Why Tenerife is a paradise for naturalists

Tenerife is a naturalist’s dream

Tenerife forested mountains

Tenerife is a popular island in the Canary Islands for tourists who spend their holidays there but it is also every naturalist’s dream. With its forests, mountains, semi-desert areas, cliffs, sand dunes and range of beaches there is a real diversity of habitats. There are so many types of countryside on the island, and also a range of very different microclimates. This is why so many forms of flora and fauna can be found there, both endemic species and introduced and naturalised plants and animals.

Laurel Pigeon (Photo: DrPhilipLehmann)

There are two main sorts of forests: pine forest and ancient evergreen laurel forest. The latter of these is very important because the patches of this type of woodland that still stand on Tenerife and some of the other Canary Islands are some of the only remaining stretches of this form of forest in the world. Rare birds, such as the laurel pigeon (Columba junoniae) and endemic plants like the Canary Islands foxglove (Isoplexis canariensis) can be found in the laurel forests.

Viper's Bugloss species

Red Bugloss

Tenerife has a very great range of species in the Echium genus of viper’s bugloss. The most spectacular species is the red bugloss or Teide bugloss (Echium wildpretii), which as its name suggests has red flowers that form in tall spikes, and it is found growing high on Mt Teide where there is a very extreme habitat. Because it is so high the sunlight is very strong but it gets very cold at night. The ground is dry and rocky and it looks like another planet in the Tenerife highlands.
There is a shortage of naturally occurring freshwater in Tenerife because it drains quickly into the ground and down to the sea after it rains but this has not prevented a fascinating selection of freshwater creatures and water birds being found on the island. Many species of dragonfly, two species of frog and the mosquito fish (Gambusia affinis) mainly depend on the reservoirs and irrigation tanks used by farmers for collecting water for their crops. The frogs, by the way, are the Mediterranean tree-frog (Hyla meridionalis), and the Iberian water frog (Rana perezii). In the village of Erjos, however, there are some large ponds that formed after the topsoil was removed many years ago. These pools attracted all sorts of wildlife and make a wonderful area for appreciating nature and walking in the surrounding hills and forests. 

Grey Heron

The grey heron (Ardea cinerea) is a bird that uses natural and artificial freshwater pools to search for fish and frogs and is often seen on the island. It will also take goldfish from ornamental ponds in parks and gardens.

Tenerife has lizard species, two types of gecko and a skink but no snakes, despite having excellent habitats for these reptiles.

Monarch butterfly

There are many interesting insects to be found on the island. A butterfly to look out for is the monarch (Danaus plexippus). It was able to colonise the Canary Islands because the tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) is often grown in gardens, flower borders and parks. This large and beautiful butterfly can be seen flying all year round and is most often seen in cities, towns and resorts where its caterpillar’s food-plant grows in gardens. The massive and strange looking death’s head hawk moth and its larva are often found on Tenerife. This moth gets its name due to the skull-like marking on its thorax. The fact that it can squeak too has added to its weirdness and has made it the subject of various superstitions. The caterpillars are very big and feed mostly on thorn-apple (Datura stramonium), which is a very common weed on the island, and also on the shrub Lantana (Lantana camara).  There are also some species of praying mantis that can be found on Tenerife.

Mantis

Botanists will be excited by the very large number of succulents that grow wild on Tenerife. There are many endemic species of Aeonium and Euphorbia. The Canary Island spurge (Euphorbia canariensis) looks more like a cactus and grows in large clumps on arid and rocky ground around the island.

Look out too for the prehistoric-looking dragon trees (Dracaena draco), which can still be found occasionally growing wild but are very rare. They are much more commonly seen in parks and gardens around Tenerife, and there is the famous “Drago Milenario,” said to be 1,000-years-old that is in its own park in Icod de los Vinos.

If you are interested in wildlife you will find plenty to interest you wherever you are on the island.

Goats of Es Vedra culled

Es Vedra's goats culled

Mountain Goat (Photo: Public Domain)

The mysterious rocky island of Es Vedra, off the southern coast of Ibiza in the Balearic Islands, has lost its goat population. The goats were rather cruelly culled, or killed being a more accurate description, and animal-lovers that knew about the proposed cull were disgusted to find that the killing of the goats went ahead despite campaigns to stop this.

