Blackfish

As readers of the blog will know, killer whales in captivity are a subject close to my heart and my articles ‘Tilikum’s Tale’ and ‘Death at SeaWorld’ are probably my two most linked and visited, even though the first is at least a couple of years old now. It just goes to show that this is a subject that is certainly going to keep getting people’s attention for some time to come.

I was very lucky to be able to attend the European premier of ‘Blackfish’, a new documentary that opened at the Sundance London Film Festival on Thursday. Produced and directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, a self-confessed mum who took her kids to SeaWorld, but also a documentary film maker who won’t leave a story alone, she presents a perfect blend of emotion-led first hand stories and make-up-your-own-mind sequences that left me stunned by their raw beauty and power.

I have been waiting for this film for over a year, but even then, my expectations were exceeded on every level. The truth is told with a delicacy that is hard to fight, although I’m sure SeaWorld will try. The result is a message as graceful and as powerful as the animals at its centre.

I don’t want to give too many details of the film away, as I really want to encourage you to see it when it is released here in July. Please make every effort to do so, you won’t be disappointed. But if you are familiar with the book by David Kirby, then many aspects of the story will not be new to you and there are just a couple of things that I want to mention and underline.

One of the biggest emotional hit-points was the story of Katina, a female Orca who was separated from her calf, who is taken to another SeaWorld facility at the age of 4. As is explained in the book and the documentary, in the wild killer whales usually form a lifetime inseparable bond. As it became clear that the high pitched screaming sound the mother whale is constantly making is in fact a long distance searching call, the sobs and gasps of the audience could be heard clearly. What was shocking in the book is so instantly disturbing and moving to experience visually.

Kasatka, a female who has repeatedly had calves removed from her at early stages also has a history of taking her frustration out on her trainers. The now gone viral footage of her attack on trainer Ken Peters is shockingly portrayed in the film and is all the proof you need that these animals are their own boss.

As has now become known, Tilikum has in all likelihood killed three people, two of whom were trainers. Many former trainers are interviewed in the documentary and their stories and reflections are heart-wrenching to say the least. I think that their bravery in coming forward and telling the truth is something that makes them real heroes and could lead to real change, but more importantly, I think their need to tell the story is born out of an injustice SeaWorld inflicted on their slaughtered trainer, Dawn Brancheau, when they blamed her for her own death. Maybe SeaWorld have grown too used to being able to twist the facts when they know the subjects of the falsehood can’t defend themselves, but to blame Dawn is clearly something that has produced a far greater outcry amongst her loyal friends and former colleagues than the previous deaths.

From what I’ve seen and read, it becomes less and less likely that Dawn was grabbed by her ‘over long’ ponytail as SeaWorld first suggested. Given Tilikum’s proximity to Dawn moments before the incident, it seems much more likely that he grabbed her by the arm as the eye-witnesses claim.

The breakfast with Shamu show prior to the incident and Dawn’s death make up the end chapter of the documentary and I would do it an injustice to go into details about it, but as former trainers lend their eye and expertise to what happened almost frame by frame, it becomes clear that Tilikum responds to what SeaWorld call ‘negative reinforcement’ during the show. Tilikum is the largest killer whale in captivity, almost by half. I’m not sure how confident I would feel in trying to exert my dominance over a 12,000lb 23 foot male killer whale, and I’m pretty sure I’d be put right not long after I’d tried in any case. We have no explanation why SeaWorld think it’s okay to try. I hope this film is successful, I hope the former-trainers who came forward are championed, supported and vindicated where necessary and I hope that killer whales in captivity become a thing of the past.

Gabriela explains that she would love to see this film brought to schools and to children, and again I really hope she is successful in doing so. It is just one of those films that needs to be seen.

If you are thinking of going to SeaWorld, maybe watch this film first with your children and then ask them if they still want to go. Ask yourself if you do. Then ask Google if there is a whale watching tour operation you could go on instead. Nothing compares to seeing these animals in the wild, and their natural behaviours are far more exhilarating. The animals live nearly three times as long in the wild, the males have full dorsal fins as tall as a man and you’ll never go to a marine park like SeaWorld again. Believe me, I know!

Thank you Sundance for bringing Blackfish to the UK and thank you Gabriela for making it and doing the story such justice.

http://blackfishmovie.com/about 

Knole Knowledge – The Fallow Rut

A little while ago now I discovered that my local country house, Knole in Sevenoaks was going to hold a fallow deer rut walk within it’s 1,000 acres of parkland. I eagerly signed up and looked forward to discovering the rut on my local patch rather than heading to Richmond as I would traditionally.

Knole is a really spectacular National Trust property, home  to the Sackville Family  for 400 years and almost more importantly as far as I am concerned, a collection of fallow and sika deer. It features beautiful sweeping avenues known as the gallops, mature woodland and of course the grand house itself.

