Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2022 i BBC Wildlife Magazine

SNOW DANCE These male golden pheasants vying for position atop a tree trunk provide a spectacular shot of colour among the wintery landscape of Shanxi province, China, where they forage on the forest floors and roost high up in the trees at night. This image is in the running for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award 2022. You can view all 25 shortlisted photographs and find out how to vote for your favourite on our website.…

Pheromones in male spiders’ silk-wrapped ‘gifts’ may make them more attractive to potential mates, reports Biology Letters. Males of the gift-giving nursery-web spider silk-wrap prey and offer it to females during courtship. During their experiments, scientists found that females were more likely to accept ‘gifts’ covered in unwashed silk, suggesting the presences of silk-borne chemicals influence female behaviour.…

FRENCH ENVIRONMENTALISTS ARE celebrating a huge victory after the highest court in France blocked an attempt by President Macron’s government to allow hunters to kill thousands of endangered wild birds. Eight new government decrees that had authorised a number of long-standing bird hunting practices have been suspended to the delight of conservation group, Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux (LPO). The decrees would have allowed the trapping of over 100,000 skylarks, 1,200 lapwings and 30 golden plovers using a variety of nets and cages. Plus, almost 6,000 song thrushes and blackbirds would have been killed in the Ardennes region of eastern France by a technique involving knotted laces in trees that ensnare the birds. Allain Bougrain Dubourg, LPO president, says, “With months to go before the presidential elections, it is…

A crisp and bright January morning always feels like it’s worth several sunny starts in summer. If it follows a bitterly cold and starry night, you might also encounter one of nature’s treasures: hoar frost. The exquisite feathery ice crystals form rapidly overnight on freezing branches and twigs, but soon melt, rewarding only those who head out early.…

In addition to meat, brown bears are known to eat wasp nests, beehives, fruits and even grass. Their omnivorous diet is evident in their scat, which changes with the seasons. “It’s most striking in autumn when they’re eating berries,” says Alexander Kopatz from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research. “It’s violet-blue in colour and smells sweet.” The high sugar content of berries is ideal for building up fat reserves for denning.…

“We still know comparatively little about the megalodon, an extinct species of shark believed to have disappeared about a million years ago, but its teeth hold clues. “When I was a kid, fossilised megalodon teeth were scaled up to create a monster that was 30m long. But that was debunked and, when I was studying biology, the species was thought to be basking-shark size. Now the consensus is that it was about 24m long and had jaws 4m wide. “People figure that because a megalodon tooth is essentially the same as a great white’s tooth, that megalodons were similar, but bigger. Who knows? They may have been detritivores, feeding on dead whales, or active hunters, the most terrifying thing that our seas have ever seen. We may never know…”…

Blue shark “Sleek with slender elongated lines and a transfixing azure blue colour. They have a grace underwater. I have experienced individual animals that are tactile and enjoy physical contact. They’re utterly beautiful and one of our own here in the British Isles.” Thresher shark “It’s been hypothesised for hundreds of years that the giant tail of the thresher is used as a whip to corral and then incapacitate the fish that it feeds on. But it’s only within the last few years that it’s actually been filmed happening. I’ve been lucky enough to dive with them – they are hypnotic and utterly bizarre.” Oceanic whitetip “While filming this series I had the opportunity to free several oceanic whitetips that had been snagged and caught in hooks and lines. Seeing a…

EVER SINCE MICHAEL CRICHTON PUBLISHED Jurassic Park in 1990, people – some of them credible scientists – have been pondering whether it might be possible to turn his science fiction into science fact. Several extinct species have captured the imagination of these de-extinction enthusiasts over the ensuing years, but the woolly mammoth is closer to being resurrected than most. The abundance of mammoth specimens – some of them so well-preserved that thawing them out yields liquid blood – means that some scientists are hopeful of recovering a viable mammoth cell. South Korea’s Sooam Biotech claims it would be possible to transfer the nucleus of such a cell to the egg cell from an Asian elephant. The idea would be to implant the resulting embryo – a mammoth clone – into…

