Beastly Britain
Newts
I have now finished Beastly Britain; an animal history, Yale University Press, 2025, by Karen R. Jones. There was much for me to learn from the chapter on newts, not least the etymology of their name from Old English efte or ewte, which explains why we refer to the young as efts. They are able to breathe with gills as larvae, with lungs as adults on land and through their skins as adults in water. They can also regenerate many parts of their bodies and never need to drink water. They produce toxic secretions of varying strengths depending on species, so it is a good idea to wash your hands after handling them and a very bad idea to eat them or get the compound “anywhere near broken skin, the eyes or the mouth.” Like Black Grouse, to my surprise, they have leks. And like hedgehogs they have been accused of stealing milk from cows – it is humans who are the thieves of course. I am surprised the Mormons didn’t get a mention amongst the folklore, that particularly absurd religion being based on the revelations of a golden salamander. I was quite relieved to learn that the recipe for the three witches’ cauldron in Macbeth does not include animal parts, rather those listed are informal names for herbs.
Newts are highly protected much to the fury of our building obsessed politicians but under threat in any case from the development of agribusiness from the Second World War, the absence of beavers who create ideal environments for them and many of the other usual factors. Praise due to the owners of Hadspen House in Somerset where a hugely expensive development of the house and garden was held up by the discovery of Great Crested Newts. They not only made room for them but placed them at the centre of their vision, There are now some 2,000 newts in the ponds they created.
Herring
The proof-reader for the chapter on herring seems to have been having a bad day and whilst I am all for using old lithographs as lovely illustrations, it irritates me when there is nothing to say where they have been taken from. Herring emit ‘Fast Repetitive Ticks’, ‘FRTs’, or farts – they communicate from their anuses. A new word was ‘precarity’ which I much like – much more succinct and elegant than precariousness.
Stag Beetles
There is much of the usual folkloric nonsense about Stag Beetles, whom I love. There are 1,200 species worldwide. They are red-listed in the UK and across much of Europe. I remember they were a common sight when I was a child. As grubs they live underground for between three and seven years. In this chapter Albrecht Dürer’s famous portrait is mentioned but not shown, and so I have placed it at the head of this post. This is an extraordinary map by George Edwards, c.1746 (the caption to this is for some reason repeated in the text).
Good to know that it is a Stag Beetle on the cover of Massive Attack’s Mezzanine album. The author says that “the sound of a tapping beetle” wanders through the first track, ‘Angel’.
Fleas
The next chapter is ‘Flea’. I was delighted to be reminded of John Donne’s poem, ‘The Flea’, a favourite of mine for decades and of Robert Hooke’s illustration in Micrographica, published in 1665. Their jumping abilities are well-known but the numbers are amazing: they can reach speeds of up to 1.9 metre per second, the acceleration subjecting them to 135G (humans lose consciousness at between 4 and 5G). No bad thing to be reminded again of the harm done by the flea treatments used by cat and dog owners, including me. “Traces of neonicotinoids … have been detected in 99% of Britain’s rivers and at levels far exceeding that which is recommended.”
Mythical dogs and plesiosaurs
I do not wish to decry them, but the concluding chapters on mythical dogs and plesiosaurs were not of particular interest to me although the first opens with mention of the British Bulldog, a rather unpleasant national symbol in at least two senses. They were bred for bull-baiting but are now better known as one of the brachycephalic breeds beset by health problems.
It was self-taught palaeonotologist Mary Anning, from a poor, working-class background, who was the first to discover the complete remains of a plesiosaur in 1823. The drawing she created is truly remarkable.
I have often wodered why children, especially boys in my experience, so often go through a phase of fascination with dinosaurs. The Loch Ness monster comes up but I have never thought that was anything other than a fabrication designed to attract tourism.
I am grateful to these final chapters for an introduction to the word ‘cryptid’ and to the epilogue for the assurance that we have very few endemic species and that the idea of a British animal is in some ways absurd. Everything was invasive at some point.
