The estimate of c73,000 waterfowl being poisoned each winter in the UK by ingesting lead ammunition means that c400 will die from poisoning today. And tomorrow. And Sunday. And Monday. Poisoned – hardly a clean kill. See these videos about lead poisoning (here and here and here and here) and then realise that you can…
Author: Mark
Born Bristol, UK
Educated: Cleeve House School Bristol, Bristol Grammar School and Downing College Cambridge
Ph.D. University of Aberdeen, Winter activity of pipistrelle bats.
NERC post-doctoral Research Fellow, Edward Grey Institute, Oxford University
Former Conservation Director of the RSPB, 1989-2011
BASC is clueless
In a muffled statement, because it’s very difficult to hear the words of those whose heads are stuck in the sand, BASC say that: ‘there is no risk to those who do not eat shot game meat more than once a week throughout the year’. This simply isn’t true. There is no level at which…
RSPB and WWT support Rob Sheldon’s e-petition
Yesterday the RSPB and WWT started to mobilise their memberships to support Rob Sheldon’s e-petition to ban lead ammunition. This is good to see. The main RSPB Twitter account, @natures_voice tweeted once yesterday (and again this morning) and this was backed up by rather more active support from @rspbcymru and @jazzyjeff, and @wwtconservation and @wwtworldwide…
Made me smile
This made me smile: Dear Dr Avery, I have just finished reading your book, Inglorious, having picked it up just 24 hours ago. A fascinating and spirited read. Actually it’s two books; one rather silly one about toffs, acres of tweed, wealth, land, haves & have-nots, aristocracy, Conservative Party bashing, and, one about upland…
Coverage of yesterday’s lead report
As well as the Today programme, there was coverage of the Oxford Lead Symposium publication on BBC TV at breakfast time. This online piece with interviews with WWT staff, Danish hunters (‘I’m a conservationist,’ said Niels Kanstrup, ‘I’m a hunter, too. I think it’s a fair and sustainable way to use natural resources, but we…