Hello everyone! This week I’m writing about setting trail cameras up at Eskrigg nature reserve in Lockerbie. Our wildlife sightings this week included two barn owls and a fox all in one night which was very exciting! First of all, I just want to remind everyone of the Australian bushfire crisis that is going on. There are various ways to help such as donating to charities and organisations. This article has a list of places to donate to help support firefighters, wildlife rehabilitation services and the people who have been affected. https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/bushfire-relief-how-you-can-help-those-in-need/news-story/a0476ac3538b8c373f281ea6be204421 If you are unable to donate, there are other things you can do. This crisis was caused by climate change, so changing your lifestyle a small amount can reduce your impact on the planet. Things such as eating less dairy and meat, especially beef, try to reduce the amount of times you fly, walk or cycle more often rather than drive, recycle and spread the word about climate change and the effects it is having on the planet! Even doing one of these things is a step in the right direction! Take a look at my various other posts about climate change if you haven't already. Now onto the camera traps. It was a few months ago now that Yasmin and I decided that we would like to set up some trail cameras up in one of our favourite nature reserves - Eskrigg in Lockerbie, just over the border into Scotland. I contacted Jim, who takes care of the reserve to ask him if we could set them up and if he could tell us any places where we might get some good footage of wildlife. I borrowed some trail cameras from uni and went up to Eskrigg to set them up. Initially we took two cameras to set up. We met with Jim and he talked to us about what we might see on our cameras and where he had seen various wildlife recently. We were mainly expecting to see red squirrels on our cameras as Eskrigg is a good reserve to go and see red squirrels. We placed one camera in a large branch pile, as Yasmin and I had seen a weasel go into the branches there before. Then we walked around the reserve and found what we thought was a mammal path (which is a trail that is used by different animals) a little way off the path and into the forest. About a week later we collected the cameras and I eagerly searched through the footage on my laptop. Camera 1 set up in the branch pile gave us a lot of footage of mice, a bank vole, a couple of red squirrels and a lot of birds - one particularly inquisitive great tit which was quite a funny watch! Camera 2 again caught footage of a few red squirrels and some mice, but most excitingly also got the tail of a roe deer, a hare and a tawny owl hooting! I think that the camera that recorder the owl hooting must have been set off by a spider or something - as they begin to record when they sense movement. Because of the success, I contacted Jim again and we met up with him to show him the footage and to set up more trail cameras. This time we set up three cameras. The first two cameras, we put in the same places as before because of the success last time and the third, we put in a clearing deeper into the forest. It’s very important to remember where you left them by taking photos of the surroundings and using GPS coordinates so that you don’t lose your cameras! Again, we left them for about a week and then returned to collect them. Camera 1 in the branch pile collected a lot of footage of birds again and mice during the night too. Camera 3 also didn’t manage to get anything except for mice running around on the forest floor. However, camera 2 didn’t fail to disappoint - again! We got a lot of mice on camera, a red squirrel, a rabbit kit, 3 hares on one clip as well as another following in a clip a couple of minutes later, another hare on a different day and a red fox! I couldn’t believe how successful this camera had been. We definitely had found a mammal path in use - especially by hares! Both times we had set cameras up we tied them to trees about a foot or two off the ground which proved to be quite successful in capturing footage. I’m going to attach some of the videos below. It really was exciting to get a glimpse of what goes on in the forest when we aren’t there! Even putting camera traps out in your garden might get some exciting footage. Remember if you are putting them up on nature reserves to ask the permission of whoever manages the reserve - it’s all thanks to Jim that we were able to get this amazing footage. Thank you for reading, let me know if you decide to put any camera traps up and if you discover anything!
3 Comments
Hello everyone! I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and a happy new year. This is my first post of 2020. I haven’t written in a really long time because I have been so busy with uni and everything. Whilst I promised to write about camera traps in this post, it will be more of a getting up to date post and then my next post will be about the camera traps.