Email your questions to wildquestions@immediate.co.uk Singing, squeaking, sniffing, grunting and growling are all sounds within a rhino’s vocal range, each with a slightly different meaning (grunts and growls tend to be used when a rhino is showing dominance; squeaks and sniffs are thought to be sounds of excitement). Yet despite their ability to produce an impressive collection of noises, sound isn’t the most common form of communication for these iconic horned animals. Thanks to large olfactory bulbs in their brain, rhinos have an extraordinary sense of smell, and this is predominantly how they get to know their neighbours. Their main method of communication is via piles of dung, known as middens. With a few sniffs of a midden, a rhino can quickly pick up information such as who’s in their…

Foraging across a dangerous, predator-filled environment, the average worker ant may only live a few months. In the relative safety of the nest dome, a queen might last several years. But the colony itself is potentially immortal. There is round-the-clock replacement of the relatively disposable worker caste, and contrary to popular supposition, ant nests do not always have a single queen (that’s wasp nests) – instead, multiple sisters often share egg-laying responsibilities. If one dies, she can also be replaced. And though ant queens can sometimes start a new nest from scratch, most colonies are passed down a royal succession across overlapping sister and daughter groups, with nests or hills slowly increasing in size. In the yellow meadow ant, for instance, a rule of thumb is a litre of soil…

Do all reptiles lay eggs? Most do, but some give birth to live young, a phenomenon known as viviparity. These exceptions include the boa constrictor, green anaconda, Jackson’s chameleon and various skinks. Not forgetting, of course, our very own common lizard, which delivers up to 10 youngsters in July. SM Are there any predatory fungi? Yes – some 300 species of them. Most target nematode worms, detecting compounds (known as ascarosides) that these creatures use to communicate. After locking onto a chemical message, the fungi quickly organise themselves to grow a trap of adhesive nets and columns. Some even create a constricting ring that acts like a noose. When triggered, it contracts, trapping the nematode prey. The fungus then pierces its outer layer and begins the process of digestion. LJ…

What was your transformative moment, when you realised you wanted to be a marine biologist? As a child, I did not know what to call it but I knew I would always be immersed in nature. I was inexorably drawn into the sea by curiosity for the weirdly-wonderful creatures that I discovered there but do not live on the land or even in fresh water. What would you say is the single most damaging threat to the oceans? Humans. The ocean is changing owing to what we put into the sea (massive amounts of toxic wastes and unprecedented levels of noise); what we are taking out (huge amounts of wildlife); what we are doing otherwise to change planetary chemistry and temperature; and what we are not doing to respect and…

LESLEY ANDERSON, A RETIRED NURSERY NURSE and art teacher, is a Marine Conservation Society (MCS) volunteer, collecting litter and surveying beaches. Where do you volunteer? I volunteer in the area around Blackness Castle, located in Scotland’s Firth of Forth, up the coast from The Three Bridges at South Queensferry. The footfall of visitors to and through Blackness has increased dramatically in recent years due to the John Muir Way walking and cycling route and because some of the popular TV series Outlander is filmed at the castle. What does your volunteering involve? I volunteer for the MCS’s Beachwatch, which is a national beach cleaning and litter surveying programme. As a ‘Sea Champion’ I have adopted four beaches around Blackness, which I regularly clean and survey. Beachwatch was launched in 1993…

ACROSS 9 High-ranking individual in a community of social animals (5) 10 Lacking a spinal cord; invertebrate (9) 11 Marine fish related to cod (7) 12 Young swans (7) 13 See 14 Down 15 Guillemot or razorbill, say (3) 16 Fruit of the tree Ficus carica (3) 18 Flightless bird of Australia (3) 20 Small, bottom-dwelling freshwater fish (7) 21 Common long-tailed rodent (3) 22 Pipistrelle or noctule, say (3) 23 Donkey-like mammal such as the onager (3) 24 Stalk (5) 27 ___ willow, Salix babylonica (7) 29 Term for organisms that live in the lowest layer of the ocean (4-3) 32 Plant of the USA and Mexico, also called the Virginia agave (5,4) 33 Leaf ___, insect whose larvae live and feed within leaf tissue (5) DOWN 1 The…

