WIDE public outcry has greeted the recent decline of Britain’s once plentiful house sparrows and starlings. Now reports are coming in of young birds unable to fly and instead walking around in tight circles, doing somersaults and twisting their heads in a bizarre fashion (New Scientist, 31 August, p 5). What is happening?
I asked Elliot Morley, the junior minister at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural affairs (DEFRA) with responsibility for animal welfare, if his department is backing any research into what is decimating these small birds.
Morley said that DEFRA recently published a report based on…
