Explore & Escape - BBC Wildlife Magazine - February 2021

February 2021 202 | Vol. 39 No. 02

ANTARCTICA

BIRDWATCHING IN THE DEEP FREEZE

BORDER PATROL

ROCKY COASTS on What to see the seashore

Migrating animals trapped by the ‘Trump Wall’

Your guide to February’s wildlife

ATTENBOROUGH’S

PERFECT + PLANET The iinside nsiide story of the landmark new series seriies

The film makers pick their best bits

ON A MISSION IN AFRICA The conservation charity saving species, one park at a time

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Down to Earth

I

cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into space, he looked down from orbit and exclaimed: “I see Earth! It is so beautiful.”

The story of the forces that brought life to our little green-blue ball floating in space, is the focus of the latest natural history series from BBC One, presented by Sir David Attenborough.

And the story of that TV series unfolds in our cover feature this month (p36), with jaw-dropping tales from every corner of the planet. It all made me feel very lucky to be here!

Paul McGuinness Editor

Cover: Sir David Attenborough: Gavin Thurston/Silverback Films 2020; albatross: David Tipling/naturepl. com; rhino: Uwe Skrzypczak/Imagebroker/FLPA; This page: Madison Kosma/Silverback Films 2018

t was the late lamented Douglas Adams who put it best. “Space,” he wrote, “is big”, showing a mastery of the understatement. “You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is,” he continued.

“I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.”

And yet in all its infinite vastness, space has as yet (as far as we know) thrown up just one planet capable of creating and sustaining life. And it absolutely teems with the stuff in every conceivable form. As planets go, it’s simply perfect.

Indeed, when, 60 years ago, Soviet

A Perfect Planet is on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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February 2021

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Marine iguana: Ed Charles/Silverback Films 2018; iceberg: Peter Orr/Getty; proboscis: Paul Williams/naturepl.com; bobcat: Alejandro Prieto; turnstone: Alan Williams/naturepl.com; giraffe illustration by Dawn Cooper/The ArtWorks

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The people behind our stories

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February 2021

CONTENTS EN WILD MONTH 12

February’s wildlife

72 Antarctica

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Nick Baker’s hidden Britain

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Mike Dilger’s wildlife watching: rocky coasts

COVER STORY

The Urban Birder, David Lindo, explores the coldest place on Earth

Diminutive Daphnia

A walk along our shores reveals myriad species of land, sea and air

OUR WILD WORLD

Meet the scientist

85 At home

COVER STORY

Parasitologist Michelle Power divulges why she’s researching antibioticresistant bacteria in wildlife

Natural history TV, books and more

88 Puzzles 90 Your photos

22 News A huge marine sanctuary has been created in the South Atlantic

26 Truth or fiction?

Releasing non-native species is illegal

27 Mark Carwardine The conservationist discusses the ever-present threat of climate change

92 Feedback Your letters and Tales from the Bush

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In focus Mountain gorilla, feather duster worm and red fox

52 Behind the image

28 Nature by numbers

78 Q&A

Humpback whale and sealion

Could a new system for offsetting housing developments really work or is it too easily manipulated?

36 Attenborough’s perfect planet

SUE WATT With two decades of protecting species under its belt, what does the future hold for African Parks?

“Its portfolio is the largest and most ecologically diverse of any conservation organisation in Africa,” says travel writer Sue. See p54

REGULARS

FEATURES

COVER STORY

COVER STORY

The controversial wall between the US and Mexico is impacting animals

COVER STORY

Seven species to spot

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62 Photo story: Border patrol

MICHAEL BRIGHT The former BBC producer takes a look at what the latest Attenborough series has to offer. “The central narrative of this new series is the forces of nature that shape life on Earth,” he says. See p36

Do we plant the wrong trees?

98 Wildlife champion Author Adam Hart tells us why he loves the common wasp

ALEJANDRO PRIETO The wildlife photographer has been documenting the negative impacts of the wall along the Mexico border.

“There are many other ways to control immigration without disturbing the natural world,” he says. See p62

We go behind the scenes of Sir

David’s new BBC series exploring the conditions that enable life on Earth

46 On the nose Famed for their distinctive profile, learn more about proboscis monkeys and their Bornean home

54 On a mission in Africa

COVER STORY

For the last 20 years, African Parks has been helping to protect animals and

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DAVID LINDO Swapping skyscrapers for icebergs, Urban Birder David encountered the hardy species capable of surviving unforgiving conditions in Antarctica.

“It was all that I imagined several times over,” he says. See p72

habitats across the continent February 2021

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September 2018

Christophe Courteau/naturepl.com

IN FOCUS | Pearly whites

September 2018

While this silverback mountain gorilla looks as if he is grinning cheesily for the camera, he is in fact being caught mid yawn. These great apes will spend the early morning foraging in the forest for roots, shoots, fruit, wild celery and tree bark. By late morning, they have something of a ‘food coma’ and will rest until the afternoon. Though his sharp canines look threatening and can be used to fend off competing males, mountain gorillas are generally calm if left undisturbed.

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September 2018

Chris Newbert/Minden Pictures/FLPA

IN FOCUS | Heart of the ocean

September 2018

Dancing delicately beneath the waves, the cilia-covered tentacles of the feather duster worm capture passing plankton and detritus. Grooves guide the smallest particles to their mouths, while larger particles help build the soft, flexible tube in which the worm resides.

Once fixed between rocks or coral, the worm will remain inside this tube for the rest of its life, quickly retracting its fanned tentacle crown if the light-sensing spots detect a passing shadow.

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IN FOCUS | Night patrol

Klaus Echle/naturepl.com

The red fox has become so ubiquitous in towns and cities, prowling the streets and scavenging in rubbish bins, that it’s a treat to observe one in a romantic woodland setting – in this case the Black Forest in Germany. Blood-curdling screeches and low barks fill the air during cold winter nights, as dog foxes search for a vixen to mate with. Territories tend to be larger in rural areas where food is scarcer, and well-used trails are scent-marked, to help point the way in the dark.

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September 2018

September 2018

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WILDMONTH There’s a frost on the ground and the trees are still bare, but nature’s hinting that spring isn’t too far away.

By Ben Hoare

WILD FEBRUARY 1 | ROOK

Caws for celebration

THE ROOK AND ME Mark Cocker follows a rookery over the year.

Laurie Campbell

ONLINE

Long before winter is out, new life stirs in still-bare treetops. Come February, mistle thrushes are whistling their mournful, far-carrying song over and over from the loftiest twigs, great spotted woodpeckers are drumming on resonant dead wood to announce their territory and, safe in their dreys, female grey squirrels are nursing their first young of the year.

Rooks, too, begin breeding remarkably early. Their rookeries in the crowns of tall oak and ash (once, elm was the tree of choice) are already a hive of activity in February, as established pairs bring sticks to patch up their tatty nests or try to pinch them from neighbours. Rooks mate for

life – rare among British birds, but the norm among our corvids – and devoted partners will sit beside their nest to groom one another affectionately. Known for their social intelligence, they are able to recognise individual birds in their colony.

We can’t manage that, but it is possible to tell rooks from carrion crows, even at long range, by the former’s freer wing beats and longer ‘fingers’ at the wingtips. On the ground, identification becomes much easier – a rook looks rather tousled, with a rakish forehead and feathering on the legs that gives the impression of baggy shorts.

The bare grey skin around the pointed bill is also unmistakable.

FIND OUT MORE Read our corvid guide: discoverwildlife.com/corvid-guide

WILD FEBRUARY 2 | ALEXANDERS

Spring greens The exuberance of spring may be weeks away, but road verges and path sides are starting to green up. Look for jagged nettle shoots, spears of emerging bluebells and heart-shaped leaves of lesser celandine. Another well-advanced plant this month is Alexanders, a relative of cow parsley brought here by the Romans, which flourishes by the coast in Ireland and southern Britain.

Its glossy leaves are grouped in threes and, like the juicy stems, sought after by foragers. Yellow-green flowers (pictured) appear from April, though you might notice some in bud already.

FIND OUT MORE Responsible foraging calendar: woodlandtrust.org.uk/visiting-woods/ things-to-do/foraging

3 | ROE DEER

In the open Unlike their red and fallow cousins, roe deer do not gather in large herds.

They are usually seen alone or, particularly at this time year, in small groups of up to half a dozen or so.

You’ll often see them feeding in the open at the edges of fields and woods in the low light of early morning and evening. With Britain’s roe population at a record high – probably more than

250,000 strong and still increasing – the odds are that any train or motorway journey should reveal a few.

In February and March, they are still in grey winter coats and bucks are busy regrowing antlers.

