@ramblingjohn @pippapritchard Cymru needs you!
Hunt to find next generation of ‘fungi fanatics’ : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-38015638
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Ffwng del dros ben. Very pretty fungus. Big. 8" across with others on a steep bank. A funnel of sorts. Common or Trooping efallai?
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Sorry. No picture -BUT - this dinner time (amser cinio,heddiw) one of our squirrels was scurrying through snow in the wild garden (oedd gwiwer yn ardd wyllt ) Then he or she came into the very back of the main garden before disappearing behind the big old rowan, leafless and lichen covered. I have never seen one before in weather as cold. I did not recognise him/her . Tail unusually dark.
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Was it a red squirrel @henddraig? Whichever, my guess is it was trying to find the acorns it hid earlier - yn trio dod o hyd i’r mes wnaeth o cuddio 'mlaen llaw.
Fortunately, our’s are still all red. However, I hear than strains of leprosy are appearing, the further north, the more also dangerous to humans. I so hope we don’t get to a situation where they are shooting them to stop leprosy!
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peidiwch â mynd i banig - Don’t panic.
Well, i hope no one is alarmed by this news, leprosy is not highly contagious, and the sad fact is the few cases presented in this country each year are people returning from other countries where the problem is still fairly common.
I suspect @johnwilliams_6 knows far more about this and many other ‘interesting’ !! things that are presented at the tropical disease unit.
Once again, this is a huge interesting subject, but only a small part of what’s outside.
Cheers J.P.
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One interesting fact. I have given thalidomide, as a prescribed medicine, here in Wales, in the last 15 years, to someone with leprosy.
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Not much more I’m afraid, but JP is absolutely right that it’s not at all highly contagious - and, in fact, human genetics comes into this as well, so only a minority of people would be susceptible to leprosy in the first place. Added to that the BCG vaccination against TB gives a degree of protection against leprosy also, so people would have to be very unlucky indeed to be infected in the UK - as JP says, UK cases have overseas origins (and. indeed, most likely occur in people who have spent extended periods outside the UK).
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@johnwilliams_6 - Have you any idea how the poor squirrels have caught leprosy? I heard it mentioned in a program about them on an island off the south coast of England, which also mentioned thos further north having a different strain which humans can catch. I think it was south England but the name Bardsey keeps popping into my head. Confusion reigns!
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That’s a very good question - and one to which I have no idea of the correct answer! I suppose it could perhaps be that animals of another UK species also carry leprosy but without any symptoms so nobody’s thought to test for it - but if that’s the case how did that species acquire leprosy? It’s quite an ancient disease, so conceivably it could have arrived in the UK when there was still a land bridge between Britain and the European mainland. There was certainly human leprosy in Britain in the Middle Ages - maybe, even, squirrels could have become infected by taking offered food from the hands of lepers??
The island you heard about would have been Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour - a quick search came up with the original paper in Science and, as you say, they found one strain (Mycobacterium leprae) in Brownsea Island squirrels and another strain (Mycobacterium lepromatosis) elsewhere in the UK and Ireland - it seems that both strains can affect humans though.
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Diolch yn fawr! Brownsea! I understand why my poor old brain got confused! I knew of leprosy back when - mentioned by Chaucer I think! To be fair squirrels may have had it all through. People wouldn’t have looked closely or been able to test until recently!
@johnwilliams_6 have you read the sensationalist stuff in newspapers - people warned to keep away from squirrels, squirrels could bring back leprosy! This rubbish needs to be nipped in the bud or people will be out with guns! I was joking in my original post, but it will be no joke if idiots believe the papers! Most do not read scientific papers! If any of my friends published ‘possible treatment for cancer’ no notice. If a daily tabloid picked it up, people would be demanding treatment! (When the amount of the compound in existance was a few micrograms).
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I understand that the advice is to “avoid contact” with red squirrels. Chance would be a fine thing. I’ve never even seen one, so my chances of getting a phone number are slim.
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Most people are amazed to here this chemical is still manufactured in large amounts. [quote=“henddraig, post:2056, topic:971”]
squirrels could bring back leprosy!
[/quote]
When i here such comments from people i switch to the fail safe, your are far more likely to be run over by a car so we should ban cars (strangely they always look at me as if i am short on brain cells). They just can’t see the difference between possibility and probability so the papers continue with scare stories.
I believe there was a leper colony just south of Winchester at St cross, (so not far from Brownsea island and there would have been red squirrels all the way between the two locations back then).
When down there and reading about the apparent causes of leprosy back in the Canol oesoedd -middle ages could be considered amusing today (one being they were over sexually active people).
Cheers J.P.
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If that one gets out, we’ll have people chasing squirrels in the hope of catching leprosy, to prove their virility!! ‘Viagra not needed here!’ - so to speak!
Now, John, @pippapritchard suggested Gwiwer Gwtdywyll (Squirrel Darktail) was looking for previously buried acorns. I haven’t noticed a big, grown-up oak tree, dim ond ein derwen baban bach (only our little baby oak tree). I have seen no sign of this having acorns. I did not see anything like flowers. How old does an oak need to be to ‘give birth’? What are the flowers like? Y baban bach is so small the flowers would be easily seen!
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I always wondered what tree hugging was about 
The squirrel may have been on a random search for anything including fungi which they will eat.
Tiny female flowers and very thin catkins for the pollen if i remember correctly, remind me in the spring for images.
Cheers J.P.
Diolch yn fawr! We will look out for anything resembling a flower or a catkin! I guessed great big oaks would have tiny flowers!
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On Oaks, just 2 more days on iPlayer to catch 'Oak Tree; Nature’s Greatest Survivor - & see Oxford’s Wytham Woods, an Oxford’s SSiW favourite walking venue.
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That was a great program .
Aderyn du / Mwyalchen gwrywaidd - male black bird.
Ysgwydd feddal - Crepidotus variabilis. (found on dead twigs and plant stems).
Cheers J.P.
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Have downloaded it. Started to watch last night, but was too tired, too much nodding and not enough intake of info! Will try again later today!
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Dw i’n caru’r fwyalchen! 
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