Showing posts with label Animals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Animals. Show all posts

Tuesday 20 September 2022

Songs for World Peace are good for the world of nature too

Songs for World Peace benefit the environment and animals too


Tomorrow is International Peace Day and I am one of many artists worldwide taking part in the Wake Up, Rise Up, LIVE4Peace concert. I knew I wanted to be involved in this as soon as I heard about it, and I always think that peace is not just what humans need because it means a healthy environment in which animals benefit too. Consider war-torn Ukraine right now where countless abandoned dogs and cats are suffering and dying. Animals in a war-zone, besides being terrified, can easily get lost if they run away in fear, and others sadly get abandoned by people who have to leave where they have been living in a hurry. Many cats and dogs get trapped in buildings, some get seriously wounded and killed, just like people can too.

War brings death and destruction. With gunfire and rockets being fired, there is often no let up for days. Think about how scared pet dogs and cats get on the one night of Bonfire Night, and by celebratory fireworks. In a war the loud noises and explosions don’t stop after a few hours.

Wars can destroy forests and wildlife habitats too. I am thinking of the horror of what happened with the spraying of Agent Orange herbicide in the war against Vietnam in the 1960s and early 1970s. The U.S. military used the poisonous substance as a defoliant so there was no longer any cover or hiding places created by the trees. It worked well from the point of view of destroying forest trees but it also drastically reduced biodiversity and had long lasting harmful effects on millions of humans who were exposed to the chemicals. Dioxins from Agent Orange persist in the environment causing harm to man and beast. The herbicide is associated with many forms of cancer and with birth defects. Agent Orange was also used on agricultural land to destroy crops.


Far more recently there was a lot of worry about the Russian forces in the Chernobyl area. Chernobyl has become noted as a region contaminated with nuclear radiation that caused humans to abandon it but where over the years, the world of nature has reclaimed the land and very many species of fauna and flora have been living. In some cases it is said that there are more of some types of animal living there now than when people were living in the nearby city of Pripayat.

It was feared that the recent Russian occupation of Chernobyl could undo everything, and that the area could become highly contaminated again and a threat to surrounding parts of the world. War is a very great danger to the world of nature as well as to the world of humans, and that is why I am singing for peace. Wake Up, Rise Up, LIVE4Peace have arranged it so that artists taking part can collect donations towards any charities of their choice. I have chosen The Rotary Club of Wyndham Harbour, which I am a member of. Rotary Clubs worldwide have world peace as one of the many goals being worked for. Please join us in taking action for peace. Even thinking peace, is a good place to start, which is why the late John Lennon, who was famous not only for being one of The Beatles but for his peace-campaigning with his wife Yoko Ono, advised us to THINK PEACE! 

Saturday 18 April 2020

Habitat Destruction and the European Rabbit

The European Rabbit is in Danger!
European Rabbit (Photo: Steve Andrews)

There’s a strip of woodland and scrub five minutes from where I live, and nearly every day I connect with nature by walking through it. Although it has busy roads separating it from larger sections of the Portuguese countryside, and is near to houses, this parcel of land has a wonderful selection of wildflowers and of wildlife, including butterflies, birds, reptiles, and a colony of European Rabbits. At least, there was a rabbit warren there until recently. I have been watching an example of habitat destruction on my doorstep! A team of workmen, bulldozers and JCBs have ruined where the rabbits live, transforming it into something neat and tidy, a place that shows the human view of how things should be. It is no longer a world and a home for European Rabbits, at least I have not seen any since the men were there. Of course, I never could get close to any of the rabbits I would see on happier days, but just knowing they were there gave me a good feeling. A sense of contentment that all was well in a parcel of countryside, right by where I live. The sandy soil in this location is ideal for a rabbit to burrow in and trees and bushes, brambles and other vegetation, provide a place to hide away from walkers with dogs. The European Rabbit has many threats to its life to watch out for: natural predators and humans who hunt. Rabbit hunting is a tradition in many places. Men with guns and dogs get pleasure from this. These hunters would argue that it is a traditional way of providing food for their families and meat for the market. It is a serious threat to rabbit populations though, especially coupled with the devastating effects of the deadly Myxomatosis plague that was unleashed many years ago. The Rabbit Calcivirus has also contributed to the decline of this once very common mammal, which the International Union For Conservation Of Nature (IUCN) in 2018 classified as Endangered for the animal’s current Conservation Status. In Portugal, the Iberian Lynx, a species that is struggling for survival as well, depends on rabbit populations, because these once common mammals are its main prey. Efforts to help the Lynx return are doomed to failure unless rabbit numbers can be increased a lot as well. One form of life depends on another, as links in a food chain, and parts of the web of life.
After the work was done! (Photo: Steve Andrews)
But getting back to what has happened in the woodland near my home: over a period of about 10 days, the workmen levelled a large area of mixed grassland and scrub, they chopped down some pine and willow trees, cut down bushes, drastically thinned out and pruned back any clumps of saplings, and then bulldozed right through where the rabbits had their burrows, which was in a wooded area at the bottom of a slope. The men have constructed a wide channel here that runs in the direction of one of the bordering roads. I thought maybe they were going to lay a large pipeline of some description but this didn’t happen and they have ceased work. Perhaps the channel is intended as somewhere water can run because it does follow on from a stream higher up in the woodland.
They cleaned this part up too! (Photo: Steve Andrews)
Perhaps it is intended as a flood defence? As for the destruction of trees and bushes, that was probably land clearance as a defence against wildfires, which are now a serious threat in Portugal. Now the men have all gone and I am left wondering, is this because they completed their work or have they been laid off due to the ongoing CoronaVirus lockdown at time of writing? Whatever the answer is, it appears the rabbits have gone too. Did they manage to escape? Did they run away in time? If so, where have they gone? What does a European Rabbit do when evicted from its home? If they did escape they have been subjected to a terrifying experience for the whole colony. My daily pleasure of seeing rabbits has gone. Now when I walk in this bit of countryside I am on the lookout for signs the rabbits have survived. I am looking for new burrows, I am looking for piles of rabbit poo on paths, but so far I have seen none. It leaves me feeling sad and is yet one more example of habitat destruction I have witnessed. There have been many throughout my life, from ponds that are drained to become flowerbeds or levelled ground, to meadows that become housing developments.  Now here in Portugal, I feel like I have been watching a real-life chapter from Watership Down!

