Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2023 i BBC Wildlife Magazine

BRACKEN GROWS SO LUSH AND DENSE that by summer this vigorous fern has created forests up to 2m high. The unbroken canopy of emerald fronds is a welcome hiding place for all kinds of animals, especially roe deer, the smaller of Britain’s two native deer species. Like the others, roes do much of their feeding in early morning and evening, so need somewhere safe to rest during the middle of the day – shady groves of bracken suit them down to the ground. In August, the roe deer breeding season is more or less over. The mature males, or bucks, have finished competing for the right to mate – contests that end with victorious bucks chasing does until they are finally receptive – and have returned to a largely solitary…

“TIDES ARE GRAVITY MADE VISIBLE”, observes Katherine May in her book Enchantment. Their ceaseless movement has a profound impact on coasts and everything that lives there, even influencing the quality of light and sound some distance inland. As the tide goes out, one of the most obvious changes is the appearance of great mounds of seaweed. If you go fossicking along the shore on a summer’s day, you’ll find numerous different kinds, all adapted to a specific depth and degree of low-tide exposure. In mid-shore on rocky coasts, you’re bound to encounter bladderwrack, an amazingly tough seaweed whose flat brown fronds are studded with little balloons, like baked beans, arranged in pairs each side of the central rib. When submerged at high tide, these gas-filled bladders pull the fronds upright…

FOR WHALES, BREATHING THROUGH nostrils sited on the face would be highly inefficient as it would require lifting the head out of the water. This is why cetacean nostrils migrated to the top of the head to become blowholes. While baleen whales, such as blues and humpbacks, have a pair, equivalent to our own nostrils, sperm whales, dolphins and other toothed whales have just one. This is derived from the left nostril; the right one opens internally. BBC SOUNDS The Song of the Right Whale: Can the species be saved from extinction?…

Arachnids you might be alarmed to see scuttling across your carpet 1 GOLIATH BIRDEATER The largest spider by body mass (up to 175g) and by body length (13cm) 2 GIANT HUNTSMAN SPIDER Known as the world’s largest spider by leg span – up to a whopping 30cm 3 BRAZILIAN SALMON PINK BIRDEATER This species has a leg span of up to 28cm and females can weigh over 100g 4 BRAZILIAN GIANT TAWNY RED TARANTULA Leg span of about 23cm and one of the longest-lived tarantulas (up to 25 years!) 5 CHACO GOLDEN-KNEE TARANTULA Found in Argentina and Paraguay, it has a leg span of up to 20.3cm 6 KING BABOON SPIDER An African spider with a venomous bite and a leg span of up to 20cm 7 COLOMBIAN GIANT TARANTULA…

Mike Dilger’s WILDLIFE SPECTACLES The broadcaster, naturalist and tour guide shares the most breathtaking seasonal events in Britain MANY BIRDERS DESCRIBE AUGUST AS being the quietest month of the year to enjoy our feathered friends. Certainly high summer is the time for quietly raising broods, with many adults additionally keeping a low profile while undergoing their annual moult. But for anyone suffering birdwatching withdrawal symptoms this month, then good news and views can be provided by the osprey, and the frankly marvellous spectacle of it fishing for its supper. Slightly longer bodied than a buzzard and with much longer wings, this large raptor is specialised to eat nothing but fish. Ospreys are purely summer visitors to our shores, with most overwintering in the wetlands of Senegal and The Gambia. BirdTrack…

THE SUN HAD YET TO APPEAR ON THE HORIZON and I was already settled in position, concealed behind a boulder, my gaze fixed on a small stone house with an open window. I rarely head into urban environments to photograph wildlife, but this was a special occasion. I had travelled to the village of Hanle, in Ladakh, northern India, which sits at an altitude of 4,500m in the Himalayan mountains. Life in this remote village, home to about 1,000 people, is not easy. From December to March, the landscape is locked in ice and snow, with temperatures dropping to -20˚C and lower. The treeless plateau and surrounding peaks appear hostile, yet nurture surprising levels of biodiversity. Sporadic areas of marshland and gurgling mountain streams, fed by snowmelt, support a variety…

