A Sting in the Tale, by Dave Goulson – review

We need more conservationists like Dave Goulson. Cack-handed animal killers, that is. As a child in the 1970s Goulson tried to dry out some ‘bedraggled’ bumblebees which had got caught in a thunderstorm. He put them on the hotplate of the electric cooker and set it to low. Then he went off to feed his gerbils. Only the smell of smoke reminded him of the now-toasted bees. His fish tank contained an electric heater whose waterproof casing he managed to break, thereby electrocuting his scaly friends.

The garter snake was more fortunate — it only got tangled up in the sellotape with which Goulson had inexpertly tried to secure the lid of its tank. A gull he tried to nurse back to health did pay the ultimate price, but its death was not in vain: Goulson practised his taxidermy skills on it. These were not extensive: using his mother’s wire coat hangers, he achieved a specimen with wings slanted at awkward angles and one leg turned sideways.