Bear scratch rewilding could bring our woodpeckers back!
I’ve watched with sadness as the delightful Lesser Spotted Woodpecker - the smallest member of the woodpecker family in the UK at roughly the size of a sparrow – has declined from once common garden bird to total disappearance from much of our countryside. Its demise is likely a result of many factors, but could it be that a lack of brown bears (exterminated from the UK over 1,000 years ago) is one of them! If so, how can we replicate some bear antics by rewilding gardening and help our woodpeckers back?
Today I’d like to reference
the excellent study by Ewa Zyśk-Gorczyńska and colleagues at
the University of Zielona Góra, Poland, published in 2014. The study analyzed
278 wounds in silver firs (Abies alba) of different age classes from
bears that damage trees through foraging and rubbing. Impressively, 43% of
damaged areas had holes made by wood-boring insects and 33% had signs of
woodpecker feeding.
Interestingly,
the oldest wound age class (greater than 5 years old) was associated with a high
probability of occurrence of insects and woodpeckers. Insect densities in fresh
wounds (<1 year old) were significantly lower than in the older wounds. The
results show that bear-made wounds provide breeding and feeding sites for both
insects and birds.
Is it
possible that the lack of bears has affected our woodpeckers over 1,000 years
later? It could be a contributing factor! I’m speculating it would take roughly
this time period for the last trees with bear damage to mature, age, and die.
For
the rewilding gardener it is worth considering the importance of replicating
tree damage or encouraging other species that also damage tree cambium such as
deer. Their efforts will ensure a degree of dead or damaged wood which could remain
as a weak point within the tree for hundreds of years. These weak points are
likely to be exploited by wood burrowing insects and fungi, leading to crevices
that become homes for bats and birds. All because a bear had a bit of a
scratch!
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