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There’s been a lot to absorb in the last dew days.
The Assembly
What has made me happy and deeply moved, to tears on several occasions, has been watching The Assembly on ITV. It consists of a group of autistic, neurodivergent and learning disadvantaged people interviewing celebrities. Unencumbered by certain restrictive norms, they ask questions which range from the funny to the profound and deeply penetrating. Not all episodes are available yet but yesterday I binge watched those that are. It seems to bring out the best in the interviewees as well as often moving them to tears and smiles of joy. Danny Dyer comes across extremely well – he is self-effacing and completely open. Stephen Tennant too. Jade Thirwall from Little Mix seems to be beautiful soul, shining with compassion. Gary Lineker is a little more guarded. I had to remind myself what he was supposed to have done wrong and why he left the BBC. He was outspoken about certain actions by the Israeli government in a post which unfortunately included an inappropriate emoji and about our government’s immigration policy which he described as immeasurably cruel. Stephen Fry is asked some particularly cheeky questions. Even Nicola Sturgeon doesn’t come out of it too badly once she lets the politician’s mask slip slightly.
Each episode ends with a song performed by members of the group and they are all wonderful. They are all accomplished but the female singer stands out – her voice is absolutely beautiful and pure. Their version of Deacon Blue’s powerful ‘Dignity’ is in my view better than the original.
Puppies and racism
The saga of my puppy breeding friend has rumbled on. See Hedgehogs, Wolves, Dogs, Foxes and Bruce Springsteen – Animal Wild. Trying to reason with him was getting me nowhere and so after ample warnings I very reluctantly reported him to the council. He is understandably angry but more forgiving than I expected. We have shaken hands, the council will do whatever it will do, but something of our friendship has broken, inevitably. But I could not do nothing. He is launching genetic timebombs for generations to come.
I will be giving the pub a miss for a while at least. A few of us were recently subjected to a vile torrent of extreme far-right views, full of racial hatred. The individual concerned has a long history of threatening high levels of violence, usually towards women and others he knows can’t or won’t fight back, including me. I do not feel safe in the pub when he is there and nor do many others. To hear from the management that he will be “spoken to” is not enough. The pub I have frequented for 26 years no longer has a welcoming or pleasant vibe for me.
Textile ‘recycling’
The Environment Investigation Agency has produced a report on Dandora in Kenya, a shocking and horrendous exposé of this dumping ground for the global textile trade. As so often what we are sold as recycling is an illusion.
Dandora – a polluted, dangerous dumping ground for the global textile trade – EIA
Seals
In Canada the seal hunt has resumed. For some reason I thought this didn’t happen any more. It is outrageously cruel, an entirely unnecessary mass slaughter. Hundreds of thousands are brutally killed each year. “The commercial seal hunt has been shrinking for years, with global bans on seal products, plummeting demand, and fewer participants. Instead of letting it fade away, the Canadian government is actively trying to revive it. Now is the time to finally end this unnecessary slaughter—not expand it.”
Bulfighting
I find it hard not to actively celebrate when matadors are killed by bulls. This ‘retired’ individual was preparing the bulls for the fight, commonly a cruel process in itself.
Retired matador killed by bull in southern Spain
Platypus
There is a truly heart warming story from the Wild Island blog here:
Juvenile Platypus Returned to the Wild in Tasmania
Sperm Whales
The Mammal Society has shared a scientific report showing the remarkable co-operation shown by cetaceans at the time of births. In this case an entire group of sperm whales, including unrelated females, were seen giving their assistance and support.
Sperm whales team up to help mothers give birth
Michelin
PETA celebrates a most welcome announcement from Michelin. They will no longer sell leather, tourist attractions featuring animals will no longer be included in the iconic Green Guides and there is now a statement warning that bullfighting is “an abusive and declining tradition.”
Two lions
This is an astonishing piece of footage from some time ago. It shows a lioness in an urban environment effortlessly leaping over a wall and taking a fully grown rottweiler from a garden.
