Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2018 i BBC Wildlife Magazine

• ROSE CHAFER BASKING BEETLES Glittering in warm June sunshine, these metallic-green beetles love to bask on garden roses and hedgerow dog roses. You may spot them on other flowers too, much to the chagrin of gardeners who can’t forgive their leaf munching. Chafers make heavy work of flying and after dark often buzz around porch and security lights. Unlike most beetles, they fly with their wing-cases lying flat – the flight wings flick out from underneath. TOP TIP Download a free beetles ID guide: www.discoverwildlife.com/id-beetles • TREE BUMBLEBEE SUMMER SWARMS You won’t find the tree bumblebee in old British field guides: it only arrived in 2001. But it’s already one of the most common bumblebees in England and Wales, and since 2013 has been spreading in Scotland. The combination…

Whether in your garden, lining your street or abundant in local parks and woodland, trees offer a range of physical and mental health benefits: from gentle exercise and connecting with nature, to combatting air and noise pollution, or simply offering you some shade. Observatree is a project that aims to help protect UK trees, woods and forests from new pests and diseases through early detection and reporting. Early detection gives the highest chances of controlling or monitoring any outbreaks. Monitoring the spread of tree pests and diseases is equally important. Knowing where something is, and when it arrives, could highlight trees or areas of the UK with natural resistance. YOU CAN HELP While you are out and about, keep your eyes open for signs of three key pests and diseases…

Slovenia is a proud beekeeping nation and the practice is one of its oldest traditions, with the nation now home to more than 10,000 beekeepers, 12,500 apiaries and nearly 170,000 hive colonies. Slovenia’s Carniolan honey bee is regarded as the world’s second most widespread breed, and the central European country is the only EU member state to have protected its native bee species. The Slovenian Tourist Board even succeeded in getting the UN to back its campaign for a World Bee Day, which was celebrated for the first time on 20 May 2018. Slovenia is a world leader in sustainability and its tourist board hopes to use the campaign to raise awareness of the importance of bees and promote api-tourism, which focuses on green destinations, travel and apiculture. The Slovenian…

The last time I went looking for water voles with wildlife photographer Laurie Campbell, we were high on a moor in Scotland’s Monadhliath Mountains. The silence was so intense I could hear the sound of my pen as I scribbled notes. Crouching beside a ditch, Laurie pointed out the neat ‘lawns’ at the water’s edge where the grass had been nibbled short by water voles. I heard a sudden, soft ‘plop’, saw a twitch in the tussocky grass… but nothing more. Today we’re on the edge of the M8 motorway, which slices through the centre of Glasgow, relentless traffic thundering by. We’re just below a retail park and along the steep earth slope, among discarded coffee-cup lids and sandwich wrappers, are small, round holes: water vole burrows. We’re here with…

DROPPINGS The definitive field sign for all water voles, both fossorial and aquatic. Droppings are 8–12mm long, tubular with blunt ends, and green when fresh but dark brown when dry. They can be spotted all year. Latrines ( below ) are conspicuous piles of flattened droppings, usually with fresh ones on top, and are found only in the breeding season; they are associated with scent marking. FEEDING STATION Another field sign common to all water voles. The piles of gathered plant material may include grasses, sedges, rushes, bark, seeds and berries. Material may be of varying lengths, but is always cut at a 45° angle. In fossorial water voles, piles are found at the base of a grass tussock and well covered. SOIL MOUND Also known as a tumulus, this…

“Every summer evening, lesser mouse-eared bats pour out of this cave in waves,” says Greek photographer Philippos Katsiyiannis. “They circle around the cave entrance before finally heading out into the night to hunt. It’s the most fantastic spectacle.” Lesser mouse-eared bats, which are not found in Britain, prefer to forage over warm, open habitats where big beetles, crickets and praying mantises loom large on the menu. They are relatively big for a European bat, weighing up to 26g, with a body length of 6–7cm. This particular cave, in the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece, is also home to greater horseshoe bats and Schreiber’s bent-winged bats, giving it a combined population of over 2,000 animals. Philippos took his photograph in late July, when juvenile bats start to fly with the adults.…

The Isle of Arran in the Firth of Clyde off the west coast of Scotland is eagerly marketed by its small but dedicated tourist board as ‘Scotland in Miniature’. The Highland Boundary Fault divides the island in two, separating the highlands in the north from the lowlands in the south – just as it does the highlands and lowlands of mainland Scotland, on a much grander scale. But this island has another claim to fame. According to legend, Robert the Bruce retreated here after six defeats at the hands of the English. At his lowest ebb, Robert hid in what would become known as the King’s Cave and pondered the future of his country. As he did so, a spider descended and began to spin its web across the cave…

