Innholdsfortegnelse for 1-Sep 2015 i BBC Wildlife Magazine

Tertial feathers Pale feathers wear more quickly than dark ones, so the patterned tertials – the innermost wing feathers – of juvenile godwits become notched. This can be used to determine a bird’s age until its adult feathers arrive. Route planning Adult godwits wintering in the UK have previously learned the route from the Arctic coast of Scandinavia or Russia, or even central Siberia, but youngsters such as these have to rely on an innate sense of direction when migrating for the first time. Upturned bill Newly arrived from its Arctic breeding grounds, this juvenile has probably still not finished growing its bill, which will become more upturned. Females have longer bills than males, giving them access to prey buried deeper in the sand in cold, wintry conditions. Fat reserves…

PLATYSAURUS ATTENBOROUGHI WHAT IS IT? The fly-catching acrobatics and colourful sexual displays of Southern Africa’s flat lizards were made famous by David Attenborough’s series Life in Cold Blood . Males of this new addition to the group have bright blue bellies, the colour extending to their elbows – and the icing on the cake is that the species’ description in Zootaxa includes a photo of David in his trademark blue, short-sleeved shirt. WHERE IS IT? The species is apparently common on rock faces and boulders in a region of desert straddling the border between South Africa and Namibia.…

For some time now I’ve been meaning to design a t-shirt with a heart symbol and the slogan “We love wildlife”. In small print underneath would be the message: “Until it becomes successful or a little bit of a nuisance – and then we’ll kill it!” Often I despair of our ignorance and intolerance of other life in Britain. But I’m not talking about the general public here. I mean you and me, the wildlife lovers – and especially the conservation charities that accept our donations and purport to be looking after that “other life”. It seems there’s even confusion about what wildlife is . Take the red fox. Since it’s the world’s most successful carnivore – and beautiful to boot – surely it counts? Surely we should all be…

INVERTEBRATE PREY – mostly moths, beetles and earwigs – makes up the vast majority of little owls’ diet. But when a shower starts, the birds quickly switch to earthworms, and continue to bring these to the nest as long as it rains. With a relatively wide diet, their approach to hunting depends on prey availability. FENCE POSTS and walls are popular perches for little owls, from where they pounce on their prey. They can also be seen running along the ground in pursuit of ground beetles and small mammals. A KEY ADAPTATION for little owls is an incredibly strong tarsus – there are even anecdotal reports of them successfully taking small rabbits. EXCELLENT EYESIGHT is another little owl feature: their retinas have lots of rod cells for night vision, and…

A new device that combines GPS, heart-rate monitor and video camera is being field-tested in South Africa with the promise that it could drive poaching to extinction. The Protect RAPID (‘Real-time Anti Poaching Intelligence Device’) can be mounted into a rhino’s horn to continuously relay data to a control centre. Anti-poaching teams can then be dispatched the moment a threat to an animal is detected. It was designed to address a key problem – not knowing where poachers will strike across the animal’s huge range. “At present, many teams are wandering around the bush hoping to run into poachers,” explained Steve Piper, of the conservation group Protect. “This is a great idea where anti-poaching teams have helicopters. And where there is less investment, it gives an incentive to put more…

People visiting seaside resorts are being asked to look out for shops selling souvenir ‘curios’ such as dried seahorses, shells, starfish and pufferfish. A new campaign launched by the Seahorse Trust claims that tens of thousands of these items are illegally imported into the UK every year over the internet in a worldwide trade that could be driving some species to extinction. In 2014 a retailer in Torbay was prosecuted after their shop was found to be selling more than 10,000 dead seahorses, shark parts, corals and shells. “It is a dirty trade,” said Neil Garrick-Maidment of the Seahorse Trust, “and it needs stamping out. We are starting the campaign in the UK and then expanding it in time. These shops get away with it because of a lack of…

