Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2025 i BBC Wildlife Magazine

Asia This is the first time that Asia has been the focus of a landmark BBC wildlife series. Journey through the continent’s most stunning landscapes, witness a wealth of wildlife and uncover stories of extraordinary animal behaviour. Catch up on iPlayer Joanna Page’s Wild Life Joanna Page follows her lifelong dream to become a wildlife rescue volunteer, helping everything from foxes to falcons, magpies to mice. During her time at an animal rescue centre, can she master the three Rs – rescue, rehab and release? Catch up on iPlayer Echo As elephant populations were mercilessly persecuted in the 1970s-80s, one individual, Echo, was fitted with a radio collar by Cynthia Moss, embarking on a 50-year journey that revolutionised our understanding of these huge mammals. Catch up on BBC Sounds Keep…

TELLING TAILS This tender image of two red foxes, taken in Washington, USA, won the animal portraits category in the 2024 Nature Photographer of the Year awards. As the siblings were walking, the tawny male gently pulled the female towards him with his tail. “I can only think of this behaviour as a show of affection,” says photographer Marcia Walters. EYE-POPPING The prominent ringed eyes of this Mozambique ghost goby give it away, its translucent body otherwise camouflaged against an orange sea fan on a coral reef in Misool, Indonesia. The large eyes allow the fish, which usually only grows to about 2cm long, to spot passing planktonic matter.…

IT’S JUST AFTER 11AM ON THE NORMANTON Road in Derby. A man is striding across a parking lot, shouting at no one in particular, his words lost amid the urban hum of a weekday morning. Adam Slater, community organiser for Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, smiles as if he’s heard it all before. “You’ve got these two parks – Arboretum Park and Normanton Park – and there were all these little pockets of green space in between that were often abused with fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour,” he says. “It was sad, because this area doesn’t have a lot of green space.” “People from ethnic minority backgrounds have on average 11 times less access to green spaces” As part of The Wildlife Trusts’ Nextdoor Nature project, which ran from 2022-2024 and aimed to…

FEW SPECIES HAVE BEEN more misunderstood than the vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus). Slanderous falsities started with 16th-century New World explorers, who returned to Europe with lurid tales of bloodthirsty beasts that drained their troops as they slept. For a start, vampire bats don’t suck blood, they lap it from an open wound. And being the size of a mouse means their liquid diet amounts to little more than a spoonful. They also rarely attack people – they tend to feed on domesticated cattle or chickens. Vampire bats approach their victims by stalking them from the ground. They use their exaggerated, winged hands to drag themselves forward while bouncing on stunted rear legs. This sounds awkward, but they move surprisingly fast. One inspired scientist placed bats on a treadmill and they…

IN JULY 2012, AS WE APPROACHED our 25th wedding anniversary, my husband Ralph died suddenly, following a major heart attack. In my grieving state, I knew that keeping busy and having goals were essential to my healing, but I had no idea direction to take. Several months later, a friend was showing me photographs from her trip to Antarctica and it suddenly came to me: penguins. I have loved penguins since I was a child and delighted in their tuxedo-like plumage and funny antics, not to mention their diversity and incredible behaviour. Without thinking, I found myself announcing that I was going to photograph every species of penguin in its natural habitat. And with that, Mission Penguin was born. At this stage I wasn’t sure how many species of penguin…

What is blubber? BLUBBER IS A WOBBLY SORT OF WORD, perfect for describing the thick layer of fat cells that lies under the skin of whales, seals, penguins, manatees and other marine animals. Terrestrial animals keep out the cold with fur or feathers, which trap a layer of warm air against the skin. In water, though, the pressure forces out the air. Theoretically, a furry marine animal could trap a layer of warm water but that would require much more energy to heat compared to the same volume of air. So marine animals shroud themselves in a layer of insulating fat instead. Not only does blubber keep the warmth in, it also serves as a store of energy and a buoyancy aid. Unfortunately for whales, blubber has had its uses…

