Tag: Q&A

Author interview with Isabella Tree: The Book of Wilding

In the hotly anticipated The Book of Wilding, Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell share some of the many lessons they have learned from their pioneering rewilding project at the Knepp Estate in Sussex. Explaining in detail why rewilding is important and how we can all play a part, this inspiring book is packed with practical solutions for rewilding on a range of scales, from farms and estates to allotments and gardens.

 

Charlie and Isabella. Image by Anthony Cullen.

 

In our recent conversation with Isabella, she talks about some of the things she has learned through her years managing Knepp alongside husband and co-author Charlie Burrell. We also discuss ways of coping with eco-anxiety and how we can all make a difference to the future of the planet, even if we aren’t large landowners or farmers.

The story of Knepp Estate and its transformation from a struggling farm to a prosperous and famous rewilding project is incredibly inspiring. Looking back over your journey and knowing all the things that you know now, what would you say to the younger you who was just beginning on this path?

I would tell her that this is going to be the most exciting adventure of her life and rewards will come in spades. And not to worry about the occasional Exocet missile from disgruntled neighbours or a Twitter storm. The results will speak for themselves. It may feel like you’re swimming against the current, but soon the tide will turn. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people out there in the UK who will soon be inspired to make the leap into rewilding too.

In relation to the first question, with the benefit of hindsight, are there things that you would have done differently, or were the challenges and potential mistakes a necessary part of the process?

The wonderful thing about rewilding is that there isn’t a detailed management plan, no specific goals or targets. Initially, you may need to put in some drivers (such as free-roaming grazing animals and restoring dynamic natural water systems) to kick-start natural processes again – especially if your land, like ours, has been ploughed and soaked in chemicals for decades. But then you’re stepping back and letting nature take over. That’s a huge relief in terms of lifting the burden of responsibility from your shoulders. Nature itself takes over the driving seat. So, in a way, there are no mistakes. It’s all about nature revealing itself, evolving in the way it wants to, anew. Often these outcomes are completely unpredictable.

The only management we do at Knepp is controlling the number of animals – neither too few, or too many – so their influence maximises the potential for diversity and abundance of life. And that is simply by observation. So, if we go too far in one direction, we simply – at some point – change the strategy. But we try never to respond with knee-jerk reactions. It’s a totally new way of thinking, very liberating.

The Book of Wilding, while being a hugely practical guide to rewilding on all scales, is also a beacon of hope. In an age when eco-anxiety can lead even the most optimistic and determined of us to feel despondent, do you feel broadly hopeful that humans can do the necessary work to restore balance to our planet?

Yes, we absolutely can. If we work together, and realise our potential to bring about huge, transformative change. But you’re right to identify how the enormity of the environmental crisis we’re facing can make most of us feel despondent and impotent. The only cure for eco-anxiety, that I’ve been able to find, is to actually do something positive oneself. Even if it’s just establishing a window box and filling it with plants for pollinating insects – that small gesture can be hugely galvanising. It is part of a much bigger picture, contributing to restoring the web of nature – our life-support system – across the planet. Seeing butterflies and bees and night-flying moths arriving, on flowers that you’ve planted yourself, is balm for the soul. It gives you the kind of encouragement that allows you to lift your head above the parapet and think ‘what else can I do?’

The case you make for rewilding, both through the book and your decades of work at Knepp, are extremely compelling. What do you think are the main barriers to a more widespread adoption of this approach? Do you think that cultural and traditional values are more of an issue than the practical concerns of funding and knowledge transfer/availability?

Yes, in a way, I do. We’re seeing new streams of funding for rewilding and nature restoration all the time. Governments are at last making the move to pay for ecosystem services – improvements to the land that bring benefits to the public like clean water, clean air, soil restoration, healthy food, carbon storage, and flood protection, as well as wild spaces for human health and wellbeing. And the private sector (businesses concerned about their image, and now legally required to account for their carbon footprint and environmental impact) is beginning to make colossal investments in nature restoration – this is likely to be the most positive influence of all. So, the financial incentives are happening. But a major drag on action is down to public perception, and aesthetics.

We’ve grown up to believe the countryside should look a certain way, that rivers should be canalised, hedges clipped within an inch of their life, gardens should be tidy, lawns manicured. Insects are pests. Barren, overgrazed hillsides are natural. Apex predators are dangerous. Often, the biggest obstacle of all is changing our own mindset, questioning received wisdom, really asking ourselves ‘can I consider this landscape to be beautiful if I know it’s not functioning, if it’s actually harmful to wildlife and to ourselves?’ Ultimately, it’s about letting go of cultural values we may have accepted unquestioningly, understanding what makes an ecosystem function, to stop being a control-freak, allow ourselves to get messy, to let go – to rewild ourselves.

Do you think that there are some misconceptions as to what constitutes rewilding? Particularly on a smaller scale where a more hands-on approach might be required to mimic the natural processes of herbivores, for instance – to the untrained eye this might seem more like conventional conservation management than rewilding.

Yes, indeed, small-scale rewilding (where there isn’t the space to use free-roaming animals, and there may not be dynamic natural water systems) has a lot in common with conventional conservation, and often the managers of ancient woodland or nature reserves may not be aware that they’re also acting like rewilders, being proxies, themselves, and mimicking the disturbance of wild herbivores – by doing things such as coppicing and pollarding, or putting woody debris blockages into rivers and streams (like a beaver) to create different flows and depths of water.

Where I think the rewilding approach brings something different, and more dynamic, is in varying the timing of interventions – so you might randomise when you cut a wildflower meadow, for example, and the intensity of cutting, so as to mimic the different factors that might affect herbivore grazing pressure in the wild. This will favour different suites of plants, maximising plant and insect diversity. Or try the passive-active-passive approach – doing nothing for a while, then going in with interventions, then leaving the area alone again for maybe several years. Basically, mixing it up, rather than applying steady, even, predictable management. Get rid of the level playing field!

I liked that you included a chapter on rewilding gardens, as this feels like an achievable project that any open-minded gardener could attempt. If done well, rewilding a small garden will have obvious benefits for the local plants and animals but, if done collectively, do you think it can also have a wider impact?

That’s one of the big themes of rewilding – connectivity. A friend of mine has created wonderful habitat in his back garden for insects, frogs, toads and grass snakes. But he’s also persuaded his neighbours to either replace their fences with hedges (great for nesting birds, especially if using thorny species such as blackthorn and hawthorn) or cut holes in the fence for hedgehogs. They’ve discussed the different habitats they can collectively provide for nature. One garden has a beetle bank and a pile of dead wood for stag beetles, another has a pond; some mow their lawns monthly, others only at the end of the summer; some have put up window boxes or planted ivy to climb their walls; others leave a pile of leaves or nettles and brambles in a discreet corner. Between them, they’ve created a whole string of different habitats that are connected, so they’ve become a wildlife corridor that also provides for species that have different demands at different stages in their life cycle. The next step is to connect with a nearby park by persuading the council to manage the roadside verges like wildflower meadows, and by planting an avenue of trees in the street. Their gardens already back onto a railway embankment, so ultimately they could be instrumental in creating a flow of life between open countryside and inner city.

Finally – what steps would you recommend to the ‘average’ citizen who isn’t a large landowner or farmer and wants to go beyond simply rewilding their own small garden?

There are lots of groups and NGOs working for nature restoration in imaginative and exciting ways and many of them welcome volunteers, such as the Vincent Wildlife Trust which focuses on recovery programmes for bats and mustelids. Citizen Zoo is a community-focused rewilding organisation involved in reintroduction programmes such as water voles, beavers and large marsh grasshoppers. Derek Gow Consultancy runs courses on practical rewilding in Devon (rewildingcoombeshead.co.uk) as do we, at Knepp in West Sussex (www.knepp.co.uk). Caring for God’s Acre is a conservation charity which advises on restoring nature in graveyards and cemeteries. Become a member of your local Wildlife Trust (London has one, too). You could petition your local council to stop mowing verges, leave thorny scrub in unmanaged areas, rewild urban parks, plant more street trees and encourage green walls and roofs. And, perhaps most important of all, campaign to make your village, town or city pesticide-free.

The Book of Wilding by Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell is published by Bloomsbury. Hardback RRP £35.00.

Author Interview with Ted Benton and Nick Owens: Solitary Bees

Solitary Bees is the newest volume in the New Naturalist series, drawing on the great wave of new knowledge to give a wonderful insight into the complicated lives of solitary bees. Honey bees and bumblebees make up only a small proportion of the bee species that live in Britain but are often the ones people first think about when discussing bees. Now, it is recognised that the other bees, whose 230 or so species make up the majority, play an important role in the pollination of crops and wild flowering plants.

Ted Benton

Authors Ted Benton and Nick Owens are entomologists that have a particular interest in behaviour and ecology. Both have written several previous books on bees, including Bumblebees, The Bees of Norfolk and The Bumblebee Book. The main focus of this new book is on the wonderful complexity of the behaviour and ecology of solitary bees, a remarkable group of insects.

Could you tell us how you both became interested in entomology and what drew you to write this new book?

