Cattle in Conservation

Because the landscape in the UK countryside is shaped by the activity of man, using domestic animals to manage nature reserves is vitally important. In the past traditional farming and agricultural methods created habitat that wildlife was able to utilise.

At Seaton Snook, a nature reserve near Tees Mouth, cattle are used as they eat the long grass. This in turn encourages new fresh growth of new grass and of other herbage that in turn provides habitat and food for the invertebrates that are the start of the food chain.

As Tees Mouth is an important National Nature Reserve, this provides food for the birds in spring and summer, while the fresh growth vegetation encouraged by the cattle grazing in turn provides grazing for migrant geese and swans in the winter.