What Wildlife?

[Harold Smith]

“What Wildlife”? This a question I read in Sue Everett’s Conservation News section of the August edition of British Wildlife.

The article reported that the Travelodge hotel chain carried out a survey of 3000 people to find out what they think of the countryside, and that the majority of people canvassed thought “it is boring because there is nothing to do or see”. To quote the article; 83% could not identify a Bluebell, one in ten adults thought a Hare was a Deer, 71% could not identify a Pine Tree, 42% could not identify an Otter, and the thing that struck me the most was that one in ten of the people surveyed could not identify a Sheep.

The article did not mention anything about cows but if people could not identify sheep I wonder what they think cows are. It is like asking where peas come from? Nine times out of ten the answer is Birds Eye or a Super Market!

The conclusion was that Urban populations had become “totally disconnected with the countryside and the wildlife it should support”.

I find this conclusion rather disturbing. For the last ten/fifteen years, before I retired (2007), I travelled a lot of the country and many of the hotels I stayed in where either Travel or Premier Lodges or similar types of ‘low budget’ hotels. Many of them situated in or near commercial or business parks; with little or no access to the countryside or even the nearest town. Is the report suggesting that the majority of people staying at their hotels are ‘urbanites’ and have little or no knowledge of the countryside. From my experience I’m not sure that is the case. Many of the people I have met in hotels are from all parts of the countryside including urban areas and a lot of them enjoy and respect the countryside and its wildlife.

However, despite the above hyperbole, the concern is, and it is an recurring question, why is it so many ‘adults, cannot identify our most common animals or plants. It may actually depend on how the question is asked; more people may have got the question right if they had been asked to identify the ‘lamb’ instead of the sheep. After all we eat more lamb than mutton (sheep).

Does anyone else have views on this.

Harold.

[2dogs2000]

I also find this disturbing.
I asked twelve children (10/11 year olds) if they knew what an oak leaf looked like and only one child thought he knew. The reason I asked was because I wanted them to collect some for me as part of a display I was doing. After showing them a leaf I asked them to see if there were any acorns and they didn't know what they were.
I thought the Oak leaf and Horse chestnut leaf could be identified by anyone.
How wrong was I?

[Greenish]

I suppose that not many people take much interest in wildlife any more. I'm still a child and I could identify all of the things that you stated, and to think that one in 1O people couldn't identify a sheep is absolutely shocking. I suppose that this all depends on who participated in the survey. For example, if the people in question were from the center of a city and have never explored out of that city, unless they research wildlife on the internet or at their local library, it would not be surprising if they couldn't identify such things. However, if the people in question are a mix of everyone from all over the country, then that is completely shocking.

[Amoeba]

I think it's got a lot to do with the way people's brains are working these days.

“it is boring because there is nothing to do or see”

A lot of people today expect entertainment or hobbies and interests to come from bright, colourful, noisy things that change quickly to keep people interested. The overload of low-quality, cheap, flashy information has reduced the attention spans of many. This I guess is why many people can't keep their attention on the countryside - it progresses at a much calmer pace, and they have to make an effort to notice things and draw their own conclusions - it's not spoon-fed to them. Also, many people have lost the ability to draw their own conclusions from things due to a very strict schooling that suppresses independent thought - something that's arguably required to enjoy the countryside.

Many people today are also more obsessed with comfort and hygiene than people of the past were, due to higher standards of living. The countryside can seem almost frightening to someone like this, with the possibility of getting cold and wet and *shock* maybe even dirty! It's often the reason why some parents will not allow their own children out into the countryside.

Then there's the mentality that develops in early childhood of stereotypes. I find this particularly prevalent in urban low-income areas concerning what is expected of the countryside. Dirty and smelly, boring, weird, I remember quite a few negative stereotypes of countryside-goers. It was, to put it in a child's view, "uncool" and "scaffy" (scaffy was often used to describe someone who appeared untidy, unclean or who wasn't up to the latest trends in clothes, was also thrown about to make anything look negative).

So, blame the media, blame modern entertainment, blame modern hygiene scares, blame the public school system. While it is merely my opinion, I do believe from observation (not just one incident of observation, but a short life-time's worth) that these things are getting in the way of budding interests in nature and wildlife.