(TB) Since my earliest memories, I have been fascinated by insects – finding Large White chrysalids on a playground wall, or, later, seeing such species as the Silver-spotted Skipper in a museum showcase, and wondering if I would ever get to see one. That led to an attempt (over more than 35 years) to photograph all the European butterfly species in their natural habitats. Meanwhile, I became interested in other, less spectacular groups of insects, and wrote about dragonflies, grasshoppers and crickets and bumblebees. To manage these interests alongside family life and work commitments, I chose groups with relatively few species, in the hope that would be easier. Since then – partly through the expert help from leading lights in the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society (BWARS) – I was led to appreciate the great diversity and awesome fascination of this larger group of insects. Then I met up with Nick, and he seemed to be an ideal companion with whom to work on the project. An impression that was amply confirmed as we worked together over five years or more.

Nick Owens

(NWO) I have been interested in all aspects of natural history from an early age, growing up in Yorkshire beside the River Foss. I was intrigued by aquatic insects and was also very excited to rear moths such as the Garden Tiger from caterpillars. Later my interests revolved especially around birds and I was employed by the Nature Conservancy to study Brent Geese. A diversion from birds included a PhD study of baboons in East Africa. After a teaching career, an intense interest in wild bees developed in retirement and led to the publication of The Bees of Norfolk. Ted and my shared interest in solitary bees resulted in the joint New Naturalist project, which was originally offered to Ted, following his two previous excellent publications in the series and his monograph on Solitary Bees (Naturalists’ Handbooks).

This book celebrates the solitary bee, a type of bee that’s often overlooked in favour of honey bees and bumblebees, despite solitary bees making up the majority of bee species in Britain. Why do you think honey bees and bumblebees are more ‘popular’, so to speak?

(TB) Honey bees have a lot of positive publicity because they have an economic importance as suppliers of honey, and the belief in their role in pollination (probably exaggerated). Bumblebees, too, are appreciated because of their attractive colours and ‘cuddly’ appearance. Also, there are relatively few species, so learning to identify them is not too difficult (and both of us have written books which might have increased their popularity!). The most exciting aspect of our study of the solitary bees has been in the astonishing complexity of their behaviour – how, with very small brains, and just their adaptive body parts they are able to dig deep burrows and seal them, make waterproof and bug-proof linings to their brood cells, collect various materials to line and plug their nests, defend their offspring from innumerable parasites and predators, access complex floral structures, seek out their specialised food sources and accomplish many other demanding tasks. These are the topics that made us want to study and write about the bees, but this would have been impossible without the landmark books by Falk and Lewington, and Else and Edwards. Armed with these books, we expect the public interest in solitary bees will continue to grow – along with the desire to conserve their habitats.

Tawny Mining Bee (Andrena fulva). Image by pete beard via Flickr.

The UK’s insect population has declined dramatically, with flying insect populations falling by as much as 60% in the last 20 years. Have there been long-scale surveys into solitary bee populations, and are they following the same trend?

(NWO) Solitary bees seem to be following a similar trend in terms of their distribution, particularly among scarcer species and in upland areas. At the same time, there has been a sequence of new solitary bee species arriving in Britain by natural colonisation or through inadvertent human assistance. Also, quite a number of solitary bee species are extending their British range, largely by spreading northwards. The picture is a complex one and there are no systematic counts of solitary bee numbers equivalent to those for butterflies and birds for example. This is difficult to achieve since most solitary bees cannot be identified at a glance while walking through the countryside. The Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society (BWARS) maintains a database of all British records and these are mapped on the Society’s website. A large proportion of the records are provided by amateur entomologists.

The behaviour and ecology of solitary bee species are incredibly diverse, and in this book, an entire chapter is dedicated to the ‘Cuckoo Bees’. Why did you choose to focus on this particular group of species?

(NWO) Cuckoo bees comprise about 28% of our solitary bee fauna, so one chapter out of ten in fact under-represents them. The behaviour of cuckoo bees is fascinating and involves the cuckoo laying its eggs in the nests of a ‘host’ bee, this typically being just one or a few closely-related species. The reasons for this specificity and the exact hosts used by each cuckoo bee species are only partly known and understood. The means by which cuckoo bees evade the defences of the host and the host’s attempts to protect itself offer many opportunities for careful research and we were able to make some novel observations as well as synthesise what is already known about them.

Female variable nomad bee (Nomada zonata). Image supplied by Nick Owens.

Chapter 10 ‘Ecology and Conservation’ mentions the potential impact of the new Biodiversity Net Gain scheme, where areas that are important to solitary bees, such as bare ground, soil heaps and sandpits, may be given a low ‘biodiversity value’. How do you think this scheme will impact solitary bees once it’s rolled out across England?

(TB) The role of the planning system in harming or protecting biodiversity, and solitary bees in particular, is hugely complex. In some respects, since BNG makes it necessary to include biodiversity in planning decisions, it may be welcome. However, there are serious problems. One is the generally low estimate of many habitats that are important for bees, as your question suggests. Another problem is that the idea of ‘net gain’ already carries the implication that biodiversity will be lost – but, hopefully, mitigated or compensated. First, if a site has survived with rich biodiversity, it is likely to have a significance for people as well as nature. There needs to be far more emphasis in a time of ecological crisis for recognising the uniqueness of such places, and the impossibility of complete replication: ‘irreplaceability’ should be the most common start and finish for the ‘mitigation hierarchy’. Second, in practice proposals for mitigation and ‘offsetting’ invariably fail, and by the time that is recognised, it is too late. Thirdly, despite the careful qualifications set out in BNG guidance, there are numerous loopholes that a developer and a colluding planning authority can jump through with ease. I could give examples!

The book ends with a question about whether a cultural shift towards strong action to protect biodiversity could generate enough of a demand for the radical changes needed in sectors such as food production and transport. How have attitudes changed towards protecting biodiversity, particularly insect biodiversity, since you became involved in entomology?

(TB) This is an impossible question to answer with confidence, as no one was measuring public opinion on such matters when I was young. In the mid-1950s I made a small butterfly collection, but I remember being very shocked to see whole drawers-full of set specimens of rare species in the cabinets of older local entomologists. In those days there was no general feeling that butterflies, or any other sort of insect, were in any way at risk. In fact, most insects were often seen as unwelcome pests. From the beginning of the 1960s, the effects of pesticides on predatory birds were beginning to gain public recognition, and from that, the inference to the poisoning of their insect prey was commonly made.

Internationally, the Rio conference of 1992, with its biodiversity convention, gave the issue a much higher profile. Local and national biodiversity action plans were devised, usually focussing action on particular threatened species, but there was little effective action to address the wider impact of agricultural intensification and the associated losses of natural and semi-natural habitats. Growing recognition of a global climate emergency has certainly shifted public attitudes in many countries, and certainly in the UK. However, it is only relatively recently, with a combination of citizen science initiatives to monitor populations of butterflies and other groups, scientific studies and radical social movement activity, that at last a distinct ecological crisis has come to be recognised in many communities. Unfortunately, it is still almost always the furry and feathered elements of biodiversity that get public support and media attention: the invertebrate fauna need more allies, or the furry, feathered and human populations that depend on them will suffer the consequences.

Willughby’s leafcutter bee (Megachile willughbiella). Image by Dean Morley via Flickr. ID provided by Nick Owens.

Finally, do either of you have any future plans for projects that you can tell us about?

We are both interested in solitary wasps and hope to do some field studies together as well as following up on the many unanswered questions about solitary bees. In addition, TB is considering whether to begin writing up his many years of visiting the wildest and most beautiful spots of Europe in search of butterflies.

Solitary Bees was published by William Collins in May 2023 and is available to order from nhbs.com.

Author Interview with Gabriel Hemery: The Forest Guide Scotland

The Forest Guide Scotland is an invaluable guide to 365 of Scotland’s most beautiful, historic and nature-filled woodlands. Ranging from tiny urban copses to sprawling forests, each site is listed by name and location and includes detailed access information and a description of its main features. An essential guide for anyone living in or visiting Scotland, the book is illustrated throughout with the author’s stunning photographs which document the huge variety of plants and animals that can be found within Scotland’s forests.

Gabriel Hemery is an author, photographer and biologist whose life’s passion is the study of trees, forests and silviculture practices. He is the author of several books including two novels, two short story collections and a poetry anthology. His first non-fiction book, The New Silva, was inspired by horticulturist and diarist John Evelyn’s Sylva, which was published in 1664 and provided readers with the first comprehensive study of British trees.

His latest book, The Forest Guide Scotland, is the first of a three part series focusing on the beauty, purpose, history, wildlife and ownership of some of the most extraordinary woodland sites in Britain.

It is clear you have an incredible passion for trees, woods and forests, and they have been the focus of much of your life’s work. Your latest book, The Forest Guide Scotland, is very much aimed at getting the public out into the forests of Scotland. What made you want to write this book in particular?

I’ve wanted to write a guide to the forests of Britain for some time. At a basic level, I felt this would work well alongside my previous work The New Sylva which concentrated more on how to care for trees and forests than their character and location. More deeply, I am concerned by the increasing disconnection between modern society and the natural world. Only through seeing and experiencing, can we hope to inspire understanding and ultimately caring. As a proud forester, I was also keen on dispelling some of the myths about modern forest management, which plays so many crucial roles today in promoting wildlife, improving landscapes, cleaning our air and protecting us from floods, and of course producing timber to replace manmade materials which are harming our environment.

Scotland is a wonderfully diverse place with a beautiful language and cultural history. As someone who embodies the role of artist as well as scientist, did you enjoy the process of finding out about the history, names and traditions of each location throughout your research for this book?

