Thought you might enjoy this @georgemonbiot.bsky.social - you may even have snuck into the narrative!

Trying to be more active here again. So starting my comeback with a short story in the form of a news feature from an alternative universe - one where the Pleistocene megafauna of mammoths, sabre-toothed cats, giant wombats and so much more survived to today petemrcooper.substack.com/p/the-last-b...

My brother’s put forward the first motion to give a British river the same legal rights as people! Very proud and would love to see more of this from other local authorities. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Thanks to @petemrcooper.bsky.social who reviews our book Great Misconceptions - Rewilding Myths and Misunderstandings in this. @markavery.bsky.social @irishrainforest.bsky.social @chrissperring.bsky.social @iancarter67.bsky.social @landethics.bsky.social #books #rewilding

This is a really satisfying image. A new Dalmatian Pelican colony established themselves on artificial islands in Bulgaria, but this photo looks like it could easily be in front of a retail park in Norfolk!

Behind all that Lynx chat, Britain’s more successfully ‘bombed’ mammal have come a wee bit closer to home.

So this is instant dystopian #Anthropocene #ClimateChange gif material 👇

The red-backed shrike, known as the butcher bird for its habit of impaling prey corpses on thorns etc, has been virtually extinct as a UK breeding species for decades. That it was once common is apparent from Richard Jefferies’s description of taking the train from London to Brighton in the 1880s.

The wood is wild. The wood is wyrd. In childhood we know it as the living border with Faerie. As adults we still half-suspect it is a pocket of high strangeness. Any examination of the living current of folklore would give us plenty of reasons to reinforce this summation. – Dr. M. Benn, 1982 #Woods

Christmas Eve Eve present yesterday in the form of two White-tailed Eagles at Keyhaven - who needs Santa when you have Roy Dennis. Cherry on top of great morning’s birding with pals which included Spoonbill, Curlew, hunting Kingfisher and 100s of Brent Geese and Golden Plover.

I used to watch Barn Owls, which nested in the barn and hunted just outside, in this meadow as a teenager 13 years ago. It’s now about as far from optimal barnie habitat as you can get. But at least the Little Egrets poking round the cattle, which I’ve never seen here before, were happy.

An amazing opportunity to join the WildwoodTrust team and help to lead on rewilding our UK native species as our Director of Conservation and Rewilding. www.wildwoodtrust.org/job-vacancie...

Well that’s just made me cry on the inside. (FYI both the dog and the aquarium are now dead)

Grey Wagtails are another one of those birds we under appreciate due to their familiarity. Just watch them, they’re like garden birds wearing met gala dresses doing dance racing. If they were super rare y’all would be all over that shit.

So I’ve just begun importing my old tweets with blue ark. 14 years of Twitter history all descending here! Feels like the last day of unpacking in a new house.

Why is @gwruk.bsky.social such a consistent fecking joke. Train to Bristol not even due to depart for another five mins and it’s like factory farming sardines in here. Not safe and absolute daylight robbery. World away from Europe.

New lil’ cultural titbit of Glow-worms added to the pile! With my unintentional recreation ‘Aurora Borealis and the Glow-worm’ from Gloucestershire this summer.

I remember downloading the app designed to pick up the calls of the New Forest Cicada over 10ya in the hope of rediscovering this species. Alas it was fruitless, but in another decade’s time let’s hope things are different thanks to this brilliant girl’s help. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Worthwhile reading. Just as we wouldn’t suggest putting Ibex in the lowlands, both ecological and archeological evidence suggests Bison are not well suited to Spain. conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A couple of years ago I wrote an essay about avian influenza within a Dalmatian pelican colony and this was the great fear of the experts I spoke to. One said, "If it becomes easily transmissible to humans it could make Covid look like a birthday party." www.theguardian.com/world/2024/n...

Ah yes the, uh, Periwinkle www.theargus.co.uk/news/2472507...

You know that wilding and reintroductions gave entered the mainstream when you can’t even get away from this sort of thing while washing your hands in the Minsmere toilets (hehe I love it)

This is not a drill, a mummified sabretooth cat has been published from the #Pleistocene permafrost of Russia. It's a Homotherium cub! The team (Lopatin et al.) reckon it's Homotherium latidens. It's too young to have enlarged upper canines. Paper is OA ... www.nature.com/articles/s41... cont...