Saturday 6 July 2019

Watching the Desertification of Portugal

Climate Breakdown and Desertification


Dried up pond (Photo: Steve Andrews)
I have been living in Portugal since late 2014 and over the years have been watching the changes in the weather and to the countryside. Every year we have had very hot weather and wildfires and droughts are becoming the new ‘normal’ here due to Climate Breakdown. It is getting worse and I feel I am watching the early stages of the desertification of Portugal.

Ponds Dry Up
Cracked mud (Photo: Steve Andrews)

I am sure that amphibians and other aquatic wildlife are having a hard time due to the lack of water. A river near where I live has run dry in the past and this year some roadside pools have already dried up and are just cracked mud. This is very unfortunate news for the small colony of Iberian Water Frogs that were breeding there. Only a month or so back there were thousands of tadpoles in these pools and Water Starwort was an aquatic plant that was growing.
Iberian Water Frog tadpoles (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Sadly the hot, dry weather has evaporated all the water before the tadpoles could complete their metamorphosis and they have all perished. I had moved some to the deeper pools but it was in vain because they dried up too.

Wildflowers
French lavender (Photo: Steve Andrews)


The wildflowers here are spectacular in spring with so many species bringing a splash of colour to the countryside. French Lavender, Candytuft, Campanula lusitanica, Silene colorata (a bright pink Catchfly), Common Poppies, Three-leafed Snowflake, Narrow-leafed Lupin, St John’s Wort, Crown Daisy, Asphodel, Toadflax, Tassel Hyacinth, Blue Hound’s Tongue, Scrambling Gromwell, and Sage-leafed Cistus are just some of the colourful plants that beautified my country walks back in April and May. It is hard to think that all these pretty flowers were growing well not long ago on ground which is now brown and tinder dry. Where even the grass has died down and the paths are dust.
Flowers in Spring (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Earlier in the year there were countless butterflies. I would expect to see Swallowtails, Red Admirals, Green Hairstreaks, Spanish Festoons, Clouded Yellows, Speckled Woods, Small Coppers, and Small Whites and would never fail to be disappointed.
Green Hairstreak (Photo: Steve Andrews)

A bit later the Meadow Browns became the most commonly seen butterfly but now there are hardly any about.  There are hardly any flowers left from which they could feed and the vegetation has died back or is conspicuously brown and shrivelled up. In the four years before this year I have never seen it so dry and so dead looking as it is now. I live in Quinta Do Conde, a town between Lisbon and Setubal, so am not in the hot south of the country. If it is like this here I dread to think what it must be like in the Algarve.
Skeleton Weed (Photo: Steve Andrews)

