Yes, let’s send home those ‘expat’ species. Starting with donkeys and rabbits | Jules Howard

Calls in the press for British ecosystems for British wildlife are ridiculous. They tell us more about readers’ attitudes than science

First, a confession. Many years ago, I worked as a press officer for a small national wildlife charity. I found this quite a challenging job at the time, not least because the creatures whose declining fortunes I was promoting were frogs and toads, and national news editors have far less interest in frogs and toads than you might imagine. For many years, while my peers in other wildlife charities garnered all sorts of front-page stories, I failed to make even a news in brief section with my stories.

But then it happened for me. There was one day, after many years trying, I hit gold. I had written a press release about some escapee North American bullfrogs breeding in the UK for the first time and there was interest in this story. Finally, after so long trying, I made a front page. It’s just that … well … I had made the front page of the British National party website. It was quite unsettling. To the BNP, these boggle-eyed unthinking expressions of amphibian diversity were a handy hook upon which they could hang their xenophobia.

Every life form alive today has a history someplace else, if you go far enough back

Related: Raccoon, mongoose and cabbage among invasive species banned from UK

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