Be A Better Earthling by managing your night lighting in a way that helps the creatures on this planet

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Be A Better Earthling by managing your night lighting in a way that helps the creatures on this planet.

At night, when we all go off to bed, there’s another set of creatures who wake up to use the night for their livelihoods.

Examples of creatures who come out to live and play at night;

Insects – a myriad of insects use the night to pollinate night flowers, find food and water.

Creatures who eat insects such as bats use the night to find their prey.

Small mammals like mice come out to a more quiet world in search for food.

Hunters like owls, and snakes use the night to hunt mice.

What can I do to help the night life around me?

Switch off your excess night lights.
Perhaps consider motion sensored lighting.
Amber lighting does not disturb wildlife.

Otherwise you are interrupting the hunters’ ability to find food & at the same time, burning up limited fossil fuels… City or suburbia or out in the wild, there are things you can do to encourage the wildlife in your surrounds.

Why would a City Dweller want to encourage wildlife in the big city?

Even in the city, you still need wildlife, you still need predators.

In Sandton – known as Africa’s richest square mile, located in South Africa, you can drive along the highways and spot rats on the islands separating the lanes. If you work late at the office, you might see the maintenance workers putting out rat traps in the offices. This is real, I’ve seen this.

In order to encourage the successful owl projects, and the introduction of hunting birds in the cities, office buildings need to mind their lighting. Doing so would give the owls half a chance.

We still need to figure out how to stop startling the birds on the roads with the car headlights, but I’ll see what I can find about this aspect… #to-do.

Why do we need a healthy ecosystem around us?

The most basic thought to this point, is that we are also beings on earth. We are also a part of the existence on this planet. Everywhere is actually nature. The creatures you both like, and don’t like – need to be here. They are all part of the circle of life.

We breathe air, we need the trees. The trees come from seeds that were fertile due to the pollinators. We create refuse; we need it to be reduced to nothing, the ants and mice help with the cleaning process. These need to have manageable numbers or else our world will be over-run, so the owls and the snakes step in for population control.

My thoughts – on helping other earthlings…

I love that so far, I’ve personally saved two snakes in my garden – but just having a pet chicken is a daily threat to their existence. Our pets, even cats and dogs, threaten the wildlife around us. Again, if we want a planet where these creatures still exist, we need to learn how to manage it all.