We may be a little way away, but Old Macdonald’s Farm is thrilled to say that in July we will be hosting the

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is Europe’s largest wildlife conservation charity with more than a million members and almost 20,000 volunteers. The organisation is dedicated to saving birds in Britain and overseas. Now we are delighted to say that RSPB South Essex Marshes will have a display at our farm on the 14th and 15th July, so it is well worth a visit to have a look at their stand, and of course visit our farm too!

Now for a bit of information about RSPB South Essex Marshes. Your first port of call should be their Visitor Centre and Discovery Zone which are located within Basildon District Council’s Wat Tyler Country Park and are the gateway to our South Essex Marshes reserves. The RSPB Visitor Centre and Discovery Zone are open from 10 am to 4 pm in winter and 10 am to 5 pm in summer. Their full address is RSPB South Essex Marshes, Wat Tyler Country Park, Pitsea Hall Lane, Basildon, Essex, SS16 4UH and you can visit their website
http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/s/southessexmarshes/

Entrance to the RSPB Visitor Centre and Discovery Zone is free, although a small charge applies to guided walks and some children’s activities. Contact the Visitor Centre for details of events, dates and charges.

The site is very good for birdwatching all year round with a free guided walk each Thursday around the park from the visitor centre.

There’s always something going on for families in the Visitor Centre. Watch the birds in the wildlife garden, discover minibeasts in the aquarium, follow the seasons on the live CCTV cameras or at weekends have a go a nature-themed activities. There are also monthly RSPB Little Owls (0-5 years) Wildlife Explorers (7-11 years) and Phoenix (11-18 years) clubs.

Dogs are allowed anywhere. Contact the Country Park for more information. However your best bet is to visit Old Macdonald’s Farm on 14th and 15th July. Now here are their top tips for what to do in the spring on the Marshes.

1. Look and listen for cuckoos around the park
2. Stroll along flat, wheelchair-friendly paths – an easy walk for all the family
3. Bluebells, primroses and daffodils will already be a blaze of colour and provide valuable early nectar for insects

What a wonderful day out for the family and how important it is for us to ensure that we support the RSPB in their efforts to, as they say,  “speak out for birds and wildlife, tackling the problems that threaten our environment. Nature is amazing – help us keep it that way.”

May 5th is international Climate Impacts Day and all over the world people are getting together to think about all the issues that link us all and the reasons we should take action to prevent human beings contributing to climate change.

In places from drought-stricken Mongolia to flood-stricken Thailand, from fire-ravaged Australia to Himalayan communities threatened by glacial melt, there will be rallies reminding everyone what has happened in their neighborhoods. And at each of those rallies, from Kenya to Canada, from Vietnam to Vermont, someone will be holding a…dot. A huge black dot on a white banner, a “dot” of people holding hands, encircling a field where crops have dried up, a dot made of fabric and the picture taken from above — you get the idea.

That is why Old Macdonald is here with his cartoon friends, holding up his own dot, so that his farm in Brentwood is part of this great international circle of like minded people co operating to help save the planet. And we hope this will encourage you to think about these issues too, and make sure that Old Macdonald going dotty is not in vain. Just in Brentwood.

There are many good things about helping Old Macdonald out, not just sharing his company and looking around his wonderful farm and meeting his fascinating animals, but also the chance to take part in lively discussions. Thanks to Old Mac’s passion for the Environment (only matched by his passion for his wallet) we were invited to a tremendous evening at the Natural History Museum in London to take part in the final Earth Debate leading up to the Rio + 20 conference taking place in Rio from 20th to 22nd June this year. (Old Mac is not sending me there though!)

Organised by the British Council, Natural History Museum (who hosted this) and the Stakeholder Forum for a sustainable future (the latter being a collection of major companies committed to ensuring that corporate operation is genuinely sustainable in future) the Earth Debates brought together a wide range of people to debate all these issues that are key for our future, that of wildlife and indeed of the world itself. Quite a task, and exciting plus rewarding.

