Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2020 i BBC Wildlife Magazine

Diverse and divine in equal measure, deciduous woodland is a match for any other wild habitat in the British Isles, in terms of how much it has to interest keen naturalists throughout the year. Winter and summer woods offer their own particular charms, while in spring woods you can experience the glorious reawakening of the natural world. But autumn “carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons”, as the American writer Jim Bishop memorably put it. Given the global pandemic we’ve had to contend with this year, the restorative nature of woodlands makes them a wonderful place for anyone needing to refresh body, mind and spirit. And though Britain remains one of the least-forested countries in Europe, with deciduous woodland covering just six per cent of our…

DO Keep a safe distance from animals. Keep quiet and calm. Obey wildlife laws and regulations. Caption photos honestly. Research animal behaviour and follow advice from guides, scientists and other experts. Move away if your presence is causing stress to the animal. Follow journalistic standards on the reality of photos. Wait a while before posting wildlife photos on social media. Make sure metadata is stripped from images before sharing them. DON’T Use live bait. Feed animals harmful food. Feed animals if feeding could harmfully change the way they would behave naturally. Get too close. Crowd animals with vehicles. Pursue an animal for too long. Cause stress or harm to animals. Pressure guides to bend or break the rules to get ‘the perfect shot’ Visit zoos or sanctuaries, if animals aren’t…

Each year, as the long summer days draw to an end, the Atlantic coast of Florida becomes the setting for a strange phenomenon. Along the beaches lined with high-rise apartment blocks, it looks as though an oil spill has hit. But these dark slicks, which can be several miles long, don’t behave like a normal spill. They swirl and seethe. Here and there, the sea surface shivers. The mullet runs are easy to see through the crystal-clear waters of the sunshine state. “We call it nervous water,” says underwater photographer, Michael Patrick O’Neill, which is apt, given what’s going on beneath the surface. This is no petrochemical catastrophe but a natural spectacle, created by the arrival of so many fish they turn the water black. Enormous shoals of striped mullet…

We solve your wildlife mysteries. Email your questions to wildquestions@immediate.co.uk More amazing facts at discoverwildlife.com CRUSTACEANS How do hermit crabs pick the right shell? Taking over empty shells for protection is a neat trick. However, for hermit crabs, the quest for the perfect home is a lifelong preoccupation full of compromise. Swapping shells is a risky, yet necessary, procedure for a constantly growing crab, and finding a good fit is more of an art than an exact science. This hasn’t stopped researchers observing how the European hermit crab surveys a prospective shell. A crab will use its stalked compound eyes to gauge a shell’s size, weight and even colour, and it also has a good feel, using its legs and antennae, to estimate the shell’s volume, shape, condition and manoeuvrability,…

Film choice Attenborough’s witness statement The destructive actions of humans and a vision for the future. DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: A LIFE ON OUR PLANET IN CINEMAS 28 SEPTEMBER (FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY), COMING SOON ON NETFLIX The wait is over. Postponed by the pandemic, this film celebrating the life and work of David Attenborough is now being released. Produced by Silverback Films and WWF for Netflix, it charts the devastating changes that the broadcaster and conservationist has witnessed during his lifetime. His career has seen him visit every continent, and share much of the world’s natural wonders with millions of people around the globe. “At 94 years old, his knowledge and insight of the natural world remains as relevant and cherished today as it was the first time he introduced the…

The article on the link between music and the natural world (Songs in the key of life, July 2020) reminded me of an occasion when I reflected upon how natural music really is. I was sitting beside an open window, listening to a recording of Herbert Howells’ string quartet In Gloucestershire. As the third movement started, a blackbird began singing from the rowan close by. His pace matched that of the third movement and his phrases were either half that of Howells’ or equal in length to them. It was an astonishing experience. Even some of his notes matched the range of Howells’ music. It was quite a beautiful addition. The rests between the blackbird’s stanzas were of regular length. At one stage, he came nearer to the window. He…

Butcher’s broom Growing as stiff clumps of glossy, prickly foliage, this plant sometimes forms dense stands up to thigh-height on the woodland floor. It was ideal for scrubbing butchers’ blocks clean, hence the name. The ‘leaves’ are in fact cladodes, which are flattened stems with sharp spines on the end. Found particularly in the southern half of the UK. Jay Despite a pinkish-fawn body, a vivid blue patch on each wing and bright white rump, this colourful member of the crow family can be surprisingly difficult to spot as it zips between the trees. The key is to listen for the birds’ harsh screeching, which cuts through the forest like a knife. Fallow deer Thought to have been first introduced by the Romans, the fallow is a medium-sized deer with…