Lion caught on CCTV snatching a rottweiler – BBC Africa
The lioness is described as rogue which strikes me as inaccurate and unfair. I could not help but smile at one of the comments: “Well the lion vs Rottweilers question has been answered.
Telegraph journalist gets mauled by Lion
This is also from a long time ago. It seems to me that the journalist thoroughly deserved it. His intrusion into the lion’s small, caged space was idiotic.
Bird feeding
.Why the RSPB is warning bird lovers to take down feeders this summer
I am really struggling with this from the RSPCA. As I said, I asked about this at the British Trust for Ornithology conference and was told that the jury was still out. Part of my response is completely selfish. The birds lift my spirits every day. My heart sung when the first Magpie visitors of the year appeared yesterday. I also can’t help feeling that the birds who live and breed here are somewhat dependent on what I put out (in regularly cleaned feeders, not on a table) but clearly they are less so at this time of year.
The Grand National
The animal scandal of the week is once again the notorious Grand National. On ‘Ladies Day’, which seems anachronistic and patronising, a horse broke his back at the last fence but continued to be whipped over the finish line before being killed. The British Horseracing Authority and stewards’ enquiries are clearly a joke in very poor taste. It was said that the horse had made a mistake. So it’s the horse’s fault? There was another death of an injured horse at the same event this year. And it’s all just about money. The disconnect is extraordinary. I told an appalled friend about it – but he carried on placing bets.
George Takei
There’s a wonderful interview with George Takei (Star Trek’s Sulu) in the latest Sunday Times. I had a shameful gap in my knowledge. He and his family were taken from their home and imprisoned in 1942 as part of California’s round-up of Japanese-Americana citizens. They failed to answer a questionnaire in the prescribed manner, which was impossible to do given one nonsensical question and were therefore branded disloyal and taken to a maximum security prison where over half of the 18,000 internees were children. Apologies were not forthcoming until 1988 when Ronald Reagan issued cheques for $20,000 to each of them – a paltry sum in the context. Takei donated his to the Japanese-American National Museum he co-founded in Los Angeles. The board of trustees stood firm on a DEI matter last year and consequently lost $1.7 million in federal grants and funding.
Takei is also eloquent on coming out as gay – not an option in the early Star Trek days. The interracial kiss between the characters of Shatner and Uhura led to some stations in Louisiana refusing to broadcast the episode.
Mobile phones
I have come across a couple of letters recently complaining about the ubiquity of mobile phones in art galleries – to the extent that is is impossible actually to see paintings properly. What is the point of these snapshots? It’s like going to a gid and spending the whole time filming it on your phone.
Red Kites
Red Kites are under attack again, for apparently taking food from people’s hands and outside tables. “There have been stories of red kites swooping to attack small dogs.” These latter are entirely without evidence and beyond unlikely: the birds’ diet consists primarily of carrion and worms.
Business meetings
Also in the Sunday Times, I was pleased to see an article wondering about the efficacy of business meetings. From my time at Sotheby’s I always felt that they were 99% pointless. And mostly risible.
Pilots and climate change
A small but growing number of pilots are leaving their jobs after a crisis of conscience over carbon emissions. A quick look at the admittedly fascinating Planefinder app at any time shows what looks like an impossible number of planes in the air.
Artemis II
I have now watched a short documentary about the Artemis II lunar mission and am still utterly bewildered as to what the point of it was. The ‘overview effect’ affected Edgar Mitchell, who walked on the moon in 1971, more deeply than most. His daughter has said, “He would be horrified at the state of our world … going to war over oil, losing our humanity, destroying the future we should be building … [He said] You can either create a future of abundance and sustainability, or you can wipe yourselves out, and we are heading in that direction.”
Completely incidentally, I happened to drive through the Stonehenge bottleneck last week and could hardly believed I had never before noticed the adjacent large burial mound.
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