I, however, was put in the handicapped part of the race, the chelonian section, where all the hard-backed creatures were classed, and among those I came first, to the tremendous cheers of the crowd. Therefore I am a winner and you are not.""Yes, but the fact remains that I came home ahead of you!" said the hare."Oh, dear. The winner is not the one who finishes first," said the tortoise, flashing his press-cuttings and his invitation on to Kilroy, "but the one who gets the most media attention."AFTER SEVERAL days of trying to catch a wily sheep, a wolf determined to resort to subterfuge. He disguised himself as a sheep and entered the field, where he was easily spotted and sent packing by the combined flock. Next, he tried to hide up a tree and jump on the sheep, but he could not climb the tree. After that, he hid in a hedge but got stuck and had to ask a passing dog for help. Finally, the sheep became so exasperated with the wolf's constant persecution, that she reported him to the police."I have never seen such a persistent and obsessive case of stalking," said the judge.

"I am issuing a court order preventing you from going within a mile of any sheep anywhere.""But how shall I eat, then?" said the wolf, piteously. "It is in my nature to eat sheep.""You should have thought of that before you became a wolf and started infringing sheep rights," said the judge, strictly.The wolf thought about that, and then leapt on the judge and bit him to death More from Miles Kington. England's rarest breeding bird of prey, the hen harrier, may have been brought to the brink of extinction this spring. England's rarest breeding bird of prey, the hen harrier, may have been brought to the brink of extinction this spring. English Nature, the Government's wildlife advisory body, says the large hawk has already been reduced to tiny numbers in England by gamekeepers, who are believed to kill it illegally to stop it taking red grouse chicks on grouse moors.Last year only five pairs managed to raise young in two breeding places in England. This year, however, the birds have disappeared from Geltsdale in Cumbria, which is a Royal Society for the Protection of Birds reserve."The only place where there are hen harriers in England is the Forest of Bowland, and the only confirmed sighting was a month or two ago," said Alistair Crowle, an English Nature uplands ecologist."There are no hen harriers at Geltsdale this year. A female appeared for a few days, then disappeared a month ago.At this rate of decline we are looking at the extinction of the hen harrier as a breeding bird in England very soon, possibly even this year."United Utilities, formerly North West Water, which owns the 10,000-hectare estate in the Forest of Bowland, said birds were still present, but could not say how many because observers had been unable to check moorlands during the foot-and-mouth emergency.There is a long history of conflict between the hen harrier and grouse moor owners who claim that, if left unchecked, the protected harriers take so many chicks they make grouse shooting unviable.Last year the RSPB called on moor owners to stop killing hen harriers.

"We believe that systematic shooting of adult birds and the destruction of nests is widespread," said Julian Hughes, the RSPB's head of species policy.In a report published yesterday, English Nature claimed, using figures from the Game Conservancy Trust, that there was enough upland habitat in England to support 230 pairs of hen harriers.. They are the jewels in the crown of world wildlife. Rich in animals and plants, they are festooned with biological curiosities that play a leading role in the story of evolutionary diversity They are also overpopulated, overfarmed and under threat They are the jewels in the crown of world wildlife. Rich in animals and plants, they are festooned with biological curiosities that play a leading role in the story of evolutionary diversity. They are also overpopulated, overfarmed and under threat. A two-year investigation into the world's 17,000 main nature reserves ­ specifically established to protect wildlife ­ has discovered that almost half are now being farmed for food Human hunger has become the enemy of wildlife preservation.

In 16 of the world's 25 species-rich regions, scientists have identified severe malnutrition among the people.As things stand, 24 per cent of mammals, more than 12 per cent of birds and nearly 14 per cent of plants are facing extinction. Wildlife is now more threatened than at any time since the last mass extinction, when the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago.With the apparent breakdown of protection for wilderness areas, scientists are calling for a radical switch in emphasis. They want farming and conservation to be united under the single banner of "ecoagriculture". Rather than rely on fences and prohibitions to curb farming of protected land, the new philosophy aims to boost agricultural production by using scientific advances from genetics to satellites.The aim is simple: if farmers can double or even treble food production on land they already use, they will have less need to encroach on pristine areas.

That is a drastic break with traditional conservation policies and common agriculture techniques, according to a report by the World Conservation Union (IUCN).The report ­ Common Ground, Common Future ­ draws on advice from 10,000 scientists in 181 countries, and from a think-tank based in Washington, Future Harvest. It catalogues the failure of existing attempts at wildlife preservation. If present trends continue, a quarter of the world's wild plants and animals, and a half of those living in forests, could be extinct or seriously endangered within 50 years."More than 1.1bn people now live within the world's 25 biodiversity 'hotspots', areas described by ecologists as the most threatened species-rich regions on Earth," the IUCN says. "Population in tropical wilderness areas is, on average, growing at a rate of 3.1 per cent ­ over twice the world's average rate of growth."To grow more food, most farmers try to eliminate wild species, to rid their land of pests and predators. Conservation tries to prevent this, but the protection covering just under 10 per cent of the Earth's land surface is not sufficient to protect wild biodiversity, says the report. Projections based on accepted ecological principles suggest that, if there is no increase in wildlife habitat, between 30 and 50 per cent of species will still be lost.Regions of the greatest biological diversity are under greatest threat.