But not all plants are doing badly in the hot and dry conditions. Some are colonising new ground and others are adapting. The Skeleton Weed (Chondrilla juncea) is a species that is happy growing in arid places and I see more and more of the plant on waste ground where I live and even growing in cracks in paving. It is an invasive weed that has become a problem in many parts of the world and after wildfires it will rapidly colonise new ground where other vegetation has been killed.
Black Mustard, or a species of mustard that earlier in the season looks very like Black Mustard, is forming bushy clumps when it goes to seed here. They resemble tumbleweeds and can easily break off helping to distribute the plant.
Mustard clump (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Wildfires
As already mentioned, wildfires are becoming a new ‘norm’ for Portugal and can now occur all year round, due to Climate Breakdown and droughts which can now take place even in the winter. These fires, in addition to destroying farms and houses, are killing animals and people, as well as vast numbers of trees of native species. Pines and Cork Oak can regenerate if not too badly burned but when the trees are weakened and if drought continues they become very susceptible to disease. The Pine Wilt Nematode, spread by various wood-boring beetles is killing pines throughout the country. When the rains finally do arrive another problem the countryside faces is the erosion of the fertile top soil that is washed away.
The Portuguese authorities have implemented legal measures requiring landowners to take action by clearing undergrowth,  brushwood and scrub that could easily burn. Many areas where this has been done will have destroyed wildlife habitat and many dormant and active species sheltering in the vegetation. Efforts to provide safety for farmers and residents of Portugal, are surely taking a toll on the flora and fauna of the country.

Permaculture as the Solution
Desertification of Spain and Portugal

I have known about the predicted desertification of Mediterranean countries including Spain and Portugal before I came to live here. Sadly I am now watching the problem in action. I was searching online for information on desertification in Portugal and found this very detailed and excellent lecture by Doug Crouch, who describes how the system of modern farming is degrading the land further. He also proposes permaculture as the solution. He explains what has been going wrong and what can be done to reverse the ongoing growth of what he calls the “New Sahara.”

Saturday 23 February 2019

Daniel Quinn’s Books: Ishmael and The Story of B

What can I do?

I think the late Daniel Quinn was a genius, and his books, Ishmael and The Story of B, have answered questions I had, as well as giving me a new view on how the world got in the mess it is in today. I have gained a useful understanding from reading his work, and while this is all very well and good, I find myself asking: What can I do? Quinn said in interviews that this was a question he had often been asked by his fans, fans who had understood the points he was making in his work and felt moved to want to take action. The author’s answer was to go out and get 100 more people to understand. So, this is what I am trying to do here. The idea is that if 100 people understand Quinn’s theories, that they can get another 100, and that 100 can get another 100. The word will keep spreading and eventually there will be enough change in how the world is run, and this will help stop the world being destroyed. So let me tell you about my understanding of what Quinn was saying in his work. Let me introduce you to Ishmael!
Ishmael
Gorilla (Photo: Public Domain/Pixabay)
The character of Ishmael is actually a gorilla, but he becomes a teacher for the narrator of the story. Ishmael challenges the storyteller and the reader with his questions and statements. Ishmael makes the point that all of us have been conditioned by our “Mother Culture” to share beliefs, and this culture has spread globally. It is the culture responsible for world religions, world politics, global corporations, and the daily damage being inflicted on the natural world. It is responsible for consumerism, for wasting natural resources, and for the crazy belief that humans are superior to other animals, and that the world is made for them to use as they please. This has led humans from this culture to be at war, not only with other humans and themselves, but with nature. They see nature as something to be conquered. The verb “conquer” is frequently used in common speech. For example, a mountain climber is conquering a mountain. Humans like this do not see that they are as much a part of nature as the natural world they are attempting to conquer and use.
Quinn puts forward the idea that this all began about 10,000 years ago, at the dawn of civilisation, as it is taught. We have been told that civilisation began in the Middle East area, when great cultures like the Phoenicians, the Babylonians, Sumerians and Egyptians began building cities, using writing, and living in a civilised way. It is as if everything that went before this was of little consequence, primitive, and not worth talking about. These early civilisations went in for agriculture in a big way. It enabled them to settle in one location and to feed the many people who lived and worked in the cities. But according to Quinn, it was what he calls “Totalitarian agriculture,” and I will explain more about this later. But what went before these cultures and societies were hundreds of thousands of years, in which people were living on the planet and getting along fine. We don’t hear about this period of human history. I never did, when I was in school. So the greatest span of time in which humans were living on the planet is more or less unaccounted for by Mother Culture. It has been very conveniently forgotten about. Quinn calls this the “Great Forgetting.” The very many tribal peoples that lived before civilisation were hunter-gatherers, agriculturalists and combinations of these life-support lifestyles. Some practiced the herding of animals, like goats and sheep. Many still do but they are at odds with the advancement of global civilisation and development that has no problem with taking these peoples’ lands, mining them, polluting them, and destroying environments and the ways of life of indigenous people.
The Takers and The Leavers
Ishmael, who by now we realise is voicing Quinn’s ideas, calls the cultures that were the ones recorded in history as the civilised societies, the “Takers.” Not in the book, but later on in his life he regretted using this term because it has been misunderstood, but I will use it here. The rest of the world, in other words, all tribal and indigenous peoples, were, and still are the “Leavers.” There are and were fundamental differences in what these cultures believed. Quinn, speaking as Ishmael, explains that the takers violated and continue to violate the “Law of Limited Competition” that all the rest of the animal world and that all Leavers obey. He explains this law in this way: “You may compete to the full extent of your capabilities, but you may not hunt down your competitors or destroy their food or deny them access to food.” The Takers hold the view that the Earth was made for them, that they are superior in the knowledge and lifestyles to the Leaver cultures, which they regard as primitive, and that they have the right to take what they want and do what they want. Biblical scriptures in Genesis 1:28 back up their views: ‘God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground."’ This is indeed, what has happened. Humans have increased so much that we now have over 7 billion, and many humans of the Takers who follow the Mother Culture and are in positions of power, have been thinking they are right to rule over all living creatures.The Takers feel that it is right to enforce their ways, their culture, their religions and their consumerism upon the Leavers and the rest of the world. This is where the Takers are “breaking the law,” according to Quinn. No other culture amongst the Leavers does this or has done. There are and were many other cultures!
Salvation and Prophets
At the same time that the Mother Culture of the Takers holds this view that it is right and that it should be enforced on the rest of the world, all the major religions followed by the Takers teach that humans are flawed and need some form of spiritual salvation. The patriarchal religions teach that we are born sinners and need to repent. These religions all have prophets, who came to Earth to show us the way to God. The religions of the Far East, Buddhism and Hinduism, also teach that we are flawed and need to follow disciplines, meditation, the use of mantras, etc., to attain enlightenment or to free us from the cycle of birth-death-rebirth. We are taught that we have something wrong with us, and thus need to follow scriptures with the aid of priests and gurus. Mother Culture has spread these ideas worldwide in all civilised societies, where even those people who are atheists, still understand the concept of sin and salvation. All of these religions came about and all of these prophets are said to have been here within the last 6,000 years. The question that came to my mind is what about the hundreds of thousands of years before this? Why had I not thought about this before reading Quinn’s books? The author takes a far greater look at this in The Story of B.
Totalitarian Agriculture


