Why is the fauna of the British Isles so dull? Has it always been like this? Or was it more appreciable in prehistory?there were European lions until more or less the Balkans in the classical periods, but I don't think anything like that went further. especially on the gray and sad islands.I went fishing with my cousin in England last month and it was one of the worst fishing trips I've ever done. super weak variety.T: Spanish
>>4888169All our natural habitats have been long destroyed by human interference. The forests cut down long ago by the celts, and by the saxons, every inch of arable land has been converted to farm land, and now all our rivers and our rare chalk streams are being polluted by our inept government. I and many others think the English countryside has its own charm, and I really do love it, but it is not at all good for our fauna. The only thing I can think of is that the typical English garden with its many flowers, is favourable for bees and butterflies and the like. In my garden we get a lot. But as far as animals go, the most interesting thing I've ever seen is a hedgehog. I've never even seen a badger and they're synonymous with England. I've seen foxes a few times before, and you can often see kites above Leeds. We get seals on the coast but I've never seen one. I have seen Peacocks, Alpacas and Reindeer but they don't count because they were deliberately brought here. You can see horses a lot too, in fields or on the roads, either ridden by middle-class horse-lovers or pulling the wagons of our gypsies. I think there are "wild" horses in one or two designated parks on the whole island. Our wildlife is limited to whatever can live underground, on bleak, empty moors, or survive in semi-urban environments.
>>4888283Add to this we became an island before much could actually recolonize. We didn't even have rabbits until the Romans.
>>4888169I like the fauna here, its very comfy and picturesque. Bearing in mind most of England in particular was swamp or marshland before mass cultivation I think there has been a largely positive impact...prior to the industrial revolution. I am glad we still have greenbelts to act as ecological barriers to contain the blight of urbanisation. We have everything short of animals that can actually stand a chance of mauling if not outright killing someone which I like despite it being some form of controversy amongst eurofags on /an/. I have seen deer and tons of foxes along with falcons out in the suburbs. At the end of the day the UK countryside is what people think about when talk of medieval vistas or fantasy comes to mind. Tolkien's works are heavily based on the west midlands which, despite the cities being turned into social quagmires along with being one of the most urbanised regions, still have wonderfull heritage sites and vast hills and fields which I used to use to visualise his stories as a child. If the litetal inspiration for Mordor is salvageble I think the UK as a whole is ok fauna wise but should be defended with tooth and limb. Like other anons have said there has always been a pressure amonst metropolitan districts to push outwards. The titanic failure of the HS2 mega project is but one example of destroying the countryside en masse for London City's benefit. No one else, just London City and I am not exaggerating. A high speed rail project for metropolitan Londonites to travel all the way up north but none of the surrounding cities that HS2 cuts alongside can use it. Entire nearby ecosystems have been destroyed to dig out the railway tunnel for HS2 but ever since it was dropped there has been this massive brown line tainting the rural landscape of England ever since.
British wildlife sounds pretty boring in general but I'm jealous of the fact that urban foxes are a thing there, I wish foxes would come into my yard instead of just stray catst. leaf
>>4888397Don't you have 'coons in Canada?
>>4888417yeah, but I'm not close enough to the woods to see them very often I guess. Caught one doing a Mission Impossible acrobatics maneuver to eat out of my bird feeder once though, that was pretty funny
There is not a single square foot of Britain that isn't managed in some way. The majority of 'green space' in the country is totally artificial, the product of green keeping, game keeping, silviculture, agriculture and the like. The notion of wildlife in Britain is a preposterous joke. Pretty much anything inconvenient to humans has been annihilated, the majority of animals in the country are domestic pets, farm animals and those raised for hunting. The only thriving species are introduced. Biodiversity is at an all time low and is continually dropping year on year. Shit country 0/10
>>4888418I saw a raccoon in the daytime in summer in central park in NYC. Wasn't rabid, just seemed sleepy and hot, wandered off after a bit. How uncommon is that?
>>4888169I visited last year and it is much better than media portrays I think. They did have more variety before in the prehistoric ice ages (but so did many countries and continents to be fair).Part of the lack of diversity is due to climate change from the ending ice age, so a lot of species died off because they couldn't adapt, and others were killed off by early humans. Britain is also pretty far north and can have brutal winters compared to a place like Spain which doesn't encourage extreme biodiversity like you'd see in more mild climates where there are many more species of reptile and amphibian.To note, most of the species extinct from recorded history in Britain and Ireland COULD be reintroduced. These include the moose (called elk in Europe), the grey wolf, the brown bear, the lynx, and the pond turtle.Thankfully some species such as the beaver and the boar are already reintroduced and are making good progress. Others like the wisent (bison) need to make much more progress but are at least now released to the wild.The lynx is now involved in a project to bring them back to Britain so that is some good progress.Unfortunately some species like the Great Auk were made completely extinct around the world so those cannot come back.>>4888283I don't know I'd say anything that extreme but you should give the people back in history a little credit. While many times there was greed and unnecessary killings, most people were just trying to survive. And not all of it was lost. Some of the first pieces of preserved land were created in the form or the royal forests present in England. And keep in mind while there was deforestation, many areas like moors and heathland were already fairly treeless.I do think you all have a fairly unrecognised problem with invasive species that goes unsolved. You need to get rid of the Asian deer, the wallabies, peacocks, grey squirrels, non native trees, etc. It is a big problem very here in the USA too though.
>be anglo>systematically destroy everything that isn't an anglo (only humans can be anglos)That's all there is too it really.