The Vincent Wildlife Trust (VWT) will this month start transferring pine martens from Scotland to extensive woodland east of Aberystwyth, Wales. The reintroduction follows the confirmed sighting of a pine marten in Shropshire in July that may have crossed the border from Wales. VWT mustelid conservation officer Lizzie Croose said, “There have only been three confirmed pine marten records in the past 10 years in Wales.” The aim of the Pine Marten Recovery Project is to establish a viable breeding population there. Conservationists will release 40 adult pine martens over two years and monitor them using radio-collars. There will be equal numbers of males and females, and the mammals will be tracked so VWT can retrieve data on habitat, territory, interaction and mortality.…

Having been a subscriber for a few months, I read July’s issue with particular interest. As a science student, I found Chris Packham’s call for evidence-based practice timely and relevant, but I cannot help commenting on the slightly one-sided discussion of the issue. Yes, science offers highly desirable insights, but it is not infallible. Poorly designed studies get published alongside quality research, and many, if not all, scientific methods have their limitations. Furthermore it may be unfair to discard the anecdote completely – after all, single cases observed by individuals in their own practice can often prompt valuable research questions for wider studies. That said, I certainly agree that decision-making based on tradition and subjective experiences alone is hardly acceptable. Thanks, Chris, for bring the ‘nil assumptions’ ideals of science…

1 Males and females emerge from their cocoons in late April and May. Males tend to emerge first and search nest sites for emerging females. Mating soon follows. 2 The females lay eggs, often in the same spot that they started life as an egg. In each brood cell they leave a parcel of pollen and nectar for the emerging grub to eat, before they seal the cell with mud plugs. 3 The eggs hatch into grubs, which eat their provision of nectar and pollen; there is no parental care. They pupate, overwintering in their cocoons. 4 Having spent winter in the cocoons as adults, the bees hatch the following spring a year after their egg was laid.…

CHARLES DARWIN 1809-82 Explorer, writer, geologist, entomologist, worm-man, collector, describer of hundreds of new species – it’s hard to know where to start with Darwin. One of his strengths as a naturalist was that he made good use of the wider community, listening to the opinions and experiences of others and weighing them up against his own observations of nature, acquired over many years. In fact he corresponded with many of the naturalists who appear in this list. He sent rare insect specimens to James Francis Stephens for verification; he talked botany with Marianne North; and he absorbed the travellers’ tales recounted by Joseph Banks as he travelled aboard HMS Endeavour. Darwin even learned taxidermy from the freed slave John Edmonstone, who was taught the trade by Charles Waterton.…

The ecological and cultural legacy of Canada’s Pacific coast is shaped by wild Pacific salmon, which feed the plants, wolves, bears and other wildlife of both marine and terrestrial environments. There are five Pacific salmon species. In the Great Bear Rainforest, bears mainly feed on pink, chum and coho salmon. Pink salmon, the smallest species, have a two-year cycle from the egg stage in the home stream, developing into small fry, travelling far out to the ocean, and returning as adults to spawn and die in the stream where they hatched. In contrast chum salmon have a four-to-five-year cycle from the egg stage to their return as a spawning adult. For all Pacific salmon species, spawning starts in early September and ends in late October. This is the prime time…

THE OAK TREE (title TBC) Due Wednesday 30 September – check RT The oak tree is – quite deservedly – one of the greatest icons of the British countryside. It has graced our landscapes since the last ice age; can grow so wide that a family of 20 can dine quite comfortably inside its hollow trunk; supports more life forms than any other native tree; and produces one of the toughest timbers on the planet. This emblematic and much-loved species is now the focus of a new 90-minute documentary for BBC Four, fronted by entomologist George McGavin. George gets to know a 400-year-old specimen in Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire, over the course of a year, even camping out in its canopy one winter’s night to discover just how the species copes…