Of nearly 500 shark species that cruise the oceans today, one in particular is a scientific superstar. In the crystalline waters of the Bahamas, the lemon shark has been studied continuously for several decades. This beautiful and charismatic fish has become probably the best-known shark in the world. And as marine biologists continue to learn more about what makes the lemon shark tick, they’re overturning many of our long-held preconceptions about the lives of large, predatory sharks. LIFE CAN BE TOUGH FOR LEMON SHARK PUPS. FROM THE MOMENT THEY’RE BORN THEY HAVE TO LEARN TO FEND FOR THEMSELVES. Lemon sharks have a wide range, around the coasts and islands of the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific. Life can be tough for the pups. From the moment they’re born they have…

SVEN ZACEK ÿ is passionate about Ural owls and has photographed their behaviour in spring since 2006. During the the rest of the year he focuses on capturing other wildlife and people. See more of his work at www.zacekfoto.ee…

Big Beasts: Last of the Giants TV Sky 1 Three parts starting 13 June It’s usually Earth’s biggest and most charismatic creatures that capture our imaginations. In his fourth natural-history outing for Sky, biologist Patrick Aryee presents a whistle-stop tour of the giants of the natural world – and what their super size means for survival. “ IF CONDITIONS CHANGE OR BECOME COMPROMISED, LARGE ANIMALS ARE FIRST TO GO.” “I wanted to investigate why humans are so taken aback by large animals, and what makes us so in awe of them,” says Patrick. “This series is a celebration of our biggest species, looking at how they have adapted to their habitats, how they fit into the environment and what the future holds for them.” Jumping from the Americas to Africa…

Red Ape: Saving the Orangutan ONLINE Available on BBC iPlayer until 9 June There are still a few days to catch this excellent film, the fourth in the new Natural World series. Heartbreaking yet inspirational, the documentary recounts the history of the deforestation that has emptied Borneo of trees since the start of large-scale logging in the 1960s, and the tireless efforts of International Animal Rescue to save and rehabilitate as many orphaned and injured orangutans as possible. Shockingly, recent research has revealed that up to 3,000 of these red apes are intentionally killed every year, and with the global demand for palm oil set to double by 2050, the struggle continues. “We’re wiping out our closest living relative,” says Paul Ehrlich, president of the Center for Conservation Biology, “which…

At the edge of a natural bluff... Providing one of the best views in Africa Since 1985, family owned Tarangire Safari Lodge has catered to wildlife enthusiasts and those seeking rest and relaxation among one of Tanzania’s most popular national parks. Perched at the edge of a natural bluff, Tarangire Safari Lodge is renowned for its panoramic views of the savannah and Tarangire River below, “providing one of the best views in Africa.” Carving out the landscape below the lodge is Tarangire River, a favorite watering place, which attracts impressive numbers of wildlife from the surrounding ecosystems that come together in large numbers to drink, just below our wide-stretched terrace. A variety of ecosystems exist within the park boundary, with 94 species of mammals and over 500 bird species recorded.…

WHO? CHRIS VYVYANROBINSON is a scuba instructor, film-maker and journalist with a passion for all marine wildlife, but especially sharks. WHAT? BLUE SHARKS WHERE? THE AZORES We were speeding across a tranquil ocean away from the island of Pico, the Azores. My diver friends and I were going in search of sharks – but for a very unusual reason. It had become clear to us that blue and other sharks in the mid-Atlantic were being targeted by local fishermen, both for their meat and their fins. Not only that, but some sharks were being caught on lines and escaping, leaving large hooks in their mouths. We decided to do something. Over the roar of the outboard motor, we delegated the roles: Martijn, the most experienced diver, would take the lead,…

EVENT SPOTLIGHT A wild weekend in Yorkshire Nature lovers, families and book fanatics are all welcome at Niddfest, which takes place in Upper Nidderdale, North Yorkshire. The weekend festival includes talks, music and family-friendly wildlife events such as woodland workshops and bee walks. BBC Wildlife contributors Helen Scales (see p66) and Miriam Darlington (see p82) will be attending to discuss their new books, and BBC Springwatch’s Lindsey Chapman will be sharing behind-the-scenes stories from the iconic wildlife show. • 16–17 June, Harrogate, see programme for event prices, www.niddfest.com/programme-2018 Fascinating flies Discover the world of Diptera on this Field Studies Council Learn to Love Flies course in Reading. The day will be an introduction to this varied order – find out how to tell the difference between types of flies and,…