So, over the past few months I have been getting involved in various new things. I started volunteering in a world shop near me which I absolutely love. Everything in there is fair-trade and from different places around the world. It’s really amazing to see so many wonderful creations that have travelled so far! I’ve met some wonderful people there too. Fair-trade is a really interesting idea and so great to make sure that artists and farmers and people who make or produce the goods are being paid fairly. Look out for the little black, blue and green symbol next time you shop, especially on everyday items like coffee and chocolate. Another thing that I have started and hope to carry on this year is volunteering at the Haweswater badger hide. It’s so interesting to get to know the badgers as individuals and find out about their behaviour and personalities. It’s so important to go out and see badgers in their natural habitat (without disturbing them) because they are often painted in a bad light in the media. I encourage you to go and see how beautiful and amazing they are! In terms of uni work I have been quite busy too. I have been doing a photography project based on starling murmurations which has been challenging, but so worth it to go out and see murmurations because they truly are spectacular. Another project that is ongoing is our expedition planning. Yasmin and I are planning an expedition to the Shetland Islands in March to go and study seals which is really exciting! We’ll have to wrap up warm though - March is still winter in Shetland! We are also planning on doing Orca Watch again this year because we had so much fun last time but it will depend on whether we can fit it in. Our final travel plans for this year are to go to Costa Rica to volunteer in conservation of primates, big cats and turtles - which we’ll be doing in December; we can’t wait! Lastly, Yasmin and I have taken on our first wildlife society project this year and will be designing and building a wildlife pond on campus. We are turning a disused rose bed into a small pond which will hopefully then become home to lots of new wildlife! I think that’s it for now, I’ll hopefully be getting back into posting regularly again this year. Thank you for reading! Hi everyone! I wrote the following post quite a while ago. Since then I have been up to a few things, including attending my first climate protest and setting up some camera traps - which I will talk about in my next post.
I am writing this from the Netherlands. I haven't seen much wildlife here, but I have seen a lot of herons and hares. I also saw a white stork for the first time which was very exciting, it was very big! I also got a tick on my leg earlier this week, so remember to cover your legs and ankles if you are walking in grass, even if it's hot weather! This week's post is about polar bears in captivity. It relates a bit back to my post about zoos. In my opinion, no zoo could ever be fit to house polar bears because they are very big animals, needing very specific conditions. These include their diet, habitat and social conditions. In the wild polar bears feed almost exclusively on meat. They prey on seals mainly but also scavenge things like whale carcasses and may eat other animals such as birds or fish. Because they are such large animals, they need a lot of fatty meat to sustain them. In zoos they tend to be fed meat such as beef, with vegetables too. Being carnivores, polar bears aren't so capable of digesting veg so it can be bad for them, even though they may eat the odd plant in the wild if they are desperate. The nature of their hunting can't really be replicated in captivity either. Something that can occur with captive polar bears is anticipatory pacing. Bears are very intelligent animals and if food comes at the same time every day, they can become agitated and stressed waiting for it, and begin repetitive pacing such as walking the same straight path over and over. You can often tell if this is the case in enclosures where grass has been worn down in certain places. Another thing they can do is sway their head back and forth which is another sign of stress. These two behaviours can also occur if an enclosure is too small. Bearing in mind that polar bears can walk over 20 miles a day, most enclosures are too small. However, enrichment such as toys to play with and different ways of providing food can help to reduce stress and help the bears make the most of their enclosure. Another problem that can occur is polar bears not having correct environmental conditions. Whilst it can be warm during arctic summers, some weather in very hot countries just isn't suitable for polar bears to live in. They are also sometimes kept in enclosures that are designed to please the visitors, rather than be most suitable for the bears. Enclosures with concrete painted like icebergs or artificial rock designed to look like sea ice and snow with a small indoor pool to swim in are examples of this. Outdoor enclosures with grass, rock and a large area of water have much more room and would be more ideal for polar bears to live in. Like I said in my post about zoos, it isn't right for any animal to be caged rather than in the wild. However this is especially the case for very large animals. This includes bears, big cats, large ungulates (hooved animals) and definitely marine mammals. In the UK, all animals in zoos should be kept there for the benefit of conservation and education (this is the law) both of which can benefit the species. However in other countries around the world, animals can be kept in zoos purely because they will bring in money. Large animals such as polar bears bring in a lot of visitors because they are impressive and most people won't get the chance to see in the wild. If you visit a zoo, especially one out of the UK, make sure to check that they are contributing towards conservation and that if they have polar bears, they are in a suitable enclosure, don't look stressed, appear to be in good health (some polar bears in zoos appear to have "sad" expressions, have floppy ears and are overweight) and if there is the information, that they are on a good diet. I encourage you to learn more about wild polar bears and make your own decision about whether zoos can be suitable for polar bears! The website below has a lot of information about them. https://polarbearsinternational.org/ Thanks for reading! Hello again!
