Click link below for my latest column for Ward's Wildlife.
Time of Change
Rob
Showing posts with label "ward's wildlife". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "ward's wildlife". Show all posts
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Friday, 23 September 2011
Great Response!
Following my recent column feature for Ward's Wildlife; "Volunteer for a Better Future", I am over the moon that 8 new volunteers have signed up to help Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust after reading my column.
This is great news and I am very pleased that I was able to help such a worthy cause.
Thank you to all who have already taken the step towards a better future for yourself and our wildlife!
Feature Here
Rob
This is great news and I am very pleased that I was able to help such a worthy cause.
Thank you to all who have already taken the step towards a better future for yourself and our wildlife!
Feature Here
Rob
Thursday, 15 September 2011
Ward's Wildlife - Volunteer for a Better Future!
Follow the link below for my latest column for Ward's Wildlife; "Volunteer for a better future."
Click Here
Rob
Click Here
Rob
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Open Season!
Below you will find a link to my latest newspaper column. It focuses on the wild boar once again and I hope you will find the time to share your views and comment. Just open the link and search for the feature "Open Season". You will also see a link for 2020 Vision, this will become relevent when you start reading.
I have also pasted the unedited text below the links.
Open Season
2020 Vision 2020Vision will be featured on BBC Countryfile on Sunday 14th August.
Countryfile
________________________________________________
Open Season
The Wild Boars will always be a hot topic while they are here in the Forest of Dean and this is why I need to highlight them again.
Whether you love them or hate them, they are living creatures and nobody with a heart would want to see an animal suffer, but that is exactly what is happening in our wonderful forest.
During the early part of 2011 I worked very hard with a friend; world famous wildlife photographer and conservationist Andy Rouse and together, deep in the forest we tracked and monitored a sounder of wild boars for the most ambitious conservation visual media initiative ever staged in Britain. This initiative is called 2020 Vision and all details of this project can be found online.
After finding the boars the next stage was for Andy to photograph them in the wild, in their natural habitat.
All was going well and it was great to see eight young piglets emerge with their proud mum in early March. However, on 31st March while out checking on them I found all eight piglets wandering, or rather running around the forest alone! Alarm bells started to ring right away as I have never seen a sow leave her piglets on their own in the past and as they were still on their own 4 hours later, I knew that the sow had to be dead.
I photographed this sounder the previous week and the sow was healthy, indicating that she had not succumbed to an illness or disease. Poachers may have taken her, but as the location was deep in the forest I am not so sure.
I had to tell Andy that day and it was then that I realised how close he had become to this sounder. He was emotionally gutted and for the “first time in my LIFE”, I felt ashamed of the way our wildlife was being treated in the Forest of Dean.
At present there is no closed season on the culling of wild boars and in my personal opinion, this is morally wrong as the piglets are dependant on their mum’s milk for around 3 months.
Other feeding sows have been known to take over feeding responsibilities if another sow, which has dependant piglets, dies, but this did not happen with the little ones we were monitoring and slowly they disappeared.
Basically when these little ones lost their mum it was no different to a human mother taking away her baby’s milk within the first month of its life!
Whoever took out this sow is aware of what they did and they also understood the implications of what will have happened to the piglets. In short they were doomed to suffer an agonising death from malnutrition and starvation. The welfare of the wild boars in the Forest of Dean needs to be addressed IMMEDIATELY.
Predominantly, the majority of wild boar births happen in the spring, so the implementation of a closed season would have to be from late February to early June or until the piglets have lost their dependency on their mum’s milk. However, the sows have a gestation period of approximately four months, so I feel the culling of pregnant sows is also morally wrong.
I understand that the wild boar has no natural predators in the UK today and like our deer they require management, but what if there were little deer fawns running around out there, left on their own to die? Would that be acceptable, would it? I think not and as the wild boars are tight family units with strong bonds, they deserve to be treated in the same way as our deer, which have the luxury of a closed season!