The goats had been living on the island for the last 25 years, after a male and four females had been introduced there to replace an earlier colony, and estimates put their numbers as being between 40 and 50 animals.  The goats were a great talking point for local people in Ibiza because some people didn't even believe the animals existed and were no more than another of the many myths and strange stories about the islet, but the goats were very real and one of the attractions of cruises around the island of Es Vedra was to see if you could spot any goats there. 

The problem was, though, that the goats had little to eat on the barren and rocky island, which was, indeed, becoming even more barren and rocky due to the animals eating whatever vegetation they could find. This was causing soil erosion because the goats were often ripping the plants out of what little soil there was there.

Eleanor's Falcon (Photo: Conselleria de Medi Ambient i Mobilitat, Govern des Illes Balears)

The local government stepped in because there are endemic and protected flora growing on Es Vedra, as well as some interesting fauna, including Eleanor's Falcon (Falco eleanorae), which breeds on the island, and a subspecies of the Ibizan Wall Lizard (Podarcis pityusensis formenterae). The island's wildlife needed protecting unlike the poor goats that were a threat to the unique habitat Es Vedra provided.

Formentera Wall Lizard ( Photo: Arnau.sellares)

Sadly the government decided that the goats would have to go and that it was too difficult to catch them all and remove them to Ibiza, despite offers from animal-lovers willing to find homes for them.  On the morning of 4 February 2016 at 8am. environmental agents sailed over to Es Vedra and started shooting at the terrified goats. By 2pm it was all over and the bodies of the slaughtered goats were left where they fell.  It had also been decided that the corpses of the animals would be left to decompose naturally, even though this is against the law (Ley 8|2003 de Sanidad Animal).

Caterina Amengual, Director of Natural Areas of Biodiversity for the Balearic Department of the Environment is reported to have said: "It's a question of priorities and the conservation of ecosystems is a priority."

Although it is very sad to know what happened to the goats, and in no way do I condone the way the animals were killed, I can see her point of view. Something had to be done to protect the natural wildlife of Es Vedra and the goats had no such protection. 

Es Vedra at Sunset (Photo: Public Domain)

Es Vedra is an interesting island, not just because of its flora and fauna, but because it is the subject of many myths and legends, including that it has mysterious magnetic powers that mess up navigation and that it is where an underwater base for UFOs exists. There have been reported sightings of UFOs near Es Vedra. It has even been linked with Atlantis, and on the coast opposite it is an area that is known as Atlantis because of its unusual rock formations. In reality it was an old quarry and the rocks got taken away to build the walls of Ibiza Town. 

Trek to film the lizards of Es Vedra

Is the Chupacabra just a Kinkajou?

What is a Chupacabra? 

The chupacabra is a creature that is the subject of an ongoing myth. Its name translates from the Spanish as "goat-sucker," and, indeed, the animal is reported to be carnivorous and to act like a vampire in sucking the blood from its prey.  It is said to be like a small bear with spines on its back and it has claws and fangs. Other descriptions liken it to some sort of reptilian creature. Some stories that have circulated in conspiracy theory, the world of the paranormal and in ufology have suggested the chupacabra is an alien animal, the product of genetic engineering in secret experiments, a hybrid and even a demon or a life-form from another dimension. 

Chupacabra (Public Domain)

The chupacabra was first reported from Puerto Rico in the mid-1990s but soon after other reports started circulating of sightings of this weird creature in other parts of Central and South America. It wasn't long before the chupacabra was seen in North America and even in Tenerife in the Spanish-speaking Canary Islands. The chupacabra was reportedly seen in the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Brazil and Mexico. It is usually seen at night and domestic animals, such as sheep and goats, that it is said to have attacked are drained of blood. This ties in with reports of animal mutilation cases, said to have been done by aliens. Reports circulate in ufology about cattle and other animals that have been killed and had parts of their bodies surgically removed with great precision and the blood being drained.  Of course, there is also the link with the very real vampire bats which do feed on blood. Lots of videos exist on YouTube and elsewhere that are said to prove, or at least question, the reality of the chupacabra. 

