Month: August 2021

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In Britain, the may gales allowed record amounts of electricity to be made from wind turbines

One of the real pushes in the UK towards clean energy is through the vast wind turbine farms placed out in the North sea.

With expectations of these growing dramatically over the next decade, these areas are very windy and therefore an incredibly reliable source of electricity generation.

Due to more and more wind turbines being built this record will not hold. At the moment wind power makes up roughly 20% of Britain’s energy generation. Over boxing day during a large storm, wind power produce more than 50% of the UK’s electricity.

Last year was the first time that more electricity came from renewables (wind water sunlight and wood) which produced 42% of the electricity in the UK compared to the 41% that came from fossil fuel sources.

This clearly suggests the UK has some way to go. However as the UK increasingly brings more and more wind farms online, and the pace of solar generation starts to pick up again after the government’s foolish eradication of financial support, it is conceivable that in the next 20 years the remaining 41% of our power generation reliant on fossil fuels could fall all too close to zero.

One of the big advances in recent years is the vast batteries that are starting to come online. In the past peaker plants (these are power plants that come online to support high periods of demand) have been the most dirty power. These are likely to quickly be replaced by batteries as they are expensive to run.

For the first time the idea of running a carbon-neutral economy, does not seem that far-fetched when looking at our current setup

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Delacour’s langur is a critically endangered monkey with just 300 of these remain in the wild, but now 80% are protected

Delacour’s langur is a severely endangered primate fewer than 300 of these remain in the wild

Delacour Languars are critically endangered, but their future is slightly more secure

What is gratifying about this situation, is that more than 80% of the remaining langurs live within a community reserve that has been set up by the locals being supported by various conservation bodies particularly in Germany.

This reserve has been recognised in an international survey of protected areas that have done the best work for saving wild species.

Indeed it is a perfect example of what can happen with local conservation. 

Indeed it is these sort of projects that we wish to support through the in the shadow of mankind project that we are running on the website.

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Should bears be returned to the wilds of the UK?

If you follow this blog regularly, you will have read yesterday and the day before on the reasoning for reintroducing Lynx and Wolves.

As I wrote, Lynx should be a simple choice. I believe that Wolves follow a similar logical route, that suggests that the reintroduction would either save or make far more money that any negatives might cost.

Brown bears are highly intelligent omnivores. They could thrive in the UK, and give much needed job opportunities in remote parts of the UK

Bears are also locally extinct in the UK, how does the arguments about reintroducing them go? Well, I would argue that actually the cost of bear reintroduction would be significantly lower.

Continue reading “Should bears be returned to the wilds of the UK?”
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Should the wolf return to the wild in the UK

Yesterday, I wrote an article on whether the Lynx should be returned to the UK (returning to the home page will allow you to read it). As a medium sized cat, that hunts by ambush and restricts itself to forests, reintroducing it should be a relatively simple decision. The wolf does not fit into this framework. I do however believe that it too should return to its rightful place as part of the fauna of the wild Britain.

Wolf pack photographed in france

How are wolves similar to Lynx? Well they are predators. Indeed, like Lynx they are at the top of the food chain. So why do we need more than one predator?

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Palm oil plantations are growing in the northern Amazon and the army seems to be in charge of the forest.

While palm oil plantations are not currently the people doing the clearing in this part of the Amazon, the fact that they are desperate for land means that other people (be them soya farmers or or cattle farmers) find the risk of clearing land is worth it as they know they will be able to sell it to the palm oil plantations.

Much of the invaded land is actually indigenous areas. This has many issues. These invasions bring them into close proximity with people from outside, leading to regular outbreaks of illness. They are also extremely worried about the large quantities of pesticides these palm oil plantations use. Given that much of this land is actually indigenous, it would seem that it should be an incredibly simple legal matter to throw them off it.

Continue reading “Palm oil plantations are growing in the northern Amazon and the army seems to be in charge of the forest.”
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Should the lynx return to the wild in the UK?

I am always interested when one of the biggest newspapers in the country, echo a sentiment that I have been talking about in this blog. Do not worry, I have no thoughts of grandeur – there news has not been prompted by this blog. However, it is highly encouraging when someone else is saying the same thing.

This blog is devoted to encouraging the protection and rejuvenation of wild ecosystems – through helping recognize the benefits and (obviously still a work in progress) hopefully creating a way to advertise you wilderness and have people visit (while you offer some service, from access to your land, to food or accommodation (tent or other)) thereby making the wildlife that people share their land with a financial benefit to the rest of the business.

However, one of the big issue that ecosystems have throughout the world, is holes as a result of human caused extinctions.

In the UK we have no predators larger than foxes and badgers. While these animals might take a tiny abandoned deer fawn, they are incapable of taking much more than this.

In the past we had wolves, bears and lynx.

European Lynx rarely leave their woodland home

I will talk about wolves and bears in other articles, but the lynx is different. This is an in depth look at some of the issues that are at play here. As such, this article is perhaps a bit longer that this blogs articles normally are.

Lynx are virtually exclusively forest animals, which means that for the most part they did not prey on our livestock. Indeed it has been shown that far more often than not, a Lynx walking the edge of a woodland will not attack sheep 10m outside. This idea is confirmed by what happens in Romania; there is a population of around 1300-2800 lynx (I realize that this population range is wide, this is the problem with dealing with a species rarely seen), and it is estimated that in the worst areas of the world lynx might kill a sheep once every 2 years – or an annual loss of perhaps 2000 out of 9 million that live in Romania.

Continue reading “Should the lynx return to the wild in the UK?”
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Why does the debate continue to be pay to fight climate change or … don’t?

We continue to hear ” fighting climate change is to expensive” in one form or another. 

Problem is that this looks at this issue wrong. Sure, right now it is pay to fight or not, but if we don’t in a couple of decades our children will have to pay terms of times more to undo or damage.

In other words, the decision is pay a little now, or make our children pay huge amounts.

What parent makes that decision? What will future generations make of our collective ambivalence?

Continue reading “Why does the debate continue to be pay to fight climate change or … don’t?”
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Illegal trade in Indonesian leopards is booming

The country of Indonesia consists of many islands. Due to their relative size, these islands have led to many subspecies of animals adapting. 

In the past tigers existed on at least three of these islands. These animals once lived on Java and Bali, but now there is only a small population in Sumatra. 

In Java this leaves the the largest predator population consisting of the leopard – this is why it is so concerning that these leopards are being poached.

Javan Leopards are restricted to the island of Java, so the population is not huge.
Continue reading “Illegal trade in Indonesian leopards is booming”
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We are back – otters on Mull

We have been away. As part of our trip we spent significant time watching otters on the Isle of Mull.

Why are otters easier to see on the Scottish islands?

The total otter population of the UK is thought to be around 10,000. Around 90% of this is on the mainland, but the last 10% live out on the islands off the coast of Scotland – and this is where they are watched the most.

Why are they easier to see on the little islands rather than on the mainland? Essentially, this is down to what they eat. On mainland Britain Otters live in rivers and eat fish, on the Islands the Otters feed at low tide. This means that they are far easier to find, and at the right time of the month they will be active in the middle of the day.

Over the next few weeks, we will put together a video of our footage, as well as pages to help wild holidays to these islands.

See Animals Wild