The captive Glow-worm colony, part of a reintroduction project with Lower Ure Conservation Trust, have donned their sleeping caps and gone into winter diapause. Last week I moved them to their new shed home at Westbury Wildlife Park Foundation where there’ll rest up until spring.

Anyone can re-introduce *wolves* - bring back the 7ft tall soul-eating Irish Elk, you cowards

I’ll linger here till the floodwaters have fully consumed the place in filth (it’s rising quicker by the day), but the transfer has begun. Find me at https://bsky.app/profile/petemrcooper.bsky.social

Test test, distinct lack of facists. That’s nice.

When I take people to see my animals, one of the 1st questions they ask is, "what use is it?" … Does a creature have to be of direct material use to mankind in order to exist? …you are asking the animal to justify its existence without having justified your own. - G. Durrell

Amazing to see the apologists for raptor persecution still deflecting in the face of actual footage of a hen harrier being shot by a keeper. You couldn’t make it up.

A slow news day at the star

First 2 Redwings of the year. If you were in any doubt summer was over, that’s the absolute nail ❄️

Elephants seeing they're classed as ungulates under UK government import legislation:

I'd almost rather have another Coypu mistaken ID than this weird, AI created beaver-otter hybrid. At least the former is real. Why do orgs think this is a good look?

My achievement for the week is getting “lost in the sauce” on Guardian country diary. Thanks so much to @AmyJaneBeer for covering the first of several Glow-worm reintroductions into @NosterfieldLNR 💡 🐛...

If I was to be any Werecreature it would be a Werebinturong purely so I could say “if I’m binturong I don’t want to be binturight”

Thought about this tweet nearly two years on. The hotel undertaking the wilding project went bust, but of course the golf course will have continued to rewild itself - provided whoever ends up buying the site allows it to continue.

Day between conference and meeting, except it’s up in the Cairngorms. Cue Caledonian Forest, Crested Tits, glimpse of (properly wild!) Beavers and Badger and Pine Marten on slow night drives. Yes please.

Speaking to a species specialist recently on the idea of reintroducing a nationally extinct species of dung beetle, while supportive of the idea their telling first response was “the entomologists will hate it” Reading recent tweets about choughs, it’s the case across the board.

One of my fave moments from Sarah Watts at #BigPictureScotland - how her 8 year-old son, growing up used to Beavers 50 metres from the door in Tayside, asked how “a really, really long time ago, there wasn’t beavers here?” Sometimes shifting baseline syndrome ain’t so bad.

Today I’ve been very proud to have released 480 Glow-worm larvae I’ve reared this summer to Nosterfield Nature Reserve in Yorkshire! Here’s a bit about the project 🧵

Two weeks ago while on a family gathering in Cornwall, I was delighted to find there were Adders in the garden of the place we were staying - way better than fairies. And even better that none of my nephews or nieces showed any fear, instead just widespread awe and curiosity.

7pm tonight for the online premier of Beavers in Paradise - how some very excellent people bought the critters right into London! https://bit.ly/4cQ9gPT

As an over-specialised animal ecologist for things that are hairy or glow, I’m belatedly undertaking a UKhabs course today. I’m therefore very pleased to see this new code.

Is there a word in German for these kind of photos? From just behind St Genny’s church near Crackington Haven in Cornwall last week.

Amazing - admiring the botanical and insect life of the medieval fields of Forrabury Stitches, and just saw an Osprey fly out of Boscastle Harbour! Headed along the coast southwards @CornwallBrdNews

should we be concerned

It’s funny how when the science and facts do not add up to what someone personally believes, it’s swiftly renounced as propaganda with zero facts and zero science.

Me trying to subtly carry on past the courting couple while I’m out birdwatching

Double natural wonder lights last night - a Glow-worm casts her illumination below the Aurora Borealis.

Highlighting the bigot just after I blocked him so if anyone else naturey is following you can do the same xox