I'm writing this post quite quickly as I am away in Belgium. I had planned to post about polar bears in captivity but I thought it much more important to write about the Amazon fires and what you can do to help. Polar bears in captivity will be my next post. On to the Amazon; firstly, the Amazon has wildfires every year, which is natural and the case for most forests. However, at the moment there are so many huge fires, around 73,000 according to WWF, that they can be seen from SPACE!! The cause of the fires getting so big and out of hand is down to ILLEGAL DEFORESTATION for cattle ranching. This means that the Amazon is burning down so that crops can be grown to feed cattle. The cows are then slaughtered and sent to other countries as beef. Whilst cattle farming also contributes to global warming, it is the reason the Amazon is up in flames, so the most important thing you can do, and I really encourage you to, is reduce your beef consumption as much as you can - or even cut it out all together. Another thing you can do to help is to tell everyone you know about the fires and what is causing them. If the Amazon dies, it can't recover - and neither can we. So many important species are losing their habitat and being killed by these devastating fires. Another thing you can do is sign WWF's petition to ensure that saving the Amazon is the UK government's top priority. This means that the UK will stop the importation of meat that has caused deforestation. The last thing on my list of ways you can help is to learn. Learn about the Amazon, how important it is and how many different species call it home. It is so important to ACT NOW because tomorrow is too late! Research more things you can do to help so that the 'Lungs of the Earth' can recover and we can stop the planet from dying. The trees in the Amazon take in so much carbon dioxide and produce a lot of oxygen which is very important. If too many trees die then not enough carbon dioxide is being absorbed - which contributes hugely to GLOBAL WARMING. The Amazon rainforest is essential for us to try and save the planet. Thank you for reading. This is a sad topic to write about but it is so important that everyone knows about it and how they can help. Hi again! I’ve been a little bit busy so I missed my last post. This week I’m going to be talking about ‘fast fashion’. This has been talked about a little bit in the media but, was brushed over and not properly acknowledged or highlighted as an important issue. According to Oxford dictionary, fast fashion is ‘Inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends’. The problem is, nowadays, clothes go in and out of fashion on a monthly basis, which means that when an item of clothing goes out of fashion, it is discarded by consumers as well as the companies that sell the clothes. There are quite a few negative impacts that fast fashion has on the planet and on the people who make the clothes. The first one being that the clothes that you can buy from most high street shops are quite cheap and this means that they are often made by people who work in poor conditions for very little money. This means that the clothes aren’t ethically made and people are being treated badly so that companies can sell affordable things for us. Secondly, the clothes are often made in countries far away - meaning that getting them to the UK produces a lot of carbon emissions, contributing to global warming. Another negative impact of fast fashion is the materials that they are made from. Again, high street shops often provide cheap clothes that run with the trends, meaning that they are made from cheap, plastic based material such as polyester. These clothes can take 200 years to decompose. So, shops that are selling clothes that are meant to be worn for a month and then discarded because they aren’t ‘in fashion’ anymore, actually stay on the planet a long time after they are thrown away. In the UK, hundreds of millions of pounds worth of clothes go into landfill each year. With these clothes being so cheap, they aren’t made to last, meaning when they break or aren’t suitable to be worn anymore, rather than mending them, most people throw them away and buy more, because this is what those companies want. Clothes that companies don’t sell go to landfill along with all of the out of fashion pieces that people throw away. I have previously shopped in cheap clothes shops, always wanting more than I had and not thinking about where the clothes actually come from. But now I’m left with so much more than I need. Instead of getting rid of them, I am repairing things that I still wear and selling or donating to charity the other things that I no longer want, and shouldn’t have bought in the first place. A good tip for helping reduce your clothing waste is to save up and make investment purchases on things that are well made, you know where it has come from and that will last years and years more than something cheap bought in Primark. Buying second hand clothes is also a good way to get away from fast fashion. If you look hard enough, good quality clothes can be found in charity shops all over the place, as well as in second hand clothes shops and fairs. Thinking about how much of a bad impact my shopping habits had on the environment has really put me off shopping in high street shops, and all that took was a little bit of research. Try to cut down on buying clothes and think about whether you really need something. Many of us have so many clothes that we don’t need already - don’t keep adding to them! I hope this helps you to think about how what you wear can help improve the environment; and remember to search around for ethical and eco brands that suit you - my favourite is Lucy and Yak! Thank you for reading!
