14Ingham’s W RLD
YOU might think that finding your food by plunging head-first from great heights into the sea would be a recipe for a short life.And watching hungry gannets diving into the deep off Cornwall last month, I had to admire their toughness. But they clearly cope. Britain’s oldest gannet clocked up 37 years of life above the ocean wave. It was ringed as a nestling in 1961 on Bass Rock near Edinburgh and departed this life on Orkney in 1998.
We often think wildlife has but a short time to live. For most this is true – otherwise we would be overrun.
But the birds and animals that move from wide-eyed innocents to battle-hardened veterans become a better bet for survival.
The British Trust for Ornithology’s latest longevity records, based on years of ringing birds, show the oldest white-tailed eagle was nearly 24. Ringed as a chick in the Highlands in 1996, it was still thriving in June last year.
A 27-year-old little tern was still enjoying the sea air off North Wales last year, despite the annual rigours of migrating to and from the shores of West Africa.
A redshank, a noisy wader with, you guessed it, red legs, was also doing well on the Orwell estuary in Suffolk 20 years after being ringed there as an adult.
No bird can compete with Britain’s oldest, a Manx Shearwater from North Wales. It was alive in 2008 when recaught 10 days short of 51 years old.
The world champion is Wisdom the Laysan albatross who this spring hatched a chick on a Pacific atoll at the age of 70.
Britain’s oldest swallow made it to 11 despite its 12,000-mile round trip to South Africa every year but its travels pale compared to a 31-year-old Arctic tern caught in Aberdeenshire.
As these master aviators spend our winters enjoying the Antarctic summer, it will have earned 750,000 air miles on migration alone. Keeping active is clearly the key to a long life.
But what of the birds in our gardens? The BTO records include the oldest starling (17 years old), blackbird (15), chaffinch (13), house sparrow (12), great tit (10), robin (eight) and wren (seven).
But these are only the birds we know about. There may well be older sparrows, terns and gannets out there. We just haven’t caught up with these Methuselahs yet.
THE Chinese “mastermind” of Southern Africa’s top wildlife trafficking outfit was this week jailed for 14 years in Malawi.
Yunhua Lin was convicted of trading in rhino horn and money laundering, says the Environmental Investigation Agency. He’s the 14th member of his gang to be sent down. It’s good news for wildlife – the Lin-Zhang gang also traded in elephant ivory and pangolins.
ANOTHER horror could come to an end. South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, has called for a ban on eating dog meat.
Humane Society International says two million dogs are raised for the table there every year. They face death by electrocution.
GREEN TIP: Boost your car’s mpg by having tyres at the right pressure, emptying the boot and turning off the air con. CONGRATS to Carrock Homes who have won the Sustainability Award from the Federation of Master Builders. They took a derelict, listed ancient Cumbrian barn and turned it into an amazing energyefficient family home. I should know. I was one of the judges. BIRDS have all but vanished from my garden. Feeders need refilling once a week, not every day. The reason: in autumn the woods and hedges are full of berries, nuts and bugs. The birds will return when the food runs out and the thermometer dips.