Animals – October 2018

PumpHouse

As autumn gets into full swing, it's an interesting time for animals – some animals migrate to warmer climates, others get ready to hibernate for the winter or gather food to see them through the coming months. It's also a good time to think about how important animals are ... to us.

Also, 1st October is World Vegetarian Day – so we have decided that the theme for October will be animals.

 

Animals in autumn

There are lots of animal-related things to look out for in the British countryside in autumn:


Spiders' webs, murmuration (flocking birds) and rutting deer, to name but three! 

Useful links ...

Here are a few interesting links, for you to investigate further:

this Guardian article reports on the Living Planet Index, which warns that vertebrate populations may be down by two-thirds on 1970s levels, mostly as a result of habitat loss and climate change.
• Find out more about World Vegetarian Day.
Cowspiracy, a film about the environmental impact of animal agriculture. See a short, summarised version here.
• the BBC's Autumnwatch series is a great resource for finding out about animals' behaviours in the autumn. This year the series visits New England, USA.
• the first Monday of October each year is also the UN's World Habitat Day, whose aim is to reflect on the state of our cities and towns and the basic human right to adequate shelter. Humans are animals, too, after all!