Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2022 i BBC Wildlife Magazine

THE EMPEROR PENGUINS OF ATKA BAY in Antarctica, pictured on the left in this altercation, have the frozen coast to themselves in winter. But in the springtime, they are joined by Adelie penguins, who return to breed after spending the Antarctic winter offshore. The Adelies’ arrival makes quite the stir. Despite being a fraction of the size of their larger cousins (weighing in at 5kg apiece, compared to the emperor penguin’s 40kg bulk) they have no compunction about mingling amongst the emperor penguins and stealing food from the chicks. Mostly this involves being in the right place at the right time: when the parent emperors regurgitate food for their offspring, some inevitably falls on the ground, at which point the Adelies grasp the opportunity for a meal. Sometimes, though, their…

MAMMALS BELLOW, ROAR, SQUEAL, snort and bark, but few could be said to sing. With a handful of notable exceptions – gibbons, indri lemurs, whales and hyraxes – singing is for the birds. New research shows that, in the case of singing male hyraxes, they have rhythm, too. And the more rhythmically precise their song, the more offspring they produce. Rock hyraxes, also known as rock rabbits or dassies, are no nightingales. The vocalisations they broadcast during the mating season – a harsh combination of grunts, barks and squeaks – are classed as songs due to their complexity. “The song is pretty unique for a mammal,” says Vlad Demartsev, lead author of the new study published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. “It’s very long and is structured into bouts.…

Dorsal fins are used conventionally to prevent a fish rolling to the side while swimming and to help them negotiate tight turns. Remoras, though, have transformed theirs into a structure designed to get other animals to do their swimming for them. The bizarre suction cup on the top of a remora’s head allows them to hitch rides from whales, sharks and other big fish.…

SARAH KIENLE FELL IN LOVE WITH BIOLOGY AS an undergraduate and started working on the ecology and physiology of marine mammals during her PhD. “I run a lab studying top predators because changes in their populations have cascading consequences for entire ecosystems,” says the assistant professor of biology at Baylor University. “In this era of widespread, rapid environmental change, it is so important to understand the different adaptations that animals have that allow them to survive,” says Sarah. “We know so little about marine mammals compared to terrestrial mammal predators.” Her most recent study focused on the leopard seal because they are one of the least studied predators on Earth but are important in the Southern Ocean ecosystem. “The most exciting finding to me was that female leopard seals are…

WHEN HUGO DEANS POINTED OUT some seed-like objects near an ant nest, his father, Andrew, recognised them as oak galls – plant growths triggered by insects. “I was surprised that ants would collect galls,” says Hugo, now aged 10. When certain wasps lay eggs in an oak leaf, the tree surrounds them with hard-cased galls, protecting the leaf and sheltering the wasp larvae. Some flowering plants also make edible growths – through eating them, ants help to disperse their seeds. A “mind-blowing” new link between these occurences has now been made by Andrew Deans and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University: the gall wasp stimulates an oak tree to make a gall, but with a cap that ants love to eat. The galls drop, are harvested by ants and taken to…

→ IN BRIEF Say “Ahhhh!” New research has identified the fossil dental records of the oldest known mammal. Brasilodon quadrangularis, a small shrew-like animal that had two sets of teeth, dates back 225 million years, predating Morganucodon, the previously confirmed first mammal, by 20 million years.…

BEACHES, MUCH LIKE LAWNS AND ROAD verges, fall victim to a peculiarly British obession with tidiness. Piles of seaweed along the strandline are seen as unsightly, so are cleared away, when in fact they represent a valuable habitat for species such as the turnstone, a chunky wading bird that does exactly what it says on the tin. With a strong bill and neck adapted to stone-turning, it rummages through heaps of rotting seaweed like a bargain hunter at a jumble sale. Every now and again, the bird flips over a stone or bit of weed to reveal a sandhopper or some other tasty morsel – they eat insects, crustaceans and molluscs. The turnstone nests on Arctic coasts, with most of those wintering on British shores hailing from Greenland and northern…