Recently, the park has seem some changes to both its landscape and its contents under the new Deer Manager, Tom, who has moved to Knole from Woburn Abbey no less, an absolute deer mecca in the UK. At 3,000 acres and with no less than 9 species of deer, including the famous Pere David’s deer, Woburn has always been regarded as the showcase deer park in the UK. I cannot stress how lucky Knole and Sevenoaks is to have somebody as skilled, experienced and knowledgeable as Tom in charge of the herd.

Tom has already made some big changes. The wooded areas that were fenced off and almost untouched by the deer have now been made more accessible for them. This gives deer the opportunity to escape from the more open areas of the park where traditionally dogs and people have had a negative effect. He has also saved the dwindling sika population that were being needlessly culled due to fears they would interbreed with the fallow, which is not the case.

Tom led our walk, and took us to meet the old boy of the herd, known as the white stag. The stag was calling well in the amusing burp like manner that fallow do as he chased his girls towards us and then away as we neared. Tom led us up what could well be the actual ‘knole’ of Knole, cautiously and carefully, always being respectful of the deer and reminding us to do the same. He pointed out the wallow holes the deer had used and encouraged a close encounter of the smelly kind as we took in the aroma of the fallow deer Chanel No. 5, a heady mix of urine, musk and mud.

Tom also explained that the white stag pretty much had the place to himself for the time being. The fallow population at Knole had been in a poor way for some time and not managed as well as it could have been. There were a large number of bucks in the herd, all genetically similar and most likely related and the genetic quality was being severely effected. A large number of these bucks were culled out and some fresh blood has been recently added to the herd in the form of stock from Norway, Hungary and Romania. These blood lines add bulk, stamina and hardiness to the herd and will make the next few years very interesting in the rutting season. For now though, these teenagers, all used to each other and basically good buddies, didn’t really have the heart to take on the big guy. That said, next year could be very different and I did see them posturing and ‘mirroring’ the odd walker a few days later after, so they are getting their game on if maybe only in practice as far as this year goes.

Knole is a really beautiful place as I have already mentioned, and it is incredibly disrespectful to dismiss the very clear and numerous signs that ask the public not to feed the deer and to keep dogs on leads. People ignoring these signs have caused more headaches for the new deer manager too. At least two deer have recently fallen victim to dog attacks, found horribly mangled and eaten alive after they became caught in the park fences, another reason why many have now been taken down. A message to those dog owners who think the law doesn’t apply to them. Knole is private land and the newly appointed deer manager, who is a crack shot, is perfectly entitled to shoot your dog if he sees it worrying deer. He’d probably prefer to shoot you as an irresponsible owner, but he will settle for your dog if it’s a choice between it and a deer that might have cost the estate £1,000 to purchase and far more to raise and keep. He may also have to cull deer that get too used to being fed by people. It may seem sweet and innocent, but when that wild animal decides to knock your child over because it didn’t get enough quavers (I’ve seen people feeding them these, I didn’t just pick at random), or worse, decides to charge you during the rut because you keep trying to get within arms reach, you will only have yourself to blame. Tom is paid to feed and manage them so you don’t have to. And yes, that still applies even if they are organic carrots from Waitrose madam.

Knole and its deer need your respect and your help to grow into what could be a real treasure amongst Britain’s great deer parks. You can still get fairly close to what are wild animals, see them in a pristine setting in the rolling Kent countryside without the need to feed them. If you need to let your dog off the lead, go to a public park, not a private National Trust property with canine-sensitive residents.

This year’s rut should be very interesting with the park’s new bucks coming of age and the white stag having to defend his patch. Watch this space!

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/knole/ 

 

 

Death at Sea-world

I have always had a fascination with killer whales. It may well have come from seeing Winnie, the infamous and always seemingly good-natured resident of Windsor Safari Park when I was a child. What I never knew, was that Winnie like most whales in captivity had been born in the wild and was captured just off the coast of Iceland in 1977. She ended up being one of the longest lived whales in captivity, nearly 25 years old. But when she died, her small enclosure at Windsor had already taken its toll by stunting her growth and allowing her to ingest some 12 lbs of plastic material that remained in her gut and prevented her from absorbing the nutrients from her food properly. Her move to Sea World did her some good as she did put on weight, but her small size meant that she was often bullied by other whales and it took a further two moves before Winnie was settled and found a companion she could get on with, Kayla.

This and other stories of whales in captivity are found in Death at Sea-World, a fantastic book by David Kirby that I have just finished. I literally could not put it down, reading in my lunch breaks and late at night in bed until I reached the end. The stories it brings to light are often shocking and upsetting. I for instance as a child never knew Winnie had been born wild, as most of the whales I’ve seen in captivity have been.

