SCULLING his sea kayak in calm waters off the west coast of the High- lands, near Achiltibuie, Andrew Brownlow spotted a shoal of fish riffling the surface. Sea birds appeared as if from nowhere and began to swoop and feed. He paddled on slowly and watched the scene unfold, enjoying the spectacle as he scrutinised it with the professional eye of a veterinary specialist in the marine environment.
Suddenly, 30ft away, the ocean waters boiled up. The black fins of three orcas broke the surface and something delivered a hefty thump to the stern of the kayak. He turned to see a frightened young grey seal had hauled its 130lb weight onto the fragile deck. As Dr Brown- low strove to trim the craft under its unsteady cargo, it dawned on the seal that it had escaped one predator only to share a precarious perch with another. To the relief of both, the hitchhiker slid off, but stayed swimming alongside, maintaining eye contact as if to say: ‘I might have to do that again, if you don’t mind.’
It shouldn’t happen to a vet, as they say, but for Dr Brownlow, director of the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS), which investigates the causes of death of the seals, porpoises, dolphins and whales cast up on our shores, this was a welcome, if dramatic encounter with a living specimen.
The current population dynamics of the UK’s two indigenous seal species are puzzling Dr Brownlow and his SMASS colleagues. Greyseal numbers are sitting at their highest-ever level in the geological history of the North Sea area. The shores of the UK, principally of northern Scotland, where greys have doubled since 1970 to 120,000, are home to more than one-third of the world’s grey-seal population. Meanwhile, UK harbour (or common) seals have declined by 50% since 2000 to 36,000.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der August 02, 2023-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der August 02, 2023-Ausgabe von Country Life UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
