Eating Thy Enemy (animals)
Research Blog | June 24, 2009
1. Slipper Limpet (Crepidula fornicata) Invaded: Accidentally introduced in 1887 along with American Oysters. The slipper limpet has invaded the European coast all the way to Spain, especially along the coasts of Brittany and Normandy. It feeds by filtering water and consuming a large quantity of plankton, thus chasing away mussels and oysters, which are…
Eating Thy Enemy (plants)
Research Blog | June 24, 2009
I’m looking at the relationship between invasive species and their causes. Taking a rather primitive approach, I want to offer up this solution: Eat Thy Enemy. Many promise to be delicious– 1. Japanese Knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum, Fallopia japonica) Invaded: 1850’s. Imported from Japan as ornamental “tastes like rhubarb, only better” – Steve Brill Fantastic information…
Drawings II (the friend feeder I)
Research Blog | June 22, 2009
“The Friend Feeder I” a.k.a. British Birds. After Lucien Freud’s Leigh Bowery. Sketch for a life-sized wildlife feeder.
Propping up the species
Research Blog | June 21, 2009
The red squirrel needs our help. And so local school children near Greenhough responded, raising the money to build a rope bridge to help squirrels cross the road — a rare stretch of two-lane road near Kielder (as opposed to single track) on which reds were getting flattened. I couldn’t find any online local news…
Exmoor Wild Ponies enlisted as horticulture specialists
Research Blog | June 19, 2009
I saw wild Exmoor Ponies, a feral breed of horse, up on the moors near High Green. They’ve been brought here from Devon in a land management scheme – eating invasive grasses and bracken in the hope that rarer wildflowers will flourish. They also don’t touch the heather. Exmoor ponies are a hardy breed who…
Chillingham Wild Cattle
Research Blog | June 19, 2009
Chris Leyland, manager of the cattle, takes us on a tour – the park has some ancient alder trees Alder and cattle in bg Sometimes called “Fairy Cattle” for the unique red fur in ther ears They darken in color as they get older definitely curious about us, but on their own terms the oldest…
Squirrel tourism
Research Blog | June 18, 2009
My first red squirrel today – actually 2 of them. Not a hard find- there is a very nice, very fancy, very comfortable, and very well-stocked wildlife hide set up in Kielder Water, at Leaplish. It’s rather National Geographic- except with no effort to conceal the lure of an arsenal of feeding stations, in all…
Christopher Smart
Research Blog | June 17, 2009
Fashion swings this way and that, with regard to the construction of nature on offer – its pendulum swung farther towards novel or traditional. Currently, the tastemakers want indigenous, and are beginning to pay well for green (privileged locavores and nationalized tree planting subsidizers, to name two user groups willing to cough up the surcharge)….
England poised for further invasion!!
Research Blog | June 17, 2009
It’s a fever.. of xenophobia: An army of foreign mammals, birds and amphibians is poised to invade Britain – changing the countryside and threatening our best-loved native wildlife, scientists warn. They have identified 84 exotic species – from the raccoon to the snapping turtle – which could become established within the next few decades. Some,…
Drawings I
Research Blog | June 15, 2009
A grey defends his rights in britain
Research Blog | June 14, 2009
There aren’t many sites in defense of the grey squirrel. Here’s one written in the first person, with some good arguments on defining “nativeness:” http://www.grey-squirrel.org.uk/ “NATIVE BY BIRTH – CONDEMNED BY ORIGIN” Key points at a glance 1. “Nativeness” is based on political boundaries rather than sensible concepts of the range of a species, or…
The conqueror’s biotic army
Research Blog | June 14, 2009
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…
Kania – humane squirrel kill trap?
Research Blog | June 14, 2009
Looks like lynching. More info on trap methods here.
Marauding American Signal Crayfish
Research Blog | June 13, 2009
Here I am. Say no more. I’m bigger and tastier than you are. Plus I do semaphore.
“You hate them, we love them.”
Research Blog | June 13, 2009
Another cheerful celebration of the squirrel commando, Paul Parker, just in from the Daily Mail. 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…
Early Roman-Introduced Species to the UK
Research Blog | June 13, 2009
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…
Chinese Mitten Crabs
Research Blog | June 13, 2009
From the Non-Native Species site: The Chinese mitten crab is a native of East Asia, introduced into Europe in the 1930s. It is thought to have been transported to Britain in ships’ ballast water (juvenile crabs and larvae) or perhaps by adult crabs clinging to ships’ hulls. The species has six larval development stages and…
wallabies in northumberland???
Research Blog | June 13, 2009
BBC News, June 02 2009 Hopper, who’s two and a half, made a bid for freedom by digging under a fence and making a hop for it towards a local forest. Police believe the wallaby is still in the area and believed to be hiding in the Kielder Forest. If you see him, kindly call…
If you can’t beat them, eat them.
Research Blog | June 13, 2009
from The Guardian, March 2009: “Eating the enemy – Alien species are being put on the menu in what campaigners say is the perfect green solution to save the UK’s native animals” What can be done about invasive alien species? Governments and conservationists try to eradicate them, sometimes at enormous expense, but one group of…