Protect nesting birds and wildlife by keeping to paths and using a lead where required, especially between 1 March and 31 July

Many wild animals call the Yorkshire Dales home, some all year round and some birds are only here during them warmer months.

There are many deer throughout this area, and you are most likely to come across roe deer while out and about in The Dales. Roe deer are one of the two species of deer found in this country (Red being the other) that are native, the others being introduced.

Roe deer can be injured if chased, the stress can cause miscarriage if they are carrying when chased and they are not particularly big, making it more likely that a dog may catch and cause direct injury to the deer.

Brown Hare are found in localised populations in The Dales, they are very fast and tend to run blindly in panic, this means that if in chase your dog could follow the hare quite a distance from you very quickly and into hazardous areas (e.g. across roads).

The Yorkshire Dales National Park is well known for its ground nesting birds, and birds with nests on the ground are much more vulnerable to disturbance and nest destruction. Not all dogs are interested in birds or flushing them, but that doesn’t mean they will not cause a problem through trampling of nests or general disturbance of nesting birds whilst wandering around. 

This is of concern right now due to the rapid decline of many of our ground nesting birds, obviously not just because of disturbance by dogs, but it does make the implications of this happening more serious.

The birds of main concern in The Dales currently are Curlew, Lapwing, Skylark and Woodcock.

Curlew numbers are estimated to have halved over the last 30 years, and the UK is home to the third biggest breeding population behind Finland and Russia. There are many projects to try to protect and recover our population. Lapwing surveys have proven the breeding population in The Dales is nationally important. This bird is classed as Near Threatened on the global IUCN Red List and is a priority species under the UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework. Skylark and Woodcock are also in decline, and both are listed on the IUCN Red List., 

Work is underway to help protect the birds and make steps to encourage population increase. This means you are likely going to see more signs about ground nesting birds in locations where key nesting sites also have public access.

We can help with all this by keeping to footpaths, keeping our dogs under control, and putting them on a lead when asked. You might not think your dog will chase wildlife, but if they’ve never been in that situation before it is best to err on the side of caution and make sure they can’t. This way you know your dog is going to stay safe as well as the wildlife.