After a shaky start, diverting last-minute from the Yarmouth to the East Cowes ferry, 11 of the Island 2000 crew set off for the New Forest in search of bugs. We were hoping to discover the Medicinal Leech and the Fairy Shrimp. There wouldn’t be much chance of us finding these on our own, but we were met in Lyndhurst by Naomi, an expert in the ecology of temporary ponds which are home to both these species.
Temporary ponds are ones which regularly dry out. Naomi led us to one in a small clearing surrounded by oaks, crab apples and Rowan’s favourite - Wild Service trees. The boggy area was ringed with hoof-prints from thirsty New Forest ponies and it hardly seemed like a pond at all. Unless you were unlucky enough to disappear into one of Kev’s wellington boot prints, it was only a few centimetres deep. Naomi sent three of us out with pond-dipping nets into the marsh and gave us instructions to waggle our boots around in the mud and tepid water.
For a minute or two nothing happened, but soon we started to spot dark eel-like forms swimming and slithering towards the source of the vibrations. These were the Medicinal Leeches we had come to see. Their rasping mouth-parts were now watering at the thought of New Forest pony ankles and the blood of small children from the nearby campsite which were their usual hosts. (Medicinal Leeches are the only leeches in Britain which are able to feed on mamals).
They were amazingly quick. I’d imagined a leech would move slowly like a slug, but that’s quite wrong. Apparently they can even chase their prey across land - I think this applies to worms, but not ponies.
It felt a bit mean to get the hopes up of so many hungry leeches. They often go for months without food and when they reached us they had nothing but rubbery wellies to suck on. Ian at least was more generous. He had ‘forgotten’ to bring his boots, and brushing aside fears of blood-poisoning, squelched out into the mud barefoot. It wasn’t long before each ankle had a bracelet of wriggling leeches round it.
Here’s one making a start. As well as anti-coagulant to keep the blood flowing, leeches apply an anaesthetic and Ian said he didn’t feel them at all.
After lunch at an old New Forest pub, Naomi took us to find the second creature that we had been hoping to see - Fairy Shrimps. Generally these aren’t active at the same time of year as the Medicinal leeches, but the unusual pattern of the seasons this year meant that we were able to see them both. Again, the pond wasn’t something that I would have given a second glance normally. It was just a shallow dip beside a road, maybe 20 metres across. The Fairy Shrimps weren’t hard to find. Naomi just scooped up a trayful of water and with it, dozens of the little branchiopods. They were only a few millimetres long and moved quite sedately like tiny paddle-steamers with their rows of legs milling round rhythmically on each side. Apparently they only exist in 20 ponds in Britain so we felt very privileged to see them.
It was fascinating to hear how sensitive both species are to seemingly slight changes in their environments - temperature, light, acidity, wetting and drying of the ponds, and it became clear how marginal their existence is.
Back on the ferry, our day’s excitement was extended for a few hours when one of the ship’s engines died mid-journey and it had to limp back with us to Southampton. Time to look out of the minibus window and for random thoughts to form. It’s not a big stretch of water, but maybe the isolation that this narrow barrier creates somehow enables the Island’s own microcosm to survive… I didn’t have time to develop this profound thought as the Red Jet had just pulled in and several of us raced off to catch it, leaving behind the others to bring back the minibus.
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