Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2023 i BBC Wildlife Magazine

IT’S NOT EVERY DAY THAT THE PERFECT photo opportunity falls – or in this case flies – into your lap. Photographer Richard Flack was waiting for African emerald cuckoos in a conservancy near Pietermaritzberg, South Africa, when a pair of purple-crested turacos emerged from the forest. They landed on a perch just a few metres away and, perfectly framed by the surrounding foliage, began to touch beaks in courtship. Already in position, Richard held his nerve and slowly adjusted his camera angle. The resulting portrait won him a bronze award in the 2022 Bird Photographer of the Year competition. A denizen of East Africa’s forests, the purple-crested turaco is a popular bird, thanks to its striking appearance. If those glossy indigo, green, gold and dusky pink hues weren’t eye-catching enough,…

RECENT EXPERIMENTS SHOW THAT bumblebees join a select group of animals – mostly primates and birds – capable of passing on new behaviours by cultural transmission. The study tested buff-tailed bumblebees’ ability to learn to open sugar-filled containers, a challenge that had two equally effective possible solutions. Inexperienced bees learned the task faster if they’d watched an experienced individual complete it first. And the solution eventually adopted by the colony was the one demonstrated initially. “This result mirrors almost exactly what we see in great tits, chimpanzees and vervet monkeys,” says Alice Bridges of Queen Mary University of London, lead author of the research paper published in PLOS Biology. Bumblebees are perhaps unlikely cultural animals. And not only because their brains are only one hundred-thousandth the size of our own.…

Living World: Chris Packham presents ‘Mayfly and the Chalkstream’ If it’s a good year for them, glittering clouds of mayflies will gather over clean rivers and streams this month. Author Amy-Jane Beer describes the insects’ ancient mating ritual in her beautiful book The Flow: “They flutter upwards with bodies held vertically like ascending angels, before shifting to the horizontal and gently parachuting down on open wings, rising and falling over and over again.”…

A POPULATION OF ARCTIC GEESE HAS broken with tradition and adopted brand new breeding grounds and migration routes, bringing hope that some wildlife is able to respond rapidly to changing Arctic conditions. For 35 years, biologists led by Jesper Madsen of Denmark’s Aarhus University have been tagging the pink-footed geese that traditionally breed on the Norwegian islands of Svalbard and overwinter in Denmark. The team reports in Current Biology that thousands of these birds have now shifted their breeding grounds 1,000km to the east, to the Russian islands of Novaya Zemlya, changing their migration routes south accordingly. “Thirty years ago, we were told that geese are very traditional, going back to the same sites year after year, and that you can set the clock by when they arrive and depart,” says…

Tweet of the Day: Musician Jimi Goodwin on the mallard There’s nothing cuter than a long line of fluffy mallard ducklings paddling behind their mother in spring. Now a study at the University of Strathclyde has revealed why this in-line formation swimming is so effective (in fact, most ducks do it). By riding waves created by the female, the ducklings in her wake not only face less drag but get an extra push forward into the bargain.…

In July 2022, European bison were introduced to Blean Woods in Kent. One of the three translocated females (later joined by a male) then gave birth to the first bison born in Britain in perhaps 6,000 years. “Bison are ecosystem engineers, from their front end to their back,” says Wildwood Trust ranger Tom Gibbs. “Their dung is rich in nutrients, and birds love to feed on the insects that dwell in there. [We] take regular samples that are analysed by experts who use the results of their tests to learn more about these incredible animals.”…

Rare beauty An infrequent but welcome sight on the undercliffs and chines (coastal valleys) of the south coast of the Isle of Wight and Channel Isles, the Glanville fritillary has one of the most restricted distributions in Britain. Once found as far north as Lincolnshire, its numbers declined dramatically from the 18th century. This composite photo combines multiple images to convey the movement of the insect. The eyes have it A close-up of an orange-tip’s head reveals its extraordinary compound eye, comprising several thousand facets or lenses. This creates a mosaic image, well adapted for detecting movement – and allows it to see nectar ahead while simutaneously watching behind it for predators. Imperial grandeur The silver-washed fritillary – this is a male – is one of the largest British butterflies,…

