Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2024 i BBC Wildlife Magazine

Science in Action The near extinction of vultures in India may be responsible for an additional half a million human deaths between 2000 and 2005. Environmental economist Anant Sudarshan of Warwick University explains why. Catch up on BBC Sounds BBC Inside Science In the episode titled Should Antarctica be Off Limits?’ presenter Victoria Gill investigates the impact tourism is having on its fragile ecosystem, and whether tourists – and even scientists – should be allowed to go at all. Catch up on BBC Sounds CrowdScience Presenter Caroline Steel meets snake expert Mark O’Shea to investigate the ingenious methods different snakes use to scale tree trunks in the episode titled How Does a Snake Climb a Tree? Catch up on BBC Sounds…

TREES OF LIFE A breathtaking panorama shows mangroves on the coast of Abu Dhabi. Less half the world’s original mangrove forest cover remains. An important ally against climate change, these trees are celebrated in the annual Mangrove Photography Awards and this was one of 52 winning shots. KEEPING WATCH The hypnotic gaze of a pair of pygmy lemon gobies guarding their glass-bottle home in the Batangas marine protected area of the Philippines – some of the most biologically diverse waters on Earth. At just 2cm long and found throughout the Indo-Pacific, these gobies often live in discarded bottles and rarely stray far from their adopted homes.…

A NEW, SPECTACULARLY ADORNED dinosaur found in Montana has been named Lokiceratops rangiformis by Mark Loewen and colleagues in the journal PeerJ. It is a ceratopsid – a four-legged, horned plant-eater akin to Triceratops – from the Late Cretaceous, 78 million years ago. Ceratopsids are famous for the bony frill that projects from the rear of the skull as well as for their nose and brow horns. Lokiceratops lacks a nose horn, has a pair of asymmetrical spikes on the frill midline and a pair of gigantic, curved, blade-like spikes on the frill’s upper edge. “This new dinosaur pushes the envelope on bizarre ceratopsid headgear, sporting the largest frill horns ever seen in a ceratopsid,” says Joseph Sertich of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Colorado State University. The new…

Wild architecture Covering 137,000km2 of north-eastern Australia, Cape York Peninsula is a mosaic of wild landscapes, from tropical rainforests and wetlands to savannas. The peninsula was connected to New Guinea for millennia, only becoming separated by rising sea levels around 6,500 years ago, and thus shares many species in common with its northern neighbour. Here, on the vast grassland of the Nifold Plain in Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park, the striking sculptural forms of termite mounds stand sentry under the stars. These towering structures are built with soil, saliva and dung by magnetic termites. Sunrise swamp Mist rises over Green Swamp, a vast wetland area within the Piccaninny Plains Sanctuary at the heart of the Cape York Peninsula. Part of the Archer River floodplain and home to a range of waterbirds, the…

A SEAFOOD PLATTER IS NOT ONLY A culinary adventure; it’s a zoological one, too. Staple ingredients include vertebrates (fish), molluscs (oysters, clams, scallops, snails, squid, octopus) and crustaceans (prawns, shrimps, crabs, lobsters). In some parts of the world, echinoderms (urchins, sea cucumbers), cnidarians (jellyfish, sea anemones) and sipunculids (peanut worms) might feature, too. It is surely among the most biodiverse of all meals. It’s the crustaceans that interest us here, of course. This vast, ancient group of arthropods includes more than just seafood delicacies. Woodlice, barnacles, water fleas and sandhoppers also count amongst its members. A defining characteristic of the group is that their limbs develop from versatile, two-pronged structures. A seafood platter contains no shortage of such ‘biramous’ appendages. A bit of rooting around at the base of a…

SMALL AND SNOWY-WHITE, BELUGA whales are social cetaceans that are well adapted to life in the polar waters of the northern hemisphere. Though belugas look like dolphins, they are whales and belong to the Monodontidae family, along with the narwhal. The Latin name for beluga whale – Delphinapterus leucas – neatly describes its appearance, translating as ‘white dolphin without a fin’. Where do beluga whales live? Belugas inhabit the waters of the sub-Arctic and high Arctic, and are found off the coasts of northern Canada, Alaska, Greenland, Svalbard and northern Russia. How are they adapted to the cold? Thick skin and a decent layer of blubber keep beluga whales warm. Their white coloration also serves them well. Born dark grey, the whales get lighter with age, turning pure white around…

