I started the business “Wildlife Tours and Education” in April of this year. Its birth arose because of many things and happenings. The main thing was my innate appetite for Wildlife since an early age. The desire to be among all things natural was strong and always present and the wish to spread and share that enthusiasm with others. 

Everyone has influences upon them; people, things, happenings, books, objects. Quite often when one reaches middle age one tries to recapture objects or experiences of their youth. Those of an appropriate age will know what I mean. One of the influences of my youth were the wildlife television programmes of Sir David Attenborough. Every part of the natural world could be reached from the corner of living rooms in an enthralling style that needs no justification here.

Sir David’s influence has always been with me. The thirst generated for Mother Nature, in most part, was always his doing.

A couple of years ago I saw the man himself; not but a couple of feet from me when attending the National Bird watching Fair at Rutland Water. I have regretted not speaking to him many times since. Why did I not pipe-up and thank him there and then? I do not know. Maybe I was embarrassed to do so or more likely I was just awestruck to be in his presence. Whatever … I should have thanked the man.

 To thank him at some stage was the proper thing to do.

Now that WT&E is underway earlier this month I put pen to paper and wrote. About me, about his influence and about why I should thank him. Imagine the size of the smile on my face when I opened a hand written reply this morning. A treasured possession.

It’s getting crowded down here!

For those readers who are not regular BBC television viewers, the Beeb has for many years run an excellent factual/science & nature series under the name of Horizon.  Just recently there was a programme with the title of How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth?

Sir David Attenborough

It was presented by that familiar face on the BBC in terms of the natural world, Sir David Attenborough.  It was an appropriate and worthy person to present the information.

But before getting into some of the details underpinning the programme, there seems to been an enormous and unspoken omission at Copenhagen – why no debate about global population trends?

Luckily the media noticed the rather obvious exclusion.  Here’s the UK Daily Telegraph newspaper (online version) of the 8th December, 2009. An extract:

Population growth is the one issue accused of causing driving climate change that no one at the Copenhagen climate summit dares to talk about.

The argument is that more people consume more resources, therefore producing more greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

The global population is currently at 6 billion and could rise to 11 billion by 2050 if fertility rates continue, not only threatening the climate, but food shortages and conflict as well.

Organisations like the Optimum Population Trust, that is backed by Sir Jonathan Porritt, Dame Jane Goodall and Sir David Attenborough, advocate birth control as a way of slowing climate change.

As Sir David has said: “I’ve never seen a problem that wouldn’t be easier to solve with fewer people, or harder, and ultimately impossible, with more.”

A study by the London School of Economics found contraception is almost five times cheaper as a means of preventing climate change than conventional green solutions such as investing in green technology.

To put population growth into some form of accessible number, the number of people alive on the planet is growing at about 2 new persons every second!  That’s over 7,000 an hour or, if you prefer, just under 173,000 every day!

More than 63,000,000 every year!

Here’s a graph from the UN.

We all know deep in our hearts that changing the way we live, especially for those in the over-consuming countries, is incredibly difficult.  While we might tinker at the edges, more to make us feel a little righteous possibly, substantially changing the way we consume the earth’s resources is very, very hard.

But there is a much easier way.  Slow down the fertility rate at a much quicker pace than at present.  Not having more than 2 children per set of parents is easy.  It’s unbelievably easy.  Those of us in the wealthy countries would love to help!  And would much prefer that to more and more ‘environmental’ taxation that gets spent by bureaucratic and inefficient governments.

Why did that get missed out from the Copenhagen agenda?  We really need to know.

Back to the Horizon programme.  I see that it has already made its way on to You Tube.  Watch it!

Part One –

Part Two –

Part Three –

Part Four –

Part Five –

Part Six –

By Paul Handover

My song for the day.

Hello.

My first ‘proper’  blog is going to be a subject that may seem rather bleak to most, so you’ve been warned. I’m going to look, with the help of Sir David Attenborough, at how many people the earth can sustain. The subject has never been one that I’ve particularly thought about, until I saw this week’s episode of Horizon on BBC iPlayer. I suggest those of you reading watch it. It makes very interesting viewing to say the least.

