How to Effortlessly Help Wildlife

Greetings once again dear blog-readers and welcome to another instalment of the greatest blog ever written*.

(i) Official sources have stated that this might be true.

We may be in the depths of lockdown 2.0 but at least we’re allowed outside for a bit longer than last time. Last Sunday, I decided to have a nice quiet walk around a nearby park and just soak in all the green naturey goodness. Instead, I was greeted by hoards of dog walkers and pushchairs. Even outside of social distancing, it’s difficult to appreciate nature when flocks of humans trample past. In a park that was teaming with wildlife, most people turned a blind eye to what was around them and were more concerned with cappuccinos and Christmas shopping.

And, it made me think. It's not the first time that I've been out with my camera and received weird looks for showing an interest in wildlife. This notion that my intrigue is somewhat uncomfortably obscure is, to me at least, unfathomable. This could be a generalisation but the average member of the public probably doesn't care about wildlife. It’s not the end of the world that, but just think if everyone stopped, looked and listened to the outdoor world, it would make a huge difference. You don’t have to be a binocular bridled bird nerd to care about the environment, we can all play our part. Similarly, we don’t all need to chain ourselves to trees or sabotage a fox hunt, it’s more straightforward than this.

Want to help wildlife without even really thinking about it? Here are some minimal ideas that ought to help you get there.

1. Respect their space

This logic can be applied to anyone walking down the street to avid photographers - just leave them be. Humans are the most destructive, dominant and dangerous living creature to have ever walked the Earth and yes, that includes you. The natural world hates our guts and it’s probably due to all the terrible things we’ve done to it. In light of this, not getting up all in their grill is probably best. Ecosystems are fragile enough without everyone stomping all over it. In a year where we’ve learned to appreciate each other from a distance, do the same for nature. Keep to paths, keep dogs are controlled as possible and generally, don’t be an idiot.

2. Feed them (correctly)

As our wildlife is yet to discover their own supermarkets, the significance of food and water in their lives is massive. When habitats have shrunk and food webs have been shattered, we can certainly lend a hand by giving them that extra bit of aid. However, as with most food, it must be healthy and in moderation. I’m not saying there’s a pigeon obesity crisis but if we want to optimise health, it’s important we don’t give them junk. The worst offender? Bread. To be clear, a few crumbs here and there isn’t apocalyptic but given the way so many people lob whole loaves into ponds, they’re like a crusty ticking time bomb. Not only is it incredibly unhealthy but it can wean wild birds away from natural food sources, as well as cause water pollution. Seeds, grapes and peas will do just fine, anything but bread! In the same token, make sure you leave enough wild food out during Autumn. Blackberries and apples make a great pie but when they’re in your fridge and not on a hedge, that can make a lovely starving blackbird. You don’t need every last bit of fruit, so leave some for the birds.

3. Be less trashy

Litter. The age-old enemy of any avid environmentalist. The consumable world we live in means waste is unavoidable but what is not excusable is the misuse of this rubbish. The height of laziness is not being able to carry a banana peel or a crisp packet. As soon as it’s on the floor, it’s not your problem, right? Well, when it flies off into a water supply, down a drain, into the sea and into a turtles belly, then it might just be a problem. The outdoors is not one big landfill. Be that one annoying friend and carry a bottle home to be recycled. Bag it all up and make sure it’s binned correctly. If a bin's overflowing, don't stuff it in there like a jumbled wardrobe, take it home with you. Don’t just assume someone below you should sort it, it’s not a feudal system. This logic requires such painfully minimal effort and costs nothing, but it’s still one of the biggest issues plaguing the planet today.

4. Embrace what you don't know

Ever wandered past a fungus that you didn’t know the name of? Or not been able to decipher one gull from another? We’ve all been there, but the most important part is being curious and engaging with learning more. Simply accepting that you can’t be bothered to learn about something new is pretty ignorant. Questioning the world around you is an absolutely minimal and even pointless thing to get fired up about, but if you share your knowledge and it sparks engagement in someone else, off goes that butterfly effect. A wider environmental consciousness in society is not a bad thing and should be actively encouraged. It’s better that then wrongly telling your friends that a coot is a duck. It swims, doesn’t it? Look beyond the steps ahead of you, shut your mind off to your immediate reality and you will discover sights, sounds and smells that you never first realised were all around.

There are of course plenty of more elaborate ways to be a gold star wildlife saviour but we’ll take baby steps for now. Next time you’re out and about, have a second thought about the ecosystems that surround you. It honestly doesn't take much effort, trust me.

Adios...

Why UK Biodiversity SUCKS.