Old Macdonald is fully supportive of the Stakeholder Forum for a sustainable future proposal to Rio + 20 for there to be new regulations to get major companies to publish their environmental impact alongside their financial reports and hopes that this key objective can be achieved in Rio this year. If you want to know about our views on this, email info@omdfarm.co.uk, and if you want to learn more about the Earth Debates visit http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/biodiversity/earth-debates/.

If you are concerned about these matters, visit http://www.zsl.org/conservation/about-conservation/conservation-policy/healthy-planet/ and sign the pledge there to show your concerns and add to the petition.

By the way, the Natural History Museum is still free to enter and a great and valuable day out for all the family. We strongly recommend it to you! Our images are from the NHM and a reminder that whilst humans cannot be blamed for the loss of the Diplodocus, we can for the Dodo but it is not too late to prevent any more of the creatures with whom we share this world from sharing the same sad fate.

Essex Wildlife Trust is the county’s leading conservation charity.  It has more than 32,000 members, manages and protects over 7,250 acres of land on 87 nature reserves, 2 nature parks and runs 7 visitor centres. The aim of Essex Wildlife Trust is to Protect Wildlife for the Future.  It is supported financially by members, local businesses and grant making organisations.   It is one of the largest of the 47 county wildlife trusts that work together throughout the British Isles as The Wildlife Trusts.
Essex Wildlife Trust was established in 1959 and has grown from strength to strength, always striving to protect wildlife for the future and for the people of Essex.  You can join Essex Wildlife Trust, and visit www.essexwt.org.uk for more information (and we urge you to do so). Now while you should join Essex Wildlife Trust, they actually came and joined Old Macdonald’s Farm for the week leading up to and including Good Friday, bringing a stand and display and talking to our many visitors. Great to welcome them, and look forward to their coming back again.

Our image shows a wild Essex Otter and not one of our Malaysian Short Clawed creatures (who only get wild if you do not pay them enough attention). What a vital task the Trust has to protect the wonderful Essex countryside and encourage you to appreciate the beauty of this lovely county.

In July we will all be taking part in Sparks Will Fly in Brentwood to welcome the Olympics and we will tell you more about that later. Poor old William found sparks flying too, but that was not so much fun. For him anyway.

Old Macdonald is pretty pleased with himself today as his new Fun Fact trail is up and running, with 27 information boards all around the farm full of interesting and entertaining facts about your farmyard favourites and the more unusual animals we have here in Brentwood.

From rabbits to rheas, owls to otters, and goats to guinea pigs you will all, young and old alike, learn a lot from these. Ideal for schools as part of their studies, these boards include information on conservation, habitat, geographic location in the wild and population too, as well as the economic importance of many of these creatures. However, they are great fun too, nothing heavy about them.

As you can see, our Meerkat family have been studying their boards in case you ask them tricky questions when you arrive, and do not forget for goodness sake do not let them sell you any of their dodgy insurance policies.

It is almost 100 years since Captain Scott and his party perished in the Antarctic, 29th March 1912 actually, and to commemorate that Old Macdonald has turned his farm into a Captain Scott theme park, with freezing ground and snow! To pay tribute to his epic and sad last journey we have been standing outside shivering in the cold and have also built a hut to resemble Scott’s, except with brand new play equipment and lots of fun and games for children which the old explorers never had.

Sorry, we are just being a bit silly here and trying to combine two stories in one. On our main website www.omdfarm.co.uk/blog you will find out about our new play facilities as well as lots more news about your favourite animal park too, and on this page we commemorate Captain Scott. Very brave groups those old explorers, walking miles through the barren wastes, which is a bit like waiting for trains when it is a bit parky here.

Robert Falcon Scott, CVO (6 June 1868 – c. 29 March 1912) was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13. During this second venture, Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, only to find that they had been preceded by Roald Amundsen‘s Norwegian expedition. On their return journey, Scott and his four comrades all perished from a combination of exhaustion, starvation and extreme cold.

Before his appointment to lead the Discovery Expedition, Scott had followed the conventional career of a naval officer in peacetime Victorian Britain, where opportunities for career advancement were both limited and keenly sought after by ambitious officers. It was the chance for personal distinction that led Scott to apply for the Discovery command, rather than any predilection for polar exploration. However, having taken this step, his name became inseparably associated with the Antarctic, the field of work to which he remained committed during the final twelve years of his life.

