…but it is seriously funny.  By the way, anatidaephobia is the fear that “somehow, somewhere, a duck is watching you.”  It does seem unlikely that anyone actually suffers from anatidaephobia, because it was invented by Gary Larson, creator of The Far Side, in this strip.

Like to win a brand new hardback copy of Europe’s best field guide (see the review right here)? I thought so. If you’re a member of the 10,000 Birds Conservation Club you’ll have the chance next week. If you’re not, er - you won’t. So join already, or miss out on this and piles of other goodies!

Incredibly a new study based on research by Professor Barbara Block, who tracked more than 150 Great Whites using satellite and acoustic tracking devices, shows that numbers had dropped below the 3,500
tigers that exist in the wild. Numbers have dropped by 90% in 20 years mainly from illegal fishing, but also from being hit by boats and tangled up in fishing nets. Our forests are falling quiet, our farmland has lost most of its wildlife, and our seas are being emptied. I predict that our children will not be thanking us for the mess we’re handing them…

To quote from a report in the Observer newspaper, “More than 35 million animals were legally exported from the region over the past decade…and hundreds of millions more could have been taken illegally. Almost half of those traded were seahorses and more than 17 million were reptiles. About 1 million birds and 400,000 mammals were traded, along with 18 million pieces of coral. The situation is so serious that experts have invented a new term – empty forest syndrome – to describe the gaping holes in biodiversity left behind…”