In the Takers “Totalitarian Agriculture” it is right to keep on increasing the amount of land farmed. It is right to destroy all potential other animals and birds that can damage the crops or eat farmed animals, and it is right to prevent them from having access to their natural food. It is easy to think of lots of examples of this, where animals such as wolves, coyotes, pumas, and foxes are hunted and culled. Sea mammals are not spared. Seals are killed because they might eat fish that humans want. Seals might take fish from fish farms, so they must be shot. This stops the animal having access to its natural food, classes it as an enemy and kills it. I have recently been reading reports of seals shot in Shetland because they are viewed as a threat to salmon farms.This culling is currently in progress in many places where birds and mammals are regarded as a threat to farmed crops and farmed animals. Quinn points out that only people of the Takers do this. Only Takers break the Law of Limited Competition.
Feeding the Starving Millions
Quinn explains that followers of the Mother Culture talk a lot about feeding the starving millions. Increased farming is given as the way to help these people by increasing food production. However, in reality even though the amount of land given over to farming is increased, the millions continue to starve. Food is unfairly distributed and often wasted in vast amounts, and this is becoming common knowledge. It is a myth that there is insufficient food for the people on the planet. What does continue to happen from the increased food production is an increase in population numbers. People from all classes of society, including those very poor ones in the starving millions, continue to reproduce and the population continues to rise. Many people die but still the population is increasing. Quinn points out that with all forms of life, increased food sources means an increase in population. Peoples of the Leaver tribes do not do this, so their numbers stay within the natural resources of the areas they are in. Quinn is not putting forward the idea that the Leaver peoples do not have conflict with other neighbouring peoples but they work out a system whereby each tribe has a territory. It has its own culture and belief system but it does not attempt to convert the rest of the world to its ways of living, unlike those of the Takers. Human population growth is continuing to use resources, destroy the environment worldwide and drive an increasing number of other species to extinction, estimated by scientists to be as much as 200 species a day. It is easy to see that the ways of the Takers are endangering all life on this planet.

Conclusion
The above represents my understanding of Quinn’s philosophical ideas. The author has given me a new way of thinking. This is what is needed. We need to think about where our beliefs are coming from. We need to understand we have all been influenced by the Mother Culture and are living in a world held in its power. Something big has got to change and each of us can contribute to that change. So what do I recommend? I recommend reading Quinn’s books and watching the interviews with him included in this blog. Hopefully you will then want to find the next hundred to spread the word!



