Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2017 i BBC Wildlife Magazine

• BADGER CUBS BROCK STARS Newborn badgers – many of which have arrived by February – weigh only about 100g, but already sport their stripes. It will be April before they venture above ground, but in the meantime the sett is far from safe: aggression between adults peaks in early spring, when dominant sows and mature males also kill many cubs. Breeding sows (pictured) can mate again at any time, regardless of cub survival, but the embryos will not develop until they implant in the uterus, usually in December. FIND OUT MORE www.badger.org.uk • LESSER CELANDINE BRIGHT SPARK There’s nothing like a blast of celandine yellow to trigger a sense of spring, the dazzling hue of this bloom enhanced by its exceptionally reflective petals. The carotenoid pigments that give the…

• Beautifully preserved pseudoscorpions are found in Baltic amber but the oldest known fossils date back 380 million years. • More than 2,000 years ago, Aristotle, in his History of Animals described finding book pseudoscorpions in his library. • Pseudoscorpions move between temporary habitats by ‘hitch-hiking’. Hanging on with their pincers they ‘steal’ lifts from other animals. • The arachnids have the ability to store sperm and fertilise eggs at a later date, an adaptation to temporary habitats that enables single females to start new colonies.…

How lesser kestrels travel to and through Africa is not yet known, but a new generation of tracking studies is underway to find out. Researchers in Europe are fitting kestrels with data loggers that record changes in ambient light levels, allowing accurate global positioning. The loggers will be recovered when the birds return from migration in spring. The data will reveal the detail of their routes, where they spend the winter months, and when and where they pause on migration. Diego Rubolini and his team in Matera are eagerly awaiting the return of their first test subjects in spring this year.…

IT MAY SEEM COUNTERINTUITIVE, BUT LONDON IS THE MOST SPECIES-RICH REGION OF THE UK. Last year I walked 1,500km across all of the UK’s 15 national parks and 69 cities. Crossing over moorlands, between mountains, through wild abandoned industrial areas and hundreds of miles of suburbia, the journey gave me a chance to explore a question I had posed three years earlier. What would happen if we made London a National Park City? After all, the Environment Act of 1995 set out two statutory purposes for a national park in England and Wales: “To conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage” of an area, and “promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of national parks by the public”. In Scotland the aims of…

“THEY HAD NO IDEA WHETHER THE IMAGES THEY RECEIVED FOR THE CONTEST WOULD BE ANY GOOD.” Some of the biggest talking points from Planet Earth II were about story lines that veered unsettlingly towards tragedy – the marine iguanas running for their lives from the racer snakes in Islands or the hawksbill turtle hatchlings crawling heart-breakingly towards artificial light sources on Barbados in Cities. But arguably it was the moments of comedy that left audiences coming back for more – especially the 16–34-year-olds who, the BBC announced triumphantly, tuned in to the series in greater numbers than they did to ITV’s The X Factor. Think of the back-scratching bears and synchronised flamingos in Mountains and the fruit-and-veg stealing macaques in Cities. My two children – aged eight and five –…

Back in May 1989, when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister and General Manuel Noriega was nullifying an election that had ousted him as president of Panama, down the road in the tiny Central American country of Belize, plans were afoot to buy 44,000 hectares (ha) of land for the purpose of conserving the rainforest and its wildlife. John Burton, a 45-year-old British conservationist who had recently quit his role as head of Fauna & Flora International (FFI), was asked by a contact at the US Audubon Society to help raise the $6.5m (then about £4m) needed for the purchase. John approached the now defunct newspaper Today, which promised him £25,000 for a six-page feature on the condition that he got the plan endorsed by the three most notable conservationists in…

From Mallards to Martens: Forty Years of the Vincent Wildlife Trust By Hilary Macmillan The Vincent Wildlife Trust £28.99 It started with a painting of mallards skimming a marsh, by Sir Peter Scott. Propped in a newsagent’s window, the image sparked a lifelong passion for nature in the schoolboy John Vincent Weir, who went on to work with Scott on many conservation projects. Developing a special interest in otters, Weir used his own wealth to establish a charity, whose initial aim was to understand and reverse the decline in the British otter population. As that goal began to be realised, the remit of the Vincent Wildlife Trust grew, and it has since led on the conservation of water voles, Bechstein’s and horseshoe bats, polecats and, recently, pine martens, purchasing reserves,…

