Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2022 i BBC Wildlife Magazine

THE INDONESIAN ISLANDS OF RAJA AMPAT are home to the greatest diversity of marine species anywhere in the world, boasting an estimated 1,400 fish species and over 550 species of coral. Yet the creatures that live there, such as this margined sole (Brachirus heterolapis), seen here in extreme close-up, face intense pressure from both climate change and destructive fishing practices, including the use of dynamite and cyanide. Blast fishing is illegal worldwide, but local authorities simply don’t have the resources to effectively police Raja Ampat’s entire marine area (which covers 46,000 km2). Fortunately, community-run monitoring groups – known as Pokmaswas – have stepped in to fill the gaps, with local fishers, both women and men, patrolling in their own boats. They report any illegal fishing activity via Whatsapp groups that…

RESEMBLING SOMETHING YOU’RE NOT can be a good way for a potential prey species to deceive a predator. Some harmless, palatable insects mimic distasteful ones to deter hungry birds, for example, often through conspicuous warning colouration that gives a false impression of nastiness. Known as ‘Batesian mimicry’ after the Victorian naturalist who discovered it in Amazonian butterflies, the effect has fascinated evolutionary scientists, from Charles Darwin onwards, for 160 years. Most examples involve visible overlap between creatures that are very different in terms of food potential. Deceptive mimicry using sound is noticed much less often. Now a team of researchers, led by Danilo Russo from Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II in Italy, has found what is claimed to be ‘acoustic mimicry’ in a mammal. The study was developed…

ONE MIGHT ASSUME THAT SPINES, THORNS and prickles are different names for the same things. Botanists would disagree, though. They are different structures used for a common purpose: defence against hungry herbivores. Spines – most spectacularly deployed by cacti – are highly modified leaves. Thorns are pointed branches or stems. While a hawthorn’s thorns are true thorns, a rose’s famous ‘thorns’ are actually prickles – outgrowths from the bark more akin to thick, sturdy hairs.…

1 ALEIODES SHAKIRAE Wasp species named after the Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira 2 PLINTHINA BEYONCEAE Horse fly with a golden abdomen, named after the popstar Beyonce 3 HETERAGRION FREDDIEMERCURYI ET AL Damselflies named after the four members of the rock band Queen 4 SERICOMYRMEX RADIOHEADI Ant named after the band Radiohead, honouring their environmental activism 5 PINKFLOYDIA A genus of orb-weaver spiders was named after the rock band 6 ETMOPTERUS BENCHLEYI The ninja lanternshark was named after Jaws author Peter Benchley 7 BAICALELLIA DAFTPUNKA Flatworm named after the electronic music duo 8 PRISTIMANTIS GRETATHUNBERGAE A rainfrog, one of many species named after the environmental activist 9 ELSEYA IRWINI Turtle discovered by the late zookeeper Steve Irwin 10 NANNARIA SWIFTAE Millipede named after the singer-songwriter Taylor Swift…

WHAT IS IT? This brightly coloured amphibian is a newly described salamander, encountered by Panamanian scientists during an expedition. Bolitoglossa cathyledecae can be distinguished from its close relatives by its colour (pinkish flesh with flame scarlet speckles), the appearance of the webbing on its hands and feet, and the fact it has more upper teeth. The scientists suggest that it should be classified as critically endangered by the IUCN due to its restricted distribution and the high likelihood of anthropogenic pressure in the areas it inhabits. WHERE IS IT? The team had been investigating the Panamanian side of Cordillera de Talamanca, one of the least-explored regions of Central America. The species was found in the Boquete district in Chiriqui province, at an altitude of 1,900m. WHAT IS THE MEANING BEHIND…

ALL MAY NOT BE LOST FOR THE VAQUITA, the world’s most endangered marine mammal, which is now confined to a small refuge in Mexico’s Gulf of California. The vaquita’s decline – the result of entanglement in gillnets – has been precipitous. Numbers have fallen from 567 in 1997 to just 10, all confined to a 24km-by-12km area in the north of the gulf. There are also concerns that recovery might be further hampered by inbreeding, which is inevitable within such a small population. But a new analysis of tissue samples from preserved specimens shows that vaquitas’ genetic diversity has always been low. “Genetically they still have the diversity that let them thrive for hundreds of thousands of years, until the gillnets arrived,” says Jacqueline Robinson of the University of California,…

