LONDON, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Sightings of dragonflies and damselflies along British canals and rivers is a sign water is becoming cleaner, a report released Wednesday said.
The fifth annual report by British Waterways showed that overall sightings of wildlife were down in 2008 to 3,000 from 4,000 in 2007, The Telegraph reported. But experts say that may be an aberration caused, at least partly, by a wet spring and summer that may have washed away the nests of some common bird species, such as kingfishers.
"If there is a similar fall-off in numbers next year then there will be a cause for concern but at the moment I am not too worried," Mark Robinson, the group's national ecology manager, told The Telegraph.
There were 350 sightings of dragonflies and damselflies, including a sharp jump in numbers in Scotland.
"Dragonflies are absolutely an indicator of water quality and pollution," Steve Prentice of the British Dragonfly Society told The Scotsman. "They lay their eggs in water and the larvae live in water for one or two years before emerging as flies -- they depend on good water quality."