THE PAST 15 YEARS HAVE SEEN greenfinches shift from ubiquitous garden visitors to something of a rare sight. New research from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the ZSL Institute of Zoology bolsters the evidence that the infectious disease behind their huge decline is spread by the very bird feeders that attract them to our gardens. Trichomonosis is caused by a single-celled parasite that creates lesions in the birds’ throats. These interfere with feeding, leading to death by starvation. It was first detected among UK greenfinches in 2005, when the suspicion was that they had been infected by pigeons, the primary hosts of the disease, at garden feeders. Chaffinches are another garden visitor susceptible to lethal infection, although their decline was not evident until about 2014. “They were our…

The broadcaster, naturalist and tour guide shares the most breathtaking seasonal events in Britain IN LOOKS ALONE OUR OVERWINTERING geese are unable to compare with the elegance of say a mute swan, the brilliance of a kingfisher or the dashing nature of a peregrine. But certainly they more than make up for what could be best described as ‘unremarkable looks’ when they come together on their wintering grounds – with the whole definitely greater than the sum of its parts. Arriving from all points north anytime from mid-September onwards, the geese are attracted to Britain’s comparatively mild winter climate, which is believed to be boosted by about 5˚C, thanks to the warming impact of the Gulf Stream. An undoubted natural joy, as autumn hands over the baton to winter, comes…

Steve Backshall tracks down Yellowstone’s grey wolves in Deadly on a Mission: Pole to Pole I HAD BEEN ADMIRING a young male with a black scraggly mane (to be fair, he had been flirting, glancing my way while snorting and shuddering) when I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. A little further up the hill, a mere 30m away from where I was standing, a skirmish between two young bison was unfolding. When animals weighing more than 900kg lock horns, it is truly startling. The enormous heads bashing each other with increasing ferocity create a wave of energy that surges through the air. Actually, these youngsters were just playing, preparing themselves for the real thing. In autumn, when the rut begins, these mock battles become serious…

How loud are whales? CHRIS VICK ANSWERS: Very! Whales make all kinds of noises for a variety of reasons and there are some truly spectacular examples. The song of the humpback whale is not especially loud, but it can travel over hundreds or even thousands of kilometres. The blue whale – the largest animal ever to have existed – has been recorded vocalising up to 188 decibels. To put that into perspective, a jet engine when a plane takes off emits about 140 decibels, and the threshold before humans experience pain is 120 decibels. Sperm whales can be even louder when they make sonic ‘clicks’ to explore the waters. Divers report ‘feeling’ the clicks and sonic booms reverberating through them. Many whales rely on sound and the use of sonar…

DAVID HAMILTON ANSWERS: Growing onions absorb sulphur from the soil. This is stored in cells in the form of amino acid sulfoxides. When the onion is cut, its cells release special enzymes along with these amino acids. These react together, forming sulphenic acid, which quickly converts into a catchily-named gas called syn-propanethial S-oxide. On contact with our eyes, this gas overstimulates basal tears as our eyes try to eliminate it. Chillies also burn, but rather than forming an acid, they work in a slightly different way. The burning sensation we feel is thanks to a compound called capsaicin. When you chow down on a chilli, this capsaicin binds with pain receptors in the tongue that trick the brain into thinking the mouth is on fire. The body then does what…

ANY OBSERVABLE CHARACTERISTIC or combination of traits – not just something like colour or behaviour, but features you can’t easily see, such as physiology – are known as an organism’s phenotype. These features are a product of genes and influenced by the environment – so a phenotype is the physical manifestation of genetic instructions. What’s the genotype? The genotype is the combination of genes that produces a particular phenotype. When an individual inherits one copy of a gene from its mother and one from its father, those two copies are either distinct genetic variants (alleles) or the same. Two variants will differ in their DNA sequence, but the distinction between them is traditionally represented by capital and lowercase versions of a letter. A classic example comes from Gregor Mendel –…

Fabulous fungi Autumn is the peak time for finding fungi. The three illustrated below are all distinctive species and can be found in woodlands. For more ID guides, visit our website: discoverwildlife.com/identify-wildlife. PURPLE JELLYDISC This weird-looking gelatinous mass is mainly found on the trunks and branches of dead beech trees. YELLOW STAGSHORN A striking species with antler-like forking branches, this fungi grows on rotten logs and stumps. LILAC BONNET Also known as lilac bellcap, this fungi can be found growing in woodlands and some grasslands.…