WHO CAN RESIST EXPLORING rockpools in the summer? In his brilliant book The Sea is Not Made of Water, Adam Nicolson calls these magical miniature habitats “half-worlds”. The book has several chapters on myriad animals that call them home. Rockpools are “as silent and beautiful and full of threat as any rats’ alley or Roman circus”. Crabs are near the top of any rockpooler’s spotting list, and the green shore crab is the species you will probably find. In French, it is le crab enragé, as it defends itself with open claws. Often, one bigger pincer acts a crusher, while the small one is used for cutting. If you’re bold enough to pick a crab up, placing a finger each side of the shell, gently turn the animal over. In…

Rare in the UK, noble chafer beetles are found in old, hollowing fruit trees in traditional orchards and in old beech and oak trees in the New Forest. “The larvae feed on the rotting heartwood inside living trees, and produce droppings called frass,” says Laura Bower, conservation officer at wildlife charity People’s Trust for Endangered Species. “Sometimes you just find frass scattered amongst the wood mould but occasionally, if you disturb a loose piece of bark, it can pour out of the base of hollow trees.”…

BRITAIN’S LONG, CONVOLUTED AND windswept coastlines are the mustvisit habitat for any ardent ‘spectacle spotter’ come high summer. For this is when a select number of rocky cliffs, islands and stacks become transformed into noisy seabird cities, with guillemots jostling for ledge space with razorbills, while kittiwakes and fulmars plug the gaps in between. Substantial colonies of Britain’s largest and arguably most majestic breeding seabird, the gannet, also grace 21 of these locations. Reaching a wingspan of about 180cm, the tips of an adult gannet’s snow-white wings are inked black and, when combined with a distinctive yellow-orange head and nape, make the gannet confusable with no other. It’s also the seabird most strongly linked to its breeding colony location, with perhaps November to early February being the only period when…

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER Emile Sechaud is an award-winning French nature photographer. You can find more of his work at emilesechaud.com.…

GO TO THE SEASIDE and escape between the tides. Get sandy toes, listen to the waves - and always, always look for seashells. A day at the beach isn’t complete without a sandcastle decorated with these marine treasures, or a few in the pocket to bring home. Adorning bathroom shelves and windowsills, seashells are not only fond reminders of a visit to the sea, but they have many secrets to share and stories to tell about the animals that made them and the wonders of their watery world. Any shell, after all, was once part of a living, breathing sea creature. Learn to decipher these hidden messages and you’ll start to see seashells in a whole new light. Every time you pick up an empty seashell, you’re holding a mollusc’s…

ENDEMIC TO THE CHOCÓ RAINFOREST OF Ecuador and Colombia, the male longwattled umbrellabird is without doubt among the most extravagant-looking birds of the neotropics. This handsome, blackfeathered species looks most impressive during the mating season from November to February, when his outlandish, Elvis-like hairdo expands over his beak, and his extraordinary wattle – resembling a phallic necktie – swells to twice its normal size. Given its legendary looks, you may wonder why the umbrellabird has managed to evade the limelight for so long. It has never been photographed properly before – and this has a lot to do with the hours it keeps, and the dark, dangerous neighbourhood in which it lives. I first learned about the long-wattled umbrellabird in 1991, when I left South Africa for Ecuador and took…

Email your questions to wildquestions@immediate.co.uk A marsupial’s pouch is surely its most obvious distinguishing feature. And yet only slightly more than half of them possess one. In the vast majority of species, they are found only in females, who famously use them to nurture and transport their young, which are born at a very early and helpless stage of development. In only one species of living marsupial do the males have one too. The South American water opossum (Chironectes minimus) is the world’s only semi-aquatic marsupial. While females use their pouch in the conventional way, in males it has more to do with making babies than nurturing them. A male opossum tucks his testicles into his pouch before entering the water. It’s not known whether this is for protection, streamlining or…

Birdgirl By Mya-Rose Craig, Vintage, £16.99 THERE ARE EVERY FEW WILDLIFE FANS who haven’t heard of ‘Birdgirl’ – the 20-year-old ornithologist Mya-Rose Craig. At 17, she became the youngest person to see half the bird species in the world and has established a global reputation as a leading birder, environmentalist and diversity activist. Her adventures are now being brought to life in her second book, in which she tells the story of how she – and her family – came to love these extraordinary creatures. Beyond the expected tales of thrills and adventures around the world, this is a frank, open account of how birdwatching provided solace during Mya-Rose’s teenage years, when her mother was suffering a breakdown brought on by bipolar disorder. As she reflects on the journeys she has…