NORTH-WEST FLORIDA’S LUSH, TREE-STREWN coastline is incredibly shallow where it meets the Gulf of Mexico. Scattered mangrove islands form a natural barrier between coast and open sea and throng with birds such as white pelicans, storks and herons. Dolphins are often spotted playing, hunting and chasing airboats, while crabs and scallops thrive in the bays. Move inland and clear, spring-fed waters host snails, damselflies, insect larvae and crayfish. But I am not here for dolphins and damselflies, lovely though they are. Today, I will be out on a pontoon – a flat-bottomed boat – in the Kings Bay area of the Crystal River, searching for a mysterious aquatic mammal. I am seeking sea cows. ‘Sea cow’ is the alternative name for the Florida manatee – and all manatees, in fact…

LAURA KOJIMA ANSWERS The length of time depends on an alligator’s stage of life. Hatchlings can be submerged for only a couple of minutes, while adults are able to remain underwater for hours. As well as the ability to slow down their metabolism to reduce oxygen consumption, alligators have an extensive network of oxygen-storing blood vessels in their muscles and tissues that provide an additional source of oxygen during extended dives. A unique circulatory system can also divert oxygen-rich blood to essential organs, such as the brain and heart, while reducing delivery to non-essential tissues. Significantly, crocodilians are the only reptile group to have a four-chambered heart. A small opening called the foramen of Panizza connects the right and left aorta as blood is carried away from the heart, allowing…

This honour goes to the Arctic tern, a species that could equally have been named the Antarctic tern. After breeding in the far north, it heads to the opposite end of the globe to enjoy the southern hemisphere’s summer. As the crow flies, this would be 12,000km each way, but the terns take a more meandering route. One tagged individual clocked nearly 97,000km for the round trip. FACT. Baby elephants suck on their trunks in the same way human babies suck their thumbs. This habit acts as a comfort but also helps a baby elephant learn how to use and control its trunk.…

Why were llamas and alpacas domesticated? Llamas and alpacas, both camelids, were first hunted for their meat and hides and later domesticated by early hunter gatherers of the Americas, over 5,000 years ago. Alpacas were selectively bred for their high-quality wool, still sought after today, while llamas were used as pack animals, with their coarser, shaggier wool fit only for commoners in early Incan society. AL Can anything live on Mars? In 2021, a joint study between NASA and the German Aerospace Centre sent a weather balloon high into the stratosphere, testing fungi and bacteria within the high levels of UV radiation and thin atmosphere found on the red planet. Spores from a black mould called Aspergillus niger, found on fruits and vegetables, survived the trip. With its ability to…

DESCRIBED AS THE ULTIMATE IN SLOW radio, a new online platform is helping listeners to reconnect with nature’s full orchestral ensemble. Wilding Radio is recorded at the Knepp Estate, a leading rewilding project in West Sussex, and live broadcasts the soothing sounds of the natural world, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The project is led by Alice Eldridge, an expert in ecoacoustics at the University of Sussex, with the live audio stream transmitted via high-tech microphones placed in tree canopies and hydrophones located underwater in a brook. The first location was set up to monitor soundscapes at the site of beaver reintroduction, but as Eldridge explains, “We realised how engaging it was to listen to ducks squabbling, pigs coming to drink, nightingales singing romantic duets and snails…

Snack time After this common tailorbird chick failed several times when learning to fly, its mother fed it with some fresh insects. Parth Kansara, Gujarat, India Round we go Two southern white rhinos chase one another in Solio Game Reserve, Kenya. Amish Chhagan, Barcelona/Lusaka Love bite Unlike most cats, lions are highly social and physical touch helps them bond and aids their overall health – much like it does with humans. Mubarak Muhammadali, Dubai, UAE Spotlight I snuck up to this bloodsucker lizard (Calotes versicolor) in the Maldives and fortunately it didn’t seem to mind. I really enjoy the way the sun illuminates the animal. Marie Rack, Cologne, Germany Hold me close Green lynx spiders are really dedicated mothers and will guard their egg sacs vigilantly, holding them closely and protecting them from predators…