“IT WAS THE MORNING OF 22ND September last year that I had my once-in-a-lifetime wildlife encounter. I was on safari in Ruaha National Park, Tanzania, when I saw something that even local field guides, who are in the bush daily, have never seen throughout their entire careers. It all started with the sighting of a trio of three-week-old helpless lion cubs being nursed by their mother. Shortly thereafter, the lioness moved the cubs deeper into the bush for safety. Nothing strange in that. The next morning, however, we were following a male leopard who was walking leisurely along a road for over an hour, when suddenly it stopped and stared intently into the bush. Our guide took up his binoculars, suspecting guinea fowl or spurfowl but – to our shock…

TACKLING CLIMATE CHANGE IS A MASSIVE global challenge, but the solution – or at least part of it – might be right beneath our feet. Look down and you’ll discover that moss, the tiny bryophyte growing on woodland floors and between the cracks in the pavement, is a wonder plant when it comes to dealing with extreme weather events and the build-up of carbon dioxide. Moss protects tree roots by shading and insulating the soil from high temperatures. It also acts as a natural sponge, able to soak up excess rainfall using its capillary spaces. Sphagnum moss, in particular, can absorb up to eight times its own weight in water and is vital in the creation of peatland habitat, preventing the decay of dead plant material and the release of…

JAGUARS ARE CLASSIC ALOOF, solitary carnivores. Like most other big cats, they come together only for courtship and territorial disputes. But not in the wetlands of the Brazilian Pantanal where a shift in diet has led to striking changes in their social organisation. The Pantanal is the world’s largest tropical wetland. Biologists have been using a combination of scat analysis, radio tracking and camera traps to study the behaviour of jaguars in a remote region lacking roads and human settlements. The results, published in Ecology, reveal a density of jaguars about double that found elsewhere. Not only are they more plentiful, but they are more sociable, too. Their home ranges overlap considerably and they spend time travelling, hunting and playing together. Two males were caught on camera playing together for…

SOME FUNGI CAN BE FOUND EASILY YEAR round, and this abundant species is one of them. King Alfred’s cakes sprout on fallen ash branches, or sometimes on those of other deciduous trees. The lumpy fruiting bodies resemble pieces of charcoal or coal. If you remove one and cut it open, in cross section it has neat concentric rings like those of the dead wood on which it grew. Why the bizarre name? Legend has it that the ninth-century monarch burned some cakes he was supposed to be watching, then threw the charred remains away to hide what he had done. ‘Cramp balls’ is an equally colourful alternative name: these fungi were said to cure muscular spasms. For several thousand years they were also used as a natural fire-lighter, a trick…

A from Scottish coasts and quiet backwaters, otters in Britain are largely nocturnal or crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk). But in winter scarcity of food forces more of them to hunt in broad daylight, giving you a better chance of seeing one. The trend towards soggier winters might help these animals by making it easier for them to move through flooded lowlands.…

WHAT IS IT? Octopus djinda is a new species of octopus in the larger O. vulgaris group. Research has found a number of separate cryptic species in the group, and this study builds on previous work, indicating differences between non-overlapping populations of the gloomy octopus, O. tetricus. WHERE IS IT? O. tetricus was previously thought to be found on both the eastern and western coast of Australia, and it was believed that its populations maintained connectivity via larval dispersal on ocean currents. However, this new paper reveals that the western population, between Shark Bay and Cape Le Grand, is the distinct species Octopus djinda. Both octopus species are caught in a sustainable fishery where catches are recorded to calculate biomass and ensure population declines do not occur. WHAT IS THE…

WE WERE DANCING IN THE streets, in March 2020, when the government announced that badger culling would be phased out over the next five years. But we should have known better. Quite the reverse, it has extended the number of cull zones and increased the number of badgers being killed. A highly infectious disease, bovine tuberculosis is a nightmare for many farmers and costs taxpayers up to £150m every year in compensation alone (after the compulsory slaughter of more than 30,000 infected cattle). That doesn’t include the tens of millions of pounds spent killing badgers. No one is denying that badgers get bTB. But despite government claims to the contrary, there is absolutely no evidence that killing them reduces the incidence of bTB in cattle (indeed, the government’s own figures…