Tuesday 22 January 2019

Living With A Feral Cat

Can a Feral Cat Become a Pet Cat?


Can a feral cat become a pet cat? Do feral cats ever adapt to a new life as a domesticated animal companion for a human? I had never asked these questions but am in the process of finding out. It all started about 18 months ago when a she-cat who was clearly feral turned up in the garden of the house I rent the ground floor of, and brought with her four kittens. This is why I ended up calling her “Mum!”

First of all she put the kittens behind some Physalis bushes and then moved them behind a large clump of Agapanthus in the front garden. One day she decided another move was needed and they all followed her to the back of the house, where she settled on putting them behind some large gas bottles in the barbecue area. This became their home for weeks from which they would venture forth, but if anything threatened, such as a human like me approached, they would all disappear behind the canisters under a large shelf built on to a back wall.
I already had two cats: Cuddly a neutered tom tuxedo cat that I had adopted when a girl living in a maisonette at the back started leaving him out when he was a kitten and because her puppy kept attacking him, and Bianca an abandoned grey tabby she-cat who turned up in heat with a gang of toms after her. I got her spayed with the help of the Bianca Animal Shelter, hence her name. To take on another five cats was out of the question, and illegal here. I told my landlord and he thought the kittens would end up “wandering away” when they were older. I was sure he was right but thought that that would be a recipe for future problems because they would end up fathering or giving birth to more unwanted kittens. It turned out there were two boys and two girl kittens.
By this time, I had started to feed Mum and as the kittens grew bigger I fed them too. They were all very wary of me and ran whenever I went out the back. Everyone I told about the situation said that I must get the kittens used to interacting with humans, or otherwise no one will want them. This was worrying. I began feeding them all on a table outside the kitchen window and after weeks, Mum let me touch her gently on the back and I could do this with the kittens.
She was a fantastic mother and it was a real delight watching her each day as she looked after them. As they got older they would all play chase and fighting games. They began going in the front garden and I got worried they would be in danger of cars in the road. Fortunately they all stayed safe, although one day, one of them went missing for many hours, which distressed the mother a lot, and she kept looking for him and calling out. He eventually turned up with his fur all wet and some dirt in it. To this day I have no idea where he had been but was relieved he was OK. I think maybe he went in a neighbour’s garden and had fallen in a pool or maybe someone had squirted him to drive him away. The road I live in is on the outskirts of a large town. There are very many detached houses and a similar road runs parallel behind it, and over the road from it is woodland and scrub.
The pure joy of watching the kittens grow was tempered by my very real worry about where they were going to go and could I get them friendly to humans in time. I posted lots of photos on my Facebook wall and there were loads of people saying how cute they were and how they would love to take one.
Unfortunately everyone who wanted a kitten lived in America or the UK. After daily efforts I made at playing with them, trying to pet them and touching their mother as much as she would let me, the kittens were losing their fear and I could pick two of them up with no trouble. But they couldn’t stay living here and were making attempts to come in. I had to do something and after problems with waiting for one person who failed to arrive and failed to rehome them, as she had promised, the kittens all ended up going to the Bianca shelter. I was really sad about them going but it really was impossible for me to keep them here.
Mum was upset for a day or so and kept calling out for them and wandering about looking for them but then she settled. By now she was coming inside on a regular basis. I knew I had to get her spayed and tried a local vet based with the Pet Planet store. I was told they had to do a physical examination before an appointment for the spaying could be arranged. With the help of a friend I took Mum to the clinic but she freaked out as soon as the vet got her out of the carrier. She jumped up on some high shelves, hid under benches and nearly knocked a PC monitor over when the vet and her assistant tried to catch her. After chasing her around eventually Mum was back in the carrier and the vet gave up on the examination. I thought this was very unprofessional, but could understand their point of view. I am sure they don’t get many customers bringing in feral animals for treatment.
Eventually I got help from Animais De Rua, a Portuguese animal welfare group, and it was explained to me that they would be taking her away for three days and that I would have to pay for petrol costs for Artur their driver. I agreed to this, and after a lot of difficulty catching her she was taken away and brought back days later. It had been decided that I was going to be keeping her in my bedroom for a week, and I had been told I was to try and ensure she didn’t jump about. This failed because the first thing Mum did after being let out of the carrying box was run up my curtains and leap onto a wardrobe. You can but try!
After her period of being confined to the house was through, she became a new member of the family here and went in and out just like Cuddly and Bianca. A new problem was about to begin though because Mum took a dislike to Bianca and attacked her on a daily basis. This really wasn’t fair because it had been Bianca’s home before Mum, and she was a smaller and gentler cat. Mum would run at her and scream or pounce on her. After several weeks it hadn’t got any better and one night Bianca went out early evening and never came back. Bianca had sometimes stayed out all night before but always came back for her breakfast but not this time. I know she was getting food elsewhere in the neighbourhood because on one occasion she had returned late and been sick. She vomited fish and I had not fed her this. Also before I had taken Bianca on she had been a stray. I was left wondering and am still wondering whether she had found a new home because she couldn’t stand any more attacks from Mum?
Cuddly and Mum squabbled a lot too but they were a fairer match being around the same size. Cuddly, at first was getting chased around, but then he turned and started to attack back.
The months have flown by since then and Mum has become a normal pet cat in many ways. She likes to play games with toys, she loves being petted, likes to curl up on my lap and sleeps in or on my bed. She is really affectionate and purrs loudly. BUT this is only when it comes to me. Other humans she remains scared of and will run away if anyone else comes here.  I have had to leave house-sitters to look after Mum and Cuddly on several occasions when I have had to go to the UK for a week or 10 days. Every time, I get told that Mum stays outside or out of the way when I am not here and does not let my house-sitter touch her. One managed to stroke her fur after a week of trying to make friends. Another friend of mine who helped me by looking after my place and cats, called Mum “the Wild Cat.” In keeping with this title, Mum is an excellent hunter and often catches geckos, lizards, Egyptian locusts, mice and sparrows. Many I rescue in time but others I am too late to save. She eats the birds and mice, though leaves the heads of birds. Cuddly is a hunter too and will sometimes try and steal what Mum has caught. As an animal lover I wish cats wouldn’t kill so many wildlife but I know it is instinctive behaviour. I think it would be cruel to stop my two going out because both had spent a lot of time outside before they came my way, Mum especially.
A lady I was talking to from Animais De Rua told me she had a she-cat that was formerly feral and that this cat didn’t like other humans too. I can only hope that one day Mum will accept other people, though I suppose it keeps her safe from anyone who might harm her, and sadly there are cruel people out there.
To conclude, I would say that in my experience a feral cat can become your friend and live like a normal domestic cat, but that there can be a lot of problems with them as well. Is it worth it? I would answer, yes!


