Tigers At The London Zoo
I am a member at the London Zoo and went there to check out their new restaurant and also see my old friends, the penguins.
I also ended up at their new Tiger Territory.
Incidentally, they’d just introduced their male and female tigers to each other. but the female was being rather coy and hiding in the long grass.
The territory is much better than anything I’ve seen for big cats in the past. Except of course for lions in the Masai Mara.
Bears In Sweden
I found a piece in Highlife on the flight, about going to see bears and wolves in Northern Sweden. It is a company called Naturetrek and this page is the holiday to see bears.
How Did That Get There?
Is this taking eco-living too far, to have a cow in Camden?
How Did That Get There?
I suppose they must have swum it there along the Regent’s Canal.
Squirrel Monkeys At London Zoo
The squirrel monkeys at London Zoo are a major attraction, although they’ve had a bit of bad publicity lately, having bitten a few people according to this report in the Standard.
They were well-behaved last night, but as with all monkeys, they quickly learn where visitors keep goodies. But at least these delightful monkeys aren’t as big and dangerous as baboons, who are the real hooligans of Africa.
Badgers, Foxes and Deer
As I write this, there is a debate going on about the badger cull on Radio 5. Living in Hackney, I have no vested interest, as what happens won’t effect me directly.
When I first moved back to Suffolk at the start of the 1970s, I never saw a badger until perhaps 2006, and then on one night coming back from a restaurant I saw several in the lanes north of Haverhill. Over the last twenty years, I started to see dead badgers increasingly on the road.
Foxes too, were very rare in East Suffolk, where I lived until about the mid-1990s. I had never seen one alive, but I had smelt the odd fox. In West Suffolk, we had foxes everywhere and now in Hackney, I saw one cross the road in front of me, as I walked with a friend to the local church.
Deer too, have shown a remarkable rise in numbers. In fact, the only claim, I ever made on my car insurance in recent years, was when a deer jumped in front of my car, when C was driving.
All of these animals have no natural predator in the UK, and they are rapidly increasing in numbers.
There will come a time, when we will need to cull badgers, foxes and deer, very strongly, as otherwise we’ll be overrun with them. As it is foxes and badgers are carnivores, so what effect will unsustainable high levels have on our other native birds and animals? As it is already, some believe that foxes are feeding aggressively on our hedgehog population, as I reported here.
If we don’t keep our large mammals to a healthy level, we will be seeing a lot of other problems.
Badgers Stop Play
This is a sadder story about badgers ruining a cricket ground. Here’s the first few paragraphs.
Badgers have stopped play at one of England’s oldest cricket clubs after they tore huge chunks out of the pitch.
The damage has forced Rickmansworth Cricket Club, in Hertfordshire, to postpone all of its games in April and May as staff try to repair the ground.
It is believed the badgers were attracted by bugs thriving in the damp pitch, with the club unable to treat the ground due to the cold weather.
Badgers are becoming a serious pest in many places, due to the fact that they are protected and have no natural predator. So consequently, there is getting to be a population, that doesn’t have the space and sufficient food. It’s the same with deer in some places, but at least they are good to eat.
We must get sensible about our wildlife. Foxes, badgers, grey squirrels and deer seem to get all the protection they need to prosper from well-meaning town dwellers, but that wonderful queen of the countryside; the brown hare, and the beautiful red squirrel, keep struggling.
Canary Wharf CrossRail Station
Coming home, I stopped off at West India Quay DLR station and took these pictures of the new CrossRail station at Canary Wharf.
Note Billingsgate Fish Market in the background. That was the setting for this BBC news item about a seal, who lives by the fish market.
Climbing The Rock Of Gibraltar
I didn’t walk up, as there is a cable car.
The views are fairly spectacular, but be warned, that there is only tourist attractions at the top and I needed some tissues and some chocolate and couldn’t buy them.
As you can see, I saw the Barbary macaques, but many who went up later in the rain didn’t, as just like us, they probably don’t like rain. The macaques are true monkeys and not apes. Although unlike some species of monkeys they didn’t seem to be trying too hard to steal from and annoy visitors. I didn’t hear one human alarm call, whilst on the Rock.
Visiting the macagues is a very different wildlife experience, as you just walk around them, whilst both species observe the other. I even saw a couple in the town below.
It was quite a long walk on the top of the Rock, but as it was generally downhill, I managed it. However, because of the rain and my rhinitis, I was having difficulty with maintaining a good pace. Luckily, there were a few places to sit.
Eventually, I found a bus stop and got a bus back to the main bus terminal, from where I took a shuttle taxi back to Oriana.
A New Food Source To Develop
As someone, who has planted more than a few trees in his time, I’ve had the odd runs-in with deer, who feel that the new shoots of saplings are tasty for breakfast, lunch and dinner. C also hit a deer in my car, which to say the least didn’t do it much good.
So although they are nice to see in the countryside, when the University of East Anglia says we have too many deer, as reported here, I tend to agree. The researcher, Dr. Dolman is quoted as follows.
We are not killing something and then incinerating the carcass – what we are talking about is harvesting a wild animal to supply wild free-ranging venison for or tables – for farm shops, for gastro pubs.
“What we are advocating isn’t removing deer from the countryside – what we are advocating is trying to get on top of the deer population explosion and try to control the problems that are being caused.
“And in a way, [venison] provides a sustainable food source where you know where it comes from, you know it is ethically sourced, you know it is safe to eat, and that puts food on people’s tables. As much as I love deer, to be a meat eater but then to object to the culling and harvesting of deer seems to be inconsistent.
That sounds all very sensible, but I suspect that the RSPCA and others will be against the large scale cull, that he suggests. The RSPCA’s view is in this part of the article.
In a statement, the RSPCA said it was “opposed in principle to the killing or taking of all wild animals unless there is strong science to support it, or evidence that alternatives are not appropriate.
“Even if a cull is supported by science, it is very important that it is carried out in a humane and controlled way.
“Any decision to carry out a cull must be taken on a case by case basis based on the specific issues which impact a specific area. We don’t believe this should be rolled out in a uniform way across the whole country. It is certainly not a case of one size fits all.
If we don’t cull the deer to reasonable levels, we will get a double destruction of the countryside. By the deer on the one hand and on the other by farmers and householders putting up more and more secure fences to keep the pests off their land.
With all the trouble over horsemeat, it does strike me, that we ought to develop our taste for venison and support those like Marks and Spencer, who are using it in high-quality ready meals.
After all, venison is supposed to be good for you and certainly doesn’t have the health problems that are being reported today for processed meat.
Do You Get As Much Free Bamboo As You Can Eat?
This story from the Sun is about testing the new panda-cams at Edinburgh Zoo.
I suppose it’s one of those jobs, that is in that category of tough ones, that someone has to do.
You can actually see the pandas using this link.
The Anonymous Widower 