Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2023 i BBC Wildlife Magazine

Beady-eyed and adorable, the hazel dormouse is one of just three kinds of British mammal to hibernate, along with hedgehogs and bats. Touch one now and it would feel cold as stone, its body chilled to 1-2°C. During hibernation its metabolic systems slow to the merest flicker – three or four heart beats and breaths per minute keep it ticking over until April or May.…

No plant has closer ties to the festive season than holly. Its scarlet berries, which form only on female trees, appear as early as August and may in theory linger all winter, though hungry thrushes and people taking cuttings put paid to that. Since heat and sunshine often lead to a heavy berry crop the year after, the UK’s 2022 heatwaves could produce a good display this December. FACT. The wandering albatross has the largest wingspan of any living bird, up to an impressive 3m, which is very useful if, like them, you spend almost all your life at sea. Compare that to the world’s smallest bird, the bee hummingbird, which has a wingspan of about 3cm.…

REINDEER ARE SYNONYMOUS WITH Christmas. But are the antlered beasts that pull Santa’s sleigh male or female? Rudolph has antlers, so he must be a male right? Well, it’s not that simple. Reindeer are the only species of deer for which males and females both grow a set of seasonal armaments – a bit of detective work is required in order to work out the sleigh-puller’s true sex. Antlers are considered a classic example of sexual selection – the evolutionary force that arises from the struggle for mates. Male reindeer use these elaborate bony outgrowths to fight one another over access to groups of females. During the annual rut they’ll lock horns in battle – shoving one another like Sumo wrestlers trying to eject an opponent from the ring. Females…

The broadcaster, naturalist and tour guide shares the most breathtaking seasonal events in Britain ONE OF THE MOST JOYOUS AND TIME-honoured festive traditions for many this month must surely be decorating the Christmas tree. But while adorning the tree in the warmth of your homes, do spare a thought for the feathery baubles festooning a number of urban trees outdoors, as pied wagtails join forces each dusk to collectively see out the long, cold winter nights. Identified by their monochromatic plumage, jerky walk and habit of constantly pumping their long tails, pied wagtails are without doubt one of the most beloved members of our wonderfully diverse avifauna. Breeding across most of Britain, these adaptable little birds are often, but not always, close to water and tend to prefer ‘open country’…

THE SOUND OF COLD STEEL against cold steel breaks the silence that typically accompanies winter this high up in the Mission Mountains. Luke Lamar readjusts the hammer in his hand, looks around as if he’ll somehow spot the echo he’s created, and then takes another swing at the nail that’s pinning the deer leg against the tree trunk. It’s -17˚C, and he grunts as he drives the nail through frozen muscle until he’s convinced it’s secure. It has to be. If he’s going to collect DNA samples from the Canada lynx and wolverines he’s studying, he has to make sure they’ll struggle with the bait long enough to leave a trace. As conservation director for the Montana-based organisation Swan Valley Connections (SVC), part of Luke’s job is to organise efforts…

The life-cycle of an Atlantic salmon is monumentally complex, involving two mammoth journeys. Eggs are laid and hatch in freshwater streams and rivers, in shallow depressions created by the female. After hatching, the young undergo distinct growth stages while still in freshwater. First, as sac fry (tiny larvae that still have a yolk sac attached) they hide in the gravel. Once this food store is depleted, the fry leave the protection of the gravel and start to swim, feeding on plankton. The next three stages of development are known as parr, smolt and post-smolt. It is during the smolt phase, in which the fish undergo a number of physiological changes, that salmon head downstream to the sea, in their first great migration. This watery journey can be hundreds of miles…

EELS HAVE LONG BAFFLED NATURALISTS, AND we are only just starting to understand their life-cycle. The primary issue for a long time was that nobody had ever set eyes on anything they could classify as a young eel – something that led Aristotle to hypothesise that these creatures sprang up fully formed from the mud. It was eventually discovered that eels do not spawn in the rivers in which they live, but instead travel to the sea to breed. This in turn begged the questions of where they go and how on earth they get there. We now know that all European eel spawning takes place in the Sargasso Sea – a region of the Atlantic Ocean near the Caribbean. The exact location of the spawning grounds has not yet…

IN 2022, A FILM CREW working on the Lika Plains near the Adriatic coast of Croatia picked up some remarkable behaviour. A small herd of aurochs had been released into the area a few years earlier, and thermal-imaging video footage showed the bulls responding to the threat of a pack of wolves by forming a semi-circle and facing outwards with their fearsome horns to the front. Cows and calves sheltered behind this defensive shield, along with a group of wild horses, including a foal. Ronald Goderie, a Dutch ecologist who has been closely involved in the European rewilding movement for four decades, says there is historical evidence of aurochs protecting themselves in this way, and of other species taking advantage of it. “That’s what we had heard, but it had…

