Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2021 i BBC Wildlife Magazine

Dancing delicately beneath the waves, the cilia-covered tentacles of the feather duster worm capture passing plankton and detritus. Grooves guide the smallest particles to their mouths, while larger particles help build the soft, flexible tube in which the worm resides. Once fixed between rocks or coral, the worm will remain inside this tube for the rest of its life, quickly retracting its fanned tentacle crown if the light-sensing spots detect a passing shadow.…

Common seal This species also goes by the name of harbour seal. It is smaller than its grey cousin, with an often splatter-patterned coat, a more puppy-like head and V-shaped nostrils. Between fishing trips, these seals haul out onto the shore, and adults appear faithful to their favourite areas from year to year. Otter There can be little confusing this powerful mustelid, which reaches over 1m in length, when its muscular tail is taken into account. While most otters in England and Wales are found around fresh water, at least half of the estimated 8,000 individuals in Scotland prefer the coast, with quiet stretches of rocky shore their preferred hunting grounds. Purple sandpiper The dusky winter plumage of the purple sandpiper can sometimes make it difficult to pick out from…

Greater glider WHAT IS IT? The existence of one species of giant flying marsupial squirrel in the world is enough to put a spring in one’s step. But it turns out there are three of them. Greater gliders use flaps of skin strung between their elbows and ankles to soar between the eucalyptus trees on which they browse. WHERE IS IT? All three are natives of eastern Australia. The smallest, Petauroides minor , occurs in the north; the largest, P. volans (about three times the size of a grey squirrel, though its fluffy pelt makes it appear larger still), in the south. P. armillatus is intermediate in terms of both size and distribution. FIND OUT MORE Scientific Reports: go.nature.com/3g2kipo…

A perfect planet? Well, that’s something to live up to in a universe with trillions of planets. So, does our home – a tiny blue dot in the vastness of space – stand out from the crowd? If the new BBC One series A Perfect Planet is anything to go by, it probably does – after all, Earth is the only planet known to have life. Land iguanas scramble down into the crater of the active volcano to incubate their eggs. Brought to us by the producers of Our Planet and The Hunt, the central narrative of this new series is the forces of nature – volcanoes, sunlight, weather and ocean currents – that shape life on Earth. It is this fusion of Earth sciences and blue-chip natural history that…

In 2012, an adult male proboscis monkey, belonging to a one-male social group, was GPS tracked for six months in Sabah. The data showed that riparian habitats featured heavily in the group’s range. In 2015, a drone was used to map the habitat in high-resolution. Data revealed that 47ha of forest had been cleared shortly before the drone flights. Thirty per cent of the proboscis monkeys’ home range had been cleared, as well as 11 per cent of sleeping sites. Drone images also showed that the felling extended to the river’s edge, disregarding certain laws. Following this discovery, a press release (combining drone imagery with GPS data) was published, revealing the loss of habitat for an endangered species that is economically important for Sabah’s tourism industry. “Dissemination of our findings…

Antarctica is a destination that many of us dream of visiting. After all, who wouldn’t want to walk in the footsteps of the likes of Hillary, Scott, Shackleton and latterly, of course, the great Attenborough? Strange it may sound, but Antarctica never featured on my own birding bucket list. Don’t get me wrong – like millions of others, I was mesmerised by the mind-blowing images of towering, blue-rinsed icebergs on the BBC’s Frozen Planet ; not to mention the antics of ‘criminal’ Adélie penguins, the continent’s most emblematic bird family. Despite these wonders, and even though I’ve ‘done’ cold before – I’ve shivered in the Cairngorms and waded through waist-high snow in the far north of Norway – Antarctica, to me, was the final frozen frontier; certainly not somewhere for…

BEHAVIOUR Are animals ever afraid? Fear is extremely useful – it helps organisms survive. Its roots can be found about 550 million years ago, when primitive worms evolved specialised nervous systems that helped them respond to external stimuli. Over time, animals evolved many different responses to fear. Some are instinctive – red-eyed tree frogs, for example, lay their eggs in trees but if a hungry snake approaches, well-developed eggs can quickly hatch, saving the tiny tadpoles, which then rain from the sky. In other cases, the fear response must be learned. Australian conservationists taught endangered Tammar wallabies to be afraid of red foxes – a novel, non-native predator – by allowing them to watch other wallabies getting freaked out. Of course, non-humans don’t perceive things exactly as we do, but…

Hail, Caesar While photographing a group of bonnet macaques in the summer heat in the forests of Karnala in Maharashtra, India, I happened to notice one male sitting a few meters away. He was the alpha male of the group and his facial structure reminded me of the character Caesar from Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Cautiously, I began to approach him, hoping not to scare him away. I set my camera to burst mode so that, as the male turned, I could capture him looking straight into the lens. Aishwarya Sridhar, Mumbai, India ENTER TO WIN A MILLICAN 25L ROLL PACK BAG This month, our star photo wins a Smith The Roll Pack 25L rucksack from Millican, worth £140. Sustainable, weatherproof and hard-working, Millican bags are designed…

