According to the Living Planet Index, who track population moves among 4,000 vertebrate species, there has been a 68% decline between 1970-2016, or more like 94% if you narrow it down to Bolsanaro’s dreamy Brazilian paradise. That’s 4,000 mainstream species down by two thirds.
It seems that one of those species is Trevors.
From a high point in the 1930s when Trevors, who are a reasonably new species, became the 30th most numerous British human, have seen their numbers crash down to a point where they are struggling to keep in the top 100.
Anecdotally, last year (which was the worst one for Trevors since before World War 1), only 8 were successfully fledged in the entire breeding season. I hardly need tell you that this is far below a critical mass from which the species can recover. For that, we need at least 1.7 Trevors per existing Trevor breeding, and it’s just not happening.
There are basically three reasons why species struggle: loss of habitat, loss of food source and over predation. It’s called the three-legged stool. Knock out any one leg, and the whole stool collapses.
In terms of habitat, Trevors seem to prefer the neutral surroundings, sort of edge-of-greenbelt and peri-urban fringes. Tragically, they appear to be best suited to 1960s brutalist architecture (think of an Arndale Centre), and the bitter truth is that these are being pulled down one by one, by a society that places more emphasis on bling than beige. Trevors, it seems, like beige, as they do football teams that hover in the upper-conference sphere. Whilst they do not seem over-affected by climate change, we know vanishingly little about how it might affect them in the long term. Not to put too fine a point on it, we have torn down the very specific habitat that Trevors need to survive in.
It’s the same with food. Trevors were at their most fertile and successful in the 1960s, when rabbit jellies, Swedish meatballs and battenburg cake roamed the earth in good numbers. Once we started to replace these with risotto and boeuf bourgignon, I guess the writing was on the wall. By the time we were doing nouvelle cuisine, it was just about game over.
And on it goes, until there are only a handful of tiny concentrations of Trevors, in small reserves around England. Sadly, this crisis does not seem to be on Greta Thunberg’s radar, or even Carrie Johnson.
But there is hope. A PhD project at Bournemouth University is working on what is needed to reverse these various problems, and have even started to create micro habitats on the edge of the New Forest for them. As a conservationist, this is exhilarating news.
On the other hand, if Trevors don’t do it for you, curlews might. This week’s news that Ireland is now down to about 120 pairs, and Wales, with all its high lands and wild spaces, no more than 300. Trevors will survive, because they are part of a wider apex predator group. Curlews might not. And when they are gone, they are gone.
So, if you want to so something amazing, right now, Curlew Action has the best selection of cards (including Christmas cards), funky teeshirts, warm socks and even art, to help those precious birds out.
Do shop now.
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You might even delight a Trevor.
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