Terra Nova Expedition 1910–1913

Preparation

It was the expressed hope that this expedition would be “scientific primarily, with exploration and the Pole as secondary objects but in his expedition prospectus, Scott stated that its main objective was “to reach the South Pole, and to secure for the British Empire the honour of this achievement”. Scott had, as Markham observed, been “bitten by the Pole mania”

Scott did not know that he would be in a race until he received Roald Amundsen’s telegram in Melbourne, in October 1910. Before this, he had set about fashioning the expedition according to his own preferences, without the restraints of a joint committee. So far as transport was concerned, he decided that dogs would be one element in a complex strategy that also involved horses and motor sledges, and much man-hauling. Scott knew nothing of horses, but felt that as they had seemingly served Shackleton well, he ought to use them. Dog expert Cecil Meares was going to Siberia to select the dogs, and Scott ordered that, while he was there, he should deal with the purchase of Manchurian ponies. Meares was not an experienced horse-dealer, and the ponies he chose proved mostly of poor quality, and ill-suited to prolonged Antarctic work. Meanwhile, Scott spent time in France and Norway, testing motor-sledges, and recruited Bernard Day, from Shackleton’s expedition, as his motor expert.

First season

Scott, writing his journal in the Cape Evans hut, winter 1911

The expedition itself suffered a series of early misfortunes, which hampered the first season’s work and impaired preparations for the main polar march. On its journey from New Zealand to the Antarctic, Terra Nova was trapped in pack ice for 20 days, far longer than other ships had experienced, which meant a late-season arrival and less time for preparatory work before the Antarctic winter. One of the motor sledges was lost during its unloading from the ship, disappearing through the sea ice. Deteriorating weather conditions and weak, unacclimatised ponies affected the initial depot-laying journey, so that the expedition’s main supply point, One Ton Depot, was laid 35 miles (56 km) north of its planned location at 80° S. Lawrence Oates, in charge of the ponies, advised Scott to kill ponies for food and advance the depot to 80° S, which Scott refused to do. Oates is reported as saying to Scott, “Sir, I’m afraid you’ll come to regret not taking my advice.” Six ponies died during this journey either from the cold or because they slowed the team down so they were shot. On its return to base, the expedition learned of the presence of Amundsen, camped with his crew and a large contingent of dogs in the Bay of Whales, 200 miles (320 km) to their east.

Scott refused to amend his schedule to deal with the Amundsen threat, writing, “The proper, as well as the wiser course, is for us to proceed exactly as though this had not happened”. While acknowledging that the Norwegian’s base was closer to the pole and that his experience as a dog driver was formidable, Scott had the advantage of travelling over a known route pioneered by Shackleton. During the 1911 winter his confidence increased; On 2 August, after the return of a three-man party from their winter journey to Cape Crozier, Scott wrote, “I feel sure we are as near perfection as experience can direct”.

Journey to the Pole

The march south began on 1 November 1911, a caravan of mixed transport groups (motors, dogs, horses), with loaded sledges, travelling at different rates, all designed to support a final group of four men who would make a dash for the Pole. Scott had earlier outlined his plans for the southern journey to the entire shore party, without being specific about precise roles – no one knew who would form the final polar team. During the journey, Scott sent a series of conflicting orders back to base concerning the future use of the expedition’s dogs, leaving it unclear whether they were to be saved for future scientific journeys or were to assist the polar party home. Scott’s subordinates back at base were unsure of Scott’s intentions, and consequently failed to use the dogs in a concerted attempt to relieve the returning polar party when the need arose.

The southbound party steadily reduced in size as successive support teams turned back. By 4 January 1912, the last two four-man groups had reached 87° 34′ S. Scott announced his decision: five men (Scott, Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers, Lawrence Oates and Edgar Evans) would go forward, the other three (Teddy Evans, William Lashly and Tom Crean) would return. The chosen group marched on, reaching the Pole on 17 January 1912, only to find that Amundsen had preceded them by five weeks. Scott’s anguish is indicated in his diary: “The worst has happened”; “All the day dreams must go”; “Great God! This is an awful place”.