“A chilling roar stopped me in my tracks. It was a tiger, and it had to be nearby.” It was day one of the third Satpura Bird Survey at Satpura Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, India. Along with a colleague, I had been assigned to an area deep in the jungle, but I wasn’t expecting a feline encounter. Instead, I busied myself with the varied and colourful birdlife, enjoying sightings of species such as the changeable hawk eagle, Jerdon’s leafbird and Indian grey hornbill. However, about 20 minutes into the survey, a spine-chilling roar stopped me in my tracks. There was a tiger, and it had to be less than a kilometre away, in the direction of a nearby ravine. We drove towards the sound, to see if we could catch…

The red fox has become so ubiquitous in towns and cities, prowling the streets and scavenging in rubbish bins, that it’s a treat to observe one in a romantic woodland setting – in this case the Black Forest in Germany. Blood-curdling screeches and low barks fill the air during cold winter nights, as dog foxes search for a vixen to mate with. Territories tend to be larger in rural areas where food is scarcer, and well-used trails are scent-marked, to help point the way in the dark.…

Farmers will be central to delivering the recovery of wildlife on Exmoor, according to a national park authority plan to restore at least 75 per cent of the park to a “rich condition” by 2050. The vision sets out vital changes needed to reverse wildlife decline, restore natural processes and boost resilience to climate change. Wildlife conservation officer Ali Hawkins says concerns expressed by some farmers that they were being side-lined by the authority were unfounded. “Farming and nature conservation go hand in hand on Exmoor but there is an opportunity for our existing farmland to be even better for nature,” she says. “Quite a lot of the park’s grassland is species poor, and we want to find out how we can work with the farming community to make those…

The world’s animals may not be in such a perilous state as was thought, according to new research that finds that most vertebrate populations are increasing in size. High profile headlines have painted a bleak picture of animal declines over recent decades. WWF’s Living Planet Index, for instance, estimates that, on average, vertebrate populations have reduced by more than 50 per cent since 1970. The new analysis, though, shows that these numbers are being dragged down significantly by a minority of species in extreme peril. “Removing only 2.4 per cent of declining populations reversed the estimated global trends from more than 50 per cent mean decline to a slightly positive growth,” write the team behind the research. “Some populations really are in trouble. However, the image of a global ‘biodiversity…

With productions locked down in the UK and unable to travel, the wildlife film industry, like many others, has taken quite a knock, but how did COVID-19 restrictions affect A Perfect Planet ? “We were fairly lucky,” says series producer Huw Cordey, “as we had more or less finished offline picture edits by the time lockdown started, with the exception of Humans . It had a huge impact on the rest of the process, though. For the Humans edit, the editor was in the Silverback Productions offices in Bristol, with the producer at home monitoring on a Zoom connection. Everything took more than twice as long. By the time we delivered, we had completed 60 weeks of post-production – a record, I think, for a landmark natural history series, and…

“I always tell people on my workshops, when you see movement, just react to it, or else you’ll miss your shot.” Humpback whales have been known to accidentally catch the odd pelican or cormorant in their mouths while feeding, but engulfing a 600lb sealion is seriously rare. Wildlife photographer and whale-watching guide Chase raised his camera in an instant. “I always tell people who come on my photography workshops, when you see movement just react to it, or else you’ll miss your shot,” he says. From July to December, Monterey Bay in California is a prime spot to see migratory humpback whales which – along with other predators, including sealions – are drawn to the area to feed on schooling anchovies. On this particular afternoon out on the boat, there…

WHAT IS AN ICEBERG? An iceberg is a large piece of freshwater ice floating freely in open water. To be an iceberg, the height of the ice must be greater than 5m above sea level, the thickness must be greater than 30m and the ice must cover an area of at least 500m². Smaller pieces of floating ice are termed ‘bergy-bits’. HOW DO ICEBERGS FORM? Ice on land flows towards the ocean as glaciers and ice sheets. If the ice reaches the sea, it often continues to extend as floating ice shelves or ‘ice tongues’. Pieces of ice naturally break off and float away – these are icebergs. When icebergs break off, the process is known as calving. DO ICEBERGS FLOAT? All icebergs float initially. However, they may become grounded…

Superstars of the season Enjoy sensational wildlife with this year’s Winterwatch . WINTERWATCH 19–29 JANUARY, BBC TWO AND IPLAYER Over the past 12 months, The Watches have continued to connect audiences with nature while the pandemic has made it more difficult to travel and experience the natural world for ourselves. Now, the team is back with the winter instalment. Though COVID restrictions remain in place, affecting how the programme is filmed, there’s still plenty to look forward to, as the locations visited in autumn return to our screens. Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin are based in the New Forest, with live cameras enabling us to catch up with a familiar family of badgers. At this time of year, the humbug-striped mammals spend more time in their setts, escaping the worst…