I thought, and Attenborough was willing to admit, that the programme was coming from a very negative standpoint, but maybe they are being realistic and pragmatic in their approach. The facts are startling.

• The current world population, according to the UN, is approximately 6.8 billion people.
• The current rate of growth is around 80,000,000 people per year
• We are expected to reach 9 billion people by the end of the century

These fact alone scare me, when you consider that a billion people already live without access to clean drinking water. An increase to 9 billion people would require the human population to effectively double the amount of food that they currently produce, but where will this land come from?

All things considered; global warming, lack of drinking water and the constant exploitation by the rich, of poorer nations; the human race is without doubt the greatest single risk to its own existence.

We have exploited the world into a position where over 70% of the world’s plants are at risk of extinction in the foreseeable future. We are destroying the very fabric of our own lives; the ecosystems that allow US to live (not the other way round) are at breaking point.

From a moral viewpoint, this is very difficult to deal with.

China’s controversial ‘one-child policy’ and other such restrictive, aggressive policies have not helped. They create unfavourable gender biases during and after birth, and an increase in the black market on medical procedures such as abortion. Clearly, such policies, can and will not work in a civilised society.

How then, can we address this?

Horizon suggested that as the education of women has improved, in almost every society, birth rates have lowered. Whilst this could be deemed a borderline sexist view, it is not correct either. The UK’s females, on average, attain better grades throughout their academic lives than males, and yet the UK population will increase by 10 million before the end of the century.

Education is the key though. A general lack of respect for the planet can be seen everywhere. The ignorance of global warming, apathy towards recycling and proper waste disposal, and the soiling of the world by global industry point towards an apathy towards the environment in which we live. Educating people to act properly, and those in charge leading by example is key.

Why do I care you may ask? It won’t affect your lifetime.

I agree. Overpopulation will not directly affect my life, but it is already affecting almost every other species on this planet. The human attitude towards every other species has transformed from one of respect and curiosity, to one of abuse and exploitation.

Many would argue that this is in fact the very essence of ’survival of the fittest’. However, at no point did Herbert Spencer or Charles Darwin suggest that one species would become so ‘fit’ so to speak, that it would drive any other semblance of life of this planet, and eventually lead to it’s own destruction. We must use our advantages; rational thinking, intuition and intelligence; to aid the development of the world whilst we still live on it, rather than using these qualities to essentially bite off the hand that feeds us.

On a human level, when the going gets tough, survival of the fittest, or natural selection won’t come into the equation. Human life has been devoid of natural selection for a long time. In fact it has become ’survival of the richest’, with those with access to the best medical facilities, food and drink, the ones who tend to outlast those around them. Maybe this quote sums up why everyone should be concerned:

“Keep in mind that when the Titanic sank, the first-class cabins went to the bottom just as quickly as the steerage.”

We ignore this issue, as Sir David said, ‘at our peril’.

“Natural World investigates the vital bond between animal mothers and their babies. The more we study animals, the more we realise just how emotional they are; all mothers are faced with tough choices as they struggle to bring up babies in a difficult and dangerous world, constantly balancing their own needs with those of their infants. Yet there are many ways to raise your brood, from the fish who looks after her young in her mouth to the extended childhoods of gorillas or orang-utans. Narrator Sir David Attenborough”
(1/5)

Play all <—-+

Playlist <–+

BBC ENTERTAINMENT, 22:00 HRS, JUEVES 12 NOVIEMBRE

SKY 203, CABLEVISIÓN 206

BBC Entertainment estrena con exclusividad para América Latina, los nuevos episodios de la irreverente e inteligente serie The Jonathan Ross Show. Con encanto y humor, Jonathan Ross crea un ambiente que permite que invitados del calibre de Jamie Oliver, Eva Mendes, Sir David Attenborough, Shakira y Boy George se relajen y respondan con sinceridad a sus preguntas casi siempre impredecibles. La nueva temporada de The Jonathan Ross Show estrena en América Latina exclusivamente a través de BBC Entertainment, todos los jueves a las 22h00 (Horario de México), a partir del 12 de noviembre.