MANY ANTS, BEES, TERMITES AND wasps form societies in which members belong to social groups (castes) with different roles, such as reproduction or foraging. The individual living things – organisms – in a colony often work together in such a coordinated way that they appear to be one entity, or ‘superorganism’. What is a superorganism? It’s a level of biological organisation above the organism. This concept was popularised by biologists Bert Hölldobler and EO Wilson in their 2009 book The Superorganism, but the two authors disagreed on an exact meaning of the word so there are several definitions. The clearest is in the book’s glossary: “A society that possesses features of organisation analogous to the physiological properties of single organisms.” Basically, a colony’s individuals are like parts of a body.…

How did your career start? My interest in marine life began in 1988, when I was learning to dive off the Channel Island of Jersey. I was fascinated by the creatures I saw and wanted to photograph them in more detail. Which of your images is most significant to you? A shot of a juvenile crawfish that I took in May 2014, off my home island of Sark. It was the first time I’d ever seen a juvenile of this rare crustacean, which was fished to commercial extinction in the Channel Islands in the 1960s and 70s. In 2014, the species started to make an unexplained recovery off the south and west of the British Isles, and I worked to get it protected off Sark by 2018. The image reminds…

NEARLY A CENTURY AGO, THE SYRIAN wild ass, one of six subspecies of onager and the only one found in Saudi Arabia, was declared extinct, a result of hunting, habitat loss and competition with livestock. Last year, the country welcomed back these equids with the introduction of the Persian onager, a fellow subspecies and the closest genetic relative of the Syrian wild ass. Seven individuals were translocated to the Prince Mohammed bin Salman Royal Reserve in northwest Saudi Arabia from the Shaumari Reserve in Jordan, with the aim of establishing a new founder population. The herd recently welcomed a foal, an encouraging sign that the animals are adapting. The Prince Mohammed bin Salman Royal Reserve encompasses 15 distinct ecosystems across 24,500km, and is one of the most biodiverse protected areas…

A recent biodiversity survey by Fauna & Flora in Cambodia’s rugged Cardamom Mountains has revealed an extraordinary array of invertebrates, reptiles, birds, amphibians and mammals, highlighting the ecological significance of the area. The species recorded include the spectacular Cardamom green pit-viper, Sunda pangolin, Asian elephant and dhole – a type of wild dog.…

Big blue In the open ocean off the coast of Baja California, northern Mexico, California sealions (Zalophus californianus) hunt among teeming shoals of sardines and mackerel. These are rich hunting grounds, especially from October to December, as nutrients well up from the deep, attracting plankton and, in turn, fish. While these sealions generally hunt in shallow waters, they sometimes venture into deeper seas such as these, swimming hundreds of miles over several days. Group dynamics Near the surface of the water, California sealions often gather in groups. They are extremely social animals that, according to Henley, often demonstrate playfulness, anger and affection. This group comprises mainly adult females with some younger males; the dominant bull is out of sight. Good vibrations Highly sensitive whiskers (vibrissae) enable California sealions to detect…

Among terrestrial species, that title would go to one of several closely related species of giant African land snail. According to Guinness World Records, the record holder, with a shell measured in 1978 at 27.3 cm long, was named Gee Geronimo and kept as a pet in West Sussex. Some marine snails can grow bigger than that, though. Australian trumpet shells can reach 72.2cm in length and weigh as much as an average three-year-old human. Some fossil ammonites exceeded 2m in diameter but, being more closely related to octopuses and squid, they don’t really count as snails. FACT. Red wood ants have a venom gland that generates formic acid, which they use to fight against pathogens in their nests and as a weapon against other insects, such as wood-boring beetles.…

THE CANE TOAD IS A LARGE AND highly toxic amphibian. It’s considered one of the world’s most destructive invasive species after being introduced to countries across the globe as a biological control against insect ‘pests’ on sugar-cane crops, hence its common name. These introductions were largely unsuccessful, particularly in Australia. What is the cane toad’s natural habitat? These terrestrial, nocturnal toads are native to South and Central America. They are adaptable and inhabit a variety of humid habitats, including grasslands, woodlands, wetlands and agricultural areas. They also live in urban areas, roadsides and gardens. The toads are attracted to places where there is standing water for egg-laying. How does it produce toxin? Cane toads have glands on their shoulders, known as parotoid glands. These release a milky-white toxin (known as…

The crossword ACROSS 9 1984 David Attenborough series (3,6,6) 10 New World bird that may be boat-tailed or slender-billed (7) 12 2021 bird ‘biography’ by Stephen Moss (3,4) 13 Duck related to the bufflehead (9) 14 Tiny winged insect (5) 15 Water ___, insect also known as a pond skater (7) 18 Dandelion-like flowers in the genus Leontodon (7) 21 Dragonfly larva (5) 23 Alternative name for a gerbil (6,3) 25 Spiny monotreme (7) 26 Predatory fish of North America (7) 29 North Pacific seabird in the auk family (7,8) DOWN 1 Male deer (4) 2 Flightless bird also called the Māori hen (4) 3 Foodplant of the swallowtail caterpillar (8) 4 ___ tuna, Thunnus obesus, large marine fish (6) 5 Beak protrusions that allow baby birds to break out…

Airing soon on BBC One and iPlayer, The Americas is a groundbreaking new series, narrated by Tom Hanks, that showcases the wonder of the supercontinent like never before. In our special feature, the series’ producers share the inside stories of this natural history extravaganza, whose ten episodes transport us from Canada’s frozen north all the way south to Patagonia. ON SALE 6th MARCH…

NICK BAKER “It was the bug of my dreams, right in front of me, sat proudly atop a rotten tree trunk” P.36 GILLIAN BURKE “Life can exist without light, and in extreme temperatures. But it cannot exist without water” P.27 MARK CARWARDINE “We Europeans are incapable of living alongside predators” P.30 LUCY COOKE “Vampires use infrared sensors in their noses to detect the heat of blood pumping” P.29 MIKE DILGER “It would have been a familiar sight across the wetlands of the 14th and 15th centuries” P.32…

A NEW STUDY BY THE ZAMBIAN CARNIVORE Programme and partners has revealed the extent to which wildlife protection measures, such as anti-poaching patrols, can benefit lion populations. Depletion of prey such as antelope due to wire snares used for bushmeat hunting is one of the biggest threats to large carnivores across Africa, but prior to the research, surprisingly little was known about how this activity impacts lion populations, nor how effective intervention could be. Conducted between 2013 and 2021 in Zambia’s Greater Kafue National Park, home to the country’s second-largest lion population, the study found that a lack of prey was causing mothers to roam further afield in search of food, leading not only to a low survival rate of cubs but, in some cases, the inability to breed altogether.…

RESEARCHERS HAVE REVEALED THAT Europe’s native oyster reefs – the continent’s equivalent of tropical coral reefs – are now classifed as Collapsed on the IUCN’s Red List of Ecosystems. The European native oyster (Ostrea edulis), also known as the European flat oyster, is the only true oyster species native to UK waters. According to the assessment, led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the University of Edinburgh, and published in the journal Conservation Letters, oyster reefs were once bustling habitats that together covered more than 1.7 million hectares – an area larger than Greater London. Today, however, due to overfishing, pollution and other human activity, there is almost nothing left of these ecosystems. Most oyster reefs in Europe are now scattered and degraded, with oysters found alone or…

The broadcaster, naturalist and tour guide shares the most breathtaking seasonal events in the world FOR THOSE WHO CARE about the natural world, it can be depressing hearing the seemingly endless stories about habitat destruction and species extinctions. But the conservation movement is winning a few battles, one of which is the re-establishment of a breeding population of common cranes in Britain after an absence stretching back to Elizabethan times. Globally, the common crane lives up to its name, with a population comprising around half a million birds. They breed from northern Europe across to eastern Siberia, with the majority coupling up in remote moorlands, bogs and swampy clearings across countries such as Russia, Finland, Sweden and Poland. Britain marks the edge of the species’ natural range, so it’s perhaps…