I have loved the landscape and culture of Scotland ever since I first visited as a young boy (when I was so disappointed not to spot an osprey). Researching and conducting fieldwork for this guidebook in so many incredible locations across the country was simply a huge privilege. I learnt a lot about the Gaelic language and the names of trees and landscape features, which I began to recognise as I studied maps. I can’t say my pronunciation of some of them improved however, but everyone I met was very understanding!

Scotland differs from both England and Wales in that it offers its public the ‘right to roam’. Do you feel that restrictions on roaming affect how people perceive and appreciate the wild spaces within their country?

Definitely. Most people probably fear that they may not be allowed to roam in forests, or are unclear of the difference between a public right of way and other forms of access. This undoubtedly means that some people may be put off from exploring woods or forests on their doorstep, let alone when travelling to areas they know less well. While they explore a forest, they may also be nervous that they may be doing something wrong, which will certainly affect their enjoyment.

Writing the guide for Scotland was certainly relatively easy when it came to describing access to forests, while of course explaining responsible behaviour, for example how to avoid disturbing wildlife, being safe during the hunting season, or being a responsible dog owner. In the next guides, which will cover Wales and England, I have a much more difficult task. Many potentially interesting sites are simply beyond reach to the public unless there is a public right of way (e.g. a footpath) or it is part of the public forest estate.

Climate change is a huge issue for every habitat and ecosystem on the planet. What do you think are the main challenges that Scotland’s forests are likely to face in the coming decades? And how well equipped are we to cope with or mitigate these?

Thanks for raising this topic which is personally very important to me, and of course to life on Earth. As a scientist, I have conducted international research on the topic of trees and climate change, and currently I chair a partnership of 16 organisations which seeks to address the urgency of adapting our forests to a changing climate.

Across Britain, our climate will change dramatically, generally becoming wetter and milder in winter, and drier and hotter in summer. Naturally, trees species and associated wildlife will want to migrate northwards to stay within their ideal conditions. Not only does human land use make this very difficult (e.g. competition with agriculture and urban areas) for many species of mammals and plants, but the rate of change is too fast for trees. Trees are individually immobile but do ‘move’ between generations by producing seeds which are dispersed a short distance by wind and other means. If you consider that most trees don’t produce seeds until they are several decades old, it can take a century or more for a tree to move even one kilometre., This is far too slow to keep pace with our changing climate. Scientists believe that our climate zones are moving at up to 5km every year.

There is also a more immediate concern for our trees with increasing threats from pests and diseases. Climate change is making conditions more favourable for many new and invasive bugs and pathogens which affect our trees.

It’s not all doom and gloom. A warming climate will help some trees become more effective at reproducing, provide more suitable conditions for some species which have struggled in the past, and even improve timber yields.

Do you have a favourite forest or woodland from those featured in this book? Or do any stand out particularly in your memory?

Having to choose a favourite forest site from 365 is no easy task! I have so many wonderful memories from my fieldwork for the guidebook. If I were to pick any, I suppose they reflect my own interests in nature and my love of remote places. The Caledonian pinewoods at Glen Quoich near Inverey were stunning and it was encouraging to see so much natural tree regeneration thanks to the effective control of red deer. I was humbled by the passion and dedication of the many community woodland groups across Scotland.

Visiting Berriedale Wood on Orkney was an unforgettable experience, where the trees literally cling to life above the dramatic sea cliffs. I would also have to give a special mention to Inchie Wood near the Port of Mentieth where I had some of the best viewing experiences of my life watching ospreys hunting and nesting.

In 2009 you founded the Sylva Foundation charity, which aims to promote the good stewardship of woodlands through training, knowledge transfer and advocacy. Can you tell us a little bit more about the charity and the work it does?

Sylva Foundation is a charity active across Britain, supporting landowners in managing woods and forests to the best of their ability. We have developed innovative software called myForest which helps them map their woodlands, and complete plans and inventories. Some exciting developments are in the making which will enable landowners to collaborate with scientists to help study environmental change in the woods and forests under their care. Our headquarters is in Oxfordshire where we have a Wood Centre dedicated to supporting people who work in wood to establish thriving businesses. We also run a Wood School helping train a future generation of skilled craftspeople. Readers can find out more at sylva.org.uk.

Finally, as an already well-published author I presume you might have plans for further books? Are there any projects that you are able to tell us about that you’re looking forward to at the moment?

The Forest Guide Scotland is the first of a tryptic, so I am working currently on the guide for Wales (to be published in 2024/5) while the England guide is due out the year after that (all titles with Bloomsbury Wildlife). I am always on the lookout for forest sites to include, and I even have a book patron scheme, so I am keen to hear from potential supporters. Readers can find out more at: gabrielhemery.com/forest-guide.

I am also working on a new book titled The Tree Almanac 2024: A Seasonal Guide to the Woodland World which will be published by Robinson Books this November.

The Forest Guide Scotland was published by Bloomsbury Publishing in April 2023 and is available from nhbs.com.

Author Interview with Katty Baird: Meetings With Moths

In her debut book, Meetings with Moths, ecologist Katty Baird delves into the Scottish landscape in search of some incredible moths that have formed remarkable relationships, responses and adaptations in order to prevail. Meetings with Moths is a journey through all seasons, across a range of habitats and taking in each stage of the moth life cycle; investigating the ways in which moths utilise sight, sound, and smell in their lives, as well as their unique camouflage abilities and navigational skills. Along the way Katty meets with fellow ecologists, researchers and moth enthusiasts and draws on past research, records and recorders to explore the changing fates of these often overlooked (by their very nature) insects, and the intricacies of their fascinating lives.

Following a Zoology degree and PhD, Katty Baird continued in academia as a postdoctoral research fellow, studying insect-plant interactions. She now works as an ecologist, recording and monitoring invertebrates throughout Scotland. Since 2016 she has run the Hibernating Herald project and in 2019/20 she wrote a popular blog, recording moths on the Whittingehame Estate in East Lothian.

We were delighted to be able to ask Katty a few questions prior to the release of Meetings with Moths.

There are some beautiful ponderings throughout the book alluding to your early encounters and memories with moths. Could you tell us a little more about what got you hooked on moths, and how you’ve come to work so closely with them, both in the wild and in your work with museum collections?

I’m a big fan of all insects (and other invertebrates) and generally, as long as I’m learning new things, I’m happy. However, with moths, I love that you don’t need a microscope to enjoy their beautiful variety and a light trap means many species can be enjoyed relatively easily. It’s hard not to be impressed by the stature of a Poplar Hawk-moth or the delicacy of a White Plume Moth. They are also great insects to share with others; excellent ambassadors for our often-overlooked smaller fauna.

Moths are a relatively well-studied insect group in the UK which provides useful context for me to understand my own recording efforts. But at the same time, there is so much we don’t know, particularly about moth life cycles and ecology, leaving plenty of opportunity for making new discoveries!

As for museum collections, through my endeavours here, I’ve discovered a treasure trove of information waiting to be unlocked. Sadly, there just isn’t the resources to extract this data and make it available to all. I’m fortunate that I’ve been able to offer some time to help, though it wasn’t entirely altruistic – I have also learned much about moths and moth recording in the process; I only wish I had more time to give.

The book contains many fascinating introductions to prominent lepidopterists, ecologists and enthusiasts, some of whom are at the forefront of current moth research, and others from the early days of modern appreciation and understanding. Did you set out with clear influences to research and include in the book, and have some surprised you along the way?

I’m naturally quite shy and like nothing more than being outdoors on my own, but I think this book has highlighted how important people in the moth-ing community have been to me. An initial aim of the book was to share some of the wonders of our native moths through my own experiences of seeking them out, but as I got stuck into the writing, I realised that my best stories were those that included the people I’ve met along the way. Lots of wonderful characters, a few quirks here and there, each pursuing moths in their own way but ultimately for the same reason: because they love seeing these insects. Wanting to know more about the animals and plants around me has led me to an interest in moths, but my fellow Lepidopterists have definitely enhanced it.

From your experiences working among archives of invertebrate specimens, do you think the character of a collector comes through in their collections?

Yes, I think so, particularly in archives with accompanying notes and diaries. Just as contemporary recorders have slightly different motivations; for example seeing as many species as possible or understanding the moths of a particular area well, so did collectors from the past. The details that are written on the labels, the handwriting, the comments in notebooks all hint at the personality of the characters involved. I’m not sure our modern legacy of spreadsheets and digital photo archives provide the same back story. Of course in many cases – a bit like social media feeds – only the significant finds and achievements get documented for prosperity. Failures are brushed aside and conveniently forgotten.

As the title suggests, you meet with many incredible moths within the journey of this book, and you deftly extol their virtues while inspiring the reader to do the same. What initial advice would you offer to those wanting to start meeting moths?

Get out there and start looking! Try an early morning check of walls of buildings that have been lit overnight (toilet blocks are surprisingly good) or wandering around at dusk looking at flowers with a torch. To start with, just enjoy finding them but as your curiosity is piqued you will probably want to know their names. There are various guidebooks and online identification resources – try the ‘What’s Flying Tonight?’ app or join a social media moth group (there are many!). Best of all though is to learn from and be inspired by others. Many local Butterfly Conservation groups run moth events where you can see moths, and some have light traps to borrow if you want to try before you buy. Once you start using a light trap, you will wonder what took you so long.