Jonathan Ross / BBC / 2009

Para iniciar esta temporada sus Invitados son: Jamie Oliver, un famoso Chef Inglés, Ricky Gervais, creador de THE OFFICE,  y Mika el cantante inglés que tanta fama ha tenido con hits como “Grace Kelly” y “Love Today”.

I’ve been watching a lot of the BBC programs lately and two of my favorites are Sir David Attenborough’s The Life series and Sir Patrick Moore’s The Sky at Night. I love watching these two program’s hosts. Hey I’m a nerd, I know.

It’s just a co-incidence that one of them is looking “here on Earth” and the other one is looking “up the sky”. One is trying to find out about the Yeti, while the other one is wondering about life on Mars. Both of them are cool though.

Sir David Attenborough: The Naturalist with friendly character grandpa and Dawin’s theme.

Sir David Attenborough

David and a scorpion

Patrick with telescope

Sir Patrick Moore

The Naturalist or the Astronomer, Dawin or Coppernicus, Aristotle or Plato..I love them all.

Das Affen Werkzeuge benutzen, ist nicht neu. Aber das hier, gefilmt von der BBC, erklärt von Sir David Attenborough ist verblüffend.

Witzig finde ich die Musikauswahl. Ob die Assoziation gewollt ist?

Dokumentationen wie “Unsere Erde” erfreuten sich zuletzt auch auf DVD und im Kino großer Beliebtheit, schon zuvor genoss die BBC einen großen Ruf in Sachen Naturdokumentationen. Der neueste Vertreter dieser atemberaubenden Dokumentationen ist die von Sir David Attenborough erzählte Doku “Life“, die in zehn Teilen seit dieser Woche immer montags 21 Uhr GMT bei der BBC zu sehen ist.

Bei Life geht es allerdings nicht darum, uns deutlich zu machen, dass, wenn wir alle mehr ans Klima denken, das Eisbär-Baby nicht ertrinken muss, sondern um den natürlichen Kampf ums Überleben. “Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive! That’s what the animals should be singing as the BBC’s sumptuous new natural history masterpiece unfolds”, schreibt der Mirror. Es ist die alte Geschichte vom Fressen, Gefressen werden, von Raubtier und Beute und von all jenen Strategien die Tiere und Pflanzen entwickelt haben, um demgegenüber ihr Überleben zu sichern.

“In the end, overcoming lifes challenges, whether finding enough to eat or outwitting your predators is only significant if lifes final challenge can be met. From a tiny frog, dedicating weeks to her few cherished tadpoles to an orang utan spending eight years bringing up her baby, individual animals strive to reach this one ultimate goal: to pass on their genes and to ensure the survival of the next generation. Ultimately in nature, that is what life is all about.”

So lautet die Moral der ersten Episode, die zugleich als Prolog für die kommenden Folgen erscheint. Ernüchternd, nicht wahr? Zumindest müssen die Tiere, gesteuert von Genen und Instinkt, sich nicht die Frage stellen, welchen Sinn das alles hat. Und dennoch: natürlich gibt es in “Life” neben all dem auch die kleinen poetischen und die emotionalen Momente. Etwa als zwei Haubentaucher ihre Partnerschaft mit einem komplexen und wunderschönem Tanz auf dem Wasser erneuern. Und dann ist da die Geschichte von der Oktopus-Mutter, die ihre letzten Tage damit verbringt ihre Eier zu schützen und dabei willentlich verhungert, genau dann, wenn die klitzekleinen Oktopus-Babies schlüpfen.

