Polar Bear Points To The Bigger Picture

The story was a little late surfacing this year, but nether the less the melting Arctic ice caps got 5 minutes of air time on BBC Radio 5 Live recently. As sure as The Pope is a catholic, the story always emerges at some point at the end of the summertime as of course the full effects of the melting ice shelves can be measured and seen properly. The 5 Live presenter quite rightly highlighted that the already endangered Polar Bear was amongst many animals in the region struggling to survive in their rapidly receding habitat. The guest 'expert' on a line from some American institution agreed and nodded accordingly. (OK, it was radio, but I bet he was nodding in agreement!). Then to finish the interview as the travel news jingle started, the presenter asked, "Well, just what can we all do about it"? 

What can WE all do about it?!!

It's like going up to the governor of the Bank of England and saying "Can I lend you a tenner to tide you over, as I've heard you have a national debt of a few billion pounds". It was if the answer could be summed up in 10 seconds and then we would all go off, do whatever was required to halt climate change and then sit down with a cup of tea with a feeling of deep contentment that we've just saved the world.

Don't get me wrong. I am an obsessive recycler and eco-warrior. All my light bulbs are low energy, I always turn off my TV rather than leave it on standby and I cycle (bike) everywhere. My carbon foot print is about the size of a field mouse. Am I really going to make a difference by having the walls of my house filled with foam. I suppose my point is that it has to be a collective global effort. If I'm making an effort why can't the USA and China agree to sustainable carbon emission limits at the next international meeting on climate control? At the last Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen in December 2009, they could only agree to disagree. Now with 'Climategate', internal politics have again got in the way of common sense. Is there any hope? Not only can any of the major players not agree at national level, but those who did agree have been rather economical with the truth and now they all disagree. If that makes any sense!!

For very different reasons I don’t see how both the USA and China can agree to limits that they need to aim towards. China is still in the midst of its own industrial revolution. As for the USA they just won’t give up ‘Big Things’. My equivalent footprint in the USA would be that of a Brontosaurus.

How do I know? In the summer of 2009 my family and friends visited and stayed in Florida for two weeks. On arriving at Stanford Airport, our first port of call was for car hire. I had pre-booked an Economy Four Door Saloon. Now where as I may have expected a 1.2 litre diesel - USA don’t do diesel - Ford Fiesta equivalent averaging around 45 miles per gallon, we got a 2.3 litre V6 Ford Fusion where we were lucky to get 24 miles per gallon. Of course it was an automatic as well. And that’s economy!

We had rented a 5 bedroom house near Kissimmee. On arriving every light bulb in the house had been switched on to give us an illuminating welcome. Now this house had every mod con you could possibly think of. There were so many switches and buttons, it took the first week to work out what they all controlled. Every room had air conditioning and a large ceiling fan. All but two rooms had a television. Outside was a swimming pool and spa pool with spotlights that changed colour every 5 minutes. There was even an outside ceiling fan! Incidentally, someone had switched the outside fan on by accident and nobody could work out how to switch it off. After three days, I finally tracked the ‘Off’ button to stray remote control.

I was intrigued to find out what sort of equipment ran the show. On investigation I tracked down some serious hardware that took up the whole length of one side of the house. I found the swimming pool filtration system, the spa pump, the air con condensers and a couple of other large lumps of metal paraphernalia. I’m convinced there was enough hardware to run a town the size of Brighton. On one occasion we broke the sink disposal unit by trying to get it to ‘eat’ some melon skin. Thinking a fuse may have blown I tracked down the fuse board in the house to investigate. It looked like the National Grid control centre, so I thought I best leave it alone.

Now I’m not saying that the Americans have no awareness of saving energy. The local radio stations carried adverts advising their listeners to save power at regular intervals. Advice like, “Turn down your air conditioning and don’t leave a ceiling fan on if you are not in that room”. Useful advice like, “Do you really need your swimming pool filter on all day long?”  I have American friends and the awareness is definitely there.

There is no getting over it. America is big and everything that is part and parcel of American life is big. It would mean a huge life style change for many Americans to change and it would not be a popular vote for the politicians to start taking luxuries away or taxing them.

