A quarter of Britain’s native mammal species – including red squirrels, wildcats and beavers – are at risk of extinction.
The first official Red List for British mammals shows that 11 of our 47 native species could disappear from our shores.
Habitat loss, chemicals, industrial development and non-native species have left them in a perilous state.
Those “critically endangered” are wildcats, with fewer than 20 in the wild in Scotland, and greater mouse-eared bats, with one left.
Beavers – reintroduced after being hunted to extinction by the 1600s – are endangered, as are red squirrels, water voles and grey long-eared bats.
Hedgehogs and hazel dormice are among five mammals classed as vulnerable to extinction.
Natural England chairman Tony Juniper said protection and restoration of habitat would be key to recovery, adding: “This is a wake-up call, but it is not too late to act.”
The Red List has been produced by the Mammal Society for government conservation agencies.
Chairwoman Prof Fiona Mathews said: “Once an animal becomes endangered or critically endangered, it’s really a scramble to put measures in place to rescue them.”