ACROSS 1 Term for trees that grow above the canopy (8) 5 Fly ___, woodland mushroom (6) 10 River that feeds into the bird-rich Camargue wetlands (5) 11 Country of West Africa, known for its wildlife and national parks (3,6) 12 Narrow-beaked songbird of Australia and New Guinea (9) 13 Wildflower in the Aster family (5) 14 False ___, spiders in the genus Steatoda (6) 15 Common name for the pileated woodpecker (4,3) 18 US name for a bush cricket (7) 20 Grow feathers (6) 22 Chlorella and kelp, for example (5) 24 Large birds of prey in the genus Bubo (5,4) 25 ___ seal, Pacific sea mammal (6,3) 26 2015 landscape memoir by Lauret Savoy (5) 27 Sea ducks also known as cuddies (6) 28 Scottish archipelago, important for…

Chris Packham presents the merlin on Tweet of the Day Merlins are scarce and mercurial birds. You can’t really predict when you’ll see one of these quicksilver falcons: they simply appear, often giving only a fleeting glimpse before vanishing into the distance. In winter, however, the odds of a sighting are tipped slightly in your favour. While merlins spend spring and summer in our wildest and most remote upland areas, they move lower down after breeding. This means they can now be found on heaths, saltmarshes and arable farmland – anywhere with few trees and a wide horizon. Merlins are the tiniest birds of prey in Britain and Ireland – kestrels are around a third larger, with a longer tail – but nonetheless pack a punch. It’s perhaps best to…

ASH IS A TREE THAT COMES INTO LEAF late, yet drops its foliage very early in the autumn, often when the leaves are still green or only just turning yellow. Its dangly fruits, which are flattened into wings and ripen to a coppery colour, are much in evidence by November. They hang in big bunches, known as keys, and these attract bullfinches that deftly extract the seeds inside. When they fall, wood mice are quick to gather them. The late Oliver Rackham, in his 2014 monograph on the ash published the year he died, commented that there are nearly as many ash trees in the British Isles as people. But by that point, ash dieback disease, caused by the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, had arrived. It has since weakened and killed…

THINK OF MASS MIGRATIONS OF WILDLIFE and you might picture large animals on the move or huge flocks of birds. But tiny creatures can be equally impressive for the sheer numbers making long-distance journeys, reports Ecography. Such migrations are the focus of current PhD research by Will Hawkes, based at the University of Exeter. His work includes studying how some very small insects, such as hoverflies, make very long journeys as part of large migratory groups. On a spring visit to north-east Cyprus, Will and his colleagues recorded 39 million migratory insects in just over one month, arriving from Asia at the tip of the Karpaz Peninsula. “I had never seen anything like it before,” says Hawkes. “The sky was dark with insects and we were being pelted by migratory…

THE TERM, ‘MURMURATION OF STARLINGS’, derives from the medieval Latin word for grumbling and the reference to starlings most likely comes from the sound of the very large groups that the birds form at dusk, with a murmuration reckoned to comprise an ongoing background murmur such as that caused by the beating of 10,000 pairs of wings at once. Their other collective noun is a ‘chattering’.…

Predictably, the poo of the African forest elephant is also rather large. It can vary according to the size of the individual – up to the size of a small football. Finding fresh dung is important for scientists undertaking genetic analysis. “A fresh dung pile is relatively easy to identify, usually you can still smell it,” says Tina Vogt from Elephant Research and Conservation. “Due to their vegetarian diet, the elephant poo is very fibrous and firm.”…

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER Solvin Zankl is an award-winning wildlife photographer based in Kiel, Germany. He has over 30 years’ experience shooting the natural world, with a focus on tiny creatures that we tend to overlook. You can see more of his work and his anthologies by visiting solvinzankl.com.…

DAVID LINDO ANSWERS: This dainty gull is very similar looking to its larger cousin, the herring gull, and thus is often overlooked. And despite the name, it is actually one of the scarcest of our regular gulls. It is principally a winter visitor to most of the UK, with numbers augmented by many Scandinavian birds. They are partial to loafing on sports fields, landfill sites and the green spaces within housing estates. Their breeding populations in the UK are based predominately in northern England and Scotland. The name ‘common gull’ was first coined by Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant in 1768 because he thought that it was our most numerous gull. The accepted thinking now is that it is so named because it breeds on common land in parts of Scotland…