KOSGODA, SRI LANKA ‘IT WAS A FEW MINUTES BEFORE sunset and I was standing with anticipation in front of a sand enclosure at the Kosgoda Sea Turtle Conservation Project in Sri Lanka. Small steel boards on wooden sticks were placed at intervals, each one stating the turtle species, number of eggs buried in the sand, and the date they were buried. I stared intently down at the sand. Any minute now the turtle hatchlings would emerge. Suddenly, the sand parted and the tiny head of the first hatchling became visible. It was not alone. Soon, others emerged, all in a hurry to experience light and life for the first time. The hole became bigger and bigger as more and more hatchlings began to emerge simultaneously. In a flurry of activity,…

THE FRESHWATER HABITATS TRUST’S NEW project, GroWet, involves getting volunteers to look after a rare wetland plant at home over the growing season, receiving it in spring as a seedling and caring for it as it develops. These plants are then reintroduced to one of the historic wetlands managed by the UK charity in Oxfordshire. In 2022, volunteer Roary Neat looked after parsley water-dropwort (Oenanthe lachenalii): “It’s an umbellifer which, while still distributed widely around coastal marshes and fens, is declining in inland sites and listed as Near Threatened in England.” “Over the time I was looking after it, my plant flowered and self-seeded, so much so that I was able to return not just the one plant I had started with but three seedlings that could be planted out…

CONTINENTAL BUTTERFLY VAGRANCY TO the UK is notoriously difficult to prove. Whether it’s accidental importation on produce or house plants, or the issue of widespread captive breeding for release, it seems that non-native butterflies are finding their way into our countryside, by such a variety of means, that a wild continental origin may often be considered the least likely source. When two black-veined whites were sighted almost simultaneously at widely spaced south coast localities in May, following a period of light easterly winds, they were touted by experts as potential vagrants. Yet a week later an apparent mass arrival at a site near Croydon (with sightings at other inland locations) cast some doubt on that theory. It was soon realised that a coordinated release by an apparent ‘guerilla rewilder’ had…

STRIDULATION, THE PERCUSSIVE SOUND male insects make by rubbing specially adapted body parts together, is best known in grasshoppers and crickets – but it’s not unique to them. A wide variety of aquatic beetles and bugs also stridulate in summer to attract mates and defend a territory. Most do it with structures on their legs, wing-cases or heads, but male lesser water boatmen of the genus Micronecta have evolved an extraordinary alternative method. Their instrument of choice is their own penis. When scraped over the abdomen, the musical member produces a surprisingly loud ‘song’ of varying intensity and pitch. In his book Field Notes from the Edge, nature writer Paul Evans describes hearing this curious chorus on a sound recordist’s hydrophone (an underwater microphone). “Sounds I’ve only ever heard in…

According to the British Trust for Ornithology, “the non-native common pheasant is easily the most common bird roaming the UK countryside and the species most often shot by humans”. Common pheasants can be seen all year round and have a diet of seeds, grain, shoots and insects. Their poo is thick, tubular, and all one big mass, like soft-serve ice cream. It is grey-green in colour, but can often be coated in white, which is uric acid.…

On the menu Ospreys will eat any species, with prey often weighing between 150g and 300g. In the Scottish Highlands, sea or brown trout and flounder are favoured, while in the warmer waters of southern England, grey mullet is preferred, hence the bird’s old name of ‘mullet hawk’. In fish farms, rainbow trout is often first choice. A positive picture Extinct as a British breeding bird in 1916, there was great excitement when a pair was discovered breeding near Loch Garten in 1954. Initially a bumpy road, due to issues with egg collectors and disturbance, the British population is believed to have risen to a relatively healthy 240 pairs. Oily plumage With constant dunking as they fish, ospreys must ensure their plumage remains in tip-top condition. So adults spend a…