EXPLODING ANT WHAT IS IT? It’s not just a name. These ants, now officially described as Colobopsis explodens, do, quite literally, explode. Certain workers in the colony specialise in this form of self-sacrifice in the face of danger, spattering assailants with sticky, toxic glandular secretions that are stored in their abdomens. WHERE IS IT? The ants live in tree-hole nests, often high in the canopy, in Borneo. Other worker castes are equipped with large, plug-shaped heads, which they use to block nest entrances against intruders. SOURCE ZooKeys LINKhttps://bit.ly/2r2oE6v…

When we arrived at the entrance to Elephant Valley, an elephant rehabilitation centre near Chiang Rai, northern Thailand, we had to wait in the truck with our guide because two of the sanctuary’s residents, youngster Lou and matriarch Modee, had decided to take a dip in a large swampy pond right next to the gates. To avoid disturbing them, we sat tight until bath time was over and the pair had happily sauntered off, now caked in fragrant mud, to find some food on the opposite bank. Most Asian elephants in Thailand, as in other parts of Southeast Asia, are having a tough time. Shrinking natural habitats, persecution by farmers for crop raiding and poor treatment of captive animals used in the logging and tourism industries have all taken their…

Take 18 bounding strides down your street and the odds are it will look much the same at the end as it does at the beginning. Yet that is as far as I had to go to enter a completely alien world. Two rusty boilers standing bolt upright under 18m of water are all that remain of the wreck of a steamship that hit a mine in December 1917 and sank off Cornwall’s Lizard Peninsula. All manner of weird and wonderful marine life has colonised the artificial reef that this wartime disaster created, yet at the surface there’s no clue it even exists. In March I joined a dive survey team from the Cornwall Wildlife Trust and the Cornwall Inshore Fisheries Conservation Association (CIFCA) on the wreck. Our aim was…

A licence to kill hundreds of ravens over the next five years in the heart of the Scottish Highlands has provoked an international outcry. Recently granted by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) – the country’s wildlife and countryside agency – it permits a cull in the sparsely populated Strathbraan area. This has drawn criticism from conservationists such as Chris Packham, who has called it a “slaughter of wildlife”, and by bird researchers. There has been an online petition against the cull, signed by more than 150,000 people. However, bodies representing landowners and gamekeepers have welcomed it. In allowing the killing of up to 69 ravens each year, SNH spokesman Robbie Kernahan, said that it was for “a collaborative trial to explore whether a reduction in ravens will help curlews and other…

HAWAIIAN TURTLES Following a ruling by the US District Court for Hawaii, the National Marine Fisheries Service closed longline fishing around the islands from May to the end of December 2018. The federal court order was put in place to protect loggerhead turtles that become entangled and drown in the curtain of near-invisible lines and hooks set to catch swordfish. “Grouvellinus leonardodicaprioi” WILDFLOWER CORRIDORS In May, Ben Bradley MP introduced a Protection of Pollinators Bill to the House of Commons. If passed, the bill will place a duty on Defra to encourage the creation of a connected network of wildflower-rich grasslands across the country, to stem the decline of pollinators.…

In the 1800s, herring fisheries around the Isle of Arran were booming, so much so that in 1889 large-bottom trawling boats were banned from the Clyde in an attempt to stop overfishing. Nevertheless, the tonnage of herring landed in the Clyde still crashed, from up to 40,000 tonnes in the late 1940s to an average of just 2,400 tonnes in 1978–84. New dredging techniques allowed a switch to scallop and prawn fishing, providing some alternative employment. But by the mid-1980s the situation was pretty desperate. In 2010, worried scientists analysing the area’s historic fishing records declared that the Clyde ecosystem was about to become a marine desert.…

Not only do mangrove forests offer a safe nursery to lemon shark pups and many other fish, they also provide a host of essential ecological functions. 1 MANGROVES HELP the fight against climate change by burying masses of carbon deep in the soil. One study found that mangroves are more effective at capturing carbon than forests on land. 2 FOR LOCAL COMMUNITIES, mangroves can be a sustainable source of timber, charcoal and food, such as oysters and honey. 3 THE DEEP, TANGLED roots and stout trunks of mangroves protect coastlines from erosion by waves and storms, the scale and frequency of which are likely to increase due to climate change. 4 MANGROVES IMPROVE coastal water quality, by absorbing excess nutrients and pollutants – including even the heavy metals that are…