It’s clear that moths face a myriad of existential challenges in our changing climate and with many unique habitats and relationships under increasing threat, the stories in your book of their adaptations and adjustments in life are remarkable and admirable. What do you see as the conservation priorities that would actively support greater moth abundance and diversity in the UK?

We need to improve, connect and protect habitats beyond the limited spaces within nature reserves so moths can move across landscapes more easily. This means things like limiting chemical use, reducing grazing pressures, flailing hedges and verges less frequently, and allowing areas for nature to do its own thing. It can be helpful to focus on saving a particular species of moth, or a particular habitat, but it is the wider benefits of that focus that will make the most difference.

It’s easy to feel a bit helpless, but planting gardens, balconies, window boxes with plants that insects can use, will make a difference to your local moth populations and has the bonus of attracting them to you.

I really enjoyed reading about how you return to certain species each year to check in with them in both new and familiar places. Could you tell us a bit about a species that calls you back, and why they speak to you?

It has to be the Tissue, Triphosa dubitata. In Scotland, this is sparsely distributed and quite hard to catch up with, but through seeking overwintering adults out in various caves and mines we are learning a bit more about its life here. They arrive in these overwintering sites in late summer, and for the last six years, I’ve got inexplicably excited when seeing the first ones of the year. Even though they are almost expected in some places, I still get a buzz from seeing them. It is a beautiful moth, with lovely patterns of silver, grey and pink. Each one has slightly different patterning which makes them individually recognisable and easy to follow over the winter (though I’ve stopped short of giving them names). A big part of the attraction of finding Tissue is exploring the caves and mines where they turn up. On a bleak October day, with the wind and rain lashing, the peace and restoration of being enveloped in the darkness of a cave in the company of beautiful moths can’t be replicated.

Tissue – Triphosa dubitata

Is there a moth you can tell us about that you’ve not met that you’re eager to see?

There are many species I’ve still to meet. If I put my mind to it, I expect I could see a lot of them by visiting known sites at the right time of year but I’m not in that much of a hurry. In my home county of East Lothian, one of my most-wanted is Portland Moth. It’s a rather optimistic wish; this is a rare moth anywhere in the UK and hasn’t been seen for about a hundred years in East Lothian. They live in dune areas, but we don’t really know exactly how they like their dunes to be. We’re not even sure what range of plants the caterpillars will eat. It is one of the species that Butterfly Conservation Scotland is hoping to find out more about, so I’m hoping to join them on some of their planned searches for caterpillars at known sites further north. Nocturnal crawling around sand dunes with a bunch of moth enthusiasts can only be fun.

Lastly, I’d like to ask what you have in mind next, if there are further writing projects you’d like to tell us about or a new line of research on the horizon?

I would love to write more about Alice Balfour and other forgotten Scottish entomologists from the past. There are some interesting stories to be told. I would also like to do more moth science. Butterfly Conservation have a list of ‘priority species’, rare moths that they want to know more about. If I could, I would pick one of these, go and base myself somewhere in the middle of Scotland and spend my days and nights finding out all there is to know about them. Anyone is welcome to come and help!

Meetings with Moths
By: Katty Baird
Hardback | April 2023 | Forth Estate

Author Interview with Peter Holden and Geoffrey Abbott: RSPB Handbook of Garden Wildlife

Now in its third edition, the RSPB Handbook of Garden Wildlife is a comprehensive and inspiring guide to making the most of your garden for wildlife. Full of practical tips, the book provides information on what plants to grow and how to structure your outside space to make it as attractive as possible for garden species, including mammals, birds, insects, invertebrates, reptiles and amphibians. A DIY chapter includes lots of projects such as nest box building and making your own pond.

There is also a comprehensive species account section which includes information and colour photographs of almost 400 garden species, helping you to take stock of the wildlife that is present in your garden, and to monitor how this changes over time. The third edition of the RSPB Handbook of Garden Wildlife also features new material on climate change, recycling and encouraging wild spaces in gardens.

Peter Holden

Peter Holden is the author of the bestselling RSPB Handbook of British Birds. He held senior positions at the RSPB for over 30 years and is the author of several books. Geoffrey Abbott formerly worked for the RSPB and now lectures part-time for the Field Studies Council. He is responsible for the book’s plants and insects sections.

Geoffrey Abbott

In this Q&A we chatted with Peter and Geoffrey about the book, about the importance and benefits of keeping our gardens ‘wild’ and their recommendations for small but impactful changes we can make in our outdoor spaces.

 

Now in its third edition, it has been 14 years since the first Handbook of Garden Wildlife was published. Do you think there have been significant changes in terms of types/styles of gardens and the wildlife they support during this time?

Geoffrey: there is now even more pressure on natural habitats and wildlife, and a continuing decline in many species such as bees, Starling and House Sparrow. This means that gardens are of even more value for conservation. At the same time there are more new houses, with smaller, or no gardens, and a continuing trend (as David Lindo so graphically points out in his foreword) to cover gardens with concrete or paving. There are also changes in our gardens due to the arrival of new species, some perhaps due to climate change. We have included some of the species (like Ivy Bee and Tree Bumblebee) that you are most likely to see in your garden.

Peter: Gardens will also be affected by changes in climate, especially if we have drier summers so we have introduced a new chapter on dry gardens.

In the book, you recommend keeping a log of the wildlife observed in a garden over the year. Do you think that this has become something of a lost art – taking the time and having the patience to observe the same bit of land over time and enjoying the process of noting the changes?

Peter: Yes, I see fewer people using a notebook and pencil when out birding and they don’t seem to be recording on mobiles either, even though there are excellent Apps like the BTO’s Birdnet. It should be easier than ever to keep notes at home using electronic spreadsheets and diaries. With programmes such as iRecord you can input photos and sightings and have the satisfaction of knowing these records are added to local and national databases – helping to build up a picture of changing wildlife populations.

In the introduction, you mention how important our gardens became to us during the Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. Improving them for the local wildlife has obvious benefits for conservation, but do you think there are also benefits from making these changes for ourselves and for our children?

Peter: There is more and more evidence showing environmental benefits on wellbeing and general health. There are also the additional benefits of exercise that comes from gardening and opportunities for relaxation. However, best of all, I see gardens being the ideal place for small children to start to learn about nature. It might be watching an ant’s trail, planting wildflowers, feeding the birds or helping to prepare a small pond, making pitfall traps for bugs or doing the Big Garden Birdwatch. And it’s not just parents – grandparents are often the ideal teachers for the next generation – with more time to share their own knowledge and experience.

In the section of your book on wilding, you describe the ideal garden as ‘organised chaos’. Do you think that the current trend for neatness and tidiness in a garden can be problematic in terms of attracting wildlife?

Geoffrey: Absolutely. Just one example is clearing all the dead heads from the borders which removes important food sources in the form of seeds, for birds and small mammals. Hollow dead stalks are also important sites for many hibernating insects. Tidying beds of leaf litter removes a whole community of invertebrates, and important feeding sites for thrushes, Blackbirds and Robins. Colonies of House Sparrows love scruffy corners and dense shrubs, while a pile of prunings and dead leaves can even provide a hibernation site for hedgehogs and a home for beetles and other invertebrates. Converting part of the garden to concrete or paving, or even replacing a lawn with Astroturf for easier management, will make whole areas sterile of wildlife.

One part of the book that I found particularly useful was the section on seasonal management, which also includes a handy monthly guide to the wildlife you might see and the tasks that need to be undertaken. How much would you say that maintaining a garden for wildlife differs from more ‘conventional’ gardening techniques?

Peter: That is an interesting question as there is not really a right or wrong way of doing things. It’s really about empathy – understanding your garden environment and gradually moving it from a homocentric place to one where wildlife is the focus. Every action will have nature in mind, while still keeping the garden as our own special place – it’s a delicate balance…and its fun…and over time our knowledge will grow as well.

For any readers with an average sized urban or suburban garden who wants a quick and affordable change that they can make, what would you recommend as something impactful but achievable that they could begin with?

We are both agreed that by far the best single improvement is to create a pond.

Geoffrey: This will greatly encourage garden wildlife by providing a source of water (for animals such as bees, birds and hedgehogs), mud for nesting birds, and a variety of extra insects as food. The pond will also add a whole new community of creatures, many of which leave the water at the adult stage. You may encourage frogs, toads or newts, as well as insects such as dragonflies and damselflies. These can give a whole new dimension to the summer garden.

Peter: A pond need not be large or complicated to make. A simple moulded plastic or flexible liner will suffice. It needs to be deep enough not to dry out but have some shelving edges to allow birds or hedgehogs to drink. However, avoid introducing fish – they are incompatible with most other wildlife in a garden pond.

Finally, what are you working on now? Do you have plans for further books?

Geoffrey: I will be writing wildlife notes for local magazines.

Peter: I will continue to work on updates for future editions of this Handbook and also for the RSPB Handbook of British Birds. I will continue with lectures for RSPB local members’ groups and hope to meet some of you there!

RSPB Handbook of Garden Garden Wildlife by Peter Holden and Geoffrey Abbott was published in February 2023. It is published by Bloomsbury Publishing and available from nhbs.com.

