The first ever audit of the diversity of the animals, plants and fungi found on our shores, funded by the Government has discovered almost 500 species have gone extinct in England, most of them in the last 200 years.

In addition, the study also outlined the jeopardized state of those animals that are remaining, with a quarter of the most studied species under extreme threat.

Many animals are revealed to suffer in the last 200 years as the intensification of agriculture and growth of cities has restricted in some species including those of foxes and crows while rare animals such as red squirrels and pine martens to a few isolated spots.

The figures reveal that overall 492 species have been lost in England in the last 2,000 years according to the new report from Natural England Lost Life: England's Lost and Threatened Species.

Of the famous species remaining, nearly 25% are under threat.

According to the new study all of England's reptile species, dolphin and whales show a unceasing decrease, along with 60 per cent of amphibians, 40 per cent of land mammals, a third of butterflies and bees and around a quarter of breeding birds.