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Otters The otter population of Britain underwent a dramatic decline in the middle of the last century until, by the 1970s, otters were almost extinct in England and scarce in Wales. With declining use of the toxic chemicals which caused the decline the population has recovered, and now they are found more or less throughout Wales and in many areas of England where they were formerly absent. Otters are protected and for any proposals which adjoin, cross or affect a waterway there will be a need to carry out appropriate surveys and consider their needs. Particular attention will be paid to the possibility of resting sites being present since it is an offence to damage or disturb these. It is often assumed that otter dens (known as holts) will always be found as a tunnel under the roots of trees at the water's edge. This is sometimes the case but otters are adaptable creatures and have also been known to rest in hollow trees under piles of boulders, old building and other, quite unlikely, places. |
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Otter breeding
sites are rarely affected by small scale developments but impacts on large
areas of otherwise undisturbed habitat will require an assessment of their
potential for otters to breed. Any proposal which involves a road crossing a river, stream or ditch will need to consider the risks to otters if they are forced onto the carriageway. There are well established methods for mitigating this risk but the fact that the population is recovering means that such risks need to be addressed even in areas where otters are not yet present. They will be in due course as the population re-colonises the area. Although I have applied for dozens of licences to disturb badgers and many to disturb dormice, I have only once had to disturb an otter's den - and that was near the city centre in York! For the most part, the needs of otters can easily be accommodated into a development, provided they are considered at an early stage. |
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![]() Photo: Nick Lawes |
Badgers The badger is protected not because it is scarce, it is one of the most common carnivores in Britain, but because it has been persecuted in the past. As with other species, protection extends to its dens (setts) and the most common reason for needing to obtain a licence to disturb badges is because a sett is in 'the wrong place'. Badgers live in clans of several adult animals plus their young and usually have a number of setts within their home range, one of which is used throughout the year, and for breeding - the main sett. As a result of this, it is usually fairly easy to obtain a licence to exclude badgers from the other setts (subsidiary or outlying) by installing one way gates for a period of a few weeks during the summer or early autumn. Main setts are particularly important to badgers and it is not usually possible to exclude badgers from them unless alternative provision can be made for them, nearby, in the form of an artificial sett. |
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Natural England
provide online guidance about badgers for developers but strongly recommend
that a suitably qualified ecologist is employed to make the licence application
and supervise the associated work. I am more frequently asked to apply for licences to disturb badgers than any other species, a reflection of the abundance of this animal, but exclusion is a routine procedure and provided surveys are carried out at an early stage, one which can readily be scheduled into the development of a site. |
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Dormice Mitigation for dormice will probably involve replacing
any lost habitat with an area of equivalent size and quality and it is
also important to ensure that the connections between dormouse habitat,
along hedgerows or roadside plantings for example, is maintained or enhanced. |
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![]() Photo: A Laurence |
Water Voles
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Other species These four animals are the ones I work with most frequently but I have also carried out surveys for bats, water shrews, harvest mice, red squirrels and pine marten and done some work on deer and foxes. I have a wide knowledge of mammal ecology and if there is a species I don't feel able deal with myself I almost certainly know someone who can. Bats are very much a specialist subject, for a start there are about 17 different species (a new one has just been discovered!) with their own particular habits and needs. While I have done quite a lot of bat surveying, and some radio-tracking, I would normally recommend a colleague who specialises in this group for surveys of large or complex sites. |
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