 

Author Interview with George Peterken: Trees and Woodlands

Written by one of the UK’s most highly regarded forest ecologists, Trees and Woodlands weaves together personal stories and scientific research in a thorough exploration of our woodlands, their ecology and how we as humans have interacted with them over the course of history. The 12th installment in the popular British Wildlife Collection, Trees and Woodlands will appeal to anyone who is fascinated by the stories told by our native woodlands and who is invested in their future.

George Peterken worked with the Nature Conservancy to start the ancient woodland inventory and later worked as nature conservation adviser at the Forestry Commission. His research interests, which have centred on nature conservation, natural woodland and long-term and large-scale aspects of woodland ecology, benefited from a Bullard Fellowship at Harvard University. He is the author of a large number of books on both woodlands and meadows and was awarded an OBE for services to forestry in 1994.

In this Q&A we chatted with George about the book, about his life and career as a woodland ecologist and about his hopes for the future of woodlands in the UK.

Firstly, can you tell us a bit about yourself? How did you get into working with and researching woodlands?

All my childhood holidays were visits to my Mother’s family on the edge of the New Forest and the woods at Ruislip and the Chilterns were my targets as a teenage cyclist, but woods became fully imprinted with 6th form natural history camps at Beaulieu Road in the New Forest, led by my charismatic teacher, Barry Goater. I gained an entry to woodlands research when Palmer Newbould at University College, London, accepted me as a PhD student to study New Forest woodlands on a Nature Conservancy grant. Then I had the luck to be offered my ideal job as a woodland ecologist at the Nature Conservancy’s Monks Wood Experimental Station. This was a madly exciting and committed place to work where, as you will see from the book’s dedication, we thrived on the freedom we were allowed. Thereafter it was necessary to ride out the constant reorganisations thrust upon us by our paymasters, the Government.

Trees & Woodlands is a wonderfully wide-ranging book. I particularly enjoyed the frequent stories and anecdotes from your own life and career, as well as the well-researched snippets of history, culture and language. Does the human-landscape interaction interest you?

Certainly. Its much more entertaining to explain what I find in a wood in terms of human actions and unforeseen consequences than in terms of soils, climate or some other natural factor. It was Colin Tubbs who taught me this when I was a research student and he was the Nature Conservancy’s warden-naturalist for the New Forest. We would notice some feature of the vegetation distribution or woodland structure and find, more often than not, that we could understand it best as, say, an abandoned extension of agriculture or an unexpected consequence of an Act of Parliament regarding deer. Then at Monks Wood, I found that Max Hooper and John Sheail in particular were just as keen as myself to study ecology in a county record office as we were in the fields and woods. Then, of course, we all came across Oliver Rackham who had seized on the same links between history and habitats. He more than anyone has demonstrated that it’s the human element that generates most interest in the natural world. This interest also had direct benefits for my main work in woodland nature conservation: it was much easier to negotiate management that benefited nature with a woodland owner who had a keen interest in the history of his/her wood.

Your book in large part looks at the interaction between humans and woodlands over the course of history, both ancient and recent, and you state that we would have to go a long way back in time to find a woodland which was not modified by the presence of man. Where in the UK would you say is closest to a ‘natural’ or ‘unmodified’ woodland, ie one that has been affected the least by humans?

This is the subject of one of the chapters. Spending my career working with semi-natural woodlands, I spent a lot of time wondering what natural woodland looked like, then, as you can read in my contribution to Arboreal (Little Toller, 2016), came to the conclusion that natural woodland takes many different forms, but that no woodland existing since the last Ice Age could be entirely unaffected by people. We can witness approximations by allowing an ancient, semi-natural woodland to grow without direct management intervention – which is what we have studied at Lady Park Wood – or by ‘shutting the field gate’ and watching what happens as shrubs and trees invade. Whether the results look like pre-Neolithic woodland, which harboured large herbivores, is a subject that has animated woodland ecologists in recent years: some would say that the New Forest is natural in that sense, even though it has been used and managed for centuries. ‘Natural woodland’ to the general public means ‘woodland of native trees not obviously managed’ and I think ecologists should get close to that.

Extreme weather events such as storms and flooding are likely to occur at an increased frequency due to the effects of climate change. Coupled with the anthropogenic impacts of deforestation, land use change and overgrazing, this might seem to paint a dim picture for the woodlands of the future. Moving forwards, what do you think are going to be the main challenges in the UK when it comes to preserving and improving our native woodlands?

The immediate threats come from novel diseases and pests, uncontrolled deer populations and our limited ability to sustain low intensity management, which leads to neglected woods becoming less stable and losing some elements of their biodiversity. Pervasive eutrophication via rain seems to reinforce the biodiversity losses from unmanaged woods.

Deforestation is not really a problem here; storms would have less impact if woods were managed and thus stand ages were younger; trees and woods are part of the solution to flooding; and the main immediate danger from climate change may be a form of self-fulfilling prophesy when, say, beech stands are felled and replaced by introduced species that we think will better withstand future climates. Ancient woods seem reasonably well protected by public opinion, the Woodland Trust and official organisations, but we could easily drop our guard if we again believe – as we did around 1970 – that all these new woodlands will form an adequate replacement.

In terms of woodland management and the policies which govern this, what changes would you like to see in the UK over the coming years?

I’m now way out of the loop of forestry politics, but I can answer in more general terms. Throughout my career foresters have been itching to bring the now neglected former coppices back into management. Most of these are ancient woods and therefore important for nature conservation, so I took the view through the 1970s that they should be left alone, or coppiced, since their likely fate under forest management would have been planted conifers. But from 1982, when what became the Broadleaves Policy was under discussion, I advocated management based on site-native tree species, and I have not changed since. We must find or generate markets for native tree timber and wood, like Coed Cymru did and does, that would benefit wildlife and give more people a stake in the future of ancient woodlands. I like the idea of more community involvement, but in practice this usually comes down to one or two individuals. I am all in favour of leaving a representative selection of woods to grow naturally – limited intervention, or none – partly because they will act as a constant reminder of the benefits of management.

Since you began working in and researching woodlands, have there been any major technological advances that have had a signification impact on the type and quality of research that you do?

Linking my name with technological advances will elicit hollow laughter in some quarters. For years, my fieldwork has involved pencil, paper, girthing tape and metal plot markers. I have tried GPS to mark plots, but in the woods I’ve studied the errors are too large to find small plots. I do use a spreadsheet to analyse the records, though. My research started when statistical analyses were undertaken long-hand on an electric machine that whirred and juddered for ever while it did long divisions, so the arrival of computers, the internet and digital cameras is obviously the key technical advance. This has enabled astonishingly intricate analyses of huge volumes of fieldwork data, but it has also led to papers in, say, the Journal of Ecology becoming unreadable. The need now is to present and explain research results and their implications to as wide an audience as one can summon in a form that can be appreciated by a general readership. Technical advances are important and often amazing, though nothing like as important as developing the skills to write clear, accurate, non-technical, substantial and readable text. I like to think that British Wildlife magazine and the derivative Collection of books have shown the way.

Finally, what’s next for you? Do you have plans for further books?

I’m reaching the age when plans are futile, but I still like to have an on-going project. On books, I am helping Stefan Buczacki write about Churchyard Natural History. One of the most rewarding of recent projects was my collaboration with a group of professional artists, The Arborealists, in Lady Park Wood (Art meets Ecology, Sansom, 2020) and we have plans for a sequel in Staverton Park, a Suffolk wood-pasture I knew well in the late 1960s. For several years I gave up woodlands and took a close interest in meadows, which led to an earlier book in the British Wildlife Collection and gave me an enthusiasm for wood-meadows, so I’m doing what I can from a distance to help the Woodmeadow Trust.

Trees and Woodlands by George Peterken was published in February 2023. It is published by Bloomsbury Publishing and available from nhbs.com.

 

Author Interview with Mark Carwardine: RSPB How to Photograph Garden Birds

RSPB How to Photograph Garden Birds is an inspirational and practical guide to photographing birds in your own garden. Packed full of tips and tricks, the book covers equipment, composition, light and weather, as well as providing guidance on feeding birds to make your garden as attractive as possible to feathered visitors.

The second half of the book contains a range of different projects, each with details on the equipment required and the techniques you will need to use to obtain the desired shot. From using reflecting pools and catching birds in flight, there is plenty here to help you hone your skills and start capturing professional quality images.

Mark Carwardine is a zoologist and an award-winning writer, a TV and radio presenter and a bestselling author of more than 50 books. Well known for his skills as a wildlife photographer, he was selected as one of ‘The World’s 40 Most Influential Nature Photographers’ in the US’s Outdoor Photography magazine and is currently presenting and producing the BBC Wildlife Photography Masterclass on YouTube. He also runs wildlife photography holidays and workshops worldwide.

In this Q&A, we chatted with Mark about the book, about his life and journey as a photographer, and discuss some tips on making photography affordable.

You have been described as one of ‘The World’s 40 Most Influential Nature Photographers’, have chaired the judging panel of the prestigious Wildlife Competition of the Year for seven years, and are presenter and producer of the BBC’s Wildlife Photography Masterclass. With all this experience, variety and skill under your belt, what made you turn your attention to garden birds as the subject of your latest book?