“Life” ist eine beeindruckende Mischung aus Spannung und Emotion. Fast überflüßig zu sagen, dass die Komposition aus Bildern, Musik und Erzählung sich genau auf dem hohem Niveau bewegt, das man von einer BBC-Produktion erwarten darf. Anders als in den Kinoproduktionen geht es hier weniger um Bildgewalt, vielmehr stehen überraschende, spannende oder lustige Details aus der Natur im Mittelpunkt. Mit 6,5 Millionen Zuschauern war “Life” am Montag der Quotensieger in seinem Timeslot. Völlig zu Recht: Gibt es doch kaum etwas aufregenderes als die Natur. Ein echtes Muss für Fans des Genres und alle die es werden wollen.

BBC Website zu “Life”

Synonymous with the late 1950’s and throughout the 1960’s were the annual set of Brooke Bond Tea Picture Cards which introduced a generation to the world of natural history and adventurer with such exotic titles as Asian Wild Life, Butterflies of the World, Adventurers & Explorers and nearer home British Wild Life and British Birds. Each set comprised of 50 individual cards which when collected you could adhered to an album which the Brooke Bond Tea Company supplied separately for 6d prior to 1971. If like me if always kept the cards separate from the album than apparently they are worth more. Though the value and delight in perusing the collection is more valuable then any monetary value.

The back cover of the 1964 - ”Butterflies of the World” indicates the fact that the picture cards “are offered in the interests of education and wildlife conservation.” Though the text contained within indicates that pinned collections are a good way of viewing exotic butterflies – “how times have changed.”

The accuracy of the illustrations is best compared by the painting of the Spanish Festoon and the photograph of the same species below. The descriptive text included the latin name of each species which added even more credibility to the picture cards descriptive captions which were always very factual.

Spanish Festoon butterfly – Algarve, Portugal

The early sets of picture cards were both illustrated and described by eminent wildlife artist Charles F. Tunicliffe.

 Sir. David Attenborough wrote a special forward for the 1990 picture set “A Journey Downstream.”

“Butterflies of the World” Front Cover” – 1964

“Wildlife in Danger” Front Cover - 1963″ illustrations and descriptions by Sir. Peter Scott.

One of the most significant aspects of the entire Brooke Bond Tea Picture Sets are the constant reminders that the natural world is a beautiful yet incredibly fragile place, highlighted by the recent BBC 2 series “Last Chance to See.”  It would be interesting to compare which creatures have become extinct or their status today compared to the 1963 picture set “Wildlife In Danger.”

The front cover depicts “Lonesome George” the last known Galapagos - Pinta Island Giant Tortoise, subspecies Geochelone nigra abingdoni. Now estimated to be in his mid-eighties and still going strong George has recently mated twice with another Giant Tortoise sub-species at the Galapagos, Darwin Centre in an effort to at least retain some of his genes.

All images are scanned from my own collection which includes every picture set from 1958 to 1990.

Today, I collect mint stamps that depict natural history topics.

After an AMAZING dinner at the garden center with my Mommy [yeah I'm cool] we have a look at the Christmas trees :/ [already!?] and the pets
I totally freak out at the fish as usual. I feel really anxious around fish. Like the glass is going to break and the fish are going to be all slappy on my face ew. Once, I was windsurfing and I fell into the lake and some big fat black carps were sucking on my toes. I had a panic attack and had to be rescued by someone on a pedalo :/

I couldn’t believe who I saw! He has worked with Sir David Attenborough and has been on BBC 1. What a legend. He wouldn’t give me an autograph though, but still. He is a legend.

The news item reads:

Botanists believe they have discovered one of the world’s largest carnivorous plants in Southeast Asia.
The giant pitcher plants were located on Mount Victoria in Palawan, central Philippines by a team led by UK botanist Stewart McPherson.
The second largest species, now called Nepenthes attenboroughii, has been named in honor of the UK’s world-renowned natural history presenter Sir David Attenborough.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/08/18/meat.eating.plant/index.html

Fairly simple and non-political, right?.

As the discoverer,UK botanist Stewart McPherson, describes the plant unique ability:

The pitchers are half full of a liquid consisting of acids and enzymes which help break down its prey. These plants grow in really harsh areas where soil quality is very poor — often pure gravel or sand. Around the mouth of the pitcher are secretions of nectar which attracts insects and small animals. The rim has lots of waxy downward-pointing ridges which help prey fall directly into the pitcher.

