Sue Sayer is founder and director of Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust. Her passion for seals began more than 20 years ago, when she answered an advert in the local paper for somebody to help on a monitoring project. That day, Sayer learned something that was to change her life: that every seal has got a unique fur pattern.
“As soon as I knew that, I could start answering questions,” she says. Was that three seals she was watching in the bay? Or the same one bobbing up three times? Sayer initially thought her own seal colony consisted of about 30 individuals. She now estimates more than 800 pass through.
The intervening 20 years has taught Sayer many things about seals – not least just how sensitive they are to human disturbance.
Holiday hordes
Recent research conducted by the trust has shown that at sites around St Ives, seals were disturbed an astonishing 14 times per hour. Perhaps most worrying of all, a major cause of these disturbances (40 per cent across all sites) was commercial wildlife tour boats.
This is the essential conundrum of wildlife tourism – the very real danger that we might destroy the very thing we have come to see.
Given the chaotic scenes in the UK countryside last year, when lockdown restrictions were eased, many who work with wildlife are bracing themselves for a similar onslaught during this ‘staycation summer’, caused by restrictions on overseas holidays.
Jump Around - Bagheera Kiplingi - The acrobatic spider with a predilection for veggie food
Spiders eat flies, right? everyone knows that the 45,000 or so spiders in the world are all obligate carnivores, more or less – eating other animals, mainly invertebrates. Nature, however, loves an exception, and one particular spider missed out on that ecological memo. It goes by the wonderful scientific name of Bagheera kiplingi, and its claim to fame is that its diet is – at least mostly – vegetarian.
Female of the Species - Zebras - A strong sisterhood is key to staying safe
Zebras are masters of confusion. Their collective noun is ‘a dazzle’, which is fitting since their bodies and behaviour have been surprising scientists for centuries.
See It, Save It? - Wildlife tourism can be a powerful ally in protecting nature - but it can also harm it. We weigh up the pros and cons.
The sums of wildlife travel aren’t as simple as more tourists equals happier nature. How much did my visit really contribute to the conservation of Lady Liuwa and her habitat – and was that outweighed by carbon emissions from my flights? Did my presence disturb the animals’ natural behaviour more than it reduced the threat of poaching or benefited local communities?The question of whether wildlife travel is, on balance, good for wildlife is a complex one – and there’s no simple answer.
Can Your Really Offset Emissions? - Planning an overseas wildlife-watching trip entails facing some inconvenient truths
Imagine (or maybe you don't need to) that you hanker after the safari trip of a lifetime in sub-Saharan Africa. A 17-day tour beginning at the iconic Victoria Falls, passing through Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania, taking in some of the continent’s most wildlife-rich national parks, and ending on the lush island of Zanzibar.
Metamorphosis: a life-changing event
WITH EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGIST JV CHAMARY
New series for BBC One: Asia
Settle in this autumn for a new natural-history extravaganza on BBC One and iPlayer: the longawaited Asia, presented by Sir David Attenborough.
Loss of Antarctic sea ice could impact seabird food supply
Albatrosses and petrels may be forced to fly further to feed
Tarsiers in trouble
Urgent action is needed to ensure survival of the Yoda-like primate
SNAP-CHAT
Chien Lee on shrew loos, rogue drones and being rained out of bed
VISIONS OF NATURE
The winners of the Wildlife Artist of the Year competition 2024, from David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation
