How over 400 British species have become extinct over the past 200 years

Britain has lost almost half of its biodiversity since the Industrial Revolution and more than 400 species over the last 200 years. Critically endangered Wildcat Greater mouse-eared bat Vulnerable Hedgehog Hazel dormouse Orkney Vole Serotine bat Barbastelle bat Endangered Beaver Red squirrel Water vole Grey long-eared bat Near threatened Mountain hare Harvest mouse Lesser white-toothed shrew Leisler's bat Nathusius' pipistrelle Source: Mammal Society Birds It may seem hard to believe but almost half of birds in Britain are at risk of extinction. Grey partridge Lapwing Grasshopper warbler Ptarmigan Whimbrel House martin Capercaillie Curlew Wood warbler Black grouse Black-tailed godwit Starling Bewick's swan Ruff Mistle thrush White-fronted goose Dunlin Cuckoo Merlin Linnet Balearic shearwater Shag Fieldfare Long-tailed duck Purple sandpiper Ring ouzel Velvet scoter Woodcock Spotted flycatcher Common scoter Red-necked phalarope Nightingale Goldeneye Kittiwake Whinchat Smew Herring gull House sparrow Tree pipit Corncrake Red-backed shrike Redpoll Willow tit Skylark Yellowhammer Pochard Roseate tern Tree sparrow Scaup Arctic skua Red-necked grebe Puffin Yellow wagtail Slavonian grebe Hen harrier Hawfinch Turtle dove Montagu's harrier Greenfinch Swift Lesser spotted woodpecker Twite Leach's storm-petrel Marsh tit Corn bunting Cirl bunting Source: The Birds of Conservation Concern 5 Red list Fish Only one species of fish has become extinct in Britain in the last 200 years and that is the burbot. These include the Atlantic halibut, European eel and Atlantic bluefin tuna Multiple sharks, such as the angel, thresher, and smooth hammerhead, are also under threat, while salmon has suffered significant declines since the 1960s 'CLIMATE CHANGE, WETLAND LOSS AND LAND USE CHANGE ARE MAINLY TO BLAME FOR DYING SPECIES' David Noble, the principal ecologist for the British Trust for Ornithology, told MailOnline that the 'main pressure driving species towards extinction in Britain over the last 50 years is land use change and especially the intensive management of agricultural land which covers 75 per cent of the country.' Cicada Wart-biter cricket Scotch Argus butterfly Swallowtail butterfly Cosnard's net-winged beetle Bearded false darkling beetle V-moth Small tortoiseshell butterfly Fungi, lichens and plants Seventy species of fungus have become extinct in England in the last 200 years, while many more are still being threatened by habitat loss and pollution.