WHERE? West Nash Road, Newport, NP18 2BZ VISITOR EXPERIENCE MANAGER Helen Gottschalk WHY YOU SHOULD VISIT RSPB Newport Wetlands is home to one of the world’s smallest flowering plants (rootless duckweed), rare birds (such as the little egret) and endangered species (the shrill carder bee). WHAT YOU CAN SEE Setting off from the visitor centre, you may spot a kestrel hunting above the scrape. As you continue along the path, you’ll see flocks of redwings and fieldfares starting to gather on pastureland near the copse. Look out for stonechats and reed buntings preparing for the roosting season. TOP WILDLIFE SPOT Head towards the lighthouse to try to spot a bearded tit. At the seawall you could see flocks of dunlin (right) and knot shimmering like shoals of fish along the…

FOCUS ON: British Bees There are at least 267 species of bee found in the UK including honey bees, bumble bees and solitary bees. Bees are in danger of disappearing from our environment so their conservation and protection is vital, both to our food supply and our economy. One third of the food we eat would not be available without their help, about 70 crops in all are dependent on, or benefit from visits from bees. You can help the plight of the bees – Create bee hotels in your garden, plant wildflowers and fruit trees, buy organic where possible and support a dedicated British bee charity. As a reward for your hard work, why not order a jar or two of raw, British honey? THE BRITISH BEE KEEPERS ASSOCIATION…

Every year there are two spikes in hedgehog sightings, revealed by citizen-science data from the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) surveys and the BTO Garden BirdWatch scheme. The first comes in May and June – the species’ famously noisy mating season – and the second is now, as juveniles disperse from their nest in late summer and early autumn to find a territory of their own. Sadly there’s a rise in road casualties too. Recent stories in the British media suggesting that the population of up to 50 hedgehogs in Regent’s Park in London have developed better traffic awareness were heartwarming, but probably wide of the mark. “While there is evidence that hedgehogs may change behaviour in urban areas, roads remain a double whammy, causing deaths as well as…

‘‘ Few biologists have studied moles seriously – the experts tend to be professional mole-catchers,” says Derek Crawley, co-ordinator of the UK’s National Mammal Atlas project. “Part of the problem is that molehills are not a reliable guide to population size or where these animals occur, but simply a sign of recent tunnelling activity. Most tunnels are invisible – there’s no indication that the moles exist.” Once a mole has excavated its network it has no need to extend or leave its home, provided there is a frequent supply of prey falling in – mainly earthworms, millipedes, centipedes and beetles. “But moles pop up more often than you might think,” says Crawley. “A mole may rapidly surface when trying to detour around an underground boulder or stonework in its path.…

GLOBAL CONDEMNATION OF THE KILLING OF CECIL THE LION PROVES THAT THE TIDE HAS TURNED AGAINST TROPHY HUNTING. “IF CECIL HAD LIVED A FEW MILES AWAY, AND THE PAPERWORK HAD BEEN IN ORDER, IT WOULD ALL HAVE BEEN PERFECTLY LEGAL” Though it might be hard to believe, it took an elderly lion to put Zimbabwe back on the world map. Forget its shockingly high unemployment figures, food shortages, lack of medicines and appalling human-rights record – the fact that its most famous feline was killed by an American big-game hunter is what made the headlines. Thirteen-year-old Cecil was the star attraction of Hwange National Park and part of a study into lion conservation (he was wearing a radio-collar). But Walter Palmer, a dentist from Minnesota, arranged for two local guides…

When smartphones and other digital devices give us access to an endless torrent of video, pictures and information, what makes still photography such an enduring medium? It is its ability to focus the attention on a single, compelling image, according to photographer Alex Mustard. “We’re bombarded with so much information these days, but Wildlife Photographer of the Year filters out all of that noise. It distils it all down to a handful of incredibly powerful images, and tells people that these are the stories that deserve attention.” Alex is a regular category winner in the competition, but this was his first year on the judging panel. “I think all photographers are fascinated with how the competition works, and they want to know just what goes into selecting the final winners,”…

