Tag: wildlife

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Slovakia approves the sale of brown bear meat to the public

Last month, the Slovakian cabinet approved plans to cull around 1 quarter of the bear population in the country (currently at around 1300) after some high profile fatal encounters between humans and bears.

It is unclear what the actual carrying capacity of Slovakia, and indeed this is often the problem. The government decides what the carrying capacity is of the land, they set quotas for hunting them and they reap the money for hunting permits, as well as having to deal with any livestock predation. These different requirements are often lead to different groups having different desires and therefore results can be skewed to support a decision which is not in the best interest of the country or the population.

Having carrying capacity and population size done by truly independent researchers would help with this, but in most countries, this independence is not real, with the government holding the purse strings or similar power over future studies.

A reduction of a quarter, is a large step, will change the population makeup significantly and is likely to greatly disrupt bear tourism to the country.

Tourism revenue for this country has hovered between 1 and 2 billion dollars in recent decades, and while it is hard to pinpoint exactly how much of this is to do with wildlife, and particularly bear tourism, it is thought that a majority do some sort of ecotourism while in the country – therefore care must also be taken to not destroy this important income for the country.

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Wild boar continue to spread across the UK, arrive just a mile from where i live (Still sorting issues, but progressing)

I have missed writing regularly, but have been having some issues with this website. I am hoping that in the near future these will be resolved, and allow the website to reach some of its potential – however for now, back to this article.

The UK is recognized as one of the most nature depleted places on earth. never the less, there is wildlife in the shadow of humans. A very wide range of wildlife has been lost, as humans have not left the space – this is causing us issues, not least because there are no apex predators left.

Wild boar, however, were accidently released – they were bred for meat, and between a variety of escapes and intentional released populations, a wild population has been established in the UK. Domestic pigs are descended from wild boar – it is thouoght that they were domesticated twice, once in the near middle east around 8500 years ago, and again in China around 6500 years ago (though it should be noted that these dates are still pretty unclear. 8500 years is not a long time in genetic evolution, and as such they are still capable to interbreed, even though there is a significant difference in how these two groups live.

There is an estimated 2600 wild boar living in the UK. The largest populations are listed below, though it does not account for all of them

  • Forest of Dean: This area has the most established and largest wild boar population in the UK. The population is estimated to be around 1,200 animals.
  • Kent/East Sussex: This area has a population of 250-300 wild boar.
  • West Dorset: This population is estimated to be over 50 animals.
  • North Devon: This area has a smaller population, estimated to be between 50 and 100 wild boar.

Wild boar are incredibly important for the health of forests – wild boar turn soil in their search for roots and tubers, and this is perfect for the growth of new seedlings. Boar rootling areas are often full of tree saplings and shoots growing together. It is something that has been missed for a very long time, and the health of forests that the boar returns to is greatly improving.

The area that I live in, has a great deal of army land, and therefore, I believe that the area could support hundreds of boar, if not more.

This individual boar, is likely to be a young roaming male, and usually, the first visitor does not settle within an area, however, females also roam, and should a male and female meet, they are likely to become a breeding pair, and at that point the population can grow fast as a breeding pair (when they have some domestic pig genes in them) potentially having 3 litters of 10 or more a year.

Will a breeding population be established around here? It is still for the time being, chance, however at this breeding rate, it is quite conceivable for boar to be back across the UK within the next couple of decades. Pure wild boar would be better, however adaption back to living in the wild will likely slow their breeding rate relatively fast.

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There is a well known rift between Prince William and Prince Harry, but it is based on an important aspect of conservation

Unfortunately, this disagreement, is not restricted to within the royal family, quite to the contrary.

There are many species that it is hard to live alongside – I am not thinking of animals like elephants or rhino or buffalo, which will also be dangerous to life, but provided you behave in the right way, you can live in close proximity with and rarely have a problem. Indeed, there are populations who succeed to live in the close proximity with big cats such as lions and leopards. However, in many other places, lions and leopards can turn to man-eating, or indeed livestock eating. These reserves, seem best to be kept as so called fortress reserves, where people live outside (though bushmen still live in these areas, and having passed down information for thousands of generations, so can live with big cats). A large number of these huge reserves were set up while the land was held as parts of empires, and as such may not be the best way to do things, though in many of these places, it is the way things are set.

On the other hand, William believes that you should be community led schemes which focus on locals and allow them to benefit from the wildlife. I would argue that these are not incompatible. My experience of the Kruger, was that many locals did very well from their proximity to the Kruger national park – not to the extent that perhaps they should, but those willing to learn can become guides, while the rest can work in hospitality and the like. Even beyond this, there is the ability for artisans to sell their products on the way in and out of the park.

Personally, I believe that the path falls somewhere between the two. It is essential, that were possible, migration routes between reserves are created before these become built over.

Our website aims to allow both – we have a space on this website (called Wild places) for listing large reserves, and chances to see the wildlife they contain. Alongside this, we offer our area called “in the shadow of mankind” which is aimed at all of the other wildlife, often found alongside where people live, or where their livestock lives. To a large extent, to allow the natural world to truly thrive, we need both ends of this spectrum.

