Tag: animals

Returning to the discussion as to whether badger predation is the major cause of hedgehog decline as suggested by a friend of one of the HART volunteers, see earlier post, this seems to be a case of someone deciding what was true before even being in possession of the facts, let alone giving them due…

This is from a man who seems to be right up there with a couple of the villains in Animal Wild, Lord Seacroft and Lord Sudeley.  Feudalism not only lives, it never went away. Reginald Plunkett, 1880-1967, was an Anglo-Irish naval admiral and the younger son of the 17th Baron of Dunsany.  His brother Edward…

Just a couple so far this month, one of the Dunnocks again and a not brilliant but not too shabby picture of a Jackdaw – they are usually are far too smart to allow themselves to be photographed easily.  This one was at least eighty feet away, so not bad without a tripod.  RSPB Digital…

A spectacular new wildlife series on Disney Plus, Queens is narrated by Angela Bassett.  The angle is matriarchs.  “There’s a reason she’s called Mother Nature.”  There is no flinching from showing nature at its harshest, its reddest in tooth and claw – and frankly shocking family betrayals.  The first episode is set in the Ngorongoro…

March 2024 See Animal Wild for an account of the wonderful Dark Skies area around Elan Valley in Wales, but I am pleased to see the beginnings of a gentle local campaign which has featured in our parish newsletter, beautifully illustrated by local artist David Thomas.  I am hoping to ask him for permission to…

PETA, I was pleased to see, made their presence known and felt at Crufts, and I saw an image on Facebook of a protestor holding up an Animal Aid banner about the use of the whip in horse racing: “Whipping doesn’t hurt?  Come and try it.”  Beside him is a dominatrix appropriately clad, in red…

This made Channel 4 news on March 4th 2024.  It is actually fairly old news (but all credit to C4 for running it) and is extensively covered in Animal Wild, but this is the story of the Warwickshire Hunt who appealed against a Community Protection Notice, a court order, issued in an attempt to mitigate…

March 2024 Pig factory I have forced myself to watch a fair number of programmes about the horrors of factory farming.  This one was Hogwood, on Netflix and elsewhere, the name of a pig ‘farm’ in Warwickshire.  Multiple fearless investigations were undertaken by the vegan charity Viva! exposing, as they described it, a vision of…

I am occasionally asked (or just tell people if I’m not) which is my favourite book about wildlife.  It is hands down, without any shadow of a doubt The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony.  I wrote this about it in Animal Trust: “Shortly after Lawrence Anthony’s sudden death from a heart attack, two separate groups…

HMRC and in particular their VAT division are notorious for the invasive powers they have and because of understaffing, appalling customer service – and we are, after all, customers, and we pay their wages as they should never forget. But it turns out they have found a new way to screw money out of us.…

I have chosen one issue more or less randomly – there is so much information to try to take in.  Raptor on raptor – a Goshawk is recorded, for the first time, predating Gyr Falcon chicks in Norway.  Wonderful plans / hopes for a nature reserve in Rutland, including the reintroduction of brown bears, lynxes…

Another spring newsletter, from the HSA, Howl.  The content just keeps on getting better and better.  There are reports on hare hunts, badger cull sabotage and stag hunts, the demise of the Oakley Hunt, a review of what sounds like a terrible pro-hunting book, the usual pages and pages of news from the many individual…

I stayed overnight at Moor Hall in Cookham, where I used to live, home of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and conference centre.  A strange venue for me but it suited the purposes of a friend and me who were attending the slightly odd occasion of a combined birthday party and wake.  After breakfast I…

In an earlier post I wrote that “there seem to be have been very few ducks for some time on the Kennet & Avon Canal which runs through our village. An impromptu conversation with a barge resident in the village shop told me something I didn’t know – otters eat ducks, and perhaps they are…

March 2024 Elephant attack At Amer Fort near Jaipur in India, a tourist is attacked by one of the elephants used to ferry visitors up and down.  Chained, beaten and abused, it is hardly surprising that they can become aggressive.  The tourist’s injuries were quite serious, but this particular elephant had attacked before.  One can…