People are pretty impressed when you tell them that Britain and Ireland have 275 different species of bee. But if you then explain that, apart from the familiar honeybee and 25 bumblebees, the rest are all solitary, you often get a blank look. Most people don’t even realise solitary bees exist.” Ian Beavis is an entomologist specialising in the Hymenoptera – bees, wasps and ants. But he loves solitary bees best. These are unlike ‘social’ honeybees and bumblebees, which live in large colonies comprising a queen (which lays the eggs) and workers (which gather pollen and nectar to feed the grubs in the nest). With solitary bees, there are typically no queen or worker castes, merely males and females. They mate with each other, the male dies and the female…

1|LEAVE IVY ON TREES AND WALLS Don’t be tempted to trim ivy in the name of tidiness. In autumn ivy flowers are a key resource for ivy bees, as well as for late-season hoverflies and butterflies. 2|MOWAPATCH OFYOUR LAWN Maintain mown patches of lawn in sunny spots, and consider leaving bare patches of earth in full sun, so that ground-nesting bees have somewhere to make their nest. 3|PROVIDE A MUD PLATTER In dry conditions, leave out a dish of mud for mason bees to use in sealing their nest cells. Keep this topped up during the flight period. For example, red mason bees fly from March to late May. 4|PUT UP A NESTBOX Buy a nestbox or ‘bee hotel’ for the garden. Or, as a great family activity, make your…

CHARLES WATERTON 1782-1865 Waterton was revered as a skilled describer of exotic animals and a master taxidermist, yet today he is warmly remembered for his environmental legacy. After returning from travels in South America he erected an imposing wall around his whole estate – Walton Hall in West Yorkshire – creating what was possibly the world’s first nature reserve. Within this refuge were nestboxes for birds, the first of their kind. He also raised awareness of pollution and its impact on the natural world. • Wakefield Museum launched a year-long Nightingale Festival in May, marking 150 years since Waterton’s death: http://bit.ly/1IHhwNo MARY ANNING 1799-1847 “She sells sea shells on the sea shore” goes the ditty apparently once ascribed to her, but Anning was much more than a saleswoman.…

JAMES FRANCIS STEPHENS 1792-1852 Stephens was a lister par excellence. By the time he was 16 he had written his first manuscript: Catalogue of British Animals. By the end of his career, decades later, he had authored six volumes of Systematic Natural History, plus numerous catalogues of British insects and, somehow, had found the time to set up the Royal Entomological Society. In his later years he worked unpaid at the British Museum, where he described no fewer than 2,800 new British insects. PHILIP HENRY GOSSE 1810-88 A field naturalist of many years, Gosse’s skill was to bring nature to his audience through passion and innovation. Ocean life – and how to communicate its wonders to the world – became a particular obsession. Because it could not be…

APPALACHIAN FORESTS USA/CANADA Hugging North America’s eastern seaboard, the Appalachians stretch 2,400km from south-east Canada to the southern states of Georgia and Alabama. The wettest sections in the south may receive over 250cm of rainfall annually – often taken as the benchmark for temperate-rainforest status – and are particularly rich in mosses and amphibians. ATLANTIC OAKWOODS BRITISH ISLES Sustained by a very mild, wet climate, these gnarly old oakwoods are the closest the British Isles have to true rainforest. A classic feature of southwest England, West Wales, Cumbria, Ireland and the west coast of Scotland, they support diverse ferns, lichens, mosses, pied flycatchers and wood warblers. Examples include Wistman’s Wood on Dartmoor and Great Wood at Derwent Water, Cumbria. KNYSNA AND AMATOLE FORESTS SOUTH AFRICA Southern Africa generally has much…

