The UK is home to a fascinating array of wildlife – but not all creatures are popular. Whether it's misunderstandings, old superstitions or perhaps just bad PR, some species have a negative reputation.
But if we take a look closer, we can see that each of these unloved species plays a vital role in our environment. Here's a guide to the UK's least loved animals – and why they deserve a little respect.
UK’s least loved animals
1. Red fox (Vulpes vulpes)
The archetypal bushy-tailed, wily villains of fable and folklore, foxes are common and widespread across the UK. Rural foxes are wary of humans, who have long persecuted them for poultry theft and hunting; their urban cousins, however, learned long ago to thrive alongside us. These bolder animals moved into urban and suburban London in the 1930s, offering a free and effective rodent control service.
The flipside is their willingness to investigate whatever smells good in our bins, but fears of disease or pet predation are overblown. We’re already seeing evolutionary changes in urban foxes, with city-dwellers having shorter, wider snouts and smaller braincases than countryside animals. The future for these intelligent opportunists will undoubtedly involve further adaptation to human ways of life.
- Fox hunting in the UK: facts, history and the law
- What's the difference between a fox and a dog? Cunning vs companion – we discover what really sets these canines apart
- Fox cubs: when to see them, what they're called and what they sound like
2. European hornet (Vespa crabro)
As the UK’s largest native social wasp, hornets are often assumed to be bigger, meaner, more aggressive versions of common wasps. In truth, while we should discard the notion that any wasp possesses human traits like meanness or vindictiveness, hornets are even more docile. These beautiful yellow-and-brown insects can be heard whirring through woodlands and parks across England and Wales, avoiding conflict and only stinging when their nest is threatened.
Like other social wasps, they’re ecological superstars, providing important pollination and pest control services, including predating many insects that plague gardens and agriculture, which they carry back to the nest to feed the queen’s growing brood. Sadly, media hype around invasive Asian hornets has led to increased fear, misunderstanding, and indiscriminate persecution of native hornets.
3. Cardinal spider (Tegenaria parietina)
Found in old buildings and walls in southern England, it’s said that cardinal spiders are named after Cardinal Wolsey, who was apparently terrified of them at Hampton Court. Indeed, as the largest house spider species, with leg spans in adult males reaching 12 cm, cardinals can be particularly alarming. But, as with other species, they’re unfairly maligned.
Every autumn, the tabloids demonise house spiders as home ‘invaders’; in reality, it’s breeding time and the males are looking for mates. That big brown spider in your bathtub is not out to get you; he’s just following his instincts to find a female, who is tucked away somewhere inside. Unfortunately, many people kill these non-aggressive spiders, overlooking the fact that they do a fantastic job of keeping homes fly-free.
- Discover Britain's biggest spiders, giant arachnids with legs up to 7cm long
- Meet Britain's tarantula, the purseweb spider
- What’s the most common spider in Britain?
4. Garden slugs
The more than 40 slug species in the UK mostly live quiet, harmless lives in the undergrowth, munching on decaying plants, fungi, fruits, and more. These members of nature’s clean-up crew provide an essential environmental service, returning vital nutrients to the soil. A few species are problematic, wreaking havoc in gardens by devouring tender seedlings and prized plants.
But rather than reaching for poison pellets (which can also harm other wildlife), consider that a booming slug population often signals an unhealthy ecosystem. By making your garden wildlife-friendly, you’ll encourage slugs’ natural predators, like hedgehogs, blackbirds, and toads. Ultimately, coexisting with slugs means rejecting the label of ‘pest’ (something the Royal Horticultural Society did in 2022) and seeing them as part of a healthy garden.
5. Herring gull (Larus argentatus)
The typical species associated with seaside towns, herring gulls are found all around the UK coast and in inland pockets too. As their natural foods have become harder to find, these bold, highly opportunistic birds have learned to supplement their diets with human food, whether from streets, rubbish bins, or even human hands. Add to that their raucous calls and generally menacing appearance, and it’s no surprise they’re often unpopular.
Fewer people know that herring gulls are devoted partners, whose pair bonds may last several years, or that much of their ‘nuisance’ behaviour comes from the parents fiercely protecting their nest. Sadly, while they may seem abundant, their numbers have plummeted in the UK, and in 2009 they were added to the UK Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern.
- Are seagulls the seaside's biggest pest and are we right to wage war on them? Or should we learn to love these often-maligned rogues?
- Seagull vs Gull: what's the difference?
6. Tawny cockroach (Ectobius pallidus)
Cockroaches have a reputation as scuttling, dirty pests that spread disease. While this may be the case for a dozen or so invasive species, most cockroaches are harmless and even beneficial. The tawny cockroach is one of them, and one of the UK’s three native species (the others being the dusky and lesser cockroaches). They spend their time chomping on leaf litter and other plant debris in southern England’s woods and heathlands, performing a vital role as decomposers.
They share the same palette of golden-brown tones as their detested tropical cousins, but they’re smaller (around 1 cm) and won’t infest your homes. So, if you find a little cockroach wandering indoors, don’t panic! Gently catch it in a glass and pop it back into some leaf litter to carry on with its day.
7. Brown rat (Rattus norvegicus)
These intelligent, highly adaptable little mammals play several roles in our lives. As pets, they are adored; as research subjects, they have advanced biomedical research; and as pests, they are vilified. While we’re justified on hygiene grounds in not wanting wild rats for housemates, it should be acknowledged that brown rats didn’t arrive from Asia until the 1700s, centuries after the Black Death, and most of the time rats live around us with no issues.
When they do become pests, recognising their sentience and complex social lives should encourage us to use the most humane control methods: these playful creatures like being tickled, obsessively groom themselves and others, go out of their way to help a friend in need, and can undoubtedly suffer.
Words by: Jo Wimpenny
Jo Wimpenny’s Beauty of the Beasts is out now from Bloomsbury.