Hi everyone! I had an exciting wildlife sighting last week, a barn owl was perched on a post at the side of the road as we drove by! It’s been quite a while since I last saw a barn owl. Anyway, this week’s blog post is about being waste free or as waste free as possible. In one of my previous posts I talked about plastic pollution and what you can do to reduce plastic waste, this post is going to be about reducing waste even more! As we all know, nearly everything we buy from the supermarket comes with some sort of packaging, and even though cardboard is better than plastic as it can be more easily recycled and broken down, forests are still being cut down to make it. This is the same for paper, tissues, loo roll etc. and a lot of this packaging is thrown away as soon as we get home. So all in all, it is better to try and reduce the amount of waste all together, whether it be plastic, cardboard or even food waste. I recently bought a food processor and all of the different parts (there were many) came inside a little piece of cardboard shaped to fit that part in, and inside that, in a little individual plastic bag! As soon as we had opened it, our bin was full and we had filled a full box with cardboard. This really made me think about how much waste had come from me buying this one thing. With things like this, it is difficult to buy without all of the packaging, unless you buy second hand. However, smaller things, we can make a small effort and take steps towards becoming more waste free. Buying food can be one of the most difficult things. We went to Aldi for a shop and only managed to get a few of the fruits and vegetables on our list, because everything was in a plastic wrapper or net. Shopping at a local market may be the best way to buy fruit and veg, until supermarkets make a change and get rid of packaging for it. This can be difficult though, as markets may be more difficult to get to and can be more expensive than supermarkets. When it comes to buying other foods such as dry foods, there are shops that sell these packaging free, where you take your own containers/bags. Whilst this is a great idea, there aren’t many shops around like this. Our nearest one to Carlisle is ‘Another Weigh’ in Penrith. These shops also often have cleaning product refill stations so that you don’t need to buy another plastic bottle. Another thing that is unnecessarily packaged is cosmetics. These can be bought packaging free from quite a few different places, and the most notable high street shop for this would be Lush. Among other companies such as Primal Suds, they sell soap bars, shampoo and conditioner bars, deodorant and other cosmetics and hair/skincare. Another way to get around the plastic packaging of skincare is to make your own. There are hundreds of ‘recipes’ online to make your own hair and skincare products using things like essential oils and coconut oil. There are also ‘recipes’ for making your own cleaning products, like disinfectants. Even if just giving up packaging in one of these areas is all you can do, it can be a big help. It also helps to spread the word, as sometimes people aren’t aware that anything needs to change. I still have a long way to go before becoming fully waste free, but every step towards it counts. Remember to recycle wherever you can, and reuse as well! Reusing can often be more beneficial than recycling as many things can only be recycled once!
Thanks for reading! Hello again! Sorry for the late post! Last weekend I went to a vegan festival and it got me thinking about veganism so this week I’m writing about my process of cutting out dairy and where I am currently at. In a month or so, I will have been vegetarian for five years and I’ve now decided to take it a step further, and have started following a vegan diet. I’ve made it a very gradual process as I stopped eating butter a few years ago and stopped drinking milk (mostly) a few years ago too. I continued to eat cheese and eggs as well as the occasional yoghurt too. The reason I decided to become vegetarian is because I didn’t agree with animals being killed for meat. I thought at first it would be difficult, because I did used to like meat and would have it quite regularly. However, being vegetarian came very naturally to me and it is definitely easier to cut out meat than you’d think, especially if you know that’s what you want to do. I definitely wish I’d done it earlier. Now with the planet in crisis, and meat and dairy production being one of the biggest contributors to climate change, I decided that my next goal is to fully cut out dairy from my diet too. The things that I have finally cut out of my diet are cheese, eggs and anything containing milk, which I have previously been eating. I’m not going to throw away any non-vegan food that is sitting in the cupboard as wasting food is also bad for the environment, so the transition is still ongoing, however I’ll not be buying anymore dairy foods or eating them when I go out. I’m also not going to get rid of leather shoes and belts or toiletries with honey in, because I’m not going to waste anything that can still be used or is in good condition. Following a vegan diet, for me, is about becoming healthier, helping the environment as much as possible and not taking what I don’t need from animals - the dairy industry can be just as cruel as the meat industry sometimes. Whilst some people have no desire to completely cut out meat and dairy from their diets, I think now is definitely the right time to try and cut down on both meat and dairy or even just consider it and think about the benefits to the planet, and our health. One of the biggest reasons that farming cows and sheep is bad for the environment is the fact they are both ruminant animals. Ruminants produce methane as a by-product of digestion which is a greenhouse gas - contributing to climate change! This is dairy cows, beef cows and sheep! A lot of deforestation takes place to make room for agriculture, for livestock as well as planting crops. Again, this is very bad for the environment, as wildlife is losing habitat and trees, which take in carbon dioxide (another greenhouse gas), are being chopped down. Whilst becoming vegan won’t prevent deforestation for all crops, it will help put a stop to deforestation for livestock. I think it is important that as many people as possible do as much as they can to help save the planet at this crucial time, and having a vegan or vegetarian diet is one of the things that you can do to help! Why don’t you give it a go? Even cutting out meat or dairy for just one or two days a week can help. All that is needed, is for everybody to make small changes. I hope this post inspires you to try cutting out meat and dairy, even if it is just for one day a week, or to start a gradual change into vegetarianism or veganism! Personally, I’m making this change for my health, the planet and for the animals, what would make you want to change?