REARING BLACK-TAILED GODWITS FROM wild-laid eggs for later release – ‘headstarting’ in conservation parlance – is an anxiety-inducing business, as I discover on a late-June visit to WWT Welney Wetland Centre, Norfolk. First, you have to find and collect the eggs before they’re snaffled by predators, which is tricky in the wet grassland habitat favoured by this wading bird. Then you have to transport this extremely delicate cargo safely over the bumpy fenland tracks. Finally, you have to incubate the eggs, mimicking the work of parent birds by turning them multiple times each day, and using hi-tech tools to monitor the health of the growing chicks inside. And the heavy lifting hasn’t even begun yet. “The hatching period is the really intense bit,” says William Costa, lead aviculturist at the…

The world’s most diminutive crocodilian species is Cuvier’s dwarf caiman (Paleosuchus palpebrosus), native to the rivers and streams of northern and central South America; males grow to an average of 1.4m, females just 1.2m. This formidable reptile has strong body armour to provide protection against larger predators. Adults prey on large fish, amphibians and invertebrates, including molluscs. FACT. The inland taipan found in central Australia is the world’s most venomous snake. A single bite contains enough venom to kill 100 adult humans – but anti-venom is available.…

SINCE KING CHARLES I WAS crowned in 1626, the coronation of British monarchs has involved being anointed with a holy oil or ‘chrism’ made mainly from olive oil perfumed with flowery scents such as rose, jasmine and orange blossom. Traditionally, that oil also contained substances such as musk from deer and civets, plus ambergris from sperm whales. But in line with modern concerns about animal cruelty, the oil used to anoint Charles III at his coronation this month is free of animal products, meaning the new recipe doesn’t contain ambergris. What’s ambergris? It’s a waxy substance that forms in the digestive system of sperm whales. Each piece of ambergris has a unique odour that depends on its age and composition. Its colour ranges from black or brown when new, to…

ACROSS 1 Wild feline of North America (6) 4 Social mongoose of southern Africa (8) 10 Insect-eating bird of South America that might be Mayan or cryptic (9) 11 New World desert plant (5) 12 Algae seaweeds in Laminariales order (5) 13 Transient saltwater pond (5,4) 14 ___ warbler, streaky migratory songbird (7) 16 ___ predator, species at the top of a food-chain (4) 19 Ten-legged crustacean, often found in the answer to 13 across (4) 21 Widespread migratory duck, Anas acuta (7) 24 Perennial legume of the eastern USA (4,5) 25 Large number of locusts, perhaps (5) 26 Wild dog of Australia (5) 27 Creeping plant with striped leaves, Tradescantia zebrina (4,5) 28 Yellow ___, widespread plant also called Earth almond or chufa (8) 29 Colourful parrots that might…

How did your career begin? When I was 30, a friend lent me a long lens to photograph deer near my home. It excited me so much I bought my own lens. Why does the freshwater world appeal? I was always on the water as a child, fishing with my father and brother. I learned all about fish behaviour and aquatic insects, and developed a fascination that is still as strong 40 years on. Which of your shots is most significant? The picture I take tomorrow. My motivation is curiosity. What’s been your most unusual fishy encounter to date? Back in the 1990s, I photographed the Amazon’s flooded forest. After seven months of work, I found a rare and beautiful banded cichlid deep among the vegetation. This is the habitat…

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Listen to The Countryside Hour: badgers living on High Ash Farm BY MAY, IT IS PEAK SEASON FOR BADGER watching and in many areas young cubs are starting to make an appearance. They will be snuffling around among the ferns and bluebells to investigate the exciting above-ground world, which previously they knew only as unfamiliar sounds and scents drifting into the tunnels or on the bodies of the older badgers. These youngsters were most likely born in February, so are around three months old, and for now they stay near the safety of their family’s sett. It is usually pretty straightforward to tell which setts are active, due to signs of freshly dug earth around the main entrances and the tracks worn smooth by passing feet. Look too for the…

Tweet of the Day: Miranda Krestovnikoff presents the reed warbler REED WARBLERS ARE AMONG THE LAST migratory warblers to turn up in Britain to breed, typically arriving in May, or sometimes not even until June. They frequent dense beds of reeds, moving slinkily through the stems in search of flies, aphids and other insect prey. You are most likely to encounter these little brown birds in large wetlands, but they also set up home in quite humble reedy areas, along fieldside ditches for example, or in urban parks. There are usually some at the tiny Camley Street Natural Park in central London, a few minutes from the platforms at King’s Cross station. The song is what hits you first. Reed warblers keep up a steady, some might say monotonous, chuntering…