I WAS PLEASED TO READ MELISSA GROO’S feature (Where Are All The Women?) in the March 2022 issue, as I am a female wildlife storyteller and photographer. Why does wildlife programming seem to mainly feature men out in the wild facing the elements and capturing intense moments, which of course can be dangerous? There are sadly very few professional female wildlife photographers. But we are out there taking risks, battling the elements and facing danger. Nature shows us that it is females leading the way. Elephant herds are led by matriarchs. They lead the herd in times of drought to water holes – the information being passed down from mother to daughter for generations. Lionesses are the main hunters in the pride, they work hard to protect food for their…

ESSEQUIBO RIVER, SOUTH AMERICA RARELY DO MAGICAL ENCOUNTERS take place on the loo. That is unless you’re deep in Guyana’s rainforest. It was while assuming the squat position, pants around my ankles, that I first heard it: a buzzing noise close to me. It sounded like a massive bee. I gripped my machete a little tighter. Our team, consisting of members from the UK and Guyana’s Waî Waî indigenous community, were on a three-month, world-first expedition to kayak Guyana’s Essequibo River from source to sea. All 1,014km of it. The jungle was certainly keeping us on our toes. First up there was the wildlife: the snakes, spiders, scorpions, insects, caimans and jaguars that call the Guiana Shield home posed a real risk to life. As did the terrain. To find…

Growing up by the coast, many of my happiest childhood memories are from days spent at the seaside, splashing along the shore and exploring the rockpools. By home time, I would invariably have a fresh stock of interesting shells in my bucket to take and add to my collection. Back then, like a lot of children, I thought shells were things that animals lived in, rather than them actually being part of the animal itself. It came as quite the eye-opener when I twigged. Ever since my ‘road to Damascus’ moment, I’ve been fascinated by how shells grow. Their baffling mathematical complexity is a great example of the gobsmacking beauty of nature. Helen Scales’ brilliant feature about them this issue (p64) has me itching to get back to the shoreline…

WHEN IT COMES TO CLIMATE CHANGE, dragonflies are the canaries in the coal mine. Arguably more than any other group of animals, they are showing dramatic changes in distribution, with some species advancing north and west, and new arrivals reaching the south (eight species have colonised the UK since 1995). A recent survey, ‘State of Dragonflies in Britain and Ireland 2021’, reported that the emperor dragonfly has expanded its range the most, pushing into much of Scotland, where it was not found before 2003. A truly impressive beast, the emperor is our largest and heaviest dragonfly, both in its adult and aquatic larval form. June and July are peak season for the flying adults – and indeed for many dragonfly and damselfly species. Females have a green abdomen, males blue,…

THE SPOTTED FLYCATCHER IS ONE of those ‘little brown jobs’ that somehow still has bags of charisma. Its pale brown and white plumage is unremarkable – dull, even. Despite this, it is an entertaining bird to watch on a July day because of its habit of sitting on an exposed twig, flitting out to catch a passing insect with an audible snap, turning 180° and landing back on the same perch. Nicola Chester, in her book On Gallows Down, describes the flycatcher’s there-and-back sallies as “crochet loops” – as if the bird is stitching the air. For birders over the age of 40, mention of this summer migrant is tinged with sadness, for its British population has crashed during their lifetime, a decline of 87 per cent between 1967 and 2016.…

THE GOLDMAN ENVIRONMENTAL PRIZE honours the achievements of grassroots environmental activists from around the world. Alexandra Narváez and Alex Lucitante from Ecuador were announced as joint winners of one of this year’s prizes. The pair led an indigenous movement to protect their people’s ancestral territory from gold mining. Their efforts resulted in a historic legal victory in October 2018, when Ecuador’s courts cancelled 52 illegal gold-mining concessions. Their action also contributed to the country’s supreme court ruling for stronger land rights for indigenous communities in early 2022. “The A’i Cofán community of Sinangoe consists of about 300 people, and we protect about 63,000ha of land, including some of the most biodiverse flora and fauna in the world,” says Narváez. The Sinangoe live on the shores of the Aguarico River, in…