Red fox Exceptionally nimble, red foxes take giant leaps to catch rodents beneath the snow and birds in flight. They can co-exist with humans and are often found in backyards. Pallas’s cats use empty fox burrows as temporary shelters. Himalayan wolf These wolves compete with Pallas’s cats for marmots and woolly hares. They hunt in packs and are capable of bringing down large prey such as argali, kiang, blue sheep and livestock. A fully grown cat can outrun them in a chase, but kittens are vulnerable. Tibetan sand fox This peculiar-looking, square-headed canid is fairly uncommon in the marshlands of Hanle. It is a skilled hunter with a prey base similar to that of the Pallas’s cat, which includes pikas, voles and marmots. They also scavenge large animals. Golden eagle…

THERE’S SOMETHING A LITTLE BIT MAGIC about restoring a pond. It might have been dormant for decades, reduced to nothing more than a misty hollow or an area of darker soil. Yet dig out the sediment of a so-called ‘ghost pond’, let it fill naturally with water, and life will return. The seeds of aquatic plants, resting still and silent in the seed bank, are woken from their slumber as if no time had passed at all. Just a year after breaking open this biodiversity time capsule, the pond will be thronging with plant, invertebrate and amphibian life. After a few years, if vegetation is allowed to grow, it will be impossible to tell that the pond wasn’t always like this. As Carl Sayer of University College London (UCL) wrote…

THE RED SQUIRREL SURVIVAL TRUST ANSWERS Squirrel pox is a disease that is fatal for red squirrels and yet for the grey squirrel, the host animal, it has no effect. The squirrel pox virus (SQPV) is suspected to have been in the UK since at least 1900, but the first confirmed case was in 1980, in Norfolk. It is thought that the arrival of the grey squirrel heralded the beginning of the disease as there are no records of anything like it in the UK prior to their arrival. Once a squirrel has the disease, survival is rare. Symptoms are similar to that of a rabbit with myxomatosis – lethargy and panting. Swollen lesions appear around the mouth, nose, eyes, ears and genitalia, with death normally occurring within 10-15 days.…

ALTHOUGH ALL ANIMALS CAN replace certain body parts, some are also capable of growing lost limbs, organs and even entire bodies – an ability to regenerate that rivals the superpowered ‘healing factor’ used by fictional characters such as Deadpool or Wolverine. This special ability is used not only to replace tissues, but it enables some creatures to shed body parts through self-amputation or ‘autotomy’. What’s the difference between repair and regeneration? Repair is restoration of a diseased or damaged body part, while regeneration involves its complete replacement. They are alternative strategies for dealing with physical trauma, which is a trade-off between speed and precision. Replacing a part may be best in the long run, but regeneration takes time that an animal doesn’t have if it’s bleeding to death or an…

How did you get into your career? I’ve loved animals since I was a child. In 2006, I gave up a career in financial services and became a full-time wildlife photographer. Why are you drawn to the polar world? I went to Madagascar twice and I got malaria twice. Mosquitos adore me. This is probably one of the reasons I love cold places. I also love the isolation and simplicity. Which shot is most important to you? A polar bear image that won the Grand Prize at the Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice Awards in 2016. It was on display for a year at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and reached seven million viewers. Any epic fails? Stuff happens all the time. Memory cards fill, tripods freeze,…

THE DECLINE OF THE WATER VOLE IS ALL too often blamed on “overzealous animal rights campaigners” releasing American mink from fur farms – a myth your Vole on a Roll feature sought to perpetuate in the July issue of BBC Wildlife. American mink were brought to the UK in the 1920s, specifically to farm for their fur, and as long as we’ve had mink, we’ve had escapes. Animal rights activists were in fact latecomers to the havoc. Regulations and inspections were introduced by the government in 1962, which prompted backyard enterprises to release their mink, rather than comply. Habitat fragmentation is a much bigger threat to the water vole’s survival. Small patches of ‘good’ watercourses (devastated by predators including mink) cannot be recolonised by voles, simply because their populations are…

