Don't tell anyone will you? I saw a very rare mammal in a field North of Norwich this morning. I raised my rifle to cull it but stayed the shot. Then I saw a few more. Still, I was reluctant to shoot. It wasn't a native British animal although rumour has it that it was once extremely common in the British countryside. Introduced from Europe by the Romans (or was it Normans .. much historic debate about this) it took a foothold in these in isles that changed the landscape. It dug and burrowed, opening out areas of heathland and stripping sapling copses. Over hundreds of years it nibbled our grazing pastures, undermined our railway embankments and fornicated its way into legendary numbers.
From the middle ages, up until last century, it was even farmed for its meat and fur. It became the staple food of the peasant, the badger, the fox and the buzzard yet its penchant for agricultural damage made it many enemies. It became hunted with hound, ferret, net, gun, hawk and snare. Yet still its fecundity outran its persecution. Then, in the mid-twentieth century it was dealt a shameful blow. Biological warfare. The deliberate introduction of a species specific virus called myxomatosis, developed by our Antipodean brethren (whose vast sheep farms were swarming with the pest). The virus became a plague and millions of these small mammals stumbled around the countryside sick and blinded by the mucus caking their sad brown eyes.
Nature, though, has a wonderful knack of standing on the opposite side of an unfairly weighted scale. Gradually, the surviving creatures developed resilience to the virus .. though rarely immunity. To this day the myxomatosis virus swims in the blood of the flea, the mosquito and the tick to randomly attack colonies of our mystery animal. Many now survive the disease but will bear the scars of its attack.
More recently, another alleged 'manufactured' disease was let loose on our humble mammal. VHD (Viral Haemorrhagic Disease) has attacked colonies throughout the UK. Unlike 'myxie', we rarely saw the victims for they simply bled to death within their burrows. All we noticed was the sudden lack of sightings of the beasts. Yet still .. our animal continued to rise in numbers. Good news for the hunter, the badger, the fox and the buzzard. Free food for all. In fact, so prolific was its breeding two or three years ago I was shooting even its kittens all year round to control numbers.
Then suddenly, last year, Mother Nature dealt an unusually bitter blow. Perhaps she thought that the badger and the fox were having far too easy a life due to the interference of man? Certainly these large predators have never enjoyed such a prolonged period of enforced protection .. their numbers spiralling out of control. It's often said that Nature abhors a vacuum, yet she also detests a glut .. and moves swiftly to redress the balance. What better way than to reduce the primary food source? An act of retribution she unleashes globally with her proclivity for creating famine, pestilence, flood, catastrophe and fire.
Last autumn and over this winter she let loose the power of precipitation. To put it bluntly, it pissed down for months. Water tables rose across the UK, thousands of square miles of land were flooded (many still are) and the ardour of our little agricultural pest was somewhat dampened. Nor did it have anywhere to delve and nest. This effect cascaded upward in the food chain too. I haven't seen a single fox cub on my shooting permissions so far this year.
So this morning I was mightily relieved to see the return of an animal I haven't shot for nearly four months .. and nor will I until I see numbers that indicate the flush of revival. The creature? Well, you've guessed of course.
Happy Easter, Mr Bunny!
www.wildanglia.co.uk
www.facebook.com/wildanglia
No comments:
Post a Comment