The Lynx and Us by David Hetherington, photos by Laurent Geslin Scotland: The Big Picture £25 Lithuania has 193 human settlements named after wolves and bears but only three after lynx, even though they have always existed there. This anonymity makes the lynx a candidate for reintroduction to landscapes now devoid of large predators. In particular, David Hetherington would like to bring the lynx back to Scotland, where it has not been seen since the Middle Ages. The lynx is a solitary, low density species with a large home range. Its favourite food is roe deer, devourer of woodland. Even when reintroduced to areas with naive prey, it settles down to an average harvest of 3–10 per cent, enough to ameliorate the wider environment without hammering the deer population. Its…

Q BIRDS How do kingfishers excavate their nesting burrows? A For a small bird such as a kingfisher, digging out a nesting burrow that can be up to 130cm in length is a Herculean task. A pair works on the burrow together, choosing a steep or vertical bank situated over water. The male starts things off by flying at a spot on the bank and attempting to loosen the soil with his beak. These initial attempts can be haphazard, but once the birds have removed sufficient soil to gain a foothold, they can more easily perch and peck at the soil in a woodpecker-like manner. Work continues on and off throughout the day, with the pair taking it in turns to dig and with the excavating bird always watched over…

What does Trees for Life do? We are working to rewild the Scottish Highlands by protecting and restoring the globally unique Caledonian Forest. We are planting trees, reintroducing native species and inspiring people to get involved. What species does the area support? Mammals such as the wild boar, pine marten, wildcat and red squirrel, and birds including the capercaillie, crested tit and endemic Scottish crossbill. In addition, our Dundreggan Conservation Estate has been described as a ‘lost world’ of biodiversity with several rare insects recorded. What does planting entail? The trees we plant (more than 30 species) are native to the forest. We plant as naturalistically as possible – so randomly rather than in rows, and without stakes, tubes or labels. Spring and autumn are the busiest planting seasons. What…

Nobody is more irritated by irresponsible dog owners than responsible ones. You invest all that effort, money and time into training a dog not to jump up, and to come to your call; you carry knotted bags around for hours in search of a bin – and then your hard work is ruined by idiots who let their dogs off around livestock or ground-nesting birds, chuck bagged poo into the undergrowth, or leave it dangling from trees. If I can behave responsibly, you think to yourself, why the hell can’t you? Just as there are many people who drop litter, there are plenty of dog owners who don’t consider the impact of their pet on the environment – and, as a result, some feel that dogs should be barred from…

FOOD STORES enable the voles to stay below ground in winter and during adverse weather. They may comprise grasses, sedges, seeds and a range of other plant matter. SOIL MOUNDS, disturbed earth and bolt holes are all clues to the presence of fossorial voles. They are less obvious or absent in winter. NEST CHAMBERS at the heart of the burrow system are around 50–60cm deep, with tunnels radiating from them. Females have young in late spring and summer. BURROWS can be quite complex systems and often stretch over 35m. They are all on one plane – tunnels don’t run under other tunnels.…

COMMON LOBSTER HOMARUS GAMMARUS Also known as the European lobster, this is the species for which the European spiny lobster is most easily mistaken. It is similar in size, but sports a pair of spectacular front claws. The left claw is used to crush prey and the smaller right claw has a sharp cutting edge for slicing up food. NORWAY LOBSTER NEPHROPS NORVEGICUS Also called the Dublin Bay prawn or langoustine, but popularly sold as ‘scampi’. This crustacean is much smaller than the European spiny lobster, typically growing to 20cm. It prefers silty sediments, digging burrows that it leaves only to forage and mate. SQUAT LOBSTER GALATHEA SQUAMIFERA A strange-looking species that looks like a comedy cross between a crab and a lobster. True to its name, it grows to…

The future of the Sumatran rhino is now so precarious that experts are recommending that all wild individuals be removed from the wild for captive breeding. No more than 90 of these secretive pachyderms remain, and there might be as few as 30, including nine captive individuals. The population is thought to have halved over the last two decades as a result of poaching and habitat loss. Research just published in the Journal of Heredity confirms that these survivors can be split between two distinct subspecies – one on the island of Sumatra and one on Borneo. A third, which once ranged widely across mainland south and east Asia is now probably extinct. But numbers are now so low that the biologists behind the study say the best hope for…