Last march

Scott’s group took this photograph of themselves using a string to operate the shutter on 17 January 1912, the day after they discovered Amundsen had reached the pole first.

The deflated party began the 800-mile (1,300 km) return journey on 19 January. “I’m afraid the return journey is going to be dreadfully tiring and monotonous”, wrote Scott on the next day. However, the party made good progress despite poor weather, and had completed the Polar Plateau stage of their journey, approximately 300 miles (500 km), by 7 February. In the following days, as the party made the 100-mile (160 km) descent of the Beardmore Glacier, the physical condition of Edgar Evans, which Scott had noted with concern as early as 23 January, declined sharply. A fall on 4 February had left Evans “dull and incapable”, and on 17 February, after a further fall, he died near the glacier foot.

With 400 miles (670 km) still to travel across the Ross Ice Shelf, the party’s prospects steadily worsened as, with deteriorating weather, frostbite, snow blindness, hunger and exhaustion, they struggled northward. On 16 March, Oates, whose condition was aggravated by an old war-wound to the extent that he was barely able to walk, voluntarily left the tent and walked to his death. Scott wrote that Oates’ last words were “I am just going outside and may be some time”.

After walking a further 20 miles, the three remaining men made their final camp on 19 March, 11 miles (18 km) short of One Ton Depot, but 24 miles (38 km) beyond the original intended location of the depot. The next day a fierce blizzard prevented their making any progress. During the next nine days, as their supplies ran out, with frozen fingers, little light, and storms still raging outside the tent, Scott wrote his final words, although he gave up his diary after 23 March, save for a final entry on 29 March, with its concluding words: “Last entry. For God’s sake look after our people”. He left letters to Wilson’s mother, Bowers’ mother, a string of notables including his former commander Sir George Egerton, his own mother and his wife. He also wrote his “Message to the Public”, primarily a defence of the expedition’s organisation and conduct in which the party’s failure is attributed to weather and other misfortunes, but ending on an inspirational note, with these words:

Scott is presumed to have died on 29 March 1912, possibly a day later. The positions of the bodies in the tent when it was discovered eight months later suggested that Scott was the last of the three to die.

Following the news of his death, Scott became an iconic British hero, a status maintained for more than 50 years and reflected by the many permanent memorials erected across the nation. In the closing decades of the 20th century, the legend was reassessed as attention focused on the causes of the disaster that ended his and his comrades’ lives, and the extent of Scott’s personal culpability. From a previously unassailable position, Scott became a figure of controversy, with questions raised about his competence and character. Commentators in the 21st century have on the whole regarded Scott more positively, emphasising his personal bravery and stoicism while acknowledging his errors, but ascribing his expedition’s fate primarily to misfortune. After all, we are all clever after the event and without the work of Scott and his team as well as other Arctic and Antarctic explorers, the vital research at both poles which is carried out today would not have happened and we would lose all the knowledge we have about climate change and loss of bio diversity. They were indeed heroes.

By the way, have a look at the new BIAZA website www.biaza.org.uk, as it is brand new and full of fascinating information. Well worth 10 minutes of your time.

Then below he found this article in the Guardian, which sums up what we all strive for in this business (apart from Old Mac himself who strives to make a few more pounds for his “Save an Old Farmer from Poverty” campaign) and is of particular interest to us as we, with your help, fund the Wildlife Heritage Fund who successfully bred Amur Leopard cubs as you can find on other of our website news.

Photos below show Miranda and David as well as the Amur Leopard. No prizes this time for working out which is which!

First, David’s email about Miranda:

It gives me great pleasure to offer sincere congratulations to Miranda for the award of an OBE for services to wildlife and conservation in the 2012 New Year’s honours.

Over the last 25 years zoological gardens and aquariums have undergone a renaissance. From primarily being centres of entertainment they have transformed into powerful instruments of conservation and education. This change has been led by some amazing and dynamic individuals and included in these is Dr Miranda Stevenson.

Miranda has been a driving force in this evolution of zoos, she has demonstrated best practice, led by example and where necessary by inspiration. She has been instrumental in raising the standards of British zoos to become some of the best in the world and then advocating these advances in the European and indeed the global zoo forum.

