But who are the real 'pests' anyway?

Matt Phelps 

Species Recovery Officer

How often do you find yourself in a conversation about the state of nature in the UK and someone raises the subject of predators or ‘pest species’, by which they will likely be referring to mesopredator and generalists such as Magpies, Crows, Foxes, Badgers, Rats or even birds of prey? 

Maybe it’s just me, but as someone who is lucky enough to work directly in the realm of nature conservation, specifically species recovery and reintroductions, it’s a conversation topic that comes my way regularly.

My response to such comments is always the same. We need to think less about which extant species are the ‘problem’ but which other species are missing from our ecosystems that have thrown natural systems into such imbalance due to their absence. Of course, the sad reality is that most, if not all, of these missing species are no longer present due to the direct or indirect actions of humans.

Natural processes are the impacts and interactions which take place in a fully functional ecosystem. For example, large herbivores browsing and grazing through grassland or scrub, creating areas of disturbed ground and the ideal mix of habitat structures to benefit the widest range of plant and invertebrate life, which then in turn provide a more diverse selection of food sources for birds and other wildlife.

Habitat destruction, fragmentation and direct persecution of wildlife by humans in our march of progress have, sadly, reaped far greater damage and, in some cases, irreversible population declines or losses than any other animal on Earth. The apparent abundance and dominance of so called pest species is entirely of our own creation. Particularly in the UK where we have so methodically wiped out all the larger predators which once kept such species’ numbers in check.

But of course it's also humans who have it in their power to be part of the solution.