Sunday 13 January 2019

How A Council Estate Like Ely Can Be A Haven For Wildlife

Gardens in Ely

Small Tortoiseshells on Butterfly Bush (Photo: Pixabay)

The Ely council estate in Cardiff can be a great place for wildlife as I found out when I lived there for 24 years. The gardens attract a lot of birds, butterflies, moths, amphibians, and at least one reptile, which is the Slow-worm. "Slowgies" the local kids used to call them. This legless lizard was very common in gardens and you even saw them in the streets at times. They are no longer so commonly found in Britain.

Slow-worm (Photo: Pixabay)

Many of the species that can be found in Ely are now recognised as being in an alarming decline in the UK, so anywhere they are still thriving is important as a conservation area. Anyone who is actively helping these creatures is doing a great job in helping preserve the world of nature. Gardens can easily become mini nature reserves! You just need to grow some wildflowers, leave some parts untended, and a garden pond always works wonders! A Buddleia Butterfly Bush will help attract these pretty insects and other pollinators as well.

Choice TV showing of my house and garden back in 1998

When I lived in Ely, I had a makeshift pond I created from an old bath that had been thrown out. I sunk it in the ground in the back garden and within a couple of years it supported a colony of Common Frogs as well as Palmate Newts.




A pair of Common Frogs in my hand (Photo: Steve Andrews)
I know Common Toads could be found fairly near where I lived too because a man I knew called Graham used to complain about male toads strangling his goldfish, which can happen. The unattached male toads will grab onto anything they think might be a female of their species.


A mated pair of Common Toads (Photo: Pixabay)
The Common Toad is one amphibian that is known to be experiencing a decline in Britain and elsewhere. All amphibians are under threat worldwide though, due to loss of habitat, pesticides and herbicides, pollution, invasive species that predate on them, and Climate Change. I am proud to be a member of SAVE THE FROGS! Charity set up to help these creatures.



Steve Andrews with SAVE THE FROGS! banner (Photo: Kerry Kriger CEO of SAVE THE FROGS!)
One of the last times I was in Ely I went to visit Parker Place the street I used to live in and was saddened to see that what used to be my front and back garden had been ruined by the Council workers, who had removed the hedge, tree, lawns and flower borders in the front, as well as the Virginia Creepers I had growing on the wall. In the back my pond had gone, as had trees I had been growing for the many years I was there, as well as a grape vine that used to attract flocks of starlings, as well as blackbirds that used to eat the fruit each year. My nettle patch for butterflies had, perhaps not surprisingly, also been removed. It was very sad to see how all my work in helping wildlife had been wrecked but I was heartened to find that Jess, who had been my neighbour, was still there and she told me she now had a pool in her back garden. It was good to know I had helped inspire this!