FIND OUT MORE All about British mammals: mammal.org.uk

Alexanders: David Chapman; deer: Eric Médard; owl: Simon Litten

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February 2021

WILD FEBRUARY

4 | BARN OWL

Tough times Barns owls appear to float through the air as they quarter rough grassland in search of voles. They fly in a sweet spot, roughly 2–3m above the ground, folding their long wings to drop like a stone the instant they hear the rustle of prey. Barn owl survival is closely tied to vole numbers and the weather – freezing conditions and flooding make hunting difficult.

February 2020 was Britain’s rainiest on record, and there is growing concern that any shift towards wetter winters, coming on top of other pressures, could have a severe impact on these quicksilver birds.

FIND OUT MORE Barn owl conservation: barnowltrust.org.uk

ONLINE

TWEET OF THE DAY

Browse loads of episodes.

February 2021

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WILD DECEMBER FEBRUARY 6 | ELDER

Bud burst All winter deciduous trees are covered in buds, just biding their time, and (with practice) you can use them to tell species apart. One of the first to burst into leaf is the elder, a common shrub-like tree of hedgerows and scrubby woodland.

Its reddish-purple buds, which sit in pairs on opposite sides of the twig, split to reveal ferny leaves with saw-toothed edges. Elder bud burst is one of many seasonal events recorded every year by participants in the Woodland Trust’s longrunning Nature’s Calendar project.

GET INVOLVED Join the Nature’s Calendar survey: naturescalendar.woodlandtrust.org.uk

5 | NUTHATCH

Hack attack This boisterous bird is a delight at garden birdfeeders, and comes second only to the house sparrow and greenfinch in the pecking order.

While sunflower hearts can be swallowed in one, the nuthatch’s signature winter feeding technique is to wedge acorns and hazelnuts into cracks in tree bark before hammering them to pieces, hence

7 | COMMON FROG

Spawn season

GET INVOLVED Join the Garden BirdWatch project: bto.org/gbw ONLINE A GUIDE TO GARDEN WILDLIFE Ponds episode, with Brett Westwood.

Nuthatch: Simon Roy; elder: Bob Gibbons; frog: Ross Hoddinott

Amphibians rely on temperature as the cue to wake up from hibernation and start breeding.

Warm spells can thus result in frogspawn as early as Christmas, and this has always been the case – though, with milder winters, such instances are on the rise.

Early frogspawn is most likely in south-west England, from where sightings rapidly spread east and north throughout February and March. A 2009 study found that for every 1°C rise in temperature, the average spawning date moves forwards by 5.1 days. Spot spawn in the sunniest part of the pond.

the species’ old names of ‘nut hack’ and ‘nut jobber’. With such heavy use, its bill becomes shorter as the season progresses. Formerly absent from Scotland, the nuthatch has recently colonised the southern half of the country.

FIND OUT MORE Frogs and ponds: froglife.org 16

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February 2021

WILD FEBRUARY

Hidden

BRITA AN A

Illustrations by Peter David Scott/The Art Agency

glance into a pond on a late-winter day may reveal the first stirrings of aquatic life. At this time of year, the water is clearer, with fewer plankton, algae and plants (such as duckweed), making the twitching masses of water fleas much more obvious.

Water fleas are crustaceans – it is their proportions (no more than 5mm long) and jerky movements that give them their common name. Of the UK’s 80 or so species, Daphnia pulex is the most common and widespread.

Have a close look at one under a microscope or under hand lens, and you’ll see a beautiful, delicate, glassy animal. A single compound eye stares back at you, long feathery antennae (used for swimming) flick out on either side of the head. The whole body is encased in a transparent hinged ‘clamshell’ arrangement, which enables you to see everything: guts, a beating heart, even eggs or a brood pouch full of developing babies.

Modified feeding legs protrude through the gap in the species’ shell. The legs draw microscopic algae and bacteria towards Daphnia’s mouth. So efficient is this feeding current, it can

NICK BAKER

Reveals a fascinating world of wildlife that we often overlook.

filter more than 4ml an hour.

Multiplied by thousands, you can see why these superabundant organisms have a significant impact on water quality.

Daphnia are also a major food source for many other creatures, including the larvae of phantom midges, dragonfly and damselfly nymphs, bugs such as water boatmen, newt larvae and fish fry. However, they’re not merely nature’s cannon fodder. They fight back, albeit in a surprising way: when conditions are right, DID YOU Daphnia multiply KNOW? phenomenally fast.

Chemicals produced Part of the trick by one organism that is a strategy called then benefit another organism are known parthenogenesis, as kairomones. meaning they reproduce without males.

The females give birth to clones of themselves; males are formed only when temperatures FIGHTING INFECTION drop, or the water they’re in is Daphnia might teach us a thing or two… drying up. Entire populations The filter-feeding lifestyle of Recent research has revealed may also undergo a process Daphnia puts them in contact that Daphnia use anti-fungal known as cyclomorphosis, with a range of harmful fungi, chemicals to combat their which modifies the appearance but they are rather good infections. These chemicals and shape of the next generation at self-medicating. could one day be used to make it less palatable.

This, combined to protect humans What triggers these changes with the species’ and wildlife, such as in Daphnia? Chemicals transparency, amphibians and bats released into the water by the means they whose populations very animals attacking them! are great for are being ravaged studying the by fungal-borne The warning chemicals are effects of disease. diseases. by-products of digestion, as the

February 2021

DAPHNIA

Like so many little lives, Daphnia are easy to miss but hugely fascinating.

predators enjoy their meal. In response, the development of the next generation of Daphnia embryos is altered. Specific genes are turned on, leading to the formation of a variety of extensions to their bodies, making them difficult to swallow.

Each type of predatory animal induces a slightly different shape-shifting response in the water fleas. The development of long tail spines, neck teeth and huge hooded helmets are just some of the options available to them. These adaptations may be more energetically expensive, but it’s worth it. By rendering the owner impossible to swallow, they can ensure a higher number survive to breed.

Size is a defence, too. In response to predation, Daphnia are able to change how they invest in growth. For example, by speeding up development and maturing at a larger size, they become too big to be eaten by their micro-predators (though at a cost, as it reduces their reproductive potential).

Conversely, if it is fish that are hunting them by eyesight, Daphnia do the opposite. They now mature earlier at a smaller size, becoming thinner and so less easily seen.

NICK BAKER is a naturalist, author and TV presenter.

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MIKE DILGER’S ROCKY COASTS IN FEBRUARY

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WILDLIFE WATCHING In his series of great places to watch wildlife in the UK, the star of BBC One’s The One Show this month picks his way across rocky shores, revealing the wildlife that thrives where land and sea meet.

ocky shores are among a select group of habitats remaining in the British Isles that can still be considered largely free from the impacts of human (mis)management. Constantly transitioning between terrestrial, marine and ‘somewhere in between’, according to the state of the tide, the raw and wild nature of the rocky ribbon encircling large parts of our coast ensures this is not a habitat for wildlife best described as faint of heart.

Substantial sections of Britain’s northern and western coasts are primarily rocky by nature. These hard shores are not just directly impacted by the tide, since the levels of inundation and duration of exposure will also greatly influence temperature, moisture and salinity levels.

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In terms of topography, the gradient of any rocky coastline will depend on its geological genesis and can range from sheer cliffs to large expanses of gently sloping rock.

Each location also contains its own unique combination of boulders, pools, channels, gullies and crevices, so no two stretches of rocky coast are exactly the same. However, despite an infinite number of differences in appearance, all rocky shores do tend to be variations on a theme.

Tidal heights divide all rocky shores into upper, middle and lower sections.

The middle section is generally

the only part covered and uncovered by the tide twice daily. By contrast, the other two sections typically become fully immersed or open to the elements during spring tide events – when the high tides are higher, and the low tides lower, than average.

If you explore a rocky shore, starting at the splash zone (which is just beyond the highest tides), and then move towards the furthest reaches only exposed at low tide, it becomes obvious that overlaying these physical sections are ‘colour coded’ biological zones. These horizontal bands can easily be made out even on a cold February day.

Once you leave behind the thin green line of salt-tolerant vascular plants, the first zone you usually encounter is February 2021

WILD FEBRUARY

Clockwise from top left: Getty; Elliott Neep/FLPA; Alan Williams/ naturepl.com; David Tipling/FLPA; Steve Trewhella/FLPA

Clockwise from top left: the rocky nature of Dorset’s Kimmeridge Bay is revealed at low tide; coastal otters can be spotted in Scotland; Mellon Udrigle on the Highland’s west coast; a turnstone coming in to land on the tideline; common seals are less numerous in the UK than grey seals; rock pipits forage on our shores.

the upper orange zone, so called due to its domination by orange and yellow lichens of the genera Caloplaca and Xanthoria respectively. Just below this is the black zone, where the black tar lichens of the genus Verrucaria quickly gain the upper hand.