WHEN LOCAL WILDLIFE ENTHUSIAST Terry Crow posted pictures online in May of an apparent common blue damselfly he’d seen near Southampton, he couldn’t have expected what was to come. His subject was reidentified as a female common winter damselfly – potentially only the second British record following one found inside a house in South Wales in 2009 and a presumed vagrant that may have come from somewhere along the French coast. The species, like the similar Siberian winter damselfly, overwinters in its adult form, hence its name. Its geographical range includes northern Africa, southern and central Europe, and western Asia. It has occurred (and possibly bred) on the Channel Islands and has been tipped as a potential UK colonist, expected to follow in the footsteps of others such as the…

THE TERM ‘A CRASH OF RHINOCEROSES’ refers to the fact that while a rhino can run up to 48kph it can only see 9m ahead. So, when a number of them move at full speed, they’re not exactly sure what is in front of them and hence could cause a crash. As big herbivores they impact their habitat by spreading seeds around and disrupting vegetation. Their other collective nouns include herd as well as stubbornness.…

THIS MONTH I’D LIKE TO TAKE YOU underground to meet a highly secretive female: enemy number one of the landscape gardener and greedy consumer of worms. I’m talking about the mole (Talpa europaea). Most of you will be familiar with the mole’s handiwork, if not the beast itself. Their conical piles of freshly turned earth can make a manicured lawn look like a chronic case of acne – the ultimate pain in the grass. The female mole – known as a sow – is indeed a wondrous creature: a solo operator who makes her living by hunting worms using a network of tunnels that act as her own form of animal trap. When a worm pushes through her subway ceiling, she quickly sniffs it out using a long pink snout…

1 TROUP HEAD RSPB RESERVE on the Moray coast is Scotland’s largest mainland gannetry, with a portion of the 5,000 pairs easily viewable from the clifftop walk. 2 HERMANESS NATIONAL NATURE RESERVE on Unst in the Shetland Isles has one of Britain’s most impressive seabird colonies – 30,000 pairs of gannets nest here each summer. 3 RSPB BEMPTON CLIFFS and its adjacent coastline hosts half a million seabirds each summer. The gannet population rapidly increased from about 2,550 pairs in 2000 to 23,400 in 2017. 4 GRASSHOLM RSPB RESERVE is an uninhabited island off the Pembrokeshire coast. It is the third largest gannetry in the world and hosts about 39,000 pairs or about 13 per cent of the entire British population each summer. 5 BASS ROCK in the Firth of Forth has…

IN SUMMER 2018, HUMANKIND experienced an unusual connection with another species. Tahlequah, an orca, was seen carrying her dead calf for 1,600km around the Salish Sea. Apparently grieving her youngster, she sacrificed feeding and compromised her own health. Here is an apex predator struggling to flourish in what, on the surface, appears to be pristine wilderness Headlines filled every major news outlet and social media carried outpourings of support for Tahlequah. Orcas, particularly the Southern Resident population – the well-studied group in the eastern North Pacific to which Tahlequah belongs – were in the spotlight, highlighting their precarious survival. Having experienced two decades of recovery following the 1974 ban on capturing orcas for marine parks, with numbers increasing from 71 to 98, the population has since shrunk to 74, a…

STANDING ON A Sussex beach while galeforce winds create a maelstrom of waves threatening to inundate the low-lying land behind isn’t the best time to argue against wind energy. Wind, clearly, is an abundant and powerful force, and the swelling surf is a stark reminder that rising sea levels – caused by climate change – could create havoc for many parts of Britain’s coastline, and increasingly are. But campaigner Zoe Visram is undeterred. “Rampion 2 wind farm is going to cause tremendous harm to wildlife, with the cable [carrying the electricity] coming ashore here at Climping, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for its vegetative shingle, sand dunes and migratory birds,” she says. “The trench for the underwater cable will impact marine life, including seahorses, black bream, and oyster…

Spotted cowrie The size of a little fingernail, these small beauties are not easy to spot but well worth the effort. Similar Arctic cowries don’t have spots. Painted topshell A distinct topshell due to its neat, conical shape and eye-catching pink and purple patterns. Blue ray limpet The intricate crystal structure of this shell reflects only blue wavelengths of light. Slipper limpet These sex-changing snails form ‘mating piles’ – larger females with smaller males on top, which eventually turn into females. Wentletrap Like a miniature, spiral staircase, these are a rare sight around the UK. Once highly collectable, people even made fake wentletraps. Cuttlebone Commonly seen, these are the spongy, internal shells of cuttlefish, another type of mollusc that are distantly related to snails and bivalves. Rough periwinkle The world’s…