Thank you for reading! Hi again! First of all I’m just going to do a little update. The mammal challenge that I mentioned in my first post has been quite a success so far with some of the other members of the team having spotted hedgehogs and even a roe deer on campus! One of my friends even managed to rescue a not so well hedgehog and help it to recovery! I also have new photos coming to my gallery very soon. I haven’t been able to get out much this week as I haven’t been very well, so my only wildlife sightings are the little birds that visit the bird feeder outside the living room window, and a few foxes out on the street at night. So, onto this week’s post which is going to be about animals in captivity and the pros and cons of keeping animals in zoos. Most of us will have visited a zoo at some point and enjoyed seeing animals that we might not get the chance to see otherwise. When I was young, I loved going to the zoo and I wanted to become a zookeeper for quite some time when I was in high school too, because I love and always have loved animals. But as I got older, I realised that visiting zoos wasn’t really for me. As I went to different places and saw more animals in the wild, I noticed how different it felt to see animals in zoos than in the wild. When walking round zoos, I became rather underwhelmed and had mixed emotions about seeing the animals there. Even though I enjoyed seeing the animals, I was just thinking about their enclosures and how they could be improved, what the animals were being fed, how they were behaving, almost assessing the enclosures for their suitability to house that species, even though I’m not qualified to do so. I realised that although many zoos contribute a lot to conservation and research about animals, it is impossible to replicate the natural habitat of any species, especially very large species such as elephants and rhinos to big cats, bears and great apes. Even in zoos that are considered as outstanding, big cats still pace up and down from stress and frustration and elephants have to be chained up at night to prevent conflicts and aggression. However, species on the brink of extinction can be saved by keeping a small number in captivity and then re-releasing into the wild. Huge amounts of money can be raised by visitors to zoos for conservation, to help breeding programs and wild animal studies to increase populations of various animals in the wild. The truth is, no animal should be locked up in a cage or enclosure as wild ranges and habitats just can’t be replicated in captivity, however when trying to conserve species with zoos, it isn’t about the individual animals, it is about the outcomes for the species. For example, could a few animals being kept in a zoo and breeding bring back a species from extinction? Or is it right to save the individuals from being kept in captivity and possibly lose the species forever? There are endless questions when it comes to rights and wrongs of zoos. I think I have come to a point where I understand zoos and can enjoy visiting them occasionally as I neither agree nor disagree with them. I understand why they do what they do and I think that they can be valuable in conservation of some animals. Whilst I can’t help feeling sorry for the individual animals that have ended up in captivity instead of wild and free, I’m also aware that sometimes it is safer for animals to be protected in captivity, for example from poachers or habitat loss. When you visit a zoo, think about why that animal is there. Is the enclosure suitable, is it big enough, the correct habitat, are the social conditions correct, can you find out what they are being fed and what is the zoo doing for the conservation of this species? Whilst this might be difficult to do for every species, a lot of these thoughts will go through your mind anyway. If you enjoy going to the zoo, some zoos I recommend visiting are Chester Zoo, Edinburgh Zoo, Twycross Zoo and Yorkshire Wildlife Park. Other zoos I have visited but didn’t enjoy so much are the Highland Wildlife Park and London ZSL Zoo. I also tend to steer clear of safari parks. If you know these zoos you will know that the Yorkshire and the Highland Wildlife Park both house polar bears. I will be doing a more detailed post based solely on polar bears in captivity and what my views are!
Thanks again for reading! I’d love to know what your views on zoos are and what you think of animals being kept in captivity? Hey everyone, it’s been a while! That’s due to the little adventure I’ve been on and the lack of Wi-Fi, which brought a well needed break from gadgets and some time to reconnect with nature! I recently ventured up to Scotland, to the Isle of Skye and Caithness with Yasmin, to explore and ‘get back to nature’ with hopes of seeing some amazing things. First, we travelled and stopped over near Fort William on the way to Skye. We managed to get a beautiful view of Ben Nevis and the weather was beautiful too. We arrived in Glenbrittle in Skye in the evening, but the sky was still bright blue and the sun still shining. It didn’t get fully dark until about half 11 for our entire trip. We were staying in a small cottage near the sea. There was a little but slightly treacherous path from the car to the cottage, but we managed to get our suitcase up the hill despite this. We had beautiful weather until the last couple of days which were slightly rainy. We visited so many beautiful places and even the mountain view from our garden was stunning. The Fairy Glen, Rubha Hunish, Neist Point, the Dunvegan coral beach, Portree, Kilt Rock and the Quiraing are all places that we visited during our week in Skye. Climbing on the rocks at Neist Point, walking to Rubha Hunish and visiting the coral beach were the highlights of my visit. The coral beach was especially important because we saw lots of harbour seals, really close up and we saw a pod of common dolphins from the path to the beach. They were jumping and spinning up out of the water. We were able to watch them for quite a while. This was my first dolphin sighting and Yasmin’s second as she had seen a bottlenose dolphin a few days before from a boat in Portree. It was really exciting, we