See Animals Wild

Why would coronavirus boost the snake population in Melbourne Australia? It would appear that it hasn’t, because of the lockdown people have spent far more of their time in the gardens and have therefore mowed their lawns and tidied up their flower beds.

As such it’s not that there are more snakes than in a normal year, but that people have spotted them.

Given the large number of highly deadly snakes that live in Australia care must be taken. However it is socially another strange boost that a wild population has had due to the coronavirus epidemic.

From two boats losing their rudders, to merely having passengers knocked around or bruised, this action seems to be intentional. The latest attack by an Orca on a boat ended with the Orca ramming the boat 15 times – that is not accidental. At the same time about 70 miles South another boat was attacked in a similar way.

Continue reading “Orca, or killer whales, are the most effective hunters of the sea, but they’re not supposed to be dangerous to humans. So why are Orca now ramming sailing boats of the Spanish and Portuguese coast?”

Albino animals occur amongst most different species of animal. Albino animals are almost always far lighter white compared to the standard colour for their species. Generally this is caused by some sort of failure in the pigmentation. This young seal is living in the Siberian Sea of Okhotsk .

Continue reading “Rare albino ginger seal may need a new home as it’s been rejected by the herd”

Permanent ice caps are melting at increasingly rapid rates. The permanent ice that covers Antarctica Greenland and large parts of Canada lock up vast quantities of water that would otherwise be part of the ocean. 

Continue reading “28 trillion tones of ice lost in 26 years”

In most cases I would say that the answer to this is relatively simple. If we were the cause of an animal going locally extinct we should bring it back. Obviously if there is none of that species left this is impossible. In a number of species at the moment, we might not have reached complete extinction, we might have simply reached no more members of that species in the wild.

Continue reading “Do we have a moral responsibility has humans to return wild animals that we have pushed to extinction back into former habitats”

Despite the urgency, Trump’s presidency has not been mosh with progress on the environmental front. He continues to talk about clean air and clean water,but doesn’t seem to understand the threat of global warming. Indeed the Trump presidency has been marked by the administration undoing many sensible moves made under previous presidents.

Continue reading “Astoundingly the US republican party has recycled their climate policies from 2016”

The current wild population of giraffes is around 68,000 and has fallen by 40% in the last 35 years. For perspective, that means that there are roughly four elephants for every giraffe (and Elephants have been listed as endangered on the appendix 1 of the cites list back in 1976).

It is clear that this decision does not take a lot of study. As in other fields, science in the USA has become political, it is no longer possible to do a scientific study and then to do what it’s suggest is the right course of action.

It is an odd position for a party that considers itself conservative, to ignore science. Certainly in the past, presidents such as Ronald Reagan would have been horrified to see the scientific illiteracy, put forward by the party today.

Over the last 10 years, it found that 40000 giraffe parts were imported into the USA. Furthermore 3700 trophies where imported during the same period,-more than one a day on average. In America giraffes aware being turned into boots and pillow cases and even Bible covers (I find it hard to understand that one, how can someone who believes in God feel its reasonable to financial encourage its extinction).

It should also be noted that while we talk about 1 species of giraffe, there are actually four (with 5 subspecies recognized amongst these 4 species). Some of these giraffe species and subspecies are highly threatened with extinction.

In the time with tramp, the world has got used to America making scientific pronunciations that are utterly absurd. We must not stop calling attention to this, Americans of conscience and scientific understanding must stand up and make their voices heard.

Apart from b the big 5 and ecotourism big 7 there are a whole host of 5s that have been invented-some are relatively easy, others almost impossible

Continue reading “In Africa the big 5 is famous, what is the UK’s equivalent”

Currently, USA emits around 15% of the world’s emissions, however given only 4% of the world’s population live there, on average the emissions of Americans are almost 4 times global average. 

Continue reading “Do you want to leave a better world for your children? Cutting American citizens carbon emissions to a level the world can cope with”

So for the last couple of weeks I have been roaming some of the wilder parts of the UK with my family.

In a usual year, we could hope to be roaming some parts of Europe or further afield. However due to the risk of being stuck outside the UK should the government change the rules and require isolation on return we felt it was safer to stay in the UK this year.

As such we split our time between 3 destinations.

1. The forest of Dean: one of the wildest parts of the UK, a significant area of old growth forest. It has become one of the wilder places, in part due to the arrival of wild boar. There has also recently started a relocation program moving pine martens from Scotland into the forest of Dean.the first 11 have been moved in about 9 months ago and translocations will continue until around 60 have been moved. is appears that two litters of kits have already arrived, suggesting the pine Marten to very happy in their new environment. I should note that our trip was to see the wild boar not the pine martens, though we did keep our eyes open looking for signs of pine marten presence
2. Cardigan bay: one of the most reliable places in the UK to watch dolphins. Alongside dolphins there is also the possibility to see porpoises and seals
3. The River otter in Devon: around 12 years ago it became known the family of beavers were living on the River otter. The government initially said that all the beavers needed to be taken into captivity to be tested for disease, however regardless of their status they then would not be returned. It was uproar in the local area and so they were returned for a 5-year trial. Those 5 years just ended and the results are impressive. As such the government is giving them the permanent right to remain, and essentially the beaver is to be reintroduced to the UK. There are indeed in number of reintroduction projects ongoing in the UK,as well as a significant number of landowners who wish to reintroduce them onto their land. Encouragingly it is not only the ultra wealthy who do not use their land, many farmers are recognising that by putting aside a small amount of their land they can increase the value of the rest. Apart from avoiding flooding which can result in the destruction of crops, beavers also increase biodiversity-which leads to far higher densities of insects that are needed to pollinate the crops.

Astoundingly, we were successful on all three fronts.

I will write up each section of the trip separately, however I am keen to simplify the process of seeing these animals in the wild for other people in the UK. I’m hoping in the next few weeks to be able to go live with a page for each, with links for places to stay and other useful information.