An Excellent Use For Rats
I saw this story about rats being used for mine clearance in Mozambique first in The Times. But here’s the report with a picture from the Mirror.
The Gambian pounched rat used for the clearance certainly looks to be a bit bigger than your average UK rat. Good luck to the charity Apopo in their work!
The bad news is that the Gambian pounched rat is not a genuine rat, so those murophobics won’t be pleased, if something goes wrong.
Gorillas In The Cold And Rain
Even the gorillas were braving the weather.
It just shows what a lot of softies we’ve become! Although, I will admit one or two did prefer to be inside in the warm.
Tigers Must Be Tougher Than We Are!
I popped into the Tiger Territory at the zoo and was half expecting to find that the tigers were fast asleep in the warm somewhere!
But as the pictures show, at least the male tiger; Jae Jae, was showing himself off.
But we mustn’t forget that tigers aren’t averse to water and have regularly been seen in snow in Siberia in wildlife programmes.
On the other hand, these are Sumatran tigers, more used to sun and rain than snow!
It was also rather pleasing to see that there were quite a few visitors. Many seemed to be from overseas. I actually talked to some Germans, Ecuadorians and Chinese, who’d come to London for Christmas.
Some Lively Colobus Monkeys
London Zoo has a group of black and white colobus monkeys.
The weather seemed to have no effect on them. Although, when I took the pictures, there does seem to be blue sky above.
Praise For Kings Cross From Down Under
One of my Internet alerts is for Kings Cross Square and I picked up this article praising the area from the Sydney Morning Herald web site.
Afterwards, Australian visitors, will only need to go to Highgate Cemetery to feel at home.
A Comeback for Europe’s Wildlife
This report on the BBC is to be welcomed.
As I found in Sweden, bears, wolves, beavers and moose are all thriving.
The trouble comes, when animals like urban foxes and badgers become a menace because they are too numerous.
We need to make sure we manage the consequences properly.
Sweden’s Mammals – Would I Go Again?
It is now a few days since I returned from my trip to see Sweden’s mammals, and it is time to pause for reflection.
Although, I ask the question of whether I would go again in this post, I actually don’t think, I would do the exact same trip again, as I’ve done it once and the only disappointment was that the bears and the wolves were on holiday too.
So I might go just to see bears or wolves and Sweden would be one of the places I would look at. After all, it’s a country, where things are done correctly, the food and accommodation, I had on the trip was very good and overall, it was all well organised.
Overall, I enjoyed it immensely and don’t regret going one bit in any way.
I said on the first night on the boat looking for beavers, that we would get some surprises and things wouldn’t turn out as expected.
Obviously, the problems with the bears and the wolves was one surprise, but as someone who lived in the countryside for forty years, I know how unpredictable animals and birds can be.
But we also had two very positive surprises; the ants and the magnificent skies.
If I was organising the tours, I would make sure that these were explained better.
But then as in all things, it is attention to detail that counts.
I have a feeling that this tour and others like it will get more popular, as surely Norway and Sweden, are the one place close to the UK, where you can see large wild animals. It’s also an ideal short break.
I think coupled with visits to Stockholm and Oslo at either end, it could be part of a fuller exploration of Scandinavia for everybody.
THe tour I took was organised by Marcus Eldh of Wild Sweden and I booked it through Naturetrek in the UK.
All of the posts can be accessed by clicking this link.
Hunting For Moose
After a supper by the lake, we started hunting for moose and I took these pictures.
The next evening, we also saw a lot more moose and actually lost count of the number we saw, but it was at least thirty. It made one of the party’s day, as she had come particularly to see moose.
We also saw several roe deer and a solitary brown hare.
Searching For Beavers
After settling in to the guest house and having supper, we went searching for beaver in electric-powered rubber boats.
I found that I could see them in the water using a pair of borrowed binoculars, but they were rather too far away to photograph.
Beavers in Sweden are very much a success story and they are now very numerous compared to say fifty years ago. One of the best glimpses we got, was later whilst driving to see wolves, one was swimming along the shore of a lake bordering the road.
Sweden’s Mammals
I have been in Sweden on an organised trip to see Sweden’s mammals. The details are here on the Naturetrek site.
I actually extended the trip by three days, by flying to Stockholm a day early and then taking the train to the tour’s start at Vasteras. I also came back via Oslo.
All of the posts will be tagged Sweden’s Mammals, although some will have nothing to do with either Sweden or mammals.
The Anonymous Widower 