Mark Carwardine

3 weeks ago | discoverwildlife.com | Mark Carwardine

It’s hard to believe that, after decades of campaigning, driven grouse shooting – and all the affiliated wildlife slaughter and habitat desecration – continues on a truly industrial scale. It’s not cheap. People pay thousands of pounds a day for the privilege of killing as many red grouse as possible.

2 months ago | discoverwildlife.com | Mark Carwardine

There was quite a hullabaloo when four lynx were spotted running wild in Cairngorms National Park. Even first minister John Swinney joined the fray, condemning whoever released them and declaring that he was “enormously grateful” to all those who helped capture the hapless animals in snowy woodland near Kingussie. Despite some melodramatic claims to the contrary, they were not a threat to the public. Lynx are not considered dangerous to humans.

2 months ago | discoverwildlife.com | Mark Carwardine

We Europeans are incapable of living alongside predators. We blithely expect people in Africa and Asia to share their homes with lions, tigers, Komodo dragons and a host of other potentially dangerous animals without question. So why can’t we be as sympathetic and enlightened about predator conservation as they are? The latest guilty party is Sweden – which has unleashed another season of hunting hell on its brown bears.

Mar 17, 2025 | discoverwildlife.com | Mark Carwardine

Fox hunting is illegal. I may be stating the obvious, but ‘illegal’ means it’s against the law – like smuggling heroin or stealing a car – and therefore you’re not allowed to do it. So how come last month hunters on horseback accompanied by a pack of baying hounds chased a fox right past my village? Throughout the winter, hunts up and down the country will be sticking two fingers up at the law and purposely setting packs of dogs onto foxes for ‘sport’. What is fox hunting and why was it banned?

Feb 28, 2025 | telegraph.co.uk | Mark Carwardine

No one ever says: “I can’t remember if I’ve seen a whale”. A close encounter with one of these larger-than-life leviathans is a life-changing experience. Over the past 40 years, I’ve spent countless hours watching all sorts of whales, all over the world – and I still look forward to my next encounter as if it were my first. It’s no surprise to me then that whale watching is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the travel industry.