I sometimes met hedgehogs on my nightly
walks or when badger watching. However,
on a family visit to New Zealand in the late
1980s, I saw more hedgehogs than I ever
spotted in England.
New Zealand is currently on a drive to
rid itself of the worst introduced predators.
Hedgehogs are an invasive species there,
with no natural predators to control their
numbers, and the native wildlife is not
equipped to deal with them. Sorry, this is a
time to be realistic, not sentimental.
Bob Holerness-Roddam, Tasmania, Australia
Plastics and wildlife
I’ve never really realised how dangerous our
actions can be until I read the interesting
and thought-provoking interview with
conservation biologist Alexander Bond
(Meet The Scientist, October 2021). To learn
about oceanic wildlife eating our plastic
waste disturbed me to my core. Then when
I learnt that seabirds feed these small pieces
of plastic to their tiny babies, who starve
and die, I was heartbroken.
Since reading the article, I have done
a lot of thinking on how I can help the
environment and our wildlife.
I’ve had really good discussions with my
partner and my family. I am more aware
about recycling plastic and other items,
and I now want to look into household
cleaning and beauty products that are more
environmentally friendly.
Angela Couzens, Bristol
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October 2021, Hidden Britain, p23: The first
British cave shrimp was identified as new to
science in 19 52 by Malcolm Spooner at the
Marine Biological Association.
Sharks
Steve Backshall is on a mission to reverse
sharks’ image problem, before it’s too late:
“Sharks are incredibly beautiful – sleek and
streamlined, but also incredibly complex.
Their presence encompasses the most
important and interesting span of time on
our planet. They’ve lived through all the
major extinction events – but
they could disappear within
this one, that’s occuring
right now.”
NEXT MONTH
Oceanic whitetips are
at risk due to fishing
and the shark fin trade16 th
ON^ SALE
DEC
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 109Answer to Spot The Difference from page 107