had been looking for cetaceans the entire week we had been there. The wildlife en-route to and in Skye also didn’t fail to impress and included white-tailed eagles, flying and in a nest, golden eagles, red deer, divers and other seabirds too. We also heard quite a few cuckoos. After a week we travelled on to Wick and arrived in the evening again to set up our tent. In Wick and John O’ Groats we were taking part in an event called Orca Watch which is run by the Sea Watch Foundation and Whale and Dolphin Conservation. Each day we visited a watch site, these were either Duncansby Head or Dunnet Head, and took part in land watches. After a few days we began taking part in boat watches too which took place on the ferry to Orkney from John O’ Groats. It was a 2 hour round trip. Unfortunately, apart from the first day, all week the weather was very windy and rainy, foggy too so visibility was very poor on one of the days. We managed to see a few porpoise very far away from one of the land watches but the most exciting sighting was on day 3 on the morning boat watch that we decided to go on quite last minute. About half an hour in to the journey at around 9:15, we were sat on the boat in all of our waterproofs, staring at the horizon looking for dorsal fins and dark shapes. Suddenly someone shouted ‘ORCA, ORCA’ and there was a rush to get to the front of the boat where they were. Difficult to see at first, but then a tall black dorsal fin rose out of the water. We circled round to the back of the boat where 4 - 5 orca including a calf, were making their way East. It was Yasmin’s first Orca sighting and her first whale sighting so it was so exciting to be there with her and to be there watching such amazing creatures. After that day we didn’t see any more cetaceans, just seals (grey and harbour) and a lot of seabirds including great skuas and puffins. More orcas were seen during other land watches and boat watches. After being rained on for 9 days to the point our tent was no longer waterproof, we decided to pack up a day early and go home. It was such an amazing experience to take part in Orca Watch and we’ll definitely be going back next year! Seeing dolphins and whales in the space of 2 weeks made us feel so lucky and so grateful that we share the planet with such beautiful creatures!
Thank you for reading about our little adventure! Watching wildlife like that is a feeling and a joy like no other! We had such a special and memorable experience! (Photos coming soon!) Hi everyone, I’ve had a little bit of a break from writing, and I’m not sure when I’ll be posting over the next few weeks either as I have a lot of exciting things planned, which I’ll be talking about on my blog afterwards! So today I’m going to be talking about a forest local to me and how it has been ruined by some careless people. I recently went to the woods near my house to take photographs of the beautiful British bluebells that grow in abundance there. I have been doing this ever since I was small and this set of woods is very special to me and my family. There is a small car park that is rather like a dirt track round a little island of trees and since being small, I have always noticed the amount of rubbish and litter specifically in the car park. However, my last two visits have left me very upset with the way people treat the small areas of wilderness we have left in Britain (remember, a lot of the time when the landscape looks like beautiful countryside, it is farmland). Whilst the car park was in horrendous condition as usual, the forest floor seemed to be scattered with various items of rubbish, more so than usual and there wasn’t once when I looked around at the beautiful trees and grassy floor, that my view wasn’t ruined by a brightly coloured wrapper of some sort. Yes the litter ruined my view, but this isn’t my main concern for these woods. Woods and forests are a good place for wildlife to live and thrive, and although you might not see anything other than crows and midges, a lot of wildlife becomes most active at night. Litter poses a huge threat to wildlife. It can be ingested, cause injury and trap animals and in most of these cases, is fatal. Small mammals such as hedgehogs can become trapped inside cans, tins, bottles and containers and sharp objects can cut and scratch mammals and birds. Small wounds that pick up infections can be fatal as well as large wounds. Animals as large as foxes can become trapped if there are nets, wires or ropes and this means that they can’t hunt or find food and water, they’re more susceptible to predation and, ropes, wires and nets can also cause fatal injuries. With such an abundance of litter, something is bound to be injured by it. Whilst litter is ruining the woods and affecting the wildlife, it isn’t the only thing that is. Graffiti on trees isn’t a rare sight and even when I was little, although I didn’t know it was a bad thing, I remember one part of the woods where every tree had some sort of symbol or rude image. Again, it isn’t only the view that is ruined, as some high-pressure spray paints can damage the bark and tissues of the trees and it brings chemicals into the environment. Even if the trees aren’t damaged, the paint is difficult to remove and will cost money; money that could be spent on conserving the forest and protecting it. I’ll always return to these woods, hoping that the natural beauty will be restored, however I know that as long as there are careless, lazy people the car park will be a tip and the forest a place to drop rubbish and graffiti where no one will find you out. I’m going to write a letter to the council, to see if anything is going to be done about the damage to the woods and hope that they will see it as an important issue that needs to be dealt with. I hope that one day the woods will be as magical as they used to be when I was a child. If you notice anything like this near you, please don’t ignore it, and don’t hesitate to contact the council or the owners of the land! Something needs to be done to protect our wild spaces from people who don’t respect them. The photos below are my own photos of the woods, showing how beautiful they can be and how they have been ruined.