Climate sceptics in the UK have been asking why Britons should switch off lights, turn down central heating and avoid foreign flights in order to save carbon when the Chinese are increasing emissions at an ever increasing rate and the Americans find it hard downsizing.

Of course with the advance of industry in developing countries, it's not only the climate that suffers, something else has to give as well. I'm not sure whether anyone has noticed but we seem to be losing quite a few animals around the world. Not only animals, but apparently one third of the entire world's species of animals and wildlife in general are endangered. We are basically moving into areas where they used to live either through industry or building new towns and cities and they gradually die out because their homes are flattened. In a nutshell, the overall affect of building on green field sites and knocking down forests and putting people and industry in its place increase carbon emissions across the globe.

This brings us nicely back to the Polar Bear. It’s a cycle that re-cycling won't fix on its own unless all nations and all governments get their act together. They have had so many chances recently, but it's a political shambles. Until there is a collective effort the only place you are likely to see a Polar Bear in the future is in a zoo that can afford some decent climate control.

Written by Nature Boy for Animal Days Out

Nature Boy Notes - Originally written in September 2009 and adapted for 2010. To be quite honest, call me a pessimist, it may as well be September 2014 as not much is going to change at the current rate with those in charge.

Learning To Love Butterflies

 
Although Linda had a 'thing' about insects, she not only overcame her phobia, but she ended up committing to being a 'mum' to more of the critters next spring!

I recently took my two children and husband to Butterfly World near St. Albans in Hertfordshire. My youngest daughter learnt all about bugs and beasties at school and was very excited to go there.

I was looking forward to taking some amazing photographs of these colourful beauties but was also dreading being in an enclosed space with them flapping around my head and landing on me. I am not an insect lover and although I like to look at birds I hate anything flapping around near me as it freaks me out. I was just hoping and praying that I would be able to wing(!) it without my kids making fun of me running around screaming.

The first hut we went into was where the caterpillars were munching through plants and these cute little critters were very happy to be gawped at whilst enjoying their afternoon tea. At the far end there was a cabinet where the chrysalis’ were placed and kept until they were ready to hatch into beautiful butterflies. There were a few new butterflies in this cabinet who were waiting to go to their new home across the walkway into a huge greenhouse type building.

Another hut was a learning area where you could take a magnifying glass and take a look at very large caterpillars in huge glass jars. Also on the tables in the middle of the room were sealed dishes with butterflies in, so you could pick them up and take a good look at them. On the walls were posters on how to identify different species.

I took a deep breath and braced myself as we headed towards the greenhouse with the flying butterflies. I think my children could sense my nervousness as we entered the door but I tried to hide my feelings. It was amazing to see so many butterflies happily living in this man made environment. In the middle there was a table full of butterflies eating bananas. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. From now on I wasn’t going to throw another brown banana away, just split it lengthways and put it on a table in my garden for the butterflies to feed. We were able to get really close to these feeding owl butterflies and we even saw eggs between the wings of one of them. Another two were mating and loads of them were flying around.

I was squirming and closing my eyes when the butterflies flew too near to me but there were other people around and I didn’t want to show myself up. It was very difficult to get photos of them as most of them closed their wings when they landed. I got my kids to blow on them and eventually they did open their wings up but unfortunately my camera was not fast enough to get any good photos. Also my kids were all red faced and out of puff by the time we left the greenhouse.

Outside there were many different gardens to walk through that would give inspiration to any budding gardener. At first my kids were bored by the gardens until we reached “Through the Flowerpot Garden”. All I can really say is WOW. We were transformed into insect size people and were able to get inside huge flowerpots, walk through the prongs of a gardening fork and my kids even got inside a box of matches. They were in their element running around and pretending to be insects.

There were other fantastic gardens to walk through and at the end you can get refreshments and sit inside a large greenhouse to enjoy the scenery. Even my husband was in awe at the garden ideas and he is not a keen gardener at all!

We then walked back to the cafe and shop as it started to rain. I loaded up my trolley with buddleias and other plants which would attract bees and butterflies, my kids were loading up a basket of goodies that they wanted and my poor husband just looked on whilst we spent his money !!

I have now been converted and I even allowed the kids to buy a live butterfly pavilion. Apparently you send off the voucher in the box to this company and they supply you with the caterpillars and all the food you need to give them and once they turn into chrysalis’ you then put them inside the butterfly house and watch them turn into butterflies. We are looking forward to trying it out next spring.