To date (7 years) no human has been attacked by a wild boar in the UK and this is something that needs to be realised by the powers to be, which are calling for their eradication.
Not the best start for the Forest of Dean’s involvement in Britain’s most ambitious conservation project!
Rob
I have also pasted the unedited text below the links.
Open Season
2020 Vision 2020Vision will be featured on BBC Countryfile on Sunday 14th August.
Countryfile
________________________________________________
Open Season
The Wild Boars will always be a hot topic while they are here in the Forest of Dean and this is why I need to highlight them again.
Whether you love them or hate them, they are living creatures and nobody with a heart would want to see an animal suffer, but that is exactly what is happening in our wonderful forest.
During the early part of 2011 I worked very hard with a friend; world famous wildlife photographer and conservationist Andy Rouse and together, deep in the forest we tracked and monitored a sounder of wild boars for the most ambitious conservation visual media initiative ever staged in Britain. This initiative is called 2020 Vision and all details of this project can be found online.
After finding the boars the next stage was for Andy to photograph them in the wild, in their natural habitat.
All was going well and it was great to see eight young piglets emerge with their proud mum in early March. However, on 31st March while out checking on them I found all eight piglets wandering, or rather running around the forest alone! Alarm bells started to ring right away as I have never seen a sow leave her piglets on their own in the past and as they were still on their own 4 hours later, I knew that the sow had to be dead.
I photographed this sounder the previous week and the sow was healthy, indicating that she had not succumbed to an illness or disease. Poachers may have taken her, but as the location was deep in the forest I am not so sure.
I had to tell Andy that day and it was then that I realised how close he had become to this sounder. He was emotionally gutted and for the “first time in my LIFE”, I felt ashamed of the way our wildlife was being treated in the Forest of Dean.
At present there is no closed season on the culling of wild boars and in my personal opinion, this is morally wrong as the piglets are dependant on their mum’s milk for around 3 months.
Other feeding sows have been known to take over feeding responsibilities if another sow, which has dependant piglets, dies, but this did not happen with the little ones we were monitoring and slowly they disappeared.
Basically when these little ones lost their mum it was no different to a human mother taking away her baby’s milk within the first month of its life!
Whoever took out this sow is aware of what they did and they also understood the implications of what will have happened to the piglets. In short they were doomed to suffer an agonising death from malnutrition and starvation. The welfare of the wild boars in the Forest of Dean needs to be addressed IMMEDIATELY.
Predominantly, the majority of wild boar births happen in the spring, so the implementation of a closed season would have to be from late February to early June or until the piglets have lost their dependency on their mum’s milk. However, the sows have a gestation period of approximately four months, so I feel the culling of pregnant sows is also morally wrong.
I understand that the wild boar has no natural predators in the UK today and like our deer they require management, but what if there were little deer fawns running around out there, left on their own to die? Would that be acceptable, would it? I think not and as the wild boars are tight family units with strong bonds, they deserve to be treated in the same way as our deer, which have the luxury of a closed season!
To date (7 years) no human has been attacked by a wild boar in the UK and this is something that needs to be realised by the powers to be, which are calling for their eradication.
Not the best start for the Forest of Dean’s involvement in Britain’s most ambitious conservation project!
Rob
Saturday, 23 October 2010
Fallow Deer Rut - Ward's Wildlife
Below is a link to my most recent wildlife column article, in colour with photographs. Page 33.
This will be available until 27/10/2010.
I have also pasted the text below if you want to read it after this date.
Ward's Wildlife
Forest Lords in Battle!
Standing at an impressive 200cm in full antler, the fallow buck is our largest mammal in the Forest of Dean and during the month of October, it is the best time to hear and witness the rut, where they battle each other for the right to mate!
They will parallel walk before engaging each other – This involves walking next to each other until one turns to face the other. When this happens, the other buck will quickly turn and with all their strength, they lock antlers.
It is then down to strength and stamina as they force each other backwards into submission.
