Wildlife and conservation new, wild travel information and links for booking
In the UK, it has been shown that at every solar farm looked at, there were more species, from insects such as butterflies, to mammals such as hares do well.
I would argue that these areas are not as good as reserves, but it is still a positive benefit. Indeed, it is conceivable that if wolves and bears returned to the UK, these sites could be fantastic for these animals.
The wildlife of Indonesia now often looks like relatively unique to those islands. This is not the natural state of affairs. 60,000 years ago, a cousin of the orangutan lived on the mainland. Unfortunately, what appears clear, is that humans were responsible for the extinction of these animals as with so many more.
There are 2 species of Indonesian Rhino, the Javan rhino and the Sumatran rhino. Now it should be noted that these names are not an indication of a small range (or if it is, it is wrong) in reality, both rhino species were far more widely spread. Indeed mainland specimens lived within the 21st century.
Continue reading “The Indonesian rhinos that once roamed across much of Asia”A report has calculated that the reintroduction of 9 species would do so much benefit to the ecosystems that they are found in, that these reintroductions would help us to keep global warming to 1.5° C.
While some of these would require human adaption, many would have benefits far beyond climate change.
These species are
Continue reading “Another report stresses the importance of rewilding for climate change, and reintroductions”I have been away with my family for 10 days.
Hopefully a handful of videos will drop in the next few days, with an attempt to raise our profile so that we can do what we set off to do.
Our first week was spent down in Devon, near one of the beaver lodges. Interestingly, the guide I reached out to stated that they did not operate this early in the year, as the beavers emerge to late in the evening. We decided to go down late in the week, anyway, on the off-chance. In actual fact we spent a couple of hours each evening down on the river with wild beavers in front of us for a significant part of the time.
Beaver watching is great for both adults and children. While the beavers return is incredibly good for the future of British ecosystems, it can also have direct impacts for humans. It is true that for most farms (largely all those not based on a flood plain) they gain more from the presence of the beavers, in terms of reduced flooding, water table management and increased insect health (for pollination).
We are building our beaver watching page up further, do take a look
3 Asiatic cheetah cubs were born in captivity recently. This was exciting, because this species is on the brink of extinction – there is only thought to be about 12 remaining in the wild, down from about 100 in 2010, a survey in 2017 stated fewer than 50 mature individuals.
Is this the last gasp for this species? Will the sight of a young cub like this never occur again?
Continue reading “Last of the Iranian Asiatic cheetah cubs in captivity has died”While few animals have been completely exterminated from north America in the last 300 years there are a few on the brink.
One such animal is the Jaguar.
The last known Jaguar roams the Rocky lands of Southern Arizona and is called Sombra. The last known female was shot 60 years ago this year. Conservationists are calling for Jaguars to be reintroduced into the Gila national forest, a 3 million acre wilderness in New Mexico, along with protection for millions more acres which Sombra currently roams.
Continue reading “Returning Jaguars to the USA”Across the world many species have huge ranges – look at the leopard, found across Africa and much of Asia. It is not a surprise that these animals have a great deal of genetic variability.
However, until recently, far to much of the decisions about subspecies status went on the look of the animal.
Continue reading “Bringing back the Amur tiger to the western part of its range! (The Caspian tiger)”Wildcats have been restricted to parts of Scotland for hundreds of years, despite once being found throughout the UK. Indeed, it is a problem where a significant number of people now refer to it as the Scottish wildcat, something that is only temporary, and should not be the case for ever.
The Kiwi is an interesting bird. As with many birds that developed on islands without mammals, they cannot fly.
In the case of new Zealand, the problem is simple. Those migrating to the island, brought with them rabbits. The rabbits escaped, and without any predators increased to silly levels. In order to control the rabbit population, stoats and similar predators were introduced, but these found the Kiwi a far easier meal.
In this instance, 11 birds have been introduced to the wilds near Wellington, for the first time in 100 years. These are the first of 250 birds that will arrive to settle in this area. Being the capital of new Zealand, it is impressive to have any surviving wildlife nearby. Yet Wellington prides itself on this work, and this is not its only move in the direction of rewilding.
It is thought that before humans arrived, as many as 12 million Kiwis roamed free in the country. Currently just 68,000 remain, however this number is growing slowly but surely. The arrival of Kiwi in this area, has required the countries biggest intensive Stoat trapping network as well as buy-in from a disparate array of land users.
The most recent estimate, puts the French wolf population on about 620 in the country. They have recently moved into the department of Lot which lies just a few miles north of Toulouse.
Given the growing population of wolves in France, it would be ridiculous to kill these wolves, as others will replace them pretty quickly.
Continue reading “Wolves continue their spread in France, now department of Lot”