One of the things that becomes clear very quickly is that killer whales are one of the most intelligent animals we have ever encountered who get bored very easily. To the point that it is often them training the trainers. Take the whale that was given a choice of two cards to test visual acuity. One card had a single line on it, the other two. In order to test the whale, the card with two lines was replaced time and time again with a card  where the two lines were closer and closer together. Each time the whale chose the card with two lines, it was rewarded. The whale learnt the trick quickly and only had difficulty picking out the two lines when they were approximately 1mm apart or less. It got it right something like 98% of the time, a score equal to an eye exam I recently had. The next day, the whale scored 1%. There was nothing wrong with her vision, she was just bored. It was the whale equivalent of putting her fingers in her ears and chanting ’nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah’. Or take the example of the whale that would literally stick its head in the corner gate of its tank if it was played songs it didn’t like. In both examples, the whales were showing almost unprecedented levels of intelligence and finding ways to communicate with us. They went on to teach their trainers which reward they were happy to take and when.

What then becomes clear, is that killer whales are not really happy in captivity. They are apex predators being taught to do performance showpieces they find repetitive and mundane. Their health is at risk. Most captive whales are fed large quantities of antibiotics daily, suffer sunburn and insect bites and in males, suffer from collapsed dorsal fins in 100% of cases due to the fact that they are forced to spend nearly all of their time at the surface in shallow pools where they cannot dive to the depths and lengths they can in the wild to escape the sun or insects.

Further to this, whales that wouldn’t usually tolerate each other in the wild are forced together. Transient whales that wander the ocean are kept in pods that include settled resident whales. In the wild, they would avoid each other and it has even been documented where resident whales aggressively confront transients. Residents tend to be fish eaters whereas transients are more likely to eat marine mammals. Tilikum was an Icelandic transient who was bullied by his tank mates. This bullying is relatively common and often documented. Whales regularly have to be moved as Winnie and Tilikum both experienced (Winnie also being an Icelandic transient).

On top of all this, the whales typically show signs of depression, including logging at the water’s surface almost motionless, lethargy and violent mood swings.

I have visited both Sea-world and Windsor Safari Park and seen the whale and dolphin shows. I’ve paid my money and I’ve enjoyed the experience and being up close to the whales. But I’ve seen signs that things weren’t right. Most notably was the whale that posed cutely at the viewing window at sea-world, waited until a crowd of adoring fans had gathered and then rammed the window violently in order to literally scare the tourists. This is a behaviour described in the book and I now know that the whale I saw was one particular whale or a whale that had learnt that specific behaviour from the whale in question. The whale does this because she is bored and has invented a way of keeping herself amused. They are also quite good at swimming slowly and cutely past guests as they leave the shamu stadium, only to just send enough water over the top to soak anyone who dawdles. Again, this is something I have experienced myself personally! The intelligence involved here is considerable and should not be under-estimated.

The issue I have most with is the attitude and lack of recognition on the captors part that there are issues with captive whales. If they recognised that captive whales live shorter lives in captivity it would go a long way. If they showed more respect for the maternal bond between mother and calf and how long it lasts (all their lives. Male whales are literally mummy’s boys suspected never to venture further than half a mile from their mother’s side), less behavioural problems could be a result. If residents and transients were kept apart. If whales weren’t forced to mate before they would in the wild. If tanks were designed to be more interactive and engaging for the whales, rather than on a basis of how easy they are to clean. If incidents were documented and the danger of working with an apex predator was at least recognised then things like the “Tilly talk” (in short, get in the water with Tilly, come out a corpse) would be less of a surprise for trainers and not something that they feel had to kept from the public. If real educational material was made available at sea-world parks then marine conservation could become a real part of their work. Most importantly, if sea-pens could be built where whales could retire and still be viewed and adored by the public, where natural behaviour is more likely to be seen, where care and attention can still be given to human accepting whales by trainers then there could still be a future for captive whales in a de-escalating programme that moved away from exhibitions and performing. But whilst there is even a hint that the truth is hidden or not recognised by such corporations, whilst they are promoted more as circus animals than intelligent, individuals (every animal is called Shamu not just for show purposes but because if you were given their real name, you’d be able to track how often they died) then things will inevitably get worse and equally inevitably, it is only a matter of time before a killer whale kills its trainer again.