Descending still further, these lichens then give way to a grey zone, where barnacles and limpets invariably monopolise the rock surface, before you finally pass into the brown zone, home to plentiful large brown seaweeds.

The perfect spot More mobile animals, such as otters and various wading birds, travel seamlessly between these biological zones. Other species tend to be sessile (rooted to the February 2021

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WILD FEBRUARY spot), and stay put in one zone. A case in point are the weird and wonderful anthozoans, or ‘flower animals’, such as sea anemones and their relatives, which are frequently found towards the low water mark.

Indeed, many rocky-shore creatures, from snails and crabs to prawns and fish, carve out their own particular niche at some point along the shore’s transect.

A degree of rockpool gazing or seaweed-

Common seals carry out their very passable impersonations of huge bananas on rocks when the tide is out.

lifting is needed before their hiding places are revealed.

Naturalists visiting rocky shores can probably be split into two groups: those keen to explore rockpools; and the vertebrate spotters. As rockpools have featured in these pages already (August 2018), this month’s list of target species is biased towards feathers and fur.

Rock-loving waders, such as purple sandpipers and turnstones, are best looked for on a rising tide, when there is much less rock left to scan, with the birds additionally forced closer to dry land. Sea-faring otters also prefer to hunt as the tide is incoming. Common seals, by contrast, generally carry out their very passable impersonations of huge bananas on rocks when the tide is out.

C HO I CE LO CATI O N S 1

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1 Benbecula in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides has outstanding rocky coasts, home to numerous northerly marine species that require cooler conditions.

S PECIES TO LO O K OUT FOR

2 Mellon Udrigle is a small tourist

Common seal

Purple sandpipers feast on winkles and crustaceans.

This species also goes by the name of harbour seal. It is smaller than its grey cousin, with an often splatter-patterned coat, a more puppy-like head and V-shaped nostrils.

Between fishing trips, these seals haul out onto the shore, and adults appear faithful to their favourite areas from year to year.

fishing and crofting hamlet on the Highlands’ west coast, whose rocky headlands are perfect for spotting both otters and common seals.

3 Stag Rocks, just north of Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland, stands out due to the white stag painted on the rock.

This is a great winter birding spot.

4 Kimmeridge Bay, on the Jurassic Coast, is managed for nature by Dorset Wildlife Trust. The sweeping bay has large rock ledges running out to sea, best explored at low tide.

Otter

Purple sandpiper The dusky winter plumage of the purple sandpiper can sometimes make it difficult to pick out from

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the surrounding rock, but the key is to look for its orange legs and the yellow base to its bill. This tough wader breeds in the High Arctic, and small numbers overwinter on our rocky coasts, drawn to the abundant winkles, mussels and crabs.

Rock pipit Larger and darker than their more familiar meadow cousins, rock pipits are surely the most coastal of all our passerines, or perching birds. They are often seen hopping, running and walking while foraging for

invertebrates among the rocks and boulders. Most British rock pipits remain on the same piece of rock real estate all year.

5 Worm’s Head is a narrow, tidal island joined by a promontory to Rhossili Bay at the western point of Wales’ Gower Peninsula. The astonishing rocky headland is accessible for about two hours either side of low tide.

Turnstone The turnstone is a chunky little barrel of a bird. Its grey-brown upperparts look instantly and strikingly different in flight, when the white wing bars, shoulder stripes, white back and black-andwhite tail are suddenly revealed. Turnstones wintering on Britain’s rocky shores mostly come from northern Europe, Greenland and Canada.

Don’t go without checking out the state of the tide. Tide timetables for various locations can be found online, or download an app, such as My Tide Times.

February 2021

Purple sandpipers: Scotland: The Big Picture/NPL; walking: Chris Howes/Wild Places Photography/Alamy

There can be little confusing this powerful mustelid, which reaches over 1m in length, when its muscular tail is taken into account. While most otters in England and Wales are found around fresh water, at least half of the estimated 8,000 individuals in Scotland prefer the coast, with quiet stretches of rocky shore their preferred hunting grounds.

WILD FEBRUARY

MEET THE SCIENTIST

Michelle Power

Parasitologist, Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University Antibiotic-resistant bacteria represent an extraordinary threat to public health. Now, Michelle Power is finding these superbugs among the gut flora of wildlife.

Power examines bacteria in the faecal matter of species such as the little penguin (below).

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ust after sunset each night, little penguins waddle to their nests in the breakwater by St Kilda Pier in Melbourne, Australia. The iconic – and downright adorable – sight attracts tourists, but for parasitologist Michelle Power, the penguins can also reveal important information about the marine ecosystem.

“They’re an iconic species, but they’re declining in parts of Australia,” Power says. “They’re at the top of the food chain, so they give an indication of what’s going on in the overall ecosystem.”

Power researches reverse zoonoses – when pathogens jump from humans to animals – at Australia’s Macquarie University.

The most concerning and widespread reverse zoonosis is antibiotic (or antimicrobial) resistant bacteria – one of the greatest threats to human health globally.

“These bacteria are ‘weeds’ in wildlife microbiomes – they carry genetic traits that have been amplified by humans and should not be there,” explains Power.

in wildlife microbiomes – they carry genetic traits amplified by humans. 

Power has recorded these bacteria in animals from the remote Australian bushland to the barren Antarctic wilderness. But animals living in and around urban areas, such as St Kilda’s little penguins, are most likely to have it.

To learn how much antibioticresistant bacteria the penguins harboured, Power collected 448 samples of poo from wild and captive colonies in St Kilda and in Phillip Island across the bay.

Alarmingly, Power found antibiotic-resistant bacteria in 3 per cent of the wild population, and 45 per cent of those in captivity.

“The closer the populations get to human habitation, the higher frequency of antimicrobial-resistant genes. When you get into captivity, you can imagine that on the extreme end,” says Power.

FIND OUT MORE Learn more about tackling antibiotic resistance in the wild: scoopapoop. net

Animals can be exposed to the bacteria through sewage, direct human contact and medical waste.

But, Power explains, more research is needed to understand how these superbugs impact animals, and how they’re transmitted.

“That’s what we’re trying to nail down, now we know there’s so much out there. We keep finding antimicrobial resistance in places we weren’t expecting.”

Surveying environments for superbugs can require many hands and, since 2018, she’s been recruiting citizen scientists to help collect possum poo for her aptly named initiative: Scoop a Poop.

She’s received more than 2,000 samples so far and found more than 29 per cent of brush-tailed possums carry the bacteria.

“It’s about educating people around the issues of antimicrobial resistance. They can help us fight this issue by understanding what’s happening in the environment.”

So, what can we do to help stop our superbugs from spreading? “The best thing is to find a toilet, and not go naturally when out hiking. And take your rubbish.” Anthea Batsakis

BBC Wildlife

Doug Gimesy (x3)

March 2020

 These bacteria are ‘weeds’

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WILDNEWS

By

STUART BLACKMAN, JAMES FAIR, BEN HOARE and CATHERINE SMALLEY

K E E P I N G YO U U P TO DAT E W I T H T H E B I G N AT U R E STO R I E S

CONSERVATION

Huge marine sanctuary created in South Atlantic Tristan da Cunha

A tiny island community just made a vast contribution to protecting ocean biodiversity.

“On land, we’ve already declared protected status for more than half our territory, but the sea is a vital resource for our long-term survival.”

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February 2021

Clockwise from left: a diver amid kelp forests; dolphins and albatross chicks benefit from protected areas; Tristan da Cunha Island.

status for more than half our territory.

But the sea is our vital resource, for our economy and ultimately for our long-term survival.”

The islands and their waters are, says Jonathan Hall, RSPB’s head of UK overseas territories, “one of the most pristine temperate ecosystems on the planet.”

“Albatrosses that feed along the South American and African coasts and shearwaters that feed off Ireland all come here to breed. Blue sharks – the most heavily fished of all sharks – come here to pup from all around the South Atlantic,” adds Hall.

Enforcement of the ban will be the responsibility of the UK government, largely by means of satellite surveillance.

Hall says that such systems have proved

effective in other territorial waters, such as the Pitcairn Islands. Tristan’s own lobster fishery, which is critical to the local economy, will be exempt.

Tristan is the seventh UK overseas territory to protect its waters, under the auspices of the UK government’s Blue Belt programme, which aims to fulfil global commitments to protect 30 per cent of the world’s oceans by 2030.

Recent research estimates that protecting just 5 per cent would increase fishing yields by a fifth.

