Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2025 i BBC Wildlife Magazine

NEW RESEARCH SUGGESTS THAT THE fleshy, pendulous noses of male proboscis monkeys – the biggest of any primate – are distinguishing features in more ways than one. The noses of these pot-bellied monkeys, found only in Borneo, are particularly pronounced in mature males, and previous research has shown they serve as a visual signal of dominance that attracts females and deters rival males without physical aggression. It also amplifies the ‘bray’ calls males emit through the nose while keeping their mouths closed. But biologists in Japan have now found evidence of another function for this formidable facial feature. As described in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface, they used a medical CAT scanner to map the internal structure of the nasal cavities of different males and then printed detailed…

It’s an amazing experience to put on a bee suit and see a hive,” says Andrew Whitehouse, head of operations for the invertebrate conservation group, Buglife. “There’s suddenly thousands and thousands of bees flying around you. But you know,” he adds, “beekeeping doesn’t give you a connection to nature.” That may surprise some readers, but Whitehouse’s point is that a beehive is as natural as a pasture full of grazing sheep and, like a lot of livestock, domesticated honeybees also have a negative impact on actual wildlife. They compete with wild pollinators for nectar and pollen, and transmit diseases to them, too. “In the UK, the number of beehives has more than tripled from approximately 80,000 in 2008 to more than 240,000 today” Invertebrate ecologist and campaigner Dave Goulson made…

NATURALISED parrots have become a familiar feature of urban centres around the world, with some cities being home to multiple introduced species. In the UK, the distinctly irritating screeching of ring-necked parakeets is now commonplace. We nearly had a second introduced species to contend with back in 2011: the monk parakeet. However, it was all but wiped out by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) before numbers got out of control. Also known as the quaker parakeet, this species originally hails from temperate to subtropical areas of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Deemed to be pests in their natal lands, wild populations of monk parakeets were subjected to unlimited exploitation by a burgeoning wild bird trade, with millions transported to homes worldwide since the 1960s. As with the…

Ghost town visitor Wim van den Heever, South Africa Winner: Urban Wildlife Winner: Grand Title, Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 With sea fog rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean, Wim chose this spot at Kolmanskop, a long-abandoned mining town near Lüderitz, Namibia, for his camera-trap after noticing hyena tracks nearby. “It took me 10 years to finally get this one single image of a brown hyena,” he says, “in the most perfect frame imaginable.” The rarest hyena species in the world, the brown hyena is nocturnal and mostly solitary. The animals are known to pass through Kolmanskop on their way to hunt Cape fur seal pups or scavenge for carrion washed ashore along the Namib Desert coast. Cat among the amingos Dennis Stogsdill, USA Winner: Behaviour, Mammals Photographing around…

Tasmania, Australia Head to Narawntapu, Tasmania’s ‘Serengeti’, to watch grazing Forester kangaroos, Bennett’s wallabies and pademelons; Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary or Devils@Cradle for quolls and Tasmanian devils; and Bicheno to see little penguins come ashore. Zambia Take late-evening drives in South Luangwa and Lower Zambezi national parks to spot leopards and lions, servals and civets, grazing hippos, bushbabies, and four-toed elephant shrews. Poland Nocturnal tours here use thermal imaging to find bears, wolves, bisons, wild cats and Eurasian lynxes in and around Bieszczady National Park in south-east Poland. Sri Lanka Night visits around national parks such as Udawalawe, Wilpattu, Yala and Lunugamvehera can yield sightings of slender loris, pangolins, leopards, jungle cats, rusty-spotted cats and fishing cats, civets and spot-bellied eagle owls. Costa Rica Costa Rica is home to nearly 5…

LAND CAN BE DIVIDED UP SOMEWHAT clearly (although there are disputes about who owns what), but what happens when it comes to water? Technically, no one owns the ocean, but some countries have jurisdiction in some seas. According to a UN law, coastal countries or states with archipelagos have sovereignty over their territorial seas, which means waters up to 12 nautical miles (22km) from their shores, including the air above and the seabed below. However, this can be shorter if two states are closer together. In the UK, the Crown claims ownership of nearly all waters within 12 nautical miles. People who want to use these waters for ports, windfarms or aquaculture projects must apply for a lease. Landlocked countries don’t have territorial waters, but vessels can access the seas…

NEITHER ARACHIND NOR BIRD, THE tarantula hawk is a large wasp (there are over 130 known species) that gets its confusing name from a fearsome habit of preying on tarantulas and other large spiders to feed its larval young. It is part of the spider wasp family and usually docile, feeding almost exclusively on nectar, but provoke one at your peril – their sting is one of the most painful in the world, second only to that of the bullet ant. What do tarantula hawks look like and where do they live? They have a blue-black or green-black body, often iridescent, set off by a pair of orange or amber-coloured wings that serve to warn potential predators that this insect is not to be messed with. This defensive colouring –…