ACROSS 8 New Zealand forest bird (6) 9 Conker (8) 10 Epidermis (4) 11 Waterbird sometimes called black-necked (5,5) 12 ___ snail, venomous sea creature (4) 13 Ground-dwelling Australian chat (10) 17 Unwanted plant (4) 18 ___ river dolphin, South Asian subspecies (5) 19 Wild plant in the genus Rumex with broad, green leaves (4) 21 Starling-like woodland bird of India (6,4) 23 Flightless birds of Australia (4) 24 Migratory songbird that may be pied, spotted or collared (10) 28 Wading bird with a long, down-curved bill (4) 29 Semi-aquatic snake of South America (8) 30 Type of scarab beetle (6) DOWN 1 Ancestor of the feral pigeon (4,4) 2 Wild canine of southern Africa (7,3) 3 African bird that frequents bee colonies (5,5) 4 Maple genus (4) 5 Grass-like…

LIKE MANY OF US, I AM CONCERNED about the massive decline in insects, particularly this year. However, I am also not convinced that leaving areas of our gardens for wildflowers and ‘weeds’ is beneficial. In 2020, as a lockdown project, I created a wild area in my garden with a pond, small wildflower meadow and logpile, and I allowed the brambles, nettles and ‘weeds’ to do their own thing. I have been monitoring the results. Where are the few bees, butterflies, moths and other insects going? Not to their specially created habitat but to my cultivated flower borders and herb and vegetable garden! Admittedly, I have filled these more manicured areas with nectar-rich plants (daisies, echinops, scabious, ‘open’ roses and cotoneaster, to name a few), but the insects and birds…

1. Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna Along with the platypus, echidnas are the only mammals on Earth to lay eggs. The long-beaked is one of four species and is named after the famous broadcaster. It was first described in 1961, but was not seen again until 2023, when footage of this spiky creature was captured in its home, the Cyclops Mountains of Indonesia. 2. Victorian grassland earless dragon Once common in the Australian state of Victoria, this lizard became Critically Endangered in the 1960s due to extensive habitat destruction. A 2019 study suggested it may have become extinct, but an ecological survey in 2023 located one individual. Subsequent fieldwork has resulted in the collection of 16 individuals, which are now in a breeding programme at Melbourne Zoo. 3. Coelacanth Known from fossil…

CAPERCAILLIE NUMBERS HAVE slumped in Scotland – the only part of Britain where the world’s largest grouse breeds. The population has declined to just over 500 in the wild, so low that the species could face national extinction. Capercaillies nest on the ground, so their eggs make easy pickings for generalist predators such as pine martens and badgers. It has been suggested that controlling martens in particular could help the birds to recover, yet there is little evidence to support this idea. In addition, the pine marten is protected in the UK, with numbers only recently increasing after a long history of persecution by humans. It’s a common dilemma for people trying to restore healthy populations of both predators and prey. However, a recent experiment in the Cairngorms National Park,…

IN A VIDEO TAKEN BY THE MARINE scientist Renaud de Stephanis, three orcas, or killer whales, can be seen swimming around the stern of a boat. One orca is vocalising in high-pitched tones before it gently nudges one of the twin rudders and swims off like a dog that’s just snatched some food from a kitchen top. “Whoa!” it seems to say, “that was fun.” This is just one of about 1,000 recorded interactions that orcas have had with boats in the Strait of Gibraltar and around the coasts of Spain and Portugal since the summer of 2020. Roughly 200 of those incidents have resulted in damage to the boats, with a total of seven sinking. It is behaviour that raises questions about our relationship with this species of dolphin.…

