Birds featured in The Twelve Days of Christmas song are dying out as their population halves
No swans a swimming, no geese a laying, no turtle doves... and no partridge in a pear tree
ICONIC wild birds featured in traditional song The Twelve Days of Christmas are dying out.
Populations of partridges and turtle doves, given away by “my true love” on the first and second days, have halved since the 1970s.
There are also fears for some species of geese-a- laying and swans-a-swimming, according to an Environment Department report on the first day of Advent.
Labour MP Kate Hoey, who sits on Parliament’s all-party Game and Wildlife Conservation Group, warned the issue was “a sign of wildlife in peril”.
She said: “The Government must take action to rescue these birds from being reduced to nothing more than memories of a classic seasonal song.”
The report shows six out of ten turtle doves and three out of ten grey partridges have been lost in five years.
Turtle doves, once widespread in the South, now number fewer than 10,000 and the grey partridge well below 40,000.
Some types of geese, given on the sixth day, are also in strong decline, with the white-fronted goose and Brent goose falling ten per cent a year.
The Bewick’s swan is declining at the rate of 22 per cent a year — a drop of 85 per cent since the 1970s.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove is convinced more will be done to protect wild birds once Brexit is complete.
MOST READ IN UK NEWS
A spokesman for his department said: “It’s sad numbers of these birds have fallen but we are investing in environmental schemes which benefit birds and establishing 250,000 acres of new wildlife-rich habitat.
“When we leave the EU we’ll also be able to invest more into our land management schemes.”
Even if the birds from the song are saved, there will still be the problem of the Lords a-leaping. And who wants to save the dozy House of Lords?