Did The Lynx Survive Until The 18th Century In The UK?

 

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For many the lynx (Lynx lynx) died out during the last ice age in Britain. However, the historical evidence shows that it continued until hunted to extinction during the Medieval period.

Over recent years many have claimed that the lynx in fact survived up to the 18th century -some state it survived later than that.

In this publication naturalist Terry Hooper-Scharf assesses the evidence and points to reports and other factors not widely known to draw a definitive conclusion on the subject

Chris Packham joins London protest following devastating UK wildlife report

 

British wildlife campaigner Chris Packham joined protesters outside the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) on Thursday following the release of a devastating report on the state of UK wildlife.

On Wednesday, the National Trust released its State of Nature report which found that one in six of the 10,000-plus species across the UK risk going extinct.

The report also found the number of species in the UK has fallen by 19 per cent on average since 1970.

“We don’t have time to wait any longer. We need everyone to be involved in nature restoration as it won’t happen overnight,” Packham told Sky News during the protest in Westminster.

“What we’re saying to all the political parties is to take this seriously. We need a healthy environment, it supports us.”

Unless Government support materialised to support the environment, the Springwatch presenter threatened to take to the streets “on several more occasions” before the next election.

The release of the report comes after regulators approved the Rosebank oil field on Tuesday. The Rosebank field, which lies north-west of Shetland and contains up to 350 million barrels of oil, is currently one of the largest untapped discoveries in UK waters.

Ithaca Energy, which has a 20 per cent stake in the project said it would bring in £8.1billion of direct investment, support 1,600 jobs during construction and 450 during its lifetime.

The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) agreed to the new project despite heavy criticism from environmental campaigners.

Commenting on the approval, Packham called the decision “catastrophic” and “abject madness”.

“They keep on about jobs in the oil industry. That’s bad, old business,” he said. “We need bright, new business, which is in renewables. That’s where we need our investment, and we have that capability to do that in the UK.”

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s PM programme, Tory peer Lord Zac Goldsmith also criticised the decision, saying: “It just trashes the UK’s reputation as a reliable, grown-up member of the global community, it’s done us immeasurable harm.”

He also attacked the delay to net zero policies such as a ban on new petrol and diesel cars announced last week by the Prime Minister, saying the Conservative Party seems to be in “disarray” and that he may not be able to vote for it.

Dan Sherrard-Smith, founder of MyMotherTree.com told the Standard: “UK wildlife is in a dire state. Many of our favourite British species are at risk of extinction including the turtle dove and puffin.

“On current trends, we look at a bleak future with, potentially, only household pets and domestic animals sharing our island. Yet we can halt this decline.

“One action all of us can take is to make sure our money - where we bank and our pension - is invested in areas that promote and restore the biodiversity of the UK. This was once a green and pleasant isle. It can be again.”

Daniel Kaul, from Natucate added: “The UK's wildlife has experienced significant declines due to factors like habitat loss, climate change, and pollution, with many species facing potential extinction.

“If no action is taken, the future will see massive species loss, ecosystem destruction, and economic impacts due to reduced biodiversity. To halt this decline, it's crucial to focus on habitat restoration, conscious conservation, public education, robust environmental policies, and addressing needed changes.”

Dr Nicky Dee, founder of Carbon 13 also said: “It would be a sad 12 days of Christmas without the two turtle doves yet this is one of the birds at risk. While alarming, it is an alert to the greater challenges triggered by climate change. The canary in the coalmine is a good analogy, as nature tells us about the state of the planet and our ability to adapt and cope with climate change.

“Biodiversity is our most effective defence against climate change. And that’s why we have invested in startups such as NatureBound and Kita so we are better able to evaluate this link and ensure money goes into the right places.”

A Request

 Just a brief word. I assume that you visit this blog because you find the subject matter of interest?

Despite some thinking that I make money from these blogs I do not. They are not monetized and not filled with gambling or unsavoury ads. With a world wide readership I have to make sure that nothing I post or ads that I would have no control over do not get someone in a country with more restrictive laws into trouble.

Blogger -and Google mainly- do not push blogs. This blog does not appear when you search Google or Bing so most people will never know that it exists.

There are ways that you can help -I have given up on expecting comments- and one is to become a blog follower. It costs nothing but shows that there are real people out there reading the blog.

The second way is to pass links around to people or groups you think might be interested. It's all basic but helps show I am not posting to myself even though I know this tiny blog has had 9, 248 views.

So if you can help please do.