Aside from the familiar ring-necked parakeet, found mainly in London, there may be a tiny population of monk parakeets in the UK. About 15 years ago, the species was earmarked for eradication by DEFRA due to fears of it becoming a pest. In its native Argentina it can build colonial nests on telegraph poles that reach the size of a small car, causing the poles to collapse. The birds also raid fruit farms in large flocks. Another parrot with a fingernail grip in Britain is the Alexandrine parakeet, a denizen of south-east Asia, which sometimes appears at ring-necked parakeet roosts. There was also once a colony of budgies on the Isles of Scilly. The birds were being fed by a resident and when he left the islands in 1975 the…

This honour reputedly goes to the aptly named large garden bumblebee (Bombus ruderatus) – but only by a smidge: the queens of several other species are barely 1mm smaller. Once common in the UK, Bombus ruderatus now has a patchy distribution across the southern half of the country, mainly buzzing around the Fens, Cambridgeshire and the East Midlands. FACT. Female nursery web spiders prey on males, so in order to mate the male attaches a bundle of food to himself, pretends to have carked it and, when she tucks in, springs to life and makes his move!…

How long do glowworms glow for? It’s the female that glows, often perched atop a grass stem, to attract a mate. On late evenings in June and July, she illuminates the tip of her abdomen for an hour or two until a suitor comes along. Pairing may happen right away or could take a few days, at which point she turns off the beacon, descends with the male and lays her eggs. SM Who is Cetti of Cetti’s warbler? Francesco Cetti was an 18thcentury zoologist and Jesuit priest. Born in Germany to Italian parents, he relocated to Sardinia in 1765 (at the invitation of the king himself) to improve standards of education. The warbler that carries his name was first recorded in Britain in 1961 and today breeds in wetland…

Your family has long been involved in the birding community. Do you think you would have found your way into it without their influence? As a dual-heritage white British and thirdgeneration British Bangladeshi young woman, I think the chances of me taking up birding or being part of the UK birding community without my parents already being into it would have been extremely low. I am enormously grateful for their influence and their determination to ensure both my sister and I went out into nature as much as possible from an early age. I understand I am privileged to have had these experiences and feel sad that others who are of minority ethnic or urban backgrounds never experience the beauty and tranquility of nature. That is why setting up Black2Nature…

AFTER HIS FAMILY ARRIVED IN THE USA from Syria in 2017, Abdulhafez Al Ibrahim joined Refugee Education & Adventure Challenge (REACH) as a youth participant and fell in love with nature and wildlife. He has since climbed the ranks of the organisation and is now an adult volunteer, helping kids from refugee families get out and about in Chicago’s nearby forests and waterways. What does your average trip as a volunteer look like? I take refugee kids on outdoor adventures within a three-hour drive of the city, introducing them to the natural world and doing activities, such as wildlife and habitat assessments, river clean-ups, cutting down harmful invasive species, kayaking, camping, cycling and hiking. As part of the team, I’ve been able to co-create floating gardens on the Chicago River,…

How did you first become interested in wildlife photography? I was studying biology in college and realised I needed a camera to document the incredible landscapes and species I was seeing. That triggered a passion. What would you be if you weren’t a wildlife photographer? I don’t see myself doing anything else! Photography is my tool for conservation. Whatever happens, I’d still be a naturalist or conservationist. Can you please share your biggest ‘oh drat it’ moment? When I was starting out as a photographer, I took a flight over the Amazon Basin in a tiny aircraft. It had a hole in the bottom that you could poke your camera through to take aerial shots. We took off and I was very excited and started snapping away. I was holding…

NICK BAKER “The oddest and most interesting thing about star-headed liverworts is their sex life” P.34 GILLIAN BURKE The Springwatch presenter asks whether slow travel may be the answer for a sustainable future P.17 MARK CARWARDINE “The world’s first commercial octopus farm is an appalling concept.,” says our frank columnist P.25 LUCY COOKE “The mole sow has bulging male gonads that give her an evolutionary edge underground.” P.27 MIKE DILGER The broadcaster and naturalist tells us about how gannets have adapted to dive for fish P.30…

