Animals
Elephant in the room
Burning stockpiles of ivory was meant to wipe out poaching. After nearly 30 years, is it working?
The dogs of peace
From ‘Food dictatorship’, The Spectator, 27 May 1916: Nobody would like to see the whole race of dogs exterminated, but…
Animal attraction
Let me start this week with an admittedly hard quiz question: in 1954, how did the sudden illness of Jack…
Barometer
London’s other mayor How many people could name the capital’s other mayor, the Lord Mayor of London? The office, officially…
Pliny on the joy of elephants
In order to deter poachers, hundreds of tons of elephants’ tusks are being incinerated in Kenya. But even for Romans,…
Clumber spaniels
For the first time in more than 30 years we have no Clumber spaniel. We have had five: Henry, Judith,…
My wild place
What you can see from a tin house in the Australian rainforest
Barometer
Boss cuts The chief executive of the Co-operative Group, Richard Pennycock, asked for a pay cut, saying his job had…
Chips with everything
Compulsory microchipping of dogs will hurt caring pet owners – but help busybodies
New Zealand
On my first night in Christchurch, I woke at 3.32 a.m. to what felt like an explosion. My bed was…
Of geese and men
They’re noisy, filthy, scary – and glorious. No wonder we have such complicated feelings about them
The song of the whales
How humanity learned to love them – and what we learned about ourselves in the process
Your problems solved
Q. My husband-to-be and I both work full time. We are getting married from his family HQ and his kind…
Barometer
So near and yet so far Henry Worsley died in a Chilean hospital of peritonitis after being airlifted from Antartica,…
The many fights over the Lord’s Prayer
Amen corner Digital Cinema Media, a company which distributes adverts to cinemas, refused to allow an advert which involves the…
Send in the clones
The super-rich are already bringing beloved dogs and horses back to life. Soon the rest of us will be able to do it too
The farm that went wild
A piece of ancient England is being reborn around a castle in Sussex
In praise of the pit bull
Last night I saw a woman dancing with a pit bull terrier. It was about 9 p.m. and her curtains…
Miliband country
A ‘progressive alliance’ would be a profound threat to rural life
Plan Bee
What the hive knows about democracy that humans have yet to learn
It really must be a mid-life crisis. I’ve fallen in love with a pony
Because I’m reckless, stupid and irresponsible, I normally get landed with the biggest, most obstreperous hunters. But the other weekend…
The ultimate pest
Squirrels have much to teach us – once they’ve finished eating our nuts
Barometer
Deadly to dogs An Irish setter was allegedly poisoned at Crufts, using beef containing slug pellets. Some other substances with which dog-show rivals…
From puppy to Pinot
Meeting to taste wine, we started by talking about dogs. Roy Hattersley is good on the subject, which ought to…
The Tooting poisoner
In my London neighbourhood, an argument about urban foxes is turning very nasty indeed
