Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2024 i BBC Wildlife Magazine

Science Cafe Presenter Adam Walton meets two researchers from Bangor University to learn about the diversity of venomous snakes found across ancient Egypt by combining ancient texts with current technology. Catch up on BBC Sounds Tracking the Planet In this new series, Emily Knight explores the stories that sophisticated tracking devices can tell us about animals, as well as their surroundings, including climatic conditions and the health of ecosystems in a rapidly changing world. Catch up on BBC Sounds BBC Inside Science The world’s oldest fossilised forest was recently uncovered in Somerset. Palaeobotanist Christopher Berry sheds light on the cladoxylopsids that lived 390 million years ago and reveal extraordinary evolutionary secrets. Catch up on BBC Sounds Keep in touch wildlifemagazine@ourmedia.co.uk instagram.com/bbcwildlifemagazine twitter.com/WildlifeMag facebook.com/wildlifemagazine…

SEVENTY-ODD KILOS OF irritated bristly boar is not to be messed with. Mature wild boar sows have young in tow in April and are super-protective of their boarlets, so if you’re lucky enough to glimpse these muscular, tusked pigs in a spring woodland, give them a wide berth. The stripy piglets are fondly nicknamed ‘humbugs’ for their resemblance to the mint-flavoured sweets. There may be five or six of them in a litter, but several sows and their piglets often join forces, forming a larger group called a sounder. By contrast, the big adult male boars, which can be twice as heavy as sows, are loners. One estimate suggests there are 2,600 boar at large in Britain, with a stronghold in Gloucestershire’s Forest of Dean. Chantal Lyons, in her brilliant…

A GROUP OF BIOLOGISTS HAS DISCOVERED a breeding population of extremely rare Cantor’s giant softshell turtles (Pelochelys cantorii) on the banks of the Chandragiri River in India’s tropical south-west. It’s the first time this secretive species has been recorded nesting, according to a study published in the journal Oryx. With data on the species’ ecology, behaviour and population size limited, the finding – which relied heavily on community knowledge – represents an important breakthrough for conservationists. Cantor’s giant softshell turtle, also known as the ‘frog-faced softshell’ due to its amphibian-like facial features, is a large species of freshwater turtle with a broad head, small eyes and a pointed snout. Despite its wide distribution across much of southern Asia, the species, which can exceed more than one metre in length and…

FIRST IDENTIFIED IN 2017 BY A GROUP of Star Wars-loving scientists, the Skywalker hoolock gibbon was known only to exist in China, with fewer than 200 individuals. While experts suspected the distribution of the arboreal primate extended into Myanmar, a complex history of civil ethnic conflict in the country made it impossible to verify this theory. Now, new research published in the International Journal of Primatology proves that the species’ range does indeed spread into the South-East Asian nation. Between December 2021 and March 2023, a field team, led by Fauna & Flora International and Nature Conservation Society Myanmar, undertook expeditions to six sites in Myanmar’s Kachin State and three sites in Shan State to determine the presence of Skywalker gibbons. The study involved the use of acoustic monitoring systems,…

FOLLOWING YEARS OF CAMPAIGNING BY the RSPCA, legislation introduced recently by the government will mean tighter future controls on the domestic keeping of primates. There are up to 5,000 pet primates in the UK, the most common being marmoset monkeys, which typify why primates make unsuitable pets. Marmosets are intelligent, social and long-lived creatures, more suited to group life, roaming free and eating a varied diet in South American forests. They also scentmark, spreading a musky aroma not welcome in a human home. A marmoset kept alone, eating a limited diet in a small domestic space can suffer severe stress and other health problems. RSPCA inspectors regularly report seeing pet primates with behaviour problems and poor health, especially metabolic bone disease (rickets in humans) due to inappropriate care. From April…