The world of science and rationality is not convinced about the truth of any of these reports and  of the animals that have been photographed or captured on film, most have been identified as some type of dog, including coyotes, that is suffering badly from the condition known as mange, which makes the fur fall out.

The Kinkajou

Kinkajou (Public Domain)

The Kinkajou (Potos flavus) is a rainforest mammal related to raccoons and its range is throughout many parts of Central and South America, which just happens to be where the chupacabra is reported. It is also known as a honey bear and normally feeds on fruit and leaves but also eats, insects and the eggs of birds. It is often hunted for its fur, its meat and for the exotic pet trade. Because of its wide distribution it is not yet regarded as an endangered species of animal. 

Kinkajous are often kept as pets in Central and South America, and in Peru they are known as "lirón," an animal that is regarded as a hybrid of a monkey and a bear which is another fanciful belief not based on reality. In El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, which are also in the range where chupacabras are said to live, the kinkajou is often kept as pets and are commonly called micoleón, meaning "lion monkey." This idea that it is a hybrid has fed into the stories of the chupacabra being a hybrid created by genetic engineering. 

Yawning Kinkajou (Photo: Robrrb)

There is currently a video being circulated by La Extra Bandera newspaper doing the rounds on Facebook social networking site showing what is said to be a chupacabra. The poor animal, whatever it is, is desperately trying to bite its way out of the metal cage it is in. It appears to be a kinkajou just like the one in the photo above that is showing its claws and teeth, or maybe the animal in the La Extra Bandera video is some type of small bear that has lost its fur due to disease. I think you will agree that there are far too many coincidences for the true identity of the chupacabra not to be a kinkajou. Mystery solved: the chupacabra is nothing more than a kinkajou! 

Kickstarter campaign for Herbs of the Sun, Moon and Planets at Kew Gardens

Herbs of the Sun, Moon and Planets is a herbal with a difference!

Herbs of the Sun, Moon and Planets is a herbal with a difference because it looks at why ancient herbalists, like Nicholas Culpeper, decided to group various culinary and medicinal herbs under the astrological dominion of the Sun, Moon and the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Of course, the title otherwise would make you wonder what it is about because this is the only planet in this Solar System with vegetation growing on it, as far as we know.

Culpeper: Public Domain

The ancient herbalists assigned plants to planetary rulers according to their characteristics. For example, herbs ruled by Mars the god of war, had something aggressive about them, such as spines or sword-shaped leaves. Herbs ruled by Venus the goddess of love had some connection with sensuality and passion. 

Dragon Tree: Public Domain

The weird dragon tree from the Canary Islands is a herb of Mars. It has lance-shaped leaves and bleeds a red resinous sap called dragon’s blood. The rose is a symbol of romantic love, and not surprisingly is a herb of Venus. Herbs of the Sun could have golden-yellow flowers, like the sunflower, or perhaps they have petals that radiate out from a central disk. The sunflower has this characteristic too. Herbs of the Moon have something rounded about them, such as rounded leaves, or white or silvery colour. The white water lily is a good example of a herb of the Moon. water is also associated with the Moon because the Moon has an effect on the tides.

White Water Lilies : Public Domain

Mercury was the messenger of the gods, so herbs ruled by Mercury have something that really communicates about them. Fennel is an example of a herb of Mercury. It communicates visually with its graceful appearance and feathery leaves, and to our tastes and sense of smell with its flavour like aniseed and aroma like aniseed too.  Herbs of Jupiter have something expansive about them and this is why many trees, such as the lime tree and the oak, are considered as under the dominion of Jupiter. Herbs of Saturn could be poisonous ones, like the hemlock, the monkshood and the henbane. This is because Saturn is associated with death and the “Grim Reaper.”

Herbs of the Sun, Moon and Planets is being published by Moon Books at the end of May, 2016. It has seven sections for each of the seven heavenly bodies, and seven herbs are described in each section. The book follows on from Herbs of the Northern Shaman which was published by the same publisher. It is already listed on Amazon.