“To pull its weight, the UK now needs to do more in its domestic waters,” says Hall.

“We have a lot of marine protected areas, but bottom trawling still occurs in many of them. Our overseas territories are doing amazing things, and it shows up how much more the UK itself could do.”

Diver & dolphins: Roger Horrocks/National Geographic; chick: Dan Myers/National Geographic; aerial: National Geographic

he citizens of Tristan da Cunha – the most remote inhabited islands on Earth – have banned fishing and mining in their waters, creating the largest notake zone in the Atlantic and the fourth largest worldwide.

The volcanic archipelago, a UK dependent territory 2,400km west of Cape Town, with a population of fewer than 300, has designated nearly 700,000km² of sovereign waters (about three times the land area of the UK) a Marine Protected Area.

“Our life on Tristan da Cunha has always been based around our relationship with the sea,” said James Glass, Tristan da Cunha chief islander, in a statement. “The Tristan community is deeply committed to conservation: on land, we’ve already declared protected

T

Stuart Blackman

FIND OUT MORE Learn more about the Blue Belt programme: bit.ly/340mr01 Tristan da Cunha government website: tristandc.com

February 2021

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WILD NEWS

Above: the future?

Below: small pearlbordered fritillaries are found on Exmoor.

LAND MANAGEMENT

New vision for Exmoor Working alongside local farmers is key to reversing wildlife decline, says national park authority. armers will be central to delivering The plan is in its early stages but the recovery of wildlife on Exmoor, it passed a crucial milestone after according to a national park authority being voted through by the authority’s plan to restore at least 75 per cent of the committee members. Some responses park to a “rich condition” by 2050. suggested that rewilding Exmoor would The vision sets out vital changes needed alienate farmers and turn the park into to reverse wildlife decline, restore natural a “rich boys’ playground”. processes and boost resilience to climate But the word ‘rewilding’ isn’t used in change. Wildlife conservation officer Ali the vision document. “If you speak to Hawkins says concerns expressed by some 10 people about what they understand farmers that they were being side-lined by by rewilding, they will give you different the authority were unfounded. answers,” Hawkins says. “Some people “Farming and nature have images of wolves and conservation go hand in hand bears, others think it’s about DID YO U on Exmoor but there is an nature-led processes.” opportunity for our existing The important thing is to KNOW ? farmland to be even better find a balance between farmers’ Prime Minister Boris for nature,” she says. “Quite livelihoods and the aspiration Johnson and his a lot of the park’s grassland to enhance nature, she adds. siblings gave their is species poor, and we want The recovery plan will father, Stanley Johnson, to find out how we can work be dependent on the new a licence to release with the farming community Environmental Land beavers on his Exmoor to make those areas better Management Scheme (ELMS), estate to celebrate his for pollinators without which is replacing subsidies 80th birthday. affecting productivity.” under the Common Agricultural

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FIND OUT MORE Exmoor National Park: bit.ly/2IrSwpW

February 2021

Illustration: Exmoor National Park Authority; fritillary: Mark Mirror/Getty

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Policy. ELMS will see farmers paid for delivering better soil and increasing insect and birdlife.

Lee Schofield of the RSPB Haweswater reserve in the Lake District, argues that Exmoor’s ambition suggests rewilding is on the agenda. “Beavers, pine martens and red squirrels are mentioned as species that might recolonise,” he writes in a blog.

The artist’s impression (above) Exmoor used to launch the vision, however, shows a whinchat, a pair of dunlin, a cuckoo, a kestrel and grazing cattle. James Fair

WILD NEWS

LEGISLATION

Gamebird licences introduced to preserve important wildlife sites tarting from the 2021 shooting season, landowners will no longer be allowed to release nonnative pheasants and red-legged partridges within 0.5km of protected wildlife sites without a licence, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has ruled.

The campaigning group Wild Justice, fronted by Chris Packham, challenged regulations that allowed for up to 60 million birds to be released into the wild with limited checks on their impact.

The shooting industry “faces its largest dose of regulation” in more than 20 years, Wild Justice claimed.

“Pheasants and red-legged partridges are now recognised by Government as problem species where their numbers are too high and they cause damage to vegetation, invertebrates and reptiles.”

S

It is now calling for gamebird releases on, or within 1km of, so-called Natura 2000 sites (those protected under European legislation) to be banned or conditions to be placed on numbers.

Other groups said little had changed as a result of the new licensing regime. Defra has indicated that gamebird releases will be allowed under the General Licence and this is likely to have conditions relating to the number of birds in or close to designated sites.

“It’s sometimes easy to forget that the countryside we know today has been shaped by game management,” said the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust. “Not only does it best protect and maintain our hedgerows and woodlands, but the wildlife that depends on it too.” JF

NEW SPECIES DISCOVERY

IN NUMBERS

Pheasant: Andrew Parkinson/FLPA; glider: Steven Kuiter

Greater glider

12 Special Protection Areas and four Marine Protected Areas have been designated in Scotland’s seas, giving greater protection to species.

WHAT IS IT? The existence of one species of giant flying marsupial squirrel in the world is enough to put a spring in one’s step. But it turns out there are three of them.

Greater gliders use flaps of skin strung between their elbows and ankles to soar between the eucalyptus trees on which they browse.

WHERE IS IT? All three are natives of eastern Australia. The smallest, Petauroides minor, occurs in the north; the largest, P. volans (about three times the size of a grey squirrel, though its fluffy pelt makes it appear larger still), in the south.

P. armillatus is intermediate in terms of both size and distribution. SB

February 2021

Introduced to the UK for game shooting, millions of pheasants are released into the countryside each year.

300 Greater gliders: the more, the merrier.

scientists from around the world have compiled a UN report on soil biodiversity, warning that urgent action is required to halt degradation.

750,000 FIND OUT MORE Scientific Reports: go.nature.com/3g2kipo

is the number of trees BBC Countryfile hopes will be planted as part of its two-year Plant Britain challenge.

BBC Wildlife

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WILD NEWS The Panamanian golden frog has suffered dramatic declines over a period of 10 years.

VERTEBRATES

Vertebrate declines may be exceptions, not the rule he world’s animals may not be in such a perilous state as was thought, according to new research that finds that most vertebrate populations are increasing in size.

High profile headlines have painted a bleak picture of animal declines over recent decades.

WWF’s Living Planet Index, for instance, estimates that, on average, vertebrate populations have reduced by more than 50 per cent since 1970.

The new analysis, though, shows that these numbers are being dragged down significantly by a minority of species in extreme peril.

“Removing only 2.4 per cent of declining populations reversed the estimated global trends from more than 50 per cent mean decline to a slightly positive growth,” write the team behind the research.

“Some populations really are in trouble. However, the image of a global ‘biodiversity desert’ is not supported by the evidence,” says Brian Leung, who led the work at McGill University, USA. “This is good, as it would be very discouraging if all of our conservation efforts over the last five decades had little effect.” SB

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FIND OUT MORE Nature: go.nature. com/3ociBbJ

TRUTH OR FICTION?

Releasing non-native species is illegal

ALWAYS CONTROVERSIAL, the use of live animals by ITV series I’m a Celebrity…

Get Me Out of Here! once again made headlines – this time for the possibility they might have escaped from its 2020 location in North Wales.

The producers have said that the cockroaches, crayfish and other invertebrates used in the show were

WANT TO COMMENT? Email wildlifeletters@ immediate.co.uk

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BBC Wildlife

Introduced crayfish have a negative impact in the UK.

February 2021

Frog: ZSSD/Minden/NPL ; crayfish: Wild Wonders of Europe/Lundgren/NPL

TV show furore highlights the role played by UK wildlife law.

not invasive – and thus would not spread if they somehow got into the wild.

The key legislation is the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which states that plants and animals “not ordinarily resident in Britain”, or a “regular visitor”, cannot be released. Any species the Act considers non-native, including those unlikely to gain a foothold, are proscribed.

This is because the risk comes not just from the potential for widespread colonisation – they could carry parasites or disease, for example.

A licence is also required to possess some species, including in captivity.

Crayfish, for instance, are covered by the Prohibition of Keeping of Live Fish (Crayfish) Order 1996.

But there are plenty of anomalies in UK wildlife law. Wild boar and beavers, both formerly native, are listed in the Wildlife and Countryside Act, so cannot be set free outside biosecure enclosures.

Ben Hoare

WILD OPINION

MY WAY OF THINKING

MARK CARWARDINE The conservationist discusses the ever-present threat of climate change and invites your thoughts on the subject.

