What is wildlife?
‘Wildlife’ means all the plants, animals and other living things found in the
wild. These can be mammals such as squirrels, reptiles like the sand lizard,
fish, insects, and tiny little animals that you can’t see easily.
What are habitats?
Habitats are the places where plants and animals live. They are all around us
– on the land, in the water, in the city and in the countryside. Habitats can be
large, like woodlands and farmlands, or small, like ponds and hedgerows.
Some animals live in really tiny places, like the space between sand grains!
What is happening?
In the UK alone, there are about 37,000 different species of animals and 65,000
different species of plants. Sadly, though, over the last 100 years more than 170
plant and animal species have completely disappeared.
Today, about 15% of all British wildlife is still at risk, especially animals such
as the otter and the brown hare. Unless we do something to help, things will
only get worse.
The main reason why some types of plants and animals are becoming
endangered species is that their habitats are lost or have changed. Animals
like moths, birds and bats have lost their homes as people have cut down
the hedgerows they live in. Also, a lot of ponds are no longer suitable for
the animals and plants to live in because they are polluted, or people have
filled them in.
What can we do?
We need to save many species of endangered British wildlife from
extinction before it is too late. You can help by supporting environmental
groups like the Environment Agency that are working to protect our rare
wildlife and habitats from the danger of disappearing forever. You can even
create a small wildlife habitat yourself, by making a pond at school or in
your garden.