Thailand: Earth’s Tropical Paradise  iPLAYER Available until 1 February It’s known across the world as a tourist paradise and receives 25 million visitors a year, but there’s more to Thailand than full-moon parties, exotic food and palm-fringed beaches, as this new series reveals. “Few wildlife sequences have ever been filmed in Thailand, and when we started looking for stories and researching the country, we were constantly surprised by the wildlife and people living there,” says producer Lara Bickerton. This three-parter explores in depth for the first time the natural riches and spectacular natural beauty of this famous corner of South-East Asia, with highlights including the hermit crabs on the Surin Islands that rummage among rubbish to find new homes in discarded tin cans; the long-tailed macaques on›Koram Island that use…

WILDLIFE WORLDWIDE The Boreal forests of Finland play host to a healthy population of brown bears, the continent’s largest predator. Watch these magnificent mammals from the comfort and safety of purpose-built hides, gaining a whole new understanding of their charm and intellect. See Finland’s brown bears, departs May-Aug, 4 days from £1,145. To find out more order our latest brochure today. www.wildlifeworldwide.com Tel: 01962 302088 CHURCHILL WILD Take a walk on the wild side in the heart of polar bear country with Churchill Wild, the premier provider of ground-level Arctic safaris for more than 20 years. Meet polar bears face-to-face as you hike the rugged Hudson Bay coastline and enjoy world-class service, accommodation and cuisine from the only fly-in polar bear eco-lodges on the planet. www.churchillwild.com Tel: 001…

I was amazed to find a bat snacking on moths in my moth trap in early December. I took photos and had it identified as a brown long-eared bat by our local mammal recorder, Sorcha Lewis. From counting the number of wing pieces in and on the trap, I was able to add an additional five December moths the bat must have eaten to my total of 12. I also identified three other species, including a yellow-line quaker. How unusual is it to find a bat in a moth trap? Ian Standon, via email The Bat Conservation Trust responds: We have heard of bats being attracted to moth traps. Although we might expect the light to be off-putting, it seems they provide a feast that’s hard to resist. Bats can…

1 LIZARDS LOUNGE A photography tour of the Galápagos Islands took me to Fernandina Island, which is home to thousands of marine iguanas. After walking through some marshes and mangroves, I found myself on some volcanic rock where many of the reptiles were basking in the sun. I lay down next to them and took several shots as the ocean waves crashed in the background. Out of all the images I took that day, this one is my favourite. Kenneth Ariza, Florida, USA 2 EARLY BIRD After a November frost and forecast sunny skies I went out at sunrise with the aim of capturing a winter wildlife shot. It was -7°C at RSPB Lochwinnoch, Scotland, and I spent about two and a half hours wandering around in the cold taking…

Sailfish made news in 2014 when biologists showed that they use their sword-like snouts to slash at schools of fish to injure them for ease of capture. Now, the same team has found that the technique is even more successful when the predators hunt in groups rather than alone. “They catch more prey per unit time if hunting together,” said James Herbert-Read of Uppsala University, who led the research in the Gulf of Mexico. That’s because a bout of slashing injures more prey than a sailfish can catch. When several sailfish hunt together, injured fish accumulate to the point that they become very easy to pick off. Each sailfish is simply doing what it does when hunting alone – no organisation between the hunters is required. But that very simplicity…

It may resemble a doodle using some sort of digital drawing tool, but this bright yellow looping pattern is in fact the light trail of Pyrophorus noctilucus, a click beetle that can be found from southern Mexico to south-east Brazil. The light is beamed from two headlamp-like bioluminescent organs (a third is located on its underside, visible in flight) as the insect meanders around a leaf. Like fireflies and other creatures that glow, click beetles bioluminesce by combining two substances – luciferin and luciferase – to produce a light-emitting chemical reaction. The primary purpose of the light is thought to be for communicating sexual identity and receptiveness. “In this species, the males fly just below the canopy, flashing as they fly,” says expert Paul Johnson. “When a female in the…

TO MY SURPRISE THE FIELD VOLE DID NOT LEAP OFF MY HAND IN A BID FOR FREEDOM. INSTEAD, SHE SAT CONTENTEDLY ON MY PALM. “Who wants to empty this trap?” asks Andy Jefferies, our expert guide and leader during a wildlife conservation holiday. In the spirit of making the most of my volunteering weekend I enthusiastically stepped forward. What happened next was one the best encounters I’ve had with a UK species to date. I carefully emptied the trap into a clear plastic bag and a miniature rodent appeared before our eyes. The trickiest task followed: I had to catch it so we could record its sex. I cornered the creature in the bag, picked it up by the scruff of its neck and held it so we could take…

