The Benefits of Being A "Noted Naturalist"

 

I was contacted by someone involved in zoology (no names as I don't want him messed about -this is the internet) and he told me that he was "as retired as wildlife allows you to be" and he asked how I managed to keep going and added "at least as a noted naturalist things must have gotten easier over the years?"  

Ahem.  

Firstly, "noted naturalist" is what I have been called since the 1980s. People seem to think that makes things financially easier as if I get a financial retainer somehow. I have spent thousands since 1976 and that has resulted in a lot of cheese sandwiches or beans on toast meals. There was a time that most colleges and universities had biology departments with  naturalists working in them. Wildlife is not "sexy enough" to pull in investments or grants.

Also, you get a lot of weird looks. "I'm a naturalist" can get odd looks. I have had six reporters over the years chuckle and ask if "that" isn't hazardous when working in the countryside? Each time I use the same response:  "No. I am a NATURALIST which is a person deals with wildlife, etc.. You are mistaking that for being a NATURIST and I can assure you I do not stroll around the countryside in the nude!"  Usually the reporter then no longer found the term funny and moved on.

Being a naturalist you can get soaked to the skin in rain (even wearing 'rain proof' clothing. You get close to hypothermia and sunstroke is not uncommon. You get bruises, cuts from barbed wire, broken gates or fences and a few threats.  No money, though.  

Even when you cooperate or help out an agricultural college or university/college students particularly with papers on 'exotics' in the UK and are promised a credit as is per normal practice it never happens. I have seen the papers (thank you internet) and my info but no credits.  

There used to be an old saying; "Field naturalists do all the dirty work and zoologists get all the credit and funding" and that is true. I have spent the years since 1977 looking at 'exotic' species living in the UK, the habitat they live in and whether their presence has affected "native wildlife" -a lot of the latter re-introduced. That is decades and apart from reports that certain deer herds are healthier with sick and injured ones having been taken out there has been no overall adverse affect on UK wildlife.  

The work for the Exotic Animals Register has involved much digging into old books (many with no wildlife connection just general folklore and local history; hunting books, old newspapers (I have thousands of clippings all saved for posterity) and so on and so forth. No one in the UK has a clearer or better knowledge of the history of these animals in captivity and in the wild. No one else has done the research work.  

With foxes the same applies; 1976 to today (and still other work planned) I have managed to not just identify and prove that we had three variety of Old fox in the UK and Ireland but also charted their history and much more and highlighted how European foxes began being imported into the UK from at least the 16th century. Not just that but the fox work showed how species such as deer, red squirrels and many others had to be replaced by imported animals when they were exterminated.

The wild cats and feral work has also yielded results and as with foxes dogma has been overturned and the real "look" of the wild cat shown. My colleague LM has contributed a great deal in recent years so my addled brain does not have to wear itself out. 

And discoveries have been made about British badgers and their survival.

Two books on Canids and Felids and -no sales even when posted links to fox and wild cat groups. 

There is also absolutely no funding for fox or any other wildlife work unless it conforms to what HM Government and established (prejudiced) agencies want. The "Cute" or "lovely" animals. 

I did apply for EU funding but Brexit really buggered that up.

Yes I answer wildlife queries and requests for advice and much more but it is all my time and on occasion my money.

So the answer to all the benefits of being a "noted naturalists" is there are none😂😂