Nearly Wild

It is all too easy to regard new monitoring tech as the solution to environmental problems

All they do is expose in greater detail our degradation of the Earth

We need to use on that information to spur action - don’t just observe, act

RETURN is shortlisted in the Smiley Charity Film Awards!

If the story of the White-tailed Eagle stayed with you, we’d be grateful for your vote.

And if you haven’t seen it yet, don’t miss this incredible story. 🦅

👉 smileycharityfilmawards.com/films/return

Cities are embracing nature for flood defence As losses owing to flooding rise, some urban centres are ditching the concrete and making space for natural wetlands.

De-paving Paradise: To prevent urban flooding, don't forget to look outside the city. That's the strategy I explored for Nature Outlook, featuring San Jose, Calif.'s, conservation of Coyote Valley and Milwaukee's Green Seams program to conserve wetlands. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Study Reveals How European Bison Survived While Other Ancient Relatives Vanished Scientists have gained new insights into the evolutionary history and palaeoecology of European bison and their extinct relatives, showing how only the European bison survived more than 50,000 years o...

scienceinpoland.pl/en/news/news...

If you have ever wondered how to go about breeding herds of herbivores to mimic natural selection and promote a strong genetic pool; this is the way.

Yes the situation for wildlife is dire. Quality habitat is uncommon, and fragmentation by fences and roads is detrimental. Most of the wildlife I see is smashed on the roads, and the remaining living animals are just managing to survive a precarious existence. There is vast room for improvement.

Bohlinia ; inhabited Eurasia 5-10mya. an ancestor of giraffes. 1.7m tall

Giraffes interacting with a temperate forest would be a sight to behold.

There was an ancestor in Europe 5-10 mya called Bohlinia. And a more recent; early Pleistocene giraffe in Greece called Palaeotragus inexspectatus that went extinct about a million ya.

I agree. A dire situation warrants a direct approach. Zoos are already involved in breeding endangered animals on a limited basis, but expert livestock breeders with sufficient infrastructure could amplify this significantly.

This is a controversial and yet likely effective strategy. The downside being the human influence or domestication of wild species, but the upside might enable their survival. Perhaps domestically bred endangered species could be used in rewilding projects, or even re-introduced into the wild.

Great day recently with @savebutterflies.bsky.social Lincolnshire branch, exploring the possibilities of habitat restoration for the now Red Listed Grizzled Skipper #butterfly. Very much looking forward to getting started on this project in the new year.

What makes these lines or grids of holes in our trees?

#bird #birds #birding #birder #birdwatcher #birdwatching #wildlife #animal #tree #trees #forest #ecology

This is some very positive news - there are thousands of river barriers on Irish rivers that serve little to no purpose. Removing them will open habitat to migratory fish and essential natural processes, like movement of silt.

www.gov.ie/en/departmen...

British megafauna.

Yes please

Native plants and habitat for nature need to be where we live, work and play.

#Sustainability #Conservation #Nature

The new issue of Oryx explores bear conservation across North America and Asia—from black bears in Hainan to brown bears in Nepal. With insights on habitat loss, local knowledge and policy reform, it highlights the urgent need for action in fragmented landscapes🐻

Wildcat bones found in Co Clare dated to 5,500 years ago The first directly dated wildcat bones found in Ireland have been identified, confirming that the species inhabited the island more than 5,500 years ago.

"This is the first time we can say with certainty that European wildcats lived in prehistoric Ireland"

A stunning discovery and more evidence that there's a lot left to discover about Ireland's ecology!

www.rte.ie/news/munster...

It is refreshing to see the measures being implemented in these places; including natural grazing, natural regeneration, leaving deadwood and carcasses, removing fences and dams, and connecting wild areas. I hope this trend progresses throughout Europe and beyond globally.

Wilder Parks | Rewilding Europe Protected areas lie at the heart of European conservation. The Wilder Parks initiative will build on the achievements of these areas, leveraging the power of rewilding to breathe new life into ecosyst...

Wilder Parks, a new initiative by Rewilding Europe to accelerate nature recovery across Europe. Ten frontrunner parks are already on board, including German Wadden Sea.
rewildingeurope.com/wilder-parks/

Trumpeter swans in a grassy field under a cloudy moody sky.

Trumpeter swans have arrived.

(Pacific Northwest)

"The Association for Natural Pasture Landscapes finally has a new and expandable website:

weidelandschaften.org

We will gradually fill it with content. There's also a membership form available for download.

weidelandschaften.org/wp-content/u...
Perhaps someone would like to join?"

Large herbivores are linked to higher herbaceous plant diversity and functional redundancy across spatial scales This study shows that large herbivores consistently increase herbaceous plant richness and functional redundancy across spatial scales (alpha and gamma diversity), with the strongest effects observed...

My intention is not to diminish the importance of wild herbivores, (which desperately need our support), but to highlight potential strengths of cattle in assisting the recovery of mega-herbivore influenced landscapes. They can do a fine job of it.

herbivore communities, suggesting that herbivory intensity (e.g. herbivore visitation and biomass), is a more important driver of herbaceous plant communities than herbivore species richness."

Meaning: Cattle are just as effective at promoting vegetative diversity as varied wild herbivores. +

This was in a different paper but you should see this one Cat:

"Surprisingly, we did not find a positive relationship between herbivore species richness and plant diversity. This is consistent with Voysey et al. (2024) who found no strong differences in areas with cattle versus more complex, wild+

more likely due to the migratory "on the move" tendencies of herbivores to constantly seek new forage. Not every place was under constant grazing pressure, some places got skipped for a couple of years before someone thought it looked good again.

Sam might have more to add whenever he shows up : )

Not so much a dramatic crash on a yearly or even decadal timeline; reduction or increase was usually gradual unless there was a particularly extreme event. Major fluctuation happened over centuries or millennia with vegetation or climatic changes.

But also yes, some places were "well rested", +

Such a great project, I'm excited to see it grow.

Will you run drip irrigation?

"The global loss of a large proportion of Late Pleistocene megafauna has severely impacted the structure and function of ecosystems today"

"Large mammal herbivores must in the past have played a much bigger role in ecosystems...and this has to be considered when studying ‘wild’ ecosystems"

Why do I leave dead logs in the yard? Not only are they useful as garden and path edging, but they are habitat for salamanders and insects, who are themselves eaten by other animals, like the world’s largest woodpecker - The Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) #Rewild #HomegrownNationalPark /|\