The countryside has many laws to protect wildlife, birdlife, wild mammals, and plantlife from being plundered by criminals including thieves and hooligans.

There is the Wild Mammals Protection Act 1996 which protects wild mammals from cruel acts over and above the other safeguards of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order 1985. A "wild mammal" is defined as "any mammal which is not a domestic or captive animal."

Police powers in this regard include "stop and search" of the suspected person; seizing of any evidence found; after which the courts have power to order the confiscation of any vehicle or equipment that was used in the commission of an offence against wild mammals. 

As regards the history of mammals in the United Kingdom, mammal fauna is somewhat impoverished compared to that of Europe due to the short period of time between the last Ice Age  and the flooding of the bridge  between Great Britain and the rest of Europe. After the flooding, only those land species which crossed before the creation of the newly formed English Channel and those  since introduced by humans, exist in Great Britain.