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Wildlife of the river Thames – one of the busiest rivers, with a global city built around it

If you look at this image, or indeed the start of Eastenders, with its view from the air, you would think that the river can host no wildlife at all – but it still does, and could get better.

Throughout time, much has been dropped or thrown into the river. From a giant statue of Michael Jackson, to a 16th century sword recently found, to (less appealingly) it having been used as an open sewer for a very long time.

Never the less, this is a river, and has the capacity to support much life other than humans. Also, despite how much rubbish is pumped into the rive, it is much improved from several decades ago, and as such much wildlife has started to return.

Continue reading “Wildlife of the river Thames – one of the busiest rivers, with a global city built around it”
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Website update

I am well aware, that I have been quiet for some time. I am hoping that, that is, coming to an end. I have been working on the members areas, and trying to find a way for those to “blog” important news from their wilderness areas, as well as those areas of interest for other people.

We hope that this is going to arrive within the next few days, but, I am hoping that I will be available to write more regularly in the near future.

As ever, our aim is educate about the natural world and the threats that hurt it, and to create an increasingly complete list of wildernesses around the world, and opportunities to see the wildlife that live within it.

Do get involved, as members (as we move forwards) and in other ways.

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A Ugandan river has turned poisonous

There is a lot of wildlife that lives in rivers, as well as most species having to drink regularly

The Nyamwammba river, which runs through the Rwenzori mountains – in central western Uganda, having been flooding in an extreme way in recent years. This is enough of a problem, as there are many settlements among other things, that lie along the rivers course.

However, there is a bigger problem. Along the river course, are copper tailing pools from an old Canadian mining operation. However, these are being flooded and eroded with increasing frequency. Why is this a problem? Because these elements are bad for wildlife and human alike.

Having been washed into the river, they have found that they have infected most of the water supply and soil of the valley, with these deadly heavy metals. The cancer rates in populations living near these pools are far higher than normal, and there is a fear amongst scientists, that as flooding increases due to climate change, the heavy metal pollution will get worse, and therefore also the people affected.

Can the company be charged for the clean-up? Perhaps, at the time of the mines creation Uganda did not have strict enough environmental rules, though one would hope that a credible company would not have to be forced to clean up after themselves.

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In December, the worlds oldest known bird, an albatross, laid an egg in her 74th year.

albatross aged 74 photo credit US fish and wildlife service

The bird, called Wisdom, is a Laysan albatross was photographed with her current partner and the egg. Normally expected to live between 12 and 40 years, this is an incredible lifespan. She is also thought to have had around 30 chicks, which given that they do not breed every year is a phenomenal number. Perhaps more impressive, the chick survived, and has been seen within the last month, suggesting that not only did she have this chick at such an old age, but she raised it successfully.

She was first tagged in 1956 (the year that my father was born) and they do not breed until at least 5 years old.

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Could flooding wetlands, be the next big carbon capture method?

The Nywaigi people of Australia have found that by doing this, this behaviour can sequester carbon, boost biodiversity and create jobs.

It is thought that peatlands, store twice as much carbon as rainforests, so their protection and recovery is essential if we are to maintain the wonderful climate that has allowed the human race to flourish.

In this instance (not the place that the video comes from) just 1 decade ago, the area was bad. Much of it was freshwater pasture, with a load of invasive weeds that were choking both the land and the waterways. This was caused by a ‘bund’, an earth wall build 50 years ago, to block off incoming seawater, in order to transform the area into freshwater ponded pasture (to be used for cattle pasture). You can find a video on this project to restore this area, and the bottom of this article.

Continue reading “Could flooding wetlands, be the next big carbon capture method?”
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The odd job of a pangolin carer

Have you heard of a pangolin? Would you recognize one? For many people, the pangolin is unfortunately known, only as a family of species, which have been poached for their scales (made of keratin, and with no medicinal basis) such that of the 8 species, half are endangered and the other half critically endangered. Click on any of the mentions of pangolin on this page to be taken to our pangolin family species page. This poaching is so extreme, that some estimate that this family of species are the most trafficked in the world.

Pangolin are very hard to take care of, which is why there are so few in zoos around the world. Indeed, the vast majority of even wildlife guides in somewhere like the Kruger have never seen a pangolin, even if they are known to exist in the park. A pangolin carers job, is to look after a pangolin, take it into the bush, and find places with many ants and termites, and generally get it ready to return to the wild.

An incredibly rare sighting of a pangolin within the Kruger national park
Continue reading “The odd job of a pangolin carer”
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Restoring a DRC reserve from a ‘triangle of death’ back into a thriving wildlife reserve

Upemba national park had virtually all its large mammals poached, but it is coming back (below is a 3 minute video about this decline).

Just a couple of years ago, 16 members of the Bakata Katanga militia suprised a party of 4 rangers within the park (close to the Upemba base camp). Lying in the south-east of the DRC, this reserve once teamed with life. Tens of thousands of elephants, alongside lins zebra and many other species roamed free.

Continue reading “Restoring a DRC reserve from a ‘triangle of death’ back into a thriving wildlife reserve”
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