Northern Ireland's Biodiversity
A patchwork of green fields, misty mountains and shining lakes – the scene that greets airline passengers as they circle above Northern Ireland. But more often than not, the entire vista will be cloaked in a grey haze of rain as befits Northern Ireland’s status as one of the dampest spots in Europe. It’s that mild damp climate that sets this country apart with a rich array of wetlands – not to mention the unusually varied bedrock and landforms lying deep beneath our lush green landscape.
Our rich geology has led to an extraordinary array of landscapes where many different habitats and species can thrive. 
From the jagged rocks and cloaking blanket bog of our uplands to the round hills and intimate small lakes of the drumlin belt, the exposed steep cliffs of Rathlin Island to the sheltered salt marshes of Strangford Lough. This is one of the reasons for the special status of much of our wildlife.
Our biodiversity experts say that although everything was wiped off the map during the last Ice Age, which only ended about 10,000 years ago, our varied rocks and landforms have allowed a 
wide range of species to colonise Northern Ireland and the seas around it.
Being on the western seaboard of Europe, we have a range of special features resulting from our wet and mild climate. Blanket bogs are rare in the rest of the world but cover a lot of our cool wet uplands.
Northern Ireland is also very rich in freshwater and wetland habitats. We have the largest lake in Britain and Ireland in Lough Neagh, other very large lakes such as Lower Lough Erne and Lough Melvin and a myriad of lakes, fens and raised bogs.
Our rivers, which are generally clean and fast flowing, have important stocks of salmon and trout such as those found in many rivers in the Foyle system.
Native woodlands, flower-rich limestone grasslands and unimproved rushy meadows harbour all sorts of species that are scarce on a European level and our lakes and fens host a range of species which survived after the retreat of the glaciers.
These species are usually found in much icier lakes and northern wetlands many hundreds of miles from here.
For example, Lough Neagh is home to a fish called the pollan which is found in no other country in Europe and there is also the Arctic char, the Irish damselfly and species of fresh-water shrimp, water-boatman and water beetle.
There are other species that are isolated genetically from their counterparts in Britain - the Irish stoat and the Irish hare, for example, are genetically distinct from their cousins across the water.
Northern Ireland also boasts some of the richest seabird colonies in the UK with hundreds of thousands of guillemots and razorbills on Rathlin and Arctic terns and Manx shearwaters in the Copeland Islands. Continue...
