WOOP WOOP CONSERVATION CONVERSATION
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COLLECTORS EDITION NOVEMBER | 2022
WOOP WOOP ‘A place far away, unfamiliar and difficult to get to’
WO O P WO O P MAGAZINE EDITOR IN CHIEF Lewis Phillips
EDITOR
INTRODUCTION
Faith Millward
WOOP WOOP - ‘A place far away, unfamiliar and difficult to get to’ This is the start of something new. Heralding a new era of conservation; one that is accessible, authentic and accurate
OPERATIONS Ben Ap Hywel
FRONT COVER Chris Couch
BACK COVER Lewis Phillips
OUR STATEMENT ‘We strive to unlock the serious debate on nature, the environment , the planet and humankind’ We want to give our readers content that may not normally be accessible, allowing the writers and photographers to portray the emotion behind their labours. A visually led magazine to inspire and inform on interesting topics, whilst communicating the reality of the ‘Conservation Conversation’.
CONTACT US
info@woopwoopmagazine.co.uk
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WOOP WOOP ‘A place far away, unfamiliar and difficult to get to’
Contributors and Thanks
Paul Whitfield Mark Habben Sally Holt Vicky Breakell Josh Miers Katrin Lohegral Jack Gradidge Toby Forer
The Caring Family Dominic Harris Kathryn Lo Jim Clubb Jonathan Glynn-Smith Beth Stewart Julia Bracewell Jenny MacPherson
Jemima Parry-Jones MBE Philip Orrell Sophia Fagan Simon Jeffereys Emma Owen Darren Priddle David Rampling Koen Cuyten
Gareth Davies Colin Clegg Frankie Hobro Penny Billington Mark Keir Lee Jenkins Patricia Medici Helen MacDonald Eliott Bullpett Tim Parkin Roger Morgan Richard Birchett
Dr Craig Shuttleworth Colin Preece Steven Mathews Kerri Wolter Paul Bullimore Josh Torlop Barbara Royle Llana Young Benny Hawksbee Vicky Ashdown Tyler Whitnall Aaron WhitnalL
Ingrid Vermeulen Tim Doyle Trigon Farm Natasha Winn Emma Lock Neil Garrick-Maidment Ellen Bassam Phil Sheldrake Mary Thomas Katie Baker Jim Bliss Alison Ensor
Sustainability Credits At WOOP WOOP Magazine, we constantly review many aspects of the production process as we believe that everyone should play a in part in looking after our planet for future generations. Our publications are printed by Stephens & George Ltd, an award-winning environmentally-friendly printer based in Wales, UK. Copies are produced using vegetable-based inks combined with the latest “chemical free” plate and Heidelberg press technology. All papers are sourced from well managed, sustainable forests and their vast supply chain hold many environmental accreditations. In addition to this, they hold a Climate Change Agreement along with ISO14001, ISO9001, FSC, PEFC and offer Carbon Balancing via The World Land Trust. They achieved a E2B Silver award for energy improvements along with an E2B Gold award for recycling and the majority of all their waste is recycled.
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CONTENTS EUROPEAN BISON
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GREYHOUNDS 184
THE WILDWOOD TRUST | KENT | ENGLAND
LOWLAND GORILLA
GREYHOUND RESCUE WALES | AMMANFORD | WALES
18
BEAVERS 192
ASPINALL FOUNDATION | PORT LYMPNE | ENGLAND
WALES
VULTURES 26
CLOUDED LEOPARDS
MAGALIESBERG MOUNTAIN RANGE | PRETORIA | SOUTH AFRICA
EXMOOR ZOO | DEVON | ENGLAND
GREY SEALS
34
AMAZING ANIMALS 208
DORSET COASTLINE | ENGLAND
ANNABEL’ S FOR THE AMAZON
HEYTHROP ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS | OXFORDSHIRE | ENGLAND
40
TRIGON FARM | DEVON | ENGLAND
BADGERS 48
WHAT’ S IN OUR SOIL?