An online course about Herbs of the Sun, Moon and Planets

With the help of my partner Melissa Houghton I am putting together an online course of video presentations featuring the many herbs covered in my book.  The course will give additional information to what is in the book and will include footage of the actual plants which will be useful for identification. We want this educational project to be an artistic one and so it will contain Melissa’s poetry in places too. It will be a collaboration and a work of inspiration, as well as a work of education.

Birth of Venus :Public Domain

In addition to looking at why the ancient herbalists decided that specific herbs were governed by particular planets and their deities, and the associated folklore and superstitions about the plants, I will be looking at the practical uses for the herbs, in herbal medicine and in the kitchen, in the perfume industry, to make cosmetics, or to make clothes dyes even. Herbs are all around us and have so many uses. The painkiller we all know as Aspirin has its origins in the willow tree. Herbs are a part of the natural world and help us connect with it, the more we know about them.  This is why this project is educational in a bigger way than just learning about herbs and how they were once viewed by the herbalists of the past.

Kickstarter Campaign

Melissa and I have started a Kickstarter Campaign to help us raise the money for a trip to London where we can visit Kew Gardens and capture video footage for the course, as well as to consult the fantastic library in this world famous botanical gardens. Kew is a place where we can get up close to the plants I have written about, and where I can research about them in the library. The Herbarium at Kew Gardens has over seven million specimens in its vast collection. The Kew Library, which is part of the Herbarium, has one of the largest collections relating to botany in the world. Where better could a researcher go?

To find out more about our campaign please see Film featuring Herbology with the Bard of Ely at Kew Gardens. Please support the campaign by backing it and sharing it! With your help we can make this work! Backers will receive an artfully rendered film of Kew Gardens with me showing you the plants we found there, and Melissa waxing poetically.

Endorsements for Herbs of the Sun, Moon and Planets

Herbs of the Sun, Moon and Planets has received some excellent endorsements. Celebrated poet and author Peter Finch had this to say about it: “The spirit here might at first seem to be Sun Ra via Captain Beefheart or Dr William Price channelling Iolo Morganwg but read and you’ll find a work of accessible erudition, a herbalist ground breaker of considerable scope. Steve Andrews, poet, mystic, and author of distinction rides again.”

And Archdruid of Avebury and Keeper of the Stones, Terry Dobney, endorsed it with these words: “As the Keeper of the Stones here at Avebury, the knowledge of the herbs, plants and trees is a daily wonder, and this knowledge is there in this intriguing book, for all to unlock the secrets of their magic and uses. A beneficial "right" arm to those full of questions! Seek the knowledge and you will understand - highly recommended!”

Stinging Nettles are a very useful edible plant

The Stinging Nettle (a poem rescued from the defunct Bubblews)

Stinging Nettles (Photo: Public Domain)

Most people think that nettles are just nasty weeds,

But actually they are the plants that a butterfly caterpillar needs,

For the larvae of the red admiral and the small tortoiseshell too,

They eat the leaves of this plant; it is what they must do.

The peacock butterfly is another that depends upon this weed,

It is what its little ones have to have to feed.

And people can eat stinging nettles too cooked in water in a pan,

They lose all their stinging power, so you can enjoy them, yes, you can.

Or nettles can be employed to make a herbal tea,

Full of minerals and vitamins and good for you and me!

Steve Andrews

Nettles as a food source

Stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) lose their sting when cooked and are a good example of nutritious "spring greens" that can be easily foraged for. The young shoots and leaves can be cooked like spinach. The nettles should be picked between February and `June and gloves and scissors can be used to help you not get stung. After washing the nettles can be cooked and mashed into a puree, and chopped onion and slat and pepper can be added for extra flavour. Nettles can be used to make nettle soup. Nettles can also be dried and used to make a herbal tea and nettle teabags are on sale at health stores and from online suppliers of herbal supplements.  Nettle beer is another possibility.

Nettles contain vitamin C,  vitamin A and are a good source of iron, as well as being surprisingly high in protein. This means that eating nettles can help stop anaemia developing, because the condition is due to iron deficiency.