NICK BAKER “What is an organism that originates in the tropical and subtropical Atlantic doing in the UK?” P.32 GILLIAN BURKE Our regular columnist takes a woodland walk and considers the benefits of ‘childhood animism’ P.15 MARK CARWARDINE “Water companies are dumping 10 times more sewage than they have been disclosing” P.27 LUCY COOKE “Female pinyon jays are in fact highly agressive and play an instrumental role in the hierachy” P.25 MIKE DILGER “Moments before hitting the water, ospreys shoot their outstretched talons in front of their heads” P.28 DON’T MISS… …new research uncovering the downside to de-horning black rhinos in South Africa Page 22…

TWENTY CHEETAHS HAVE BEEN reintroduced in India, to Kuno National Park, after an absence of 70 years. But the project has been widely criticised in terms of its scientific merit, conservation value and ethical standards. According to biologists led by Bettina Wachter of Germany’s Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Indian authorities have drastically over-estimated the number of cheetah that Kuno can support. Based on the density of free-ranging cheetah populations elsewhere, Wachter estimates that the 748km2 park has space for only two or three territories, each occupied by single males or brothers. “There’s room for three, four or six males and, in between, one or two females,” says Wachter. SP Yadav of India’s National Tiger Conservation Authority, an author of the project’s action plan, maintains that Kuno can…

As August wears on and heather turns hillsides purple, it’s finally time for young golden eagles to leave their giant stick nests or, more accurately, be pushed out by parents eager to reclaim sole use of their territory. A few eyries have two young, but most just one, the younger chick having been killed by the elder – a August wears on and heather turns hillsides purple, it’s finally phenomenon called cainism, after the story of Cain and Abel. BBC SOUNDS Tweet of the Day: Michaela Strachan presents the golden eagle…

THINK OF AUSTRALIA’S ICONIC kangaroos and you’ll probably think of them hopping along with their large and muscular back legs, a method of locomotion known as saltation. However, recent research published in Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology has explored the locomotory evolution of kangaroos and their relatives (including wallabies, wallaroos and tree-kangaroos) across the fossil record, and found that the majority of the larger forms did not employ the high-speed endurance hopping of today’s large kangaroos. “This paper is a review of years spent researching kangaroo evolution and aims to show that many kangaroos in the relatively recent past were very different from those around today,” says lead author Christine Janis from the University of Bristol. “In fact, modern, large, hopping kangaroos are the exception in kangaroo evolution.” The…

NEW RESEARCH SHOWS THAT REMOVING the horns of black rhinos to make them less attractive to poachers is reducing their territory sizes and making them less sociable with each other. The study, published in the journal PNAS, found that de-horned South African rhinos have home ranges that are 45 per cent smaller than those of intact animals, and that they were 37 per cent less likely to engage in social interactions. “The big, dominant bulls that used to have very large territories that overlapped with a lot of females may now have much less territory and much less reproductive success,” says Vanessa Duthé, who led the work at Switzerland’s University of Neuchâtel. “It’s really hard to predict the effects of this,” she says. “It doesn’t mean that population success will…

MANY SEE IT AS ONE OF THE environmental crimes of the century. Privatised water companies have been lining their pockets while routinely dumping raw sewage into our increasingly stinky rivers and coastlines. After decades of gross underinvestment, England’s decrepit Victorian-era wastewater system can no longer cope. The crux of the problem is that raw sewage and rainwater end up in the same pipes on their way to the treatment works. Heavy rain fills the system to overflowing, so special valves release the contents into the nearest river or sea (otherwise, the untreated sewage would back up and flood our homes). These intentional raw sewage discharges are permitted – but only under exceptional circumstances and on condition that they are reported. (Incidentally, the water companies call them ‘spills’, as if they…

