Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Wildlife News

The National Trust has said it will refuse to co-operate with the voluntary Badger cull on its land in Wales.

David Bullock, the trust's head of nature conservation, said: "We have obligations both to badgers and the people who use our land. We are not persuaded it is the right thing to do."

If trials on the effectiveness of culls had shown they could reduce cattle TB by 80% - a real difference - "then, subject to the highest welfare standards, we could not have objected to a badger cull, but it has not gone that way,".

I was betwixt offices this morning and this gave me a rare chance to listen to Radio 4's World on the Move programme. The programme told of the migration of the Painted Lady from Africa to the UK. Already Painted Ladies are arriving in Northern Spain and the offspring will hatch and make their way here. We are probably well aware of the Monarch migration but probably unaware of what goes on in our own backyard so to speak. In some years there can be big influxes in the UK.

World on the Move along with Butterfly Conservation are trying to track the Painted Lady along with another migratory insect from Africa the truly spectacular Humming-bird Hawk Moth. If you see either of these you can record it here.

3 comments:

Jan said...

Great news about the NT. Pity the greedy, useless farmers don't feel the same way. :(

Tricia Ryder said...

Humming-bird Hawk Moths are lovely. Once had one in my garden - I stress the "once".

Well done the NT - nice to know that a well-known corporate body is not just re-acting because of pressure :)

Anonymous said...

There have been reports of the Humming-bird Hawk Moth here but I haven't seen it.

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