Thanks for posting this Debbie. It's amazing how easily we have exchanged 'real' nature for the urban tame variety. Foxes are either vermin or cute visitors to be fed like blue tits, same for hedgehogs. There's nothing for them in 'the wild' because 'the wild' largely doesn't exist any more.
Thanks, Jane. Yes, you’re so right. We’re a destructive and invasive species! Hedgehogs are on the brink of extinction in the UK, essentially due to habitat loss. Is it better in France?
There’s much less mention of wildlife extinction here. Could be because it’s a bigger country with more space for them. Could also be because the farming lobby is so powerful, and the hunters have a disproportionate voice in what goes on in the countryside. Numbers have certainly dropped as have numbers of everything. We get them round the house and we’re not that far into the countryside, but it’s very small scale farming here with lots of open uncultivated spaces between farms and unprofitable land steep slopes, wooded valleys, are left alone.
Yes, interesting. It could be the topography then rather than good planning!
The NFU have a huge voice here too and tend to support large scale commercial farming voices rather than small scale producers. In Scotland the hunting lobby is always banging on about how conservation minded they are, but essentially they just kill stuff, including protected birds of prey and they manage the land for that sole purpose.
Hunting is different here. It’s not the gentry on horses or grouse moors, it’s Joe Bloggs from the council estate with a gun and a dog and sometimes a few mates with their guns and dogs. Since the Revolution they have had the right to roam wherever they like and shoot whatever they like. It’s difficult keeping them out of places where people live and walk. They might be a tiny percentage of the population (0.7%) but they have the weight of ‘tradition’ on their side, and guns.
Thanks for posting this Debbie. It's amazing how easily we have exchanged 'real' nature for the urban tame variety. Foxes are either vermin or cute visitors to be fed like blue tits, same for hedgehogs. There's nothing for them in 'the wild' because 'the wild' largely doesn't exist any more.
Thanks, Jane. Yes, you’re so right. We’re a destructive and invasive species! Hedgehogs are on the brink of extinction in the UK, essentially due to habitat loss. Is it better in France?
There’s much less mention of wildlife extinction here. Could be because it’s a bigger country with more space for them. Could also be because the farming lobby is so powerful, and the hunters have a disproportionate voice in what goes on in the countryside. Numbers have certainly dropped as have numbers of everything. We get them round the house and we’re not that far into the countryside, but it’s very small scale farming here with lots of open uncultivated spaces between farms and unprofitable land steep slopes, wooded valleys, are left alone.
Yes, interesting. It could be the topography then rather than good planning!
The NFU have a huge voice here too and tend to support large scale commercial farming voices rather than small scale producers. In Scotland the hunting lobby is always banging on about how conservation minded they are, but essentially they just kill stuff, including protected birds of prey and they manage the land for that sole purpose.
Hunting is different here. It’s not the gentry on horses or grouse moors, it’s Joe Bloggs from the council estate with a gun and a dog and sometimes a few mates with their guns and dogs. Since the Revolution they have had the right to roam wherever they like and shoot whatever they like. It’s difficult keeping them out of places where people live and walk. They might be a tiny percentage of the population (0.7%) but they have the weight of ‘tradition’ on their side, and guns.