Top Five Insects I’ve Seen – #1 – The Ruby-tailed wasp (Chrysis sp. or family Chrysididae)

As if you didn’t know it’d be a wasp! But look at it. It’s the wasp I show people to use as a crowbar to talk about wasp diversity. The first thing people who don’t know wasps say when you show them this little beauty, or any of their family, the chrysididae, is “Is that

Top Five Insects I’ve Seen – #4 – The Rose Chafer (Cetonia aurata)

I was initially going to write a list of top five most striking UK insects but alas when I actually put grey matter to the task I realised the list would be mostly, if not exclusively, beetles. Beetles, the order coleoptera, are a huge group. Of all the species described in the world somewhere around

Caturday Special: The Sand Cat, Felis margarita

The sandcat, one of the cutest and most amazing cats on the planet. This small, adorable bundle of fluff has been known to eat desert monitor lizards its own size and venomous snakes – although mostly it eats small rodents, lizards, birds and insects. They rarely drink, using their efficient kidneys to obtain moisture from their prey. They’re just unbelievable, something this cute should not be so tough but they are hard as nails and can teach us a lot about how we should adapt to our environment rather than unsustainably developing techniques and technologies that force our environment to adapt to us.

Be more sandcat.

On the Origin of a Species: The Red Panda, Ailurus fulgens

A look at this taxonomically, physiologically, anatomically confusing but absolutely, undoubtedly cute little species, the red panda, Ailurus fulgens. Once thought related to raccoons, or the giant panda, it now stands in a family of its own proving, even to cynics like me, that taxonomy is not just useless bickering about arbitrary classifications.

Caturday Special: The Marbled Cat (Pardofelis marmorata)

A look at one of the world’s most elusive but beautiful cats, Asia’s marbled cat. A small cat that lives and hunts in the trees (arboreal) and has exceptionally long canine teeth for reasons we will discuss.

Hated (But Misunderstood) Animals: Final Thoughts

A short summary of the work I did on learning about, and writing about the top ten hated species who really don’t deserve to be.

I reflect on my thoughts and feelings of what I’ve learned about different species, how I felt about it, what it has given me moving forward and give a little personal perspective.

It’s been a genuine project! I can’t even say I put this much effort in when I was an undergrad. And I am changed because of it.

Top Ten Hated (But Misunderstood) Animals – 1 – Wasps

It’s about wasps!

Top Ten Hated (But Misunderstood) Animals – 3 – The European Herring Gull (Larus argentatus)

Or your native ‘nuisance’ gull species. Where I come from it is mostly the herring gull (Larus argentatus), possibly also the yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis). In the US they have the American herring gull (Larus smithsonianus). In Australia, the silver gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae). There are lots of gull species and almost every inhabited area has

Top Ten Hated (But Misunderstood) Animals – 7- The Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes)

A defence of the fox in a PR war that the anti-fox lobby is definitely losing. The UK’s largest predator, a beautiful canid, the red fox, Vulpes vulpes, is a shining example of adaptive success. They are wonderful animals, a true blessing to see in our countryside and our urban environments, a great control of over-abundant rabbits and a consumer of our waste food saving us untold amounts of money on waste disposal. The fox still has a reputation, mainly due to a lobby determined to see it held up as a villain to justify their own bloodsport. Fox hunting is an abhorrent and unjustifiable practice that should be totally banned.