I don’t think that releasing captive whales into the wild is a viable end for most whales in captivity. Whales have personalities as diverse as ours. Keiko for instance, the most famous whale other than Tilikum and the star of Free Willy was generally thought of as one of the most kindly, compassionate whales in captivity who literally adored human company. When a caretaker’s toddler fell into his inhumanely small pool, Keiko, covered in warts and blisters and emaciated from living under the harsh Mexican sun, rescued the child and kept him at the surface until he could be rescued. His wild release was pretty much a marketing ploy and ultimately resulted in Keiko never really acclimatising to life in the wild, seeking out human company in both Iceland and Norway. He died of bacterial pneumonia, ultimately possibly because his immune system had been irreversibly compromised by living in captivity. Although it was almost irresistable given the movie to try the endeavour with Keiko, he was not a suitable whale for release in my opinion.

Expansive sea pens where whales can receive medical care but also have the opportunity to feed naturally or go for wild walks as Keiko did are where I think the future could lie for most captive whales. There is no reason why corporations like sea-world couldn’t build such enclosures with viewing windows and charge the public to visit as they do their parks. Imagine seeing a whale like Tilikum from the deck of a boat, seeing him feed on wild herring or being taken for a walk by a sea world support ship into the open ocean. Wouldn’t he be happier? Wouldn’t you?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Seaworld-Killer-Whales-Captivity/dp/1250002028/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353852906&sr=8-1

A Batty Breakfast – Evening!

Last night was a little humid, quite warm and not too windy. So I had high hopes for the bat walk that I was going to be leading round Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, not only my local patch but one of my favourite natural places in England. I was a little nervous as well though, as I hadn’t led a bat walk before and I was mixing business with pleasure. My group for the night were the Breakfast Friends of Sevenoaks, a networking group made up of small business heads and entrepreneurs from the local area.

I was really pleased to see some younger faces, as a number of the group had brought along their children and I was being assisted by my nephew Josh. Kids are great to have along on walks and talks as they have such a brilliant thirst for knowledge and ask all the best questions.

My real aim though, was to show off the Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve and some of its nocturnal residents. Tucked away behind a small farm on a busy road, it’s easy to drive past or not even know that it’s there. My suspicions were confirmed when only half of the group said they had been to the reserve or had known of it previously. I’d done my part in getting them there. Now it was up to the bats to put in an appearance.

We were especially looked after by Amanda, the visitor centre manager who not only worked through the bank holiday weekend, but then stayed late with us on Tuesday night and gave us a fantastic corporate welcome. Kids and adults alike were fascinated by the displays and the items they were encouraged to handle and explore, including a mammoth’s tooth and tusk. The sinister sharp-toothed jaws of a pike aptly reminded everyone not to fall in the water whilst we explored the dark!

We made our way in good spirits around the edge of the West Lake. Once we had made our way a little way round and were beyond the visitor centre and farm lanes, we stopped and the crackle of bat detectors was soon audible to all as I and two little helpers aimed them skyward. We pumped up the volume and waited with batted (get it?!) breath.

We didn’t have to wait long. With our detectors set at 45 Khz we started picking up common pipistrelle almost immediately. The common pipistrelle is the most common bat in the UK and therefore aptly named, but it is also our smallest. They are a beautiful rich orangey brown in colour and they love midges. A single pipistrelle can take on 3,000 of the little biters in a night, so everyone should be glad to have bats in their belfry, or anywhere at all! I also asked one of my avid assistants to flick the frequency up to 55 Khz where we soon tracked down our first soprano pipistrelle. Only recognised in 1999, the soprano is so-called for the obvious reason that they ‘sing’ a little shrilly as such. But since then, we have also discovered that they prefer slightly different food – soprano’s specialise in waterside habitat and insects whilst common’s aren’t as fussy and are more generalist. But they are often found together, proved as we watched a common and a soprano completing fast figures of eight round very nearby bushes.

We moved on to a small cove-like bay further round and were treated to some dazzling acrobatics by more soprano pipistrelles. At one point, our smaller members at the front had to duck as they whizzed overhead and expertly passed through branches and overhanging boughs as they chased their prey. The staccato sound of machine gun fire burst from the detectors as the bats honed in on insects too small and agile for us to see. To match their movements with the sounds that came from the detectors really revealed how they rely on their echo location for finding prey, avoiding obstacles and each other!

We trekked further round to a beautiful moonlit opening at the water’s edge. I had already heard the few tell-tale heavy bursts and spats on a bat detector set for 35 Khz. Asking everyone to be quiet and turn off any lights, I waited until the calls seemed to be concentrated right in front of us. Turning on a powerful lamp as quickly as I could, we were treated to the dazzling sight of four Daubenton’s bats in a seeming feeding frenzy. They dashed across the water’s surface, scooping insects with their large tails, veering off into the trees at the last second with each pass. Their glowing white bellies picked up beautifully in the lights as they passed over the water. It was a true spectacle! And it was the closest I have seen the Daubenton’s come at that site. It was thrilling to watch.

Daubenton’s are known as the water bat. This isn’t just because they feed on the water’s surface, but also because they seem to need to drink more often than other bats. They are voracious feeders too. They have been known to leave their roost weighing a mere 7 grammes, only to return after an hours feeding at a hefty 11. That’s a 57% increase in body weight!

Something occured to me too. Although it was slightly unusual for the Breakfast Friends to be meeting up after dark and in the evening, as far as the bats were concerned, breakfast was well and truly being served so maybe it was appropriate after all!

We ended our walk back through the wooded corner of the West Lake, where we were joined briefly overhead by one of our larger bat species, a noctule. It gave some of those further back a real display as it zipped through torch-light above them. Comforted on our return by Amanda’s excellent hospitality by a hot chocolate for some and something stronger for some others. The questions that flooded in and the looks on people’s faces said it all, bats are brilliant!

http://www.kentwildlifetrust.org.uk/reserves/sevenoaks-wildlife-reserve-and-jeffery-harrison-visitor-centre

http://www.kentwildlifetrust.org.uk/events/2012/05/14/bat-walk

#BreakfastFriends

Black & White

If it’s black and white and so easy to see

Then why is there so much controversy?

The day the news came was dark, but not yet black

When blues and farmers turned their back

To the wood, thew wild, they sang out clear

“We no longer want you here”

The things they embraced when in the black

Now forgotten, or on the rack

White papers, white lies, white wash

All paid for with the tax payers dosh

Not the Buzz Word in Politics

Well, it’s old news now, but I wanted to write a post on this when it hit the stands and screens a few weeks ago and at least by now I’ve had time to look into everything and gather my thoughts. My focus is of course Richard Benyon, the Parliamentary Under-secretary of State at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He has been described in the press as a Wildlife Minister, but this isn’t really implied in his actual title or his recent actions. This after all, is a person who wasn’t sure if his post involved conservation or shooting, so simply listed both of them side by side as interests in Who’s Who to make sure he was covered.

As CV’s go, his place in a Cameron cabinet was somewhat assured. Pretty much as soon as Dave was aware that he was Lord Salisbury’s great great grandson I’d guess. Salisbury was the first Prime Minister of the 20th Century and pretty much the dictionary definition of ‘aristocratic toff’. Incidentally Salisbury first came to power by making an alliance with liberals only to dump them at the next election by gaining popularity in a small dispute known as the Boer war. Throw in a public school education, military service in the Royal Green Jackets and a degree in Estate Management from the Royal Agricultural College (Oxbridge for the young gentleman farmer) and you have Richard Benyon’s road to parliament as it stands.

OK, the guy is a tory estate owner with farming principles. It shouldn’t then necessarily be a surprise to learn that he quite likes shooting and to be fair, it’s not something he has hidden. It has though, begun to cloud his judgement on conservation issues. He has made the right noises on international conservation issues like the ivory trade, the effect of poaching on the Javan Rhino and commercial whaling. But it seems we should simply be glad that these are hobbies he just hasn’t tried yet. When it comes to shooting, don’t mess with Benyon.

For instance, when Natural England attempted to prosecute the owners of a Welsh grouse moor for damaging protected bogland, DEFRA forced it to drop any legal action at his insistance. With this tucked under his belt and relatively unnoticed he clearly set his eyes on the oft cited villains of the shooting fraternity, birds of prey. He selected his target well, knowing that most were untouchable, but the common buzzard not only fitted by name, but also as scapegoat. Gamekeepers and estate owners have often blamed raptors (birds of prey, not bipedal carnivorous dinosaurs) for predating poults (young pheasants to you and me), but evidence is slim beyond those pointing the finger and so is very hard to say this is actually the case.

There were no actual figures in the DEFRA research contract that crept out whilst the Leveson enquiry took the heat and headlines, but they did cling to the wreckage of their credibility by stating that at least “76 percent of gamekeepers believe that buzzards have a harmful effect on game birds”. Even this isn’t explored further though – no context is given. I believe completely that a buzzard would be hazardous to a game birds health and would no doubt have a harmful effect on one if placed in the same room together. Do I believe buzzards are setting out to take poults deliberately or taking more than their fair share? No, of course not. Incidentally, nor do the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, who say only 1-2 percent of poults are being taken by birds of prey – that’s all birds of prey. So of the 40 Million birds being released and raised by the shooting estates in Britain, that’s 800,000 being taken by raptors. There are approximately 80,000 buzzards in the UK, and not all of them live in the vicinity of a shooting estate. But even if we decided that buzzards were responsible for all those poults, that’s only a maximum of 10 each. The guys with the guns will clock up 15,000,000 birds for their bags and let the rest escape, so it would seem at first glance that there’s enough to go round. Incidentally, that’s approximately 25 Million individuals of a non-native and invasive species being willingly released into the ecosystem annually. If you and I tried that, we’d get fined and sent to prison.

Also, lets not overlook why poults make such tempting treats for any predator in the first place. Mass-bred in battery conditions and then released into a controlled woodland environment, they never learn the laws of the wild or even benefit from parental guidance. This makes them easier to shoot, (really – 25 million get away?!) as why would a hunter want the actual joy of tracking, stalking and potting an animal that had a good chance of getting away? Well I do for one.

I shoot and fish, but only for the pot as such. I prefer wild quarry and I take pleasure in knowing that most of my pursuits end in watching something run or fly away rather than with something actually on the table. I don’t turn down the chance of a pheasant shoot, but at six my bag is full and so is my freezer.

There are two recent success stories that conservation can claim after gamekeepers practically caused a mass extinction of the UK’s raptors by trapping and poisoning every thing with a hooked beak from Dover to the Highlands in the 1960′s.These are the buzzard and the red kite. So strangely enough, we are going to take it a little personally and angrily when just as they seem to have recovered, someone suggests that for the sake of game birds we start targetting buzzards again. Like kites, buzzards are doing very well and increasing their numbers and they both have something else in common. They are incredibly adaptable and vary their diet in order to survive. They are both lovers of carrion and as likely to scavange as hunt.

As most birders would have pointed out to Benyon inside of 10 minutes, buzzards are known for a couple of dietry preferences. They can often be seen worming, or digging for invertebrates in ploughed fields. They are also very keen on reptiles and amphibians. Recent surveys have produced other surprising results, for instance it was found in some 149 prey remains that buzzards had a considerable liking for jays and jackdaws over any other bird by far and I saw a buzzard chasing a jay from the train just the other day as if to confirm. I’d have thought that would be good news for the shootists. They do take birds such as teal and will take advantage of any slow moving, plump bird that takes its time in taking to flight, so it makes sense that they would take a pheasant, but it really can’t be very many. Certainly not enough to use £375,000 of tax payers money to destroy buzzard nests and capture live birds as was being proposed by the research contract Benyon tried to slip past us.

Thankfully, the wildlife lobby is a little stronger in the press than the shooting one and any number of naturalists stood up and denounced the buffoonery of the scheme to the point that it was of course, dropped like the bad hat of an idea it was. Those who campaigned against it and spoke out as loudly as they did should congratulate themselves on a victory for conservation and common sense. It was clearly a case of a wildlife minister that didn’t have birds on the brain, but was simply bird-brained to begin with.

Community Caws

I work in a small office on the first floor of a converted Victorian paper mill that now serves as communal offices for several businesses. It’s virtues are few, but it is at least ideally situated for a daily spectacle that marks the end of my day and a time I can start thinking about things other than deadlines and writing copy. The building is North facing and as the sun begins to set, I can crane my head back and look out the west-facing window and prick up my ears, waiting to hear the sound of returning neighbours. These neighbours though have spent the whole day foraging in small parties far and wide across the Weald and countryside.

It starts with gentle, distant chuffing and cackles, edging closer as the light begins to dim in the sky. Ten to twenty jackdaws are approaching from the north-west and heading towards their roost in Knole Park. Their calls are in greeting to a similar number that are joining them from the south-west. As the groups meet, they merge and become one and are then joined by further groups from the north and south. The burble of calling as they pass overhead reminds me what amazingly social and complex birds these are.

The name jackdaw comes from the old english ‘jack’ meaning small and ‘daw’, a name given to hooded crows. They have a highly complex social structure, mate for life and are incredibly intelligent. I also find them rather handsome, with their husky-like bright blue eyes, their slate grey napes and fine black feathers. Jackdaw roosts can be enormous, with up to 40,000 birds reported in some rural spots, which means they have to know how to get on. Like most intelligent birds, they have also learnt to take advantage of human neighbours and often visit rubbish dumps, take away outlets and are known to raid bins.

The hierarchy within a jackdaw roost is normally topped by a mature male and female pair. Interestingly enough, each mated pair in a jackdaw colony appear to have equal status so neither dominates the other in social affairs. Unfortunately though, as forward thinking as this is, a single female is still at the bottom of the social status stairs and will have to fight the most for foraging and shelter rights.

I find great comfort that no matter what the day has thrown at me, or indeed at them, as twilight approaches and the time comes to head home, their calls of comfort and greeting to each other, a correlation of achievements and disappointments shared in the air over Sevenoaks makes for a very natural and contented end of the day.

