 |
|
|
Rhys to the Rescue: |
| Author | Message |
|
Mark_b Senior Member Joined: 26 Jun 2008 No. of posts: 79  View other posts by Mark_b |
Posted: 13 Oct 2010 Over the last few weeks a program has been airing on BBC1 Wales called 'Rhys to the Rescue'. Dr Rhys Jones is a Cardiff University Distinguished Visiting Fellow and a consultant with Capita Symonds. His Phd was entitled "British reptile conservation: phylogeography and translocation studies" The series involves him rushing around Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan saving native herps and escaped exotic pets with rather dramatic music. Whenever our native reptiles have been included in my opinion he doesn't really explain anything very well and I think he is advocating inappropriate behaviour. For example in episode 3, a member of the public contacted him as they had a snake in their garden. It was a female grass snake sloughing under some wood planking. He said how unsuitable this garden was for the snake (it had a large lawn with a river at the bottom of the garden, not an ideal natrix site but this location had a habitat feature the snake required and sort out). So he took her into captivity to make sure she shed her skin properly (!?) and then afterwards released her into more suitable habitat. It wasn't mentioned how far this was from the garden. In that situation I would have told the owner not to worry, its harmless, if you don't mind can we just leave the snake be. Also in episode 1 he was showing an adder translocation and how he pit tagged them to monitor their survival at the new site. Nothing wrong with that, quite interesting in fact (well apart from the fact they have to be moved in the first place), but he didn't explain the conservation issues, herps are declining etc and it was all quite dramatic. Anyway here are the iplayer links, episode 2 has gone for some reason, but he was just trying to catch terrapins out of a pond so you didn't miss much. episode 1 - adders - 9 mintues in - 17 mintues 20 seconds in - 25 mintues 50 seconds in http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ty1qj/Rhys_to_the _Rescue_Episode_1/ episode 3 - grass snake - 1 mintues 20 seconds in - 27 mintues 10 seconds in http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00v8mdb/Rhys_to_the _Rescue_Episode_3/ 
|
|
GemmaJF Admin Group Joined: 25 Jan 2003 No. of posts: 2090  View other posts by GemmaJF |
Posted: 13 Oct 2010 Television dramatics! Where did he get his licence to handle adder? I want one 
Male adder are perfectly easy to intercept in summer feeding grounds rather than only at the hibernacula and exceptionally easy to intercept whilst mate searching in the spring. They even come up to you to check you out!. I hate to see tongs used on adder too. Strange mitigation, no fencing, no ACO seemed a bit maverick to me. Did I get the impression that rather than a 'real' reptile mitigation we saw the capture of a few adders for a tagging experiment with the excuse they were about to go under the diggers Rhys?? I hope not. We already know adder move anything up to 2km a season at some sites, releasing animals into a known population is always a bit of a no no too. Gemma Fairchild, Independent Ecological Consultant |
|
Mark_b Senior Member Joined: 26 Jun 2008 No. of posts: 79 View other posts by Mark_b |
Posted: 14 Oct 2010 episode 4 - slow-worms- 19 minutes in - grass snake eggs - 24 mintues in http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00vdn6f/Rhys_to_the _Rescue_Episode_4/ I don't have any complaints about this episodes native herp content. I think he deals with the situations well. To put a more positive view on this series I can appreciate to get this sort of program onto TV you do have to make it a bit dramatic and at least it is raising awareness somewhat.
|
|
GemmaJF Admin Group Joined: 25 Jan 2003 No. of posts: 2090 View other posts by GemmaJF |
Posted: 14 Oct 2010 Yeah you are right Mark I'm being over critical. It's actually quite entertaining. Having been around a few film crews in the field (fortunately off camera) I know all too well how a simple event becomes a dramatic one. Totally agree on the awareness issue. I wonder if he actually moved the grassy because he knew the house owner was very uncomfortable with the situation? He did say he would usually leave native animals in place. I remember though very well TP and others discussing tongs/pinning of adder. I don't do it but that is a personal choice I guess. I still would like to know more about the circumstances of the tagging exercise. As recapture for weights and measure was involved could photo ID and head scale counts have been used? Just wondering what the drive was for using chips. Also after being found 250m displaced (I'm not at all suprised by this) was the adder heading back to where it was first caught or on an aimless wander? That is one question I would really like to see answered. For sure I do not think that translocated snakes ever just stay where they are put. One reason why I simply won't translocate snakes but will always release in-situ. Gemma Fairchild, Independent Ecological Consultant |
|
Paul Ford Senior Member Joined: 06 Sep 2006 No. of posts: 124 View other posts by Paul Ford |
Posted: 14 Oct 2010 I've been watching this - very entertaining. Infact I'd recommend it! Paul |
|
GemmaJF Admin Group Joined: 25 Jan 2003 No. of posts: 2090 View other posts by GemmaJF |
Posted: 14 Oct 2010 Yep Paul I agree he seems a nice chap and I'm a bit ashamed of having a go earlier to be honest. What I really admire is that he is quite infectious and quickly gets the public on-side so full credit for that. Certainly a case of more good than harm. I'm sure much of it can be explained away by production team pressures too. Mentioning no names but if anyone caught the television programme (unrelated to the above) with the 'stranded adder' desperate to find cover before darkness fell. What nonsense, fact was they never found any adders that day (though I did lol) and that female was one out of a bag 'prepared' earlier. Gemma Fairchild, Independent Ecological Consultant |
|
Suzi Senior Member Joined: 06 Apr 2005 No. of posts: 860 View other posts by Suzi |
Posted: 14 Oct 2010 I think Paul echoes some of my thoughts on this guy - massive ego and bees knees. Whilst things have to be full of drama nowadays to capture public interest I did feel some of it was fairly ludicrous. People like Gemma would be best to judge the realities of it really. Dumbed down also comes to mind. Still I guess it gets herps on TV. Suz |
- Rhys to the Rescue |
