Shrewsbury beavers named Beryl and Bertie after school poll
A shortlist of the names suggested by schoolchildren was released earlier this month and the public were asked to vote for their final choice.Nutmeg and Acorn were suggested by pupils at Meole Brace Primary School, and Charlie and Darwin came from Longnor CofE and Clive CofE primaries.The beavers were transported to Shropshire from Scotland, and their release into the nature reserve is one of a number of recent projects in enclosed areas in the UK.It is hoped Beryl and Bertie will help to maintain the Old River Bed nature reserve, which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
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Daily Record
11 hours ago
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Spectator
3 days ago
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Farming is hard, and sheep farming especially so. Sheep are endearing but awkward creatures, generally looking for the most inconvenient way to die. The weather is usually miserable. Lambing is an annual torment. The government is always dreaming up new ways to make things harder. In a real sense, I'm writing this because sheep farming is so hard. That's what persuaded me to leave the bleak, beautiful hills of Northumberland and make my living from writing and talking in bland, warm rooms in London. But my heart is still there, in the hills. My family too, and their sheep. So I continue to take an interest in the life of rural Northumberland, including in various attempts by well-meaning campaigners to reimagine the place as a stage for their environmental dreams. One such dream is the reintroduction of the lynx. For several years now, various groups have been pushing for the release into the Northumbrian countryside of the Eurasian lynx. These are magnificent beasts whose advocates say could play a vital role in local ecosystems. Not everyone is entirely persuaded, however. If you spend your waking life trying to keep sheep alive, the idea of 70-odd pounds of teeth and claws prowling your fields at night might just raise a few questions. But such doubts would spoil the story that lynx advocates appear keen to tell. Even though previous attempts to bring the lynx to Northumberland have been roundly rejected by local people, the lynx people are undeterred and continue to make their pitch. The latest drive comes from the Missing Lynx Project, a coalition of wildlife groups. It's got some headlines this week with a report that it says shows strong public support for releasing lynx into Northumberland's Kielder Forest and the surrounding areas of Cumbria and southern Scotland. Here's how they put it in their press release: A year-long social consultation has found that 72 per cent of people in the project area of Northumberland, bordering areas of Cumbria and southern Scotland, support potential lynx reintroduction. That line has already bounced around the media: '72 per cent of people in the region support their reintroduction', the BBC reports faithfully. Except that's not what the actual report says. This report details a commendably serious and reflective attempt to examine public opinion relating to lynx introduction. But that attempt is based on a large exercise in sampling bias. The 72 per cent figure comes from a self-selecting group drawn from people who visited a pro-lynx exhibition, attended talks, or voluntarily filled in a questionnaire organised by the same group campaigning for the reintroduction. 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Western Telegraph
5 days ago
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