THE GIRAFFE’S NECK IS a wonder of nature that has puzzled scientists for centuries. Depending on the species, this feat of engineering can grow to over 2m long and weigh more than 272kg. Yet the giraffe has no more neck bones than a human. The very same seven neck vertebrae have supersized from roughly 1cm (in us) to over 25cm (in our long-necked mammal cousins). Further anatomical amplification is required to pump oxygenated blood up the neck to the giraffe’s lofty brain: the giraffe has a huge 60cm heart and lungs that can hold 55 litres of air. The giraffe’s neck is a magnet for structural superlatives and evolutionary speculation. Darwin postulated that it must have evolved to out-compete other herbivores for food, allowing these graceful giants to reach acacia…

IF YOU HAD TO NAME ONE EXAMPLE OF Madagascar’s fabulous fauna, chances are that the ring-tailed lemur (maki in Malagasy) would be one of the first creatures to come to mind. Seeing these quirky, energetic primates in their social groups, living out their lives and rearing young on their island home, is surely something for any bucket list. Lemurs are strepsirrhine primates and form part of the wider prosimian group. They evolved separately, descending directly from a far more ancient lineage than that of the higher (or simian) primates such as monkeys, apes and us humans. Compared with their simian cousins, lemurs have smaller brains, longer snouts, a highly developed sense of smell and a specialised tooth-comb (a tightly packed row of long, slender teeth) for grooming and feeding. Ever…

A PRIDE OF LIONS SILENTLY patrolling the grassland at dusk; a cheetah closing in on its prey with mind-blowing speed; a watchful leopard curled artfully in a tree. There’s nothing quite like a big cat in the African wilderness to make the heart skip a beat. We and our colleagues at the BBC Natural History Unit have long thought about how we could create a new series that would really get under the skin of Africa’s three big cat species, using a format that would appeal to a contemporary audience. Well, cue a revolution in night-time filming technology, plus the chance to immerse an international team of cinematographers in one of the last truly wild places in Africa, and the idea of Big Cats 24/7 was born. Big Cats 24/7…

ON A COLD SEPTEMBER MORNING in 2019, as the sun was rising over the South San Juan Mountains, I was sitting outside on my patio. I was attempting to stave off an oncoming panic attack, hoping that the crisp air and morning light would soothe the anxieties building in my brain. The past few months – years really – had been filled with tremendous loss. I was unsure how to process my grief. Isolation and despair sat heavily on my shoulders, and panic attacks had become a regular occurence. I had done everything I could to quell these intrusive bouts of anxiety – reaching out to loved ones, breathing exercises, journalling – and was beginning to feel guilty that my mental state was not improving. And so the spiral of…

IT’S A SCALDING HOT DAY IN JUNE 2023 AS I SWEEP MY large net somewhat clumsily back and forth through the long grass. Sweat drips into my eyes at regular intervals and I have to pause every few minutes to swipe insects from my hands and face. Ordinarily, I would not consider this a pleasurable activity, but this tiring work in a steamy Lithuanian meadow, known as a fenmire, might come in useful in the future. At the invitation of Rita Grinienė and other members of the Baltic Environmental Forum (BEF) of Lithuania, I’m practising the art of mosquito capture. My quarry will be used as food in a pioneering 10-year conservation project to save Europe’s rarest songbird: the aquatic warbler. The project, launched in 2016, is testing translocation as…

ANY ELONGATED, FLEXIBLE, FLESHY appendage that is not supported by bones or any sort of rigid skeleton might be called a tentacle. Powered by muscles working against internal fluid pressure, tentacles are used variously as sensory organs, to catch and manipulate food, and in locomotion. Perhaps the archetypal tentacles are those that encircle the mouths of cephalopod molluscs, such as squid, octopuses and cuttlefish, which are equipped with suckers that help grasp prey and other objects. In octopuses, they are also used as walking legs. Other molluscs have tentacles, too. Two pairs, one of which bears eyes on the tips, can be seen on the heads of slugs and snails. Tentacles are also a characteristic feature of jellyfish, sea cucumbers, anemones and other cnidarians, and are often armed with stinging…