CEREDIGION | WALES
GREAT BRITAIN -&- IRELAND
56 62
OTTERS 232 WALES
68
SEAHORSES 238
WORSLEY | MANCHESTER | ENGLAND
HONEY BEES
220
ABERCYCH | SOUTH WEST WALES
SEATTLE | USA -&- SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA
BARN OWLS
214
HEDGEHOGS 226
TRENTHAM MONKEY FOREST | STOKE-ON-TRENT | ENGLAND
SNOW LEOPARDS
WILDLIFE CORRIDORS
BERKELEY SQUARE | LONDON | ENGLAND -&- BRAZIL | SOUTH AMERICA
BARBARY MACAQUES
198
THE SEAHORSE TRUST | DEVON | ENGLAND
76
TAPIRS 244
FORTNUM & MASON | LONDON | ENGLAND
ASPINALL FOUNDATION | PORT LYMPNE | ENGLAND
GARDEN OF EDEN 82
GERONIMO 250
CLAPHAM | LONDON | ENGLAND
A STORY ABOUT AN ALPACA
ASIAN ELEPHANTS
88
THE TRUE COST OF CHEAP MEAT
CHESTER ZOO | CHESTER | ENGLAND
GREAT BRITAIN -&- IRELAND
A FAMILY AFFAIR 96
FAIR GAME
PARADISE WILDLIFE PARK | HERTFORDSHIRE | ENGLAND
A FEAST FIT FOR A KING
RED PANDAS
102
TAKE YOUR FANCY!
106
ARTFUL JOGGER
THE VINCENT WILDLIFE TRUST | HERTFORDSHIRE | ENGLAND
WILD CATS
258
PANTRY 262
PARADISE WILDLIFE PARK | HERTFORDSHIRE | ENGLAND
PINE MARTENS
254
264
SOUTH COAST | ENGLAND
NATURE ’ S TONICS
112
268
THE WILDWOOD TRUST | KENT | ENGLAND
MEDICAL MARVELS
PERMACULTURE 116
WATCH 272
GLOUCESTERSHIRE | ENGLAND
SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND
BOTTLENOSE DOLPHINS 120
A TALE OF TWO TURTLES
SEAWATCH FOUNDATION | CEREDIGION | WALES
ANGLESEY SEA ZOO | WALES
RED DEER
WHO WAS SHE?
128
274 280
EXMOOR | SOMERSET | ENGLAND
SOMEWHERE IN WALES
CALL OF THE WILD 138
ZOYSA 284
THE HIGHLANDS | SCOTLAND
EXMOOR ZOO | DEVON | ENGLAND
KING HENRY III ’ s MENAGERIE 146
PEREGRINE FALCONS
THE TOWER OF LONDON | LONDON | ENGLAND
SALISBURY CATHEDRAL | SALISBURY | ENGLAND
BLACK RHINOCEROS
152
AVIAN INFLUENZA
FOLLY FARM | PEMBROKESHIRE | WALES
DOGS FOR WILDLIFE
290
A GLOBAL ISSUE
162
SPOTTING A SLOW TRAIN CRASH
CARMARTHEN | WALES -&-SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
THE HEN HARRIER
286
298
AN ESSAY
168
EMZOTIC
302
GLOUCESTERSHIRE | ENGLAND -&- UK MOORLAND
INFLUENCER - DENVER | COLORADO | USA
NATURE’S IMAGE 172
NATURALLY DRAWN 310
NORTH DEVON BIRD OF PREY CENTRE | ENGLAND
ILLUSTRATOR - UK
BROWN BEARS
176
RHENEN | NETHERLANDS
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16
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54
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116
PERMACULTURE
GLOUCESTERSHIRE | ENGLAND
I always thought of myself as a nature lover. I have worked for the Wildlife Trust in the past, encouraging composting and wildlife friendly gardening and I have been a perma-culture addict ever since I gained the certificate in 2000, and eventually a diploma in 2013. I have even opened our garden to the public, running open days, workshops and tours showing all the encouraging ways we can grow food, harvest fuel, build low impact buildings and bring thriving bio-diversity into a domestic garden. Yes, I felt I truly understood how to be part of the solution, not the problem. But one day it dawned on me, I was feeling less than understanding about nature; indeed, I was downright angry with it! Now, I expect most gardeners have experienced annoyance at an invasive weed or an explosion of slugs and thought little of it, yet noticing my angry reaction to some crop being decimated came as a revelation to me. When I actually owned up to this stress it hit me hard; here was the point where I had started to think I knew best, the point where I had mentally and emotionally separated from the bigger picture. I had gone into battle with one tiny element, deemed a ‘pest’ to most, but now I saw this emotional disconnection caused by a misunderstanding which could perhaps be extrapolated to the core of our global environmental crisis. Many nature lovers might know we breathe in what trees breathe out, we eat food which was once soil and sunlight, that the water inside us has also been in rivers, seas and clouds. Rationally, people may recognise our bodies are Earth grown and therefore dependent on the set of nested ecosystems surrounding us, but clearly, rational thought is not driving our behaviour towards the planet. So what is? Standing there dismayed, it became obvious to me. We are driven by an emotional disconnect that happens whenever we consider ourselves under attack, or more precisely whenever something we consider ‘ours’ is threatened; be it livelihoods, lifestyles, or even a crop of lettuce, it seems! A garden might just be the place where we can watch this pattern at work because gardening is a two-way relationship, if we are prepared to listen, and is not just a lovely walk in the woods. We have an idea of what we want to grow, we put it into action and then nature tells us something else needs to happen instead! It is at that point we have a choice: to crack down or crack open. There is the knife-edge where we decide if we are working with or against nature, for even when we know the theory, our emotions will tell us when we have forgotten we are part of something much, much vaster. There and then is the opportunity to witness an uncomfortable truth and our stress is the messenger.
