European Cetacean Society 2015 - closing and prize list

The last few hours of the ECS in Malta was filled with drama: reports, announcements, letters of concern, awards, departures and elections. I have already told you about the Conservation award.

Here's a flavour of the rest.

Andrew Wright reports for the Council on website and publications

The Full ECS Council: Mark, Andrew, Inger, Thierry, Tilen, Paddy, Joann, Connor and Roland.

Inger reports on student meeting

Simmonds reports back on the discussions made by the ECS National Contact points. The 'NCPs requested their own webpages in their own languages and suggested that the ECS should send an urgent letter to address dolphin watching concerns in the Red Sea.here

Here is Tilen thanking Andrew with a hug for his hard work on council.

Andrew Wright and Tilen Genov

Prize winners in full: Amanda Bishop - student talk

                                   Vanessa Trijoulet - short talk

                                   Abbo van Neer - poster
                                   Ceri Morris - Baleine Libre Prize for Video
                                   Texas Sim - poster

prize from Paddy and Heidi Frisch

Another award winner Ceri Morris

Michel Andre reports from the Scientific Advisory Committee -
stressing the important of keeping to time.
 (Simmonds does not seem to be listening)

Hustings for the ECS council membership:

Joan Gonzalo of Tethys - he was elected to council

Fiona Reid of WDC and the Univeristy of Aberdeen was also elected to the council.

Hustings for the Presidency of the ECS: In a good-natured competition Chris Parsons of George Mason University went head to head with Mario Acquarone of the Arctic University of Norway.

Both made excellent speeches.

Mario at the hustings for president

Chris Parsons at the hustings

The vote was close and Mario won the elections and Chris a bottle of wine which he was obviously delighted about (see below).

Presidential candidates hug after the result is announced.

 Thierry Jauniaux gives his final speach as president



Thanks to Becky and Anja for photographs. 

European Cetacean Society - 2015 Conservation Award.

Awards ceremony  (photo credit: Anja Reckendorf)

[ Highlighted text here indicates where appropriate (and inappropriate)images were shown.]

I was delighted and honoured to again be tasked with the delivery of the ECS Mandy McMath Conservation Award this year, and I said something along the following lines:

First I recalled Mandy McMath after whom the award is named using words written by her good friend Peter Evans in a tribute that can be found in full the SeaWatch Foundation's website HERE.

“With the passing away of Mandy McMath … after a long fight against cancer, the world of marine conservation lost a true champion. Mandy was so much more than her job title – Senior Marine Ecologist at the Countryside Council for Wales. She had a passion for the conservation of all animal life, and her personal warmth and caring for other people struck everyone within moments of being introduced to her.

She was a true diplomat of the conservation world, offering wise advice, working away quietly and modestly towards those goals, wherever necessary cutting through bureaucratic red tape to achieve this.

Mandy was an eco warrior, not only for marine conservation in Wales but also throughout UK and beyond, with marine mammals being a particular passion, specially seals. She was also an underwater photographer and diver, and in her spare time, an accomplished gardener and an active member of her local community…. She was a very principled person, a committed vegetarian, and one of the first to adapt her house to renewable energy.”

Then my presentation continued thus:

Among the things that she championed and helped to establish was the ECS conservation award. Mandy believed that it was not just a fitting reward at a time when the planet has never more needed its conservation heroes - but it would act as an inspiration to the next generation of scientists and conservationists.

As most of you know by now this ceremony consists of me first trying to honour Mandy’s wry sense of humour by reflecting in a brief but deeply meaningful (and highly scientifically robust) way on the year since our last meeting and, simultaneously, dropping a series of clues as to the award winner until she (or indeed he) is revealed. And the event closes with your loud and enthusiastic cheering. Let me remind you that the award is for an outstanding contribution and hence your applause to this point has merely been practice. Wolf whistling and whooping is allowed.

[There is encouragement to wolf whistle at this point.]

However, unfortunately, nothing of any consequence that has happened this last year and therefore I have nothing to report.

And I am reinforced in this view by the fact that whenever I turn on my news media sampling device (or television) anywhere in the world I am consistently rewarded by documentaries focused on something called the Kardasians.

And I am perplexed as to what they are, where they come from …. And why we should in anyway care. My research indicates that Kardasia is in Armenia and that the Kardasians should in fact be a community of humble stone cutters. There is little sign of any stone cutting…. Or any discernible employment - But I believe they are K-selected – Kim, Kloe, Kourtney, Kris…. Krispy-Crème and so forth.

I have also managed to discern that this particular matrilineal society is somehow more famous when departing, rather than when arriving.

I am hopeful that in due course Barb Taylor will be able to explain to us whether this is a discrete population that we should or should not give a damn about. (And I believe that this may be the first time that this two great American icons - Kim Kardasian and Barb Taylor - have featured in the same presentation.

I have also noticed over the last year – with some pleasure - the continuing return of the beard as a fashionable facial attribute for young men. Of course some of us have championed it for many years. As usual you will have seen many examples around the conference halls ranging from the bearly-there why bother or ‘Ritter’ style through the neatly-trimmed or ‘Ryan’ style, to the more fulsome version preferred by the more old fashioned field scientists – as exemplified by the ‘Whitehead’ (to which I will return).  

The younger men currently prefer a more fussy styled version complete with a full waxed moustache to complement their equally fussy hair – you young ladies must get really bored these days waiting for your boyfriends to fuss and fix their hair into many stylish waves and then wax and mouse their fulsome moustaches – This is Ryan tells me the hipster style. .  some thing to look forward to guys is the time when with maturity you can also wax and plait your nasal and ear hairs.

Personally – in terms of beard - I have always aspired to the full ‘Giuseppe’ – a neat cut (setting 3- 4 on the beard trimmer) – but I have failed to grow the highly expressive and effective mustache of the ecotype.

In fact I aspire to Italian approach to many things. Of all the nationalities of Europe and beyond, including the Armenians, it seems to me that Italians come with inherent style – it is simply genetic. The Italians even invited the word Ciao - which can be used to say both hello and good bye with considerable style! (It is also the only country where crime is properly organised). And you will all know this old phrase –

Then God decided to make sexy people – and he created Italians.

This style and elegance is of course typified by the Tethys research group as you see here practicing… I believe a strandings response practice. [Dolce and Gabana advert]

This research troop is elegant in its presentation and its work.

And I can, of course, find no better term to describe the president of Tethys than ‘elegant’ in all respects.

(And I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to Dr Notarbartolo di Sciara for mispronouncing and misspelling his name for the better part of at least twenty years.)

Moving rapidly on - Here is a famously bearded knight of Malta by Titian

The person that we honour today has some similar attributes – he (or she) has a distinguished lineage and like this image was produced in Venice (surely the coolest city in the coolest country).

Giuseppe Notobartarlo di Sciara

I think I have probably narrowed the field enough to reveal (but hold your applause please) that I speak of none other than of course than a past president of the ECS, the current president of sexy Tethys and someone that we all owe a great debt to in terms of inspiration, education and science: Dr Giuseppe Notarbartolo di sciara.  

Educated in Italy, Giuseppe moved to extend his studies in the US where he worked on beluga whales and whale sharks, as well as doing research with humpback whales in Hawaii and Bryde’s whales in Venezuela. He obtained a Ph.D. at the Scripps Instution of Oceanography (1985) in marine biology with a thesis on manta ray taxonomy and ecology in the Gulf of California. He discovered and described a new manta ray species, Mobula munkiana, which he named after his mentor Walter Munk.  

Undoubtedly, enriched by his time in the USA, Giuseppe moved back to his home country in 1985 where he started working on Mediterranean and Red Sea conservations issues.

In 1986, Giuseppe founded the Tethys Research Institute. Under his guidance it has conduced research focused on  Mediterranean cetacean ecology essential for the conservation of these animals.

A decade later, Notarbartolo di Sciara was nominated by the then President of Italy to lead the Central Institute for Applied Marine Research (ICRAM). He was President of ICRAM guided that institution in a more strategic direction and allowed the creation and flourishing of many important conservation and planning initiatives, including the strengthening of marine protected area design, coordinated research within MPA sites. Notarbartolo di Sciara has also served as the President of the European Cetacean Society  (1993-1997).

Today Giuseppe is well known throughout Europe as a conservation leader and  a television commentator with regular contributions to wildlife shows. In addition, Giuseppe has also been a stalwart of the Scientific Committee of ACCOBAMS and the Commissioner for Italy to the IWC.

I cannot begin to list his publications (there are at least 140 scientific papers with his name on them) … but would direct you to his website for more details. And I should make special note of his book on gambling. 

His current roles are numerous and I have listed the ones that I know of here [slide] there may be more. And I add here his latest.  (I forget the full title of this new role but is something like 'Conference of the Parties Appointed Councillor for Aquatic Mammals', but I am sure you will be representing other marine animals. )

Not surprisingly Giuseppe has been honoured for his work elsewhere (and we have to hope that he still has a little room on his mantelpiece for the ECS crystal. [A list of honours can be seen HERE.]

As you know his expertise extends to manta rays –and he even has a manta ray parasite  named after him. Here it is … and if we change the focus slightly you can probably see one reason why this happened.

I want ’to make a pause here before we extend our full salute to this years conservation award winner (and also to provide a little warm up applause exercise).

Giuseppe emphasised yesterday the recognition made by the Parties of the Convention of Migratory Species at their last conference of the need to consider cultural units in its work. This highly important development was underpinned by the hard work of a team of people starting the godfather of cetacean culture Hal Whitehead and his colleague Luke Rendell and combined with all the efforts behind the scenes of my ex-colleagues and good friends at Whale and Dolphin Conservation.

There are layers of hard works that lead to the passing of a resolution in an international body. I have some idea of how hard the scientists, NGOs and the Secretariat worked to prepare the way for this conclusion. I would ask that the records of the ECS show that we celebrated this development and commended all concerned and that you signal your assent to this by applause.

[there was loud applause}

Hal Whitehead, Luke Rendell, Heidi Frisch, Philippa Brakes, Nicola Hodgins, Alison Wood and supporting literature.

Now returning to the 2015 award-winner.

Some of us reflected on what made a successful person at the student careers workshop back on Saturday (which seems a long way away now) – I suggested drive, confidence and affability and that having a vocation may help. 

Students I still stand by that and can commend no better example to you than Giuseppe.

But a vocation can be a hard mistress – and I know Guiseppe well enough to know that he is sometimes frustrated and distressed when things get worse rather than better on his watch.

An award and the celebration associated with it we all hope will act to boost Giuseppe ever onwards and upwards to ever greater things. So please now be prepared to show your appreciation as we celebrate the life’s work of this modest knight of Monaco, child of Venice, wise gentleman of Italy, friend of manta rays and marine mammals, proud beard wearer and citizen of the world.

Ladies and gentlemen – Don Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara. 

[A standing ovation and many minutes of applause follow.]

Nick Tregenza 2014 winner hands on the award painting

ECS President Thierry Jauniaux presents the Giuseppe with the award trophy.

Don Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara (photo credit: Anja Reckendorf)

European Cetacean Society 2015 - Malta 1

So, back to the island nation of Malta for the ECS annual conference and associated workshops.

Over the weekend, the workshops included one for students on careers and statistics and another (the third in a series) focused on marine mammal rescue.

Highlights for me, so far, have included Tilen Genov's paper showing bottlenose dolphins have distinctive 'faces' that can be used to recognise them; the overview on noise provided by Gianni Pavan; and Paul Jepson's alarming overview on the current and real threat posed by chemical pollution.

Giuseppe Notobartolo di Sciara provided an overview of the Migratory Species Convention drawing attention to the landmark resolution on 'culture' (as previously highlighted in this blog and my Huffington Post blog).

Here are some images:

# Opening  ceremony:

Maltese minister, Joe Mizzi, addresses the conference

ECS President Thierry Jauniaux adds his welcome

EU Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella
on the big screen also wishes the meeting
 well via video and emphasizes the commitment of the EU to 'sustainability'.

 # Presentations

Paul Jepson  alarming on pollution

Keynote speaker Barb Taylor on genetic conservation 

The milling throng

Seal scientists meet - Paddy Pomeroy (on the left) and Becky Robothan 

Tilen Genov on dolphin faces.

Signs of Spring 2 - daffodils and small parrots

Kew's tropical house

What better place to look for signs of emerging Spring than at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in southwest London. (Fortunately I happened to have a meeting there.)

These old gardens host glass houses ancient and modern and a cornucopia of plant life.

Including 'a host of golden'...

daffodils!

Spring at Kew Gardens

Flying overhead came a flock of introduced ring-neck parakeets; very noisy at first but then quite quickly sleepy in the setting sun.

(I spotted a sign on an gate saying 'please close to limit the damage caused by badgers' and a quick enquiry revealed that the extensive gardens, which are hemmed in on all sides by buildings, host two badger sets. The staff run badger walks in the season. And the badgers are known to have arrived in 1914!)

Sunset at Kew Bridge

Whalefest 2015 - 'if the whales could scream, the industry would stop...'

We used to think that whales were monsters.... now we know better, and they deserve better.

Here is an except from the presentation on whaling that I made at the 'fest:

"There is no humane way to kill a whale. I could quote figures at you on times to death…. but why spoil a nice day?

….

Well perhaps I need to a little – but no gory pictures – whales are difficult animals to kill – this is partly because many are very big and partly because they are adapted for a life in the sea. The sea of course also plays a part in the accuracy of any harpoon trajectory.

The main killing method used during commercial and special permit whaling is the penthrite grenade harpoon fired from a cannon mounted on the bow of a ship. The harpoon is intended to penetrate about 30 cm (12 inches) into the animal before detonating. It is also meant to be embedded so the whale is not lost but can be reeled in to the catcher.

The more ‘lucky’ hunted whales are those killed or made insensible swiftly. Where first harpoons fail, a second may be used or large calibre rifles. Judging death is difficult but data from the whalers indicate that only some 40% of whales in the Japanese hunt are killed swiftly. The average time to death is over two minutes which does compare well with the milliseconds expected in humane slaughter for meat in other forms of commercial meat production; and hidden in this is the tragic and painful deaths of those whales which take longer to die including those ‘struck and lost’ which swim off to an unknown, but undoubtedly in many cases, long painful demise.  

Then there are issue relating to the stress of the chase and psychological concerns for the whales not hit but losing a member of their social group.

This is simply not a humane way of producing meat for human consumption. Nor can there ever be.

Signing petition to UK
Prime Minister

And there is a famous quote from a ship’s physician who worked on whaling boats in the last century  

He said: “The gunners themselves admit that if whales could scream, the industry would stop for nobody would be able to stand it.”

On the back of this presentation I was privileged to launch a new petition - a  message to the next Prime Minister of the UK (noting that an election will happen in the UK in just a few weeks) - calling for high level action from her/him and their ministers in addressing the campaigns of the pro-whaling nations. A long list of groups supported this petition. 


SOME MORE SCENES FROM AROUND THE FEST:

World Animal Protection (Joanna and Alyx) promote their
excellent marine debris work

Alan Knight and the BDMLR stand

Panel event - a green, a labour, a conservative and a lib-dem Member of Parliament and Wil Travers of Born Free.
(Wil gets my vote.)

That's enough Whalefest for this year.

Whalefest 2015 - more highlights, featuring Hal Whitehead and cetacean culture.

Look out its behind you!

I think it may be dress-down Sunday.... or maybe its the result of the night before (bearing in mind Brighton is party-central for Southeast England, and anyone under twenty did well to survive being out and about on the town last night), anyway, the prize for the tattiest old pair of jeans on  display goes jointly to Wil Travers, Monty Hall and that Bucanan filmaker bloke. What happened to the days when presenters turned up in smart suit and the better ones, a stylish bowtie? I guess it is chic not to be chic, but I digress and its not about the clothes is it.

Those coming to the Whalefest hoping to find some whale experts will have been both disappointed and satisfied. Disappointed because whilst there were not a lot of cetacean experts on display (although that young Stephen Marsh certainly knows one end of dolphin from another) there was one stalking the halls and stalls who stands head and shoulders over many.

It was always going to be a big highlight for me; the grand wizard of whales had been sighted all over the Whalefest for the last day and a half.... and finally it was time, late on Sunday afternoon, for him to actually speak. Confined to the small stage (big mistake Whalefest organisers) and  having to compete with the appreciable noise from the stalls and happy public outside, wizard Whitehead still provided an inspiring presentation on the issue of the era for whale conservation: 'cetacean culture'..

Professor Whitehead's talk began with a series of photographs showing Hal and his team at work on their small research yacht taken by Hal's partner Jennifer, a professinal photographer. The team were shown eating, sleeping, mending the engine, playing cards, biopsy darting, 'D-tagging', whale pooh scooping and diving into the water to retrieve equipment. (Looks like fun, mind you they did not show the rough days).

Then Hal got into the main focus of his talk: evidence for culture in cetaceans. He started with Roger Payne's recording of humpback whale song; the recognition that this was indeed 'song' complete with stricture and repetition (and that even the most skeptical critic of culture now accepted that the songs are shared through social learning). Humpback song evolve and new versions move curiously eastward across oceans and around the world.

Why eastwards? No one knows but Whitehead noted that human culture was a reasonable starting point for comparison. Once human 'culture' had spread from China westwards and then, later in a different phase, out from the west towards the east. Perhaps something similar was happening. Then be moved to the low frequency moans of blue whales - less complex but for some reason all across the world becoming lower and lower in frequency.

He said that the best examples of culture really came from the toothed whales. His next example came from Adelaide harbour and a bottlenose dolphin called 'Billie'. Injured Billie was taken into captive rehabilitation and later, after successful release, was seen tail-walking (rising up high out of the water and moving backwards as if walking on her tail.) This behaviour had previously not been seen in the wild. Billie learnt it from captive dolphins that had been trained to do it, and other wild dolphins then copied it from her.

Billie has now passed away but the Port Adeline dolphins are still tail-walking!

Hal also mentioned the 'sponging' behaviour of some Western Australian dolphins, which carry sponges on their beaks apparently to help them sweep the sea bed for food (perhaps to protect their beaks from the prickly sea urchins there).

He touched on orcas and the Antarctic marine mammal-eating group that famously washes seals off floating ice by making waves through synchronized powerful beating of their tails - another learnt and shared behaviour. And tagging studies have recently shown that these same orcas seen feeding in the pack-ice are now (most unexpectedly) known to move occasionally far away to the north to the warmer waters off Brazil. There is no specific rhyme or reason, time or season for this movement but Hal likened it to the occasional holidays to the warm that humans from our latitudes like to take.

The best studied orcas in terms of matrilineal (female-led) groups exhibiting differences in habitat, food and behaviour are those of the NW of North America, especially around Vancouver Island. Then, his final example came from his beloved sperm whales - a species divided up according to its calls and he spoke of the 'Regular Clan', which go clcik-click-click and the 'Plus One Clan' which goes 'click-click-click-pause- click'. He compared this to the habit in Canadian people of ending their sentences with 'ay' - a culturally learnt aspect of their accent.

He concluded with the following thoughts:

'Culture' can be described as behaviour learnt from others (through 'social learning') and passed on'.

'In some species of cetacean culture determines almost all behaviour'!

Culture also produces 'stupid stuff' and here he compared the (human) charge of the light brigade with the (cetacean) mass strandings!

A key to culture is society and the key to society is then mother-calf bond....

And .... following on the theme of this Whalefest... he emphasized how inappropriate it was to make other cultures subservient to ours!

He ended with this quote:

“For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.” 
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

He received rapturous applause - even some appreciative hooting! (Not everyone gets hooting!)

Wizard Whitehead in action at the Whalefest.

I believe that Hal Whitehead is doing for whales what Jane Goodall has done for chimpanzees. Like her he goes out among them - as deep and as quietly into their habitat as it is possible to go - and in a mainly non-invasive way, he carefully gathers information and then relays it back to our species with enthusiasm and integrity. He's a great interpreter for them.

I wanted to ask him what he thought industrial whaling had done to whale cultures. (sperm whales for example were reduced to a small fraction of their original global population size in the 20th century nd the blue whales to 1% or so of theirs but he was whisked away to a book signing. I will ask him another day. .

Whalefest 2015 - Some Highlights, including Ric O'Barry

Whalefest 2015 programme

O'Barry (left) and Travers in conversation

The Whalefest in Brighton is now in its fourth year. Its a remarkable thing. A celebration that now brings in grade A celebrities (like TV stars Monty Halls and Gordon Buchanan) and some of the super-stars of the animal conservation and welfare world.

Brighton Pier

One of the strongest themes here is a call for the end to dolphinaria. Highlights for me so far have included an interview between Wil Travers, of the Born Free Foundation and Ric O'Barry, who was once Flipper's training, and now a leading advocate against the captivity of cetaceans.

O'Barry took to the stage to loud applause and whoops of delight from an audience of several hundred and the conversation focused around the fate of dolphins and whales that are now in captivity.

O'Barry said that they should be taken to a sea pen or a fenced off cove, birth control measures should be applied and they should be allowed to thus spend the rest of their days. (This would apply to animals that could not be returned to the wild of course).

'Captive dolphins', said O'Barry, 'are not ambassadors, they are victims!'

Ric and Wil in conversation - image on the screen
shows the young O'Barry with one of the Flippers

A kid asked O'Barry, 'why do you like dolphins so much?'

And he explained that he did not know really ... but when he was a child, this was during world war two, he and his mum were watching dolphins from the shore and she told him about how dolphins rescued people in trouble, including shot-down airmen... there is something very special about this!

Naomi Rose extends her distant support
to Dolphin Free Europe on the big screen

Other highlights for me included a modest talk on the small stage about trying to address ship-strikes on whales (work being developed through the International Whaling Commission) from Fabian Ritter and an exciting contribution from Alex Elliot of WAP on the growing threat of marine debris.


I am now looking forward to hearing the great whale biologist Hal Whitehead talk about culture in cetaceans later today.

(I made a presentation on whaling and I will publish an excerpt from this on this blog later. This is linked to the launch of a petition to the next British Prime minster that we launched with a number of other groups here at the 'fest.)

Captive orca graveyward on Brighton beach

Fabian Ritter speaks about the IWSC's work on
ship-strikes

key conclusions

Jennifer Berengueras of SOSdolpins
speaks about the campaign against Spanish dolphinaria

Sam and Sam of Dolphinaria-Free Europe

Stephen Marsh of BDMLR talks about porpoises
(He has one under his arm)

Great ladies of conservation - Mandy McMath and Stella Turk

Mandy McMath (right) takes in the view from the Bird Observatory on
Bardsey Island . Jo Clark then of WDC on the left.

As we approach the 2015 conference of the European Cetacean Society, it time to again salute Dr Mandy McMath after whom the ECS conservation award is named. 

Mandy is sadly no longer with us but for those who did not know her as mentor, manager, adviser, ally or just a good friend, there are three precious minutes of film still in the public domain which give you some small insight into her character. 

This short film shows her in one of her favourite places, Barsey Island, taking to the respected TV presenter and naturalist, Iolo Williams, about her beloved seals. (It is remarkable that she is caught on film at all, as she was very camera-shy.) 

Note the practical dark (seal-friendly) clothes (very fashionable for this remote island) but more than this see if you can spy the deep intelligence and wicked sense of humour behind those dark far-seeing eyes.)    

Mandy championed marine mammals and their conservation, young people coming into the field and women in science. She was my friend. Click HERE to see and hear her.


Stella Turk is another 'grand dame' of conservation. Born in 1925 she is still a working scientist and a publishing zoologist. With her husband she founded the Cornish Biological Record Unit which was later incorporated into the Cornwall Wildlife Trust. 

She has long been the Strandings Recorder for Cornwall (meticulously recording all the biological entities that come ashore in the magical part of the UK) but is probably best known for her interest in molluscs. In 1979, the Zoological Society of London recognised her marine work by giving her the Stamford Raffled Award and she was awarded the MBE in 2003. 

A remarkable documentary on YouTube tells her life story in a gentle reflective study. You can find it here. It is thirty seven minutes long. 

Women to inspire a new generation!

Signs of Spring 1 - Snowdrops

Here comes Spring.

First come the snowdrops, pushing up through the still frozen soil. 

The first of the blooms of Spring in this part of the world.

 

and some fragile crocuses!

The photo are from Painswick in the Cotswolds. A town famous for its snowdrops. 

Badgers don't like kiwi fruit!

Here are two little badger films. Eagle-eyed readers will have realised that I sometimes put out a few scraps of food for the badger. As the local cats also like the more meaty offerings, I have taken to covering them with a plastic plant pot base with a pebble on top (see above). The cats can't fathom how to get to the food but badger can. What has been somewhat mysterious is how badger has been getting to the food  without knocking the pebble off.... or was he carefully placing it back on top again?

The film shows he uses a careful sliding technique. Why dislodge the pebble if you don't need to!

Badger is omnivorous and likes the odd bit of fish, left-over pizza or potato. He also likes cheese. 

But what he does not like is kiwi fruit. 

If you watch the film carefully below you will see him taste and drop a shape this side of the plastic pot base. That's the kiwi fruit! It was still sitting there in the morning light ... every other crumb was gone.