Managing the UK's wildlife: Must we intervene to regulate numbers?

Abstract

Wildlife in Britain is closely associated with man's activities. Very little land is designated purely for nature conservation and the majority of it is farmed to some extent. Many species are suffering from the intensive management of agriculture but equally, many others are at very high levels. Many of these abundant species cause problems as pests, vectors of disease or predators of endangered species. In this paper we review the evidence for man's intervention to regulate the numbers of abundant species and comment on the criteria that need to be fulfilled if lethal control is to be exercised.