The broadcaster, naturalist and tour guide shares the most breathtaking seasonal events in the world ANIMAL SUPERLATIVES ALWAYS EXCITE the enquiring mind. Questions such as what is the biggest, smallest, longest and fastest have long been a staple of the pub quiz. If record-breakers are your bag, then the Andean condor – both the heaviest bird of prey and the raptor with the longest wingspan – needs little introduction. With a wingspan (for the record) maxing out at around 3.2m, and weighing up to 15kg, adult Andean condors have principally dark plumage and black primaries, or ‘fingers’, which contrast to their startlingly white secondary flight feathers and white ‘fluffy’ neck collar. They also possess naked, fleshy heads, presumably a hygienic adaptation that allows them to delve into animal carcasses without…

ASK ANYONE WHAT THEIR FAVOURITE ANIMAL IS and chances are it will be a mammal. Lions, whales, dolphins, tigers, chimps, bears – they are all iconic. So being asked to make a new six-part BBC series about this extraordinary group of animals was a complete gift, and it’s fantastic to have Sir David Attenborough on board as the narrator. It’s been 20 years since he made Life of Mammals and the world has changed anyone what their favourite animal is greatly since then. Of course, the fact that mammals are so popular means they have featured in many natural history series in the interim. Our challenge – and it was a big one – was to find new and interesting stories that could surprise and entertain an audience that might…

Lived 345-290 m.y.a BEFORE VERTEBRATES established their dynasty on land, the arthropods – a huge group that includes insects, spiders and crustaceans – ruled unchallenged. Largest among them was Arthropleura, a 2.6m-long, mulch-eating millipede that roamed the beaches and forests of ancient England. This giant creepy-crawly lived during the Carboniferous period, a time when sprawling rainforests acted as the Earth’s ‘lungs’, drawing in carbon dioxide and breathing out masses of oxygen. It’s thought there was 5-10 per cent more oxygen in the air during this time, which is one reason why Arthropleura grew so large. Another was lack of competition. It took another 40 million years and a worldwide rainforest collapse before distant ancestors of Tiktaalik (see page 68) began to outcompete arthropods.…

Lived 375 m.y.a FISH AREN’T TYPICALLY KNOWN for their ability to walk on land, but Tiktaalik wasn’t your typical fish. It was, by definition, a fish, but sporting primitive, air-breathing lungs (as well as gills) and four fleshy appendages that resembled limbs, it was well on its way to becoming a fully fledged, terrestrial tetrapod. From fossils found in Arctic Canada, it’s estimated that Tiktaalik grew to lengths of 3m. This huge size, combined with large jaws full of needle-like teeth, a mobile neck and eyes on the top of its head, suggests it was a predator specially adapted for hunting fish in the shallows. Some think it may have even preyed on other, smaller ‘fishapods’ that lived on the margins between land and water. In pursuit of prey, Tiktaalik…

Lived 305-299 m.y.a WITH A WINGSPAN measuring more than 70cm, six spindly, spiny legs and huge compound eyes, Meganeura was terrifying enough to scare even the most ardent insect-lover. This four-winged monster is widely regarded as the largest flying insect ever, dwarfing its extant dragonfly relatives. Like many of today’s dragonfly species, though, Meganeura lived in open habitats close to ponds and slow-moving streams. It was likely the apex predator in these clearings, using the spines on its legs as a ‘flying trap’ to ensnare prey ranging from other flying insects to amphibians and even lizard-like vertebrates. Fossils of Meganeura were first discovered in some coal-bearing rocks in France in 1880. These specimens were exceptionally preserved, displaying detailed networks of wing veins, which inspired the name Meganeura, or ‘large-nerve’. Like…

IF I WATCH LONG ENOUGH, I might see some intriguing animal behaviour that’s never been recorded before. It is this thought that has long driven me as a biologist, film-maker and photographer to wait – and wait – for special moments, and still does. Perhaps never more so than during the past year, which I’ve spent obsessively photographing stunning, mercurial mandarin ducks in a magical ancient woodland: the Forest of Dean. The chance to document the rather secret life of arguably the world’s most beautiful duck arose in autumn 2022, when I was canoeing down the scenic River Wye, on England’s border with Wales. As the forest thickened below the imposing crags of Symond’s Yat, I spotted the unmistakeably flamboyant purple, green and orange feathers of three mandarin drakes, huddled…