Email your questions to wildquestions@immediate.co.uk What is a keystone species? NAMED AFTER THE WEDGE-SHAPED stone at the top of an arch, which locks the other stones into position and prevents collapse, a keystone species is one that plays a central role in the structure of an ecosystem. Beavers, for example, physically change the landscape through their dam-building, creating habitats used by other species. And some top predators enable diverse vegetation to flourish by controlling the number of grazing animals. The term does not apply to just any influential organisms. Crucially, keystone species are those that have a disproportionately large effect relative to their abundance. It would not apply to, say, trees or reef-building corals, which have a huge effect on ecosystems because of their abundance. According to Robert Paine, the…

The crossword ACROSS 1 Michael ___, environment writer, author of Say Goodbye To The Cuckoo (8) 5 Plant genus named after the botanist Alexander Curt Brade (6) 10 ___ loris, primate of India and Sri Lanka (7) 11 Fruit tree in the genus Prunus (7) 12 Bottom-dwelling river fish (5) 13 Plant in the nightshade family, cultivated for its spongy fruit (9) 14 Wild ovine of North America (7,5) 18 Nightjar of the eastern USA (4-4-4) 21 Student of living systems (9) 23 Large African antelope that may be common or giant (5) 24 ___ night lizard, Mexican reptile of rocky habitats (7) 25 Ernst ___, 19th-century German zoologist and naturalist (7) 26 Collective noun for crows (6) 27 Climbing vines (8) DOWN 1 ___ thrush, bird also known as…

Why wildlife photography? Photography has been in my family for four generations, and I can’t remember a time when I haven’t had a camera. Growing up in South Africa around such incredible wildlife, the two passions just evolved and merged. What’s been your most challenging subject to date? I’ve photographed many human-wildlife conflict stories, including pangolin poaching, but the strangest relationship I’ve worked on is between the British and the red fox. On one hand, people hunt foxes for fun; on the other, people rehab them in their homes. Any epic fails? I was documenting London’s foxes with Matt Maran. He had already photographed a youngster that had learned to jump into a bin to look for food, and we wanted to film it. We witnessed the behaviour one more…

1 Mosquito The mosquito is responsible for more human fatalities a year than any other animal. It is, however, not the mosquitoes themselves that are deadly, but the parasites, bacteria and viruses they carry and pass on through their bites. The disease they transmit that has the highest death toll is malaria, caused by a blood-borne single-celled parasite. Malaria claimed an estimated 619,000 human lives in 2021. 2 Tsetse fly Historically, this tiny animal has been implicated in inhibiting human settlement in vast swathes of Africa. It carries a deadly disease called sleeping sickness. Like malaria, it is transmitted by a bite and caused by a single-celled parasite. Without treatment sleeping sickness is often fatal. 3 Flea In transmitting the bubonic plague from infected rodents to humans, the humble human…

THERE’S A CAVE IN SOUTHERN FRANCE CALLED Pech Merle, where you can walk through more than a kilometre of tunnels and galleries that were inhabited during the last ice age. The walls are adorned with the most incredible cave paintings, which include human handprints, spotted horses, woolly mammoths and ancient bovids, probably aurochs. It’s a fascinating place to visit, offering a glimpse of prehistoric life some 25,000 years ago, when Europe was a very different place. And now, modern science is able to bring some of these extinct species back – or at least something very close to them. James Fair’s feature about a project to ‘back-breed’ an aurochs-like animal shows just how far we can turn back the clock, and, crucially, asks how bringing back such an animal can…

AN AMBITIOUS NEW PROJECT TO restore the ecosystem of Floreana Island in the Galápagos is underway. Plans include eradicating invasive mammals and reintroducing 12 missing species to the southern island – the sixth largest in the world-famous archipelago. Floreana has been dramatically altered by invasive mammals that were introduced by humans. Goats that had become feral were removed in 2007, after decimating the landscape through overgrazing, and the rats and feral cats that remain are now being removed using bait. The 12 species that will be reintroduced consist of 10 birds and two reptiles – the Floreana racer snake and a Galápagos giant tortoise with very high levels of Floreana giant tortoise ancestry. “Floreana Island served as a refuge for pirates and whalers who greatly reduced the populations of giant…