Beavers are to be protected in Scotland under European nature legislation, the Scottish Government has confirmed. It means that beavers in Knapdale, where the official trial took place, and Tayside, where they were unofficially introduced, will be allowed to stay. It also means that further reintroductions will be permitted under licence. But environment secretary Roseanna Cunningham said limiting the impact of beavers on farmers “will require careful management”, so they will have the right to remove or cull animals where they create problems. Conservationists gave a mixed reaction to the news. While remaining largely positive, the chief executive of the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Jonny Hughes, said a lot of work needed to be done, such as reassuring farmers who might see beavers as “an expensive nuisance”. “The Government needs to…

ANIMAL MAGIC For millions of children growing up from the 1960s to the early 1980s, their first taste of wildlife on TV was Johnny Morris’ humorous voiceovers on Animal Magic. The programme unashamedly made the zoo animals talk, and, perhaps because such anthropomorphism is much rarer these days, looking again at the few episodes still freely available, it’s almost impossible not to smile. WALK ON THE WILD SIDE In 2009, the BBC effectively updated Animal Magic with Walk On The Wild Side, a series of 30-minute programmes featuring wildlife footage with voiceovers by well-known comedians. If you can’t locate your inner child then you probably won’t find a marmot saying, “Alan, Alan, Alan – Oh, no, it’s Steve!” or a puffin putting on a Mexican accent the slightest bit rib-tickling.…

Love Nature? Love Learning? Want to develop your knowledge, enhance your skills, or pursue a personal interest? With an online short course from the University of Exeter you can explore our planet, discover the natural world, and learn how to conserve the environment at a time and place that suits you! Our non-accredited short courses offer an exciting range of environmental studies topics, such as: Business and Environmental Sustainability, Oceanography, Climatology, Bird Life, Mammalogy, Marine Biology, Palaeontology, Ecology, Conservation and Habitat Management, and Geological Heritage and Geodiversity. Each course is written and taught by university tutors, PhD students and other specialists, providing stimulating introductions (as well as more advanced content for those who like to be challenged!) to a wide variety of subjects. We welcome learners of all ages from…

Winterwatch TV BBC Two Due to air late January. See RT. Our seasonal favourite Winterwatch returns this January, with HQ once again at RSPB Arne reserve in Dorset. The harbour here has its own microclimate, making it one of the warmest places in the UK and thus a refuge for many animals seeking to escape the worst of the weather. Wildlife to look forward to includes overwintering wader flocks, with the team hoping to deploy a robotic spoonbill camera; hedgehogs, our favourite mammal, which are reacting to our increasingly warmer winters by rearing their young later in the year – with knock-on and potentially devastating consequences for the following year’s hibernation; Montagu’s harriers, which were tagged back in the summer; and otters on the west coast of Scotland, which are…

OUR EXPERTS MIKE TOMS is an author and associate director at the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). HELEN ROY is a community ecologist at the CEH with a passion for ladybirds. HELEN SMITH is an ecologist and former president of the British Arachnological Society. RICHARD JONES is a writer and entomologist with a fondness for dung beetles. BEN GARROD is an evolutionary biologist who specialises in both primates and skeletons. Q BIRDS How often do magpies eat small mammals? A The magpie is an opportunist, with a broad diet encompassing a wide range of plant and animal material. In general, magpies mainly take animal prey during the summer months and adopt an increasingly vegetarian diet as winter sets in. Much of the animal material taken is scavenged rather than captured…

THE PHOTOGRAPHER TONY WU Underwater lensman Tony Wu owns more pairs of fins than he does shoes and describes himself as a photo-naturalist. Visit tonywublog.com for more amazing photos and stories of marine life. “There are no hides or blinds in the ocean. The animals know where you are and what you are doing at every turn. They can out-swim, out-dive and out-last you with no effort. The only consistent method for capturing special moments is to establish trust so that your subjects feel at ease. I’ve spent 15 years documenting humpback whales and have discovered there are many ways to achieve mutual respect. Establishing eye contact is one of them. As the saying goes, ‘Eyes are windows to the soul.’ The calm, gentle gaze of this female humpback whale…