This depends on whether you like your flying birds to be wide, tall or heavy. The greatest wingspan belongs to the snowy albatross, at up to 3.63m. The tallest is the sarus crane of southern Asia and Australia, which stands at 1.8m. And the heaviest is the Kori bustard of southern Africa, which weighs up to 19kg. All would have been dwarfed by Argentavis magnificens, though, an extinct raptor known from six-million-year-old fossils. Weighing 70kg and boasting a 7m wingspan, it was too bulky to take off under its own steam and would have had to run down slopes to become airborne.…

What are osteoderms? Osteoderms are the result of bone tissue forming in the skin. This occurs in the scales of crocodiles, alligators and other reptiles, and in mammals such as armadillos. Osteoderms provide armour-like protection against predators. A rolled-up armadillo, for example, is almost entirely encased in bone. In crocodilians, osteoderms also aid temperature regulation, containing a network of blood vessels that can transfer heat to and from the animal’s surroundings. What’s the rarest flower? There’s a lot of competition for this title, because many plants are extinct in the wild and hang on only in small, cultivated populations. Two species endemic to New Zealand’s Three Kings Islands had been reduced to a single individual when they were discovered in 1945. Happily, the Three Kings kaikōmako and the Three Kings…

Fight to the end A purple heron struggles to take a snake, but the snake has tied itself tightly to the grass. The fight lasted for about 15 minutes before the snake had to admit defeat. Kalyan Acharya, Kolkata, India City dwellers A golden jackal roams the illuminated streets of Kolkata during a festival. Urban expansion means these once-shy creatures now live in close proximity to humans. Arghya Adhikary, Kolkata, India Curious creatures A group of lively river otters emerge from glistening waters in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Matthew Elston, Utah, USA On the web This golden orb weaving spider’s web was inhabited by several other species that ate smaller food she deemed unworthy. Teagan Hartfiel, Deception Bay, Australia Welcome visitor A flock of 20 or so Bohemian waxwings settled on…

NICK BAKER “As if velvet worms are not already fascinating enough, the way they catch their prey is bonkers” P.36 GILLIAN BURKE “Making hay was possibly the height of our love affair with grasses, giving rise to seasonal rhythms” P.27 MARK CARWARDINE “What is so frustrating is the pretence that culling badgers will help farmers – it hasn’t and it won’t” P.30 LUCY COOKE “Cooperative care has been documented that allows giraffe mothers to go to work” P.29 MIKE DILGER “Ring-tailed lemurs have a repertoire of at least 28 calls, to convey all manner of information” P.32…

EARLY DETECTION OF WILDFIRES IS BECOMING increasingly important, especially in places like Australia – in the summer of 2019-20, more than 12 million hectares, an area roughly the size of England, were impacted. According to the University of Sydney, “about 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 181 million birds and 51 million frogs occupied areas hit by the fires.” More than 60,000 koalas – out of a total population of around 300,000 adults – were killed or affected. Now help is at hand, thanks to scientists from the University of South Australia, who have found a way to use satellites and artificial intelligence (AI) to increase wildfire detection rates. The key innovation is to put AI-enabled software into tiny satellites, called cubesats, that weigh just a few kilograms. The first…

Over a dozen species, including this white cay iguana, have been saved from extinction in the Caribbean by conservationists. Since 1993, the Caribbean Alliance project has worked on 30 islands and seen some remarkable comebacks; white cay iguana numbers have risen from below 150 to over 2,000.…

Sunny side up Ring-tailed lemurs often warm up after a cold night by basking in the morning sun. They pose with arms outstretched, bellies exposed and faces directed towards the light, in a posture that resembles a yoga pose (see image, left). Border patrol Each troop holds a territory, or home-range, which is regularly patrolled to ensure there are no incursions from neighbouring groups. Any trespassers will be driven back over the border, with the females leading the charge – so any babies present during the skirmishes need to hang on tight! Sounding off Ring-taileds are considered one of the noisiest lemurs, and their constant vocalisations help to convey all manner of information. Research has uncovered that they have a repertoire of at least 28 calls, used for everything from promoting…

