I'm Sam. Not a Samantha. Sam. Or if I know you well enough, I can let you call me Sammy, too. ;) I'm 20 years old and live near Dover in Kent, and have done pretty much all my life.
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| Dover Castle- sometimes Dover can look good ;) |
I'm an environmental science student at the University of Plymouth. I've just finished my first year there, and I can tell you, it was incredible! I made so many good friends, love the subject, enjoy being in Plymouth and just being a student there. We're going on an expedition to the Malaysian jungle in March for a couple of weeks. I can't tell you how excited I am!
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| Plymouth Hoe from Mount Batten- such a great place to be a student! |
The point of this blog is kind of related to the course. This is a blog about the natural world (hence "Sammy's Natural World"). It will include discussions about the latest wildlife news. I also love wildlife photography, so will post some of that, and also random ramblings of a ginger girl obsessed with the world around us. I will try not to steer into doom and gloom and rantings (although it's very hard- the latest updates to the IUCN Red List are absolutely shocking), but rather try to bring around where possible an offering of hope, of what you can do to reverse the trend of the species' plight.
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| Buff-tailed bumblebee on the White Cliffs |
I want to be a wildlife conservationist in the future, and ideally create my own wildlife conservation NGO (perhaps a bit ambitious, but a girl can dream, right?). It's difficult not to feel dismayed, disheartened and absolutely helpless at the state of the natural world. Yet sometimes, just sometimes, little jewels of hope come through from the dark, sooty cloud of doom. We know of the fact that there are forty Javan rhinos. We know that wild tiger numbers number in the very low thousands, and that the golden toad is extinct. 1 in 3 amphibians, 1 in 4 mammals, 1 in 5 reptiles, and nearly 80% of the spiders and scorpions are considered to be threatened with extinction. It's so easy to feel hopeless. Yet the same fate of extinction was nearly felt for the golden lion tamarin of Brazil, the black-footed ferret and California condor of the USA, and the Przewalski's wild horse of Central Asia. They are exceptions, of course, but we must look to those success stories if we are to win this battle to save the natural world. It's a long, difficult battle with many obstacles. But I have the tiniest glimmer of hope that one day, maybe- just maybe- we can put things right. Where there is hope, there is a way. We must not give up. And that's why I'm studying this degree. Because I believe that somewhere, hope and perseverance will lead the way.
My first "real" post will showcase some butterfly photography and some chatting on the beautiful insects and how you can help them.
Over and out. For now.
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