Rabbits drive record recovery rates of rare species in Brecks

The Breckland-based Shifting Sands project is part of efforts to save England's most-threatened species from extinction, and has been helping wildlife across the Breckland habitat that spans Norfolk and Suffolk.

Rabbits are often considered a pest for certain habitats. However, they're a 'keystone species' that helps hold together entire ecosystems through their grazing and digging activities. This helps maintain open habitats and allows flora and insects to thrive.

Here are the seven species that have been helped by the Shifting Sands project in the Brecklands:

The prostate perennial knawel is unique to the Brecks (Image: Alex Hyde)

1. Prostate Perennial Knawel

This plant is not found anywhere else in the world and is unique to the Brecks in Norfolk and Suffolk.

It likes the sandy, nutrient-poor soil of the Brecks and is unable to compete against other more vigorous and competitive plants. Populations are low and at risk, and are currently only found at three sites.

Basil thyme is popular with bees and insects (Image: Alex Hyde)

2. Basil Thyme

This native lowland plant mainly grows in southern and eastern England. It's a member of the dead-nettle family and is popular with bees and insects.

Basil thyme has declined due to weed control methods (Image: Alex Hyde)

Numbers of the species have declined due to weed control methods and it's now classed as a vulnerable species under sections 41 and 42 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006.

The Brecks offers a great environment for field wormwood (Image: Archant)

3. Field Wormwood

Field wormwood likes dry habitats and thrives on meadows, verges and rocky embankments. It's one of England's most endangered and threatened wild plants. Thankfully, the Shifting Sands project has helped numbers increase in the Brecks.

The rare wormwood moonshiner beetle feeds on field wormwood seeds (Image: Brian Eversham)

4. Wormwood Moonshiner Beetle

The wormwood moonshiner is one of the rarest species of beetle in the UK. It's named such as it emerges at night to feast on the ripening seeds of field wormwood. While numbers are still few, they have been recovering in recent years and have been found at new sites recently.

Population numbers of the Lunar Yellow Undwerwing moth have started to rise (Image: Archant)

5. Lunar Yellow Underwing Moth

This species has been in decline due to loss of habitat. It's found in scattered areas across

East Anglia and southern England but is generally very rare. The larvae feed on herbaceous plants and grasses and can be identified by its distinct black mark on the leading edge near the tip of its wings.

Two five banded weevil wasps (Cerceris quinquefasciata) were found. They are a Biodiversity Action Plan Priority species which is under threat. (Image: Will George / Flickr)

6. Five-banded digger tailed wasp

This wasp lives in habitats with loose sand, which it burrows into to feed on weevils. Their burrowing holes can be found near rabbit holes, and they need lots of tall flowers nearby.

Their sting is too small to hurt humans. The five-banded digger wasp is one of the rarest species in the digger wasp family.

Down the rabbit hole in the Brecks (Image: Alex Hyde)

7. European Rabbit

Despite being so important to habitats in the UK, surprisingly they are not native species and were first introduced in the 12th century from their native Spain.

An outbreak of myxomatosis in the 1950s wiped out 99pc of the rabbit population in the UK but thankfully populations have recovered.

The Shifting Sands project was supported by a team of 400 volunteers (Image: © Alex Hyde)

Shifting Sands is one of 19 projects across England that make up the national Back from the Brink initiative. Together, these projects aim to save 20 species from extinction and benefit over 200 more.

Pip Mountjoy, Shifting Sands project manager at Natural England, said: “The Brecks were described by Charles Dickens as “barren”. They are anything but. Their 370 square miles of sandy heathland, open grassland and forest support almost 13,000 species, making it one of the UK’s most important areas for wildlife.

The Brecks are an important habitat that stretches across Norfolk and Suffolk (Image: Alex Hyde)

“That wildlife is under threat. Felling trees and encouraging a species that is often considered a pest may seem a strange solution. But in this instance, carefully managed ‘disturbance’ is exactly what this landscape and its biodiversity needs."

“The project’s interventions have provided a lifeline for this unique landscape, and shown how biodiversity can be promoted by ‘disturbing’ places – not just by leaving them alone.

"It’s our responsibility to restore and maintain these spaces for nature. Some of these species exist only here and, if lost, will be lost forever.”