The Royal Conservationist.

I'd sooner be birding....But haven't been since last Friday, and probably won't be until next Monday, and that's serious in my book. But what about the Royal Conservationist.... 

Elephants Gary Jones

Prince William has been in America recently talking about Elephants and Rhinos, it's estimated that 35,000 Elephants are poached every year for their ivory and 1,000 Rhinos for their horns and he advocated a zero-tolerance policy on this.

But the thing about conservation is that it's global, that means it's a domestic issue too. You can't go abroad and tell people not to destroy the rainforests if you support the destruction of ancient woodland for a high speed railway in Britain, and you can't go abroad to tell people not to kill Elephants and Rhinos in Africa and Asia if you support shooting wildlife in Britain.

There's a consistency which has eluded Prince William as it has other generations of royals, but whose work for wildlife has been compromised by their taste for killing it. I've personally always considered the RSPB banner to be a ludicrous one until the R for royal has been removed from it.

So, if Prince William wants to be taken seriously in America - or anywhere else in the world - as an advocate for conservation, he has to speak out against some of the issues in his own country....like the shooting industry in Britain and the associated slaughter of birds of prey in the country of his birth....better still he's gotta stop doing it and hang up is gun's. He's got to stop going around pretending to be a wildlife friendly guy who's really only out to promote a pretty picture of himself, and isn't a wildlife conservationist at all. 

And I hope Harry is keeping away from Sandringham too. William's brother Harry was questioned by police in 2007 after two Hen Harriers were shot on the Sandringham Estate, an act witnessed from a nature reserve within sight of the estate. The bodies of the two birds were never found and no case was ever brought.

Royal conservationists HYPOCRITES.

Thanks for the Elephants Gary....brilliant photography as ever. No tusks on these two youngsters, but they stand a good chance of ending up dead one day because they do have ivory tusks.