Moths and Butterflies

Garden Tiger Moth (Photo: Pixabay)
It is a well-known fact that many species of British butterfly and moth have been doing very badly in recent years. Once common species, such as the pretty Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly and the large and gaudy Garden Tiger Moth are no longer commonly seen.
Small Tortoiseshell (Photo: Pixabay)
They need all the help they can get. I used to have Small Tortoiseshell and Red Admiral caterpillars on a patch of Stinging Nettles I had growing at the bottom of my garden. I also had Painted Lady larvae feeding on Hollyhocks I had growing in the back and front. Garden Tiger Moths needed no help then and I often saw the large furry “Wooly Bear” caterpillars and the striking orange, creamy-white and chocolate-brown moths with dark blue-black spots on their hind-wings.


Cinnabar Moth (Photo: Pixabay)
The attractive day-flying Cinnabar Moth with red and black wings and orange caterpillars striped with rings of black were a common sight. They feed on Ragwort and Groundsel, both of which were common weeds. The Cinnabar has been declining as well over the past decade. I also remember having Comma Butterfly caterpillars one year on my gooseberry bushes, and Common Blue butterflies used to frequent the front lawn of one of my neighbours, who had Bird’s-foot Trefoil growing in the grass. Now I live in Portugal I often see the same species doing well on lawns between housing blocks in built-up areas. The reason being they find trefoils, clovers and Sorrel (Oxalis species) growing amongst the grass. Butterflies need food-plants for their caterpillars and nectar from flowers for their adult stage. If we supply both we will probably attract butterflies to our gardens.

Are all the species I have mentioned still to be found in Ely? I don’t know because I no longer live there but if they are, then residents of the estate can help them survive and can have something to be proud of. I am sure there must be lots of people in this vast estate who are interested in nature. Perhaps a local group could be set up? Ely is also surrounded by some excellent countryside for wildlife, with Plymouth Woods being a deciduous forest that used to have a pond and marshy area. I know frogs and newts used to live there and many birds are attracted to the wooded parts and undergrowth. Ely is an example of a council housing estate that I know, and that I also know could make a great contribution towards nature conservation. The same conceivably goes for all the other estates in the UK.

Young people need to learn about the wonders of the natural world. It gives them something to take a real interest in, and interest that can stay with them for life. All the famous naturalists, like Sir David Attenborough and Chris Packham, began learning about nature when they were children. I started when I was four! I hope this article encourages more people to learn about plants and animals living on their doorsteps, so to speak, and most importantly to help conserve the natural world by making their gardens wildlife friendly.

Thursday 27 December 2018

Everybody’s Talking About American Monarch Butterflies

American Monarchs are in the news



Male Monarch Butterfly, Female Monarch (Photos: Steve Andrews)

Every time the Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) makes the news it is the latest on the iconic insect’s struggles in America, where it has migrated in billions from Canada and the northern states down to California and Mexico each autumn. Over the past decade there have been reports of the butterfly’s alarming decline, due to habitat loss, pesticides, herbicides, disease and climate change. Modern farming using the herbicide Roundup (Glyphosate) on maize and soya-bean crops, is eliminating the once common milkweed species that grew in farmlands throughout the United States.  Legal and illegal felling of trees in Mexico in areas where the monarch overwintered is another big problem.

A disease known as “OE,” which is the abbreviation for Ophryocystis elektroscirrha, a protozoan parasite, takes its toll on the butterflies causing severe weakness, and cripples with deformed wings that do not live long. Some butterflies are so weak they fail to be able to emerge from their chrysalises, others that do die shortly after. It appears that OE is widely distributed among all Monarch populations. The microscopic spores are spread from infected adult butterflies onto the leaves of milkweed plants. Caterpillars that eat them become infected. OE is not a threat to other types of butterfly apart from other species in the Danaus genus.

It is very distressing to see how badly Monarch butterflies have been doing in recent years, and there is even talk of the butterfly being threatened with extinction.

Saving the Monarch

Conservationists and concerned citizens of America have been doing all they can to halt the decline in Monarchs and to help the butterfly survive in great numbers again. One of the main methods being used is the cultivation of milkweed (Asclepias) species. Many people have taken to growing these plants and rearing the butterflies in captivity by keeping, eggs, caterpillars and chrysalises indoors or in protective enclosures. The idea is to keep them safe from predators, such as wasps.