IN MOST FOLKS’ MIND THE WORD SWAN instantly conjures up an image of our familiar and resident mute. But come winter, our regal and much-loved swan is joined by a couple of migratory species capable of putting on a show that may temporarily relegate their more celebrated cousin into the role of ‘supporting artist’. Spending the winter months across a number of key wetland sites, farmed fields and coastal areas, Bewick’s and whooper swans make their journey here, each autumn, from very different breeding grounds. The more diminutive Bewick’s swans (right), with their highly variable black-and-yellow bills, conduct the longer of the two journeys, arriving here after a summer spent on Russia’s Arctic tundra. The larger whooper swans can be distinguished by an aquiline nose, featuring a distinct triangular yellow…

Many other bird species undergo the same feather process as the chaffinch. House sparrows and starlings are worth scrutiny. The speckles in the winter plumage of the starling are deliberately weakened feather tips too. As the spots and spangles slowly disappear during the winter, they leave the famously glossy and glistening final product. The difference between starlings and chaffinches is that on a starling not every feather has the same length of abradable tip, hence the speckled appearance.…

Steve says: “A lot of people, even biologists, may not realise quite how many species of shark we have in our seas. I’m a shark fanatic and I didn’t realise that we’d had scalloped hammerheads coming through our waters or Greenland sharks washed up on our shores. “My favourite shark encounter last year was with blue sharks off the coast of Cornwall. It took the best part of 45 minutes before they showed up, but we then had up to 20 individuals, the biggest of which was 2.5-3m in length, literally nose-to-nose with me. And that’s off the coast of Penzance! “There are also fledgling industries offering dives off the Pembroke coast, and I’ve had tope, smooth hound and lesser-spotted catsharks right in front of me. “We did a remarkable dive…

Waiting patiently The noisy black-browed albatross colony on Steeple Jason Island is on flat ground along the shoreline but the species is also known to nest on steep slopes. This colony consists of more than 200,000 breeding pairs and is the largest of any albatross species in the world. Fluffy, single chicks are often left alone for days while their parents forage out at sea. This youngster will fledge at four months and breed at about seven years old. Taking its pick In November, imperial cormorants (above) return to shore to breed. This one on Bleaker Island is pulling up clumps of Empetrum rubrum, known as diddle-dee or red crowberry, for its nest. The stunning blue ring around the bird’s eye is most prominent during the breeding season. Beach buddies…

PICTURE THE SCENE. A GIANT, hairy mammoth is fleeing from a trio of stupid but deadly cavemen, about to launch their crude, stone-tipped spears. Set against the glacial backdrop of frozen, towering walls so characteristic of the ice age, the drama plays out as a sabre-toothed tiger silently pads by. It’s a scene so many of us are familiar with, but one that is almost entirely inaccurate in almost every possible sense. First, not all mammoths were giants, or even very hairy, for that matter. During their time on Earth, mammoths came in all shapes, sizes and flavours. Second, the widely used term ‘caveman’ is one no self respecting palaeontologist, anthropologist or archaeologist would ever use to describe any one of our numerous human ancestors or ancient relatives. Third, the…

IN THE LATE SPRING OF 2020, PEOPLE ACROSS Britain started to notice a strange absence from the skies. Swallows, those harbingers of summer that are steeped in centuries of folklore, were nowhere to be seen. Birdwatchers from the east coast to Cornwall, from the Midlands to the south coast, were all reporting a dearth of the migratory bird from Sub-Saharan Africa. The curious case of the missing swallows, which usually arrive in Britain to breed each spring, was eventually solved. The culprit? The weather. On the night of 5th April that year, a storm had whipped up over the Aegean Sea around Greece, just as flocks of swallows (and swifts) were migrating north. Southerly winds pushed them into Aegean air currents that proved too powerful for many of the already…