DOES ANY MAJOR GROUP OF ANIMALS include members as strikingly different as molluscs? Think of a cockle and an octopus. The former spends its life within a shell buried in sand, where it filters microscopic food, surfacing only to cast its eggs or sperm into the plankton. Nothing it does requires a brain, or even a head – and indeed it has neither. An octopus, on the other hand, is an agile, inquisitive, dextrous, colour-changing, shape-shifting genius. Most molluscs belong to one of three classes. Bivalves (cockles, clams, mussels, oysters and the like) are characterised by a two-piece hinged shell, and are mostly sedentary filter-feeders. Gastropods (snails, slugs, conches etc) usually possess a single, coiled shell and are mobile grazers or predators. Then there are the cephalopods, an exclusively marine…

ACCORDING TO A DEFINITION from the United Nations 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, biodiversity is “variability among living organisms from all sources [and] includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.” And yet conservation organisations often quantify the ongoing biodiversity crisis by loss of species. So why doesn’t the number of species reflect variety in nature? What influences diversity? Biodiversity results from a dynamic balance between extinction, migration and speciation (the creation of new species) – an equilibrium that’s disrupted by human activities such as overexploitation of natural resources. But those artificial causes aside, geography has a big influence on why some places are more diverse than others. How is biodiversity distributed? One notable pattern is an increasing gradient in diversity with latitude (from poles to tropics), which suggests…

Four square I took this photo of a true crab and its reflection in Ponnani, Kerala. True crabs, in the infraorder Brachyura, have four pairs of walking legs behind their claws. Shibu Kesav Kerala, India Shake it off These brown bears were playfighting in Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska. I was grateful to capture this moment with one bear looking straight at me while shaking its head. Karthik Subramaniam, San Francisco, USA Quick drink I saw this beautiful five-bar swordtail butterfly ‘puddling’ in Kuldiha forest range in Odisha. Souvick Mukherjee, West Bengal, India Waving goodbye A baby mountain gorilla stares curiously from its mothers arms, unaware that only a few of them are left in the wild. Hema Palan, India Under his wing A bronze-winged jacana father hides his…

RESEARCHERS ARE USING UNDERWATER drones to learn about mysterious mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs) – low-light habitats in tropical and subtropical regions made up of coral, sponges and algae. Because MCEs are found at depths of 30-150m, which is beyond recreational scuba-diving limits, they are very hard to study. So, Noriyuki Satoh and his team at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology and NTT Communications in Japan have trialled the use of underwater drones to collect seawater samples and analyse their environmental DNA (eDNA). The aim is to find out which types of stony coral are present. As organisms shed cells, mucus or faeces, they leave traces of eDNA behind. By analysing these, scientists can identify what creatures are present, even if they haven’t observed them. eDNa is already used to…

AN EXAMINATION OF BLUE WHALE genetics has revealed that the world’s largest animals have been breeding with fin whales. During a study published in Conservation Genetics, researchers analysed the genomes of the North Atlantic blue whale subspecies – a group still in recovery following extensive whaling in the past – and discovered relatively high levels of fin whale DNA. Though it has been known that the two species could create hybrids, often called ‘flue’ whales, it was only recently found that these hybrids were fertile. By mating with blue whales, fin whale DNA is introduced into the blue whale population, a process known as introgression. Strangely, this introgression only seems to be going one way, from fin whales to blue whales, as the hybrids don’t appear to be mating with…

