Has it ever struck you as interesting the amount of dinosaur products that are marketed to boys and unicorn products to girls?
I recently visited the wonderful Horniman Museum in south London, only to discover that it had been taken over by something called Dinosaur rEvolution. Hertfordshire zoo offers a World of Dinosaurs, there is the “roarsome” theatre show Dinosaur World: Live, a dinosaur-themed park in Norfolk called ROARR!, Dinosaur World in Torquay, Dinosaur Park near Swansea, Dino Park in Dumfries – the list is as long as the neck of a brontosaurus.
Parents will have noticed that unicorns are equally ubiquitous, and marketed exclusively and equally extensively to little girls, usually swathed in pink. Historically, unicorns are a symbol of purity, grace and innocence; their horns are said to be able to heal people and purify poisoned water.
There is no evidence that unicorns ever existed – at least not those creatures of the popular imagination – and dinosaurs aren’t around much lately either; it’s almost as if someone doesn’t want our children to become interested in animals that are actually alive.
I know children who can list 10 different types of dinosaur but don’t know the difference between an African elephant and an Indian elephant. I know children who believe unicorns are real, but don’t realise that as many as 1,500 ponies live wild on Dartmoor. Children go to bed hugging a toy unicorn, but have never sat on the back of a pony. How many of our children are going to want to grow up to be naturalists or environmentalists if they aren’t taught about real animals?
My message to parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, brothers and sisters is: if you want to introduce our tiny humans to animals, please buy them a book about aardvarks, brown kiwi, ring-tailed lemurs, crested porcupines or hippopotamuses. Across Europe, brown bears are being successfully reintroduced; what a thrilling piece of news to hook in a child’s interest.
And it doesn’t have to be bears. Beavers are fantastic little mammals to learn about: they have gorgeous tails, build little dome-shaped dens called “lodges”, gnaw down trees, build dams, reroute rivers, and create whole new ecosystems. Under a new government licence scheme, they are being returned to waterways in England – so it’s not wildly misleading to teach children that, if they are patient, they might see one swimming along with a stick.
There are other great stories about British wildlife to tell: some naturalists, for example, hope to see the reintroduction of the beautiful grey wolf to our shores. There is a role available, in the future, for the first person to successfully reintroduce a pair of wolves to Britain, as has been done across Europe. Maybe that child is alive now. So if you are a parent, please talk to your child about wolves.
If they want monsters, tell them about the Gila monster that lives in Mexico and the south-western US. If they want magic, tell them about chameleons that are alive now in Madagascar and can change colour. Tell them about beautiful peacock spiders, whose eight eyes are so big that they take up almost their entire heads.
If children become curious about insects, they won’t grow up with a fear of them. If you show children how intelligent octopuses are, when they are adults maybe they will choose not to eat them. If you tell them stories of orange orangutans then maybe as adults they will want to visit Borneo and play a part in protecting the rainforests – or at least they will avoid buying palm oil. If you want to start nearer home, maybe you know someone who has hedgehogs in their garden, snuffling around at dusk?
I’m begging those of you that are looking after the next generation: put a picture of a bottlenose dolphin on the wall, or a moose, a porcupine, a gorilla, or a penguin. If you want to take care of the environmentalists of tomorrow, please choose any book, lunchbox, T-shirt, fluffy toy or “experience” that is not about dinosaurs or unicorns. If you want a creature that looks prehistoric, choose a pangolin. If you want something with a horn, the swordfish is right there – and real.