Now guess who’s back with a brand new rant.

In my last piece, I highlighted the woes of being a young naturalist on planet Earth. Now, just to add insult to injury, I’m adjusting the spotlight on somewhere a bit closer to home. I say closer, I mean literally at home.

Sorry guys, but the fact is: the biodiversity in the UK officially SUCKS.

Now before you sharpen your pitchforks and google my IP address, hear me out. Of course, we have no rainforests or savannahs but even in the most simplistic of contexts, the UK’s natural environments are feeble. We do all deeply love the nature on our doorsteps but sometimes, we just need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. The flora and fauna of this country are pathetic in comparison to every single one of our neighbours and we have practically no grounds to dispute it.

I suppose you now want me to provide my grounds to dispute that the biodiversity is fantastic. Well, gladly.

Let’s start with something that’s completely out of our hands: geography. Now the UK has a temperate climate, much like the rest of Europe, but with more interesting biomes surrounding us, our deciduous woodlands, sandy coasts and occasional mountains seem vanilla. We’re not cold enough to draw drown the titans of the tundra yet we’re too mediocre to tempt upwards those from the Mediterranean. Sure, climate change has helped, bringing bee-eaters north and walruses south but still, that’s only a result of the deeply depressing temperature changes that have shaped the earth. Whilst large mammals like wolves and lynx have freely expanded across the subcontinent, our position surrounded by water has obviously hampered this. The only hope of bringing back the large land mammals we once decimated is to drag them by our own accord. Even If they could get here, would they want to stay?

From an ornithological perspective, I find myself looking at the incredible species that you can find so easily on the continent but would be a treat in the UK. Common cranes in their thousands in Germany, black-winged stilts in France, griffon vultures in Spain - the list could go on. My point is that the birds we regard as rarities may as well be garden birds across the channel. The habitats are more or less the same, the population densities aren’t too dissimilar - they just clearly hate it here.

To add insult to injury, this already isolated island in the North Sea also happens to have one of the longest histories of any country on Earth. To cut a long story short, it has been a tumultuous last 2000 years for the inhabitants of Great Britain. Even before that, we set about doing all that we could to eradicate species like cave bears and mammoths as best we could. Let me tell you, we did a smashing job. Over the centuries of various kings and queens, we’ve taken what was a rugged and wild island and completely coated in our artificial world. Forests felled for farming, rivers ruined and populated cities popping up left, right and centre. Our developments in industry and agriculture came at the price of our natural history. Then again, when the factories of the north were booming and London became one of the most important cities in the world, not many people stopped to ask where all the wildlife had gone. As a country, we were just very good at putting people first.

The relief is of course that this history of bullish ignorance towards our biodiversity is long behind us. Guess again. In the modern era, many of the mindsets of old have carried over. Fox hunting is somehow a cherished cultural event. Grouse shooting is condoned by the highest royalty. HS2 is all of a sudden a great idea. The logic of a disregard for the wild is deep-rooted in our society, more so than most other countries. Today, we’re met with a demand for more housing, bigger arable fields and more convenient transport infrastructure, all within the same island which remains the same size. Actually, which sea-level rise and coastal erosion, it’s shrinking.

Despite climate change and environmental decline being a hot topic for many world leaders, our government has failed massively. This isn’t a political statement, it is a scientific fact. 41% of UK species are in decline, birds like the turtle dove and hen harrier could be on the brink of national extinction and our iconic hedgehogs are staring over the edge of the precipice. Having been given twenty biodiversity targets to hit within ten years, the UK fell short in seventeen of them and was argued to have gone backwards in six of them. These included sustaining wildlife populations, managing land use for conservation and providing funding for conservation. The government had a clear set of goals and like a disinterested sixth-former, got a U in almost every exam. But how many more chances are there for a resit?

Sucks, eh?

But, it’s not all doom and gloom. Trust me.

As a country, we have spawned some of the most significant conservation charities in the world, including the Wildlife Trusts, RSPB and Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. We have successfully brought avocets, red kites and otters back from the brink. We’re working hard to bring back white-tailed sea eagles, beavers and white storks. Rewinding projects like at Knepp or Wild Ken Hill are proving that we can develop our wilderness once again and let it thrive. We are the nation that inspired David Attenborough, Peter Scott, Chris Packham etc. If these heavyweights of conservation were engaged enough by what we have to offer, it can’t be that bad?

What can you do to better the situation? Well if you fancy building your own nature reserve or harass the prime minister until he agrees to ban driven grouse shooting, that might help! The main thing we can all do is small collective changes. Support your local conservation charities, feed your garden birds, reduce how much waste you produce. The list is endless. However, my biggest piece of advice is to try and engage as many people as you can with the environment. The more people that care, the better.