Thank you for reading! Xanthe Hello again! This week my blog post is going to be about my experience of visiting the new badger hide at RSPB Haweswater. Members of the wildlife society at uni were so kindly invited to visit the badger hide at RSPB Haweswater near Penrith on Monday. I had never seen a badger before so I was very excited to be going to the hide and having the possibility of seeing a badger. We set off at around 6pm and arrived about an hour later. Once we had arrived we were taken into the hide and all found a place to sit or stand comfortably and waited for a glimpse of black and white. The known badger sets are at the top of a field of sheep and they normally come down to visit the area next to the hide after dark. There is a fenced area with logs and branches which the badgers climb into. We saw nothing but sheep and a couple of busy rats for a while. When the light began disappearing, we kept our eyes peeled for any movement on the hillside. Quite suddenly, we all froze as the first badger crept right up to the side window of the hide. We had been told that they seemed to be shy and skittish at first so we all held our breath and sat in silence waiting for the badger to gain confidence and move round to the front of the hide. After several seconds of sniffing around, the badger darted in the opposite direction away from the hide. Not much later another badger came clambering down the hillside and walked up to the edge of the fenced area. It climbed through and began sniffing at the ground and hunting for worms. It was almost completely dark by this time but the lights from the hide made sure we could still see the badgers perfectly. About 10 minutes later another badger appeared at the edge of the fence, but seemed put off by the company so ran back up the hill after a while. The fourth badger to come into the fenced area was one that was very recognisable as it had a large bite mark on its rear end. We were told that this shows it isn’t very high up in the hierarchy of the set. The two badgers foraged and hunted for worms for quite a while, probably finding themselves lucky as it had started to drizzle. The rain didn’t affect the visibility from the hide however. After a while the first badger to enter the fenced area scurried away. However, the fourth badger wasn’t alone for long! The fifth and final badger of the night climbed through the fence and began investigating the area. Neither badger seemed bothered by the other and were digging in quite close proximities. The fifth badger, characterised by the black nose, rather than pink like the others, came very close to the windows of the hide. Digging behind a small log for quite a while, she popped her head up often allowing for some nice photos. When both badgers decided to move off, we called it a night, delighted by what we had seen. It was quite difficult to leave, knowing that there might be some more appearances and that the badgers were so close by. Seeing five badgers in one night was quite a shock after seeing none in my entire life! It was fascinating to watch them move and search for worms as I have never had the opportunity to watch them before. All I can say is that they move so fast! Almost like a cat. We also heard them sort of growling at each other when they weren’t too happy which was amazing too! Seeing them interact was fantastic and I’ll definitely be going back. I can’t recommend the experience enough! Thank you so much to RSPB Haweswater for letting us visit the hide. Here are some of the photos I managed to get. I hope you enjoy them and definitely give the hide a visit. Contact RSPB Haweswater if you want to book.
Thanks for reading! Xanthe Hi everyone. I didn’t post on Friday because I have been quite busy again! This week I’m going to talk about plastic waste. Most of us know that the planet is in quite a bit of trouble at the moment with climate change and pollution taking over. A big pollutant to our oceans and countryside is plastic. Plastic is so bad for the environment because it breaks down extremely slowly, and never completely. The main threat plastic is causing is to marine life. Species of fish, birds, cetaceans and other marine animals are all affected badly by plastic. It can injure animals if they get caught in something or kill them if they aren’t rescued or if they ingest too much of it. For example, plastic bags look a lot like jelly fish and turtles feed on jelly fish a lot. According to WWF, 1 in 2 sea turtles have eaten plastic! So many companies in nearly every country are responsible for the build-up of plastic in the oceans. Supermarkets use unnecessary plastic for fruit and vegetables and many other foods and drinks. Plastic straws and toothbrushes as well as sanitary products all end up in some sort of land fill or in the ocean. Using reusable and non-plastic products as well as urging supermarkets and other companies to stop producing plastic at such a high rate can help to combat plastic pollution. Cleaning up the oceans is a very difficult job and the plastic will still have to end up in landfill. Companies need to stop producing it, which will minimise the amount going into the ocean. This problem can’t really be reversed unfortunately, so we need to do all we can to stop so much plastic pollution now and in the future. We use plastic everyday without realising it. Pens, toothbrushes, bottles and carrier bags are all made of plastic. Whilst it is a huge step to make to become completely plastic free, try a few changes at first and make it an aim to try to use as little plastic as possible. Plastic pollution can be combatted if everyone steps in to help reduce plastic waste and the amount of plastic they use. A few good things to start your journey towards a plastic free life are cotton shopping bags, a reusable stainless steel water bottle, a wooden toothbrush and hairbrush, buying fewer clothes on line (a lot of these come in unnecessary plastic packaging) and using bar soap rather than bottled liquid soap! Whilst getting rid of these things in our day to day lives won’t undo all the damage, it will help us pave the way to a plastic free future and help to save wildlife around the world!