1 COLCA CANYON, PERU Well known as a dramatic place to watch condors, an April hike to the Mirador can result in seeing the birds at eye level, with the deep canyon as a backdrop. 2 ANTISANA NATIONAL PARK, ECUADOR Close to the capital of Ecuador, this relatively new reserve holds the largest population of condors in the entire country, with a total of 35 recorded across the park. 3 TORRES DEL PAINE NATIONAL PARK, CHILE The Mirador at Cerro Cóndor allows incredible views over the three ‘torres’ and a chance to spot those condors with nests close by. 4 EL CALAFATE BALCONY, ARGENTINA This natural feature is a base from which to visit the Perito Moreno Glacier, but the balcony at Calafate also happens to be a terrific place…

Life in death Though it died at just 70 days old, this tiny southern white rhino foetus offers hope. The baby was the result of the first successful attempt to perform IVF on a rhino, carried out by scientists from the BioRescue project in September 2023. The unborn calf had been developing well, but its mother, Curra, died from an unrelated bacterial infection. Now that the procedure has been proven to work, it can be applied to the northern white rhino, potentially helping to save this subspecies from extinction. Last standing The northern white rhino population has been decimated by poaching. Only two individuals remain, a female called Najin (age 34, above), and her daughter, Fatu (age 23). The pair live in Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Reserve under constant guard. For…

DINOSAURS dominated life on Earth for 180 million years, between the Triassic and the Cretaceous periods. But the animals that came before them paved the way for species that still exist today. After the emergence of the first true animals around 700 million years ago, evolution ran amok, creating countless bizarre groups before the dinosaurs finally arrived 450 million years later. These pre-dinosaur animals evolved in a very different world to the one we know. This was a world without grass, without flowers; a world that was, for a time, dominated by a single supercontinent surrounded by a vast ocean. From car-sized millipedes to fish that walked on four fleshy fins, here are ten of the wackiest, weirdest and most wonderful animals that lived during this period of Earth’s history.…

Lived 295-270 m.y.a JUST ONE LOOK AT DIMETRODON AND your eyes are immediately drawn to the huge sail on its back – a feature shared by the iconic dinosaur Spinosaurus. This scaly, tiger-sized beast wasn’t a dinosaur though. In fact it’s more closely related to us than Spinosaurus. Dimetrodon was a protomammal and had a few features that set it apart from dinosaurs, most of which were found in its skull. Behind its eyes it had a temporal fenestra, a small hole where lower jaw muscles attach to the skull. Dimetrodon and other protomammals had just one of these; dinosaurs and their ancestors had two. It also had different teeth for different functions, which is where its name Dimetrodon, or ‘two-measure tooth’, comes from. In contrast, dinosaurs and their ancestors…

Lived 247-208 m.y.a A MASS EXTINCTION KNOWN AS the Great Dying took place 251.9 million years ago, wiping out more than 90 per cent of Earth’s species and leaving a lot of empty niches in its wake. Many of the survivors that evolved to fill these niches ended up looking like failed lab experiments, none more so than Tanystropheus – a 6m-long reptile with a neck longer than its tail and body combined. Tanystropheus was initially misdescribed as a dinosaur, but it was a protorosaur and lived in the Middle Triassic, just before the first dinosaurs. It was long thought to have been too top-heavy to be terrestrial. But more recent studies argue that most of its weight was centred around its body, making it more than capable of walking…

BE THEY BIG, SMALL, POINTY, FLAT, pendulous or upturned, noses are funny things. These holey protuberances are prone to drip, twitch, sniff, snort, whistle and sprout hair. And it doesn’t help that they are slap-bang in the middle of the face for all to see. They get poked into things – literally and figuratively – and wherever an animal goes, its nose almost always gets there first. But a sense of smell – a system for detecting and distinguishing airborne molecules – is about more than just noses. Air drawn into the nostrils passes through the nasal cavity, the walls of which are dotted with a multitude of nerve endings. Each of these is equipped with a complex folded protein called a receptor that is configured to fit precisely with…

