With their jagged crests, male great crested newts can look like miniature dragons in breeding season – even though they are only 15cm long – and this rare amphibian is the stuff of monstrous legend in the building trade, a legally protected beast whose presence in any puddle of water halts all grand designs.
Many an urban myth has people dropping great crested newts on to wasteland to thwart construction projects. But the amphibian’s status as the nimby’s best friend may be coming to an end.
Natural England, the government’s conservation watchdog, is embarking on a great crested newt DNA survey in Woking and trialling a new approach to conserving them. Instead of automatically stopping all developments while individual newts are captured and relocated, the local council will use the survey information to protect key great crested newt populations and create better-placed newt habitats, which will compensate for less significant populations lost to development. If successful, the trial – welcomed by builders and cautiously supported by conservation groups – will be rolled out nationwide.
The badger cull has made me deeply suspicious of government “pilots” but I had a fascinating chat recently with the renowned naturalist Chris Baines, who wants developers and conservationists to work together more closely. This more pragmatic approach to conserving the great crested newt might help. If, for instance, great crested newts are no longer feared as an expensive obstacle to construction, developers might allow the creation of temporary nature reserves on “land banks” that are often left idle for years waiting for development opportunities. Wildlife is quickly adaptable and temporary nature reserves are a fine idea, as long as rare species are offered permanent protection too.
Football takes baby steps
At 10.30pm on Saturday, Norwich City captain Russell Martin received a call from his wife, Jasmine: she had gone into labour, a week early, for their third child. The footballer was in Liverpool, preparing for Norwich’s Premier League match the following day. So he climbed into his car and, with his club’s “player liaison” sharing the driving, returned to Norwich to be with Jasmine as she laboured through the night.
At 9.30am on Sunday, their son was born. At 10.30am, the sleep-bereft Martin jumped on a plane with Norwich majority shareholder Delia Smith, arriving back in Liverpool just in time for the match. And who should score Norwich’s equalising goal but Martin? He celebrated, of course, by cradling his arms in the style popularised by the Brazilian striker Bebeto in the 1994 World Cup.
In Bebeto’s day, footballers played on regardless. Now clubs help them attend births and, it appears, give them a choice about whether to play or not. (Martin’s manager said his appearance was up to him; Martin spoke of the management “being keen” that he play.) The pressure on working mothers to “have it all” is increasingly felt by working fathers too. Still, we should celebrate the fact that many dads are much more involved in family life than a generation ago.
Zoo’s killer quandary
Any story of a wild animal in a zoo that kills someone is usually accompanied by another terse sentence: “The animal was put down.” But Hamilton zoo, in New Zealand, has announced that a male Sumatran tiger that killed Samantha Kudeweh, an experienced keeperinside its enclosure, will not be euthanised. It is not yet known what Kudeweh’s family thinks of this, but our tendency to prescribe capital punishment for animals acting according to their instincts while forced to live in a profoundly unnatural place is ethically troubling. Might Hamilton zoo’s approach be the start of a less vindictive response to such tragedies?
