As the ‘Urban Wildlife Queen’, London wildlife ranger Lira Valencia is inspiring fellow city dwellers to discover the hidden nature on their doorstep. Her enthusiasm is infectious.
You grew up in London. Where did your interest in wildlife come from?
For as long as I can remember, I had this fascination for nature and wildlife. I think the only green space that was regularly accessible to me was my grandma’s back garden. I’d go to visit her regularly. She had lots of snails. I became really obsessed with snails to the point that I took one and named it Patrick. That was my first pet.
I’ve always known I wanted to work with nature. Living in London, it was difficult to feed that curiosity, so I would watch David Attenborough documentaries and dream that one day I’d be working with wildlife.
You now work as a ranger at Walthamstow Wetlands, in east London. Tell us about that.
Finding a job in conservation is so hard, in London especially. I’d studied zoology but didn’t do anything with it for about two years because of not being able to find any opportunities.
I worked with a bird conservation charity called BirdLife Malta and then came across the Keeping It Wild Traineeship. It’s a paid traineeship for young people from underrepresented backgrounds. After my traineeship, I applied for the job I’m in now.
As a ranger, what is a typical day?
No two days are the same. My main role is to connect people to nature and get them inspired. Some people are on their way to work. They’ll be suited and booted, and I’m stopping them to look at a heron! I also do walks, talks, events and workshops.
There’s also a lot of surveying: going out and studying different species’ populations. Are butterflies going up or down this year? Have birds nested? It’s a mixture of being in the field, observing wildlife, but more importantly, connecting people to our wildlife. That’s the bit that I love the most.
You also run the Instagram account Outside with Lira and call yourself the Urban Wildlife Queen. How are you using social media to talk about nature?
I started just posting what I see in my day-to-day life. The account gained a lot of momentum, which I was not expecting. I just wanted there to be a profile that gets people excited about nature, even if they’ve never picked up a pair of binoculars before.
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What’s the most surprising thing about urban wildlife?
There’s more than just pigeons and foxes. There’s some internationally important wildlife, like the peregrine falcon. Peregrine falcons love tall buildings. Near where I work, there’s a pair nesting on a hotel. This is the fastest animal in the world, and we get to see it super up-close living in London.
Photo: Rachel Bennett via Getty Images
What are some simple things we can all do to help urban wildlife thrive?
Our attitude towards nature is the one thing we can all change. I think we need to respect it more. We need to be more curious and caring. That’s the first step. A lot of us are disconnected from nature. I’m trying to make people interested, so hopefully they’ll want to care about it.
What advice would you give to others who want to follow in your footsteps?
Reach out to people that inspire you and ask them how they got into what they’re doing. Or look on social media for charities or grassroots organizations that hold events or networking clubs. It can be nerve-racking, but turn up in these spaces and you’ll see that a lot of people want to help others.
That’s what I did. I discovered on Instagram a group called Flock Together, a birding group for people of color. I was really nervous to go, but I made so many great connections with other people who felt exactly like me. They wanted to work with nature but didn’t know how to, and we all shared stories and resources.
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