Sometimes, the most obvious answer to a question isn’t the right one. Take the uncanny similarity between the fruits of the creosote bush and the velvet ants that share their North American desert habitat. New research overturns a widespread consensus that it’s a straightforward case of mimicry. Don’t let those soft, fluffy exteriors fool you. Both the velvet ants and the creosote fruits pack a formidable punch. The plants are rammed with an arsenal of pesticidal toxins, while the insects (which are wingless wasps rather than true ants) are armed with fearsome stings. It has long been assumed that their striking resemblance comes down to mimicry. The story goes that the ants are harder to spot amongst the fallen fruits. And perhaps each gains a degree of protection from predators…

Every prey animal worth its salt has a good escape plan. Few, though, wait until they’ve actually been eaten before they execute it. While most predators kill their prey before swallowing it, frogs gulp it down when it’s still alive and kicking, allowing their acidic digestive juices to do the rest. This usually works just fine – unless what they’ve wolfed down is an Asian aquatic beetle named Regimbartia attenuata. New research shows that the insect can survive long enough in a frog’s gut to give it time to escape unscathed via the rear exit. “Ninety per cent of swallowed beetles were excreted within six hours after being eaten and, surprisingly, were still alive,” writes Shinji Sugiura, who conducted the research at Japan’s Kobe University. The beetle’s tough protective exo-skeleton…

The New Big 5 is an international initiative launched this year to create a new ‘big five’ of wildlife – the big five of wildlife photography, not hunting. Shooting with a camera, not a gun. The project is supported by a range of wildlife organisations and more than 150 of the world’s photographers, conservationists and wildlife lovers, including musician Moby (see p98) and primatologist Dr Jane Goodall. “There are so many incredible animals in our world. Any project that brings attention to animals, so many of whom are threatened or endangered, is truly important,” says Dr Goodall. Instead of the old ‘big five’, which listed the toughest animals in Africa for colonial hunters to kill (lion, elephant, leopard, rhino, buffalo), the project is asking people to vote (via newbig5. com/vote)…

1 CAN SNAKES TASTE WHAT THEY EAT? Yes, but their sense of smell is better. Flicking their tongue enables snakes to take a wide sample of the scents around them, which are interpreted by the Jacobson’s organ in the roof of their mouth These smells give snakes information for hunting, avoiding predators and finding mates. Though their sense of taste is relatively poor, they are able to taste bitter foods, which helps them avoid poisonous prey species. 2 HOW DO SNAKES BREATHE WHILE EATING? Snakes usually breathe through their nose, or snout. However, when consuming prey, they switch to using their mouth. The end of a snake’s windpipe, or glottis, is located at the base of its mouth, behind the tongue. Handily, the glottis can move sideways or…

Good hare day Living in a rural location gives me the chance to photograph the wonderful hares in the local fields. I've been photographing one group for over two years. This photo was taken in April and I spent another 40 minutes clicking away, capturing the hares’ behaviour. It’s always a privilege to spend time with them. Richard Ellis, Warwickshire 1 Deer delight The moment we reached Rajaji Tiger Reserve, India, it was totally unexpected to see such amazing morning sunrays coming through the trees at the foothills of the Himalayas. I decided to wait at this location and this spotted deer filled it with drama. Trikansh Sharma, Uttarakhand, India 2 Popular place I visit Kavadi Pat, India, a lot in winter, when there are so many migratory birds around.…

No more than 100m away, the leopard was leaving the waterhole. The call crackled through on the radio – leopard! Spotted right in front of our lodge in Nxai Pan, north-east Botswana, it was the first that had been sighted in the area for months. The trouble was, we’d departed from camp an hour ago and were now urged the jeep onwards, but resolutely stuck to the reserve’s speed restrictions, making the 60-minute journey feel like days. All around us, the short grass was bleached blonde, spiked with purple scrub and pimpled with ashy termite mounds. A distant baobab loomed like an upturned parked up by a waterhole on the opposite side of the reserve. It was another magical morning on safari. A line of silver wildebeest lolloped into the…