KANGAROOS ARE BORN AT AN EARLY stage and a newborn joey is little more than a mouth and forelimbs attached to a bean-sized body – all it needs to haul itself through its mother’s fur and latch on to a teat in her pouch where it develops fully. The pouch probably started as a simple fold of skin to protect the joey while suckling in a nest, but developed into a larger structure, allowing it to be carried in safety at all times.…

Many fungi contain toxins for self-defence 1 DEATH CAP Responsible for the majority of all fatal mushroom poisonings 2 DESTROYING ANGELS  These contain amatoxins – toxic compounds that disrupt cell metabolism 3 COMMON CONECAP Can be mistaken for ‘magic mushrooms’ 4 WEBCAPS A large genus of over 2,000 species, only some of which are poisonous 5 AUTUMN SKULLCAP  Ingestion leads to severe gastrointestinal distress, organ failure and even death 6 POISON FIRE CORAL Highly toxic fungus due to the presence of trichothecene mycotoxins 7 DEADLY DAPPERLING Easily mistaken for a few edible species 8 FALSE MOREL  Contains the deadly toxin gyromitrin 9 FLY AGARIC Contains several toxic compounds 10 BROWN ROLL-RIM Can trigger an autoimmune reaction…

IT’S ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA TO KNOW WHAT you’re drinking. Yet the identity of one less-appetising addition to an infamous alcoholic beverage has been something of a mystery – until now. A ‘worm’ lurks at the bottom of many bottles of mezcal, a type of Mexican spirit distilled from agave plants. This adds colour and flavour, as well as an element of trepidation for drinkers. It’s long been known that this is some sort of insect larva – but we didn’t know which one. “Mezcal’s alcohol content is relatively high, so the larvae and their DNA are really well preserved,” says Akito Kawahara of the Florida Museum of Natural History. As a result, his team was able to identify grubs from 21 mezcal brands. The results, published in PeerJ, reveal…

IN A DESPERATE LAST-DITCH ATTEMPT to revive flagging demand for whale meat, Japan’s only offshore whaling company has started selling it from vending machines. Kyodo Senpaku Co. is selling whale bacon, tinned whale, whale steaks and raw whale sashimi from white vending machines, decorated with cartoon whales, at two locations in Tokyo and one in nearby Yokohama. Prices range from 1,000 yen (£6) to 3,000 yen (£19). Their plan is to install machines at more than 100 locations over the next five years. The company claims that early sales from the unmanned kujira (whale) stores have been ‘encouraging’ – attracting older people wanting a trip down memory lane as well as inquisitive youngsters. It does help that there is little competition, of course (major supermarket chains tend to shy away…

Mike Dilger’s WILDLIFE SPECTACLES The broadcaster, naturalist and tour guide shares the most breathtaking seasonal events in Britain FOR SEVEN MONTHS OF THE YEAR, Britain’s most charismatic auk all but disappears off the face of the Earth. Adopting drab plumage, and with a suitably sombre bill to match, Atlantic puffins ride out the storms of autumn and winter far from land, either in solitary fashion or in small groups. However, as the spring days lengthen and the temperatures rise, the year’s first flush of ‘puffin food’ out at sea not only permits a return to technicolour, but also the flicking of a behavioural switch, which transforms them from often solitary seafarers to much more sociable land-lovers. With their multicoloured bill plates regrown and with fresh feathers, the now dapper puffins…

I ARRIVE AT GRANDE RIVIERE, north-east Trinidad, just before dusk. The village seems sleepy, tucked into a green valley bordered by a sandy beach and backed by forested hills. The Caribbean Sea, dull under the darkening sky, is tranquil to match, holding tightly to its great secret. Just paces from the lapping waves, I join a huddle of people surrounding Kevin Muhammad, head of the Grande Riviere Nature Tour Guides Association. I am the only foreigner at this spot tonight, but we all share the same reason for attending: we’re here for the leatherback turtles. Kevin is explaining the etiquette that must be followed when encountering the world’s largest, most mysterious turtle. His audience is rapt, even the children, as he closes his speech: “See you on the beach at…

1 Greenham Common Berkshire Cold War-era base filled with birdsong DURING THE COLD WAR, RAF GREENHAM Common was famously the home of NATO’s nuclear deterrent: an arsenal of short-to long-range cruise missiles targeted on Soviet Russia. From the early 1980s until 2000, the perimeter fence also became home to the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp. At its height, 30,000 women protesters lived permanently at the site, attracting worldwide media interest and edifying the international peace movement. Visit today and you won’t hear the sound of fighter jets taking off or the melodies of protest songs, rather the shrill calls of larks breaking the silence over this long expanse of grassland. Peppered with egg-yolk-yellow flowering gorse and vibrant pink heather, the site is home to 30 species of butterfly and its…