NAMED AFTER THE ARIZONA GILA River basin, where they were first discovered, Gila (pronounced hee-lah) monsters are one of only a small number of venomous reptiles and the largest lizards in the USA. The creatures have a frightening reputation, especially in local folklore, as they can deliver an agonising bite, but they pose little risk to humans if left alone. Where do Gila monsters live? Gila monsters are found in south-west USA and north-west Mexico, with the core of their range in Arizona and Sonora. The total adult population size is unknown but according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), it is at least several thousand. These reptiles have a home range of about 2.6km2 and inhabit dry areas such as desert grassland and scrubland, canyon…

How did your career start? I lived in Tanzania as a child and some of my earliest memories are from family safaris. That was the beginning of my passion for nature. I started university just as decent and affordable digital SLRs were entering the scene. Digital was a revelation, and at that point I really fell in love with photography. Which of your shots is most important to you, and why? In 2017, I worked with the Tsavo Trust to document some of the last ‘big tuskers’ on Earth. I photographed a remarkable old female whose tusks reached the ground. A few months later, she died due to drought. She was like a creature from a bygone era. Tell us about BeetleCam… In the early days, I found that by…

WALKING MY DOGS DOWN BY A LOCAL chalk stream recently, I noticed some large holes and wondered what might have caused them. The holes were very close to the water so I didn’t think they could have been made by badgers. I also spotted a branch gnawed to a pencil shape and a tree that looked as if it had fallen across the stream. Could the holes have been dug by beavers? I live near Deal in Kent, which is quite rural, but I didn’t think there were any beavers in the area. Heather Paddison, via email BEAVER EXPERT DEREK GOW REPLIES: These are without a shadow of a doubt the field signs of beavers. The holes in the bank are almost certainly burrow entrances. Beavers are good diggers and…

1 Goliath birdeater Hailing from the rainforests of northern South America, this is the largest spider by body mass (up to 175g) and by body length (13cm). Its name derives from an 18th-century engraving that depicted another tarantula species eating a hummingbird, which led to the entire Theraphosa genus being called ‘birdeaters’. This species feeds mainly on worms, amphibians and large insects, but it does sometimes kill and eat birds. 2 Giant huntsman spider Native to Laos in South-East Asia, the giant huntsman is known as the world’s largest spider by legspan, measuring up to a whopping 30cm. Though some Goliath birdeater individuals have matched this, giant huntsmen tend to be larger, on average, giving them the title. Cannibalism has been observed in this species, with larger females consuming males…

NICK BAKER “The water anole extends its subaquatic stay by breathing, or re-breathing, underwater” P.34 GILLIAN BURKE “Surely creating a viable, healthy, interstellar population isn’t really possible?” P.21 MARK CARWARDINE Unfortunately, we’re unable to feature a column from Mark this month, but look out for him in a future issue LUCY COOKE “Juvenile female coyotes help babysit the alpha’s pups and bring home food for the nursing mum” P.27 MIKE DILGER “As masters in the art of effortless soaring, it is up in the air that Andean condors excel” P.30…

A NEW REPORT BY THE RSPB, BTO and other conservation organisations has revealed the true impact of avian flu on the UK’s globally important populations of seabirds. According to the study, the great skua was particularly badly hit, with more than three quarters of the UK population lost. At least 2,500 birds were reported dead across Scotland, which is home to 60 per cent of the world population. The gannet has also been severely impacted, with a 25 per cent drop in numbers across the UK, which supports more than half of the world’s birds. At least 11,000 deaths were recorded in Scotland, and there was a 54 per cent collapse in the Welsh population – 5,000 deaths were recorded on the RSPB island reserve of Grassholm alone. Gannets breed…

HOOVES ARE THE HARDENED TIPS OF the toes found in many a large herbivore. A cloven hoof is one that appears to have been cleaved in two – think of the print left by a cow or deer. The earliest common ancestor of ungulates would have had five toes on each foot, but some of these have been lost during the course of evolution. Cloven hooves correspond to the third and fourth of these ancestral digits.…

