The Week Junior - UK (2022-03-05)

10

Animals and the environment

Now is a great time to think about getting your

garden, balcony or other open space ready for

spring. Growing plants is good for the planet,

makes a great wildlife habitat and can provide

food for insects and your family. Some aspects of

gardening can still harm the planet, however, so

why not see if you can change how you garden?

If you need compost to sow seeds or plant

seedlings, ask whoever is buying it to make sure

it’s peat-free. Peat is a natural material made of

broken-down plants, and it forms over many

centuries. Traditionally, it has been used as a base

for making gardeners’ compost, but it’s better for

the environment to leave it in the ground. It’s now

easy to buy peat-free compost.

You can also try to avoid using plastic pots in

favour of cardboard or coir (coconut fibre), which

break down harmlessly in the soil. If you buy

plants in plastic pots, clean them up and reuse

them, or be sure to recycle them correctly.

Planting into a

cardboard pot.

BE A GREENER GARDENER

E C O T I P

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This year’s World Wildlife Day took

place on 3 March, celebrating wildlife

around the world and ways it can be

protected. This year focused on how

protecting key species can help to

restore their entire ecosystems and

habitats. “Key species” are animals or

plants that support many different life

forms in one area and help to hold the

system together. Key species include

the Eurasian lynx, colourful rainforest

birds and even some wildflowers that

are often ignored.

A posing

pine marten.

Red squirrels get pine marten guards

P

ine martens in Scotland are being encouraged into

habitats where they can act as “bodyguards” for

red squirrels, to protect them from invasive grey

squirrels. Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS), a Scottish

government agency, plans to put more than 30

artificial dens for pine martens along the

east coast of Scotland. It hopes the

dens will create a safe place for pine

martens to breed, boosting their

numbers and preventing grey

squirrels from travelling north into

an area where the reds live.

Grey squirrels are not a native UK

species. They were introduced from

North America in the 19th century and

have become invasive, which means they

have spread rapidly and are now common across the

UK. This has been at the expense of red squirrels,

whose numbers have fallen because the bigger greys

take their food. Greys also carry squirrelpox, a virus

that does not affect them but can be very

bad for red squirrels.

This is where pine martens

can help. Related to ferrets,

otters, polecats and weasels,

they are one of the UK’s

rarest meat-eating mammals.

Their numbers fell because

of hunting and loss of natural

habitats. A century ago, only a few

were left. However, pine martens are

now starting to recover in some parts of

the UK, with projects to reintroduce them in parts of

England, Scotland and Wales. Gareth Ventress of the

FLS describes them as “funny little things with pretty

faces and quite sharp teeth”.

Researchers have found that pine martens like to

hunt grey squirrels, limiting their numbers. Greys are

larger than reds and spend more time on the ground

where pine martens usually hunt. Red squirrels, in

contrast, have lived with pine martens for a long time

and are alert and quick enough to avoid them.

FLS hopes that a bigger population of pine

martens along the east coast of Scotland will create

a natural barrier to stop greys heading into red

squirrels’ habitats. “We need to stop grey squirrels in

their tracks,” explains Ventress. “The artificial dens

can help improve breeding success for pine martens.”

Red squirrels

are under threat.

World Wildlife Day

A colourful keel-

billed toucan.

The Week Junior • 5 March 2022

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