We have since bought a nectar feeder and wildflower seeds to entice bees and butterflies into our garden, so we are set to help out the wildlife in Hertfordshire.

At Butterfly World they are currently building a biome which will be completed in the Autumn of 2011 and this will be the biggest butterfly experience in the world.

Linda visited Butterfly World Project near Chiswell Green, Hertfordshire. For more information check out their website at www.butterflyworldproject.com

Written by Linda Trup for Animal Days Out

Foxy Loxy

...and Foxy Loxy ate Chicken Licken, Henny Penny, Cocky Locky, Ducky Lucky, Drakey Lakey, Goosey Loosey and Turkey Lurkey, because that's what foxes do!


The story of Foxy Loxy, the cunning fox who lured the farm poultry into his den to feed his cubs after they all thought the sky was falling in and he promised them he would take them to the king.

During the summer, the red fox made the news headlines for all the wrong reasons. It seems the red fox is a bit like marmite! The public either love them or hate them. There have been a number of low level reports of urban foxes entering houses, but the mauling of two twin baby girls in East London in June caused uproar and opened the debate on how to deal with the vast amount of foxes living in urban areas. There are an estimated 10,000 urban foxes living in London and the suburbs alone. They are highly adaptable creatures and have seamlessly integrated into the towns and cities from the countryside. They are normally spotted wandering around gardens and town centres at night searching for food to take back to their den. Most foxes will run away if approached, but there is evidence that some are becoming much bolder and in extreme cases invasive. Most councils deal with fox complaints by despatching a pest controller to set traps to snare and 'humanely' kill the animal. This of course is a short term solution and only highlights that councils don't have any long term direction or plan to deal with an issue that will only become more high profile as the fox continues to evolve and adapt to city living.

Is it that the urban red fox is adapting to the presence of humans to the extent where by they are getting tamer? Are they actually evolving into much different creatures compared to their country cousins? It's quite clear that some are adapting quicker and faster than others living in the same urban areas. As time goes on, will the foxes that show these tamer more bolder traits pass on their genetic characteristics to 2nd, 3rd or 4th generation cubs?

It's clear that the majority of urban foxes get along with their business in harmony with the human population and at worst are only seen as a petty nuisance for rummaging through rubbish bins, digging in the garden or fouling gardens to mark their territory. Foxes also get along well with domestic pets, generally ignoring cats and keeping clear of dogs. Foxes become more prominent to households during the breeding season, especially at night when the screaming and barking can keep people awake and start the local domestic dog population into a barking frenzy.

Traditional fox strongholds have been engulfed by sprawling towns and cities throughout the decades. Many other creatures losing their habitat in this way would struggle to survive. The fox though is incredibly adaptable to new environments and populations self regulate themselves due to their territorial approach in any given area. This is why the urban fox population is quite stable and will never get completely out of control. With no natural predators in the urban jungle, only disease has threatened the fox. When sarcoptic mange spread during the early 1990's, both urban and wild populations declined. You can still see the occasional fox that shows the tell tale signs of mange with fur loss and the usually bushy tail looking sad and withering.

Anyway, back to the original questions posed earlier! It is possible that the urban red fox is evolving due in part to the continued natural adaptation of the environment, their ability to source a wide range of food sources, and continual interaction with humans. Urban foxes can be seen wandering around during the day and will quite often casually stand their ground if approached to a certain degree. Some foxes are regularly fed in people's gardens. They have become used to leftovers on the lawn or titbits on the patio.

The recent story of twin baby girls being attacked by a fox is of course very upsetting. Did this fox have mental issues, was it sick and desperate or was it just showing natural instinct mistaking the baby girls for fair game. The only difference of course that instead of pillaging the farmyard, the foxes are now entering people's houses and gardens. The real story thankfully is that these type of stories only surface once in a while and in context the domestic dog is guilty of a much larger percentage of attacks on children than foxes.

Meanwhile back in the suburbs as another piece of woodland gets knocked down for the development of some starter homes, foxy loxy is just waiting in the wings for the building to finish so that he can make his new home underneath someone's garden shed.