The EU has voted to ban, by the end of the year, the outdoor use of three neonicotinoid pesticides implicated in bee declines. Professor Mark Brown of Royal Holloway University of London says it’s clear that these neurotoxins have negative effects on individual bees and colonies. Less certain is whether the ban will reverse the declines, when other factors, such as disease and climate, are also at play. The case is strongest for bumblebees and solitary bees, says Brown. “The evidence that neonicotinoids have anything to do with honeybee problems is much more limited.” Neither is it clear how farmers will respond. “This might involve changing crops, or using other – better or worse – pesticides,” says Brown. 1,000 The number of elephants working in the teak industry in Myanmar…

The mid-morning sky is hazy and alive with dancing St Mark’s flies – perfect swift food. We’re scanning the Wiltshire rooftops through binoculars, hoping for swifts, but while gazing skywards it is easy to lose your sense of scale. Nope, definitely a fly. And another. Then, miraculously, they appear. One minute the horizon is birdless, the next it’s seething with sickle-shaped wings. The swifts are back. Too far away to hear the thrilling screams that earned them the folk name ‘screecher’, but just knowing they have returned from Africa safely is enough. “Fantastic! A big arrival, and right on time,” says an excited Rowena Quantrill, in whose hillside garden we are swift-watching. We enjoy the swifts in silence, as they tear helter-skelter through the warm May air – the writer…

In 2002, I found a swift chick by the kerb when out walking my dog. As a keen naturalist, I knew it was a swift and had no chance. Normally, of course, it’s best to leave seemingly abandoned nestlings alone, as the parents will probably be nearby. Swifts are an exception – they’re the one species that can’t come down to feed young that have fallen out of the nest. But when I tried to get guidance on what to do, there was none. Everyone said I was just wasting my time. So I rang the BTO, who put me on to the late Chris Mead. He was so, so encouraging. And with his help, I was able to do it. Now that word has got out, I take in…

Sickle-fin lemon sharks, close relatives of lemon sharks from the Indo-Pacific, have been studied for a decade in French Polynesia. Using cameras set up around a bait box, scientists recently discovered that they formed a pecking order based, surprisingly, not on body size but the shark’s behaviour. “Every shark in the group had a very precise position in the hierarchy,” says Pierpaolo Brena, the study leader. Higher-ranking sharks that got to eat first were less submissive and tended not to veer off when swimming towards others. “To our knowledge, it’s the first time that adult, free-ranging sharks have been shown to adapt to the behaviour of their rivals,” Brena says.…

Whether one moves with the nimble athleticism of squirrels and gibbons or the slow assuredness of sloths and chameleons, a firm grip is a basic requirement for an arboreal animal. And few grips come firmer than that of a Parson’s chameleon . This inhabitant of Madagascar’s humid forests is the heaviest of all chameleons. Its opposable digits – three on one side, two on the other – allow it to wrap its feet securely around any branch. However much it struggles, that tree isn’t going anywhere. Clambering through the canopy is not the only thing Parson’s chameleons do very slowly – their eggs take two years to hatch after laying. Stuart Blackman…

Curlew code: stop, look and listen Reading Mary Colwell’s article (The Curlew’s Cry, Spring 2018) reminded me of an experience I had a couple of years ago in early summer. I was driving along a quiet road in the Cairngorms, Scotland, when I saw something crossing ahead of me. I stopped and watched two tiny bundles of fluff with very long legs and huge feet picking their way carefully across the road – they were very young curlew chicks. One youngster crossed safely, the other turned back. Worried that another vehicle might appear, I got out of the car intending to shepherd the second chick across. Only then did I hear the very quiet bubbling sound of the parent bird in the heather calling the chicks to it. The second…

1 ZEBRAS CROSSING Earlier this year, I went on safari to Kenya for 10 days. While on an evening game drive through the savanna of the Maasai Mara, I came across a dazzle of common zebras. When one of the equids starting walking, three others followed it in an orderly line and I took this shot. Vishnu Gopal, Kerala, India 2 ALL ABOARD My wife and I had wanted to visit Africa for over 30 years, but hadn’t been able to do so until last year. In September, we travelled to Kenya and went on our first safari. It was a fantastic experience seeing the animals roaming free over the thousands of acres. We saw a variety of wildlife, including this light-hearted moment when a lilac-breasted roller (the national bird…