Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2024 i BBC Wildlife Magazine

Are Our Carbon Sinks Failing? The Earth’s natural carbon sinks, which absorb half of our pollution, appear to be collapsing. This episode of BBC Inside Science asks why, and whether we can still reach our climate goals. Catch up on BBC Sounds Silverback Cameraman Vianet Djenguet joins a team of conservationists in the Congo, to report on their efforts to save the Critically Endangered eastern lowland gorilla from extinction. This 90-minute film follows his three-month adventure.  Catch up on iPlayer The Magic of Microbes In this episode of BBC Radio Four’s Rare Earth, Tom Heap and Helen Czerski go in search of microbes with a huge appetite for carbon dioxide, revealing the role they could play in the fight against climate change. Catch up on BBC Sounds Keep in touch…

A NEW REWILDING PROJECT IS SET TO introduce the tauros – a species bred to resemble the extinct aurochs – to the rolling hills and forests of the Scottish Highlands by 2026. Aurochs roamed and grazed Europe for thousands of years, creating diverse habitats for countless species. But the ancient cattle breed disappeared from Britain around 1,300 BC, then later became globally extinct due to habitat loss and hunting. The DNA of the aurochs has survived in several ancient cattle breeds, though, and since the early 2000s scientists in the Netherlands have sought to bring them back to life by interbreeding breeds that are genetically close to the aurochs. In doing so, they developed the tauros. Now, in a new project led by conservation charity Trees for Life, plans are underway…

The usually solitary day octopus has been observed taking part in multispecies hunting groups, working with fish species such as the blacktip grouper and blue goatfish to find prey, a recent study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution has revealed. The researchers also found that the species within a hunting group (usually one octopus and up to ten fish) have different roles. The fish are the explorers, moving around looking for prey such as small fish and crustaceans; the octopus is the ‘unlocker’, flushing the quarry out of hiding. The fish decide the direction of travel; the octopus decides if and when the group should move. Kills are not shared, but the teamwork increases the odds of a meal. Any fish that exploits the group, for example by taking prey…

THERE’S A REMOTE SPECK IN THE Indian Ocean that was discovered on 25th December, 1643 by a little known English sea captain called William Mynors. It was duly named Christmas Island, and its sovereignty passed from the UK to Australia in 1958. The island has since become renowned for hosting a natural spectacle so special that Sir David Attenborough ranked it among his 10 greatest moments captured for television. This wonderful event is, of course, the annual breeding march of the island’s endemic red crabs. Red crabs need a humid environment, so spend most of the dry season confined to rainforests in the island’s interior, either underground in burrows (with leaves plugging the entrances) or deep within rock crevices. They emerge occasionally to feed, mostly on fallen leaves, fruit, flowers…

A LITTLE YELLOW HELICOPTER HOVERS ABOVE Maui’s vivid green slopes. The co-pilot’s voice crackles over the intercom. “Drop!” he shouts. A biodegradable pod, the size and shape of an ice-cream cone, pops out of a plexiglass chute and tumbles towards Earth – an insect Trojan horse carrying 1,000 male mosquitoes. The pod breaks open upon impact, releasing a small “Mosquito releases are underway on east Maui,” says a triumphant Hanna Mounce. As programme manager for the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project, part of her job is to eradicate mosquitoes. To do that, she is releasing millions more. Mosquitoes were accidentally introduced to the Hawaiian Islands in the 1800s. Alongside habitat loss and invasive predators such as cats, rats and mongooses, they contributed to an archipelago-wide collapse of native bird populations.…

Homecoming: A Guided Journal To Lead You Back To Nature By Melissa Harrison, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £20 PLENTY OF GUIDES DISCUSS the wheres and whens of wildlife watching – this one is more about noticing. Melissa Harrison calls it a “doing book” and invites us to take time out to reconnect with nature. Full of seasonal prompts, with space to write down your own experiences, Homecoming is as much a manual for rewilding yourself as an introduction to Britain’s wild riches. It’s a warm and welcoming book, too, thanks to lovely watercolours by Amanda Dilworth. Reading it is rather like going on a ramble with a friend who’s deeply engaged with nature and can’t wait to share it all. Another joyful book on nature connection is Ebb and Flow (Bloomsbury,…