Both episodes of Our Changing Planet (series two) are available on iPlayer Our Changing Planet Series two; watch both episodes on iPlayer LAST YEAR, THE BBC LAUNCHED ONE OF its most ambitious projects to date – a series spanning seven years that sees six presenters revisit six pivotal habitats across the globe, to see how both wildlife and people are coping with modern environmental pressures. As with the first series, this second installment is packed with adventure, conservation and science. In part one, Liz Bonnin joins the Tule River Tribe in California to learn how nature-based management techniques can protect the landscape against wildfire; Steve Backshall heads to the Maldives to investigate new developments in coral conservation; and Chris Packham travels to Greenland to catch up with the latest climate…

A brown bear mother takes a break with her tired-looking cubs on the shoreline of Kukak Bay in Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Can you spot all five differences between these images? The answers can be found on page 105. CORRECTIONS March 2023 ‘10 heaviest birds’, p19: while they are the same species, Meleagris gallopavo, the weight stated for a wild turkey was in fact the maximum claimed weight for a domestic turkey. Answers to Spot The Difference on page 99…

THE FIGURES REPORTED IN MARK Carwardine’s opinion piece (February 2023) on last summer’s devastating avian flu outbreak are almost beyond comprehension. In our ‘animal-loving’ country it’s apparent that we are prepared to tolerate facilities that house in excess of a million birds! SARS-CoV-2 should have taught us some valuable lessons about zoonotic diseases – when pathogenic viruses spill over from animals to humans. Covid-19 probably originated in a wet market in Wuhan, so it gave some the excuse to pin the blame on the Chinese. But we need to wake up – and quickly – because the next pandemic could just as easily kick off from our own shores. These industrial farming prisons are breeding grounds for disease. Seabird colonies in Scotland were devastated by avian flu and I understand…

NICK BAKER The green lacewing orchestrates these vibrations into pulses of low-frequency sound P.38 GILLIAN BURKE “Getting closer to nature has its physical barriers but what about mental barriers?” P.19 MARK CARWARDINE A Japanese whaling company has started selling whale meat from vending machines P.31 LUCY COOKE “Not all baboon mothers are born equal. A female’s lot is dictated by her social class.” P.29 MIKE DILGER “For humans observers, it can be difficult to work out a method to the circling puffins’ madness” P.34…

CARMELA BUONO STARTED HER RESEARCH journey at Rutgers University, where she completed a thesis on invasive species, followed by a PhD at Binghamton University looking at human impacts on species interactions. When she learned that myrmecochory (the dispersal of seeds by ants) was happening in her backyard, she was hooked: “Mutualisms are fascinating interactions between species, and while pollination tends to take the spotlight, myrmecochory is just as interesting!” “My latest Ecology study looks at how historical forest disturbance, in the form of forest clearing for agriculture, impacts mutualistic interactions like seed dispersal,” says Carmela. “In our North American study sites, we found seed dispersal was stable in remnant sites (sites that had not been recently cleared for agriculture) but did not recover in some secondary sites (forest that been…

BACK IN MARCH, A RARE, POORLY KNOWN shark species never before recorded in British waters washed up on a Hampshire beach. The smalltooth sand tiger shark is known from just 200 or so records globally, and has never before been seen in the north-east Atlantic farther north than the Bay of Biscay. The unfortunate creature was first seen struggling in shallow water, but appeared to swim off after being assisted by a beachgoer. Hours later, though, it was found dead on the beach. Photos of the 2m-plus shark carcass were shared widely on social media, subsequently making the national news. Experts identified the shark from the number and position of its dorsal fins and its diagnostic dentition. The Zoological Society of London requested the corpse for study but, by the…

This term comes from an alternative spelling of drey – the nest of a tree squirrel, flying squirrel or even ringtail possum. Dreys are usually built from twigs, dry leaves and grass, often in the forks of tall trees. The word ‘squirrel’ refers to that distinctive bushy tail, once thought to serve as an umbrella, coming from the Greek skia (shade) and oura (tail). Other squirrel collective nouns include squad, colony and scurry.…

