BBC Wildlife - UK (2020-04)

April 2020

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letter

Meatydebate

Wanttogetsomething

oyourchest?Thisis

theidealplace

Fe e d b ack

toPrincesStreetGardensin

Edinburghandthesparrows

wouldcomedownforfoodby

theflock.Butnowthereisn’t

a sparrowtobeseenthere.I

putoutlotsoffeedersinmy

owngardenandwehavea

largeflockofsparrowsina

neighbour’sgardencometo

feed.Sometimesinthesummer

thenoiseofchirpingis quite

deafeningbutpleasingtohear,

andthedailybathinginthebird

bathis greatfuntowatch.

BillRouse,viaemail

Cullingbadgers

Thereis onlyonethingI can

sayinresponsetoMark’s

column(Mywayofthinking,

January2020)– I completely

agreewitheverythinghesays.

I haveeverysympathywith

farmerswhoarebattlingbovine

TBbutexterminatinga species

is clearlynottheanswer.

I amprivilegedtohavebadger

settsonmythree-acre,wild

propertyandtheyareregularly

seenroamingnearourhouse

fromduskonwardsandoftenin

broaddaylight.

Toknowtheyarebeingkilled

inhugenumbersacrossthe

countryis heart-breaking.

LindaTowe,Wiltshire

I completelyagreewithMark’s

viewsonthebadgercull.It’s

disgusting.I’mcurrentlyinYear

12 andlastyearI didmyGCSE

Englishspeechonconservation,

duringwhichI broughtup

Plea for plastic-free

There is nothing sadder inthe

natural world than watching

a song thrush or blackbird

search endlessly for wormson

a plastic-grass-covered garden.

Why do people feel the needto

kill off their living garden by

covering it with plastic artificial

turf? Don’t they realise there

will be no daisies, clover or

dandelions for our bees and

butterfl ies, or slugs or worms

for our beleaguered hedgehogs?

This ever-increasing fashion

to exclude nature from our

gardens must be stopped

before we end up with plastic

hedges and trees as well!

Rob Curtis, Vale of Glamorgan

Garden sparrows

I read Amy-Jane Beer’s article

on sparrows (Living side by

side, January 2020) and found

it very informative. When I

was a child, my mother used

to take me (and my sisters)

Protecting whales

I was pleased to read

Comeback for Humpbacks

(Wild News, January 2020)

but was amazed that the

article fi nished by discussing

the possibility of resuming

commercial whaling as

the humpbacks were doing

so well! Surely it is time

to disband the outdated

International Whaling

Commission and, through

theUN,declareallwhalesand

dolphins as protected species.

This ruling should be backed-

up by force, if necessary, and

whaling ships destroyed and

crews brought before the

international court. Countries

that ignore this ruling should

be boycotted and ostracised.

The barbaric butchering of

these intelligent creatures

belongs in the history books,

so let’s make 2020 the year

we really do save the whale!

ohnB Wadsworth,viaemail

While the full text of Liz Bonnin’s article

(The price we pay for meat, January 2020)

is fairly wide-ranging, its title is somewhat

misleading,as it concerns mainly the

pricewe pay for intensely-reared

beef. This is compounded

by the author in her last

paragraph, where she

says she has “given up

red meat altogether”.

This was not necessary,

as there are plenty of

sources of extensively

reared meat, organic,

free-range and pasture-fed.

Much of Britain is suited to

this kind of agriculture and

givingup such carefully-produced

meat will seriously affect the

incomes of many UK farmers, who do

care for their environment and are looking

at ways of reducing the methane problem.

Robin Noble, via email

Liz Bonnin replies:

Grass-fed beef can be less polluting to the

environment than intensively reared meat,

but methane emissions are far greater (carbon

sequestration in grazing systems cannot

offset all this methane) and much more land

is needed, leaving fewer forests to mitigate

climate change. Extensive methods cannot

support our current rate of consumption

without severely damaging the planet.

Many farmers undoubtedly care about the

environment, but the independent, scientifi c

consensus is clear: we must reduce meat

consumption to secure a better future for all.

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Cattle: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty; humpback: Tony Wu/naturepl.com

What does the

future hold for

humpbacks?

Cattle contributions

to climate change

cause controversy.

Can house sparrow

numbers recover in

the UK?