Category: projects

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The conqueror’s biotic army

still from Oil Blue, Directed by Elli Rintala. Finland.
still from Oil Blue, Directed by Elli Rintala. Finland.
The alien ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi (Comb Jelly)
Mnemiopsis leidyi (Comb Jelly)

Oil tanker ballast water has carried the beautiful invasive comb jelly to a myriad of seas, where is successfully settled. There is an argument that conquering peoples (or ideologies) are accompanied by a successful invasion of accompanying non-human animal allies, who help settle the land in new ways that upended the unprepared native inhabitants. Of course, this often backfires (as do conquerors).

see the ISSG global invasive species database

see also the book, “Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe” Alfred W Crosby

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“You hate them, we love them.”

Another cheerful celebration of the squirrel commando, Paul Parker, just in from the Daily Mail.

Paul Parker right, and journalist Harry Mount. Photo: Matt Lloyd
Paul Parker right, and journalist Harry Mount. Photo: Matt Lloyd

Paul Parker loves grey squirrels. Especially when they’ve been slow-cooked for eight hours with thyme, garlic and tomatoes.

Certainly my braised grey squirrel on a cherry tomato risotto – £12.95 at the Manor House Inn, 15 miles outside Newcastle, near Hadrian’s Wall – falls effortlessly off the bone and leaves a rich, gamey taste in the mouth, not unlike rabbit or pheasant…

‘I can’t sell them quick enough,’ says Paul. ‘I had 300 of them in the freezer. They’re all gone.’

The lean meat – there’s barely a trace of fat on these trim, athletic creatures – tastes particularly good after an energetic morning spent shooting squirrels and skinning them with Paul, up and down the Tyne valley, heading west from Newcastle towards the edge of the Pennines.

Paul, who is 45, runs a pest control company. Bees, wasps, bed bugs, squirrels, fleas, cockroaches, rodents and rabbits are all in his sights.

‘You hate them, we love them,’ is painted on the side of his van.

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Early Roman-Introduced Species to the UK

Chedworth Villa, Winter - holding a brown hare| © The National Trust
Chedworth Villa, "Winter - holding a brown hare| © The National Trust

Some introduced species to Britain by the Romans include:

Brown hare, Roman snail, Peacocks, guinea fowl, pheasants, domestic cats and possibly fallow deer.

…vegetables such as cabbages, peas, celery, onions, parsnips, leeks, turnips, cucumbers, radishes, carrots and asparagus, as well as fruit, including plums, pears, grapes, apples and cherries and nuts such as walnuts.

In addition, they brought over lilies, violets, pansies, poppies and the (somewhat less pleasant) stinging nettle

see The Archeology of Animals, Simon Davis

and Roman Agriculture