LIFE (AS WE KNOW IT) IS ADAPTED FOR Earth’s habitats, but some organisms may be able to survive on other planets or moons – worlds that are often exposed to dangers from outer space, including cosmic radiation. So, which of our native species could tolerate such harsh environments, and why do we need to know? What makes Earth special? Chemistry and physics imply that biology requires three things: building blocks to form living cells, fuel to power the biochemical reactions that sustain life, and a liquid solvent – most probably water – where life’s reactions can occur. Earth has those requirements and also protects its inhabitants from radiation – waves or particles that carry energy and radiate from a source, such as light from the sun. Radiation can transfer energy…

How did your career start? I’ve loved animals my whole life. I’d often go birding and looking for insects in local parks and nature centres, which propelled a love for photography. I got my first ‘wildlife’ lens, a Nikon 200-500, which led me into both wildlife photography and conservation storytelling. Photography is my way to give something back to nature, but I’ll never be able to repay fully. Which of your photographs is most important to you? A portrait of a tarantula at sunset. Tarantulas have been vilified and seen as monsters for millenia; this image shows just how nonconfrontational they truly are. The sunset is the icing on the cake. What’s been your most memorable encounter with wildlife? The first time I found a jumping spider. I was looking…

1. Proailurus Widely considered the first ‘true’ cat and a common ancestor of all extant felines, Proailurus first appeared in Eurasia 30 million years ago (MYA) and had a long tail, large eyes, and sharp claws and teeth. It’s thought to have been partially arboreal, hunting on forest floors before dragging its prey up into the safety of the canopy. 2. Sabre-tooth cat This infamous predator, Smilodon, hunted on the same frost-covered American grasslands as our Ice Age ancestors until 10,000 years ago. It was robustly built, looking more like a bear, with stout hindlimbs and long, powerful forelimbs. Hundreds of fossils pulled from La Brea Tar Pits in the USA make it perhaps the most studied prehistoric cat. 3. Cave lion During the Ice Age, the cave lion (Panthera…

THIRTEEN EUROPEAN HAMSTERS HAVE BEEN released onto the Tarutino Steppe on the Ukrainian side of the Danube Delta as part of a project to revive the ecology of Europe’s last remaining grassy steppe landscapes. The rodents once thrived across the continent, but have almost vanished due to habitat loss, environmental pollution and targeted extermination as an agricultural pest. The work has been spearheaded by conservation organisation Rewilding Ukraine (part of Rewilding Europe), who has partnered with Kyiv Zoo, where the hamsters were bred, and the Tarutino Steppe Nature and Ethnographic Park to bring the project to life. Larger than their familiar domestic relatives, the rodents are voracious burrowers and play a vital role in the steppe’s ecosystem, dispersing seeds and improving biodiversity and soil fertility. They also provide prey for…

THE KERGUELEN ISLANDS LIE DEEP IN the southern Indian Ocean about halfway between Madagascar and Antarctica. The average annual temperature is 4.5˚C, wind speeds reach up to 150kph and it rains or snows for 285 days a year. Like South Georgia or the Falklands, which are on a similar latitude, the archipelago is ideal for albatrosses, petrels and other seabirds to raise their chicks in the absence of ground predators. “Cats have been linked to the severe decline or extinction of 30 species of forest birds in Hawaii” Or it used to be. Incredibly, despite the harsh climate that is about as far removed from their Middle Eastern origins as can be imagined, domestic cats survive on Grand Terre (the main island) on a diet of non-native rabbits and mice,…

