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Dept for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

Answer

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the estimated population was of (a) voles and (b) hedgehogs in Great Britain in 1990; and what the current estimate of the population is. [158010] Mr. Bradshaw: Very few data are available on national populations of many mammal species, including voles and hedgehogs. Perhaps the best recent estimates are those made in a publication by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee in 19951. At that time they made the following estimates: _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Species GB population estimate Reliability of estimate Changing status Field vole 75,000,000 Low Possible decline Bank vole 23,000,000 Within 50 per cent. Probably stable Hedgehog 1,555,000 Low Possible decline _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Since that time, no further national population estimates have been published for these species. The Tracking Mammals Partnership has now been set up to instigate long-term monitoring of all mammal species, but this will focus on detecting trends rather than estimating absolute abundance (www.jncc.gov.uk/ species/mammals/trackingmammals). 1 A review of British mammals: Population estimates and conservation status of British mammals other than cetaceans by Stephen Harris, Pat Morris, Stephanie Wray and Derek Yalden (1995) JNCC, Peterborough (ISBN 1573701683).

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

419 c285-6W;419 c287-8W; 158010

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Rodents Hedgehogs

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk