Wild Britain - Channel 5

[PhilBJohnson]

Here is the link on catch up:
https://www.my5.tv/wild-britain/season- ... in-forests
It was nice to see it. Some beautiful filming and enjoyable woodland scenes.
When will a narrator (or presentation team), see a need to stress the importance of an ecosystem from 'the bottom up' without such a strong emphasis on the creatures at the top of a food chain?
The way it was presented (like many wildlife documentaries are), was a bit like "making a cake, starting with the icing'.
Insect populations (that feed bird populations) have 'collapsed' in many places in the United Kingdom in recent years. Some of it due to modern 'fast farming methods'.
To present birds as 'tree saviours' from caterpillars that attack them is to misunderstand our native wildlife ecology without a mention of 'invasive species' that often do not have a natural, native control (that is why they are invasive).

A problem with 'bird feeders first' can leave an artificially high population of animals at the top of a food chain that then puts extra pressure on the wildlife below it.
The relationship between Wild Boar and bluebells, I didn't think was fully explained. Many people do not like the aesthetically displeasing mess a Wild Boar can make of a lawn and that kind of understanding can influence the way such programmes are presented.
Ragwort and other flora.
Whatever livestock animals are used (or left) to graze to manage a landscape, they have a dietary preference so to maintain wildlife diversity, areas could be (or should be) set aside, where their favourite foods are left to flourish as well as an animal cull which can be necessary, with a better understanding of the whole ecosystem.
That leads me back to my first point:
'When will a narrator (or presentation team), see the need to stress the importance of an ecosystem from 'the bottom up' when looking at pyramid shaped food chains?

[NickMorgan]

I did't see the programme, so can't comment directly on it. However, it is very difficult to take a balanced view when humans have had such a negative influence on the natural environment. We now have to manage what "wild" areas are left.
We manage woodland to ensure that it is thinned and we manage grassland to ensure that it doesn't turn into woodland, or the grassed don't take over from the wild flowers. How ever did nature survive before humans were here to manage it?!!!
But I agree, if we were to focus on helping the lower end of the food web then maybe the higher levels would be able to take care of themselves. But then again, having killed off the top predators and fragmented the habitats the food webs are left full of holes!