Scottish farmers are blaming sea eagles for the deaths of hundreds of lambs, it was reported today.

The birds of the world are in serious trouble, and common species are in now decline all over the globe, a comprehensive new review suggests today.

Twenty years ago, the writer and environmentalist Heathcote Williams launched an epic plea for the future of the whale. His televised poem Whale Nation– with its closing lines, "From space, the planet is blue / From space, the planet is the territory / Not of humans, but of the whale"– was a hymn to the beauty, majesty and intelligence of the largest mammals on earth, as well as a prayer for their protection. And the film was a stunning success around the world, attracting some of the largest audiences ever seen for a "nature" programme; the published version, described as a modern version of T S Eliot's The Wasteland, was a major bestseller too, with the American rights alone selling for $100,000– a figure that prompted headlines at the time. Whale Nation became the most powerful argument for the newly instigated worldwide ban on whaling– and for a moment, back in 1988, it seemed as if a shameful chapter in human history might finally be drawing to a close.

North Atlantic right whale.Fewer than 350 animals. Given such a small gene pool, scientists fear for its survival. One possible solution may be to reinvigorate the northern whale's genes with those of its more successful southern counterpart off South Africa. Recent reports of pregnant North Atlantic right whales killed by ship strikes off the north-eastern seaboard of the US do not augur well for the species.

Wolves, boars and big cats might be reintroduced to the wilds of Scotland.

Several pairs of eagle owls, the largest owls in the world, are now breeding in the wild in Britain, according to a new study.

Contraceptive vaccines may be used to control the number of wild boar in the English countryside. The animals, which until recently had been extinct in Britain for at least 400 years, have been steadily rising in number in three main locations after a series of escapes from farms, and there is increasing concern that they may damage crops, spread disease and attack other animals– or even people. A big male can weight 400lb and has razor-sharp tusks.

With its bearded face and thick blubber, the walrus isn't the prettiest mammal in the ocean– that distinction is more likely to go to a sleek seal pup or a playful dolphin. But looks aren't everything, and scientists who work closely with walruses say that they have winning personalities, a great sense of fun and are musical to boot. Now, though, these majestic creatures could be at risk from the effects of climate change. Divided between the larger and more numerous Pacific walrus and the smaller and rarer Atlantic walrus, the world's walrus population is found at Arctic latitudes across Alaska, Canada, Greenland and western Russia. Here, walruses spend much of their time on and around ice floes, feeding on molluscs. But as temperatures at the North Pole rise, this pack ice is shifting north over deeper waters where the walruses struggle to reach their food.

In 26 years of beekeeping, Ged Marshall has never seen anything as bad as the 2008 honey harvest. A miserable summer that has confined his bees to their hives following a winter bedevilled by deadly viruses means that production this year will be barely a third of its usual level of around five tonnes of honey.