Your guide to getting closer to nature this month Autumnwatch BBC Two and iPlayer from 25th October AUTUMN IS UPON US, WITH ITS COOL temperatures and shorter days. And that means just one thing – it’s time for Autumnwatch. Hitting our screens for four days at the end of October, the team will once again be bringing us the best of the UK’s autumnal spectacles. This year, the programme has an overarching theme of The Changing Face of Autumn, with the team examining the impact of climate change on our wildlife. After a summer of heatwaves and wildfires, how have our animals and plants fared – and what does this mean for the future? Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan will be returning to Wild Ken Hill in Norfolk. Once a…

PRIZE-WINNING PHOTO Cold as ice It had been snowing heavily all night where we were in Iceland and the temperature had dropped rapidly. This blue morph Arctic fox had been curled up against a structure to avoid the worst of the storm, and had woken covered in ice and frozen snow. It stretched itself and began walking, breaking up the ice on its fur in the process. It didn’t seem to mind at all, carrying on with its business as normal. Andrew Edge, Essex Just the two of us A lesser flamingo slowly approaches this pied kingfisher in Amboseli National Park, Kenya. With my eye on the viewfinder, I waited patiently for the larger bird to become visible in the background of my shot. It passed only a few centimetres…

Check out highlights from this year’s competition in our online gallery at discoverwildlife.com/photo-galleries/gdt. Inspired? Why not enter next year? ● WHO CAN ENTER It is open to amateur and professional photographers residing within Europe and for GDT members ● FIRST PRIZE This year, the overall winner receives €3,000 and an all-expenses trip to the award ceremony in Germany ● SUBMISSIONS The competition opens for entries on 15th January and closes on 1st March, and there are 10 categories, including two for budding young photographers Find out everything you need to know at gdtfoto.de…

“IT WAS JUST AFTER DAWN ON the Norfolk coast and five abandoned shelduck chicks were huddled in the wet grass on the dunes, shivering. The Norfolk coast is a patchwork of saltmarsh, shingle and sand dunes – a haven for wildlife. The breeding seasons of many species are played out on open beaches, but some are more secretive. For several summers I had the privilege of working as a National Trust ranger on Blakeney Point. Home for our team was the former Lifeboat House. Skylarks and meadow pipits nest amongst the grasses and we would carefully find their nests, recording when eggs hatched and young fledged, but it took some time before we saw those first ‘shelducklings’. Falling somewhere between a duck and a goose, the black-and-white waterfowl nests in…

The Falklands archipelago is made up of two main islands, East and West Falkland, surrounded by smaller islands and is situated 400 miles off the southeastern tip of South America. Great walking experiences can be found at many locations. The capital, Stanley, on East Falkland, has a beautiful coastline with stunning white sand beaches, rocky shores, heath and scrubland, which provide a variety of habitats for wildlife. Nearby Cape Pembroke is a lovely area with small ponds, coves and a charming lighthouse. Most of the hills around Stanley are also the sites of major battles fought in the 1982 war with Argentina. Understand more of this aspect of Falklands’ heritage with a hike in the hills or simply enjoy the challenging terrain and magnificent views. Explore further afield around the…

NICK BAKER A parasitic freshwater crustacean offers a masterclass in adapting to your environment P.34 GILLIAN BURKE The biologist and presenter celebrates the hidden brilliance of seeds such as the coco de mer P.17 MARK CARWARDINE Our outspoken columnist on the need to be sympathetic to different nations’ conservation priorities P.27 LUCY COOKE Female chimps in Fongoli, Senegal, fashion spears to ambush bush babies while they sleep P.25 MIKE DILGER “An undoubted natural joy comes from watching the movements of geese etched across the sky” P.30…

10 species linked to Star Wars Some biologists have named species after characters in the famous film series. → IN BRIEF Albatross divorce In a male-skewed population of wandering albatrosses, personality predicts divorce, reports Biology Letters. Shyer males exhibited higher divorce rates than bolder males, perhaps caused by a lack of territorial aggression along with intrusions by male competitors.…