It was a lockdown thing. I’ve been feeding birds in the garden for as long as I can remember (as we should all be doing – there is a lot of evidence that feeding garden birds year-round really does give them a better chance of survival). I loved watching them, and they gave me an inordinate amount of pleasure, but it was only during lockdown that I really started to photograph them. And then I got completely hooked. Garden birds make fantastic photographic subjects. Many of them are strikingly beautiful; they are readily accessible (you can even capture frame-filling images from your kitchen window); they tend to be tamer and more relaxed around people than most ‘wild’ birds out in the countryside; and they are impressively adaptable (you can move the feeders around, change the perches or add a new prop and they will often return within a few minutes). The other great advantage, of course, is there is no need for flights or hotel rooms: you barely have to leave the house.

Image by Mark Carwardine

What came first to you as a youngster, a love of nature or a love of photography? Or did they develop simultaneously?

Definitely a love of nature. I’ve been obsessed with wildlife since before I could walk and talk. The photography came in my teens. My father was a keen photographer and taught me how to print black-and-white prints in his darkroom in the loft etc, so he was the initial inspiration. I still remember saving for my first ‘proper’ camera in my mid-teens – it took me two years, working every Saturday and all school holidays in a camera shop. I’ve been very lucky to be able to make photography a big part of my work – to illustrate books, articles and lectures etc.

You mention in the book that you started out by shooting film. Do you prefer the flexibility of digital photography or are there things you miss about using older techniques and equipment?

I don’t miss anything about shooting film at all! How anyone managed to take great wildlife pictures with a 36-exposure roll of 25 or 64 ASA film – let alone with a separate light meter and a manual-focus lens – I will never know. I’m very grateful to have learnt photography using film, because you had to understand how everything worked and you had to work slowly and carefully, but my photography has certainly improved since the advent of digital. In fact, I was Chairing the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition during the transition from film to digital and watched the standard of wildlife photography grow exponentially.

Image by Mark Carwardine

I imagine a large part of being a good photographer is slowing down and really paying attention, not only to your chosen subject, but to the surroundings, weather, light and other variables. As someone who is evidently extremely productive and busy in your professional life, do you find this aspect of photography enjoyable? Or is it a necessary chore?

It’s the only time I slow down! The funny thing is that I am naturally impatient – I can’t bear wasting time. I hate sitting in traffic, waiting for a late train, being trapped in a meeting that is dragging on unnecessarily. But I can happily sit quietly for hours – no, days – waiting for an animal to appear or do something interesting. That’s a pleasure and in no way a chore. I can sit perfectly still in a hide, without moving, let alone talking, with no problem at all. Every sense is alert, your mind clears and, of course, there is always something to look at. The other thing I love is the sense of anticipation. You could wait all day and nothing happens; or, without warning, you could be surprised by one of your best wildlife sightings ever. And, of course, you do need to be patient in wildlife photography, waiting for the best light, the best pose, or whatever.

Do you think that art and photography have an important role to play in inspiring people to value or get involved with wildlife and the natural world?

I have mixed feelings about this. I do think photography can play a critically important role in inspiring people and promotion conservation. The old adage ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ is often true – meaning that complex ideas can be conveyed in a single image. There are many examples of one picture spurring a massive campaign and, ultimately, inspiring significant change. On the wall behind me in my office is a signed photograph by Commander Frank Borman, taken during Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon. It’s called ‘Earthrise’ and shows our tiny blue planet hanging in space, as viewed across the surface of the moon. It’s credited with kick-starting the environmental movement in the late 1960s. There are some inspiring examples in nature photography, too. Ansel Adams famously used his photographs to help create Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. And look at the work of the International League of Conservation Photographers. But I have mixed feelings because many photographers these days claim to be ‘helping conservation’ simply by taking pictures of wildlife and wild places. It doesn’t work like that – you have to do something as well.

Image by Mark Carwardine

In the current financial climate, the cost of equipment might put many people off taking up photography as a hobby. I liked that you covered the use of smartphones in your book, as this is something that almost everybody has access to. What would be your top recommendation for an inexpensive accessory that could be used with a Smartphone for photographing garden birds?

Yes, it’s true. Some of the best long lenses these days cost as much as a small family car! There’s a whole chapter in the book about photographing garden birds with a smartphone. One of the challenges with smartphone photography is shooting frame-filling pictures – getting close enough to your subjects. I’d recommend buying a really inexpensive little gadget called a shutter release, or shutter remote. This communicates with your phone via Bluetooth. Once you’ve paired it, you simply tap the button on the remote to take a picture. Then all you do is place the phone near your carefully positioned photographic perch – or wherever you think the birds might land. Sit in the kitchen with a coffee or a beer, using binoculars to see the back of the phone clearly enough to judge when a bird comes into view, and fire away to your heart’s content. It works amazingly well.

What’s in store for you next? Do you have plans for further books?

Actually, I’m working on another photographic book. For the past 30 years, I’ve spent a month or two most winters in Baja California, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, running whale watching tours, doing research and filming. It’s arguably the best place in the world for whale watching. So I am compiling a book of my favourite photographs from those 30 years, called ‘Baja California: Realm of the Great Whales’. I just have a few hundred thousand more images to go through, and I’ll be ready to make the final selection!

RSPB How to Photograph Garden Birds by Mark Carwardine was published in January 2023. It is published by Bloomsbury Publishing and available from nhbs.com.

 

Author Interview with Alick Simmons: Treated Like Animals

Treated Like Animals, by Alick Simmons, provides an incisive look at the way we treat animals and highlights the many ways in which we are complicit in their exploitation – whether that is via the food we eat, the pets we keep as companions, the medicines we take that rely on animal research, or the wildlife that is ‘managed’ on our behalf.

Although many laws are in place that protect the rights of certain animals in certain situations, many of these do not take into account the science behind the animal’s ability to suffer, nor the humaneness of the methods used. In this book, Simmons calls on us to face the facts about how animals are exploited and to form our own, educated opinions about these issues.

Alick Simmons is a veterinarian and a naturalist. During a career spanning 35 years he held the position of the UK Government’s Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer (2007-2016) and the UK Food Standards Agency’s Veterinary Director (2004-2007). In 2015 he began conservation volunteering, and has been involved in survey projects for both waders and cranes. He is currently chair of the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare and the Humane Slaughter Association. He also serves as a Trustee of the Dorset Wildlife Trust and chairs the EPIC disease control steering group on behalf of the Scottish Government.

In this Q&A, we chatted with Alick about the book and about how our opinions on animal welfare and ethics can and should be a priority.

Our attitudes to animal welfare are heavily influenced by our culture, and our opinions and values often reflect those of our families, peers and country/region rather than being based on objective facts (for example, you mention early on in the book the difference in our reactions to eating a lamb compared to a puppy). Do you think this is a significant barrier to people creating an objectively valid personal code of ethics?

Culture influences our attitudes to animals, without a doubt. It varies between countries: most Brits loathe the idea of bull fighting but it has been an important part of popular culture in Spain for centuries. However, attitudes are not fixed and can change over time: 93 per cent of 16- to 24-year-old Spaniards now say they don’t support bullfighting.

Culture also drives differences in attitudes towards certain species: the horse enjoys an exalted status in Britain with several very well-heeled charities dedicated to their support. Nothing similar exists for cattle and sheep. And the idea of eating a horse is simply abhorrent to most people. The law protecting horses in transport, on farm, etc is much tighter than it is for farmed animals. There is no logical explanation for this.

When it comes to research animals, the majority of us reluctantly accept the need to use mice and rats, but are opposed to the use of dogs, cats and primates despite the better data they yield in some fields of research. Yet, the capacity to suffer for these species is very likely to be similar.

So, yes, culture is a barrier to the scientifically and ethically sound treatment of animals. We need to ignore cultural norms and prejudices, give animals the benefit of the doubt and assume that all vertebrates (and a growing number invertebrate species), regardless of their ‘use’ or circumstances, have the capacity to suffer.

In writing this book and considering the issues discussed within, did you find it hard to separate emotion from fact? Or do you think that it is important to not separate the two, since emotion is an important prerequisite to having compassion and empathy for the experience and lives of other species?

We are emotional beings, capable of empathy. Although we can’t directly experience the pain and suffering of other people, it doesn’t stop us wanting to help, to relieve that suffering. Indeed, our emotions, our empathy, it can be argued, are part of the bedrock of our society and why we exhibit altruism.

However, separating emotion from fact is difficult, perhaps impossible. Which is why most of us behave inconsistently when it comes to animals. We appear to care more about the fate of a kitten than that of a rat. Instead of concentrating on the differences, real or imagined, between the two – one is cute, the other carries disease – remember that the nervous systems of both are very similar – if the kitten has a sophisticated brain, has defined pain pathways and the cognitive capacity to suffer, then so does the rat. That doesn’t mean we can’t intervene against the rat if it threatens our health. But it does mean we should strive to reduce the need to intervene and do it humanely when all else fails.

How much of a problem do you consider it to be that we are increasingly reliant on social media as our main source of news and information – much of which may be incorrect, misleading or extremist in nature?

I use Twitter but no other social media. Twitter is, like fire, a great servant but a poor master. A substantial number of the lovely reviews of Treated Like Animals came from people I’ve been interacting with on Twitter. It is unlikely that we would have ‘met’ otherwise. But social media is useless for discussing complex and controversial matters – like animal welfare – because nuance, uncertainty and subtlety are difficult to convey in 280 characters. I try to avoid getting into convoluted interplays because it rarely concludes well. I’m not always successful. However, despite these drawbacks, Twitter is great for signposting to new publications, blog posts and for advertising conferences and even jobs. Use it wisely and be wary of getting drawn into over-simplified arguments. Difficult, complex issues rarely have simple solutions.

