Guest blog by author Malcolm J Ingham on what motivated him to a career in conservation and looking after wild animals.
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| Kippy in the garden pond - © Malcolm J Ingham |
I have been asked
many times over the years why I wanted to pursue a career in conservation and
become a wildlife ranger. The answer is, simply, that as far back as I can
remember I have always had a fascination with nature and wildlife with one
memory in particular being up there with the best of them. I couldn’t have been
more than five or six years old.
It was a summers evening and I was with my
parents by a stream close to our home in Clitheroe and being spellbound by the
beauty of a cluster of wild primroses on a grassy bank. One of the reasons for
the vividness of the memory is not purely down to the primroses alone, but also
to the strange fact that I seemed to instinctively know what they were despite
the fact that I have no recollection of ever having seen primroses before.
Other childhood memories were of being totally
captivated at the sight of my first wild otter, of caring for an injured lapwing
and of covertly reading about badgers in my well-thumbed copy of The Observers Book of Wild Animals of the
British Isles during school lessons. Badgers fascinated me but I would have
to wait many years before I actually saw one in the flesh. The conservation
seed was sown at a very early age with me knowing the path I wanted to follow
but not having a clue how to find it.
The years passed
but I never gave up hope of achieving what I felt to be my true destiny - to
become a wildlife ranger. Not only did I eventually achieve my ambition of
becoming a ranger, followed by Head Ranger & Wildlife Officer but I would,
along with my wife Ann, form the Wirral Wildlife Rehabilitation Unit, caring
for and rehabilitating many species of wildlife including badgers. The latter
became a major part of my life for many years, which saw me caring for injured
badgers, hand rearing & rehabilitating orphaned cubs to confronting badger
diggers and baiters and of becoming expert witness for the prosecution for the
police and RSPCA in badger related crime.
I have known badgers as individuals
both in captivity and the wild, I have lectured on them, written about them and
fought their corner in court. Other species have also played a major part in my
life such as Nigel the nighthawk, Hamish the Scottish Wildcat, Muffles and
Velvet, my two foxes to name but a few.
I often reflect on
my days as a kid roaming the fields and woods around Clitheroe and the trials
and tribulations of my quest to become a ranger. I could never have visualised
in a million years just where my ambition would eventually lead me - not only
did I find my path, I discovered a motorway!!!
