European WILDLIFE

Fishermen in Central Europe are warning of the shrinking population of the river trout. The populations of this fish are significantly decreasing, especially in the lower parts of rivers. The fact that trout is disappearing from its rivers as a result of warming was confirmed by a recently published study by the World Wildlife Fund.

Trout needs very specific living conditions. The flow must be sufficiently rich in nutrients and its acidity must be at …

River regulation in Central Europe pushes original inhabitants off their banks. An example is the endangered sand martin. They originally nested on river banks regularly deteriorated by spring floods. The birds would dig tunnels in the walls.

However, watercourse regulation gradually took away the birds’ natural nesting grounds. For example, numerous river banks were reinforced with concrete, and their straightening and deepening removed high river banks.

After the regulation of most of the watercourses, sand …

The killer slug, which relentlessly attacks flowers, vegetables, and eats native slug species, is one of the major threats to Europe’s nature. This is stated in the report on the state of the environment in Europe “Signals 2009”, presented today in Prague by Director Jacqueline McGlade of the European Environment Agency (EEA).

Exotic animals, according to the study, are responsible for the decline of native European species. The invasion of exotic animals and plants into …

With surprising speed, EU countries agreed at their summit in Brussels yesterday on a plan for reducing the continent’s greenhouse gas emissions. EU Member States made a commitment to reduce their CO2 emissions by 20 percent by 2020. By that time, 20 percent of energy should come from renewable resources.

However, industrial and energy companies managed to take the teeth out of the mitigation measures, so the path to reducing greenhouse gas emissions will be …

Wild, beautiful, unfettered. Such was the nature on most parts of the European continent for thousands of years. Then it disappeared, being replaced with fields, roads and industrial zones. However, in some parts of Europe the Wilderness still exists. There are species which still can be seen by inhabitants of the European continent, like majestic European Bison in Białowieża Forest (ancient woodland straddling the border between Poland and Belarus), huge bears in the mountains of …