Thank You

From The River Severn to The Wash Without Touching Ground

 

(c)2023 respective copyright owner

One thing you you will continuously read or hear is that Britain only had sporadic forestry and the meagre forestry of the Middle ages is basically i9t and we are recovering that now through replanting.

I will comment that this is utter rubbish. It is a rebooting of history to make us feel like we are environmentally aware and rewilding and restoring our old environment.The Romans and others wrote of British forestry and this trendy "Let's lie and make ourselves feel better" mentality has now become dogma (you knew I was going to mention dogma, didn't you?). That or simply very - very - poor research.

My colleague, LM, has brought to my attention this book Historic Forests of England by Ralph Whitlock. Yes, I do not make all of this stuff up but base it on established work and references that anyone can check and confirm.

There is one passage my attention was drawn to

Therefore you can see that the rather meagre forestry of the Medieval period that we have "reclaimed" is nothing. Look at that part about squirrels again:

The Wash is a rectangular bay and multiple estuary at the north-west corner of East Anglia on the East coast of England, where Norfolk meets Lincolnshire and that covers roughly a distance of 150 miles or 241+ kilometres.  

\Above: River Severn to the Wash

Of course, much forestry around London and Kent was lost to industry and ship building and that is what led to the extinction of wild cats in that part of the country by the 19th century. Note in that paragraph how it notes environmental damage from man at one point was minimal but fires were set to make hunting easier by flushing out woodland fauna.

The forests of old Britain would have contained deer, wild cats, wolves, badgers, wild boar, the Old fox types as well as lynx and other animals.  We lost all of that forestry and all of those animals and there is no amount of tree planting going to bring them or the forests back. Even now forests that have matured are being cut down for timber (a reason the red squirrel is still being killed to "protect product" -and that killing is carried out in daylight and with bodies such as English Nature and DEFRA knowing about it.

At the moment we need more trees. We need far more greener spaces. We need to protect and conserve wildlife. With a UK government that is pro hunt and focussed on finances rather than those three 'nuisance' things there is not much light at the end of a long tunnel. we need far more people to step up, organise and act or in future a holiday will be taking the kids to the one acre park once a year for some fresh air.

(c)2023 respective copyright owner

One in Eight

 

Britain's Wild Boars. Wiped Out. Brought Back. Wiped Out and Now Back But.....

 My colleague, LM, is one to find interesting facts and and is constantly searching very old works and archives. For instance LM has acquired a book from 1806: The British Museum; or, Elegant Repository of Natural History vol. II by William Holloway.

And in this book was the statement that wild boar were not native to Briton. This may well be the writing and phrasing of the period and mean that it was not native to Briton in 1806. LMs note read:

"The more ancient the boar … the darker they are .. mostly black points"

This is something LM had suspected for a while and although I did wonder the fact that LM can go to a recognised if rare book and find this information is great for the British Extinct Fauna Project that LM started.

Today we know that wild boar are back in the UK countryside and the "Great Storm of 1987" was blamed for destroying fences, etc and releasing them. The truth is -and I was there running the Exotic Animals Register (EAR)- that a lot of boar were dumped or "had escapes enabled". The exotic meat craze was taking a nose dive and costs rising while feeding and housing the boar by strict guidelines was costly. I found three boar farms where there was no damage to enclosures by storm but some very shady wire snipping.

But rather like the sudden appearance of pairs of European wild cats in the UK countryside from the late 1970s on so there were reports of "shaggy dark pigs" but without a photo or any other solid data the reports were just logged.

A wild boar from the 1806 book British Extinct Fauna Project

Now if you go to the RSPB (Royal Society for the Preservation of Birds) site you will find a feature on wild boar and read:

"Why are wild boar back in the UK?

"Since the 1970s, groups of wild boar have started popping up. We can't be sure whether the first returning boars were escapees from local farms or part of deliberate unregulated releases, but either way, the runaways have successfully made homes in some of the UK’s rural and wooded areas. As a former native species, the hairy wild boar are perfectly prepared for the UK’s chilly climate and can happily breed and find food here."  

https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/rspb-news/rspb-news-stories/the-surprising-return-of-britains-wild-boar/

It is quite obvious, even more so by the mid 1990s, that someone or some group as this was well organised and a well known "open secret" amongst wildlife organisations, had been releasing specific animals in the countryside: wild cats, boar and even beaver and in certain locations even pine martens. If we ever find out who is or was behind this it will be interesting since breeding and even housing, feeding and finding the right locations took a lot of work.