Wild about wildlife I just wanted to write to you to let you know how much enjoyment your magazine has brought to me and my family members during these troubling pandemic times. To be honest, I’m not a regular buyer of magazines but during lockdown I had a birthday and my best friend bought me a subscription to BBC Wildlife Magazine. Several editions later, I just can’t imagine what I must have missed out on by not buying this magazine sooner. I am an illustrator – much of my work is inspired by nature – and the magazine has been hugely inspiring for my work, especially as the lockdown put a stop to some of my usual nature excursions from taking place. When some of the restrictions did briefly lift,…

While this silverback mountain gorilla looks as if he is grinning cheesily for the camera, he is in fact being caught mid yawn. These great apes will spend the early morning foraging in the forest for roots, shoots, fruit, wild celery and tree bark. By late morning, they have something of a ‘food coma’ and will rest until the afternoon. Though his sharp canines look threatening and can be used to fend off competing males, mountain gorillas are generally calm if left undisturbed.…

1 | ROOK Caws for celebration Long before winter is out, new life stirs in still-bare treetops. Come February, mistle thrushes are whistling their mournful, far-carrying song over and over from the loftiest twigs, great spotted woodpeckers are drumming on resonant dead wood to announce their territory and, safe in their dreys, female grey squirrels are nursing their first young of the year. Rooks, too, begin breeding remarkably early. Their rookeries in the crowns of tall oak and ash (once, elm was the tree of choice) are already a hive of activity in February, as established pairs bring sticks to patch up their tatty nests or try to pinch them from neighbours. Rooks mate for life – rare among British birds, but the norm among our corvids – and devoted…

Starting from the 2021 shooting season, landowners will no longer be allowed to release nonnative pheasants and red-legged partridges within 0.5km of protected wildlife sites without a licence, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has ruled. The campaigning group Wild Justice, fronted by Chris Packham, challenged regulations that allowed for up to 60 million birds to be released into the wild with limited checks on their impact. The shooting industry “faces its largest dose of regulation” in more than 20 years, Wild Justice claimed. “Pheasants and red-legged partridges are now recognised by Government as problem species where their numbers are too high and they cause damage to vegetation, invertebrates and reptiles.” It is now calling for gamebird releases on, or within 1km of, so-called Natura 2000 sites…

ALWAYS CONTROVERSIAL, the use of live animals by ITV series I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! once again made headlines – this time for the possibility they might have escaped from its 2020 location in North Wales. The producers have said that the cockroaches, crayfish and other invertebrates used in the show were not invasive – and thus would not spread if they somehow got into the wild. The key legislation is the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which states that plants and animals “not ordinarily resident in Britain”, or a “regular visitor”, cannot be released. Any species the Act considers non-native, including those unlikely to gain a foothold, are proscribed. This is because the risk comes not just from the potential for widespread colonisation – they could…

LONG-TAILED MACAQUE Malaysia’s most common primate species is found all over the lowland rainforests of Sabah. It can also survive in small patches of vegetation near urban areas. It eats leaves, shoots and small animals. In coastal areas, it hunts crabs, giving rise to its alternative name of crab-eating macaque. RED LEAF MONKEY Also known as the maroon langur, this is one of three species of leaf monkey found in Sabah (alongside the grey and silvered leaf monkeys). Red (and grey) leaf monkeys live in tall lowland dipterocarp forests, and feed on the leaves and seeds of trees and lianas. MÜLLER’S BORNEAN GIBBON This arboreal frugivore (having a penchant for fruits high in sugar) is an important seed disperser. It is classified as Endangered, and has faced a suspected population…

“Our planet is screaming at humanity to wake up and understand the consequences of its actions,” Peter Fearnhead tells me from his office in locked-down South Africa. “We can listen, or we can continue to ignore it and continue to lament those consequences. Whether it’s COVID-19, Ebola or fires in Australia, they’re all calls to action.” Peter understands, perhaps more than most, the urgent need to protect the world’s wild places and their wildlife. He’s the CEO of African Parks (AP), a renowned non-profit conservation organisation that celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. “Protected areas are crucial,” he emphasises. “They’re the building blocks for any strategy to conserve nature.” Over two decades, AP has gradually taken on responsibility for protecting the biodiversity of 19 national parks and reserves in 11…

ALEJANDRO PRIETO is a wildlife and underwater photographer from Guadalajara, Mexico. He is currently working together with Alianza Jaguar AC, a foundation dedicated to jaguar conservation, and won the Wildlife Photojournalism award in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2019 contest.alejandroprietophotography.com…

I have just read Mark Carwardine’s brilliant piece on sharks and people’s innate fear of them (My way of thinking, November 2020) and I want to applaud him, as ever. I watched Jaws as a child and had a very vivid imagination, so that night my dark-blue carpet became the sea and sharks were just waiting for me to step out of bed to eat me. After a few months of this, I decided to learn a bit about sharks and have been hooked ever since! As a teenager, I even painted a shark’s maw around my headboard – which I would love to do again, though my husband is less keen! The book, and film, tell a story – there is artistic licence applied but there are some factual…