MOTHERHOOD IS hard. Raising a family takes time, energy and a hefty dollop of devotion. But not if you are a cuckoo. Approximately one third of the 146 species of cuckoo, from the family Cuculidae, are maternal parasites. These cunning females simply dump their eggs in another bird’s nest, leaving the duped hosts to do all their dirty work. The sight of a diminutive warbler feeding a giant greedy cuckoo chick makes brood parasitism look like an exploitative one-way street. But hosts are far from defenceless. The co-evolutionary arms race of attack and counterattack across species reveals an ingenious spectrum of parasitic deception and triumphant defence by the unwitting foster parents. There are three major ways the cuckoo tries to outsmart her host… Step one: invade the nest To sneak…

A special continent Four years in the making, this seven-part epic narrated by Sir David Attenborough is, perhaps surprisingly, the first time Asia has been the focus of a landmark BBC natural-history series. This is the largest continent on Earth, home to high mountains, dense jungles and vast deserts. “Asia has an incredible cast of animals in incredible places,” says executive producer Roger Webb. “As Sir David says, there’s nowhere with more untold stories.” Filming the red panda, which features in episode two, was one of the camera crew’s great triumphs. These engaging mammals inhabit the forested foothills of the Himalayas, and are usually shy and elusive. Fish out of water The dusky-gilled mudskipper is seen as often on land as in water. It traps water in its enlarged gill…

‘I’iwi The ‘i’iwi is the most recognisable honeycreeper, found only on Hawaii, Kauai, and Maui, and numbers 250,00-500,000. Its status is Vulnerable. ‘Alauahio Endemic to Maui, this straight-billed honeycreeper numbers around 60,000 individuals, with a conservation status of Endangered. ‘Amakihi Found only on Hawaii, Maui, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, this species numbers 800,000, and is Endangered on Kauai and Near Threatened on Oahu. ‘Akohekohe This ornate honeycreeper is endemic to just 20km2 of habitat on Maui. At fewer than 2,000 individuals, it is Critically Endangered. ’Apapane The most common honeycreeper is found on Hawaii, Maui, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai and Lanai. With over a million individuals its status is Least Concern.…

Email your questions to wildlifemagazine@ourmedia.co.uk What is an ungulate? IN COMMON PARLANCE, AN UNGULATE IS A hoofed mammal. Cattle, deer, antelopes, sheep, pigs, horses and tapirs have all transformed their toenails into hooves. In zoological terms, though, the group also includes hippos, camels and rhinos, which lack hooves, and others that don’t even have legs. The vast majority of ungulates are vegetarian. Many possess complex digestive systems, including multiple stomachs that contain symbiotic microbes that help them break down tough plant material, and are adorned with defensive horns or antlers. They all share a common ancestor that was pottering around 50-odd million years ago on conventional five-toed feet. Its descendants, though, have lost some of those toes. Cattle, deer, antelope, hippos, camels, sheep and pigs, known as even-toed ungulates, or…

DUMBO OCTOPUSES ARE A GROUP OF deep-sea cephalopods belonging to the genus Grimpoteuthis, which includes about 17 known species. They get their name from their elephant ear-like fins, said to resemble those belonging to the character Dumbo, the loveable young elephant from the 1941 Disney film. These mysterious, tentacled creatures live in dark, cold waters in oceans around the world, making them challenging to research. How big are Dumbo octopuses? Reportedly, the largest Dumbo octopus recorded was 1.8m long and weighed 5.9kg but, on average, Grimpoteuthis species are 20-30cm long. For comparison, the record holder for largest cephalopod is the giant squid at 13m long and weighing 495kg! How do they move? Dumbo octopuses flap their strong fins (supported by internal cartilage in their mantle) to propel themselves gracefully through…

ACROSS 1 Trees in the genus Acer (6) 5 Tropical tree in the chinaberry family (8) 9 Nightjar of North America (8) 10 Tree known for its blossom and sweet fruits (6) 11 Migratory black, white and red butterfly (3,7) 12 5 Across or 10 Across, perhaps (4) 13 Grey fungus that affects grapes (5,3) 16 Small falcons of Asia and north Africa (6) 17 Young whales (6) 19 Leafy vegetables (8) 21 Substance found in some seaweed cells (4) 22 Crested cuckoo also known as a chaparral bird (10) 25 ___’s wort, yellow-flowered plant in the family Hypericaceae (2,4) 26 Old scientific term for a snake (8) 27 ___ starling, songbird of southern Europe (8) 28 Hard anatomical structure, such as the mouthpart of an aphid (6) DOWN 2…

