2005 - Whitby Naturalists

Preparations for a successful relcasc include the insertion of a tiny
AVID microchip under the skin 3f each otter dcstined to be set free.
Each of these chips has an individual number to keep a chcck on the
6tters' movements. Their habitat is closely monitored and checks are
made on modern farming methods to avoid any site damage'
As the Mammai Trust reported earlicr this year, since 1995 otter
numbers have becn increasing but the salne cannot be said for the
Wiler Vole (also kngwn as rhe W'ater Rat), which is the UK's most
rapidly declining mammal. Its disappeararrce fiom rivers and canals
has been blarned gn agricultural intensi{ication and hunting try
American rnink. J'ire Trust has callecl for a fu1l protectrion of the
species, identificd by tlreir {urry tails and srnaller eyes atrd ears than
orclinary rats, and they are trelieved to have declined hy 95"h since the
early nineties.
Bafiger numbers have also been increasing according t0 the Mammal
f'rust. However the Norrh Riding Badger Group reported in April that
there had been "a suddcn incrcase in road casualdes on just about
every main road in'Whitby" during the preceding month. 'fhe same
newsietter reported badgers as 'under shed squatters'. The reporf
continued, "tffhy do lone, displacecl badgers always burrow under
sheds in people's gardens? Is rhis purely a'lThitby phenomenonJ (Jne
such case was a fellow we thought we'had exorcised last year when wc
(with thc green light from DEFRA) had closed a sub-shed-sett with
some large paving slabs. Howcver severatr weeks ago we had a cail fiom
Che householder to repoft that a new entrance had been established
frcrn another posirion. It must be a pretcy good site from the badger's
point of view."
It is pleasing to note that the Mammal Trust is campaigning for the
pine marten - Britain's second lalest carnivore after the i,vildcat - to be
given a higher pri6rity rhan its current Species of Conservation
Concern statls. There were leports in 2004 that the elusive tree-top
anirnal might havc returned to the North Yorkshirc Moors a{ter some
sightings were reported. In February this year the Tmst erected nesting
boxes and ser up baitcd rubes to catch hair, which would later bc DNA
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