European WILDLIFE

Today the European Commission has published a new plan on how to improve Europe’s biodiversity over the next decade. The strategy includes six targets which address the main drivers of biodiversity loss. The plan is focused on sustainable agriculture and forestry, safeguarding and protecting fish stocks, controlling invasive species, and protecting and restoring ecosystems, notably by the increased use of green infrastructure. The strategy is in line with the commitments made last year by the …

This is the first time after eighty years that wolves have appeared again in the Catalonia region in Spain. Footprint tracks were recently discovered just forty kilometers from Barcelona.

In the past, the wolves had never ventured as close to the metropolis of Catalonia as they have done this time. The very first appearance of this species in this part of the country – after several decades of absence – was recorded in 2004.

Much …

Glaciers in the Austrian Alps continue to shrink. Last year like other years in the past decades, they experienced a reduction in ice thickness of about 14.1 meters (water equivalet of ice).

Such data were provided by the Alpine society (Alpenverein). According to them, the melting of the glaciers was primarily caused by an above average temperature increase.

Out of the eighty-nine glaciers which were monitored during the winter of 2010, there were just seven …

For thousands of years, European forests and grasslands were inhabited by majestic animals – aurochs, large wild cattle with dark coat and large horns. Due to overhunting, they are now extinct. The last aurochs died in Poland in 1627.

Now the Aurochs is coming back to European nature. Taurus Foundation (Stichting Taurus) is a Dutch organization that uses feral cattle in nature management and natural grazing schemes. “In our choice for certain cattle breeds, we …

European nature is losing its most precious jewels. In many parts of the continent, butterflies are becoming extinct. Nine percent of European butterflies are threatened with extinction, whilst a third of some four hundred and eighty two European butterfly species have experienced a decline in their population.

What is the reason for this? Intensive farming on one hand, climate change, intensive tourism and abandonment of farmland on the other. That is why butterflies are losing …