THE SIGHTING, IN AUGUST, OF A FULLY grown, breaching 3m swordfish from a boat 8km off the Isle of Man must have represented a truly jaw-dropping moment for the lucky Manx Whale and Dolphin Watch crew. And its subsequent close approach to the survey vessel will only have added to the unforgettable experience. The size of this fish, combined with its distinctive weaponry, lends it an instant wow-factor, and with fewer than 10 recorded sightings in UK waters, it is an unexpected treat. Swordfish, together with the similar-looking marlin, comprise a group of a dozen or so large predatory fish species known as billfish. Marlin are popular quarry for ‘sport’ anglers and a family that includes the fastest fish in the world, the sailfish. The swordfish, though, is both the…

The authorities in the city of Yamaguchi, western Japan, have killed a macaque they believe was responsible for a spate of attacks on humans. No fewer than 56 people had been attacked by marauding gangs of macaques in the previous month. Most of the injuries were mild scratches and bites, but officials decided to take action when a troop of the stocky primates pounced on a 4-year-old girl in her kindergarten. It’s an interesting conundrum. Japanese macaques, or snow monkeys – famous for lounging around in hot thermal springs – were once in danger of extinction. Conservation efforts began with a vengeance after the Second World War and, some say, were a tad too successful. The population is now thriving and there are more and more human-macaque conflicts. Although the…

Celebrate our 15th birthday with a subscription to BBC Countryfile Magazine. With this special offer, you can save 50% off the shop price and pay just £15 every 6 issues + receive your Stanley Travel Mug, worth £30! Worth £30! SUBSCRIBE ONLINE OR CALL US www.buysubscriptions.com/CF15WLO2 03330 162112† Quote code CF15WLO2 †Calls from landlines will cost up to 9p per minute. Call charges from mobile phones will cost between 3p and 55p per minute but are included in free call packages. Lines are open 8.00am - 8.00pm weekdays and 9.00am - 1pm Saturdays. *6 issues for £15 + flask offer is only available to UK residents only. Please allow up to 28 days for delivery of your Stanley Travel Mug. Travel Mug is available whilst stocks last. Our Media Ltd…

BBC Wildlife is delivered free to your door, wrapped in fully recyclable paper packaging BOOK WORTH £28 BOOK WORTH £25 Payjust20.95 every 6 issues – saving 30% on the shop price* Free UK delivery direct to your door Idealgiftforwildlife-lovingfriends and family – or yourself! Choose your Christmas treat The official BBC book accompanying the new Frozen Planet II television series is packed full of behind-the-scenes stories from producers Mark Brownlow and Elizabeth White and is complemented by over 250 images. Published by the Natural History Museum and edited by Rosamund Kidman Cox, Wildlife Photographer of the Year Portfolio 31 displays the full, sumptuous collection of 100 images awarded in last year’s competition. Online buysubscriptions.com/WLP497 Phone 03330 162 121† PLEASE QUOTE WLP497 †UK calls will cost the same as other standard fixed-line numbers (starting…

I GLIMPSE LAND FROM MY CABIN window after almost 36 hours aboard the Strannik. I’ve spent a lot of time at sea over the years, but this is my first open-ocean crossing – and one of the most turbulent passages in the world: the subantarctic waters of the Southern Ocean. It’s June 2021 and I’m 465km south of New Zealand; it’s the depths of winter here and a storm is raging. I’ve sailed to these remote seas as a photographer and crew on a three-week survey of southern right whales, led by biologist Emma Carroll from the University of Auckland. As we enter Port Ross, the northern gateway to the Auckland Islands, we cruise at a slow speed: we know that the whales are out there in their hundreds. I…