Author Alick Simmons has been involved in conservation projects such as crane ringing. Image by A Simmons.

Do you have any concerns that the current pressures in people’s lives, such as the cost of living crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine, climate crisis etc., are impacting people so much that they don’t feel as though they have the time, energy or money to prioritise animal rights and ethics? For example, if someone is struggling to make their food budget last the month, then purchasing cheap meat with poor welfare standards may be the most feasible option at that time.

It has been said that a concern for animal welfare is a luxury indulged in by the affluent. I disagree. Society has set animal welfare norms much of which are coded in legislation – which should be observed no matter how straitened our circumstances. The first few of these norms were set when living standards were much lower than they are today. That said, we live in difficult times and with less buying power, people have difficult choices to make. The cheapest meat is chicken and it’s also the world’s favourite. The meat chicken (known as the broiler) may have won the post-WWII race to produce the most abundant animal protein but at what cost? As Chapter 5 of Treated Like Animals details, broiler welfare is generally poor and alternative, less intensive rearing systems meet the birds’ needs better. However, the meat is more expensive. I argue that it is better for you (and the birds) to eat smaller amounts of better quality, slower grown meat than to eat larger amount of cheaper meat where standards are generally poorer. The difference can be made up with proteins from plant-based foods.

In terms of your own personal code of ethics, what troubles you the most? Or, to put it another way, what issue have you found the most difficult to reach a satisfactory position or opinion on?

There are two: First, while I still eat animal products, albeit less and less, the colossal scale of some farming systems used to rear pigs, fish, dairy cows and chickens does bother me. No matter how cleverly designed the buildings, how good the system, these animals cannot be cared for in the way that smaller operations allow. It’s simply not possible. Add to that, given the barren environments which hinder normal behaviour, one has to question whether these systems are acceptable. However, after a lifetime of eating cheese I am finding it difficult to switch to the alternatives.

The second is research. I find it difficult to justify the use of primates for basic neuroscience research (that is, research with no immediate practical benefit) because of its protracted and invasive nature. On the other hand, it is argued, without a comprehensive understanding of the architecture and function of the brain, our ability to eventually tackle degenerative nervous conditions like Alzheimer’s disease will be hindered. I find I can’t reach a position on this.

Simmons dedicates an entire chapter of his book to the ethics surrounding the ‘management’ of wildlife. Image by A Simmons

If, upon reading your book, people would like to take a more active role in promoting positive animal welfare in the UK, what might be the most important and impactful steps for them to consider?

There are two main ways where you can make a difference: First, vote with your feet. Avoid the products which, based on your own ethical position, you object to. Chapter 11 includes my own ethical framework and this can be adapted to your own position. Better still, get engaged and active. For example, join an organisation that campaigns for better animal welfare, get better informed, lobby your MP, etc. Voting with your feet, particularly if it snowballs, does make a difference – you only need to look at how supermarkets change their offer – to free range eggs and a growing range of vegan products, for example. But avoiding certain products won’t be effective against other welfare concerns where consumer-led action has little or no impact. Take for example, the killing of wildlife. Most are killed using methods which are demonstrably inhumane: spring traps, snares, live capture traps, glue traps and poisons. Very few of us see what goes on but take it from me – this is largely unregulated, poorly scrutinised and involves perhaps millions of animals dying in a way that we would not tolerate for research animals, farmed animals or our pets. There are no products to boycott here (except perhaps ‘game’ birds), but you could do a lot worse than getting involved with organisations which lobby government and research alternatives such as the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare, OneKind and Humane Society International.

Finally, what’s in store for you next? Do you have any more books planned?

I’d like to see how much of a success this book is first but I am keen to investigate the interface between animal welfare and conservation (and other types of land management). Chapter 7 of Treated Like Animals goes into this relationship but there is a great deal more to explore – for example, how our attitudes to abundant species differ from scarce ones, the demonisation of some species to justify the routine killing of others, and the apparent indifference that society shows to wild rodents. I’ve got a collaborator in mind but he doesn’t know it yet!

 

 

Treated Like Animals by Alick Simmons is due for publication in February 2023. It is published by Pelagic Publishing and available from nhbs.com.

 

2022 author interviews, book reviews and field tests

At NHBS we love nothing more than chatting with the authors of our favourite books about their lives, passions and publications. Interested in the authors we talked to in 2022? Here we’ve listed all of the books that we were fortunate to cover this year along with the titles that have been reviewed on our blog and the equipment that we tested in our regular ‘In the Field’ series.

Author Q&As

The Secret Perfume of Birds with Danielle Whittaker

“I started out with simple, clearly defined experiments to test the birds’ reaction to odours from other birds. Then moved on to working with chemists to analyze the information content present in the odours given off by birds. Little by little, the scientists who heard about work in this area started to pay attention…”

 

Otherlands with Thomas Halliday

“We mustn’t fall into the trap of thinking that humans can only be destructive, or that we are separate from the ecosystems we live in…This is the Earth we live in, and we are part of this world, but worlds can change in a moment.”

 

The Secret Life of the Adder with Nicholas Milton

“The book is my attempt to conserve the species using a 10-point adder action plan, and wake up the government, its nature conservation agencies, the media and the public to its plight before it is too late.”

 

Field Guide to Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises with Mark Carwardine

“It’s true to say that our knowledge of cetaceans has grown from virtually nothing to just a little bit – despite decades of wild whale research. They are incredibly difficult animals to study, because they spend most of their lives underwater, often live far out to sea and regularly travel vast distances.”

Why Sharks Matter with David Shiffman

“As a marine conservation biologist who studies sharks and how to protect them, I know that we need the public to not only no longer fear sharks, but to value the role they play in the ecosystem and to want them around.”

 

Wildlife Photography Fieldcraft with Susan Young

“Wildlife photography is hugely important as photographs can convey an emotion or fact better than words, and in particular can illustrate features or situations in a compelling, thought-provoking way, or simply attract by their beauty.”

 

The Fragmented World of the Mongoose Lemur with Michael Stephen Clark

“Perhaps, more alarmingly, the mongoose lemur has unwittingly become a prima-facie example of something disquieting; namely, a growing acceptance that nature will be allowed to persist only in places of our choosing.”

 

Book reviews

• Ever Green: Saving Big Forests to Save the Planet by John W. Reid and Thomas E. Lovejoy
Reviewed by Hana Ketley

• Birds, Beasts and Bedlam: Turning My Farm into an Ark for Lost Species by Derek Gow
Reviewed by Hana Ketley

• Abundance: Nature in Recovery by Karen Lloyd
Reviewed by Hana Ketley

• Fen, Bog & Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and its Role in the Climate Crisis by Annie Proulx
Reviewed by Luanne Wilkes

• Goshawk Summer: The Diary of an Extraordinary Season in the Forest by James Aldred
Reviewed by Hana Ketley

‘In the Field’ equipment tests

• Elekon Batlogger M2 – tested by Hana Ketley

• Kowa TSN-501 Spotting Scope – tested by Joshua Smith

• Elekon Batlogger S2 – tested by Alex Jackson

• Browning Spec Ops Elite HP5 & Browning Recon Force Elite HP5 – tested by Andrew Molin-Wilkinson

• Batbox Baton – tested by Antonia Peacock

• Kite APC Stabilised Binoculars – tested by Simon Palmer

Author interview with Michael Stephen Clark: The Fragmented World of the Mongoose Lemur

The Fragmented World of the Mongoose Lemur is a book about a critically-endangered species, fractured ecosystems and the global war on nature. It is a compelling story in which author Michael Stephen Clark reveals the fundamental paradox of the mongoose lemur’s natural history.

In this post we chat to the author of this important and timely book about his work with mongoose lemurs, the problems withthe way that conservation is reported in the mainstream media and his hopes for the future given the alarming loss of biodiversity and rate of extinctions we are currently experiencing.

Author Michael Stephen Clark

Your book is described as a modern natural history, but it also conveys a larger message that is of relevance to our relationship with all wild species. Why did you choose the mongoose lemur as your focal species – what is it about this primate that makes it suitable for illustrating more widespread issues?

I first became interested in the mongoose lemur when I worked with an aged and overweight pair at London Zoo in the 1980s and 1990s. They were being kept off-exhibit, which I thought was inappropriate given their endangered status. In due course, we were able to move them into a larger, outdoor enclosure, but only after an operation had been performed on both of them to remove excess adipose tissue. It was all very invasive, but the animals were much fitter, healthier and happier as a result. Shortly afterwards, I discovered that the captive breeding programme for the species lacked co-ordination, so I established the first international studbook for the species in captivity. There wasn’t a great deal of information about them in the literature and relatively few researchers and institutions had sought to remedy that. It quickly became clear to me that the mongoose lemur was fast becoming undervalued and potentially overlooked as an endangered species. I’ve been concerned about them ever since, probably because my sympathies often lie with the ‘underdog’.

