Wildlife of Britain

Britain's Wildlife: The Celtic Legacy Hidden in the Landscape Walk through an ancient woodland in Wales, stand beside a windswept Scottish loch, or watch red kites circling above the hills of Britain, and it is easy to feel that Nature is woven into the very identity of these islands.  Britain is home to an extraordinary diversity of wildlife and habitats: ancient oak woods, chalk grasslands, peat bogs, heathlands, estuaries, and rugged coastlines that support thousands of species of plants and animals. The conventional explanation for this richness is largely ecological. Britain's biodiversity has been shaped by geography, climate, geology, and thousands of years of interaction between people and the land.  Yet there is another story worth considering—one that is cultural rather than purely scientific. Could part of Britain's enduring relationship with wildlife be rooted in the values of its ancient Celtic peoples? While it would be an exaggeration to claim that Britain...