I attended most of the RSPB’s online AGM on Saturday after having a bit of a struggle to get registered for it. I was there from the beginning until I had heard that my friend and former colleague Euan Dunn had been given the prestigious RSPB Medal this year. That news was, in some ways,…
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
Press release by Trees for Life – UK ‘return’ for ancient aurochs
UK ‘return’ for ancient aurochs 400 years after European extinction Huge wild cattle could be ‘back from the dead’ to rewild Highlands near Loch Ness Trees for Life has launched a project which could see the first introduction to the UK of a breed of huge wild cattle called tauros – effectively reintroducing the aurochs, the…
RSPB press release – Tiny wasp helps protect island bird species threatened with extinction
Tiny wasp helps protect island bird species threatened with extinction One of the world’s rarest birds, Wilkins’ Bunting, has been handed a much-needed lifeline by a small species of parasitoid wasp. Only found on the remote Nightingale Island in the South Atlantic, the bunting’s food source was threatened by an invasive alien scale insect. Conservationists…
Sunday book review – The Little Book of Fungi by Britt A. Bunyard
It’s autumn and this weekend is Fungus Day in the UK and so one’s mind turns to the Kingdom of Fungi – just forget plants and animals for a day. This is one of a series of Little Books which are little books but they pack a big punch. They will remind many readers of…
Guest blog – The Faroe Islands’ Grindadráp: whose business is it? by Alick Simmons
Alick Simmons spent most of his career in public service serving as the UK Food Standards Agency’s Veterinary Director (2004-2007) and the UK Government’s Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer (2007-2015). He is the current chair of the Zoological Society of London’s Ethics Committee on Animal Research and a member of the Wild Animal Welfare Committee. He…