WHAT IS IT? This plump, innocent-looking character is a new species of burrowing frog. Up to about 4cm in length, it can be distinguished from other members of its genus by its liver-spotted skin dotted with raised orange pimples. WHERE IS IT? So far, it is known from a few suburban sites around the Indian city of Bengaluru, where it seems to be active above ground only during the monsoon season. Males have been heard calling during torrential rain, but go quiet between showers. With no permanent water bodies in its habitat, it breeds in temporary muddy puddles. WHAT’S THE MEANING BEHIND THE SCIENTIFIC NAME? The genus, Sphaerotheca, derives from the Greek for ‘spherical box’, while varshaabhu is a Sanskrit name meaning ‘rain birth’, a reference to the species’ monsoon…

Dandelions enjoy their moment in the sun each spring, turning roundabouts, roadsides, lawns and any other scraps of grass that have been spared mowers and chemical sprays into a sea of yellow. Don’t dismiss these humble yet prolific ‘weeds’. They produce more nectar and pollen than most other wildflowers and are brilliant for bumblebees, solitary bees and hoverflies. FACT. Lobsters pee out of their faces via special openings called nephrophores at the base of their antennae. The urine contains pheromones that allow lobsters to communicate with one another. Males pee to defend their caves, while females pee to indicate their readiness to mate.…

ONE BEE TO LOOK OUT FOR THIS APRIL is the red mason bee. It is common in towns and suburbia and resembles a small, gingery honeybee. The red mason is a kind of solitary bee, which means the female builds her own nest cells instead of living in a colony, like honeybees and bumblebees. In practice, that doesn’t mean she’s entirely on her own, since female red mason bees nest in loose groups. Their nesting requirements are very precise: tube-like cavities around 7-8mm in diameter, normally in hollow plant stems or sandy banks. It is easy to attract these beautiful bees to a garden or balcony simply by fixing cut-down bamboo canes to a south-facing wall – or buy a bee hotel. On sunny days in April, the female…

The stoat, with its long, slender body and black-tipped tail, is one of Britain’s most elusive animals. So count yourself lucky if you spot one in the flesh – instead, you may need to resort to field signs, such as droppings, to confirm its whereabouts. Stoats mainly feed on water voles, rabbits and other small mammals, so look for faeces containing bits of bone and hair. Like other carnivores, their droppings are thin with twisted ends, blackish brown in colour and deposited singly. Up to 8cm in length, they are longer and thicker than weasel droppings.…

SINCE 2009, AMY DICKMAN HAS COME ACROSS some horrific sights on the edge of Ruaha National Park in Central Tanzania where she studies, and tries to resolve, conflict between people and predators. They included lion cubs that had been speared and dumped in the bush and the carcasses of six lions, and 70 rare vultures, poisoned and left to endure long and painful deaths. She’s wept in her tent over countless nights. She’s posted photos of her grisly discoveries online, if you have the stomach for them. Dickman, director of WildCRU, a top conservation research unit based at the University of Oxford, says these killings were mainly carried out by local people trying to protect their cattle and goats. Lions threaten both their livelihoods – and their lives. As a…

Lived 520-499 m.y.a MORE THAN HALF A BILLION years ago, the world’s oceans were stalked by a soft-bodied predator that looked unlike anything alive today. This bizarre-looking animal was Anomalocaris, or ‘unusual shrimp’, and is widely regarded as the world’s first apex predator – the killer whale of its day. Anomalocaris was the largest hunter of the Cambrian period, measuring up to a metre in length from its grasping, frontal appendages to the tips of its tail fans. The appendages are thought to have been used to catch and crush prey. For a long time, hard-shelled marine arthropods known as trilobites were assumed to have been Anomalocaris’s favourite snack, but new research has suggested that this predator was more of a weakling, incapable of cracking tough trilobite armour. It’s now…