Nayan Kar/SOPA Images/Getty

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 Climate change

o you remember a fad The reason is called ‘climate change’? obvious. The global In 2019, it was all the pandemic is easy to rage. A 16-year-old understand (there’s Swedish girl did what a horrible bug out the world’s leaders there that might get failed to do – she pushed it to the top you if you socialise of the political agenda. Everyone was with other people), talking about this imminent threat to it’s immediate (it life on Earth. dominates our dayBut sadly, like all fads, it’s been to-day lives) and it’s and gone. Maybe not forgotten, but personal (we empathise with those hit definitely put on the back burner. and fear for ourselves and our loved The reason, of course, is that we’ve got ones). It’s also finite (with a little luck, another crisis to worry about: COVIDand a suitable vaccine, it will all be over 19. And it seems that politicians (and in a year or two). much of the press) can only cope This is why most governments have with one crisis at a time. Thanks to acted quickly and fast-tracked billions the pandemic, even the UN Climate in bailout funds and relief packages.

Change Conference, originally set And it’s why we’ve all been prepared for November 2020, was postponed to change our ways of life radically and until November 2021. almost overnight.

Subconsciously, we’re not quite as But climate change is different. worried as we were, because we’ve been It is difficult to understand (even told that worldwide lockdowns mean the scientists can’t agree on all the fewer greenhouse gas emissions. minutiae), more gradual (it’s been That’s true but, according to the likened to Armageddon in slow motion) UN, even if we were to stay locked down for the next 10 years, the reduced emissions still wouldn’t be enough to fix the problem. Global warming has not hit the pause button just because of a virus.

Any politician who declares that COVID-19 is ‘the biggest challenge the world has faced in a generation’ (a claim I’ve heard on many occasions) hasn’t grasped the severity of climate change (which David Attenborough describes, Increasingly severe weather is impacting more accurately, as “Our people and wildlife greatest threat in thousands around the world. of years”).

February 2021

is difficult to understand, more gradual and more insidious... 

and more insidious (we can’t quite see how it’s going to affect us or anyone we know). Worse, there is no end in sight (at the very best we face disastrous consequences; at the very worst the consequences are catastrophic).

Scientists have repeatedly warned that climate change is likely to kill millions, cost trillions and completely transform the way we live. But just because the likely consequences are harder to measure or predict doesn’t make the impact of rising sea levels, worsening tropical storms, intensifying wild fires, increased flooding, more frequent crop failures or the additional toll of mass displacement and armed conflict (over dwindling water resources, for example) any less critical.

In an ideal world, we would take all the energy and commitment in tackling COVID-19 and apply it to this far greater crisis. As the UN climate chief, Patricia Espinosa, said recently, we could use it as an opportunity to reshape the 21st century economy “in ways that are clean, green, healthy, safe and more resilient”.

But in the real world, most politicians think only in the short-term and dislike spending money on preventative action (unless it’s to show military might). Past evidence indicates that they’re going to prevaricate, procrastinate and negotiate until a much bigger disaster smacks us in the face. Then the global pandemic will seem like the good old days.

MARK CARWARDINE is a frustrated and frank conservationist.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? If you want to support Mark in his views or shoot him down in flames, email wildlifeletters@immediate.co.uk

BBC Wildlife

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NEWS FEATURE

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NATURE BY NUMBERS BBC Wildlife

February 2021

Report by James Fair

A new scoring system for habitats could allow UK developers to ‘offset’ the impact of new housing – but can you really reduce meadows to metrics?

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February 2021

But why bother? Well, we all know that Britain needs to build more houses to cope with rising demand. The current government wants to hit a target of 300,000 a year by the middle of the 2020s.

On average, we concrete over or redevelop some 30,000ha in England alone every year, the equivalent of 1,250 Gavray Meadows.

This sounds alarming, but legislation that is due to complete its passage through Parliament in spring 2021 will mandate for most developments to not only compensate for the impacts they have on natural habitats, but to ensure they increase biodiversity by a measurable 10 per cent.

That’s where the metric comes in. The policy is called ‘biodiversity net gain’.

Replacing crops with wildlife Some people believe net gain could play a significant role in turning the tide of the wildlife losses that have caused the UK to become one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. Indeed, in some places, net gain is already being employed – in Warwickshire, planning authorities have been requiring developers to put back more than they take out since the county council took part in an offsetting trial way back in 2012.

In that time – according to the man in charge of the policy, David Lowe – the county council has “accrued just over £3m of biodiversity offsetting money” and “secured management agreements with landowners covering approximately 60ha worth of habitat enhancements.”

Until now, it’s been largely believed that the best way to compensate for a development is to build mitigation – a wildflower grassland or pond for great crested newts, for example – into the site itself, but many people argue this hasn’t worked. Now, the idea is that farmers are paid to take some of their land out of food production to grow wildlife instead.

And here’s the exciting bit. What if you were able to persuade farmers to put in sufficiently large tracts of land so that, instead of doing traditional habitat restoration, you were working at a landscape rewilding scale?

Getty

oking into the south-east corner of Bicester like a 1km-long index finger, Gavray Meadows are an oasis of wildlife in one of the fastest-growing towns in Oxfordshire, or even the UK. Langford Brook, which splits the site in two, is foraging territory for nomadic otters and the blousy hedgerows and furrowed grasslands are home to all five of the UK’s hairstreak butterflies – one of only a few locations in the country that can make that claim.

Local wildlife expert Pat Clissold comes here daily and posts photos of everything she sees, from long-tailed tits to red kites, on her Gavray Meadows Facebook page.

In the springtime, she says, there are warbling whitethroats along the top of every bramble bush and hobbies hawking for insects as they refuel on their long migration from Africa to their northern breeding grounds.

In short, you’d think that Gavray Meadows were irreplaceable, their value immeasurable. Another Bicester resident, Pam Roberts, has unearthed records of the site that date back to 1607.

Nature and history are closely entwined here because these fields have never been turned over to intensive agriculture, giving us a glimpse of what farmland looked like four centuries ago. Trying to quantify what these 24ha of meadow, scrub and woodland represent feels as pointless as trying to hook a rainbow.

And yet that is precisely what politicians, civil servants, planners and – yes – wildlife conservationists up and down the land want to do. They believe you can come up with a numerical value for Gavray Meadows, or indeed any wildlife habitat in the world, and they call it a ‘biodiversity unit’ or ‘offset metric’.

Here’s how it works. You take a score for the area and you multiply it by a score for the distinctiveness of the habitat (an ancient woodland rates higher than an arable field, for example) and then by a score for the condition of that habitat.

You turn nature into a number.

NEWS FEATURE

That’s what Jon Davies, a director at environmental consultancy RSK Biocensus, believes is possible. He wants to use biodiversity net gain to fund rewilding.

He hopes money will also come in from companies with ‘corporate and social responsibility’ (CSR) policies who want to compensate for their carbon emissions or other impacts on the environment.

The level of rewilding will vary according to the sorts of sites RSK can secure. “The smaller the site, the more you have to intervene,” Davies says. RSK has plenty of expertise in digging ponds and stripping topsoil, if necessary. “If what you are doing is increasing biodiversity, I am really not that fussed,” he adds. Beaver and dormice reintroductions are also in his sights.

Professor David Hill is another conservationist who believes net gain could finance a biodiversity revolution.

His consultancy, Environment Bank, is working to establish tracts of land he calls “habitat banks”, which will be pre-prepared as development offsets. His idea is that developers will be able to buy off-the-shelf biodiversity credits. Over the next year, he hopes to create six habitat banks of at least 40ha each, and more than 100 over the next five years. At the moment, they’re talking to farmers in Huntingdonshire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire.

“I spent 20 years designing mitigation schemes for developments and realised that

they resulted in very little biodiversity value being provided,” Hill says.

“We shouldn’t believe the rhetoric that good landscaping and planting within a development scheme delivers high quality biodiversity – it does not.

Developers want to develop, they do not want to create and provide longterm management for biodiversity within a housing scheme.”

Hill believes that funding previously put into this on-site mitigation can much better be used to create diverse, wild places on land that is currently intensively farmed. Most people, he argues, want to live in attractive, well-landscaped places where they can walk their dogs and their children can play, not areas of scrub and long grass or wetlands and woodland that are great for wildlife.

Selecting the right sites One of the key arguments in favour of biodiversity net gain – also known as offsetting – is that it will encourage house builders to concentrate their activities on agricultural land with little wildlife value.

Fields that have been trashed by inputs of fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides will scarcely have a single cabbage white to their name, and so the offset required will be much cheaper. Land with a high

Metrics can be used to distort the truth and twist reality to the benefit of the developer.

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Left to right: a vocal whitethroat; a hobby on the hunt; brown hairstreaks can be found in Gavray Meadows; adding wildflowers to housing estates.

biodiversity value, in contrast, will become more expensive to build on because greater compensation – the net gain – will be required. The metric and the market will push developers to avoid wildlife-rich areas.