It may be dishevelled rocky outcrop filled with smoggy cities and a hopeless government, but it’s ours. As much as it’s depleting nature worries us to our core, it’s why we care for it so much.

Adios...

Why Being a Young Naturalist SUCKS

They say the world is your oyster, but what if you want your world to be about studying oysters?

Well, we’re nearly there, 2020 is almost over. Don't worry guys, we've got this!

I thought I’d ramble on again as I have done so many times before but this time, I’m whacking it up a notch from a ramble to a rant. For now, I’ll passionately shout to the hilltops about something which has been getting my goat for years and is evidently shared by many in a similar boat.

That fact is: being a young naturalist in 2020 SUCKS. Don’t believe me? Allow me to elaborate.

 1. The Planet

In case you’re new to this, we’re doomed. With wild spaces depleting, populations expanding and biodiversity crashing, our dear old Earth is going through its most rapidly awful time in its history. You don’t need me to remind you of this, Sir Dave did a splendid job on Netflix. The reality is that everyone before us will likely not experience the worst of our climate crisis and those after us will look at this generation for answers. Great, it’s now our problem. Like a pilot handing you the controls of a crashing plane as he parachutes away. No pressure guys.

Anyone who has studied a conservation-based degree will tell you that each lecture should probably come with a supplement of anti-depressants. The outlook is generally glum and the solutions to the Earth's great problems seem out of reach. But hey, at least the politicians know this and are prioritising this in all their policies...

2. Society

I can’t speak for literally every person on Earth but it is a fair assessment to say that the majority of Homo sapiens walking this green planet don’t give too many hoots about nature. As a whole, the masses are more concerned about economics, personal progression and their own happiness. Everyone claims to love David Attenborough but in the same breath would also not know how to recycle or would find birdwatching weird. If it's cute, pulse-racing and consumable within reach, then it's worth caring about. We all have different personalities and the reality is that not every single living individual has a vested interest in the environment.

What this does mean is that for the select few that bring their Eco-concerns to the forefront is a feeling of isolation. Singularity. Pointlessness. If no one cares as much as I, what is the point? The mindset is as much about fighting lack of awareness as it is environmental issues themselves. The holy grail of any naturalist is to tap into the consciousness of humanity and for there to be a reciprocal understanding of the planet's plight. Alas, the world will probably only wake up once it’s too late. That sucks.  

3. Opportunities

Fortune favours the brave. You only live once. Life is short. You get the picture, there are mountains of stock phrases if you need the motivation to follow your dreams. In the real world that we actually live in, pursuing an environmental career in a field you’re actually passionate for is practically impossible. Undergraduate degrees in zoology, ecology, conservation etc. serve as merely cartoon roads leading to fake Wile E Coyote tunnels. The great promise of profitability dashed by the simple reality of the job market. Any entry-level environmental job requires years worth of voluntary experience alongside a Masters degree. An undergraduate degree on its own feels like a broom without a brush. For those who need to get on with life and make sure there’s enough money in the bank to keep the lights on, this path isn’t as straightforward. Opportunities are evidently dictated by supply and demand, however, in a world where environmental awareness is such a marketable buzzword, you'd think there'd be plenty of companies eager to snap up the next generation of eco-warriors.

That's not to say that the opportunities are not out there, however they're beyond so many hurdles that the sprint is practically painful. Perhaps it is lack of motivation that is the clincher, but is it too much to ask to have a more straightforward career path? Time for another stock phrase: life isn't fair.

Rant over.

Not to be a negative nelly, but these are the harsh realities of the matter. The 'inconvenient truths' if you will. But it can't all be bad, surely?

Well as naturalists, we find enjoyment in the greener things in life, and when you scratch the surface, there's plenty to actually be optimistic about. The rise of renewables is a cause for celebration, plenty of successful reintroductions are bearing fruit and environmental activism has never been so vocal. In an age of social media, environmentalists must keep tapping into this fountain of knowledge from which this generation is immersed within. From my own experiences of like-minded environmentalists on social media, they're all a great bunch with sound core values. 

In terms of opportunities, it is how much you are willing to sacrifice to follow what you truly want. It simply is not feasible for everyone but if you are committed to your passion, you can shape your own destiny. If you want to do it and believe you can do it, then never give up.

The natural world is undeniably amazing and I am confident that the human world will do all that they can to preserve it. I guess that doesn't suck that much?

What do you love/hate most about being a naturalist in this day and age? Let me know in those comments!

Adios...