ALWAYS A REBEL, MOSTLY FOR THE right reasons, John A Burton ditched school for an education in the woods, fields and bomb sites around his South London home. He was already a brilliant naturalist by his early teens though eschewed university in favour of fieldwork. The one institution he loved was the Natural History Museum. Based on his field skills alone, in 1963 he got a job there, as assistant information officer. Then in 1969 he became assistant editor of the partwork Birds of the World. John’s subsequent journey through the world of wildlife journalism and conservation is long and varied, but he was always at the head of the wave. In 1970 he became a consultant to the fledgling Friends of the Earth, lobbying for changes in legislation. He…

LADYBIRDS INCLUDE SOME OF OUR MOST colourful and abundant beetles, but people are often only familiar with the seven-spot variety and don’t realise Britain actually has 46 species (there’s a great guide at discoverwildlife.com). Many are named after their number of spots, though names can be misleading. The two-spot ladybird can boast as many as 16 spots. You may well have the species in your garden or local park: it’s frequent in urban and suburban areas. Consider yourself lucky if you do, as it is every gardener’s friend, a voracious predator of ‘pest’ aphids such as greenflies. Entomologists have long known that the recent population decline in several ladybirds, this one among them, is due partly to the spread of another ladybird, the harlequin. The invasive species, originally from Asia,…

On drowsy July days, male common blue butterflies dazzle like scraps of summer sky that have fallen to Earth. Research has shown that the colouration is a form of territorial defence, warning rivals against flying over ‘their’ piece of grassland heaven. Females, by contrast, have mostly brown upper wings in many regions – except Scotland and Ireland, where they’re usually bluer.…

AS SPECIES SPREAD NORTH IN RESPONSE to rising temperatures, a new survey by the University of Exeter reveals that wildlife enthusiasts are broadly welcoming of new arrivals from mainland Europe. Britain is currently gaining more species than it is losing, according to Regan Early, who led the new research. While some of these additions have been introduced – deliberately or accidently – by humans from far-flung places, often to the detriment of resident wildlife, many others have made their own way here by expanding their ranges northwards as temperatures rise. Nearly two per cent of our native species, including the little bittern, spoonbill, small red-eyed damselfly (see p22) and the mottled shieldbug, arrived on our shores only after 1900. The survey, published in People and Nature, sought the opinions of…

This golden wildflower, seemingly everywhere in July, is the hen harrier or fox of the plant world – stunning, native, yet reviled by many. The notorious 1959 Weeds Act deems it a menace on grounds where it can be toxic to livestock. However, they would need to eat large amounts to suffer, and studies show ragwort is one of Britain’s most valuable plants for pollinators.…

THE WORLD’S FIRST COMMERCIAL octopus farm, in the Canary Islands, aims to be fully operational by 2023, and to produce 3,000 tonnes of octopus meat a year by 2026. It’s an appalling concept. The world’s appetite for octopus is growing exponentially: at least 420,000 tonnes is caught each year (more than 10 times the amount caught in 1950) and annual global trade in octopuses is now worth $2.72bn. Not surprisingly, most of the world’s biggest octopus fisheries, in China, Japan, Morocco, Mauritania and the EU (mainly Spain, Portugal and Italy), are already over-exploited. The owners of the new octopus farm argue that it is the only way to ensure sustainability while satisfying demand. But that’s rubbish. It’s the beginning of a slippery slope – a disaster waiting to happen. There…

BY JULY, MANY FEMALE RABBITS, OR does, will already be raising their third or fourth litter – and some born earlier in the spring are now old enough to breed for the first time. Not for nothing do we talk about ‘breeding like rabbits’! The phrase can be offensive, but in rabbit terms the behaviour is crucial, given their many predators. Rabbits have a hierarchical breeding system, which means lower-ranking does are kept away from the best burrows. Forced to use less attractive areas, their kittens are even more likely to be predated. Fights between does can be vicious. In his new book, Birds, Beasts and Bedlam, conservationist Derek Gow says it was impossible to keep two does in the artificial warren he constructed for BBC Two series The Burrowers.…

Fishy kisses Established pairs will reaffirm their bonds by standing breast to breast with their wings spread, while extending their necks and bills vertically. They will then clack their bills together and call enthusiastically in a flamboyant display. Parenting duties When the chick is young, changeovers between the parents at the nest have to be carefully coordinated to make sure the chick isn’t left unguarded. This is ensured by one of the parents pointing its bill directly upwards, which can be translated as ‘I’m about to leave the nest’. Once acknowledged, this leaves the sky-pointer free to go fishing. Seafood scraps Gannets will take advantage of any external help on offer in their perennial search for food. They will not only pick off any weakened fish that have been herded…