Falconers have long revered peregrine falcons thanks to their incredible hunting prowess, speed and beauty – but training a bird for falconry necessitates the keeping of precise weight records. Early falconers, recognising that male peregrines are distinctly smaller than the females, and usually weigh only 60 per cent of their counterparts, used the French word for a third, la tierce, to describe them. This term eventually morphed into ‘tiercel’ and is still widely and appropriately used today. Size difference is common in birds of prey (including owls), and is one of the most obvious examples of sexual dimorphism, the phenomenon in which males and females have different characteristics other than their sexual organs. Plumage coloration is another – think the opulence of a peacock beside the much drabber peahen.…

YOU’VE PROBABLY HEARD OF symbiosis (Greek for ‘living together’), a close and long-term association between two different organisms. Endosymbiosis occurs when one organism, known as the endosymbiont, lives inside another, the host. Generally, endosymbionts are small enough to reside within host cells but they aren’t parasites. The interaction between any two species can range from parasitism – where one organism exploits a (usually larger) one to the point of being harmful – to mutualism, in which the association is beneficial to both partners. Unlike parasitic associations, endosymbiotic relationships typically aren’t one-sided. How do the hosts benefit? Endosymbionts will often do something their hosts can’t. One such function is photosynthesis – harvesting energy from sunlight to make food. It’s performed by green plants, algae and certain bacteria today, but the process…

The coast is always an excellent place to discover fantastic items, such as sea glass, driftwood and coral, washed up by the waves. It’s good practice to collect natural objects sparingly, as they provide both shelter and food for wildlife. For more ID guides, head to our website: discoverwildlife.com/identify-wildlife…

PRIZE-WINNING PHOTO On the hunt I visited a local spot a number of times, where I’d heard an owl had been seen during the daytime, and I was hoping it was a short-eared owl. I visited a number of times to no avail, and started to think it had moved on. On what was going to be my last visit, I spent a few hours waiting patiently just in case, when it appeared and started hunting in an area of rough ground. It continued to do so for around an hour, allowing me to get some shots I had only ever dreamed of getting! Michael Batley, West Yorkshire Eye to eye Me terova Lúka is a nature reserve in western Slovakia. On a hot summer’s day, I went to take…

NICK BAKER Discover the clever trick chaffinches use to make their plumage seem brighter come spring P.36 GILLIAN BURKE Forget survival of the fittest, life is about partnerships and cooperation P.17 MARK CARWARDINE “There is absolutely no evidence that killing badgers reduces TB in cattle” P.29 LUCY COOKE Meet the banded mongoose – the female warmonger of Africa’s savannahs P.27 MIKE DILGER It’s the time of year to see big families of migratory swans at their winter feeding grounds P.32…

RATES OF ELEPHANT POACHING IN Africa have fallen to their lowest rate in two decades and have decreased to almost one fifth of what they were in 2012, according to data released by the world’s wildlife trade body. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has been analysing evidence for the numbers of elephants killed at designated sites across Africa and Asia since the late 1990s. The figures don’t represent absolute poaching levels, but they do show trends. In 2003, CITES received reports of 287 carcasses illegally killed at 69 sites across Africa. By 2012, this had risen nearly four-fold to 1,048, and last year it dropped back down to 228. Mark Jones, head of policy at animal charity the Born Free Foundation says the news of the…

THE SEAS AROUND BRITAIN AND IRELAND host internationally important numbers of sea ducks in winter. Though the marine environment might not seem a fruitful habitat for ducks – especially when it’s blowing a hoolie – several species brave it offshore, including eider, scaup and scoters. But perhaps the smartest is the long-tailed duck. Flocks of this globally threatened sea duck arrive from High Arctic nesting grounds, with the biggest gatherings favouring Scottish seas. The Fife coast is one stronghold. Deep divers, they forage for molluscs, crabs and occasional small fish. Chris Packham is a fan. In Red Sixty Seven, published by the BTO to raise awareness about the plight of 67 red-listed bird species, he relates how these doughty ducks, “freckle the foam and slip over the crush of breakers,…

INFLATABLE BAGS OF GAS ARE USEFUL organs whether you live on land (lungs) or in water (buoyancy aids). By inflating or deflating its swim bladder, a fish is able to ascend or dive as required. While lungs are aerated via the mouth, the swim bladder is fed by gases dissolved in the blood. The organs have the same evolutionary origins, though, both developing from simple air sacs used by ancestral fish to gulp air in oxygen-poor waters.…