Thanks for reading! I won’t be posting again until next week as I have so much work to do! Xanthe Hello! Sorry for the late post. I have been a little bit busy recently. So today I thought I’d talk about cetaceans in captivity, specifically killer whales and dolphins. It is something I feel very strongly about. So most of us know that various theme parks and aquariums around the world own dolphins and killer whales and use them in performance shows. One of the most popular places to go and see these animals is Seaworld. In 2013 when I was 13 years old, my parents took me and my sister to Florida. We had one week exploring the area and spotted wildlife, whereas the second week was doing the theme parks. We went to both Seaworld and Discovery Cove where we watched the killer whale show and the dolphin show. Having never seen these animals in the wild or in captivity, I thought that the shows were great. I even went back to see the last killer whale show of the day because I loved it so much. I didn’t really realise how bad life is for these animals until about a year later, but I did notice that by the end of the day, the killer whales had gotten a lot slower and seemed quite sluggish. In the morning, the show was very clean and energetic but it felt like the whales were tired when seeing them perform again. Being a naïve 13 year old, having seen these animals was so exciting! I said that Sea World was my favourite park. A few days later we went to Discovery Cove and swam with rays and tropical fish as well as dolphins. I thought that it was the best time of my life. Whilst interacting with the dolphin was amazing, I only realised later on, how simulated the experience really is. Whales and dolphins are highly intelligent animals and this and their large size makes them even more unsuited to captivity than other animals. When I first began to think about this when I was about 14, it really made me quite upset. I think I felt guilty about having gone to see killer whales perform and to swim with dolphins knowing how much stress that experience was causing them. Now, whilst I still feel guilty for going and enjoying the experiences, I don’t regret it. This is because I know I have learned from them. I think that sometimes it is difficult to imagine something or somewhere without actually seeing it and having seen the performance pool and the pool where the dolphins were kept when not performing, the first thing I can obviously point out is the size of them. Especially, the pool that the dolphins were kept in. I remember it being no bigger, in fact smaller, than my local swimming pool. There was no enrichment present at the time I visited, it was rather like the dolphins were expected to just swim round and round the pool until they were exhausted. With the killer whales, the pool was larger and deeper. But then again killer whales are larger than dolphins. The pool where the killer whales are kept when not performing was closed to the public. I know that there is a different pool where you can watch the killer whales whilst you dine, which I didn’t see. The sad thing is that all the pools are definitely a lot smaller than their car park, showing obviously where the priorities of places like these lie. After about a year since I went to Florida, I began researching whales and dolphins in captivity, and it opened my eyes completely. I know that if I had researched prior to going to those parks I wouldn’t have gone. And although I learnt from my visit, would it have been better if I didn’t go? My point today is to show that a little bit of research into how your holiday might affect the wildlife, animals or environment that you are going to see or pass through could have a positive impact on them. Now, more people are aware of the welfare problem in aquariums, zoos and parks, especially with killer whales and Seaworld has stopped breeding them, which is one step in the right direction. Research where you are going and make sure your travels will have some positive impact; and also if you have a choice between watching animals in captivity or in the wild, choose to watch them in the wild (safely)!
Thanks for reading! Xanthe Hello there! I'm starting off my blog today just with a bit of info on what I am up to at the moment. With uni we don't currently have any outdoor practical projects, so I'm keeping busy by trying to practice my skills elsewhere. On Wednesday I held a litter pick of the uni campus to try and make it a nicer environment for students and wildlife. The heavy rain and lack of volunteers cut it short but we managed to collect more than two large bags of litter from just a small area of campus and our team of five did very well! This really opened my eyes to the problem and I'm looking to hold a litter pick each month to maintain the clean environment on campus. I am a member of the wildlife society and they have been re-wilding an area of the campus to create new habitats for wildlife. I thought that this made it more important to do the litter pick to make this area safer for any wildlife that want to call it home. Another thing I am doing at the moment is getting involved in the University Mammal Challenge. Our team has five members and has been putting out camera traps around campus to record as many mammal species as we can. So far a mouse is the only mammal we have seen but there was a toad in the same camera shot! Last year the mammal challenge team managed to get a weasel on one of the camera traps so we are hoping for another weasel or even something more elusive to be caught on our camera traps! Fingers crossed as the weather warms up we might see more activity!
Thanks for reading! Xanthe |
|