But not everyone is convinced that net gain and the metrics system are infallible.

Dominic Woodfield is, like Hill and Davies, an environmental consultant, and in the course of his work, he’s seen how metrics can be used to distort the truth and twist reality to the benefit of the developer. If it wasn’t for him spotting how this was happening, some of the most precious parts of Gavray Meadows, for example, would now be under concrete.

Woodfield has known the site for 20 years, having first come across it while doing a hedgerow survey there in 1998.

He describes it as being a “lovely piece of fossilised landscape”, by which he means it had escaped the ravages of late 20th century modern farming – fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides. As a result, he recalls, the fields were alive with devil’s bit scabious and other wildflowers, leading to a similarly rich diversity of insects and birds.

In 2006, despite Woodfield’s best efforts, permission was granted to build housing on the site. Woodfield successfully overturned this in the High Court, but the developers

February 2021

NEWS FEATURE

Planning policy & net gain ■ Local councils, which run the planning system in the UK, are obliged to make sure they follow guidance set out in the National Planning Policy Framework. This says that “significant adverse impacts” on the environment, including wildlife, “should be avoided” and alternative solutions pursued. Where this isn’t possible, the local authority should require a house-builder, for example, to first mitigate the impact of their development or, second, to compensate for it.

Left to right: Chris Grady/Alamy; Getty; Malcolm Schuyl/FLPA; Gary K Smith/FLPA

■ What does this mean in practice? Let’s say a small housing estate is going to be built on a wildflower meadow

came back again with new proposals in 2016.

At this time, biodiversity metrics were just starting to take off, he says.

“They presented this completed biodiversity metric saying ‘We are going to achieve 10 per cent net gain’,” Woodfield says. “I took it apart, piece by piece – it was a classic misuse of a metric. For example, the fields in the eastern part of the site are unimproved grassland fields, but they had allocated them as semi-improved because it meant they got a lower score and it allowed them to achieve their biodiversity gain target easier. When I corrected their inputs, the outputs showed net loss.”

The difference between an unimproved grassland – effectively one that has never, in particular, ever had fertilisers put on it – and a semi-improved one (which has) may sound like a technicality, but it makes a huge difference in terms of species diversity. The planning inspector concluded in favour of Woodfield, and the application was shelved, though a slimmed-down version is likely to reappear this year.

RSK’s Jon Davies, however, believes the combined levers of net gain and rewilding allow us to plan wildlife restoration in a more strategic manner. He’s looking at working in areas highlighted by Natural England as priority habitats, thus potentially bringing

February 2021

– current best practice is to create a new one on the same site. If that can’t be done, you put in compensation habitat elsewhere (offsetting).

■ The difference that net gain will make is that planning authorities may more often let developers go straight for the arguably easier solution of offsetting the impacts they have on the natural world, instead of mitigating them. That could result in the loss of habitats that may be hundreds of years old.

■ But some environmental consultants argue that onsite mitigation never really worked, so this will benefit wildlife in the long run.

greater connectivity to the UK landscape.

Recreating wetlands – with the help of beavers – could help to store water upstream of areas that are liable to flood, and sequester carbon, contributing to UK emissions reduction plans.

Tackling the issues But what if this is all at the expense of sites like Gavray Meadows? Pam Roberts points out the site will eventually be completely subsumed within Bicester, as housing continues to be built on the outskirts of the town. “They need protecting as a nature area that enhances Bicester in the way that Christ Church Meadow [ famous for its snake’s head fritillaries] enriches Oxford,” she says.

Take a walk through Gavray after a period of heavy rain and you’ll discover another reason to preserve the site as it is. It’s not just wet under foot, it’s like traipsing around Jeremy Fisher’s kitchen. Build on the site and it will inevitably lose some of its properties as a magic sponge, increasing the likelihood of flooding further downstream.

Writer and campaigner George Monbiot is adamant that using net gain to rewild would be wrong. “If it’s used to offset either destructive projects or carbon emissions, then I feel that’s a misuse of the approach,” he says. “If it’s used to swap well-established

habitats for putative, possible future habitats that may or may not be valuable, it’s a very poor exchange.”

There are other issues, too. Much habitat restoration or rewilding initiated by net gain will take place on private land that may or may not have public access. Environment Bank said it could not name any of the landowners it has entered into offset agreements with because of confidentiality issues. Offset agreements only last for 30 years, and there is no consensus on what will happen to the land after that. Potentially, they could just be ploughed up again and revert to intensive agriculture.

Warwickshire’s David Lowe was able to make some names public, mainly districtcouncil owned sites such as Saltisford Common on the edge of Warwick. I visited the site and could find nothing informing local residents that habitat there had been enhanced to compensate for the impact of a development elsewhere. In short, there is a lack of transparency and accountability surrounding the policy, though the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has said it will launch a ‘biodiversity gains site register’ when the Environment Bill becomes law.

None of this will provide much comfort to people such as Pam Roberts and Pat Clissold, fighting to stop the degradation or loss of the precious wildflowers and ancient furrows of Gavray Meadows. Is turning them into a number, and using that to decide their future, really the way to save Britain’s wildlife?

JAMES FAIR writes about wildlife, conservation and the environment: jamefairwildlife.co.uk

FIND OUT MORE Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: gov.uk/defra

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BBC Wildlife Magazine is full of breathtaking photos and fascinating features on the most interesting animals and habitats in the UK and around the world.

With the latest news and conservation issues, practical expert advice and ideas for really wild days out, you will understand and enjoy nature more.

From building local schools to translocating 500 elephants, conservation organisation African Parks has led the way in protecting the continent’s precious wildlife.

By Sue Watt

“O Getty

PARK LIFE

ur planet is screaming at humanity to wake up and understand the consequences of its actions,” Peter Fearnhead tells me from his office in locked-down South Africa.

“We can listen, or we can continue to ignore it and continue to lament those consequences.

Whether it’s COVID-19, Ebola or fires in Australia, they’re all calls to action.”

Peter understands, perhaps more than most, the urgent need to protect the world’s wild places and their wildlife. He’s the CEO of African Parks (AP), a renowned non-profit conservation organisation that celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. “Protected areas are crucial,” he emphasises. “They’re the building blocks for any strategy to conserve nature.”

Over two decades, AP has gradually taken on responsibility for protecting the biodiversity of 19 national parks and reserves in 11 African countries, covering a staggering 142,000km² across the continent – an area greater than the whole of England.

AP’s portfolio is the largest and most ecologically diverse of any conservation organisation in Africa, rehabilitating precious ecosystems depleted through human encroachment, habitat loss, war, poverty and poaching for an illegal wildlife trade now worth $20 billion a year. From tropical rainforests to savannah, ocean to desert, in countries at peace or suffering under volatile unrest, AP protects wild landscapes in Angola, Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, DRC, Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Large elephant populations in Malawi have led to conflict between the hefty animals and humans.

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GOLDILOC Sir David Attenborough returns to BBC One with a stunning new series that fuses natural history with Earth sciences to help us understand the forces that maintain life.

By Michael Bright

STREAMING

A PERFECT PLANET

Available on BBC iPlayer.

PLANET

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Huw Cordey/Silverback Films 2018

Life on the edge: the crew filmed from the rim of Mount Yasur – one of the longest continually erupting volcanoes on the planet.

A PERFECT PLANET

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stories and animal behaviour that show a perspective of the planet of which many people might not be aware. People see volcanoes as destructive, for example, but they are vital to life and are the architects of our planet.”

One of the most spectacular is Mount Yasur on Tanna Island in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. It’s been spitting out lava bombs, molten spatter, clouds of ash and steam, along with choking gases, for over 800 years, one of the longest continually erupting volcanoes on the planet. In 1774, Captain Cook was drawn to its glow, and the attraction for A Perfect Planet producers was the lake of molten lava bubbling in the crater.

“Standing on the rim, you can feel the raw power,” says Huw. “When the lake erupts, shockwaves hit you in the chest, and, every

so often, lava bombs are sent high into the air. Most drop back into the crater, but others land on the rim. The volcanologists with whom we were working said ‘Keep an eye on the trajectory, and move out of the way’. If any were to have hit you, there’s no doubt, it would have been curtains.”

The crew versus the volcano

Land iguanas scramble down into the crater of the active volcano to incubate their eggs.

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Top: brown bears in Kamchatka, Russia, catch salmon in the shadow of a volcano. Above: the crew films on the unpredictable Mount Yasur.

