Dear All,
I am determined to share with you some of the details from the rest of this brilliant conference. It might take a little while longer yet as I am in a strange situation. My next book leaps into the wild in just over a week - and I have another short book (on nocturnal wildlife - called Five Nights Out) to finish by the end of the month (getting there) and after that another short book on Bats to finish by the end of April. So I have neglected updates a bit, I am sorry.
I am also still very upset with change.org removing our ability to communicate through the comments. We have been ‘talking’ but I remain unsatisfied. They said you could go back to the front of the petition and write in the ‘reasons for signing’ section. But that is not very helpful. For now, I am afraid the best bet is to post your thoughts and queries to the Facebook group - and I know some of you just don’t use that platform, I am sorry.
Okay - you know we are still on the first day of the conference!! I hope you have got an idea of how intense it was … and if you missed the other updates, here are 1, 2, and 3!
Wait - before I launch into this - indefatigable campaigner Maggie Wilcox has launched another petition to try and get more help for hedgehogs - to get developers to check for hogs before destroying habitat. Check it out and sign.
The end of the Saturday featured a session that was aimed much more at the carers than the ecologists - and to be honest I missed quite a bit as I was preparing for what came after …
But - first up was Yannick Van de Weyer from the University of Liverpool talking about the efficacy of three different treatments for Capillaria. These are nematode worms that can parasitise hedgehogs, causing lung disease. The condition is usually referred to as lungworm and causes respiratory trouble for the hogs.
Many rescues screen the hogs faeces for evidence of nematode. And to cut a long (well, not long, but quite involved) story short, they identified one treatment, levamisole, as the treatment of choice. But ended with a warning - ‘Anthelmitic therapy is not without risk and sensible use is advised. The goal of therapy should never be complete parasite elimination, but rather, reducing parasite burdens to acceptable levels which are not associated with clinical signs or failure to thrive.’
Next up was Rikke Hansen, a vet from Denmark. She was talking on the efficacy of different sedatives on hedgehogs.
And final sensible talk of the day - to an somewhat exhausted audience - was Dylan Yaffy, a lecturer in Zoo and Wildlife Pathology at the Royal Veterinary College. He has been collecting samples of a ‘mysterious physical and behavioural syndrome’ seen affecting free-ranging hedgehogs in the UK. These ‘pug-nosed’ hedgehogs have been found by carers. They have a squashed face, shortened limbs and a subdued demeanour.
This is the beginning of ongoing research and I would just like you - especially any carers out there - to have it in mind … if you do get a strange looking hog coming in, Dylan would really like to know - dyaffy6@rvc.ac.uk - but please only contact him if you have a hedgehog that fits the bill.
Finally on the Saturday was me!! I was let loose on this poor, beaten audience with a 30 minute outpouring of silliness! I took them from the starting question of ‘why did the hedgehog cross the road’ through to an exploration of why the hedgehog is the most important creature in the world, and on to a diversion about the strange hedgehog experiences I have had - ending with the International Hedgehog Olympic Games …. Then it was time for food and bed!
Just before you go - my new book - Cull of the Wild: Killing in the Name of Conservation - is rather a big thing for me. I have been working on this for well over two years. It might generate some attention - and I hope it does, because the main aim of the book is to encourage people to take ecology more seriously … if you are outraged at the thought of killing for conservation, have a read and realise quite how complicated life is!
I am often told that we should just leave nature to take her own course … but … that is like dumping the burden of the damage we have done on nature and saying ‘not my fault’ … I believe there are things we have to take responsibility for. Now that does not mean killing is the only solution - but if we decide we will just leave the mess of our ancestors then we are just hoping that nature will clean up our mess - this is very like the way the polluting corporations treat our ecosystem too …
Anyway - I would love you to read the book - from your library, or if you can afford to buy it, then from your local bookshop if possible (the link is to Amazon - it is illustrative and not an endorsement of their tax dodging ways). And then - maybe I will write an update on here when they have sorted out their comments … or - you can heckle on Twitter and Instagram!
ps - I would like to apologise for the cartoon (found on the internet) from Brian Ahearn but it is the best illustration of what you missed from my routine at the conference!