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AMAZING ANIMALS HEYTHROP ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS | OXFORDSHIRE | ENGLAND
The 1950’s was undeniably the golden age for many of the zoological gardens that we love today; Chester zoo, London zoo and Bristol zoo had all come into their own and started to explore how to make their collections more accessible to visitors in an engaging way. Some of these ideas, such as reptile shows, ape scatter feeding, penguin feeding and parrot shows, remain a fixture even now in certain establishments; guests will see a Macaw flying from perch to perch with the aide of a favourite treat, displaying its’ huge wingspan and glorious coloured feathers at full extension, or a penguin displaying its’ underwater acrobatics as it dives for fish thrown by the keepers. These displays are engineered to not only give the audience a better understanding of the animal’s capabilities, but to illicit a sense of awe at how truly magnificent and complex these creatures are. Jim Clubb is the owner of Heythrop zoological gardens and like most animal lovers, started his career with a handful of ‘pets’ that he observed and tended to with careful consideration, gradually finding himself completely bewitched by the differing attributes and potentials of each species in his care. Whilst most young boys at 12 years old might have been collecting toy cars, Jim was content with his back garden menagerie of two monkeys, a slow loris, a raccoon, a fox and a host of reptiles. Despite this exotic array of potential partnerships, it was the humble ferret that became the species that provided Jim with his first insight into the possibilities of humans working with animals. Training with his pets simply for fun, he found that by providing a food reward they soon were able to perform tricks and follow his instructions. Jim had no professional training when it came to working with animals, just an avid curiosity and an appreciation for his pets. In the 1970’s, Jim joined Chipperfield’s circus; it was within this environment that he was able to expand on the positive reinforcement training that had tentatively started in his back-garden at 12 years old, with his pet ferrets – only now it was with big cats! At that time, the circus remained the only place that you could really learn about training wild animals. Whilst nowadays we have fallen staunchly out of love with the once thriving circus setting, it is important to remember that the Chipperfield’s (possibly the oldest circus family, with roots in animal training that can be traced back to the Thames Frost fayre in the 1600’s) were also instrumental in creating both Longleat and Woburn safari parks; establishments that remain both lucrative and popular in present day. Outfits that owe a lot of their acclaim to the capacity for visitors to get within close-proximity to the rarer animals in a more ‘true-to-the-wild’ setting; again, in the hope of showcasing some of the animal’s individual capabilities and inform the audience on each species. Jimmy Chipperfield was the pioneer of these projects. With decades of experience in animal husbandry from a lifetime within the circus community, it is hard to dispute that the plans for these safari parks could have been born from witnessing the awe of his audiences when his big cats would jump or roar on request.
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302
EMZOTIC
INFLUENCER - DENVER | COLORADO | USA Emma Lock (or ‘Emzotic’) is an Animal Educator and content creator. She is best known for her “Creature Feature” series on YouTube, and for her former work as a Zookeeper. Em is also the author of the book ‘Animal Kind’, which is a collection of true, short stories of pet ownership. In 2018, Em released a limited edition necklace which raised thousands of dollars for Honey Bee conservation, and in 2020 she donated the profits made from her book to equip frontline workers in the fight against Covid19. In 2021, Em assisted Douglas Thron, of the hit Curiosity Stream show ‘Doug to the Rescue’, in the effort to locate missing pets via infrared drone, following devastating wildfires in Colorado. Em is also currently the Director of Partnerships for Zen Habitats a reptile enclosure company breaking the tradition of “minimum space requirements”, and is a board member for ‘The Biodiversity Group’, ‘AnimalCon USA’, and ‘The Flora Fauna Conference’. We talk to ‘Emzotic’ about her career in animal education, her many pets and why she feels that social media can play a crucial role is aiding conservation effort.
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