ONE MAN’S RUBBISH IS ANOTHER BEAR’S BONANZA AS STEPHEN STARR FOUND OUT IN SARIKAMIS, TURKEY. THERE ARE FEW BROWN BEARS IN TURKEY BUT THESE ARE SURELY THE LAZIEST. AT LEAST 10 HAVE BEEN RECORDED CLOSE TO THE DUMP. WHO? STEPHEN STARR is an Irish journalist and author who has reported from Turkey, Syria and the wider Middle East for nearly 10 years. WHAT? BROWN BEAR WHERE? TURKEY Most of eastern Turkey is a beautiful mix of stunning mountains and empty, open steppe. But where I am right now it stinks. In the pitch black of night, our creaking SUV has barely made it across the railway track and now faces combat with mounds of wet rubbish. This is the Sarikamis dump in Kars province, Turkey, where I’ve come, not…

4 Feb  -12Mar INTERNATIONAL GARDEN PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR ›IGPOTY› Visit Royal Botanical Gardens Kew to see amazing winning images from the 10th IGPOTY competition. The contest highlights the diverse beauty of life found in gardens. www.kew.org/igpoty 14-21 Feb BTO NATIONAL NEST BOX WEEK ›NNBW› EVENT CHOICE Take part in NNBW by putting up a nestbox and join in the BTO’s Nest Box Challenge. This survey involves monitoring your nestbox throughout the breeding season and reporting what you see. http://bit.ly/2fo8CvV 16-19 Feb OCEANS FESTIVAL This exciting event will celebrate science, conservation, and marine life at ExCeL London. It will feature London International Dive Show and Whalefest. The latter arranges family-friendly activites and talks to promote marine conservation. Adult day ticket costs £16 to £18. www.oceansfestival.co.uk 18…

HEROIC MINUTE SALAMANDER WHAT IS IT? With adults shorter than a matchstick and not much thicker, minute salamanders are the world’s smallest terrestrial vertebrates with a tail. Unfortunately, they are also contenders for the world’s most endangered genus of amphibians. The heroic minute salamander (right) is one of three newly described species. WHERE IS IT? All 29 species of minute salamander are endemic to Mexico. The latest additions are from forests of Oaxaca. Minute salamander populations have declined rapidly over the last 30 years. SOURCE: PeerJ LINK: http://bit.ly/2geaZSD…

Too much of the plastic waste that ends up in the world’s oceans finds its way into the stomachs of marine creatures. In fact, new research suggests that certain seabirds are actively attracted to it. “It’s important to consider the organism’s point of view in questions like this,” said Matthew Savoca of the University of California, Davis, who led the study. “If we want to truly understand why animals are eating plastic in the ocean, we have to think about how animals find food.” Savoca’s team found that plastics exposed to seawater emit a chemical – dimethyl sulfide (DMS) – that is used by albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters when foraging. DMS is released naturally by marine algae under attack so it is a reliable aromatic signpost for species hunting a…

The Scillonian ferry carried more birdwatchers than usual from Penzance to St Mary’s, Scilly, in May 2002. The attraction was a visiting lesser kestrel, only the fifth to have arrived in Britain since 1950. Some birders didn’t even have to disembark to tick off this rarity – as the ferry chugged into port, the little raptor was already in full view, hovering over Peninnis Head in true kestrel style. Apart from the occasional lost wanderer like this, lesser kestrels are not British birds. They prefer a Mediterranean climate, and are much less abundant in Europe than our familiar common kestrels. The pair are similar in appearance – both are small, graceful falcons with bright chestnut plumage, accessorised with dove-grey in the adult males. But they are worlds apart when it…

Home to some of the most spectacular scenery on Earth, Norway’s fjords are a magnet for travellers seeking inspiration and discovery. The endless variety of placid waters, soaring hillsides and shoreline villages can only truly be experienced on a smaller ship; the perfect excuse for a Fred. Olsen cruise. Their style of holiday is all about smaller ships, meaning you can divert away from the direct port-to-port routes to navigate labyrinthine fjords, narrow waterways and winding rivers that are out of reach to larger vessels. Get up close to the spectacular nature all around you. A smaller ship doesn’t mean less room though. Each cabin has ample space, with everything you’ll need to enjoy your holiday in comfort. It’s easy to find a quiet spot to relax in peace with…

When photographer Janez Tarman set up a camera-trap at a fox den near his home in Slovenia in October 2012, he got a lot more than he bargained for. He achieved a picture of a canid, as he had hoped for – but this was no fox. What Tarman had photographed was a golden jackal, a carnivore that most people associate with Africa or perhaps Asia – but not central Europe. “At the time there were only rumours,” says Tarman. “We didn’t know if these animals were establishing territories in this region, or just passing through. We didn’t know much at all.” Tarman’s photograph was further evidence that the species is indeed on the move – spreading north and west from its refuges in the south, and east into territory…