HORSES HAVE TWO PATCHES OF hardened, hairless skin on each leg. The ‘chestnut’ is on the inner thigh; the ‘ergot’ sits behind and above the hoof. It has long been speculated that these are vestiges of two of their ancestors’ five toes. Connecting the skin to underlying ligaments and equipped with nerve-endings, they may be involved in sensing the contraction and extension of leg muscles.…

At 75 years of age, Keith Dobell relishes the opportunity to “give back”, spending several days a week breaking a sweat maintaining and improving Brixworth Country Park, over 20km of the Brampton Valley Way and Martin Moore Wood in Northamptonshire. The work is physical – involving cutting back overgrown vegetation and hazardous overhanging trees, through to repairing pathways – but rewarding. “Personally, I enjoy the exercise, comradery and frequent contact with visitors (plus their many dogs!),” Keith says. “Our team of volunteers from the Friends of Brampton Valley Way and Brixworth Country Park are a great bunch. The squad of 12 consists mainly of elderly people but we have had a recent and welcome injection of younger recruits. Initially, I went along as a day’s respite from caring for my…

HUNDREDS OF HECTARES OF WOODLAND and species-rich grasslands have been saved from the axe as a result of the decision to scrap the northern phase of the high-speed rail link HS2. Conservationists said 190ha of woodland, including nearly 15ha of ancient woodland, plus hundreds of ponds and thousands of individual hedgerows, had been threatened with destruction from Phases 2a and 2b. But Phase 1 between London and Birmingham will still wreak significant environmental damage, according to The Wildlife Trusts, which called for “better and more effective mitigation to make amends for the magnitude” of the impacts. “Over 104,000 people signed our letter to the government asking that HS2’s impacts on nature be properly scrutinised and that the scheme’s design be modified to limit the damage,” says director of policy and…

Easy pickings Some pied wagtails take advantage of insects squashed on car grills and number plates for an effort-free meal. Moth enthusiasts have even reported that enterprising individuals visit light traps left out from the previous night to pick off those moths that didn’t quite make it into the trap! White wagtail A few individuals of this continental nominate race make it to the UK each year and can be distinguished by their pale silver-grey backs and rumps, which contrast with the black back and rump of a male pied wagtail or the smoky grey upperparts of his mate. Unlikely places Wagtails are attracted to sewage farms due to the elevated temperatures caused by the biological processes. An added bonus is that they are a breeding ground for insects, too,…

BIG LITTLE Journeys is a new three-part BBC Two series that follows six tiny animals as they undertake epic, make-or-break treks through the wild to find mates, food or new territories. Here, we take a closer look at the small-scale star species of the show, from the golden-headed lion tamarin that risks life and limb to relocate to new feeding grounds in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, to the brave water vole that swims across a deep Scottish loch in search of a home and a mate. We also profile some other mini marvels of the animal world that undertake voyages of great distance and peril: the European eel, ancient murrelet and Atlantic salmon. To follow the species featured in the series, the BBC team worked closely with scientists and conservationists around the…

• The aurochs (Bos primigenius) is the wild ancestor of all domestic cattle (Bos taurus). Scientists recognise three subspecies that were originally found in Europe and the Middle East, India and North Africa. • Males were probably black with a paler dorsal strip, while females were brown. Males and females differed greatly in size and weight, with the largest males tipping the scales at around 1-1.25 (maybe up to 1.5) tonnes – it was one of Europe’s heaviest land mammals. • They were a woodland, woodland edge, grassland and wetland species. Extensive loss of woodlands and overhunting were the two main factors in their demise. By the 13th century, aurochs were only found in Poland, Lithuania and some parts of modern-day Bulgaria and Romania, and by the early 1600s, the…

SCAVENGERS ARE OFTEN stigmatised and their names have negative connotations. We call people ‘vultures’ if they wait to exploit vulnerable individuals, and those who ‘laugh like hyenas’ are loud, foolish or hysterical. But despite these stereotypes, scavengers can be useful. What’s a scavenger? It’s an organism that feeds on dead organic material. Whereas a predator kills prey, a scavenger consumes matter that’s been discarded or died from predation, injury, disease or old age. Some species are ‘obligate scavengers’ that survive by scavenging, others are ‘facultative scavengers’ that scavenge when necessary. And what do they eat? Everything from body parts to faeces! Many animal scavengers are omnivores. They aren’t picky eaters and thrive on human activity – waste in rubbish bins feeds foxes and raccoons (nicknamed ‘trash pandas’), and cars make…