These plants grow in really harsh areas where soil quality is very poor — often pure gravel or sand. Catching insects allows the plant to augment nutrients that it otherwise wouldn’t have access to.

But when this story surfaced three days ago and raced through the World Wide Web, te nearly unanimous reaction Filipinos had was this:

Hey, do you think the carnivorous plants have a taste for crocodiles and polkiticians with a special liking for lobsters and steak?

Let’s find out by planting an array of this meat-eating plants in Malacanang and over at the House of Representatives!

Not that’s not a totally bad idea!!!

Nepenthes attenboroughii

A team of botantists has discovered a species of carnivorous plant that is capable of catching small rodents and dissolving them for nutrients. This discovery was made on Mount Victoria, which is on Palawan in Philippines.

These carnivorous plants are called “pitcher plants,” and a close relative of this species has been well-documented for a very long time. The Philippine pitcher plant was known to grow in the area, but in 2000, some Christian missionaries reported seeing elaborate pitcher plants on a climbing expedition on Mount Victoria.

These reports reached the people of Red Fern Natural History Productions, who sent an expedition to Mount Victoria in 2007. This expedition was led by Stewart McPherson, and it included the British botantist Alistair Robinson and locally-based botantist Volker Heinrich.

What they discovered was truly shocking.

These plants have elaborate traps that trick large insects and even rodents into their pitchers.

Now, the proposed Linnean name for this species is Nepenthes attenboroughii.

It is, of course, named for Sir David Attenborough, who currently has a species of echidna named after him, as well as an extinct marine reptile called Attenborosaurus conybeari.

The fact that these organisms are named after Sir David Attenborough is testimony to his life’s work of explaining the natural word to mass audiences, using the broadcast technology. It is very likely that many of the scientists working on these species were first inspired to get interesting in nature and science when they watched David Attenborough’s wonderful nature documentaries as children.

Now, that’s quite a legacy to have.

By Calvin Palmer

A team of botanists has discovered a plant that eats rats and insects.

The carnivorous pitcher plant found on Mount Victoria in the Philippines is believed to be the largest meat-eating shrub, dissolving rats with acid-like enzymes.

The expedition was led by British experts Stewart McPherson and Alastair Robinson who decided to name the plant after natural world broadcaster Sir David Attenborough.

McPherson, of Poole, Dorset, said: “The plant produces spectacular traps which catch not only insects, but also rodents. It is remarkable that it remained undiscovered until the 21st century.”

The plant was found in 2007 after a two-month expedition and its discovery was published in Botanical Journal of Linnean Society earlier this year.

The team decided to call it Nepenthes attenboroughii in honor of naturalist Sir David famed throughout the world for wildlife documentaries such as Planet Earth.

“I’m absolutely flattered,” he said. “This is a remarkable species, the largest of its kind. I’m told it can catch rats then eat them with its digestive enzymes. It’s certainly capable of that.”

[Based on a report by The Daily Telegraph.]

Here it is . . . the blank page; just a rectangle of white, soon to be covered with words that may or may not strike a chord within you.

God, I can really write some shit when I put my mind to it, or take may mind off it; whatever it is. In this case there is no real it, which is why I’ve started with this meandering and vague stream of consciousness style opening. Stream of consciousness indeed, but you’d never catch Joyce or Woolf writing such feckless gibberish. In fact, you should read them rather than this, because the work of very good writers has the power to make you think more deeply, ponder things you’ve never considered, to move you in ways you couldn’t imagine or, as Hemingway eloquently put it, “make people feel something more than they understood”.

