ENDANGERED wildlife is to be given police protection after coming under threat from an unusual predator.

Four-wheel drive vehicles and off-road bikes are destroying the habitats of birds and plants.

Cleveland Police are to increase patrols, which could involve the mounted section, around the area of special scientific interest in Redcar.

Officers have received numerous complaints from conservationists English Nature about damage at Bran Sands.

The site covers several acres of sand dunes on the south side of the River Tees estuary and is a nesting site for sea birds.

It is also an important habitat for a variety of plants.

Sea birds, including the little tern, nest in the area after returning from Africa, where they spend the winter months.

Officers believe many of the people responsible for the damage will have no idea that they are doing anything wrong.

PC Ian Solomon, police wildlife officer for the Langbaurgh area, said: "Damage is being caused by off-road bikes, quads and four-wheel drive cars.

"But we think, in many cases, the people driving these vehicles may not know the damage they are causing.

"We intend to increase patrols, in some areas using our mounted section, to discourage people from using the area."

A spokesman for English Nature said: "The area affected by these off-road activities is a nationally important wildlife site. It forms part of the South Gare and Coatham Sands Site of Special Scientific Interest for migratory water birds.

"Our main concerns are noise and visual disturbance. Unfamiliar activities, such as off-road driving, force the birds to stop feeding and take to the sky, using up vital energy stores needed to help them survive the cold winter months."

Other species of bird found in the area include bar-tailed godwit, curlew, redshank and dunlin, which travel thousands of miles from Greenland and the Canadian Arctic to feed on the mud flats.

Steve Ashton, wildlife manager at Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, said: "We have had people complain about riders tearing around the dunes. It just isn't safe.

"Around this time we try to cordon off areas where little terns are nesting, so we fully support what the police are trying to do."