The crossword ACROSS 1 Marine bivalve mollusc (3,4) 5 Mediterranean island, home to the s’Albufera nature reserve (7) 9 Clump of short flower stalks, as seen on parsley or fennel (5) 10 Nettle rash (9) 11 Avian vocalisations (4,5) 12 Small, oily marine fish (5) 13 A type of parasite (7) 15 ___ stinkhorn, US fungus with a crinoline-like structure (7) 17 Large goose, often feral in the UK (7) 19 European grazing mammal of forests and farmland (3,4) 21 Otter’s home (5) 23 Fruiting plant in the genus Rubus (9) 25 Stretch of seashore (9) 26 Snow leopard, archaically (5) 27 Term for fish in the family Tetraodontidae, sometimes known as blowers (7) 28 Skull cavities close to the nose (7) DOWN 1 Stalks left after harvesting, important to…

THEY BUILD THE LARGEST COMMUNAL bird nests in the world but the avian societies of sociable weavers (Philetairus socius) are far from utopian. New research published in the journal bioRxiv shows that the Southern African birds regularly commit infanticide, the intentional killing of a hatchling or immature animal – in this case often unrelated nestlings. “They usually peck the chicks on the head to kill or weaken them, then throw them out of the nest. Very small chicks they just throw out,” says lead author Rita Covas, a behavioural ecologist and evolutionary biologist at Portugal’s University of Porto. She and her colleagues analysed video taken between 2014 and 2023 at a set of 11 sociable weaver colonies in Benfontein Nature Reserve, Northern Cape Province, South Africa. They found that 40…

The broadcaster, naturalist and tour guide shares the most breathtaking seasonal events in the world Ask any turtle biologist from any country as to the meaning of arribada and chances are their eyes will glaze over, before they begin gushing effusively about the synchronised transition from sea to sand of thousands upon thousands of marine turtles that have a sole purpose in mind. To those without the benefit of either a grounding in Spanish or an understanding of the basic ecology of marine reptiles, arribada simply means arrival – in this case, the arrival of olive ridley sea turtles (and, to a lesser extent, Kemp’s ridleys) to a few special beaches along the coasts of Costa Rica, Mexico and Nicaragua. After reaching their destination, the turtles will leave the sanctuary…

THE WHISPER, sharp with excitement, cuts through the silence: “It’s a bear.” One of our group is pointing to a hillside in the distance, where beech trees tumble down into a valley veiled in drizzle. There’s a hushed flurry of movement as the rest of us scramble for binoculars to bring the blur of brown into focus. “The Central Apennines are home to the world’s only population of Marsican brown bears” I find the figure in the lens. Brown fur. Four legs. Antlers. “It’s a stag”, says Filippo Castellucci, our nature guide, with the same easy smile he’s worn since we arrived in Italy’s Central Apennines. He’d known it wasn’t a bear we’d spotted. But here among the mountains where he was raised, disappointment is a stranger to Filippo. “It’s…

“I KNOW SHE’S THERE,” SAYS Dennis. We’re standing on a grassy ridge above a tree-lined watercourse, squinting through binoculars at a tangle of sticks in the canopy of a tall Podocarpus. “Last time, I waited two hours. But she always shows her head.” Dennis Kapelian is one of a four-strong team working for the Mara Raptor Project. He’s led me to this remote spot in Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve to view the nest of a bateleur eagle. Actually, it’s the old nest of a martial eagle, now reappropriated by a pair of bateleurs. The depth of the bowl constructed by its original, larger owners explains why the new occupants are often hidden from view. The Mara Raptor Project is an initiative of the Kenya Bird of Prey Trust (KBoPT),…

THE RIGHTS OF THE NATURE MOVEMENT argues that non-human natural entities and ecosystems, from rivers to woodlands and coral reefs to savannahs, are not mere property but rights holders in law. Just as the human rights movement sets out the fundamental rights of people, the movement sets out the inherent right of natural entities and ecosystems to exist and thrive, irrespective of their usefulness to humanity. The movement dates back to the publication in 1972 of Should Trees Have Standing?, a legal paper arguing that nature possesses legal rights. That same year, the United States Supreme Court heard a case about the development of a ski resort in the Sierra Nevada mountains, in which one of the dissenting justices concluded that natural resources should be able to sue for their…

Leafy greens We found this splendid leaf frog in the canopy on the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica. Females lay eggs on leaves overhanging pools formed in the cavities of trees so the tadpoles fall into the water. Benjamin Luke Tavistock, Devon Hot spot Every November, hundreds of bald eagles gather at Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve in Alaska to feast on salmon. This branch was a popular hangout and commotion ensued when another eagle eyed the spot. Karthik Subramaniam, San Francisco Lead the way Despite missing a tusk, a bull elephant in Kaziranga National Park, Assam, tramps ahead to keep his 20-strong herd safe. Aneesh Balakrishnapillai Kerala, India Forest feast While I was looking for invertebrates on the forest floor at Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, I spotted this brightly coloured money…