Homemaker Male baya weavers construct their nests from long, thin grass stems, and position them on trees or human structures. Parth Kansara, Nakhatrana, India Rose tint Navi Mumbai in India hosts migratory flocks of flamingos every year. During the last two months of their stay, they turn pink and the entire lake becomes pink, too. Vibhash Garg, Navi Mumbai, India Reflections The ever-enchanting habitat of Kaziranga National Park was at its best when I took this image of an Indian one-horned rhinoceros. Sumon Das, Kolkata, India Just right Everything came together for this magical image of a burrowing owlet – the perch, the look back and the light. Blake Hess, Greeley, USA Rest stop I captured this peaceful male banded demoiselle on the Ringstead Downs in Norfolk. These delicate insects…

• BACKLIGHT “For dramatic backlit shots, shoot towards the sun when it’s closest to the horizon. This will produce beautiful rim lighting around your subject and a warm glow.” • LOW-ANGLE LIGHT “In winter, the sun arcs low in the sky, bathing everything in warm light, especially early and late in the day.” • FLAT LIGHT AND SNOW “Digital cameras handle flat lighting very well, so I shoot in all weathers. (A plastic bag and elastic bands will keep your camera dry.)”…

Awe-inspiring images from talented photographers are part of the recipe that makes BBC Wildlife the world’s best wildlife magazine Our 2024 calendar features beautiful portraits of 13 different predators from around the world. Many of these have been cherry-picked from the outstanding submissions we receive for the magazine’s Photo Club pages each issue. We always love to see your photographs, so please keep them coming! If this calendar leaves you feeling inspired to take your wildlife photography to the next level, check out top tips from the professionals as well as information on the latest international awards to enter at discoverwildlife.com January SNOW LEOPARD by Morup Namgail It is a challenging task to photograph a snow leopard, but this one in Ladakh, India, was captured using a camera trap February…

RESPLENDENT IN WINTER WHITE, mountain hares are a textbook example of seasonal camouflage. They stay like this until spring comes. It’s a phenomenon commonly seen in the far north, in animals such as Arctic foxes and snowshoe hares, but less often at these latitudes. In fact, the only other British species that turns into a winter ghost is the ptarmigan, a bird which, like the mountain hare, has a stronghold in the Scottish Highlands. The transformation from greyish-brown to all-white fur (apart from black ear tips) is triggered mainly by changes in day length, with air temperature playing a secondary role. The process begins in autumn on the back, moving across the rest of the body and ending with the head. Usually, the whitening continues into the New Year, so…

THE LATEST AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE audit of Britain’s wildlife reveals that the country is still in the grip of a biodiversity crisis, compounding its position as one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries. Compiled by more than 60 research and conservation organisations, the State of Nature report reviewed 10,000 species and found that around one in six are threatened with extinction in the UK. The turtle dove, the hazel dormouse and the European eel are among those at risk. Intensive farming and the continuing effects of climate change were noted as the two biggest drivers of nature loss. “The State of Nature report is a stark reminder that politicians must not let nature drop down the agenda – there is far too much at stake,” says Craig Bennett, chief executive…

NATIVE OYSTERS (OSTREA EDULIS) WERE once a mainstay of Britain’s coastline, providing essential water conditions and habitat for myriad marine species. However, since the 1800s, habitat loss, over-harvesting, pollution and disease have led to a 95 per cent decline in the population. In order to boost their numbers, conservationists from The Wild Oysters Project have released 10,000 of the molluscs onto an underwater ‘oyster reef’ off the coast of North East England. The 7,500m² reef was created by depositing 750 tonnes of ‘cultch’ (local stones and scallop shells) onto the seabed. More than 100 local volunteers helped clean the oysters before they were laid onto this substrate. It’s hoped that next season they will release larvae that will then settle in nearby areas, kickstarting the species’ recovery. Oysters are filter-feeders…

CONSERVATIONISTS ARE CAUTIOUSLY optimistic over the future of Africa’s beleaguered rhinos, with the latest survey showing that from 2021 to 2022 numbers increased by just over 5 per cent to 23,290. Rhino numbers have been decimated in recent years by a deadly combination of habitat destruction and the illegal trade in rhino horn, which has resulted in thousands of rhinos being slaughtered. However, thanks to a combination of protection and biological management initiatives, rhino populations are now finally slowly recovering. “With this good news, we can take a sigh of relief for the first time in a decade. However, it is imperative to further consolidate and build upon this positive development and not drop our guard,” says Michael Knight, chair of the IUCN African Rhino Specialist Group. The survey reveals…