Tropical Milkweed (Photo: Steve Andrews)

The problem with these methods is that one of the most commonly grown milkweeds known as Tropical Milkweed (A. curassavica) is a non-native species that is suited to tropical and subtropical areas. With warmer weather due to climate change it is being grown in many places where once it would not have survived. It can cause a very real problem because it can build up large numbers of OE spores and become a source of infection. This happens in places like Florida where it is warm enough for the plant to grow all year around. This also means that Monarchs can continue to breed in such areas and will not have any need to fly elsewhere. Many scientists and Monarch conservation and research groups, such as the Xerces Society, are recommending that only native milkweeds should be grown. This is good advice. There are many species of Asclepias that grow in all zones of North America and right up into Canada. These plants die down for the winter and resume growth again the following year. These native species do not allow the build-up of OE on them. These endemic milkweeds encourage the Monarchs to migrate because it means that late in the year there are no food-plants available for the females to lay their eggs on. It was all working really well until humans interfered by destroying milkweeds with herbicide and then, in an effort to help, by growing a plant not native to the north American states. The Tropical Milkweed is getting a bad name but the reason is due to the very real problems it can cause in America. However, in some places there is no other choice!

Elsewhere in the World



Female Monarch on Balloonplant (Photo: Steve Andrews)

Monarchs live in non-migratory populations in many other parts of the world, including the Canary Islands, Portugal, Spain, New Zealand and Australia. In these countries there are no native milkweeds, and indeed, the butterflies have only been able to colonise large areas due to the prevalence of the introduced Tropical Milkweed and two other plants that were formerly in the Asclepias genus. The Balloonplant (Gomphocarpus physocarpus) and the Swan Milkweed (G. fruticosus) are naturalised in all the places named above and are both used as Monarch caterpillar food-plants.



Female Monarch returns to my garden to lay eggs on Tropical Milkweed

I lived in Tenerife in the Canary islands for nine years, and it was there that I started successfully rearing Monarchs. I fed the caterpillars on Tropical Milkweed, which is the only milkweed found on the island, apart from very occasional specimens of the Gomphocarpus species. It is because the Tropical Milkweed was brought to the island as an ornamental garden flower that Monarchs were able to colonise Tenerife, where it is said they were first seen back in 1887. How they reached the islands is uncertain. Now that Monarchs are on Tenerife, they have no need for migration because, although it gets plenty of snow and ice up on Mt Teide, around the coasts and in the south, the temperatures remain warm enough for Tropical Milkweed to keep growing and the butterflies to keep breeding. The situation is similar in parts of mainland Spain and Portugal where this non-native milkweed has been grown in gardens and where the Gomphocarpus species have become naturalised.

Monarch Butterflies in Portugal
Recently eclosed Monarchs (Photo: Steve Andrews)

I have lived in Portugal for the past four years, and this year I was successful in rearing four generations of Monarchs with the caterpillars feeding on plants of Tropical Milkweed and Balloonplant I managed to grow enough of in the garden here. I had at least 30 butterflies each time. The last lot of adult butterflies emerged in late November but where they went I have no way of knowing. I have cut what was left of the milkweeds down to short stalks so if any females came back they would have found nowhere to lay their eggs. I originally obtained eggs from someone I know who has a butterfly farm up in Aveiro further north. He tells me there are no Monarchs there in winter and he gets his eggs sent up each year from the Algarve. According to As Borboletas De Portugal, a Portuguese butterfly book I have, along with the Algarve, the northern coastal city of Aveiro, is one of the only places that Monarchs can be found in the country. Is this because of the butterfly farmer I know there, or are there naturally occurring wild ones, and how did they get there? I have been told that the butterflies can sometimes be seen in the Lisbon area too. Where did they come from? Did they migrate from the south? I often wonder what happens in winter. Do any Monarchs go south here to the Algarve where there are non-migratory populations or do all the butterflies in central and northern parts, such as the ones I released, simply live short lives and fail to breed due to the cold weather and lack of food-plants. There is very little information available online or in books about the behaviour of Monarchs in Portugal and Spain, and indeed in Europe. Is anyone else studying these butterflies here apart from me? Google for information on Monarchs and most of the results are about those in America.

I have had the idea that the non-migratory resident Monarch populations, wherever they are worldwide, are forming a genetic reservoir of the species. If its migratory populations ever do become extinct, the species could be reintroduced by moving some from the resident colonies elsewhere.

The Wanderer

I have wondered whether as climate change causes milder winters would the butterflies colonise other more northerly countries if the non-native food-plants grew in sufficient numbers there? Would any Monarchs eventually evolve into a migratory form like their American cousins? A very small number of Monarchs reach the UK some years but are unable to breed due to lack of any type of milkweed growing there and are unable to survive the cold winters. But the fact that they got there at all reveals their wandering nature, which is why an alternative name for the Monarch Butterfly is the Wanderer.