ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Freelance journalist and film-maker Richard Fleury has reported on everything from marine life to motor racing. His writing has appeared in numerous national magazines and newspapers including The Times, The Guardian, Wired and The Red Bulletin.
IT'S A CRISP WINTER morning in Kent. I'm on the trail of a giant that once roamed prehistoric Britain alongside woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats. A muddy car park between a caravan dealer and a car body shop seems an unusual place to begin, but waiting for me are Tom Gibbs and Donovan Wright: Britain's first bison rangers.
This spring, bison return to the UK following an absence of thousands of years. A pioneering conservation scheme will reintroduce these long-lost mega-mammals to one of south-east England's largest areas of ancient woodland.
Tom and Don are based at Wildwood wildlife park, 8km outside Canterbury on the edge of the sprawling Blean Woods, known as 'the Blean'. Selected from over 1,200 applicants for 2021's coolest job vacancy, Tom and Don can't quite believe their luck. “I still have to pinch myself,” says Tom, previously a conservation officer for Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust.
Funded by the People's Postcode Lottery, the scheme - called Wilder Blean - is a collaboration between the Wildwood Trust and the Kent Wildlife Trust. Don describes the £1,575,000 project as "very special”. As a former safari ranger in southern Africa, he should know.
This story is from the April 2022 edition of BBC Wildlife.
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This story is from the April 2022 edition of BBC Wildlife.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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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.
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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.
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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
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Urgent action is needed to ensure survival of the Yoda-like primate
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The winners of the Wildlife Artist of the Year competition 2024, from David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation
