Misspent youth?

By Ronnie Reed

Volunteer

Bring together a group of wildlife enthusiasts; throw in a few people who are busy devoting their lives to saving our beleaguered planet or at least conserving a small part of it, sit them down in a quiet corner, and let the conversation flow, and sooner or later the conversation will find its way round to the subject of what got them ‘hooked’ on wildlife in the first place.

What emerges is that, for most, their fascination with the natural world started early, their interest was driven by curiosity and, more worryingly, you are in the presence of some three headed monsters who in their younger days committed heinous crimes against poor defenceless creatures, most notably invertebrates!

Ask most naturalists when they became interested in the world around them and they will talk about their childhood. For some the worm dangling in the water that hooked them for life, is a particular event; catching a dragonfly nymph for the first time, finding a frog amongst the tangle of water plants on the edge of a pond, watching a buzzard soaring against a clear blue sky, discovering a hedgehog at the bottom of a pile of leaves, or trapping a feisty crab before it vanishes beneath a rock. Small things, tiny ripples on the surface of a lake which spread to far shores and are remembered years afterwards.

For others the special relationship they have with the natural world has always been there. They have never really thought about it. It is a way of life, something they breathed in with their first breath and never let go of. No magic spark to set things off; just a light that has always been on.

And then there is this special ingredient: curiosity. You find the dragonfly nymph and want to know what it is. The more you learn about it, the more fascinating it becomes and suddenly you are an expert telling others about it.

What about the three headed monsters? They are smiling down with fond memories of misspent childhoods trapping poor unsuspecting butterflies in jam jars, imprisoning newts in murky tanks of water, catching slow worms to find out if they shed their tails, and pulling the legs off insects to watch them struggle, (At what point did they realise that curiosity should have boundaries and that we need to protect the wildlife around us rather than capture or dismember it?!)

If we are to produce another generation of wildlife enthusiasts, conservationists and three headed monsters, we need to ensure that our children are given the same opportunities we had. Our kids deserve to be immersed in the natural world and from the word go they need the freedom to be outside and there on the spot where magical things can happen.

So let’s get our children out there; into the back garden (toads hide under flower pots!), down to the local park, out into the nearest woodland, up onto the Downs or along the beach where the world gets washed up on the strandline and let’s ensure that organisations like the Sussex Wildlife Trust can provide the expertise to help stimulate the amazing curiosity that children have.