>>4888283You guys should import sea otters for your coasts. I know you already have river otters, but those are not the same thing. Sea otters thrive in kelp forests, which your coasts have, and keep ecosystems healthy and increase biodiversity. Plus they are very cute and entertaining to watch.
>>4888169britain like it is now is not how it used to be, it used to be a temperate rainforest. but now, it is severely damaged, and the wildlife have suffered tremendously, with many local extinctions, and island wide extinctions.
>>4888425>The majority of 'green space' in the country is totally artificial, the product of green keeping, game keeping, silviculture, agriculture and the likeAre you teilling me nature reserves are not managed or maintained? Besides you are mostly describing england, scotland and wales are far more natural near snowdonia and the highlands
>>4888283>human interference.Le human badNot reading
>>4888397not just that urban foxes are a thing, but that there is no endemic rabies* so if you see an urban fox/badger/hedgehog/etc you don't have to worry about it infecting you or your dog. The worst an urban fox will do is one of the following>Stinky shit in garden>3AM rape noises>Steal your kebab while you're drunkenly sitting at the bus stop waiting for the night busyes these all happen in london*there has been one case in the last century, on a remote scottish island covered in bats, and that bat population is pretty insular. Functionally there is no rabies.
They have wild big cats though.
>>4889144>not just that urban foxes are a thing, but that there is no endemic rabies* so if you see an urban fox/badger/hedgehog/etc you don't have to worry about it infecting you or your dogNo but they can seriously injure them. It happened in my neighborhood when one my of neighbors let their labrador out in the back garden and a fox pounced on its back from a shed and crippled it. I have seen anons from time to time post the same thing with urban foxes going after to dogs, don't know why they do it but they are not totally safe regardless
someone should just release a bunch of fuckin’ bears, wolves, lynxes, beavers, boars, and wild goats and shit into the British countryside Pablo Escobar style
>>4888169Britain used to have bears if you can believe it
they don't have much fauna variety but who cares when the landscape more than makes up for it? when i visited scotland i fell in love. if it wasn't for family, i'd move there. perfect climate although they don't get much snow. also the whole "right to roam" thing is a fresh viewpoint especially when contrasted to the US where much of the land is cordoned off by private ownership.
>>4888169the British have spent decades importing new fauna
>>4889590This landscape needs some buffalo grazing on it
>>4892404Already a thing in some parts of wales
>>4888548Are you teilling me nature reserves are not managed or maintained???? I suppose you're referring to America. And no, not nearly on the same level. The UK is a tiny country and is likely smaller than the USAs total national park acreage. From a purely mechanical perspective, managing US nature to the same extent is impossible. >Besides you are mostly describing england, scotland and wales are far more natural near snowdonia and the highlandsWrong. The majority of both Scotland and Wales is heavily managed, in particular for hunting. The highlands are one of the most heavily managed environments around, primarily for grouse and deer hunting. Images such as >>4888169>>4889590Are entirely artificial. These environments used to be 100% oak and beech forest. Moors are regularly burnt of vegetation to stop anything higher than heather from growing.
>>4892431Who cares if it still looks good. I'd rather see that than more urban buildings.
>>4892431Moors are beautiful
>>4888453>and keep ecosystems healthy and increase biodiversityOnly as long as they're in their native range.
>>4893693>Who cares if it still looks good.Wildlife, biodiversity and anyone who cares about them.
>>4895124>Wildlife, biodiversity and anyone who cares about them.Which is fucked in urban population centres. >>4893693 point still stands.
>>4888306>We didn't even have rabbits until the Romansmost places in europe didn't you absolute fucking retard. what the FUCK was the point of this sentence? are you severely retarded?
british fauna and flora is boring and never pretended not to beit's beauty lies in it's humble comfiness, which can't be replicated by extravagance
Radical changes from even 500 years ago.Neighboring Ireland was still had forests with wolves in the 1700s, and was heavily forested before the 1500s.The english cleared the forests for lumber for ships and bows. They also cleared it to seat english land barons to rule over irish as agrarian servants under what amounted to fuedal system run to thebenefit of england.The rolling green hills and shamrock is really a feature of british conquest.The british isles themselves cleared even earlier.The region was forests filled with animals and groves during the druids.The fuedal system made cropland power, granting it was delegating power, the more you ruled over the more prominent the holder, and so all land except a small amount tfor royalty to recreationaly hunt was cleared.They had no respect for wilderness.Ironicly Germany was the part of europe that resisted destruction of nature the longest, even though it was the center of the Holy Roman Empire that ruled Europe for 1,000 years.Having wolves, brown bears, aurochs, and other impressive animals until the last few hundred years.
>>4895505>The english cleared the forests for lumber for ships and bows. They also cleared it to seat english land barons to rule over irish as agrarian servants under what amounted to fuedal system run to thebenefit of england.Based. Fuck the Irish.
>>4895505The aurochs are coming back
>>4897382>*deep inhale*>*wheeze*>Not if I ave anythin' to do with it hehehe
>>4895131>Which is fucked in urban population centres. Wrong. Urban brownfield sites across Britain are now home to more biodiversity than the majority of the countryside. Largely because these locations aren't being actively managed - no pesticides, industrial cropping etc.
>>4888458It wasn't all human though, it happened post ice age as the weather pattern dried. The laurel forest went extinct, it used to be like the pacific north west. Only the adaptable animals are left
>>4897401The man in this picture is nearly extinct in Britain