BRITISH WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS Mall Galleries, London, Monday 14 to Saturday 19 September 2015 Are you a budding wildlife photographer? Then put Monday 14 September in your diary when the results of the sixth British Wildlife Photography Awards (BWPA) will be announced. And you can take inspiration from the winning entries at the free touring exhibition (additional dates can be found at the website below) or in the stunning book British Wildlife Photography Awards: Collection 6 (AA Publishing, £25.00). The awards were created as a response to the nation’s growing awareness of the environment and the need for its protection. BWPA founder Maggie Gowan says, “The competition is an inspirational showcase celebrating the rich and diverse wildlife wonders that exist in the .” UK You can…

RETURN OF THE GIANT KILLERS: AFRICA’S LION KINGS Catch up on iPlayer The sequel to Africa’s Giant Killers and the 10th episode in the current series of Natural World, this film catches up with the remarkable lions of Savuti Marsh, Botswana, who have learned to take down the biggest prey of them all: elephants. Rejoining the pride at the start of the wet season, the documentary follows the cats’ ups and downs as the rain gives way to months of exceptionally harsh drought. There’s some incredible behaviour here, including a heartstoppingly tragic sequence involving two lively cubs, two helpless newborns and a dose of misplaced enthusiasm.…

25 Sept SCIENCE UNCOVERED The Natural History Museum’s sixth annual festival of science takes place from 3pm and is free to attend. Meet world-class scientists and view rarely seen collections. Bring your own specimen and experts will help you identify it. www.nhm.ac.uk/science-uncovered 18-21 Sept GREAT BRITISH BEACH CLEAN Make a difference to the growing problem of beach litter by taking part in this Marine Conservation Society event. Visit the website to find a beach clean near you. www.mcsuk.org/beachwatch/ greatbritishbeachclean 10-12 Sept MOTH NIGHT This year’s celebration coincides with the annual autumn arrival of immigrant moths. Join other enthusiasts at a regional UK event to record the species you see (a red underwing is pictured) and share sightings on the website. www.mothnight.info 4-6 Sept SPURN MIGRATION FESTIVAL Celebrate birds’ autumn migration…

1 DUNE BUG The pathways created by footfall within the Lancashire dunes are home to a variety of fascinating invertebrates if you look closely, including the northern dune tiger beetle. I took this photo of the handsome hunter and its long, curved mandibles during an insect safari. Rico Oldfield, Lancashire, UK 2 ORNATE DRAKE I visit Hyde Park, London, several times a week to look for wildlife. I took this picture of a male mandarin posing at the end of April. The tree-nesting East Asian duck looks like a king among other waterbirds thanks to its striking plumage. Tim Foppele, London, UK 3 PUFFIN ADDICT In summer I always take a holiday to the wonderful Farne Islands, Northumberland. I visit this wildlife haven to get my annual fix of the…

• IVY AUTUMN BONANZA Though ivy flowers are green and tiny, a University of Sussex study has shown that in autumn they’re the top nectar source for many insects. So think twice before hacking ivy down in the name of ‘tidiness’ – especially the tangled mature plants that tend to flower most prolifically. On sunny September days you’ll be rewarded with squadrons of red admirals (pictured), comma butterflies, hoverflies and bees. FIND OUT MORE Plantlife is a great source of information about wildflowers: www.plantlife.org.uk/wild_plants • GIANT PUFFBALL FANTASTIC FUNGI Fungi have been in the news as foragers and conservationists argue over the mushrooms in Hampshire’s New Forest. Excessive collecting is said to be making many species scarce, including the giant puffball. Search for it (but resist picking) in lush pasture,…

The black leopards of Peninsular Malaysia are tricky to study. Because they lack the variable markings of regular spotted leopards they cannot be recognised individually. This makes it difficult to count them, let alone investigate why the black form dominates here. But a team of researchers has literally shed new light on the felines. They have found that their camera-traps, when operating in night-time infrared mode, reveal patterns of spots otherwise obscured by their jet-black wash. “We could actually tell individuals apart” said team leader Gopalasamy Reuben Clements of Australia’s James Cook University. Better yet, the scientists can adapt the camera-traps to identify the cats in daylight. “We thought: why not cover the light sensor of the camera-trap with some sticky tack [eg Blu Tack] to trick it into giving…