NICK BAKER “The hooded pitohui’s plumage shouts ‘I’m toxic!’ to would-be visually guided predators” P.36 GILLIAN BURKE “The reconstruction of Gaza is likely to result in up to 60 million tons of CO2 emissions” P.27 MARK CARWARDINE The frank conservationist looks at the truth behind greenwashing and whose words we can trust P.30 LUCY COOKE “Common cuckoo chicks can echo the begging calls of a whole brood of reed warblers” P.29 MIKE DILGER “Females raise their pincers skywards and perform what can only be described as a jig for joy” P.32…

ON CHRISTMAS EVE IN 1956, THE late Michael Bond bought a small toy bear that had been left on the shelf in a London store because he felt sorry for it. He took it home as a present for his wife and named it Paddington, after the railway station. Michael began writing about the bear from “Darkest Peru” and discovered he had a book on his hands. “The real Paddington is a seed disperser, predator and, importantly, an ecological engineer” A Bear Called Paddington was published on 13th October 1958 and a whole series of tales about the charming protagonist followed. They have been since adapted for TV and film and have captured the imaginations of millions. The latest movie about the bear is Paddington in Peru (released in the…

“There is an urgent need to understand the complex ways climate change is affecting Earth’s geology” ASK AROUND AND YOU’LL FIND that not many people can say they have heard of a pingo, let alone describe one. Yet these strange, often beautiful geomorphic curiosities are increasingly coming under scrutiny from climate scientists. Pingos are mounds of earth-covered ice that form in regions of permafrost. As the climate warms, they are degrading, releasing a greenhouse gas much more potent than carbon dioxide in the process. The problem with studying pingos, as I was to learn, is that they can be a devil to reach. Indeed, the challenges associated with their remoteness is one of the reasons why the Arctic Research Group (ARG), which has been conducting expeditions in the High Arctic…

Bonding time This polar bear mother and cub in Churchill, Canada, had been feeding on a seal and looked content after cleaning their faces. It was a joy to watch them interact.  Robin Bennett, Shrewsbury Slowly, slowly I spent a week photographing golden jackals on the Romanian side of the Danube Delta. Even in this remote wilderness they are cautious so patience is required. John Boyle, Ipswich Incoming! As a wildlife photographer, capturing comical and expressive Atlantic puffins against the rugged coastal background of Skomer is a dream come true. Peter Batt, Horsham Good spot I dusted off my 100mm macro lens and headed to Gosforth Nature Reserve, where I was lucky enough to see this four-spotted chaser dragonfly. John Brown, Ponteland Hop to it On a journey across West…

MARK CARWARDINE’S COLUMN IN THE November issue was about new regulations restricting the distance boats can approach a polar bear in Svalbard. I was lucky enough to go on the trip of a lifetime to Svalbard a couple of summers ago. There were 13 passengers and six crew on our small boat, and our guides and crew took extraordinary measures to ensure that no disturbance was caused to any wildlife, including polar bears. The trip was magical as a result. My experience has convinced me that the Norwegian authorities have got these new regulations very wrong, unless their intention is to end tourism in Svalbard. I would agree with Mark, the previous system worked very well. My only suggested refinement would be to limit the number and, particularly, the capacity…

When it comes to conservation, it’s human nature to prioritise the species we find charismatic or cute – our in-depth feature unravels how aesthetic preference can decide who survives. We also showcase the wonder of wild Scandinavia, look at the status of turtle doves in the UK, and report on the remarkable return of saiga antelope to the remote steppe of Kazakhstan. ON SALE 12th DECEMBER…