Dear All,
First - an apology. This is going to be a little off topic today ... but ... there is good cause! Today marks the publication of my latest book, one I have been working on for a long time. And one that does feature a lot about hedgehogs. Just not in the way we are used to thinking of them.
The book is available from all good bookshops and evil online corporations. It is also available from the publishers - and they have said I can offer you a 20% discount if you buy from here. Just at the code: COTW20 when you check out. This means it is cheaper than Amazon!
But before I tell you about the hedgehogs in my new book, some of you may have seen the sweetest story in the press about the bobble-hat hedgehog ...
So a well meaning rescuer picked up a baby hedgehog they found - put it in a box with some food and went to a hedgehog hospital ... only to find they had been caring for the bobble from the top of a hat ...
That might sound very silly - but ... I sympathise! When I have been out doing hedgehog fieldwork, there have been many occasions when shining my torch across a field as I walk has created the impression of a moving shape - which has led me to jump into the field and run to the ... cowpat!
Back to Cull of the Wild - this book starts with hedgehogs. The very first fieldwork I ever did was looking into the impact of the hedgehogs introduced to the most northerly of the Orkneys, North Ronaldsay, on ground nesting birds. There were no hogs up there until 1974, when the postman brought over a couple from the mainland - to help control garden pests.
I was up there in 1986 as part of my degree, went back in 1991 to repeat the work and see if the airlift that was organised after I had left had made a difference.
This got me involved with the Uist hedgehog story - remember that? Back in 2003 the RSPB and Nature Scotland started killing the hedgehogs on these Outer Hebridean islands - to try and protect ground nesting birds.
I did the research that helped stop that cull.
At the same time in New Zealand, conservationists had started killing hedgehogs for the same reason (hogs were exported to the NZ in the 1860s because they made the colonialists feel more at home!) Hedgehogs are having a serious impact on native wildlife. And I could not see a reason to not kill those hedgehogs.
This apparent contradiction is at the heart of Cull of the Wild: Killing in the Name of Conservation. Should we intervene? Should we play god?
I argue that we have a responsibility to try and clear up the mess we humans have made - and that letting 'nature runs its course' is simply dumping a whole lot more weight on the already overburdened shoulders of the natural world.
Obviously, it would be better to that without killing any more animals. But the cases I encounter as I have researched the book have left me realising that sometimes there is no choice.
This has been a very difficult book for me as it has forced my heart and my head into a deep confrontation ... I will be fascinated to find out what you think. If change.org had not messed up the ability for us to communicate in the comments, that would have been a good space. For now - well - twitter and instagram are probably best - as the hog highways Facebook group is not really the place to chat about this book.
If you would like to know more about the book - and don't want to buy it (yet!) - I have written a number of articles/interviews. Have a read and see what you think ...
Psychology Today - particularly interesting as the person interviewing me disagrees strongly with what I have written - though we disagree quite agreeably!
Geographical Magazine - did a gorgeous review.
Here endeth the advert - this is a rather huge moment for me - releasing this book into the wild ... I am both excited for and dreading the reactions ... just hope that people realise how complicated ecology really is ... and maybe, just maybe, this book will help get the understanding of ecology pushed a little higher up the agenda.
Back to 'normal' next time!