Slayed in China

When we think of the Chinese in terms of history and culture, it is easy to think of invention, wisdom and innovation that pre-dates western concepts of civilisation by centuries, if not millenia. However, wisdom and rationality do not necessarily go hand in hand. Tradition can be dangerous, and this is especially so in the case of the alternative medicine practices of the Chinese, Indian and Iranian cultures. These cultures use herbal, botanical, mineral and animal parts as medical sources, usually administered by a medicine man or a person of importance to the local community. Family remedies are also passed down from generation to generation. The vast majority of these treatments, it must be said are herbal or botanical, and there is also in many cases, a lack of alternatives in these cultures or harder to reach communities. However, there is also stubbornness and unwillingness combined with a lack of education at work here too.

Although in my opinion it is unlikely that any of these remedies do any good at all, that is not something I wish to debate or comment on at length, the main problem is the lack of regulation and the highly profitable global black-market that fuels the demand for product. China is on the verge of making its second tiger sub-species extinct inside of 35 years. Some 50 Indochinese tigers remain inside China and these will almost all certainly be killed by poachers by the end of this year, the same fate that saw the demise of the south-Chinese tiger in 1979. Their teeth, penis, bones and other parts will all end up in jars on the shelves of traditional medicine stores throughout the world. Don’t worry though, the benefits of a global market are that when you have killed off your own local population of an endangered species, you can put the price up on the product and start importing somebody elses. Luckily India and Vietnam’s dwindling population of tigers are relatively accessible. After that, there are still some ‘special’ farms in Russia, Indonesia and maybe even America that will take up the slack.

Rhino horn is getting a little harder to come by. Javan rhinos became extinct in the wild last year, and the Sumatran won’t last that long. Thank goodness the black rhino population in South Africa has recovered just enough to take a beating for a few years.

Bear bile isn’t a problem. There are farms for that kind of thing. Shark and whale parts aren’t as easy to get hold of, but everyone and everything has a price thank goodness, otherwise this market wouldn’t be sustainable. Let’s be clear and frank, there is no wisdom in this practice of barbaric cruelty, no evidence to support that tiger bones make you strong or that rhino horn can cure impotence. This is no more than the medicine by word association and anthropomorphic perception that was frankly practiced by primitive man (and in my opinion still is). If we don’t stop supporting and tolerating this market then we are going to lose some our most precious animals. We are likely to lose the tiger in our lifetime and I don’t mean a long way off from now. A new species of giant manta ray was discovered in 2009. It celebrated by joining the endangered species list almost immediately. Local fishermen sell it to Chinese pirates and black-market traders for very small sums of money and then sold on for huge amounts. Sea horses have disappeared from parts on Indonesia. As long as these species are not afforded adequate protection, as long as those protecting them are less well-funded and less equipped and as long as international law is not upheld and demand outstrips supply, this will continue. Education, regulation and litigation are the only weapons we have and they are not nearly unsheathed as often as they should be.

 

Badgered to Death

With cuts being made to climate bills, our marine sanctuaries put on hold or downsized and parakeets, pigeons and gulls literally in the firing line, the Conservatives have brought new meaning to the old adage ‘blue and green should never be seen’. They have also come up with a cracker joke just before Christmas – what’s black, white and red all over? A badger under the conservative government it seems. Old brock, the farmer’s fiend and the scapegoat for the spread of bovine TB for so long can hide no longer.

The government have announced plans for a cull that will take place in two key areas next year. Farmers have long felt there is little option but to cull badgers and have welcomed this news. Animal welfare groups are not so chuffed. Badgers are among my favourite animals and I am deeply saddened by the decision. However, the link between badgers and bovine TB is somewhat established and I can only imagine how devastating it must be to be the farmer who finds his livestock sentenced to slaughter, with little else to be done. I also eat beef and can’t claim that beef farming isn’t in my interest because it is.

One of the things I don’t understand, is the method they have chosen for the cull. For cost reasons alone, they have decided to shoot badgers whilst luring them to feeding stations. As someone who has spent a long time watching and studying badgers in the wild, I can only say this. Good luck. The feeding station will have to be moved nightly for a start – badgers are very skittish and if they are disturbed or upset, they won’t visit again. Secondly, if they are upset enough or if a family is disrupted (for instance due to the sudden death of several members), they will abandon their sett and territory and look for a new one. Those that are carrying TB will take the disease with them, literally to pastures new. I honestly don’t think they could have thought up a quicker, cheaper, more effective way of spreading the disease. Also, how many badger groups across the country do you think are going to be out in the woods, scaring brock away from the stations or protesting the cull? That sounds like a cheap thing to police and control.

Unfortunately, the government has failed to spot that killing badgers has been tried before and it doesn’t work. Badgers were previously culled in a 10-year long programme. The project cost £56 million and some 12,000 badgers were trapped and killed. The result was a 16% net reduction in bovine TB in cattle. Now maths isn’t my strongpoint, but that leaves 84% of the problem doesn’t it?

