My first actual contact with nature was when at 18 months old I liked to think I looked after a toad, she had fallen through the grill over our cellar window at our house in Highweek Village in Devon. In reality this toad which was living in a small square of well-rotted material, damp with tongue ferns and mosses and had plenty of juicy worms and other insects, did not need me.
My parents allowed me to play with toys in the cellar room. They never knew I had managed to open the window below the grill. There I found this huge toad looking at me in that surprised fashion toads have. As it gulped I knew it needed me to take care of it. At every opportunity I washed it with a little piece of soap that was left in the basin in the cellar where my father washed his hands after working in the garden. I used a small piece of tattered flannel. Fortunately the toad was always doused with clean water before being returned to its home extremely happy at such loving treatment. At least that is what I surmised at my tiny age.
My next encounter was on Boxing Day of 1947 at 21 months old. I was driven onto Dartmoor by my father to see the Hunt meet at Haytor. For a blissful time I was surrounded by slobbering fox hounds. I can remember my mother was cross as I had a new red coat covered in slobber. My father was very relaxed. He had only recently returned from India and was more relaxed about family life.
When I was little over 3 years old, my sister was born. After the birth I was called in to meet Susan. I could not see what all the fuss was about. I looked out of the window over the hills towards Newton Abbot. It was after all the best day of my life. I watched a huge fox walking slowly across, it was to me the size of an Alsatian, it was red and there was a frost, it glowed in the winter light. I was consumed and that early age I knew I wanted to work with animals. From then on my life was lived with and for animals although I enjoyed and still enjoy a useful career as a Chartered Accountant. The person I most admired was the great conservationist Gerald Durrell. I was lucky enough to volunteer at his zoo in Jersey in its infancy.
The most populous bird ever lived was the Passenger Pigeon. It is said that a flock of millions of birds would darken the skies for days. They were shot in their millions some were eaten, some were left to rot in pickling barrels. Most, millions were shot for fun. The last bird died in a zoo before I was born.
But there is hope the Rothschild’s Myah was devastated in its only Island habitat for two reasons. The wealthy residents evidenced their wealth by hanging a cage outside their homes with a single resident Bali Mynah (their other name). Their beauty is astounding – pure white with pale blue facial skin and black bars on wings and tails. The pet trade soon engulfed thousands. Today they are all but extinct. Zoological institutions have bred nearly 400 around the world and soon when proper reserves are safe guarded they will be released back in their homelands of Bali.
The American and Canadian prairies were the home of tens of millions of Bison, wrongly called Buffalo in the Wild West. These creatures had roamed, quite unaffected by the relative few killed by the endemic peoples who used every part, meat, skins, sinews and bones. Then came civilised man. The Bison were shot up for fun. They were shot to feed workers as the railways were built and they were shot up in their millions by employees of the canning factories. Unbelievably, only the tongues were canned. The carcases were left to rot. Inevitably the Bison was on the brink of extinction, only the careful administration of committed conservationists and government’s recovered numbers just in time.
In Britain, birds of prey were shot up by game keepers and were the victims of egg collectors. As if that was not enough the few left were decimated by chemicals used on the land which softened the egg shells so that they failed to breed.
Finally the chemicals were banned. The conservationists’ warnings were heeded but not universally. When my wife Cherry and I were born there were just 3 Red Kites in Wales. Now we have watched as many as 800 all feeding at a feeding site arranged and supported by the RSPB.
Peregrine Falcons were so rare that they were virtually never seen. Now they nest in our great cities like London and Bristol. There are numerous examples of where things have gone wrong but we are putting them right slowly.
We at The Cornwall Nature Conservancy are trying to add to this by keeping rare and endangered British and worldwide animals, breeding them and being part of breeding programmes that are worthwhile and meaningful. We also are closely connected to Local Education Foundations and work alongside them to encourage younger people to understand the necessity for and methods of conservation.
We keep and breed and on many occasions released such British animals as Scottish Wild Cat, European Otters, Water Voles, Harvest Mice, Pine Martins, Polecats and Barn Owls and we have just started a breeding programme for Hedgehogs using rescued permanently injured creatures that cannot be released. All these animals have suffered devastating reduction in numbers in the wild. The latest estimate for Scottish Wild Cats is just 50 animals left.
We are particularly committed to the breeding of worldwide cats, most of which have suffered from excesses of hunting and the fur trade. But Cat “Coats” look best on Cats. We keep Mountain Lions, Lynx, Ocelot, Fishing Cats, Servals, Jaguarundi, and Leopard Cats and of course the Scottish Wild Cat. We have bred almost of these successfully except for the Ocelot. We are looking for a suitable partner for our male, and the Lynx. We have two beautiful female Lynx but the male we have obtained is still too young to breed.
We keep other rare animals, such as tortoises rescued by customs and excise after illegal entry to the UK. Another animal which was rescued by the Courts from a pet shop are Tenrecs. These are very interesting animals from Madagascar which is subject to slash and burn policies and the subsequent loss of habitat. We rescued two pairs and both have bred. Now two other institutions keep some of our off spring. Tenrecs are small creatures that are very early in evolutionary terms. They are just above the egg laying mammals, the platypus and the Echidna. These tenrec were being sold as pet hedgehogs.
As already said, Rothschild’s Mynahs are one of the most beautiful birds in the world and again because of the pet trade and habitat destruction have become extinct in the last few decades. We have a small collection and have bred many over the last few years.