On the other side of the Pacific, another film crew was on the uninhabited Galápagos island of Fernandina. They were there to film land iguanas, which scramble down into the crater of the island’s active volcano, La Cumbre, to take advantage of the warmth to incubate their eggs. Standing at the base of the volcano with the rest of the crew, wildlife cameraman and Galápagos expert February 2021

Bears: Tom Walker/Silverback Films 2017; filming & Sir David: Huw Cordey/ Silverback Films 2018; volcano crater & iguana: Tui De Roy/Silverback Films 2018

perfect planet? Well, that’s something to live up to in a universe with trillions of planets. So, does our home – a tiny blue dot in the vastness of space – stand out from the crowd?

If the new BBC One series A Perfect Planet is anything to go by, it probably does – after all, Earth is the only planet known to have life.

Brought to us by the producers of Our Planet and The Hunt, the central narrative of this new series is the forces of nature – volcanoes, sunlight, weather and ocean currents – that shape life on Earth. It is this fusion of Earth sciences and blue-chip natural history that underpins A Perfect Planet, says series producer Huw Cordey.

So, what can we expect to see? “Stunning photography, of course, but also new

PERFECT PLANET

Dealing with COVID How the pandemic affected the production of A Perfect Planet.

The dramatic view from Fernandina’s La Cumbre volcano, where land iguanas (above) make the most of the warmth.

February 2021

With productions locked down in the UK and unable to travel, the wildlife film industry, like many others, has taken quite a knock, but how did COVID-19 restrictions affect A Perfect Planet?

“We were fairly lucky,” says series producer Huw Cordey, “as we had more or less finished offline picture edits by the time lockdown started, with the exception of Humans. It had a huge impact on the rest of the process, though.

For the Humans edit, the editor was in the Silverback Productions offices in Bristol, with the producer at home monitoring on a Zoom connection. Everything took more than twice as long. By the time we delivered, we had completed 60 weeks of post-production – a record, I think, for a landmark natural history series, and in many cases we had to change the way we worked. Recording the narration with Sir David Attenborough (above), for instance, was an interesting experience.

“Three out of the five narrations were recorded at Sir David’s home. He sat in his dining room, with the walls and windows covered in duvets and sheets to stop echo and exclude traffic noise, and the microphone was cabled to Graham Wild, our sound mixer, who had set up on a table in Sir David’s garden. The first recording was on a swelteringly hot summer’s day, the second in the rain. Nevertheless, I would be surprised if anyone could tell which was recorded in a professional studio and which was in Sir David’s house.”

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My best bit

Producers and directors inevitably have their favourite animal sequences, so what were the standouts in A Perfect Planet?

NICK SHOOLINGIN-JORDAN Producer

“Every time we headed outside, it was like going on a space walk on a frozen alien planet.”

Richard Wollocombe mbe exclaimed, exxclaimed “You “You’ve u’ve got to be totally crazy to go up there!”

But up there they went. After a backbreaking climb to the summit, hauling the cameras, food and all the water they needed, and taking two days back and forth for each load, the film crew pitched its tents just 10m from the edge of the crumbling crater rim, right next to a sheer drop of 800m to the crater floor. When the crew put up a drone, they discovered that they had camped on a protruding ledge, which could have given way at any moment. Not only that, but there had been an eruption and a magnitude 9 earthquake the week before they arrived.

Field director Toby Nowlan was also there, one of only 30 people to have ever been in the crater. “There were constant aftershocks loosening the walls and creating daily giant rock falls,” he remembers. “But we managed to reach the crater floor unscathed and filmed the iguanas depositing their eggs in the geothermally heated ash. While we were there, Volcan Chico erupted on a nearby island, and the wind carried a blue cloud of toxic gas into La Cumbre’s crater. We had to breathe through wet rags to prevent the gas 40

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Above: the series was filmed over a period of four year, in 31 countries, including Vietnam, where we meet the southern yellow-cheeked crested gibbon during The Sun episode.

forming sulphuric acid in our lungs, and ass night drew in we were trapped. We couldn’t evacuate in the dark, as it would have been far too dangerous to climb the crater walls.

We had to hope that the gas cloud would clear and, at about 3am, it did. At sunrise, we made it out, and re-hydrated scrambled eggs at breakfast never tasted so good!”

Extreme temperatures

“My favourites were undoubtedly Sahara silver ants. They are true desert specialists. They’re covered by thousands of glass-like hairs, and the shafts are shaped like a triangular prism to reflect light back into the desert. Their long, thin legs are more like a spider’s, to lift them clear of the 70°C sand. On their heads, they have three extra light sensors that enable them to triangulate the sun, so they can navigate the featureless sea of sand. In the seconds before they exit their burrows, they flood their bodies with a heat shock protein that protects their cells from the heat of the sun.”

ED CHARLES Producer “It had to be flamboyant cuttlefish.

Just 5cm long, and dazzling in their bright, changing colours, they were the animals with the most character that I’ve ever seen.”

While Toby toiled in temperatures in excess of 45°C in the Galápagos, producer Nick Shoolingin-Jordan and his team making The Sun episode, actually forsook the sun and headed for Ellesmere Island in the north of Canada, not in summer, when most people visit, but in midwinter. They were there to film how Arctic wolves cope with the extremely brutal conditions: 24 hours of darkness and temperatures that plummeted regularly below –50°C. “Each time we headed outside, it was like going on a space walk on a frozen alien planet. Every part of our bodies needed to be protected. Just a tiny patch of exposed skin would mean frostbite within seconds, so operating in these conditions, just 800km February 2021

A PERFECT PLANET

Gibbon: Sarah-Jane Walsh/Silverback Films 2018; wolf portrait: lain Lusignan/ Silverback Films 2018; Ant, rabbits, cuttlefish & filming: Silverback Films

This page: filming Arctic wolves and hares on Canada’s Ellesmere Island in the dark depths of winter.

from the North Pole, is painstakingly slow and everything that could go wrong or break, did. We had cracked sledges, frozen tripods, frozen drones, frostbite, broken snowmobiles and endless days without a wolf in sight. But perseverance paid off with some stunning encounters with the white wolves, and a magical encounter with hundreds of Arctic hares – gatherings that had just been a mythical story until our team filmed it for the very first time.”

At the other end of the spectrum, was the Sahara Desert, where there’s almost too much sun. Nick and cameraman Richard Kirby were there, in southern Morocco, to film the extraordinary Saharan silver ants.

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A PERFECT PLANET

“Our cases of camera equipment and vital pictures floated down the river and flooded.”

they shot across the sand at speeds with a human equivalent of 760kph. Part of the crew’s success, according to Nick, was put down to the small bar they found at the edge of the desert, where they could end the day with a beer and regain their sanity.

Getting carried away When pushing the boundaries of wildlife film-making in remote and hostile regions, danger is rarely far away. In the Peruvian Amazon, Toby was filming fire ants escaping w the flooded forest by building rafts with their living bodies, for the Weather episode.

“We were nearing the end of an eight-hour river journey, when the skipper encountered 42

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Top: nesting giant Amazon river turtles appear in the Weather episode. Bottom: Richard Kirby films the solar-powered mating frenzy of garter snakes.

an unexpected current and the boat, a long slender craft similar to a British narrowboat, capsized. We swam through the cabin and out through an upturned exit hole, and made it safely to the riverbank.

“All of our 40 cases of camera equipment and drives containing the vital pictures were on board. Many floated down the river and flooded, despite the case manufacturer’s waterproof guarantee, but miraculously one set of drives, on which a month’s filming was recorded, had survived intact. It’s the most important thing to save after human life – though, ironically, it was the back-up drives.

The master drives had been destroyed.”

Perhaps the biggest test was in the Gulf of Thailand, where producer Ed Charles was in search of Eden’s whales, a close relative of the slightly larger Bryde’s whale. The image that stuck in Ed’s mind was not one February 2021

Hatchlings & crocodile: Silverback Films; filming: Nick Shoolingin-Jordan/Silverback Films 2019; flamingos: Darren Williams/ Silverback Films 2019; finch: Huw Cordey/Silverback Films 2018; shark: Ed Charles/Silverback Films 2018

Unlike most animals that hide from the sun at midday, silver ants emerge from their nests and forage, so they’re out and about when their predators are not. The air temperature was more than 50°C and the ground temperature 70°C for much of the shoot, and there was little shade to speak of.

The big problem was how to keep Richard and the camera cool enough to operate.

The solution, as is often the case in remote locations, was simple: they wrapped the cameraman and his camera in two large pieces of cotton material used normally for making turbans. They were soaked and re-soaked in water, and the hot desert wind cooled both by evaporation.

Just as taxing, though, were the ants.