The Sarah Woodbury blog carries an item on wild boar and this part is interesting:

“The wild boar, Sus scrofa, is a native British species. It probably became extinct as a wild species at the end of the 13th century (Yalden 1999). After this date wild boar were maintained for game and as a status symbol by introduction of new stock from France and Germany and through hybridisation with domestic and feral pigs. By the 17th century no wild boar were found in Britain, suggesting that the medieval reintroductions were not successful, possibly because of hunting pressure.”"

https://www.sarahwoodbury.com/the-wild-boar-in-britain/

(c)2023 respective copyright owner

Yes, rather like deer, hares, foxes, red squirrels and a number of other species that hunting wiped out in the mid 1800s (c 1860s) where the dread of losing the 'fun' of hunting and killing resulted in the importation of these species from Europe it was nothing new. In fact the landed gents and huntmasters likely had ancestors who imported for hunting and for private zoos and probably got the "solution" from them.

We see the same pattern though; wild boar wiped out through hunting. Wild boar imported to replenish hunt stock. Wild boar wiped out again. There was, as with foxes, no attempt to let the boar spread and breed it was likely that boar were turned out just before the hunt or with enough time to escape the inevitable fate and "give good chace". It is the same old repetitious pattern over and over.

According to the Woodland Trust  https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/animals/mammals/wild-boar/

"The current UK boar population is derived from captive animals that either escaped or were illegally released. An estimated 2,600 animals are now living wild in several breeding populations. The largest of these is in the Forest of Dean, but wild boar are also present in parts of South East and South West England, South East Wales and North West Scotland."

There is also a post on Rewilding Britain worth reading as it explains the positive effect the boar have on the environment:

 https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/reintroductions-key-species/key-species/wild-boar-pig

(c)2023 resp[ective copyright owner

So boar are back -yippee!  Uh, no, because there are still people wanting to "cull" boar and we know that they are being killed and this has been going on for a long time as shown by the story in The Guardian in 2018: 'Immoral': groups fight National Trust's wild boar cull" https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/nov/22/immoral-groups-fight-national-trusts-wild-boar-cull

In other words no one ever learns and the lust to kill anything is stronger than the need to improve the environment and conserve wildlife.

The UK really is The Blood Island

State of the Badger Report and why I will not be adding to it

 

The Badger Trust has been promoting this so here are my thoughts.

State of the Badger Report Aim

The aim is to produce a comprehensive report that answers some of the questions regarding badger population, threats, and recovery. The report will be used to assess density and distribution estimates, historical and current population changes, and badger crime statistics. 

You can read more here: https://www.badgertrust.org.uk/state-of-the-badger

People may read about this so allow me to explain why I, and I think other badger watchers or people who have badgers visiting, will not be taking part.

When I set up the Bristol Badger Group in 1995 the policy was to not draw attention to badger setts. I had learnt from other wildlife work that once you are known to do a certain type of field work then those involved in hunting, snaring or just anti certain wildlife will follow you and get locations. It is why I stopped one long term project years ago as farmers or hunt people who saw me passed the word along. End of a lot of hard work but the safety of the animals was more important.

I have catalogue areas where badgers are seen or where setts are known and you can take my right arm off before anyone gets that information.

"We plan for the State of the Badger survey to use the Badger Watch App to record sett locations and badger signs, which will also allow for criminal instances to be simultaneously recorded and stored on a private and secure database."

I do not put any of my data on a computer or an online data base. I do not use any "app". These can be hacked -there is no such thing as a "private and secure database" because pressure can be put on internet service providers or even the people who own the app design to get access. There are enough examples out there. 

I have dealt with both MAFF and DEFRA over the years and they have used threats, very dodgy activities and twice used my name to get a dead animal I was told would be held for me. Some of this I have discussed on the other blog 

https://exoticanimalsregister.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-uk-government-and-police-are.html

My policy is simple: leave the badgers alone and do not draw attention to them -Face Book groups are notorious for being riddled with pro hunt people and it is why I never identify sites.

Yes, I want to fully list sites because in the last three years I have helped to stop developers twice as they damaged the area around a badger sett and in one case they returned vegetation to an area and sealed off the sett area so no worker or development staff could go near it.

It also helps us if we need to look for cubs if a sow is killed on a nearby road so that is very important.

I know a certain number of sett areas and some woodland and community park groups passed info on to me in the understandi9ng that no one else was told.

And there you have it. I record badgers killed on roads which is high enough and there are certain hot spots for badger and fox deaths by car. 

I will give this survey a miss.

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