SNIPPETS
SPRING 2006

    In January a report was made to Suffolk Biological Records Centre of sighting of five or six Père David’s deer at Covehithe. Kessingland Wildlife Park said they had not escaped from there.

    Martin Sanford has put a batch of Suffolk Flora maps online so people can quickly look at coverage for the 250 species that are found in more than 350 tetrads. You can have a look by pointing your browser at http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~sbrc/Flora%20Index.htm

    Suffolk wildlife benefits from landfill tax credit scheme - £171,900 has been awarded to help the management of heathland between Aldeburgh and Woodbridge. The cash comes from the SITA Trust, which is run by the landfill-operating firm SITA UK. Since 1996 up to 6% of landfill tax can be donated to environmental projects.

    Bats doing well in new accommodation – 27 Daubentons and 14 natterers bats, a record number for the site, are inhabiting the new hibernaculum Ickworth House. The facility was specially built after restoration work to the west wing revealed the roosts. The law protects bat roosts.

    Numbers of Dartford warblers are increasing in Suffolk – 113 pairs were recorded in 2005 compared with 91 the previous year. The population centres on Minsmere, Dunwich Heath and Westleton Heath but extends as far Walberswick in the north and Hollesley in the south.

    Native ladybirds under threat from Harlequin – Michael Majerus thinks that the harlequin will be over all of mainland Britain by 2008. Native species are threatened not only because the invader competes strongly for food sources but also because it eats ladybird larvae. Conservationists are particularly concerned about the seven-, five- and two-spot ladybirds (Dr Majerus will be the guest speaker at the SNS AGM in April).

    Ratty on foxes’ menu - analysis of fox scats by Dr Forman (Univ of Wales) showed a high presence of Water Vole remains. Not only that, 20% of Grey Heron pellets also contained Water Vole fur – not surprising, but natural predation only makes things worse for this lovable but endangered rodent.

    Toads used in pregnancy tests may have started deadly frog fungus. Scientists at South Africa’s North-West University think they may have traced the spread of the chytrid fungus to a long-standing trade in the African Clawed toad. Toads were used to detect pregnancy (they produce spawn when injected with urine from a pregnant woman). Many of those exported between the 1930s and 1960s escaped. The disease first appeared in wild frogs in 1961.