In her role as Curator of Edinburgh Zoo, Miranda began to employ techniques to dramatically raise the care and welfare of zoo animals. Miranda also fostered and encouraged her staff to share this knowledge and Edinburgh Zoo became a beacon of best practice. It was also during this time that Miranda began to become involved with the formation of international cooperative breeding programmes for endangered species. Although Miranda’s speciality was primates her knowledge and foresight was able to transcend taxa.

Miranda’s present role as Director of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquaria has been an ideal platform to continue her mission to improve zoos and raise the contribution of zoos to science and conservation.

Miranda has encouraged and welcomed new members to the Association and assisted their development with close mentoring and advice – whether this has been at the institution level or indeed the individual level. Many of us in senior positions in British zoos (myself in particular) are indebted to the guidance of Miranda Stevenson early in our careers.

Miranda Stevenson is an architect of modern zoo philosophy and practice. She has inspired many people and achieved remarkable advances in zoo biology and zoo conservation.

BIAZA President, Sir Drummond Bone says “‘this is a most well deserved honour, and reflects not only all the work which Miranda has put into our community over the years, but the progress she has made in raising the profile of zoos and aquaria generally.”

EAZA Chairman and former BIAZA Chair Simon Tonge says “Miranda has been a great colleague and inspiration to the UK zoo community over many years and I am delighted that she has been recognised by the award of an OBE. It is richly deserved’

So please join with me in sending our congratulations to Miranda – I am sure we will all raise a glass or two in due course !

My best wishes to you all for a successful 2012 – it has started pretty well!

David

David A. Field

Zoological Director.  Zoological Society of London

Chair. British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA)

Chair.  ISIS

Now, the Guardian on Amur leopards:

Endangered Amur leopards from UK zoos could soon be heading to Russia as part of a captive breeding and release programme to save the big cat.

There are estimated to be just 25 to 35 Amur leopards left in the wild in the far east of Russia, with numbers driven down by poaching of both the cat and its prey and damage to its habitat from activities such as logging and forest fires.

But experts are hoping to reverse the fortunes of the rarest big cat in the world with a programme using animals bred from captive Amur leopards.

A multinational scheme to reintroduce the species, which would run alongside efforts to protect the existing wild population, has so far failed to secure the necessary funding, but the Russian government has backed a Moscow-based programme.

Experts from organisations including the UK’s Wildlife Vets International are working with the Russian scheme, which has established a captive breeding centre on the edge of the territory where it is planned leopards will be released.

Leopards will be mated and rear cubs at the centre, with the young fed live prey to allow them to learn how to hunt before they are released into the wild at around 12 to 18 months old – the time they would normally leave their mothers.

Dr John Lewis, veterinary director of Wildlife Vets International and veterinary adviser to the Amur leopard European captive breeding programme, said the centre could start receiving leopards in a few months’ time.

Lewis said UK wildlife parks and zoos could contribute animals to the scheme once the European breeding programme was confident that the centre in Russia was suitable for the project.

Some improvements, such as better security, were needed first, he said.

Lewis has also developed a disease risk assessment to see what conditions may pose significant problems to Amur leopards, and a screening programme to ensure a healthy captive population with genetic diversity.

The plan is to rotate different animals through the Russian breeding programme so that the released young will be genetically diverse.

To begin with, the reintroduced population will be kept separate from the existing wild population to avoid conflict between cats and the risk of spreading disease.

It may be many years before the scheme can be judged to have been successful, but Lewis believes the programme could help with conservation management of other cat species.

“The Amur leopard is facing a situation which may face a number of other big cats in the future, with populations which become so low that in the blink of an eye it could be extinct,” he said.

“A lot of lessons we learn in trying to manage this will be applicable to a much wider range of cats in the future.

“The more we learn about the whole process, on disease risk assessment and management and release, the more we will be in a position to help a wider range of cats.”

At present all the world’s nations are meeting in Durban to try and get a new international treaty on carbon emissions and Old Macdonald was keen to find out what it is all about. He thinks that the only international treaty to set down legally-binding curbs on carbon emissions is hanging by a thread. More and more advanced economies say they will not renew their pledges after the first round of commitments expires at the end of 2012 because the world’s biggest polluters remain outside these constraints.