NO MOW MAY HAS BECOME FIRMLY established on the naturalist’s calendar since its debut in 2019. As with many of the best ideas, it is beautifully simple. You just have to resist the urge to cut your grass for a month, ideally leaving the entire lawn unmown – though failing that a smaller strip or corner will do. The British are famously obsessive about their neat and tidy lawns, yet this Plantlife campaign has steadily gained traction. If you go mow-free, it’s amazing how quickly wildflowers you never realised were there show up, from clover, dandelions and buttercups to scarcities such as orchids. One lovely species likely to appear among the longer sward, especially in damper lawns, is bugle. The glossy, crinkled foliage of this plant can look a little…

NEW RESEARCH SHOWS THAT THE woodcock is the unlikely owner of the brightest white feathers of any bird tested so far. Woodcocks are not known for their dazzling colours. The upper plumage of these nocturnal waders is a mosaic of browns and greys that camouflages them exquisitely against forest floors by day. “That’s the beauty of it,” says Jamie Dunning, who led the work at Imperial College London. “They keep it where you can’t see it, but where they can get it out when they need it.” The research, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, focused on a fringe of white spots on the underside of the tail feather tips of both sexes. The study revealed that these are 30 per cent brighter than any other plumage…

Email your questions to wildquestions@immediate.co.uk CHELSEA CONNOR ANSWERS The dewlap is a little flap of skin on the underside of the neck of tropical lizards known as anoles. It can be contracted and retracted using special cartilage. Anoles are not very vocal, so the dewlap provides another communication tool that can be waved like a flag. When an anole is angry, it flashes its dewlap repeatedly, at the same time performing push-ups to make itself look bigger and more intimidating. A male displaying to a female does the same thing to look more strong and appealing. Anoles have incredible colour vision, able to see ultraviolet light and detect complex patterns – useful for distinguishing between more than 400 species across the tropics of the Americas and Caribbean, all flashing their…

Why do rosehips cause itching? After flowering, all roses produce edible red-orange hips or berries high in vitamin C. The seeds of these hips are covered in tiny, irritant hairs. But what causes the itching? Unlike nettle hairs, the hips’ do not cause an allergic reaction or sting. Instead, they are stiff and pointed, mechanically rubbing against the skin to cause itching, much like a woolly jumper on bare skin. DH Why would a brown bear clack its teeth? The short answer: you’re too close. Bears use a variety of movements and behaviours to communicate with each other. The clacking of teeth, along with sticking out lips and/or slapping the ground with paws, is typically a sign that you are too close to a bear, making it nervous. Megan Shersby…

Registered nurse and nurse teacher Sue McBean studied botany decades ago and is a keen photographer. She is now contributing to the image library of conservation charity Plantlife by taking detailed macro photos of flowers and other parts of plants. Sue’s pictures help the public to identify different species and increase interest in wild plants. Do you work alone? Yes but my partner accompanies me on walks to photograph plants and I get a lot of support from Plantlife digital volunteer coordinator Sarah Shuttleworth. I love being the first photographer volunteer for Plantlife – they’ve had donations of photos before but not someone they could ask to get specific images. When Sarah says, “Fabulous!” about one of my shots, it makes everything worthwhile. When do you volunteer? Daily while on…

PRIZE-WINNING PHOTO Light up the night It was a hot and humid night in West Bengal, India, and I was wandering along a waterway with some friends looking for fireflies. There were congregations over many trees, but an arjun tree drew our attention with a huge mass of blinking fireflies over its canopy. I ended up with 174 photographs. After processing them at home and applying a stacking editing technique, I got this image. Arghya Adhikary, Kolkata, India Riding high The dimunitive Galápagos lava lizard is highly territorial and will bob its head to display its coloured neck. To this end, they will perch on any vantage point, whether it’s a prominent piece of lava or a sunbathing marine iguana! Simon Kirk, Newcastle Patience I was viewing brown bears at…

CAT TIEN NATIONAL PARK, VIETNAM “NEVER WORK WITH CHILDREN and animals, or so the old showbiz saying goes. That’s all very well – but in my line of work, sometimes you don’t get a choice. Wild animals enter the frame when they want to – and sometimes such a cameo offers a great learning opportunity. My job with an animal welfare charity takes me around the world, visiting captive wild animal facilities such as zoos, aquariums, sanctuaries and rescue centres to train staff in all aspects of animal care and welfare. A few months ago, I was working at an NGO-run resuce centre in the sweltering jungle of Cat Tien National Park in southern Vietnam, delivering training to animal care staff from various sanctuaries across the country. These people look…