Hi, it’s Chris Packwolf, celebrity naturalist at the Greenygrey. I was thinking this week how Olympic athletes have seen the two sides of Britain since their arrival last week, with the greenygrey weather of last weekend breaking into hot sunshine for the southern half of Britain over the last few days. The greenygrey weather has travelled farther south now, so it is a shorter journey north for any athletes in London who are pining for more greenygrey.
Borat of Kazakhstan Bear Hunting
The international feel to Britain at the moment reminded me of a fellow from Kazakhstan I saw talking about bears in his country; Borat was his name. Here he is in glorious greenygrey:
He said he used to hunt bears in his country, but didn’t any more; because there were none left.
It’s the same kind of situation in Britain; although the government laudably banned hunting with dogs ten years ago, and we do have some of the best animal welfare legislation in the world now.
Is Britain Bearable?
We do lack big wild animals like those seen in North America and some European countries. The sunshine of recent days makes me think that Britain would be even better with some bears in the wild; maybe even some sun bears.
It would probably need high strong fences to keep the animals in a reserve though; and protect them from humans and other predators… and vice-versa.
I saw a similar scheme in Australia on Secrets of our Living Planet, presented by Chris Packham, with the title of Killer Moggy of Oz reminding me of Grey’s amazing book title Werewolf of Oz.
mistYmuse 