GB Non-native Species Information Portal: cumenting the arrival of non-native species in Britain - via Herp Digest

Biological Invasions

Print - December 2014, Volume 16, Issue 12, pp 2495-2505

Online Date: Apr 5, 2014

Authors

• Helen E. Roy  ⁽¹⁾
• Chris D. Preston ⁽¹⁾
• Colin A. Harrower ⁽¹⁾
• Stephanie L. Rorke ⁽¹⁾
• David Noble ⁽²⁾
• Jack Sewell ⁽³⁾
• Kevin Walker ^{(4) (5)}
• John Marchant ⁽²⁾
• Becky Seeley ⁽³⁾
• John Bishop ⁽³⁾
• Alison Jukes ⁽⁴⁾
• Andy Musgrove ⁽²⁾
• David Pearman ⁽⁴⁾
• Olaf Booy ⁽⁶⁾

Author Affiliations

• 1. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, OX10 8BB, UK
• 2. British Trust for Ornithology, Thetford, Norfolk, IP24 2PU, UK
• 3. Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, Plymouth, UK
• 4. Botanical Society of the British Isles, 97 Dragon Parade, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, HG1 5DG, UK
• 5. Department of Biology, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, UK
• 6. Non-Native Species Secretariat, Sand Hutton, York, YO41 1LZ, UK

Abstract

Information on non-native species (NNS) is often scattered among a multitude of sources, such as regional and national databases, peer-reviewed and grey literature, unpublished research projects, institutional datasets and with taxonomic experts. Here we report on the development of a database designed for the collation of information in Britain. The project involved working with volunteer experts to populate a database of NNS (hereafter called “the species register”). Each species occupies a row within the database with information on aspects of the species’ biology such as environment (marine, freshwater, terrestrial etc.), functional type (predator, parasite etc.), habitats occupied in the invaded range (using EUNIS classification), invasion pathways, establishment status in Britain and impacts. The information is delivered through the Great Britain Non-Native Species Information Portal hosted by the Non-Native Species Secretariat. By the end of 2011 there were 1958 established NNS in Britain. There has been a dramatic increase over time in the rate of NNS arriving in Britain and those becoming established. The majority of established NNS are higher plants (1,376 species). Insects are the next most numerous group (344 species) followed by non-insect invertebrates (158 species), vertebrates (50 species), algae (24 species) and lower plants (6 species). Inventories of NNS are seen as an essential tool in the management of biological invasions. The use of such lists is diverse and far-reaching. However, the increasing number of new arrivals highlights both the dynamic nature of invasions and the importance of updating NNS inventories.e

Was this the last wild wolf of Britain?

Adam Weymouth picks up the trail of the wolf folklore suggests was the last to roam wildly in Great Britain before being shot in the Scottish Highlands in 1680

Not far from the village of Killiecrankie in the Scottish Highlands, there is a densely wooded gorge through which the River Garry rushes. According to folklore, it is here (or somewhere very like it) that Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel shot the last wild-living wolf in Great Britain in 1680.

In May I walked across the Highlands to find out how local people feel about the idea of bringing the wolf back, a prospect that is gaining momentum and one that the UK government is obliged to consider underan EU Directive of 1992. For some this is a necessary reevaluation of a once-persecuted animal; for others it’s yet another scheme concocted by city folk who don’t understand the countryside.

I had read about Cameron’s wolf in James Edmund Harting’s 1880 classic British Animals Extinct Within Historic Times (With Some Account of British Wild White Cattle). There, in a footnote to the text, he notes that “a noble animal in a large glass case” had come up for sale in 1818, a specimen that claimed to be “the last Wolf killed in Scotland by Sir E. Cameron.” Could this really be true, I wondered?

I decided to start in 1818 and work backwards to 1680. According to Harting, the wolf had been listed as “Lot 832” in the sale catalogue of the “London Museum” or the London Museum and Institute of Natural Historyas it was properly known. This had been the brainchild of Edward Donovan, an amateur zoologist, author, artist and budding entrepreneur who had opened its doors on Catherine Street just off the Strand in 1807. But the project had cost him the colossal sum of £15,000 and within a decade he was broke. Unable to find a benefactor, Donovan had little option but to auction off his entire collection, including the wolf.

Continued