LIONS MADUMO AND BIG TOE Most likely brothers, Madumo and Big Toe are 10 years old and have been the dominant males of the Xudum pride for more than five years. The pair have a close bond and make a strong and formidable team, with Madumo the brains and Big Toe the brawn. However, their dominance continues to be tested. Madumo is slightly larger than Big Toe and has a dark tint at the centre of his mane. Big Toe is named for the long toe on his front foot. LEOPARD XUDUM Xudum, named after the island in the Okavango, is the resident female in the filming area. Her territory surrounds the filming camp and she is well-habituated to the crew’s vehicles. She is five years old, and at the…

AS WE MOVE TOWARDS OUR NET-zero targets, solar power has become a leading thread of conversation. Keir Stamer’s new Labour government has already outlined plans to boost solar power in the UK, unveiling a proposed expansion of rooftop installations (the ‘rooftop revolution’) and approving three major new solar farms in Rutland, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. Even in our relatively benign climate, the effects of climate change are stark. No sooner have the floods of winter and spring receded than the drier summers roll in. There is a pressing need to transition from fossil fuels to renewables, and the aim is to have 70GW of solar-generating capacity by 2035. If you’ve recently been on a long journey anywhere the UK, chances are you’ll have rattled past a gleaming assembly of solar panels.…

Corncrake Related to waterbirds, corncrakes are secretive little birds that hide in tall grass or reeds. You’ll hear this bird’s rasping call before seeing it. Great snipe A skulking, cryptic wader that frequents remote bogs and wet meadows. It migrates to Africa in autumn – now in declining numbers. Citrine wagtail This songbird occurs mainly in central Asia and the Middle East, but has breeding grounds as far west as Poland. Short-eared owl Medium-sized owl that hunts low over farm and grassland to feed on small mammals, such as voles, and birds. Black-tailed godwit A large long-beaked wader whose chest turns bright orange in summer. Red-listed in the UK.…

THERE ARE VARIOUS SNAKE ISLANDS around the world. Perhaps the most high profile in recent years is the one in the Black Sea. It hit the headlines in February 2022 when it was captured by Russian forces during the early days of the invasion of Ukraine. But this is a magazine about wildlife, not military history, so we should probably go with a Snake Island that is famous (or, even better, infamous) for its limbless reptiles. Ilha da Queimada Grande, to give it its Portuguese name, is a lump of rock sitting 33km off the Brazilian mainland. It has come to be known as Snake Island because of the thousands of venomous snakes that occupy its 43 hectares. The golden lancehead is a species of pit viper found nowhere else…

MAMMALS ARE SPLIT INTO THREE groups based on how their offspring develop before weaning. All mammals make milk to nourish newborns, but only one group, the eutherians, feed babies using a placenta during a long pregnancy. The other two groups, marsupials and monotremes (M&Ms), use different strategies at the end of reproduction. So what is a placenta? It’s a structure that provides nutrients, but with more ingredients than an energy-rich egg yolk. In true mammals (eutherians), offspring are born after a long gestation and the placenta creates an intimate link between mother and baby in the womb. Though true mammals are known as placentals, the M&M groups use placentas too: monotremes (prototherians) have a temporary structure; marsupials (metatherians) use one over a much shorter pregnancy. What are marsupials? Pouched mammals,…

How did your career start? I caught the photography bug while finishing my biology studies around 2009. Initially, I focused solely on capturing nature, viewing humans as the negative part of the equation. However, once I embraced the idea that we must be part of the solution, everything started falling into place. Which of your photos is most significant to you, and why? My photo of the southern white rhino foetus, part of my coverage of BioRescue’s IVF project in Kenya, affected me emotionally. Working with scientists and conservationists who are devoted to their missions fills me with hope and positivity, giving me a stronger connection to the images I produce. What’s been the most rewarding work? Without doubt the GAIA initiative, where biologists and vets work with vultures and…

Threatened by habitat loss and hunting for bushmeat, the western chimpanzee is now listed as Critically Endangered in the wild. Fortunately, in the remote forest of Sierra Leone, this rare ape has a hero fighting its corner: conservationist Bala Amarasekaran, whose mission to save the subspecies began back in 1998, with the rescue of an orphaned young male named Bruno. ON SALE 19th SEPTEMBER…