Best of Natural History Radio Folgen

The focus is towns and cities in this week's programme, with a report from North America about their largest Swallow, the Purple Martin. Purple Martins are totally dependent on human habitation east of the Rockies for nest sites. West of the mountain range they largely nest in their ancestral way using abandoned woodpecker cavities. As we clear land to build the world's towns and cities what is the impact on the natural world and are there ideas to embrace wildlife in built environment planning? Monty speaks with leading environmentalist Chris Baines and Kate Henderson, the Chief Executive of the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA).

How much is a honey bee worth? Can you put a price tag on a mountain? Monty Don explores the value of nature. Some believe the only way to preserve nature is to show that it can pay its way in a world driven by money, others disagree saying nature is too precious to be left to the whim of markets. This week there is a report from St. Andrews in Scotland where Trai Anfield discusses the value of estuaries to both nature conversation and human activity, plus there is discussion in the studio with author Tony Juniper and Dr Bill Adams from the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge.

In this week’s programme we have a report from Northern Kenya about the Grevy's Zebra, the world’s most stripy Zebra and a species in decline for many different reasons, all of which appear to be attributed with human activity. Monty interviews one of the authors of a recent paper “Can a Collapse of Civilisation be Avoided?”, Professor Paul Ehrlich from Stanford University. Also Dr Joe Smith from The Open University, an expert in environment and the media, explores how the media should keep up with such apocalyptic headlines.