Stinging nettles are also widely used in herbalism because the plant has diuretic properties, as well as being a treatment for allergies, prostate disease, arthritis, asthma and many other conditions.

The stinging nettle comes very highly recommended by experts on edible plants, and is included in Richard Mabey's classic book Food For Free which is one of the best books out there when it comes to foraging.

Stinging nettles are very easy to find because they commonly grow on waste ground, on hedge-banks, along rivers and on the edges of fields and the margins of woods. 

Nettles for the Butterflies

Small tortoiseshell caterpillars

Many species of butterfly and moth caterpillar feed on the leaves of the stinging nettle. The red admiral (Vanessa atalanta), the small tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) and the peacock (A. io) are three well-known British butterflies that use the plant as a food source for their larvae. The painted lady (V. cardui) and the comma (Polygonia c-album) are two other butterfly species with caterpillars that will eat nettles.

 Peacock Butterfly (Photo: Public Domain)

The garden tiger moth (Arctia caja) is a large and colourful moth with caterpillars known as woolly bears that will eat nettles, as well as many other food-plants.  This once common moth is sadly declining in numbers throughout the UK. 

Garden Tiger moths

So not destroying nettles is a conservation measure that helps many butterflies and moths to survive.  Growing a nettle patch in your back garden is a great way to attract butterflies and to aid them by supplying a plant they need. All good wildlife gardens should have a patch of nettles. The stinging nettle is a valuable plant that has been thought of a a useless weed but it actually has many uses as you can see.

Vote for Cuddly in the Cutest Pet Competition

Vote for Cuddly the Tuxedo cat!

Cuddly is the name of a black and white tuxedo cat belonging to me and my partner Melissa. Cuddly looks cuddly but he is actually badly named (my fault) because he doesn’t actually enjoy being cuddled or picked up. He is very friendly though, and comes when called and he makes charming little noises, which I cannot hope to duplicate in writing.

Cuddly is a very smart-looking tuxedo cat with a white bib, and he has a reddish tint to his black fur which you can see when the sun shines on him. When he closes his eyes it looks as if he has no eyes because they vanish in his dark fur. Cuddly reminds me of Batman too with his dark patches over his eyes and black ears like the pointed parts of the superhero’s hooded cowl.  Can you see the likeness too?

Cuddly came to us as a kitten when we were living at another house here in Portugal. Another tenant owned him then but she got a puppy and the two animals did not get on at all well. Cuddly was called Sico then and found himself not welcome in the home he had lived in until then because the puppy would attack him. It was play but it was too rough for Cuddly and he found our open windows and moved in. We told the owner and she was happy enough with this. Some months later she moved out and left Cuddly with us. He was now well and truly living with us. Cuddly is now around a year and a half in age and he has grown fast.

Cuddly loves his food and any type of food will do - dry cat food or wet cat food or human food, Cuddly will eat it! He was getting too fat and we think he was scrounging more food at neighbours’ houses in the street where we used to live. The vet put him on a weight-reduction diet and this worked. We have had to watch how much he eats since then and make sure he doesn’t get too much to eat.

Cuddly used to defend his territory where we lived before and would chase away other cats, though he was too scared of dogs and would shy away from them. When we moved he had to get used to the new surroundings and to living in a house with two other cats. It took him about a month to do so but he is now happy here and goes out and about exploring the garden of the place we live in. He also enjoys playing with Appalachia, who is a Persian kitten we share with the friends we share the house with.   

Sometimes Cuddly rears up just like a prairie dog and he looks really cute when he does this, I think you will agree?

Cuddly is currently entered in the PetVote Cutest Pet Competition, and the purpose of this blog entry is not just to tell you all about Cuddly but, hopefully, to get some more votes for him. It is really easy to vote and you do not need to do anything more than clicking on the button marked “Vote for Cuddly.” You can vote daily and every vote helps. Sharing our entry on social media sites like Facebook and twitter is also a great help. It is also possible to Like the entry for Cuddly and to comment, and whilst we appreciate comments and likes, it is the votes for Cuddly that we really need.

Please VOTE FOR CUDDLY HERE!