There are alternatives that could have been considered. The National Trust and Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust for instance, have embraced Cameron’s big society and are vaccinating badgers against TB. Oh yes, didn’t I mention there’s a vaccine. Ok, it’s too expensive to be used on every badger in the country, but I believe, for instance, £56 million would go a long way to getting a nationwide campaign going, involving the wildlife trusts and the RSPCA, RSPB and so forth where public and charitable donations could give this some momentum. Nothing’s impossible. Thank God we are the only animal on the planet arrogant and able enough to ‘decide’ the fate of other species in such a way. If the position were reversed I imagine we would be classified ‘extremely dangerous’ and most of us would be dead before dawn.

An oral vaccine is apparently in development according to DEFRA and would obviously be a lot cheaper. For a badger, a spoonful of peanuts would definitely make the medicine go down. Vaccinating cattle and being able to tell them apart from cattle with the disease would also help, but you can’t have everything, yet. With more long-term vision, both of these things are possible. We could have an oral vaccine for badgers by 2015, maybe sooner with the right backing and development. That’s a mere three years. We could spend a little longer working on our certification processes for vaccinated cattle and more importantly, preventing unvaccinated cattle entering the country. We have some of the best beef in the world, why don’t we want to protect it properly? Why can’t we invest in quality rather than quantity? Why can’t we take some responsibility for our farming practices that have helped spread TB? Because its easier to say its someone elses fault. Because its easier to make a new mess than clean up the old one. Because its cheaper and pleases farmers. Ethics are only obvious in their absence in this case.

New Zealand, which has a healthy population of beef and venison farmers also has a healthy population of possums. These marsupials also carry bovine TB and they are frankly, hated, by most kiwis. They smell, they make a mess and they are everywhere. Imagine a cross between a racoon and a dead cat going through your trash or moving into your loft and giving birth to up to fourteen young at a time. They are not popular. So, of course the government and the farmers rose up as one with itchy trigger fingers and wiped the varmints out? Well, er, no actually. They developed an oral vaccine for the possum. They said it was something to do with controlling the disease effectively and eradicating it. Hm, those kiwi politicians speak funny don’t they?

 

 

Fleeting Funds

Last Tuesday the Japanese whaling fleet set sail from southern Japan in secret and with considerable security as it headed for Antarctic waters. 930 minke whales and maybe the odd fin whale will be on the menu. Sorry, I didn’t mean menu, I of course meant laboratory table. Oh hang on, no, it is ‘illegal’ to waste the whale meat collected on such a scientific endeavour and therefore it has to be sold to the Japanese restaurants still willing to serve it. In fact, the economic viability of the operation would be completely off-balance if they didn’t. Thank goodness the International Whaling Commission (you know, the guys who protect whalers, sorry, I mean whales) allowed this loophole to encourage Japan’s ongoing and essential research on whales and the effects of explosive headed harpoons in their immediate vicinity. Of course, I jest – it isn’t essential at all.

However, it appears that I have got it all wrong. Whalers are just victims, and apparently, according to the Japanese government’s allocation of funds, not just any victims, but tsunami victims. Approximately £19 million in funds from a reconstruction fund, especially set up to help the worst effected areas of the devastating earthquake in March has found its way to the whaling fleet, mainly in security measures. Last year’s cull was an economic disaster, with the fleet returning with approximately a fifth of its quota due to the antagonistic interventions of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. It appears that the Japanese government are taking no chances this year. It is unclear exactly how the fleet is prepared for any encounters with Sea Shepherd, but an unspecified number of coast guard agents and a patrol ship have been added to the fleet’s numbers.

It is also unclear where the £19 million in funds has come from, other than the specified fund set aside for the Tsunami. Although it is most likely to be Government funds originally allocated to the disaster being re-administered, we must still ask if our charities and our hearts have been taken advantage of. In simple terms, it would seem we’ve given them enough money to be able to take the weekend off and go fishing.

Sea Shepherd are sending three ships to the Antarctic as part of their own ongoing campaign to end whaling in what is officially designated a marine sanctuary. However, they face a confrontation not just at sea, but in the courtroom too. At the same time the whalers were launching their ships, they were also launching a lawsuit in a U.S courtroom, aimed at Sea Shepherd.

Sea Shepherd and their leader Paul Watson are not exactly my favourite representations of conservationist activity. I don’t always agree with their tactics and I am very much against the little respect they have for their volunteers and how they target the impressionable and easily led, making their army of recruits easy to take advantage of and place in harm’s way. Their arguments are often unbalanced and arrogant and can damage other legitimate conservation efforts. However, they are the only organisation so completely dedicated to the protection of the whales and it is hard to present any objection against that. Unless you’re Japanese.

http://www.seashepherd.org/