This is the main reason I favour reading a book to watching the television; it’s a much better and more worthwhile use of time. I will concede that in its best form television has a lot to offer. For instance, I would prefer to watch anything from David Attenborough’s oeuvre than to read a book on the same subject. However, these sorts of shows make up a minute percentage of the total programming. Much of the remainder, particularly on Sky, is just hundreds of channels of noise and colours, engineered to distract your mind and prevent your thoughts from bothering you while your life ebbs away quickly and painlessly. As a mind numbing device this ‘filler TV’ is very successful, in the same way that alcohol is, or any drug for that matter. Except that if you drink a pint of gin with your Weetabix, smoke weed all day, or intermittently shoot Heroin, people wont like it. They will call you an ‘addict’; they will shout at you and maybe cry as well, and if they really love you, they will do everything in their power to prevent you from continuing that behaviour. People don’t react the same way if you watch 6 or 7 hours lot of TV a day (that sounds a lot, but it’s not beyond the realms of possibility for any 9 to 5er) and how much of that is ‘worthy TV’? Less and less I feel, as production companies now seem to be actively embracing the mind numbing.

For instance, I put on the TV at lunchtime last week and there was a programme on called ‘For the Rest of Your Life’ (ITV1 12.30pm). It could loosely be defined as a gameshow, in the same way that ‘Deal or No Deal’ could be described as a gameshow, or that other one with Chris Tarrant that also involves coloured boxes and predetermined amounts of money. In this one though, rather than open boxes, the contestant must select rods imbedded in the floor that, when removed, either emit white light or red light. If the contestant picks lots of white ones they win increasing amounts of monthly income, if they get red ones they don’t. Apart from that it’s the same as Deal or No Deal or the Tarrant one. They all involve some irritatingly garrulous presenter prattling on in unintelligible nomenclature (For the Rest of your Life deals in: ‘Climbing the time ladder’, ‘Stick Downs’ and ‘5 more white sticks for 3 years’) to a moron from the general public, who nods knowingly as he carefully appraises his options of box or rod choice, before applying some baffling fabricated reasoning to the art of random selection in a vain attempt to make sense of complete chance. It’s unendurably pointless and leaves you with absolutely nothing. You gain no knowledge, you don’t laugh, you don’t cry, you don’t think, you don’t feel, you just watch and expend another hour of your life.

I admit that I’ve probably overstated the harm of TV by comparing the likes of Quiz Call to alcoholism or drug addiction, but I was trying to make a dramatic point and I do, nevertheless, stand by my belief that, like an addict, the average person squanders a large portion of their life, that they could have spent constructively, watching futile television shows.

John Lennon said that ‘life is what happens to you while you’re making other plans’. Maybe a more apt motto for our generation is ‘life is what happens to you while you’re watching television’.

Source

I had to post that video, because I’m a Sir David Attenborough fan and because I’m a bird nerd.

Wikipedia on the Kakapo.

The Fabulous Kakapo.

Letter from Sir David Attenborough (click pic to enbiggen)

We recently wrote to Sir David Attenborough -( here’s why) –   to ask is he’d like to support www.GoodNewsForPolarBears.org, and we were pleasantly surprised to get a very courteous (and prompt) reply.

He says:

“Your new website service sounds a great idea. I wish you luck with it”

Here’s the letter of reply we received (we’ve masked out some details to protect individuals’ privacy).

However, Sir David is unfortunately unable to support our cause further for the reasons he’s stated in the letter, but it does rather replenish one’s faith when someone so famous and clearly busy takes the time to personally reply. We do sincerely thank you, Sir David, for taking the time to reply and for your kind words.

A warm welcome to the Visionwild Blog the web journal of yours truly Geoff Simpson – professional nature photographer, naturalist, writer, lecturer and conservationist.

My photography is chiefly concerned with the exceptional beauty of wild nature and wild places and the often complex relationship man has within it.

I will try to update this site frequently with images, HD video clips, news and events, forthcoming exhibition dates, field reports and topics of interest from the world of photography, multi-media and the natural world.

Images displayed may be purchased as a signed framed or unframed print. Please visit www.geoffsimpsonphotography.com for further information or telephone +44(0) 1663 743 089 or mobile +44 (0) 7792 307 469.

Please respect Geoff’s work and do not use without gaining permission.

Thank you for visiting!