While textbooks state that constricting snakes kill their prey by suffocation, a new study suggests they dispatch their victims by more clinical means. Based on intricate measurements of the pressures generated within the bodies of anaesthetised rats fed to boa constrictors, biologists led by Scott Boback of Dickinson College, Pennsylvania, USA, have concluded that death results from cardiac arrest following the restriction of blood flow – a quicker result than suffocation could achieve. That’s not to say that all constricting snakes do it like boas, though. “With so many snakes constricting such a wide variety of prey, I would think there might be a variety of tactics employed,” Boback told BBC Wildlife. For example, Boback added that it is “entirely possible” that a small snake would be unable to reduce…

The stand-off in Nestbox Two came as a surprise to everyone. The only way that the barn owl could have accessed the dark nest chamber was by squeezing through the tiny entrance hole and dragging itself along on its sternum though a narrow tunnel of chicanes. A motion-triggered camera stirred into life to capture the menacing glare of the interloper as its appearance sent the female little owl backing into a corner. But what came as no surprise was how vigorously she defended her four precious eggs. Little owls have been described as among the finest parents in the bird world, and she lived up to her billing, launching herself fiercely at an intruder twice her size. Seconds after he had retreated she settled back to the business of incubation,…

JANUARY–FEBRUARY PAIR FORMATION New pairs form in January. These are generally first-year or single birds – little owls usually stay together until one of the pair dies. Courtship behaviour at this time of the year includes contact calls and nuzzling. MARCH SELECTING A NEST SITE Pairs have to compete with other birds that breed in similar-sized cavities such as holes in pollarded trees, farm buildings, stone walls and even rabbit burrows. They often roost in their chosen location before breeding. PRE-LAYING GIFTS The male provides the female with food, which helps her to reach breeding condition, indicates local prey availability and proves his prowess. HORMONAL SURGE The female develops a brood patch – a hormonal surge increases the flow of blood to her abdomen and causes her to drop some…

Ministry of Defence plans for a new firing range on a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Hampshire could threaten Britain’s last remaining heathland population of natterjack toads. The MoD has plans for an extra range in Woolmer Forest, on the edge of the South Downs National Park, a location that – with all six species of British reptiles and six species of amphibians – has the UK’s greatest diversity of herpetofauna. Prof. Trevor Beebee from the University of Sussex has worked on the successful conservation of natterjack toads in Woolmer Forest for 40 years. “When we surveyed this site in the early 1970s, we counted 11 breeding females, which gave us a population estimate of 20 adults. We’ve only just got it up to more than 100 adults,…

Protests by local tribal people have successfully halted the construction of a dam that would have flooded 190km2 of land in western Amazonia. The failure of the Chacorão project has shone a spotlight on broader proposals for the Tapajós River, which include 46 dams in total for generating electricity and creating waterways to facilitate the transport of soya beans. One of the Amazon’s largest tributaries, the Tapajós acts as a barrier to dispersal so that many taxonomic groups have separate species on either side of the river. The result is extremely high biodiversity – it has more than 600 species of birds and more than 80 mammals (not including bats), and some fish are endemic to just one set of rapids. One dam at the Tapajós headwaters has created a…

A loggerhead turtle arriving to lay her eggs at Güzelyali on the coast of North Cyprus this summer is unlikely to have been deterred by the two huge breakwaters built there in the past year. But that, says Robin Snape of local conservation group the Society for the Protection of Turtles, is not the point – the breakwaters were put there by the Turkish state-run body DSI, which is responsible for Turkey’s water resources, and they were needed to enable engineers to bury a pipeline that will transport drinking water from the mainland to the island. The point is this: DSI ignored the fact that Güzelyali was used by turtles and did no impact assessment, Snape says. It is also questionable whether the pipeline would have been built had Turkey…

