The month of the clock-change is upon us and after 29 October our early morning breakfasts will need candlelight. For us, nature is quietening down and getting ready for winter, but the grey seal is out looking for love on the wild waves and the stag is preparing his courtship under plum-coloured foliage. It is when the daylight hour fades that the female deer go into estrus, the period of their receptivity and fertility. It causes the stags to spend their time roaring in a deep, resonant sound called “bolving” and the red deer rut can last until well into November. Humans do not have estrus, one theory being that the human menstrual cycle evolved to create a continual signalling of fertility.
As the land prepares for its annual rest period, it’s a hint for us all to take it easy
Autumn mists have started to roll in as the ground freezes at night time, while green-coloured leaves give way to reds, oranges and gold. Please think about replenishing your bird feeders to help local birds fatten up before the winter period. Our pollinating insects also need shelter and will be looking for messy, uncut gardens, so don’t let your neighbours persuade you otherwise.
As the land prepares for its annual rest period, it’s a hint for us all to take it easy. This time of darker evenings can be an antidote for hectic lives. So here is a hack for you this month: pick up a new pair of warm slippers, cancel the dinner party at Halloween, add some chillies to your pumpkin soup and yes – go on – have a scented bath, take time for quiet reflection, and breathe out your cares.
Positive Ecological Restoration Stories
In Darwin’s footsteps
Conservationists set sail from Plymouth in August to follow the legendary journey of Charles Darwin on board a 105-year-old schooner. They are covering 40,000 nautical miles over a two-year journey and anchoring in all the major ports visited by Darwin’s HMS Beagle. “The point of this project is to show solutions… real actions that all of us can do to help make a better future,” said Darwin200 Founder and Mission Director, Stewart McPherson. Throughout the journey, 200 young environmentalists are being trained in conservation research and data collection. Students can also join classes live from the ship (it has been named “the world’s most exciting classroom”). British primatologist Jane Goodall said: “We all know we’re in the midst of the sixth great extinction, with a lot of doom and gloom about the problems facing the environment, climate change and loss of biodiversity. This voyage will give many people an opportunity to see there is still time to make change.”
Women fight fires in the Amazon
UNESCO has set up an initiative in the Amazon to train 500 volunteer firefighters of all ages, and more than half are women. One of the early trainees was 59-year-old Miriam, who had always wanted to be a firefighter and protect the rainforest. “This course that came to us, provided by UNESCO, you can’t imagine how gratifying it was,” she enthused. “You can’t imagine the joy [it] brought to each one of us.” Volunteers are also trained in professional fire-extinguishing techniques and how to create fire breaks before they become uncontrolled in the area often dubbed “the lungs of the earth”. “We live in areas where local residents make small fires to clear their plantations, and these sometimes get out of control,” said 24-year-old volunteer Raiuma. The initiative is growing in Brazil, Peru and Bolivia, and the volunteer firefighters have become indispensable as the drier seasons make rainforest more prone to fires.
Rewilding the southern white rhino
When breeder John Humes failed to receive any bids at auction for his 2000 white rhinos, a South African NGO stepped in and purchased them all. They are now planning the world’s biggest rewilding project, to release them across Africa. All the animals will be released in protected areas to secure the species’ future. “The scale of this undertaking is simply enormous, and therefore daunting,” said Peter Fearnhead, CEO of African Parks. “However, it is equally one of the most exciting and globally strategic conservation opportunities.” It is the largest continent-wide rewilding project to occur for any species. Southern white rhinos are now listed as near threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The northern white rhino, meanwhile, is functionally extinct, with just two non-breeding females in captivity in Kenya.
The Mexican hummingbird whisperer
A 73-year-old Mexican woman, Catia Lattouf, is saving hundreds of hummingbirds that are sick, injured or infant, at her apartment in Mexico City. As a result, she has become a celebrity for bird lovers across Latin America. Her home clinic even supports institutions such as the Iztacala campus at Mexico’s National Autonomous University, which needs her help when they are underfunded. The project began over ten years ago with a single injured hummingbird and grew from there; she is currently nursing around 600, having begun caring for them when recovering from colon cancer in 2011. The city is dangerous for small birds and they stay with her until they can feed themselves. Then she releases them into the wild, south of the city. As for their survival rates, she said: “Nothing is guaranteed. I believe God gives life and God takes it, but we do everything possible.”
Sky Events
There are ceaseless activities in the skies this month. On 8 and 9 October we have the Draconids Meteor Shower producing ten meteors per hour; the best viewing is early evening. On 14 October there will be an Annular Solar Eclipse, which creates a ring of light around the moon, visible only in Western Africa, North America, South America, the Pacific, Atlantic and the Arctic. The Orionids Meteor between 20 and 21 October will produce up to 20 meteors per hour at its peak: look to the constellation of Orion. On 23 October, the planet Venus will be above the horizon in the morning: look towards the eastern sky before sunrise. The Full Moon is on 28 October, known as the Travel Moon, Hunter’s Moon or the Blood Moon. On this day there will also be a partial lunar eclipse, which can be seen from all over Europe, Asia, Africa and western Australia.
October Tides
Spring: 1st, 15th-16th and 29th-30th
Neap: 8th–9th and 23rd-24th
Andreas Kornevall is a Swedish storyteller, author and ecologist. He is the Director of Operations for the Earth Restoration Service Charity based in the UK
