Here is why Bristol Nature Network and Bristol Naturalist Society on Face Book are of no real interest.
Thursday 11 April 2024
Natural History In Bristol -I Really Am Going To Be Disliked (and I do not care)
Monday 8 April 2024
Everyone SHOULD Understand This
It is all very simple but some people are either not reading or understanding so I will try to explain. "Beasts of the chace(chase)" were every and any animal that people wanted to hunt and kill. Eventually the word "vermin" was used to mean the same thing; animals of any type that were preferred for hunting. It is only hunts and supporters that use that term and it has never officially been used.
Seals, sea lions, cormorants..well, open any illustrated natural history book and point to a bird, mammal of any type and it was for killing. Authors wrote of seeing a seal resting on a rock and noticed it was within shooting range. So moron took his shot and the seal tumbled into the water and sank. Shooter had no idea if he had just wounded or killed it but simply got up and walked along to see what other shooting there was to be had.
Not just gentlemen but !lower classes" could take part in killing wildlife and earn enough for a boozy night or feed the family -foxes (adults and cubs), badgers (ditto), hedgehogs, pine marten on and on the list goes. Why kill these animals? Because they were not wanted as they fulfilled no practical function for humans...other than 'sport'.
By the 1860s Old (original) British red squirrels were wiped out with only one or two pockets continuing. Yes, people DID care because no red squirrels meant no fun shooting. The solution -import red squirrels from Europe. Since the 1860s the red squirrel has faced several near extinctions and nothing to do with grey squirrels. Even today this 'protected' species is shot on private estates and trapped, shop or killed in other ways by commercial forestry companies. None of those ever faces prosecution or any type of legal kick-back but the grey squirrel is a fine scapegoat.
By the 1860s hare coursing had wiped out hares in England. The whole 'sport'of hare coursing along with hare hounds faced it's end. There was a solution: import hares from Europe and so hares flourished again only to be nearly wiped out and today the number in the wild is not that great.
In other areas deer hunting wiped out the species and a solution was found to this: import deer from Europe. Of course, those deer were hunted until their numbers dropped then more were brought in.
The three types of Old British fox were written about in the 'sporting' journals and books. Everyone stated that these foxes were becoming extinct. They kept hunting until by the 1860s the Old foxes were gone and replaced by foxes brought in from Europe, possibly starting in the 1700s. There have been several massive falls in fox populations since the 1900s and we are currently looking at another that may well lead to extinct in the 2030s.
Wild cats were also 'sport' and by the 1860s -a period in British natural history worth noting- the true Scottish wild cat was extinct. Naturalists who had also hunted these animals noted how museums they visited had taxidermy 'wild cats' that were not. The type currently used as the "poster animal" for the species only started appearing in the late 19th/early 20th centuries and there are photographs proving the point. We know that menageries and zoos wanted wild cats and the many animal importers were willing to supply. There may have been some escapees but their distribution and the hybrids they produced are a puzzle until recently when my research discovered that owners of hunting territories were restocking those areas with wild cats so that those with licences had something large to kill.
It goes on and on and on ad infinitum.
Shooters are currently chatting about where wild cats are going to be released and the excitement over when wolves or lynx will be introduced is high. Yes, bring them back and they will be wiped out.
The wild cats that currently exist, as I have pointed out so often, are not "re-introductions" because you cannot re-introduce a species that went extinct in the 1860s -none exist. These are introductions to fill in a niche the original extinction left almost open. Note that even now the 'protected' wild cat is still being killed on farms and private estates because there is no strong arm law to prevent this. Do you really think that wild cats wandering into a private estate are going to be allowed to do so?
Introductions create other problems. Some wild cats are due for release in areas where the pine marten has returned over the years. Two predators in a geographically small area...not a good idea.
When you read that DNA from UK wildlife matches European species it is because they are that species. We need really ancient bones, etc. to try to find genuine Old British wildlife DNA.
Summarising:
A died out so A2 imported from Europe
B died out so B2 imporeted from Europe.
Just continue with that until you come to Z
Have YOU Killed A Fox By Accident?
This was posted by Wildlife Aid yesterday:
It IS A Wild Cat But Is NOT
If you have read The Red Paper 2022 Vol. 2 -Felids then you will be aware that contemporary accounts and studies by naturalists at the time put the extinction of the Old Scottish wild cat as circa the 1860s -a period during with red squirrels, Old fox types and other species also fell into the Gone Forever hole. The extinction of the Scottish wild cat in the 1860s was announced in 1895. Now we have problems.
Monday 1 April 2024
no extinct animal or bird should be introduced.
