Been a little while

Hello, thought I would post a little post to keep this place occupied. The ‘Disappointments’ post proved fruitful and I am feeling a lot happier about things now, things have been put into perspective and I am now a lot less nervous around people. Thank you all for all your help.

As for the first proper post I did, I promise within the next 2 weeks to do a follow up on that in terms of the impacts that such things have on the environment. I may even do a refined blog of two essays that I am doing for my course on Animal behaviour and Agroecosystems (Effects of herbicides on plants and impacts on the environment).

Anyway’s I will keep you posted.

Disappointments

Second post already. Felt like I wanted to talk about disappointments which people make.

For most of my life I have been content with my own company having been home taught for two years and moved at 12 back to where I was born, the Netherlands. There I went to a great international school. Right up until the beginning of sixth form I felt like an outsider, not so much because the people there were not welcoming, but because the small efforts I made to socialise were never reciprocated fully. This made me feel isolated even though I know it was partially my fault for not going even further in my efforts to integrate and socialise. It did however point out to me that that quiet one in society doesn’t get thought about in terms of invitations out to things and the like, which I feel is a real crying shame. It isn’t that we don’t have anything to talk about trust me. Anyways I digress from that point.

When I arrived ‘back’ in the UK at 19 going to University I did feel like an International student and yet I wasn’t given any of the support that is usually given to such people just because my passport says I am from here. This meant for the first few weeks of Uni I was a whole mixture of things, overwhelmed, homesick (partially as parents had moved back to the UK so I couldn’t return to where my roots are (NL)), emotional, and also that of culture shock. I did not want to involve myself with the whole drinking culture which pervades much of student life in the UK, this isolated me as I couldn’t find groups that wanted to live a little easier excepting religious students (I am not particularly religious – again isolated). This therefore created again a situation where I (although again I know partially my own fault) feel like at the half way mark in terms of actual course based things, 1.5 yrs, I still don’t overly feel like I have any deep friends here which I can rely upon. Nobody asks me to have a coffee, nobody when asked or of their own volition helps me when I am sick or feeling down and I don’t unlike average adult life have my boyfriend here to support me as he is away studying as well.

I am really calling out for help on this post, all I can hope for is that someone responds.

First proper blog issue – Wild animals as pets and invasive species.

I was thinking of a topic to start up my blog flow and found an article in the New Scientist magazine about Burmese pythons leading to animal declines in Florida in the US. Linking this information to a recent documentary by the BBC I watched about the Slow loris (including parts on the illegal wild pet trade) leads me to link the two.  One seems to result in the other. Whilst I am sure that many snakes are bred legally for sale, I am sure many are transported into the pet trade from the wild, thus involving the unregulated and no doubt illegal wild animal pet trade.

Studying Conservation biology the issue concerns me as not only are these creatures being poached from the wild from possibly, and most likely definitely habitats and environments in a declining state of health, it also leads to problems in the new ‘home’ countries of these wild animals. Much like the puppy people get for Christmas being abandoned when the recipient gets bored, these animals can also get abandoned into environments which they are not adapted for and that they are foreign to. Introductions such as these lead to calamitous impacts onto the environment of the recipient country. An example from the UK with Japanese Knotweed taking over and strangling native fauna in the United Kingdom. Native to Japan (and surrounding regions) this plant species in it’s native lands is controlled by species of invertebrates and herbivores which co-evolved with it, in the UK these species do not exist so it is left to run rampant wherever it falls. This leading to problems later down the line for species of insect which rely on native flora for food and for those further up the food chain who rely upon these insects for food.

In conclusion I know this is not a new issue, but I do think it is an important one to think about and control.

Comments welcome

References

Pythons hunt Florida mammals to the brink of extinction, New Scientist, 1st Feb 2012: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328504.500-pythons-hunt-florida-mammals-to-brink-of-extinction.html

Jungle Gremlins of Java, BBC, 25th Jan 2012: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01bcp7z/Natural_World_20112012_Jungle_Gremlins_of_Java/

New blog and my hopes for it

Hello all,

This is a new blog, that came into being after copying my lovely fella in joining the ‘blogosphere’. I hope to put onto it news and views of areas of interest such as Conservation and Politics and the like.

Comment with freedom and light.

Buh bye all.