Can The Proper Restoration Of Wetland Habitat Halt

Can the Proper Restoration of Wetland Habitat Halt the deterioration of the Bittern in East Anglia?

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descriptor 1 Botaurus stellaris, the bittern

Introduction[pic][pic]

The wide Bittern Botaurus stellaris (fig 1 above), a vulnerable reedbed heron, is a little-studied and subtle species. Characteristic features of its ecology are the long-range vocalisation, or favourable of the males during the mating season and the polygynous mating system (males burn down mate with up to five females). Since it is more often comprehend than seen, its numbers are counted by noting the number of males that boom in the mating season. Currently a declining, localised and rare behavior species in the UK, the bittern is confined almost entirely to the areas of lowland wetland in East Anglia (Norfolk and Suffolk) and Lancashire (fig 2 below) that are dominated by the gross reed Phragmites australis where the bird feeds on fish and amphibians.

Figure 2 UK bittern deportment distribution

In the eighteenth century historic records show that bitterns were so common in East Anglia that pip parties were able to kill between 20 and 30 birds in a morning, but the bird reportedly became extinct in the region in the late 19th Century.



This was due not only to hunting, but also to the drainage of the wetland for agricultural purposes.1 Nevertheless, the birds were record as breeding again in Norfolk in 1911 and from that bode they slowly recolonised until, by 1954, there were around 80 well-fixed males. However, numbers were to decline again as the bitterns reedbed habitat, through omit of management, became drier. In 1997 it was believed that the UK bittern population had declined to near-extinct levels, 11 booming males from a peak of 70 pairs in the late 1960s, when it bred in eight counties.2 Unfortunately, hi-fi data about change in population surface and range in the UK is unavailable, and furthermore, the current global total of breeding bitterns cannot be known with any degree...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay



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