All of the conversation and comments were on a Public forum so are therefore not confidential
Fox den In Your Garden
After a vixen was stressed out and had to move her cubs from a garden where people could not possibly wait to remove a shed -it would devastate them- I need to make this clear again. In some cases a cub may be left behind so any cub deaths are down to your ignorance and nothing else.
https://foxrepellentexpert.com/denning/#:~:text=Though%20no%20doubt%20you%20wouldn,up%20and%20filling%20it%20in.
Trapping a fox and "transporting it 30 miles so it does not come back" is so full of legal ramifications and problems doing that will make you a Grade A Moron. Move a fox away...another fox will move in.
Check the website linked above if you really are that big a problem.
Saturday 30 March 2024
Badgers Extinct By 2030
Most people know that from 1977 on (still occasionally) I am an exotics wildlife consultant for UK police forces. In that capacity I had to talk to shooters and game keepers in order to complete reports.
It was via the conversations that I learn all the ins-and-outs of night time shooting. It was also from all of this that made me warn, in the 1990s, that the UK fox population was in decline -in some areas foxes had not been seen for 6-9 months and once any turning up were killed ....no more. I asked how they were making their money then? "Oh, no foxes the rabbit population booms and farmers don't want that so we shoot a ton of them and present them to the farmer who can see we've done our job and we get paid."
I also heard of farmers and estate owners paying "good money to snuff badgers" To which was added "on the quiet though". Now why, if these people knew I worked with police forces would they tell me this? Because they knew private land and no evidence and no one really interested in investigating meant it was all done scot free. There are things that I have heard and been told that concern me.
We are always given the number of 250,000 badgers having been killed in culls and after so many years I doubt that figure. Shooters brag about the cull payments having helped purchase houses and expensive lifestyles. DEFRA:
"1.3 Costs and benefits of extending the current approach to a further 11 intensive culling areas
"Each new cull area is expected to deliver net benefits of between -£0.49 million and -£0.04 million per area, with a central estimate of approximately -£0.16 million. This includes costs accrued over 4 years of culling and benefits accrued over 11 years in line with results from the Randomised Badger Control Trial (RBCT).
"The future costs to UK government are estimated at £0.33 million per area over 4 years.
"Previous versions of the VfM analysis included costs incurred by farmers who are prepared to use their own money to fund culls. These have not been available for this and the previous version of the VfM analysis and are therefore excluded.
"The total monetised benefits are estimated to be around £0.01 million and £0.29 million per area over eleven years, with a central estimate of £0.16 million. This is based on the results of the RBCT."
They like to say benefits and give percentages to hide things as officials always do. How much does bovine TB cost the government?
"bTB eradication costs UK taxpayers around £150 million per annum, with additional costs falling to the cattle industry. More information can be found at TB hub - Bovine TB Advice & Tuberculosis Information for Cattle Farmers."
https://aphascience.blog.gov.uk/2023/03/24/tb-day-2023/
One shooter bemoaned the fact that "You get nothing for the nippers (cubs)"
Badgers in the UK are recognised by zoologists across Europe and elsewhere as "scapegoat species". Protected in 1971 and not long after "kill them!" So people are making good money and there is very limited financial burden on the farmer. Remember that badger clans that have been monitored for years with no sign of TB in tests and nowhere near cattle were also slaughtered.
The figure of 250,000 does not include many cubs -bodies are bagged up and disposed of. Watching the talk online and hearing back from other interested parties I was told by one that "People don't care. The badger huggers would shit a brick -250k is a laugh!" So how many seems to be a likely number?
300,000
which is far over half the badger population and we have no idea how many cubs because "they don't count". If we consider that an estimated 100,000 die on UK roads then it can be seen that the UK badger population is on its way to extinction -which it avoided after centuries of hunting. Yes, hunting never killed off badgers when they were not protected but as a protected species they are being openly slaughtered.
Now we know that the UK government and politicians in voting farmers pockets have declared badgers are to be eradicated (exterminated) from large areas of England. Where are the protests -perhaps the latest Eastenders plot is a bit too gripping for asses to leave seats?
We are seeing foxes heading for extinction (again) and badgers along with them. Are the "animal loving British public" seriously just going to sit there and let two more species go extinct like others also on the verge?
Yes.
I called the UK "The Blood Red Island" because it has seen species -birds, mammals, fish- all go extinct and even those brought to the UK to 'reintroduce' the species are being killed off. A pro hunt government fishing for votes and more has led our wildlife to extinction road and they don't care because they are only in it for the money.
Sit on your asses and watch TV or the internet and don't worry your vacant little minds over it -there will still be pizza and beer.
PLEASE THINK and DON'T!
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