THE AIR TINGLES WITH NERVOUS excitement as Alex Oelofse, owner of Okonjati Game Reserve in Namibia, lifts off in a helicopter. Hanging out the side, dart gun at the ready, is vet Hans Reuter, whose sights are set firmly on the elephants below. As the chopper approaches, the animals tense then flee, kicking up a cloud dust in the golden morning light. It’s August 2024 and the elephants are destined for a new life north of the border. Okonjati’s elephant population has grown to double what the land can sustain, a situation exacerbated by six years of drought, and several family groups need to be relocated. Finding a new home for the herd has proved difficult. In much of the species’ range, space for elephants has been squeezed to the…

The bird with metal in its feathers Livingstone’s turaco Tauraco livingstonii MANY BIRDS HAVE FABULOUS plumage to attract mates or send warning messages. Some of the colours in their feathers are produced by microscopic structures on the feather surface that absorb and reflect light in a certain way. These are known as structural colours. Other colours are produced by pigments, dye-like substances that occur widely in nature. Birds may make their own pigments or obtain them from their food. But the green and red pigments in turaco feathers are wholly unique. And the secret ingredient is… copper. Turacos are a family of pigeon-sized birds from African forests that adore fruit – a diet that happens to be rich in copper. The metal is taken up by their bodies and helps…

Do animals get Down’s syndrome? Human cells typically contain 23 pairs of chromosomes but people with Down’s syndrome have three, rather than two, copies of chromosome 21, resulting in a suite of developmental problems. Chromosome duplication syndromes occur in other animals too, though each is specific to the genetics of the species involved. However, there may be a direct link between Down’s and a syndrome in chimpanzees caused by an extra copy of chromosome 22. It has only been documented twice, but seems to involve eye and heart defects characteristic of Down’s syndrome. What is the most remote place on Earth? This is usually understood to be the point on the Earth’s surface that is furthest from land and, by that reckoning, it is a spot in the South Pacific…

Magic mushroom I crossed paths with this fantastic Mycena galopus, adorned with a tiny spider’s web, during one of my favourite walks in the forest near my village in Normandy. Catherine Régnier, Saint - Germain-d’Étables, France Winter fire I took this photo at Minsmere nature reserve in Suffolk, where two firecrests had been reported. After much looking, we found one of these fantastic little birds. Ian Harris, Stevenage Hanging on Insects engage in a delicate ritual of reproduction amid the lush foliage of a vibrant meadow. Dakshesh Ashra, Mumbai, India A place to rest I found this thumbnailsized Essex skipper butterfly roosting on an agrimony flower spike. Mike Blacknell, Hampshire Close to the bone This Egyptian vulture sits on an animal skeleton in Jorbeer Conservation Reserve, a dumping ground for…

THE ARTICLE IN THE JANUARY issue about why cuteness matters in the survival of the fittest, and how to conserve less attractive animals, piqued my attention because that’s what I always believed. To create a cute character based on a less attractive animal – say a flatfish – can help raise the public’s awareness of conservation needs. To illustrate, one of the Sanrio characters, a fish called Hangyodon, could be used as a model for a cuteness project for a flatfish. I agree that we are biologically wired to fall in love with the pretty. So why not make less attractive animals adorable in order to campaign for their survival? Stephanie Suh, Los Angeles, USA Irish wolfhounds In the Q&A article on the biggest wolf in the November issue, the…

1. Rainbow lorikeet Parrots are renowned for their striking colouration. One of the most eye-catching is the rainbow lorikeet, found in Australia. It nests in hollow trees and feeds in the upper canopy, and is known to roost in flocks numbering in the thousands. 2. Angelfish Bright, tropical marine angelfish are a sight to behold and there are dozens of species, all with distinct colouring. You’ll find them swimming around coral reefs in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. They like the warm, shallow waters, and their flat, rounded bodies enable them to easily manoeuvre around the coral. 3. Malabar giant squirrel Squirrels don’t come much bigger than the Malabar giant, also known as the Indian giant or rainbow squirrel. Found only in India and considerably bigger than the UK’s…