I’d long been aware that the mongoose lemur could illustrate very directly the profound disruption caused by human alteration of the natural continuum. Human attitudes to wildlife contain a raft of contradictions that result in contradictory outcomes. This is particularly true of the mongoose lemur. In common with virtually all lemurs, it is a critically endangered species that exists in compromised and/or fragmented habitat in the wild. Perversely, however, it appears (on the surface) to be more numerous and relatively safe as a naturalised alien species on the Comoros Islands of Anjouan and Moheli. Lemurs in captivity are generally viewed as a conservation priority, yet the mongoose lemur ranks lower in importance than some of the more enigmatic lemur species. Already, without digging too deeply, we can see that the mongoose lemur has experienced displacement at every point where it has come into contact with humanity.

Perhaps, more alarmingly, the mongoose lemur has unwittingly become a prima-facie example of something disquieting; namely, a growing acceptance that nature will be allowed to persist only in places of our choosing. It’s a situation that has led to questionable decisions around relocation, translocation, restoration, rewilding, and re-introduction. To my mind, these things invite compromise, not least where species such as ring-necked parakeets in England and mongoose lemurs on Anjouan are inter-changeably considered wild, free-living, native and/or naturalised. These compromises ominously signpost natural systems by human design. Presently, the momentum is behind stand-alone programmes, projects and initiatives that are, of necessity, limited in scale. This may well lead to the ultimate breakup of biodiversity and an end-point where our natural world has become little more than a ‘zoo in the wild’.

Do you think that the way conservation and the plight of endangered species are reported by the mainstream media is problematic? I’m thinking, for example, in terms of how the public, conservationists and governing bodies might go on to perceive the state of the natural world as a result?

I actually think it’s a massive problem for conservation. Once upon a time, the adage was ‘there’s no such thing as bad publicity.’ In recent years, the mainstream media has shifted away from the substantial to the superficial reporting of wildlife conservation matters. Social media and the wider online milieu all feed into that, of course, but far too many stories are either half-told, poorly-told, or just plain misleading. It’s actually worse than not telling the story at all. This is especially disruptive for governing bodies and NGOs that can so easily find themselves painted into a corner by media-generated hubris. I’m not sure that a proliferation of conservation news portals, websites, blogs, podcasts and influencers is useful either. It is more likely that conservation stories will become even more distorted, diluted and diffuse as result.

I think the effect of all this on the public, among conservationists, and within governing bodies is potentially quite dangerous. It could make identifying priorities and taking effective action a minefield of conflicting imperatives. The recurring controversy over the Ramsar site at Coul Links in Scotland is a good example of media hubris threatening not only to drown out voices of reason, but also to trample the letter of the law into the ground. It took the combined firepower of a self-generated media campaign by a coalition of Wildlife Trusts and NGOs to beat back an existential threat to unique (and legally protected) dune habitat. I suspect that such coalitions will have to establish permanent media entities if they are to fight the war on nature across several (media) fronts.

Given the alarming rate of extinctions and global diversity decline, what would you like to see happen, both on a local and an international scale, to begin dealing with this? And would you describe yourself as broadly hopeful or pessimistic about this crisis?

I’m afraid that I am neither optimistic nor pessimistic about the future. I know it’s a cliché, but I think the future is already here. The important decisions now (as ever) will lie with young people, many of whom are not only well-educated and eminently qualified, but savvy as well. I recently rejoined Linkedin after a long absence and the sheer number of extremely active, professional wildlife conservationists around the world is really quite dazzling. In the short-term, issues around job security, personal security, career development, and establishing substantial permanent facilities in the field need to be addressed.

Frankly, I think that’s primarily the top-down responsibility of pan-national institutions such UNEP and the World Bank. The scale of accelerated extinction events forewarns us of a looming biodiversity crisis that could very easily become an existential threat in just a couple of generations. It requires a global response and the money really has to start flowing from global institutions if we are to empower and support our highly motivated international conservation professionals. To my mind, food security, health, climate, biodiversity and species conservation are equal priorities. I don’t understand how this became a hierarchy of aspirational goals because the response they all require is equally urgent.

In the medium term, it is not news to say that we have to invest in future generations, but ‘hope and inspiration’ aren’t enough. I think that young children generally receive a good grounding in natural history in their pre-school and primary school years. With a little support, that can happen in a developing country as easily as it can in the UK. But, young people need to have pathways they can follow in order to learn more. From there, they can gain a rounded understanding of natural history, which would inevitably include an elementary form of conservation biology. I’m a bit surprised that some of the more prominent NGOs aren’t lobbying for this with a draft curriculum. Nature conservation education for school-age children has to graduate from photocopied fact-sheets and elevate itself as the most valuable ‘eco-system service’ available.

As a zoological professional you have studied and worked in several esteemed organisations including the University of Bristol, London Zoo and Oxford-Brookes University. What do you consider to be the most significant highlights of your career so far?

Anyone who has ‘hands-on’ experience of working with wild animals in the field and/or captivity will tell you it’s a life full of great highs and lows. It doesn’t do to dwell on the lows so I’ll concentrate on things that I considered achievements. As I explain in my book, the time I spent on Anjouan in the Comoros Islands was a very special career highlight. It was a great privilege to be trusted with the capture and care of Pteropus livingstonii, one of the rarest bat species in the world and, of course, to encounter free-living mongoose lemurs first-hand. I’m especially gratified that several papers, features and articles that I authored or co-authored were published in the course of my work at the Zoological Society of London. These included my account of mongoose lemurs on Anjouan, the jointly written history of black-footed penguins at London Zoo, and a report on breeding Leadbeater’s Possum at London Zoo. Getting up close and personal with urban foxes and badgers in the course of fieldwork for Professor Stephen Harris at Bristol University was memorable, and I very much enjoyed my brief role as a visiting lecturer at Oxford-Brookes University. It was quite an honour to be there at the beginning of the now prestigious Primate Conservation MSc course.

The Fragmented World of the Mongoose Lemur is, in large part, a species-specific natural history – a format that is perhaps less popular than it has been in previous years and decades. The book was also published independently. How did you find the process of planning, writing and publishing the book and what were the main challenges you faced?

It’s correct that the species-specific natural history books have fallen out of favour with mainstream publishers, but I’m not convinced that readers feel the same way. In (apparently) normal circumstances, the life history of a species will appear to be relatively constant. In natural history classics such as David Lack’s ‘Life of the Robin’ and Sarah Churchfield’s ‘Natural History of Shrews’, the subjects live in a self-contained world that is full of challenges, yet seems immutable. The world today, in the age of the Anthropocene, rarely allows for ‘normal circumstances’. Wild animals will live, prosper, suffer, die or become extinct largely at our discretion, which means that their life histories now have to take account of the rapid, ongoing changes wrought by hyper-accelerated, unregulated human activity. That’s why I think it’s valid to revisit species-specific natural history writing and place it in a much wider context.

There was a time when my book would have been titled ‘The Mongoose Lemur in its World’, but that world no longer exists. It more accurately lives in a fragmented world of our making. This is happening to species the world over and those that are able to adjust may live, while those that can’t will surely disappear. We need to understand what makes the difference between the two potential outcomes in order to construct a meaningful response. I think this can emerge from species-specific natural histories that draw from a deeper well of scientific, philosophical and practical resources. I think it’s too often wrongly (and condescendingly) assumed that readers either can’t or won’t respond to stories that cast the net widely and speculate, as I have done, about ‘Propects and Perspectives’.

I’m fairly comfortable now with the process of independent publishing and I’ve never seen it as a poor relation to using an established publishing house. I would describe it as a slow, gentle learning curve rather than a steep and arduous one. The early stages of planning and writing are the most fun, but luckily I quite like editing, proofing and polishing too. I’m quite experienced in that regard but I find that editing your own work means that you really can’t rush it. Familiarity breeds oversight. I usually keep sharing with others to a minimum, but for this book I got a lot of help on specific chapters. I needed it too, and their input was invaluable as the acknowledgements section of the book will attest.

If I had to identify a single challenge that was really testing, I would say that maintaining a consistent, balanced style of writing throughout gave me the most sleepless nights. I wanted to hold the reader’s interest with an engaging narrative but still maintain a firm grip of the factual material. I also wanted the book to be a bit provocative. I always think I’ve read a good book if it leaves me with as many questions as it does answers.

Finally, what is in store for you next? Do you have plans for further publications?

At the moment, I’m doing the preparatory work for events in support of the book. I’ll be using my original colour slide transparencies from Anjouan to illustrate my presentations and I recently bought a very old colour slide projector for that purpose. It’s a bit quirky, I know, but I think it will make things a bit more interesting.

In terms of writing and publishing, I have a couple of things of my own in development, but I’d be interested in collaborating with others to produce further modern natural histories. I’d like to keep the focus on primates, mainly because they’re exposed to lots of different pressures in a variety of situations where they come into close contact with us humans. Their stories challenge us to think about the relationships we have with nature generally and how we are going to rescue biodiversity from our worst excesses. Species such as pygmy slow loris, Cat Ba langurs and Kirk’s red colobus spring to mind, although there are countless others.

Print-on-demand and increasingly accessible typesetting software mean that there are few obstacles to producing books like this. If there is a problem then it is persuading authors to enter a publishing relationship that is unconventional, yet fairer and more equable than the conventional model. Publishing independently also means that your book need never go out of print, something that frustrates many published writers who find themselves out of contract.

The Fragmented World of the Mongoose Lemur by Michael Stephen Clark is available now from NHBS.