THE ARTICLE ON HOW ANIMALS USE sound in the September issue included comment on dialect or accent in birdsong. This reminded me of a passage in the book Incredible Journeys by David Barrie. He relates how a British explorer was kayaking along the east coast of Greenland with an Inuit hunting party. The combination of a heavy swell and thick fog made him anxious as to how they would locate their home fjord. The Inuits seemed perfectly relaxed and they eventually took the correct turn. Afterwards they explained that snow buntings nested at the mouth of fjords and each male proclaimed his territory by singing from a high boulder. Being more attuned to the natural world, they had realised that each territorial song had a slight difference. They just waited…

NICK BAKER “The fact that caecilians have jaws with several rows of formidable teeth is not even the half of it.” p32 KATE BRADBURY “At this time of year you might see red admirals on ivy flowers or late-summer garden favourites.” p25 MIKE DILGER “Peak events can see the arrival of around 300,000 gravid female olive ridley turtles in a few days.” p28 DAVID LINDO “I’ve watched monk parakeets foraging for scraps in Madrid alongside bemused pigeons.” p27…

THE SPOT LAMP SWEEPS ACROSS the track as the Land Rover trundles forward, kicking up the unmistakable scent of the African bush at night. That pool of light reveals fleeting flashes of mopane and acacia trees, gently swaying grass, the sluggish ripples of the Lubi River. I peer into the inky black, thirsty for telltale twin pinpricks. Suddenly a pair of green-yellow spots appears overhead, a glimpse of mottled fur. Genet? No – the eyes are too far apart. Cutting the engine, we sigh to a halt. The spotter angles his beam near those unblinking sparks and there, lounging on the branch, paws dangling louchely like the supermodel she is: leopard. Her eyes remain fixed on us – not baleful, not wary, just supremely at home in the night. Eventually,…

IT’S MY LAST MORNING IN LORETO, PERU, AND I'M up with the lark in the hope of finally seeing my first toucan. I’ve got co ee and my binoculars, and I’m on the deck of the Aqua Nera, the boat that’s been my home for the past week. We’re moored on the Amazon River and the number of birds I can see is staggering. Blue-headed parrots dance among the branches. Brightly coloured jacamars call from tree to tree, occasionally flitting over my head to perch on the boat, before darting off just as I train my camera lens. To my left, two black vultures hunch on a rickety looking branch, for all the world looking like the Scouse vultures in Disney’s The Jungle Book. I imagine them sardonically mocking my…

THERE ARE MANY REASONS WHY ANIMAL species band together with others of their kind – for protection in numbers, to achieve a common goal, to safeguard young or to maximise breeding opportunities. But are any of these relationships true friendships in our human understanding of the word? We think of friendship as offering people we meet during our lives support without strings – not stemming from family ties, sexual attraction, personal gain or duty. Friendship works on an emotional level to enhance our lives in ways that cannot always be quantified. Although animals’ emotions are hard to judge beyond the obvious outward expressions of irritation, anger and fear, according to scientists this form of inner bond also occurs in many non-human species. Pet owners recognise inter-species relationships between cats and…

How did you get into photography? I learned about environmental reporting on a student-run publication, The Planet, at Western Washington University. Then I worked as a photojournalist for the city’s Bellingham Herald. My mother passed on her love of photography and taught me a lot. But my career really launched when I was accepted by the International League of Conservation Photographers. Which of your images is most important to you? My image of saltmarsh sparrow researchers is colourful and bright. The bird is in the hand of a scientist in the foreground and in the background another scientist is recording information in the saltmarsh environment. Approaching stories with a human focus is my style, hopefully sparking curiosity in the viewer. Do you have one unforgettable shoot? The range rider story…

Coastal primates are overrunning Kenya’s tourist hotspots in the south of the country. Beth Richardson travels to Diani Beach to explore how overdevelopment and habitat loss is forcing monkeys out of the forest and into human worlds – and the conservation e orts of the last three decades that have helped species such as the Angolan colobus stay out of danger. ON SALE 13th NOVEMBER…

“IT IS ANCIENT WISDOM THAT a leopard cannot change its spots. But after a stunning encounter in the heart of one of Africa’s last great wild places, I no longer believe this to be true. Under the starlit skies of the iconic Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique, my job, assisted by five specially trained scent-hounds and their expert handler, was to locate a female leopard, tranquilise her and fit her with a new radio-collar. A blend of modern science and the ancient art of tracking prey on foot, all in the impenetrable inky blackness of the African night. We were interested in this particular female because we had some shaky footage and a few photos, captured more than a year ago, of her interacting with a pride of lions. But…