That leaves the EU in Durban as the only bloc willing to renew its vows – provided the top two emitters, China and the US, endorse a “roadmap” to a comprehensive climate pact by 2015. Without a second commitment period, Kyoto would still exist as a treaty but it would be operationally gutted. Its collapse would send a devastating signal about the climate process ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Rio Summit where the forum was born.

But some experts say the treaty’s labyrinthine rulebook and 1990s-era distinctions between rich and poor countries should be ditched. Kyoto could be cannibalised and its useful parts incorporated into a new approach, they argue.

Climate finance

At the 2009 Copenhagen Summit, developed nations committed to creating a Green Climate Fund that will disburse, by 2020, at least $100bn per year to help poorer nations fight and cope with climate change. The Durban meeting will seek to resolve problems on the Fund’s design.

Developing nations want more money for adapting to climate change rather than keeping emissions down, and favour the creation of a UN-controlled fund to distribute the money. Rich nations, though, prioritise emissions mitigation, and prefer using existing channels such as the World Bank. Another issue is whether to endow the Fund with a specific source of revenue, such as a tax on aviation and shipping fuels, a global financial transaction fee and auctioning of carbon emissions allowances.

Most of $30bn in Copenhagen’s “fast-start financing” for 2010 – 2012 has been pledged and a good portion of it disbursed. Still unclear is how climate financing will build up to the $100bn-per-year-target, starting in 2013. The 2008 global financial crisis and the looming threat of further recession is making this task hard.

Forests

Forests are “sinks” that soak up nearly a third of carbon emissions each year. Loss of forests is also a powerful addition to the greenhouse-gas problem. The UN-backed scheme known as Redd+ – Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation ‘Plus’ – allots credit to tropical countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa that slow rates of forest destruction. It also provides a mechanism for rich countries to offset their own carbon-reduction commitments by investing in that process.

Environmental groups say a portion of the Green Climate Fund should be earmarked for Redd+, which will require $15bn to $40bn to implement, according to different estimates. They also call on the UN body to set a 2020 target for reversing the net loss of forest cover. Neither goal will be easily achieved.

Emissions compliance

A question since the Copenhagen Summit is how to make voluntary national cuts in greenhouse gas emissions measurable, reportable and verifiable – “MRV”, in UN climate lingo.

Progress has been stymied by a reluctance by developing countries to be subject to the same scrutiny as developed ones under the UNFCCC’s two-tier system of accountability.

Rich countries say that emerging giants will account for the lion’s share of emissions in the future, which means the “MRVs” have to be credible. The US, in particular, is insisting on common standards in oversight.

So Old Macdonald will tell you that this is a very complicated subject. It is all very well those of us living in comparative comfort in Europe to expect those living in rainforest areas to stop cutting back trees, but the forest provides their only real source of income and they want to have the right to have decent roads and transport links and to grow crops to raise money.

However all of you can do something in your own lives, because loss of animal life is not just a thing that happens “over there” so take care with your gardens and plant flowers that are friendly to bugs as they feed birds and birds spread seeds, all part of the Circle of Life, and also cut back on pesticides. Then you can make sure any wood you buy is from sustainable sources (those that are not from endangered areas), and of course re use and recycle as much as you can. If everyone in the world did something, between us we would achieve a lot. Even Old Mac helps, he recycles his money, and his jokes too.

Old Macdonald popped down to Hopefield on Sunday to visit their annual Christmas open day, and found that patron of the Brentwood animal sanctuary Leona Lewis had worked very hard with the committee there to arrange a wonderful day out for everyone. The place was packed, and more than this Leona has raised tens of thousands of pounds for this important place with a sponsored walk, a Carol concert and much more.

After the sad loss of Ernie Clark, founder of Hopefield, as well as Paula who passed away two years ago, Old Mac was a bit worried as to how everyone would carry on their wonderful pioneering work, but having seen this he can rest easy. In fact Old Mac has in the past raised funds and given prizes to help them raise funds, and he is now wondering whether maybe they could give him a donation.

Well done to everyone at Hopefield and here is to a great 2012.