GLOBAL POPULATION DECLINES OF AMPHIBIANS prompted Caleb Ofori-Boateng to establish Herp-Conservation Ghana (Herp-Ghana) in 2006 to improve the conservation status of cold-blooded vertebrates in his country through research and advocacy. “I found the last remaining population of a critically endangered frog, Conraua derooi, in forests in eastern Ghana that did not occur in government-protected land,” says Caleb. “It inhabited streams and was hunted for a local delicacy.” To save the species, the herpetologist launched a conservation awareness programme here and in nearby communities: “I talked to local people regularly when they gathered at their respective churches and established a volunteer group that I trained so they could educate their friends.” Over 100 volunteers are now working in the field. As a result of these outreach activities several landowners donated land…

GARDEN LIGHT TRAPS FOR ATTRACTING and holding moths have surged in popularity in recent years as enthusiasts realise that the right equipment can reveal a wealth of wildlife on their doorsteps. The number of species that can potentially be caught runs into the thousands and includes plenty of rare migrants from the continent and North Africa. On a warm, muggy night there is every chance of catching something good among the commoner species. One lucky Wiltshire resident caught this oleander hawkmoth in October 2021 in his garden just outside of Swindon. It ticks the main popularity boxes of big, rare and beautiful, and is consequently something of a holy grail for ‘moth-ers’. Mainly an African and Asian species, the oleander hawk migrates to Spain and other parts of Southern Europe…

THE TERM ‘A CONFUSION OF WILDEBEEST’ is so-called from the noise and disorientation of these animals when they gather for their giant migration, when around two million of them unite to search for greener areas. In the process many die in stampedes, which typically feature 500 wildebeest travelling at speeds of up to 50mph and which can last for 30 minutes: chaos ensues when they dash through treacherous waters, as they fall prey to predators.…

A SELECT GROUP OF BRITISH AND IRISH birds have their own charity dedicated to them, including the curlew. Sadly, this reflects the extent to which they now depend on conservation action. Curlew are suffering a catastrophic decline in breeding success, most dramatic in Ireland and southern England. In winter, the resident population doubles as migrants arrive from Russia and northern Europe. This influx means the species remains fairly widespread and easy to find on marshes and mudflats, which has the unfortunate effect of masking the scale of decline. You can help by looking out and reporting curlews with coloured leg rings, fitted as part of various conservation or research projects. Among them is the ‘headstarting’ scheme in East Anglia, in which wild curlew eggs are collected, the chicks reared in…

THE LATEST ASSESSMENT OF THE STATUS of the UK’s regularly-occurring bird species, Birds of Conservation Concern 5, reveals more than one in four species are in serious trouble. Compiled by a coalition of the UK’s leading bird conservation and monitoring organisations, the report assessed each species against a set of objective criteria and assigned it to a Green, Amber or Red List – indicating an increasing level of conservation concern. Seventy species were placed on the Red List of threatened birds, including the house martin, swift, greenfinch and Bewick’s swan, all of which have been added for the first time; 103 were placed on the Amber List and 72 on the Green List. The Red List now accounts for 29 per cent of UK bird species, more than ever before…

Breeding success As the greyish juveniles are so easy to pick out from in amongst the adults, it is possible to estimate how successful the previous breeding season has been. If, for example, the proportion of Bewick’s swan juveniles within the flock is higher than 10 per cent, this would indicate the species had a productive summer in the Arctic. Swan shortfall The number of Bewick’s swans arriving in Britain each year has been declining for about 30 years. One of the main factors for this drop is that milder winters caused by climate change mean many of the swans do not need to travel as far – or they might not travel at all (read more in the migration feature on p74). Dirty necks Some individuals of both Bewick’s…

