Apart from a while living in Germany I was born and raised in Bristol. From an early age I had an interest in wildlife from the smallest insect to the largest mammal. I think it amused my gran when I used to pick up worms from her garden in St Werburgh's and just hold and examine them.
St Werburgh's was great as we lived in Sevier Street with the brook and Mina Road Park to our rear. The odd owl landing on the window sill at night was "fun" (huge glowing eyes outside the window); I interacted with a pretty smart jackdaw and even observed a large caterpillar that after all of these years (I was about 10 years old at the time) I have never been able to identify what species it was.
In 1975 whilst walking to work down Pennywell Road I saw by first fox out in the daylight (it was around 0630) -not far behind it was a pursuer: a chunky black and white tom cat that looked determined to teach "that damned dog" a lesson for coming into its area. A year later I set up the British Fox Study here in Bristol. I also looked into wild cats and badgers. In 1977 I was rather accidentally drawn into exotic animals and spent 1977-2018 acting as a UK police forces wildlife consultant (and later as part of the Partnership Against Wildlife Crime -PAWS).
Yes, I did get interviewed in newspapers 9national and regional) and even on local, national and non UK (Australia and Forces Radio Europe) on my work.
So I started out all those decades ago and tried as best I could to avoid publiciity while I also helped people build wildlife pounds, remove the odd adder that had wandered into their garden and tried to persuade local authorities (Conservative, Labour and currently the very non Greens) to help do more for the environment and help conserve our rapidly dwindling wildlife.
I had the first ever post mortem study into fox deaths set up in Bristol which yielded some interesting results. Outside the UK I am known for my research on canids and felids -particularly extinct ones and I managed to identify which fox inhabited Hong Kong before hunting drove it extinct -something naturalists there had been unable to do.
In 2000 I wrote a paper that clearly stated there WAS a genuine Corsican wild cat (aka "fox-cat") -science caught up with me about five years ago!
I have researched and discovered what the original British fox looked like as well as the wild cat -al archived and published for posterity.
British academia's response? "You aren't with a university are you?" which is their way of saying "you ain't part of the club". Far more interest outside the UK.
The question I keep getting asked by people who wonder WHY I still do all of this with no financial reward or official recognition (I liked it when someone pointed out that a lady who was a public toilet attendant for 30 years got an MBE for her work but "You just get tones of ------ thrown at you!" -it stops any ego developing)
From the 1970s when things were bleak -the Energy Crisis and power cuts- to the 1980s when people seemed to be trying to at least do something to save the environment and wildlife we have seen, since the late 1990s, a downward spiral of not many caring about all of the UK species going extinct, all the trees being cut down and Green Spaces grabbed for selling off.
Local authorities and national governments all have the same mantra: "**** wildlife and the environment -there is money to be made!"
When I am gone very few are going to even know about the work I have done. The UK as a whole doers not care what is going on outside of TV or on the internet. Otters, badgers, foxes and deer are all piling up on the roadside (former wildlife track) but build under or over passes for wildlife to cross? No. That would cost money -it's just wildlife after all.
