Mark Cocker, "Birds: Symbols of Disease or Icons of the Divine?"

Some of the largest, most impressive birds in Europe accommodate two kinds of habitat: the realm of nature and the ecosystem of ideas that exists between the ears of their human neighbours. We have sometimes held views and fancies about bird species that vary with geography and across time. Sometimes birds can be seen in diametrically different ways by two neighbouring communities. Or a creature such as a vulture can slowly evolve from being the most treasured, to become the most loathed but also back again to an exalted status. The talk illuminates how wild animals survive and adapt in these mutually interacting spheres and shows how ultimately, they enrich all of our worlds.