One of the first, distinctive things about Bedfordshire I noticed more than 20 years ago was muntjacs. These little deer caught in your headlights at night can seem like dogs, they are so diminutive. Then they nimbly hop off into the hedgerow and disappear towards a distant thrift.
It's all part of the charm of rural Beds even if you have to keep an eye open for them on the road. But, muntjacs have been fingered in a recent report by the University of East Anglia - see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21688447 - that suggests the UK deer population is out of control. It is based on research on East Anglia and focuses on roe and muntjac. The concern is that deer are ferocious devourers of trees, so threatening woodlands.
Obviously the science needs debating but the argument is massively skewed by the endearing place deer have in the UK popular culture with Bambi at the centre of it. It doesn't stop Woburn Meats however doing a lively trade in venison and at least one of our group enjoyed this at The Old Swan at Astwood on Saturday night. He seemed to enjoy it immensely.
Badgers excite a similar Defence League and there was a big row about a cull of hedgehogs on a Scottish Island some years back because the spiky little mammals were eating all the seabird eggs But then, bless, Mrs Tiggy Winkle was such a dear. You wouldn't cull her? Would you?
As a moderate meat eater I stand on no moral platform so I cant object to reducing certain over burgeoning species, as long as it is done humanely. I also want to ensure that the science of badger culling based on its perceived carrying of TB is strong. But we can't hold that up because badgers are cute and Badger in Wind in the Willows was on the Parish Council for 40 years.
As it is I do brake for muntjac, cats and dogs and baby rabbits. I give up on pheasants which are the stupidest creatures.The last one I hit started out from the right, reversed, three quarters of the way across, changed its mind and rereversed and got clipped. Now that's what I call a bird brain.
It's all part of the charm of rural Beds even if you have to keep an eye open for them on the road. But, muntjacs have been fingered in a recent report by the University of East Anglia - see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21688447 - that suggests the UK deer population is out of control. It is based on research on East Anglia and focuses on roe and muntjac. The concern is that deer are ferocious devourers of trees, so threatening woodlands.
Obviously the science needs debating but the argument is massively skewed by the endearing place deer have in the UK popular culture with Bambi at the centre of it. It doesn't stop Woburn Meats however doing a lively trade in venison and at least one of our group enjoyed this at The Old Swan at Astwood on Saturday night. He seemed to enjoy it immensely.
Badgers excite a similar Defence League and there was a big row about a cull of hedgehogs on a Scottish Island some years back because the spiky little mammals were eating all the seabird eggs But then, bless, Mrs Tiggy Winkle was such a dear. You wouldn't cull her? Would you?
As a moderate meat eater I stand on no moral platform so I cant object to reducing certain over burgeoning species, as long as it is done humanely. I also want to ensure that the science of badger culling based on its perceived carrying of TB is strong. But we can't hold that up because badgers are cute and Badger in Wind in the Willows was on the Parish Council for 40 years.
As it is I do brake for muntjac, cats and dogs and baby rabbits. I give up on pheasants which are the stupidest creatures.The last one I hit started out from the right, reversed, three quarters of the way across, changed its mind and rereversed and got clipped. Now that's what I call a bird brain.
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