GILBERT WHITE 1720-93 While naturalists such as Darwin, Ray and Wallace gained insight into nature by studying vast collections, White (like Ray a parson–naturalist) did almost the total opposite. He focused largely on one place, the village of Selborne in Hampshire, where he documented changes in local nature over months and years. His observations led in 1789 to a book, The Natural History of Selborne, a compilation of his letters to other naturalists – it is said to be one of the most published books in English, after the Bible, Pilgrim’s Progress and Shakespeare’s works. White was also an early champion of ecology, understanding the connections between organisms. “Earthworms, though in appearance a small and despicable link in the chain of nature, yet, if lost, would make a lamentable…

The Great Bear Rainforest is exceptionally damp, dense and dark, particularly in autumn. The Canadian film-maker Jeff Turner was exploring this vast area when a strikingly white, ghost-like animal suddenly appeared. It materialised out of the gloomy greens and browns of the forest and ambled towards the riverbank. “These pale animals just look so unique,” he says, remembering his first encounter with a spirit bear. “They seem totally out of place in this environment.” Dubbed spirits of the forest, these are Kermode bears Ursus americanus kermodei . They are a subspecies of the North American black bear with a rare recessive gene that makes their fur white or cream, almost unbelievably so. “Spirit bears almost glow – they have this aura about them,” Turner says. “When you see one for…

1 WOODLAND I took this photograph in beech woodland close to my home in Sheffield. I love beech trees in autumn because they rarely fail to put on a brilliantly colourful show. It was a damp October day, with a bright but overcast sky. I picked a moment when there weren’t any people in the shot because I wanted the path and image to have a fresh, inviting quality. Keep your balance I used the cloudy white balance setting on my digital camera to add punch and saturation to the leaves’ colours – automatic white balance can sometimes diminish natural colours, especially in duller light. Position pathways The path is set to the left to emphasise the size and colour of the beech trees sweeping over it. The bracken in…

AN ILLUSTRATED COASTAL YEAR By Celia Lewis Bloomsbury £20.00 Artist Celia Lewis’s tone is fresh and breezy, but beneath the low-key charm lies a trove of riches and reminders about the UK coast. As she moves through the seasons her aim is to kindle the naturalist in every reader no matter their age, with nuggets of information both practical and enchanting. From how to make driftwood Christmas trees and cook sea kale to telling the difference between a rock and a meadow pipit and the names of cloud formations, there are surprises for even the most knowledgable. Dotted throughout the book are celebrations of glorious British wildlife such as the sea mouse, common periwinkle, common octopus, siphonophores and coastal moths that seldom get enough attention, lovingly depicted in exquisite detail…

THIS WILD LIFE Weekdays from Monday 31 August – check RT for details Since The Secret Life of Elephants (2009), when she last appeared on our screens, Saba Douglas-Hamilton has been rather busy, raising three young children and taking over management duties at a remote safari camp in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya – one of the best places in the world to encounter our largest land mammal. This Wild Life, a new 10-part series for BBC Two, gives a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to offer top-notch hospitality miles from civilisation, where staff and guests must co-exist with the local wildlife. For all its charms, life in the African bush is no picnic: there are poisonous scorpions and snakes; grocery shopping entails a six-hour round trip along a dirt…

Our rigid inflatable boat (RIB) edged towards the green turtle, close enough to clearly see the white plastic bag wrapped around its neck. But when we were only metres away the reptile vanished. We stood forlorn on our RIB in the vastness of the Atlantic. The species can dive for 30 minutes at a time, so the chances of this one surfacing nearby were remote indeed. It looked like our rescue attempt was doomed. I had travelled to Tenerife with my girlfriend’s family for a well-earned break of sea, sunshine and watching wildlife. I had already caught up with several of the area’s endemics such as the blue chaffinch and Tenerife goldcrest, as well as some pilot whales. But a dive company was offering trips to snorkel with green turtles,…