Sea otters Sea otters have made an impressive comeback to these waters after their population was decimated by the fur trade. They are often found close to Vancouver Island, but sightings are increasing within the archipelago. They are frequently seen hunting along the coastline and have an almost insatiable appetite for sea urchins. Humpback whales Humpback whales make the trip to these waters to feed during spring and summer. They often use a technique of lunging from the depths towards a mass of krill or herring. Occasionally a humpback breaches, providing a spectacular show for onlookers. In autumn, they tend to head south towards warmer waters.…

Altamont Pass California One of the earliest wind farms anywhere in the world, consisting of nearly 5,000 turbines, Altamont Pass was killing up to 60 golden eagles and more than 200 red-tailed hawks every year in the mid 2000s. Overall, raptor mortality has since been reduced by about half as a result of lobbying by bird conservation groups to replace or remove some turbines. Smøla Norway Located off the coast of west Norway, Smola wind farm consists of 68 turbines and is estimated to kill six to nine white-tailed eagles every year. But one study also showed that any white-tailed eagle territories within 500m of a turbine were subsequently vacated, so displacement was having an impact too. Tarifa Spain There are numerous wind farms located in Tarifa, southern Spain, an…

In the UK, there are no laws against collecting empty seashells from beaches. But you can be mindful of minimising your impact on the environment by making sure you carefully turn rocks back over after you’ve peered underneath and by not trampling over delicate habitats. Be sure to only take seashells whose occupants have already departed and resist the urge to take bucketloads home. Leave some for other people – and hermit crabs – to find. Buying seashells is a different matter. Large, shiny shells on sale in good condition have most likely not been picked up empty on beaches, but were taken from living animals. A lack of regulations means it can be very hard to know if shells on sale have been collected without impacting wild populations of…

Bluefins are the biggest and most valuable tuna in the ocean. They have also been the most endangered. All three species – Atlantic, Pacific and southern – have been overfished since the 1950s when they became popular for sushi. Fears grew that they were heading for extinction and catch limits were introduced. That seems to be paying off, because bluefins are showing signs of recovery: in 2021, the IUCN categorised Atlantic bluefins as of least concern, meaning they’re unlikely to go extinct any time soon; southern bluefins have been downgraded from critically endangered to endangered, reflecting their increasing population size; and Pacific bluefins are still listed as near threatened and they could still face trouble. Demand remains high, but they’re doing better than they were.…

ALL BUT THE SIMPLEST ANIMALS have a body with two distinct sides – one left and one right – that are roughly mirror images, at least in the embryo. That ‘bilateral symmetry’ can even be seen in starfish, before the larvae develop into adults with multiple arms radiating from the centre (‘radial symmetry’). But while left and right may look similar, the bodies of most creatures are only superficially symmetrical. How are animals asymmetric? Asymmetry can appear across the whole body. One example is flatfish: a juvenile starry flounder swims vertically and has eyes on opposite sides of its head, but one eye will migrate across its skull as it matures so both eyes end up on either the left or right of a lopsided adult. The male fiddler crab,…

FOUR-SPOTTED CHASER This species’ name comes from the two dark spots along the leading edge of each wing. BROAD-BODIED CHASER The males have broad and bright-blue abdomens, dotted with yellow spots along the sides. SOUTHERN HAWKER A large dragonfly measuring up to 70mm in length, males are dark with green-and-blue markings.…

ACROSS 8 Turbot or grouper, say (4) 9 Concerned with living systems (10) 10 Small predatory mustelids (6) 11 Hooved mammal in the genus Moschus native to Asia (4,4) 12 Small, upright-swimming marine creature in the genus Hippocampus (3,5) 14 Rook or jackdaw, perhaps (6) 16 Omnivorous mammal that might be black or grizzly (4) 17 Large 14 Across (5) 18 Undeveloped shoot (4) 19 Modified gland found in squid, cuttlefish and octopus (3-3) 21 Wren-like bird of New Zealand (8) 23 Scottish lake, sometimes said to be home to an unknown water creature (4,4) 26 Shelled gastropod (6) 27 Predatory sea fish of the Indo-Pacific (10) 28 Hearing organs (4) DOWN 1 Small, shingle-nesting seabird with a yellow bill, Sternula albifrons (6,4) 2 New World passerine species related to…