However, strength and stamina is not the only way of winning a fight! A well placed antler or a slip from the other buck can cause serious injury and even death!
If you are out walking in the forest you may hear the bucks calling from their stands. A deer stand can be identified by the severe thrashing of the nearby trees and also bare ground where they have scraped away the grass. The stands are also the buck’s territorial markers and as they patrol their territory, they call from each stand to herd and protect they’re doe’s.
The doe’s give birth in June after a gestation period of nearly 8 months, so they don’t get much of a break!
This is a time of year, rain or shine when I love getting out there before sunrise. The call of a fallow buck sounds like a mixture of a lion’s roar and a loud belch. Walking into the dark forest with these noises all around can be a bit spooky, but I get a buzz from the anticipation of what I might capture!
Once in the middle of the forest, I find a good location with clear views all around, not forgetting to select a location with a good solid tree that I can rest against.
I quickly erect a makeshift hide from dead branches and cammo netting to conceal myself and sit perfectly still and quiet.
You can sit there for hours without a decent view of a single deer, but a lot of patience and persistence is required if you want to get a decent photograph without disturbing them.
You cannot predict where a fight will happen and even though I have been photographing the rut for many years now, I have not managed to get a decent photograph of one. Maybe this will be my year!
Please remember – our forest is home to our wildlife and as we are supposedly intelligent human beings, we must put all the wildlife first and not disturb it, especially when they are mating.
Note: Please take extra care when driving the forests roads. The deer are more active at this time of year, especially during the early morning and late evening when the light is poor.
Road conditions can make it harder to stop and there are too many incidents on our roads involving our wildlife.
Take it easy and look after yourself as well as our wildlife!
Rob
This will be available until 27/10/2010.
I have also pasted the text below if you want to read it after this date.
Ward's Wildlife
Forest Lords in Battle!
Standing at an impressive 200cm in full antler, the fallow buck is our largest mammal in the Forest of Dean and during the month of October, it is the best time to hear and witness the rut, where they battle each other for the right to mate!
They will parallel walk before engaging each other – This involves walking next to each other until one turns to face the other. When this happens, the other buck will quickly turn and with all their strength, they lock antlers.
It is then down to strength and stamina as they force each other backwards into submission.
However, strength and stamina is not the only way of winning a fight! A well placed antler or a slip from the other buck can cause serious injury and even death!
If you are out walking in the forest you may hear the bucks calling from their stands. A deer stand can be identified by the severe thrashing of the nearby trees and also bare ground where they have scraped away the grass. The stands are also the buck’s territorial markers and as they patrol their territory, they call from each stand to herd and protect they’re doe’s.
The doe’s give birth in June after a gestation period of nearly 8 months, so they don’t get much of a break!
This is a time of year, rain or shine when I love getting out there before sunrise. The call of a fallow buck sounds like a mixture of a lion’s roar and a loud belch. Walking into the dark forest with these noises all around can be a bit spooky, but I get a buzz from the anticipation of what I might capture!
Once in the middle of the forest, I find a good location with clear views all around, not forgetting to select a location with a good solid tree that I can rest against.
I quickly erect a makeshift hide from dead branches and cammo netting to conceal myself and sit perfectly still and quiet.
You can sit there for hours without a decent view of a single deer, but a lot of patience and persistence is required if you want to get a decent photograph without disturbing them.
You cannot predict where a fight will happen and even though I have been photographing the rut for many years now, I have not managed to get a decent photograph of one. Maybe this will be my year!
Please remember – our forest is home to our wildlife and as we are supposedly intelligent human beings, we must put all the wildlife first and not disturb it, especially when they are mating.
Note: Please take extra care when driving the forests roads. The deer are more active at this time of year, especially during the early morning and late evening when the light is poor.
Road conditions can make it harder to stop and there are too many incidents on our roads involving our wildlife.
Take it easy and look after yourself as well as our wildlife!
Rob
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