And if you have a pet and would like to enter your animal companion in the contest too then 1,000 points get awarded to Cuddly’s campaign that we can use to buy more votes for him, as long as you enter after accessing the Cutest Pet Competition site via our link. To enter is free and takes just minutes.

Please get voting and sharing and help Cuddly win!  

In memory of Pixi Morgan a fellow Bard

Pixi Morgan was a Bard, a Travelling Minstrel and an Eco-warrior

Pixi Morgan's real name was Neill Morgan but Pixi suited him better in so many ways.  There was something magical and mystical about his songs and performance. He originally hailed from Cardiff in Wales but he spent a lot of his life in Glastonbury. He was a modern travelling minstrel, a bard and an eco-warrior, who took part in many road protest camps.  Sadly Pixi passed away on 6 February. He had been suffering from liver failure and had been in hospital in Southhampton where many of his friends and family had visited him before he lost his final battle in this life. He was taken from us too early because he would have only been 50 if he had reached his next birthday this coming April.  But Pixi had travelled far and wide in his time on Earth and touched the hearts of so many people he met along the way. 

Pixi Morgan with Bill the Nirvana fan and King Arthur Pendragon at Tinkinswood Burial Chamber

Usually my blog is about nature and conservation, not about singers and musicians, but I felt that Pixi easily merits being included here, not just because he was a good friend that I have sadly lost but because he was someone who made the effort to do what he could to stop the destruction of our once "green and pleasant land." Pixi had been a part of many of the biggest road protest camps, including Twyford Down and Newbury Bypass. It was at Twyford Down that he met Druid and eco-warrior King Arthur Pendragon, whom he is pictured with above on the occasion of his knighting into the Loyal Arthurian Warband, as a Quest Knight and Bard. At Twyford Down, Pixi had acted as Arthur's Herald and was featured on a BBC Radio 4 documentary about Arthur and his campaigns. 

Pixi had learned what it was like living on the land, in tune with nature and the seasons. He could build a bender, make a small wood fire, and play his guitar and sing when others (myself included) would have found it simply too cold. I remember him doing so on the occasion of his knighting, because I was there too and was also knighted by King Arthur. We were filmed by Sky TV for a documentary about reincarnation but stayed on partying after the television crew had gone. The full story is told here. 

Songs of Pixi Morgan

Pixi Morgan outside the Red Lion in Avebury

Pixi began cultivating his bardic skills as a teenager when he learned songs by Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Leonard Cohen and Bob Marley, amongst other musical mentors. He practised on the guitar and after a time when he freely admitted to using basic chords and the three-chord trick, he soon evolved an individual style of finger-picking and strumming and began to pen his own material with songs like Within Us All and Travelling Minstrel.  These songs and others were included on a homemade cassette album he released entitled Heart With Wings.

Heart With Wings

He became an accomplished busker and covered songs by many folk singers and folk-rock bands. Pixi made the songs so much his own that they sounded as if he had written them. Richard Thompson's Beeswing is in this category.  As a busker he knew well what it was like to get hassled by police and security officers and told you are not allowed to play, so Pixi often performed the song Go, Move, Shift by Christy Moore.  Pixi really knew what such songs were about because he had lived the experiences described or knew people like the characters depicted in the lyrics.

Reflecting his interest in the cycle of nature and conservation of the land, he used to play Jack in the Green by Jethro Tull. Another song he took to his heart was Spancil Hill, and you can hear him singing this when he was a protester at the Hill of Tara road protests in Ireland. 

Accursed Road, Rath Lugh 2007, Gabhra Valley

It was while busking in Devizes with Laura Howe that Pixi caught the eye and ear of Dave Davies, who is famous for being part of The Kinks rock group. Davies wrote the song Strangers and had a hit in his solo career with Death of a Clown. He knew talent when he heard it and was so impressed that he invited Pixi and Laura to open for him at a concert at The Barbican in London. 

Pixi and laura meet Dave Davies

Pixi lives on in the memories of his friends and family and in the recordings of the songs he played. To keep his memory alive and to raise funds for his funeral and wake a special CD compilation has been put together entitled ONE FOR THE ROAD.