Harz National Park, Germany In 2018, commercial spruce plantations across Germany were at the limits of their resilience due to high summer temperatures and drought. Bark beetles attacked, and millions of trees died en masse. In Harz National Park, it was decided to leave the ghostly silver trees standing and allow natural regeneration. More than 1,500 species of forest beetle require dead wood, and they are considered the engine of forest regeneration. Curonian Spit, Lithuania & Russia A unique chain of sand dunes, 98km long, separates a freshwater lagoon from the Baltic Sea. The northern end is part of Lithuania; the southern end is part of Kaliningrad, in the Russian Federation. The grey dunes, dominated by lichens, mosses and low-lying perennial grasses, provide important nesting sites for white-tailed eagles and…

ERICA MCALISTER ANSWERS: Okay, first off – flies don’t actually have hands, instead they have something called tarsi (from the Greek tarsos, which roughly means ‘flat surface’). The tarsus is the segment on the leg that is furthest from the body and comprises several smaller segments, ending with one or two claws. A fly’s tarsi are used for walking, grabbing, tasting and, importantly, cleaning. For although you may think that flies have some less-than-salubrious habits, to maintain all of their activities they must keep their sensory equipment clean. And so, with these often rather hirsute tarsi, they clean their heads – particularly their eyes – wiping away any particles that may have become stuck there. Not only are they cleaning their heads, but by rubbing the tarsi they are also…

How did you first get involved with The Watches? I’d been a fan since I was a teenager, so it was a dream to be involved! In 2019, I volunteered at the RSPB’s Loch Garten Nature Centre whilst Springwatch was based there. I met some of the team and got to know a bit about the setup, as well as seeing some incredible wildlife. I secured a work-from-home role during lockdown in 2020 – it all snowballed from there. What’s your role on Autumnwatch? My role is as a junior researcher, and any day on The Watches can be completely different. I work onsite on the live shows, so it’s all very fast-paced. Each day I’ll be in touch with the team about any props needed for that night’s episode…

WHILST ATTENDING THE SHEFFIELD College, Luke Alexander Wilkin has become involved with volunteering for the Hedgehog Friendly Campus, a national programme funded by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) to support young people in education to make positive changes for hedgehogs and other wildlife. What does your volunteering involve? As a volunteer for the Hedgehog Friendly Campus, I have been involved in footprint surveys, celebrating Hedgehog Awareness Week and doing lots of litter-picking around the college grounds. There are 20 of us from the Supported Work Skills and Independent Living Skills groups volunteering for the Hedgehog Friendly Campus. Many of us have learning difficulties such as autism, ADHD and dyslexia. This year, I am taking part in the Big Hog-Friendly Litter Pick Challenge. This is a brilliant eco-friendly competition run…

WITH BBC WILDLIFE PICTURE EDITOR TOM GILKS How did you get into photography? I grew up in a coastal community in Norway. I’d often go out with a neighbour to tag sea eagles. Looking into the birds’ eyes made me want to photograph them, so I saved up for my first camera. Have you ever lost any photographic gear to wildlife? Yes. A polar bear in Svalbard grabbed my camera and sunk it to 140m. It took me a year to retrieve it, and though it was of course broken, I was able to access the memory card with help from data experts who worked with the Norwegian police. You have various home-made camera rigs. Which has been most innovative? A system where an eagle transports a tiny camera into…

WHILST WATCHING THE NEWS coverage of the preparations for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, I was shocked to see the huge number of bearskins worn by the Queen’s (now King’s) Guard. How can we as a nation dictate to other countries not to kill their wildlife, for food or due to their threat to agriculture, if we are killing them for ceremonial reasons? I am not an anti-royalist; rather I’m a man born the year that the Queen came to the throne who has much respect for the royal family and our armed services. However, it saddens me deeply to see how such majestic creatures are thought of as nothing more than an accessory! The black bear has always been revered by many Native Americans and First Nations peoples,…

IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN. The passing of summer may be sad for some, but I always excitedly await the results of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, which showcases the very best of the world’s wildlife photography. And this year certainly hasn’t dissapointed. I have been blown away by the attention to detail in every one of the winning images – the more you look, the more they deliver. Take young Thai photographer Katanyou Wuttichaitanakorn’s breathtaking textural composition of a Bryde’s whale’s baleen, which reveals a familiar mammal in a whole new light. Wildlife Photographer of the Year is also such a refreshing celebration of diversity – of species, landscapes, photographers and perspectives. It truly is a global contest. So, immerse yourself in the following pages, and…