there are no suitable areas for burrows. Any water voles that have survived with out burrows will be picked of quickly in the open by any number of hungry mouths and beaks. I hope I am wrong and some of these little creatures will have survived. The number of dragon and damsel flies also seemed on the very low side considering the warmth yesterday morning

I'll of course keep WAB updated over the next few weeks as I restart the water vole surveys.

BWD

[Urisk]

I think most animals will tend to be fine. They're smart enough not to build on floodplains at least. Plus they're quite able to just up and move at the first sign of any danger. I think its safe to say we're probably the only animal that can put self-preservation in second place behind becoming a wage-slave and setting up home.

[Tormentil]

I would have thought that they would have been thousands of insects lost. Those that cannot fly long distances especially would have been very vunerable. Remember, a short distance to us, is a vast distance to some insects. I'm sure the waters rose faster than most bugs can crawl.

[paulchandler6]

We've had it reasonably bad here in Oxfordshire, but I think wildlife adapt to these situations well, obviuosly some will suffer but the most will get through OK and will even create oppurtunities for other species. All in all the balance will be maintained (except how humans affect it)

[Billy Wobble Dagger]

This is the first newspaper article I've seen with regard to wildlife and the recent floods,

Rare species suffer as floods wash away young - Independent Online Edition > Wildlife

It looks like some have suffered.


BWD