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| Andrew Marr defends reputation of hedgehogs after animal compared to the Labour party | Andrew Marr defends reputation of hedgehogs after animal compared to the Labour party |
| (7 months later) | |
| It’s not every day Andrew Marr finds himself leaping to the defence of anyone, let alone the humble British hedgehog. | It’s not every day Andrew Marr finds himself leaping to the defence of anyone, let alone the humble British hedgehog. |
| But the political commentator stood up for the prickly species after he felt they were unfairly compared to the Labour party. | But the political commentator stood up for the prickly species after he felt they were unfairly compared to the Labour party. |
| In a column for the Telegraph titled ‘Labour has to wake up fast, or go the way of the hedgehog’, journalist Mary Riddell angered Marr when she wrote: | In a column for the Telegraph titled ‘Labour has to wake up fast, or go the way of the hedgehog’, journalist Mary Riddell angered Marr when she wrote: |
| “Consider the sad state of the British hedgehog. Badgers, herbicides and traffic are all threatening a species now declining as fast as tigers are disappearing worldwide. The fate befalling the nation’s favourite spiny mammal is akin to the threat faced by the Labour politician. Unless trends change, both risk ending up as roadkill.” | “Consider the sad state of the British hedgehog. Badgers, herbicides and traffic are all threatening a species now declining as fast as tigers are disappearing worldwide. The fate befalling the nation’s favourite spiny mammal is akin to the threat faced by the Labour politician. Unless trends change, both risk ending up as roadkill.” |
| Which led to the following four-part Twitter post, calling for hedgehogs to be left well out of it: | Which led to the following four-part Twitter post, calling for hedgehogs to be left well out of it: |
| 1. Upset by Mary Riddell this am, saying if Labour doesn't reform it could go way of the hedgehog.... | 1. Upset by Mary Riddell this am, saying if Labour doesn't reform it could go way of the hedgehog.... |
| 2. What chance did hedgehogs have to "reform"? And what would a reformed hedgehog look like? Smooth? Living off knotweed and raisins? | 2. What chance did hedgehogs have to "reform"? And what would a reformed hedgehog look like? Smooth? Living off knotweed and raisins? |
| 3. As a boy I looked after orphan hedgehogs - warm milk pipettes. Not one of them believed in the dictatorship of the proletariat... | 3. As a boy I looked after orphan hedgehogs - warm milk pipettes. Not one of them believed in the dictatorship of the proletariat... |
| 4. So leave the poor bloody hedgehogs out of it. It's the humans that need reforming... | 4. So leave the poor bloody hedgehogs out of it. It's the humans that need reforming... |
| Riddell’s column followed Countryfile presenter Michaela Strachan’s claim that the mammals were in “critical danger” of becoming extinct in the next 10 years. | Riddell’s column followed Countryfile presenter Michaela Strachan’s claim that the mammals were in “critical danger” of becoming extinct in the next 10 years. |
| However, hedgehog conservationist Hugh Warwick labelled her warning that “complete b******s” and counterproductive to efforts to preserve the seriously threatened animals. | However, hedgehog conservationist Hugh Warwick labelled her warning that “complete b******s” and counterproductive to efforts to preserve the seriously threatened animals. |
| Dubbed the "alien of the deep", the goblin shark was caught by a commercial fisherman off the coast of Eden, New South Wales. The carcass of the terrifying looking creature was then donated to the Australian Museum in Sydney so that it could be dissected | |
| YouTube/Australian Museum | |
| Scientists in South America have discovered a brand new species of frog – and he’s a dead ringer for Kermit the frog. Hyalinobatrachium dianae is an inch-long glass frog with identical bright green skin, a translucent belly, and bulging white eyes with black pupils. The new species found by Costa Rican Amphibian Research Center on the Talamanca hills of the country, was named after the senior researcher’s mother Diane and brought the total known species of glass frogs on the island to 14 | |
| BBC via YouTube | |
| A bizarre and seemingly super-powered fish which can walk out of water and breathe on land for up to six days could spell a 'major disaster' for wildlife, scientists have warned. The aggressive climbing perch, which has lungs as well as gills, has been discovered in northern Australia | |
| YouTube | |
| A rare and terrifying frilled shark has been pulled from the water by fishermen near Lakes Entrance in Victoria, Australia. Also known as the "living fossil", the frilled shark is named for its six pairs of frill-like gills. The shark’s origin dates back 80 million years, and is one of two species that is still alive from this period | |
| SETFA | |
| Researchers in the US have released what they believe to be the first video footage showing a bizarre-looking Black Sea Devil anglerfish in the wild. As anglerfish live in the deep sea, they are very rarely seen in their natural habitat, and fewer than half a dozen have ever been captured on film or video in the wild, according to experts at the Monterrey Bay Acquarium Research Institute (MBARI) | |
| Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute | |
| A rare blue lobster was caught off Pine Point in Scarborough, Maine. The crustacean is being donated to the Maine State Aquarium | |
| AP Photo/Meghan LaPlante | |
| A con-joined dolphin found on the beach of the Aegean Sea coastal town of Dikili, Izmir province of Turkey | |
| AP | |
| A pair of conjoined gray whale calves have been found off the coast of Mexico, in what scientists believe could be the first discovery of its kind | |
| CONANPHO/AFP/Getty Images | |
| Dolomedes facetus captured pond fish (genus Xiphophorus) in a garden pond near Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The number of spiders who catch and eat fish is on the rise across the world, scientists believe | |
| Peter Liley, Moffat Beach, Queensland | |
| A frog couple from one of the 14 new species of so-called dancing frogs | |
| AP/Satyabhama Das Biju | |
| Conservationists in New Zealand are celebrating after an extremely rare kakapo chick hatched from a cracked egg held together by nothing more than tape and glue. The bird joins a global kakapo population of just 125 birds | |
| Creative Commons. Photo: jidanchaomian, via Flickr. | |
| Migaloo the white whale, sighted at the Bernard Islands | |
| Twitter/Migaloo the Whale | |
| Living in complete darkness more than 900 metres below the surface has left this tiny snail with no pigmentation in its shell. Discovered in the caves of western Croatia the Zospeum tholussum is also a slow mover, creeping just a few centimeters each week. | |
| The mottled colouring on this gecko helps it blend in with the rain forests and rocky habitats of eastern Australia. It also has an extremely wide tail (from which it gets its name) to further confuse predators | |
| Conrad Hoskin | |
| A Giant green flying frog which is among the new species found by scientists in the Greater Mekong region | |
| PA | |
| An extremely rare female deep-water megamouth shark has been caught off the coast of Shizuoka, Japan, and is believed to be only the 58 sighting of the animal on record | |
| Fears grow for Maui's dolphins after New Zealand government opens west coast block for oil and gas drilling | |
| youtube | |
| A rare goat-sheep hybrid has been born on an Irish farm, much to the surprise of a farmer who said the ‘geep’ is thriving since its birth | |
| Irish Farmers Journal | |
| An Omani Owl, a species completely new to science | |
| PA | |
| A rare albino calf being herded into Japan's notorious Taiji 'killing' Cove, where hundreds of dolphins are slaughtered during its annual hunt | |
| Sea Shepherd/EPA | |
| The stone curlew is one of the UK's most threatened birds and has recently returned from their wintering grounds in Africa and Spain | |
| Getty Images | |
| A unique photograph has been taken of a bird with a visible egg showing after experts sent to study a critically endangered Mascarene Petrel on a remote Indian Ocean tropical island encountered an undeniably pregnant member of the species | |
| Hadoram Shirihai | |
| A "very dangerous and venomous" albino cobra has been found in a suburban Los Angeles neighbourhood after escaping from a home there | |
| Dept. of Animal Care and Control, County of Los Angeles | |
| “We are not seeing the imminent extinction of hedgehogs and saying so is not helpful on many levels,” he told The Independent. | “We are not seeing the imminent extinction of hedgehogs and saying so is not helpful on many levels,” he told The Independent. |
| It also followed the Labour party’s crushing defeat at the General Election, which saw leader Ed Miliband resign, the SNP win all but four seats in Scotland and a majority Conservative government in Parliament. | It also followed the Labour party’s crushing defeat at the General Election, which saw leader Ed Miliband resign, the SNP win all but four seats in Scotland and a majority Conservative government in Parliament. |