Petition to Save Butterfly World Project in St Albans

Butterfly World to close 

Swallowtail Butterfly on Lantana (Photo: Public Domain)

I couldn't believe it when I read the news that Butterfly World was to close permanently. The Butterfly World Project in Chiswell Green, St Albans has reluctantly announced that they will not be reopening next year.  As usual it appears that money is at the root of the problem.  Butterfly World has been failing to make the profit it needs.

Phase IV of the Butterfly World Project was going to be the construction of a 100-metre-wide rainforest bio dome. It was intended to house hundreds of tropical butterflies, hummingbirds, insects, spiders and tropical plants. Sadly it has not attracted the funding it needs to go ahead, and John Breheny, who is the chairman of the engineering project for the centre, has put the blame on a "succession of trading losses."

Clive Farrell

Butterfly World was founded by lepidopterist and author Clive Farrell in 2009, and has attracted over 500, 000 visitors. 

 Farrell, by the way, co-authored The Butterfly Gardener with the late Miriam Rothschild.  I personally recommend this book, which looks in detail at how butterflies can be attracted to our gardens throughout the year, and what the insects really need to thrive. The Butterfly Gardener is an excellent book to get if you want to find out how we can help butterfly conservation.

Clive Farrell at the launch of Butterfly World

Celebrity Support for Butterfly World

As well as attracting thousands of visitors and the support of countless members of the public, Butterfly World has been supported by a number of well-known celebrities, including Sir David Attenborough, Professor David Bellamy. broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh and actress Emilia Fox. 

David Bellamy talks about Butterfly World

Petition to Save Butterfly World from closure

With butterflies disappearing in the UK and throughout the world in alarming numbers, we need more places like Butterfly World not less. Many people still think that we can turn things around and save Butterfly World, and so a petition has been launched.

Small Blue Cupido minimus (Photo: Valerius Geng)

Please sign Petition To Save Butterfly World and help by circulating this news! Blog about it, Tweet about it, share on Facebook and let us help Butterfly World to make a comeback, just like the many species, species such as the Small Blue, it was helping to do so!

And sign this petition too:

British hedgehog numbers in serious decline

The British Hedgehog is no longer common

Hedgehogs were once a very common animal in the UK, and in the 1950s there were an estimated 36 million living in our gardens, parks and countryside.  Very sadly this is no longer the case and The People's Trust for Endangered Species now believes there are fewer than one million left.  The alarming decline in hedgehog numbers has been reported on in The Guardian and by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.

Hedgehog (Photo: Public Domain)

Threats to the hedgehog

Like so many endangered species of wildlife the hedgehog has many threats to its continued survival. Pesticides, such as slug bait,  can potentially harm hedgehogs that inadvertently eat poisoned slugs and snails. Even if the slug killer doesn't kill a hedgehog directly, the slugs and snails it does kill could have been food for the spiny animal. Habitat loss and degradation is another problem hedgehogs face. Many gardens are now paved over or kept so tidy that the number of insects and other invertebrates that hedgehogs feed on are drastically reduced in numbers. Hibernating hedgehogs can get burned to death if they are sleeping under a large pile of branches, twigs, leaves and other rubbish that someone has accumulated as a bonfire. 

Flooding caused by Climate Change is another threat to sleeping hedgehogs. Although the animals can swim to safety they are unlikely to be able to do so if water floods where they are resting or hibernating. The hedgehogs would be drowned in their sleep.

Hedgehogs are a very adaptable species that can live in a very great range of habitats and eat a wide variety of foods, including slugs, snails, worms, insects, centipedes, frogs, mice and snakes even. They can climb and swim. They wear a spiny suit-of-armour as a means of defence. They were once very common and widely distributed in the UK, however, like so many forms of British wildlife they have been unable to adapt fast enough to survive the sweeping changes humans have brought to the countryside.

Roadkill

A hedgehog after dark (Photo: Public Domain)

Hedgehogs are one of the main animals that become victims of roadkill. Hedgehogs are mainly nocturnal creatures and this means that drivers have less chance of seeing them in the road ahead, and in any case, the animals are very bad at getting out of the way, even if they do sense danger. 

The number of hedgehogs reported as roadkill has fallen drastically too, which suggests that their populations have seriously dwindled in numbers. The animals are not there to run the risk of being killed crossing a road to begin with!

Hedgehogs in popular culture

Hedgehogs have been featured in popular culture in Britain in literature, poetry and song. Beatrix Potter's Mrs Tiggy-Winkle is a character so many children have loved.  Folk-rock icons The Incredible String Band wrote a song entitled The Hedgehog's Song that was included on their album 5000 Spirits. 

The prickly but cute little animal is a firm favourite of very many people, so it is really saddening to know that the number of hedgehogs in the UK has dropped so dramatically. 

Fortunately, very many people are trying to do something to reverse the decline in hedgehog numbers and to save the little animals before it is too late.  Campaigns have been set up like this one.

It is hard to imagine a British countryside where hedgehogs are an extinct species, so let us do what we can to prevent this ever happening! 

Help save the last wolves in Norway from hunters

11,000 people want to kill half of the last 30 wolves in Norway

Wolves have declined in numbers in many parts of the world and are extinct in the UK and other places where they once lived. In Norway, they are down to just 30 animals but that has not stopped over 11,000 people wanting to hunt half of these remaining wolves and kill them!

Wolves (Canis lupus lupus) at Polar Zoo in municipality of Bardu, Troms County, Norway (Photo: Taral Jansen)

Yes, despite the very low numbers of this magnificent animal still surviving in this Scandinavian country, it has been reported in The Guardian,  that 11,571 people have applied for hunting licenses so they can kill 16 of these wolves. That means we have the alarming figure of 723 hunters for each wolf! And, how can anyone ensure that no more than 16 wolves are killed in any case, and what about illegal hunting? 

Norwegian Wolves

The hunting season in Norway started on 1 October and continues until the end of March, so that means six months of extreme danger for the Norwegian wolves. 

Why do people want to hunt wolves? 

Hunting is very popular with Norwegian men who view it as a traditional sport, and presumably makes them feel macho. It is reported that there are 200,000 registered hunters in Norway. Most of these hunters are men, and only 500 women signed up to hunt this year.

Hunting licenses are granted so that hunters can help protect livestock. Sadly in many parts of the world, wolves are forced to kill farmed animals or go without food because their natural prey are so low in numbers and the habitats are so degraded due to humans. Wolves also are forced to scavenge on garbage like foxes. 

Updated range of grey wolves in Eurasia. (Photo: Public Domain)

Norway's wolf populations would stand a better chance if they were in Sweden, Finland or Russia, where the animals have better governmental protection. Wolves are a fully protected species in Sweden where their numbers are increasing. 

Bears in Norway

Bears in Norway are under serious threat from hunters too.  10,930 registered hunters want to track down and shoot 18 Norwegian brown bears. 

Brown bear (Photo: Public Domain)

Petition to Save the Wolves of Norway

Fortunately, there is something you can do if, like me, you want to help save the Norwegian wolves. There is a petition that can be signed, and sometimes petitions really do get results and are worth signing!