Who doesn’t love a turtle? asks the headline. Quite a few to judge from the reception this piece got on social media.
Two lads planning to make money out of captive breeding reptiles and amphibians and with an ambition to reintroduce herptiles to the UK – quite a few of them.
When I was their age I didn’t have this much gumption!
All reintroductions need to be carefully thought through of course – and there are laws involved too.
But the thing that strikes me about this is that it is another of a growing number of examples of individuals, or small groups of individuals with very specific aims, making the running. Some of us will stumble and come to grief, but there are more and more runners. And the traditional wildlife NGOs look like they are ambling around in comparison. As a friend of mine has kept telling me, we may be at, or have passed, peak NGO.
And the statutory agencies and government itself seem to be blockages to biodiversity conservation rather than facilitators of it.
Under these conditions it’s good to see that people, young and old, are more and more looking for what they can do and not waiting for the establishment to do it for them. Just be thankful that they aren’t going into Westminster and throwing rocks but instead they are going into the countryside and throwing lizards, Beavers, Pine Martens and White Storks!
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I’d like to see their biosecurity measures. Good in principle, possibly dangerous in practice.
Also, I agree with the comment below the line about cats. Furry wee devils that are grossly inappropriate pets in most places in the UK.
I would agree. I think this is fabulous, but our remaining amphibians and reptiles are still at huge risk from disease introduction so someone needs to make sure that they understand proper process and help them if they don’t. I hate the negative reactions to this awesome enthusiasm from young people, we (experts, NGOs, agencies and gov) need to find a way to constructively challenge and help them to do it properly without crushing their spirit.
Good luck to them, they’ll learn more this way than sitting in a conservation office farting around with PowerPoint then copy and paste reports at £15.000 a throw. If only the Wildlife Trust showed half their gumption.
Correction: NGO’s don’t amble; they have one speed – glacial.
They seem to have some experienced people backing them. I believe Derek Gow is advising them, for example, so I am guessing that their plans will be a bit more thought through than some of the critics are supposing. Not simply chucking a few herps out into the countryside and hoping for the best.
Go peddle your bullshit and lies to the deluded people who listen to you and your cronies
Mark – thank you for your first (charming) comment here.