Step 1: Prepare Fill 50 BioEcoss traps with food and bedding to ensure the mammal stays warm and fed during the night if they are caught. Step 2: Site Choose a suitable location for your trap. Look for surface tunnels through vegetation that small mammals may use. Step 3: Record Mark where you have placed your trap with a flag and draw a map of the location to help you find it again. Step 4: Empty Handle the trap with care. Open it in a clear plastic bag so the mammal does not escape. Remove the food and bedding from the bag. Step 5: Weigh Use a large plastic bag to weigh the mammal and deduct the weight of the bag from the total. Step 6: Release Catch the mammal…

Some 200 years ago, there were 1 million giraffes wandering over most of sub-Saharan Africa – today, there are fewer than 100,000, and the IUCN says they are threatened with extinction. Illegal hunting – both for meat and trophies – is having an impact on the world’s tallest mammal in some parts of its range such as the Central African Republic, Ethiopia and Tanzania, according to Dr Julian Fennessy, co-founder of the Giraffe Conservation Foundation. “But the biggest issue is the loss, fragmentation and degradation of habitat,” he said. New survey results released by the IUCN have revealed there are 97,562 giraffes in the wild, a 36–40 per cent decline on a population estimated to be 150,000–160,000 in 1985. As a result, the giraffe has been reclassified as Vulnerable on…

Conservationists in Ireland say they are seeing increasing numbers of dead seals with distinctive ‘corkscrew’ injuries. Until a couple of years ago, experts believed these were caused by ships’ propellers. Then in 2014, a team of researchers from the University of St Andrews identified adult bull grey seals as the culprits. John Woodlock, of the Irish Seal Sanctuary (ISS), said he did not come across any seals with corkscrew injuries until 2015. “Then, I went back through our dead seal database, and realised there were some from 2012 and 2013 that were suspicious.” If there is an increasing trend for cannibalism by male grey seals, the ISS says it is important to understand why. “It could be a sign of something happening in the environment that we should know about,”…

A SUBMERGED SLOTH CAN MOVE UP TO THREE TIMES FASTER IN WATER THAN IT CAN MOVE ON LAND. When we think of ocean-going mammals we’re likely to imagine 15m humpback whales breaching above the waves, or orcas gliding under the surface, or slinky otters winding their way through kelp forests. What we don’t often think of are sloths. Although a trifle ungainly, a sloth swimming in the sea is an amazing sight. When I first saw one, I thought it was seaweed floating on the surface. It was only on closer inspection that I realised the ‘clump’ was in fact a pygmy three-toed sloth moving steadily through the clear waters of a Panamanian lagoon. Superficially, sloths just don’t look like they should be in the water. The soaked fur gave…

 AUDUN RIKARDSEN is a professor of fish biology at the University of Tromsø. The award-winning lensman started photographing wildlife in 2009 and is fascinated with the Arctic coastline. Find out more at www.audunrikardsen.com…

“BY FILMING IN THIS WAY WE CAPTURE NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN BEHAVIOUR TIME AND AGAIN.” Spy in the Wild TV BBC One Four parts, starts 12 January, 8pm. Catch up on iPlayer They’ve made cameras disguised as turtles and squid for Spy in the Pod; as rockhoppers and Humboldts for Spy in the Huddle, and as icebergs and snowballs for Spy on the Ice. Now, John Downer Productions has created a new fleet of all-singing, all-dancing 4K animal spycams to star in their 9th series, Spy in the Wild. This time, the devices are deployed to infiltrate the lives not just of a select animal group, but of a variety of species across the globe, investigating the extent to which they demonstrate the human characteristics of love, intelligence, friendship and mischief. “Our spy…

It may resemble a cross between some sort of bizarre alien plant and a funky Christmas decoration, but this is neither. This is a spun glass caterpillar, a North American member of the slug moth family – a name that clearly flatters terrestrial pulmonates. The adults are rather unremarkable little brown jobs, but the larvae… oh, the larvae! Many of the family’s 1,700-odd species are adorned with all manner of extravagant, intricate spines, bristles and protuberances. What they do have in common with shell-less molluscs is that they glide rather than crawl. Their fleshy walking legs have been all but lost and they lubricate their passage over the vegetation with a slippery trail – not of slime, heaven forbid, but liquid silk.…