“CHILL DECEMBER BRINGS THE SLEET / Blazing fire and Christmas treat.” It’s a beautiful if somewhat sentimental image… except a lot has changed since 1834, when Sara Coleridge wrote her popular poem, The Garden Year, about the passing of the seasons. Now, in some winters, large parts of lowland England see little or no sleet or snow, and temperatures can turn incredibly mild. And insects have been quick to respond – especially butterflies. Two British species, the speckled wood and red admiral, overwinter as adult butterflies but don’t enter full torpor. That means they can be roused by midwinter sun, and December sightings are becoming more frequent. Make sure to report any such observations, for example using Butterfly Conservation’s free iRecord Butterflies app. Other species that overwinter as adults but…

Rabbit poo is very small – only pea-sized – and is usually black, light brown or green in colour. It is sweet smelling and filled with plant pieces. According to The Mammal Society, “Rabbits eat a wide range of plants, including grasses, cereal crops, root vegetables and young shoots of meadow plants. They will eat tree bark, especially when snow covers other food sources.” Rabbit poo can be found in grassland, field edges and hedgerows. Look out for droppings scattered at latrines near burrow entrances.…

Also known as the Formosan pangolin, this subspecies of the Chinese pangolin is found in bamboo forests, grasslands and even farmland. These scaly mammals are severely threatened by poaching, driven by high global demand for their scales and meat. Breeding in the wild is thus all the more important. Female pangolins are only receptive for a few weeks, so the males embark on intrepid quests to track them down, leaving scent as a calling card and using their sensitive noses to detect female pheromones. If they have no luck in their own territory, they venture into the unknown – in the series, it’s a bamboo forest, an olive grove and, fortunately, a patch of protected forest. Taiwanese pangolins are luckier than most. The population of Chinese pangolins is thought to…

Forest foray The Börzsöny Mountains in northern Hungary are one of the country’s most densely forested mountain ranges. For centuries, iron ore was mined here, and the comparatively warm and moist environments of the now-abandoned tunnels provide an important hibernation site for lesser horseshoe bats. There are up to 400 resident individuals, who occasionally break their winter rest to fly out and feed among the bare trees. Imre captured this moment of departure using a camera trap positioned outside one of the tunnel entrances. Spore ghost A puffball mushroom releases its spores as dusk falls, creating a spectacular array of swirling shapes. Capturing the moment of release, which can be triggered by disturbance as slight as a raindrop landing, is “like action photography”, says Imre. Creek view The rays of…

I WAS HALFWAY THROUGH MY DINNER WHEN THE expedition leader announced that our ship was surrounded by a pod of killer whales. Rushing out onto the observation deck, I watched as velvet ribbons of black and white rippled through the frigid waters of the Antarctic Ocean in pursuit of a solitary fur seal, leading it on a deathly dance around the vessel where more orcas waited in ambush. It was a breathless scene that could have been plucked straight from an episode of Frozen Planet. But I was sharing this moment not with a hardened BBC film crew but with CEOs, stockbrokers and a semi-retired schoolteacher, aboard the Sylvia Earle. It’s a sign that cruise tourism in Antarctica is a booming business and that more people than ever are experiencing…

CUDDLY-LOOKING WITH HIGHLY distinctive black-and-white fur and dark ‘spectacles’, the giant panda – often referred to simply as the panda – is an undeniably popular and much-loved bear, both the national animal of China and, of course, the iconic logo of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Is the giant panda really a bear? Yes. Genetic studies have placed the giant panda in the bear family (Ursidae). However, its identity has been hotly debated – it was at one point placed in the Procyonidae family, which includes racoons. The giant panda is the only member of its genus, Ailuropoda. Where does the giant panda live? Giant pandas live in mixed forests in the mountains of south-west China (the Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces), usually at altitudes of 1,500-3,400m. Their preference for…

PRODUCTION EDITOR CATHERINE SMALLEY REPLIES: Based on your description, it sounds likely that it is a fox attempting to bury meat in your flowerbeds. Foxes are known to hide food in the ground in order to consume it at a later date – a behaviour know as caching. As you suspect, it’s possible the animal was disturbed before it was able to place the meat within the hole it had dug. I’m not sure why it would place the meat beside each individual plant, but freshly dug flowerbeds are particularly favoured sites. I LIVE IN BATTERSEA AND THIS SPRING A vixen brought her litter of five cubs into my garden every day from late afternoon to early the next morning. This lasted all summer. They fed and played all night,…