Magic in the air Hummingbirds are masters of flight. They’re lightning fast, have the ability to hover in mid-air and are the only birds capable of flying backwards. This impressive set of skills is brought to the fore as the iridescent bundles of energy feast on the nectar that fuels them. Found darting between the tropical blooms of the Americas, hummingbirds are important pollinators. Each species – here, the long-tailed sylph – has developed a bill that is the perfect size and shape for getting the most out of the local flora. In terms of evolution, they’re a flying success. Little and large While photographer Michaela Walsh was busy admiring brown bears in Slovenia, the subject of her attention seemed just as taken with a great tit that was flying…

The first study to measure neurological responses to light pollution in wildlife by La Trobe University and University of Melbourne has discovered that urban birds are being kept awake. Light comparable to street lighting in strength can disrupt the length, structure and intensity of sleep in magpies and pigeons, regardless of the light’s colour. Using miniature sensors to measure the birds’ brain activity, researchers discovered their non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and REM sleep cycles were altered when exposed to white and more “sleep-friendly” amber lighting at night. “Both magpies and pigeons average 10 hours of sleep per night. We found that magpies lost more NREM sleep under white light than amber light,” says sleep expert Dr John Lesku. “By comparison, pigeons lost around four hours of sleep under both white…

A NEW STUDY of grey reef sharks garnered plenty of attention in August, when many reports claimed it showed they ‘hang out with friends’. The research at the Pacific’s remote Palmyra Atoll, south of Hawaii, was led by Florida International University and is the latest in a stream of studies challenging age-old ideas of large, meat-eating sharks as the ultimate ‘lone wolves’ of the ocean. For several decades, advances in equipment and technology have been giving marine biologists a more nuanced understanding of these predators. Young lemon sharks in the Bahamas, for example, have been shown to seek the company of sharks they know over a two-year period. The recent observations go further, since the tagged grey reef sharks were found to establish groups that routinely got together in familiar…

Fungi are everywhere but they are easy to miss. They are inside you and around you. They sustain all that you depend on. As you read this, fungi are changing the way that life happens, as they have done for more than a billion years. They are eating rock, making soil, digesting pollutants, nourishing and killing plants, surviving in space, inducing visions, producing food, making medicines, manipulating animal behaviour and influencing the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways that we think, feel, and behave. Yet they live their lives largely hidden from view – more than 90 per cent of their species remain undocumented. The more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them.…

“I remember one facepalm moment,” says British wildlife photographer Richard Peters. “I had a guest on safari who asked us to use the vehicle to herd a group of ostriches under a tree, so he could take his photo. Of course, we said no.” To most people, using a Land Rover to shunt or scare wild birds into position is obviously a bad idea. But common sense and animal welfare are sometimes casualties in wildlife photography. For some photographers or tourists with cameras, getting their shot trumps any other considerations. The idea of ‘ethical photography’ has spread among photographers in recent years. While some issues are black and white, there are plenty of grey areas. “It’s about having empathy and looking at our actions from the point of view of…

In his blog, Hyenas in Harar, anthropologist Marcus Baynes-Rock recalls a memory from his time spent in a farming hamlet in West Shewa, Ethiopia. For the most part, his blog investigates the relationship between people and urbanised spotted hyenas in Ethiopia’s city of Harar, but in this entry, Marcus is sitting inside a mud hut, eating a plate of stir-fried meat, crumbly cheese and a hunk of kocho (a traditional flatbread). “It would have been like a family camping trip, if not for the sound of a donkey urinating on the floor directly behind me,” writes Marcus. There were other livestock there, too – goats, donkeys, horses, cows – sleeping just across the other side of the small room. The reason that the animals were inside the house at night,…

Nestled in the southern reaches of Chilean Patagonia, Torres del Paine National Park may be famous for its windswept granite peaks and impossibly turquoise lakes, but in recent years it’s also become known as one of the best places in the world to encounter pumas. Thanks to two decades of concerted conservation efforts, some 60 individuals now inhabit the park and surrounding private areas, sustained by an ample population of guanacos. In August 2019, photojournalist Lucas Bustamante spent a week amid the ice and snow of this iconic landscape, getting to know a hard-working female and her four six-month-old cubs. Bursting with energy, the cubs played virtually non-stop, constantly pestering their mother when she was trying to rest after a night’s hunting. “It was funny watching the female try to…