Silver surfers Flesh-footed shearwaters plunge into the waves off Lord Howe Island, between Australia and New Zealand. Their black plumage gleams with tiny air bubbles trapped between feathers as they forage for food. Worryingly, their diet is increasingly seasoned with plastic waste in the world’s oceans. This problem is the focus of Adrift Lab (adriftlab.org), a team of experts researching the impacts of marine plastic pollution on seabirds. Back tracking A fledgling is fitted with a satellite tag for a pilot tracking project. The full study, launching in 2024, will enable Adrift Lab researchers to measure distances flown, speeds and routes, as well as survival rates. Stomach contents will first be retrieved using a non-harmful technique to assess ingested plastics, enabling researchers to assess links with condition and mortality rates.…

TOM HIBBERT ANSWERS The swallow and the swift have a lot in common. They’re both aerial experts that eat and drink on the wing, and they’re both summer visitors to the UK, making long migrations from Africa each spring. Yet there are significant differences. Swallows can be identified by their deeply forked tail with long tail streamers. They’re glossy blue on their back with a white underside. They have a dark band across the upper breast, like a collar, and a rusty red throat and face, though these just look dark at a distance. Swifts are a similar size but their tail fork is much shallower and lacks a swallow’s long streamers. Their wings are much longer and more pointed, sweeping smoothly backwards in a sickle shape. Swifts are very…

ERICA MCALISTER ANSWERS Flies such as bluebottles and blowflies lay their eggs on decomposing material, including dead humans, where their maggots will hatch and feed. But this food source is often short-lived so the race is on to reach it first. Female flies have an extraordinary sense of smell and can detect even a hidden corpse from a distance. They are often first to arrive at the scene of a deadly crime, hence their role as detectives. The use of flies and their maggots in crime solving was first written about by the Chinese, and has continued for centuries. Now, modern research techniques can determine how quickly varying species of maggots grow in different situations – including ambient conditions or locations – and help to establish the time of death.…

TV HIGHLIGHT History of the world Earth BBC Two series, airs from 17th July at 9pm, also available on iPlayer STATE OF THE ART EFFECTS AND THE latest scientific developments help to tell the story of the place we call home in Earth, a groudbreaking five-part series on BBC Two, presented by Chris Packham. Our planet’s four and a half billion year journey is an astonishing catalogue of dramatic upheaval and each episode covers one pivotal epoch, from the first seconds of its existence to the arrival of humans, its most impactful inhabitants. Viewers are treated to a truly immersive experience, as cutting-edge CGI portrays key moments when Earth’s future, and the life it nurtured, hung in the balance. The team behind the series utilised worldwide expertise, consulting more than…

ACROSS 1 Plant also known as coffeeberry or quinine nut (6) 4 African weaverbird in the genus Euplectes (6) 8 Marine fish that might be black-edged, orange-lined or redfin (7) 9 ___ weevil, cereal-eating insect (7) 11 Thrush-like songbird of Europe and Asia (10) 12 Plant in the onion genus, Allium ampeloprasum (4) 13 Predatory mammal of Madagascar (5) 14 ___ waxwing, flocking woodland bird of the northern Palearctic (8) 16 Tiny hummingbird in the genus Lophornis (8) 18 Mountain ash (5) 20 Maple genus (4) 21 Common Australian seabird (6,4) 23 Forest bird of South America that might be solitary or red-rumped (7) 24 Island of South-East Asia, known for rainforest plants and scarce large mammals (7) 25 Pine leaf (6) 26 East ___, English region noted for bird…

How to take great wildlife photographs Professional wildlife photographer Danny Green offers his top tips to amateurs starting out. • PICK A SUBJECT AND STICK WITH IT “You will learn a lot more, get better coverage and more unusual images if you pick just one species and work on it over a long period of time.” • KNOW YOUR SUBJECT INTIMATELY “For the best shots, it is vital to know your subject’s habits, times of activity, food preferences and habitat use.” • PUT THE ANIMAL’S WELFARE FIRST “Never get too close, hinder its movement or disturb a feeding animal in any way.” You can read more photography tips at discoverwildlife.com/how-to/photograph-wildlife…