HALF OF ALL SHARK SPECIES ARE NOW LISTED as endangered or critically endangered, despite their role in ocean ecosystems. Steve shares his fascination with these misunderstood creatures – and how social media could be their unlikely saviour. “They’ve lived through all the major extinction events, but they could disappear within this one” BBC WILDLIFE: WHAT DO YOU FIND SO fascinating about sharks? Steve Backshall: We have an inherent fascination for apex predators – for the top-of-the-line predator that is at the evolutionary high-water mark, and sharks appear to be that. They have super senses and can detect the movement of fish – that may already be long gone – from the wake they leave behind. They have the ability to sense the weak electrical fields given off by the moving…

In recent years, there have been a number of high-profile incidences where sharks have been badly injured or even killed through cage diving. So can it be done responsibly? “A lot of it is down to the individual tour operator,” says Steve. “If they’re prepared to just have you in the cage and have sharks swimming backwards and forwards relatively close to you, then it should be fine.” The problems come when tour operators use bait to draw the sharks right alongside the cage. “In South Africa, where the visibility might only be a couple of metres, it has to be literally alongside the cage, and that’s where potential bad things can happen.”…

IT’S 13TH APRIL 2021, OUR seventh day of clambering up rocky ridges in the bone-numbing cold. A curtain of snow is engulfing us, restricting our visibility substantially. I desperately continue to scan the slope ahead of me, but I’m shivering and increasingly distracted by my now painfully numb fingers. 13 A 2021, This unforgiving landscape lies on the outskirts of Drass, a small town nestling at 3,300m in the Kargil district of Ladakh. Such an elevation, at which temperatures plummet to -20°C in winter, bestows on Drass the dubious honour of being both the coldest place in India and the second-coldest inhabited place on Earth. But as winter eases into spring, the region is breathtakingly beautiful. Mountain streams collect into the impossibly turquoise waters of the Drass River, which flows…

How many species of mammoth are known to us? There are currently 10 recognised species, though classification is always being refined and updated. What did they feed on? Mammoths were herbivores. Depending on the species and their location, they ate a range of vegetation, from cacti and flowers, to herbs, grasses, shrubs and trees, such as larch and alder. When did they live? The earliest species appeared about 5 million years ago in southern Africa, with the last species dying out about 4,000 years ago, and maybe even as recently as 3,700 years before the present day. Where did they live? Mammoths were found across Asia, Europe, North America and Africa. Where were the last remaining populations of these mammals? On Wrangel Island, off the Russian coast and in the…

Yes. Piscivory has been recorded in eight spider families, but is most common in the semi-aquatic raft spiders. There are two species in the UK, along with the only known aquatic spider, the water spider; all three have been observed catching fish. Raft spiders typically dine on invertebrates, but supplement their diet with fish when the opportunity arises. Fishing for either takes patience; the spiders wait with their front legs lightly resting on the water. A panicked invertebrate trapped on the water’s surface will be detected with vibration-sensitive hairs (trichobothria) and the spider will then dash over the water in pursuit of their meal. Once immobilised by venom, the catch is hauled ashore. Fish captures may be twice the size of the arachnid. If a spider bites off more than…

National Geographic Ocean: A Global Odyssey By Sylvia A Earle, National Geographic, £45.00 RENOWNED OCEANGRAPHER, biologist and author Sylvia Earle has spent her career breaking barriers, researching marine wildlife and sharing the beauty of our oceans with millions of people around the world. In this National Geographic Society book, she takes us on an in-depth tour of the oceans, following on from her previous Atlas titles with the Society. It’s a comprehensive guide, which leaves no stone underturned. We start with not just the origin on the ocean, but the origin of our solar system and planet, and how the movements of the continental plates have continuously created and destroyed the ocean crusts and formed the ocean basins we know today. Throughout the book, there are celebrations of visionaries past and…

How did you get into photography? I tried everything else and failed miserably. There was something about being in the water with a shark that kept my focus long enough to develop a shred of skill. How did you buy your first camera? I lied to the bank and said I wanted to get a loan for a car. Instead, I used the money to buy an underwater photography rig. What shot is most meaningful to you? The image I wish I didn’t have to take, but is a constant reminder of why our choices matter, is of an endangered green sea turtle that had drowned tangled in fishing line. Scavengers had eaten out her eyes, and that blank stare will always haunt me. Have you ever been injured on…