Lived 420 m.y.a to the present day THIS ELUSIVE FISH STILL inhabits some deep parts of the Indian Ocean, but up until the mid-20th century it was thought to be long-extinct. Then, in 1938, a strange-looking, 1.5m-long fish was caught off the coast of South Africa. After intense deliberation, expert ichthyologist JLB Smith declared it to be a Coelacanth. Coelacanth is a not-too-distant cousin of Tiktaalik (see page 68). It also has four fleshy fins that resemble limbs, but never made the transition to life on land. Instead, it’s thought Coelacanth adapted to life in the deep, sheltering in caves during the day and only venturing out at night to hunt. It’s probably this adaptation that saved Coelacanth from annihilation during four of Earth’s ‘Big Five’ mass extinctions.…

Lived 382-358 m.y.a IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE THAT AN ANIMAL affectionately known as The Dunk was ever a fearsome predator, but Dunkleosteus was exactly that. For nearly 30 million years it ruled the northern hemisphere’s oceans with an iron first – or rather, an iron bite. This 4m-long armoured fish had a bite force that would have rivalled some of the strongest biters today. At the very tip of its bony fangs, it’s estimated that Dunkleosteus may have been able to bite down at a force of 80,000 psi – enough to crush some of the strongest steel. Special jaw muscles meant Dunkleosteus was able to open its mouth in less than a 50th of a second, creating a small vacuum that could suck in prey. It outcompeted many early…

Email your questions to wildlifemagazine@ourmedia.co.uk AVIAN LIFESPANS ARE SOMETHING OF a paradox. Birds live fast, but they don’t die young. They burn energy at more than twice the rate of similar-sized mammals, so they should theoretically age more quickly due to the faster accumulation of harmful biochemical by-products. And yet, for reasons that are poorly understood, they generally live about three times longer and show few signs of age-related decline. Large parrots routinely exceed 60 years in captivity. A macaw once owned by Winston Churchill reportedly made it past 100. The oldest wild bird on record, a Laysan albatross named Wisdom, is still going strong at 72 and was seen incubating an egg in 2020. Even a tiny broad-billed hummingbird weighing just 5g can live for 14 years. Among garden…

This is widely held to be the lion’s mane jellyfish, based on the description of an animal caught off western North America by a geologist in 1856: “I measured myself a specimen at Nahant, the disk of which had attained a diameter of 7.5 feet [2.3m], the tentacles extending to a length of more than 120 feet [37m].” That’s longer than a blue whale, though biologists aren’t entirely convinced. More reliable are measurements of Nomura’s jellyfish from East Asia. Its tentacles are less impressive, but it can reach 2m in diameter and 200kg in weight. FACT. Scientists estimate that there could be two million species of fungus yet to be discovered. There are already about 200,000 described species known to exist across the world.…

How does a gulper eel feed? A gulper (or pelican) eel mostly looks like it should – long and sinuous – until it feeds, when it’s more like a balloon on a stick. This denizen of the deep is equipped with enormous jaws that extend backwards from the head, terminating in a pair of elbow-like hinges. Gulpers are lunge feeders, taking in smaller prey with a huge mouthful of water that causes the head to expand spectacularly. The water is then expelled through the gills, while crustaceans, fish and squid are swallowed. What is monoecy? Most plants are hermaphrodites. A typical flower bears both male and female parts that produce, respectively, pollen and ovules. A minority of hermaphrodite species, though, keep the male and female parts on different flowers. This…

ACROSS 8 Tree that produces a firm, juicy drupe (4) 9 Large rodent of South America (5) 10 Kingfish (4) 11 Macaw or cockatoo, perhaps (6) 12 Small songbird such as the dunnock (8) 13 ___ eel, fish that shocks its prey (8) 15 Insect-eating songbird of North America (6) 17 Female of the species Panthera leo (7) 19 ___ beetle, insect that secretes cantharidin in self-defence (7) 22 Desert rodent (6) 24 Projection on the bill of a baby bird (8) 26 North Sea islet known for its gannetry (4,4) 28 Like the foot of a grebe or coot (6) 30 Extinct bird of Mauritius (4) 31 Songbird, usually tropical, that might be giant, whiskered or noisy (5) 32 Wingless parasitic insects (4) DOWN 1 Jumping parasitic insect (4)…