Species? Ireland's Endangered What About

What about Ireland's endangered species? — Minihane Picture: Species, About Ireland's Coughlan Kieran Homo Hibernia Worried Is Endangered Denis Agricola Own

Tue, 02 Aug, 2022 - 14:32

Stephen Coughlan

I had the pleasure of attending Edinburgh Zoo this past week. It was a special experience with rare and exotic animals on display including the giant panda, ant-eaters, and armadillos. Of course, our local zoo at Fota Wildlife Park in Cork is a wonderful facility too, but it was nice to see a different range of animals that I hadn’t seen in real life previously.

That got me thinking about Ireland’s endangered species, Homo Agricola Hibernia. Our native species has survived for thousands of years; spread right across the country from the lowlands to the mountains.

Figures suggest up to 935,000 occupied Ireland’s land base in 1845. By 1913, the population had reduced to 359,000, dropping to 313,000 by 1955, 263,000 by 1980, 170,000 by 1991. Figures stabilised somewhat in the late 1990s at about 140,000, and remained relatively stable throughout the next two decades - albeit there have been severe declines in certain pockets of rural Ireland where land type was of a more challenging nature.

All over the EU, the drop in populations of their native species has been replicated, an alarming decrease of 33% between 2003 and 2013 alone. The entire EU population of the Homo Agricola has been monitored and regulated for many years and as such the decline in the numbers has happened with the explicit knowledge of EU and State organisations.

Whilst numbers stabilised here in Ireland, there is nonetheless a weakening of the health of the population of the species with some critical warnings pointing to the potential for further demise.

The replacement rate has been especially low over recent decades, and the age profile of the species is getting older and older, suggesting that the population might die out if conditions to encourage a new breeding programme are not introduced.

There have been conservation efforts with a mixture of EU and national funding to support improved habitat and provide a base level of sustenance. However, the species has increasingly suffered from habitat decline, with other non-natives invading the natural environments and out-competing for resources.

Many of the indigenous species can no longer survive within their habitat and are reliant on supplementation from outside of their habitats for survival. Despite the retention of the population numbers, the native creatures must now be considered vulnerable as a result of the external pressures on their environs.

This past week perhaps the biggest changes in the plight of our native species of all times were announced which will make it even harder for this species to survive in the wild. It is now plausible the species will become critically endangered and even might deteriorate even further reaching the status of extinct in the wild.

The species Homo Agricola Hibernia is, of course, more commonly known as "the Irish farmer".

Assuming the majority of Western civilisation simultaneously reduces output through limiting factors on fertiliser usage, stocking densities and other restrictions in the name of reducing carbon emissions, I expect a tipping point will be reached where agricultural output falls significantly below demand.

Inklings of such a scenario already came to pass this year when farmers were asked to consider expanding their tillage areas to support grain production as a result of the conflict unfolding in Ukraine.

I expect it is only at that point that the value of a productive class of Homo Agricola will truly come to light, whether shackles of regulations will be thrown off and whether they’ll have the capacity to step up to the plate and ramp up food production when this happens is questionable.