Richard had to follow the tiny creatures as

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My best bit

HUW CORDEY Series producer “Vampire finches feeding on the blood of Nazca boobies was memorable.

Watching a bird that looks like a common sparrow cut through a booby’s large feather and drink its blood is a wonderful example of evolution through natural selection – what happens when populations of a single species become separated from one another. It was also memorable for another reason – the 12hour boat journey. I’m not keen on long journeys in small boats!”

Lemon sharks in the shallow waters leading to the mangrove forests of the Bahamas. Above: flamingos at the highly caustic Lake Natron.

TOBY NOWLAN Field director “As a birder, the most memorable shoot was sitting for days at the world’s largest colony of southern carmine bee-eaters, filming new behaviour. They were being hunted from below by Nile crocodiles, which leapt vertically up to try to catch them, and from above by African fish eagles, which swooped in to grab them in mid-air. Daily journeys to the hide would involve negotiating a path between hippos and crocodiles. We were sometimes closer to giant bull hippos – hot and bothered in the peak of the dry season – than I would have liked!”

of whales, even when he did find them, but something else entirely: “Every morning, we would watch the residents of the town come out of their houses with a garbage bag in each hand, walk down to the ocean, and throw the bags into the water, before turning back to their homes. As we looked for the whales, there would be lines of this trash stretching for miles, as it was carried out to sea by the current.”

Human impacts This was to become a frequent and disturbing sight that A Perfect Planet film crews observed even in the remotest places on Earth, such as Aldabra in the Indian Ocean. Huw Cordey was there to film giant tortoises: “Aldabra is one of the most remote and difficult-to-reach islands. It’s pretty much off limits to all but research scientists and February 2021

the occasional tourist on a high-end cruise.

To get there, you have to charter an aircraft and embark on a three-hour flight from the Seychelles, but when you get there, it’s sensational. Aldabra is one of the most pristine islands in the world. For much of it, the human footprint is incredibly small. It is home to the last giant tortoises in the Indian Ocean, and today there are about 100,000 of them roaming the island, along with the last flightless rails.”

But there was another side to Aldabra.

Its western shores were carpeted with huge quantities of plastics of all description, washed in on currents from Africa. And, it was this destructive force of humans that features in the last episode in the series.

While touching on hurricanes, droughts, deforestation, floods and climate change, the production team took a close look at BBC Wildlife

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Planet: Silverback Films/Moonraker 2020; watering: Silverback Films

A PERFECT PLANET overfishing, particularly the invasion of foreign fishing boats into Gabon’s rich coastal waters, by filming a joint project with Sea Shepherd and the government of Gabon.

Sea Shepherd operates the patrol boat and Gabon provides the fisheries enforcement officers and marines for security.

Assistant producer Emily Franke was on board. “As fishing is a 24-hour activity, we had to be ready for action at all times.

Each night – when most illegal fishing was carried out – we slept in our clothes with a grab bag of life jacket, camera kit and batteries at the ready.

“During patrols and boarding parties, cameraman Paul Williams and sound recordist Tamara Stubbs were natural sea monkeys, rapidly scaling ropey rope ladders from the RIBs, with kit strapped to their backs, which was no easy feat in choppy seas.

“We encountered two types of fishing boat – the poorly maintained and cockroachinfested Chinese trawlers, and the formidable industrial purse seiners from Europe. The huge nets, over a kilometre long and more than 250m deep, were set in circles, but, of course, they didn’t just haul up fish for market. We were filming sharks, sea turtles and rays that landed on the deck, grabbed by their gills and wrestled off the side of the boat or suspended by their tail and dropped overboard, many too badly injured to survive. I saw a leatherback

The Great Green Wall project is bringing back life to Africa’s degraded landscapes.

turtle, tangled and cut up by the net, quickly dispatched off the back of the boat, out of sight of our cameras.”

Sands of time In Africa, Nick came across another story that started with desperation and despair, but was turning a corner. He was in the Sahel – the band of semi-desert turning rapidly to desert to the south of the Sahara – where he visited what he called ‘no-men village’: Goulum. He learned from the village chief that almost all the men of working age have had to move away. Nick and the chief walked out across deserted fields in which a variety of crops were once grown, but the chief bent down, scooped up a handful of the fine sandy soil and watched as it flowed through his fingers.

While this village has a bleak future, not far away a major project was bringing a ray of hope to a parched and desolate region.

It’s the ‘Great Green Wall’ – a plan to plant trees across 8,000km, from Senegal to Djibouti, arrest desertification, and reclaim currently degraded land. Maybe our planet will one day be perfect once again.

MICHAEL BRIGHT is an author and a former senior producer with the BBC’s Natural History Unit.

SEE IT ON... A Perfect Planet is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

“We were filming sharks, sea turtles and rays that landed on the deck, many too injured to survive.”

Interplanetary billiards Earth has had such a turbulent history that it is extraordinary life and the planet itself exists at all. The Earth was formed about 4.6 billion years ago, but Earth 1.0 – a giant super-Earth version – was probably destroyed when Jupiter waltzed across the solar system like a wrecking ball, in a manoeuvre known as the ‘grand tack’, and broke up the rocky planets, much of the debris falling into the sun.

Earth 2.0, along with Mercury, Mars and Venus, was formed from the leftovers.

And then everything was progressing well, until a space object about the size of Mars hit the Earth and partly vaporised the planet, so any early life would have been annihilated. But it gave Earth the perfect tilt, which provided us with the seasons, and spawned the moon, which gave us the tides. All this, and our perfect annual circuit of the sun, meant the Earth was ready for life.

ON

February 2021

PROBOSCIS MONKEYS

THE NOSE Words by Jo Price

Proboscis monkeys may be famed for their sizeable schnozzles but why do they have them? And what else is there to uncover about Borneo’s peaceful primates?

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February 2021

youngsters stayed higher in the canopy than males, perhaps due to their vulnerability.

There are two types of social groups in the proboscis monkey: harem groups (which consist of a dominant male, an average of five females and their offspring) and all-male bachelor groups. We’re watching a harem group, and the dominant male is watching us.

Resident or core males in harem groups have a tenure of about six to eight years: “If he loses interest, the females will kick him out,” says wildlife guide Ronald K Asuncion.

“Most of the social primates in Borneo adopt a multi-male, multifemale social system,” explains Professor Benoît Goossens, director of the Danau Girang Field Centre, a collaborative research and training facility managed by Sabah Wildlife Department and Cardiff University.

“You rarely see bachelor groups in langurs and macaques.”

Eat, leap, swim, repeat A fishing egret floats by on a log as the dominant male maintains his stare and the rest of the group feed.

Proboscis monkeys survive on a diet of leaves, seeds and unripe fruits (they cannot consume ripe fruits).

To aid digestion, these ‘cows of the canopy’ have a four-chambered stomach, giving them a potbellied

Larger than life However, the most conspicuous evolutionary characteristic of this unique primate is, of course, the enormous nose of adult males. The journal Science Advances suggests that the prominent adornment may have developed through the proboscis monkeys’ sexually competitive harem group social system, as researchers have found a clear link between nose size and the number of harem females. Evidence supports male-male competition BBC Wildlife

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Mogens Trolle

The unmistakable proboscis monkey – the Cyrano de Bergerac of the simian world.

ndemic to the jungles of Borneo, proboscis monkeys never stray far from the tropical island’s rivers, coastal mangroves and swamps. Dawn and dusk are the best times to watch these arboreal primates. In the evening, they often congregate by the water to sleep. So, along with my fellow travellers, that’s when I head out onto the river.

Our small boat speeds along the murky, tree-lined Kinabatangan as a pair of oriental pied hornbills fly overhead. Everyone keeps a close eye on the riverine foliage for any sign of movement and their first glimpse of proboscis monkeys. It doesn’t take long before a group is spotted settling in the trees for the night. We cut the engine and drift quietly towards the riverbank.

The selection of sleeping sites by proboscis monkeys along this river in the Malaysian state of Sabah is mostly influenced by antipredation strategies, and is crucial for the primates’ survival, according to a Folia Primatologica study.

Within identified sleeping sites, trees were taller, had a larger trunk, and bigger and higher first branches than surrounding trees. Scientists also observed that females and

appearance, while bacteria in their intestines help them to process toxins found in certain leaves.

To minimise the level of poison in their system, no one plant can dominate their diet, so the primates are constantly on the move, in search of the youngest and least-toxic leaves. In order to reach feeding grounds on the other side of the river, they must take a leap of faith into crocodile-infested waters. “The male tends to go first,” says Ronald. It’s a nerve-racking moment when the monkeys decide to take the plunge, but they do have an evolutionary advantage that gives them a chance of outpacing opportunistic reptiles.

“Proboscis monkeys are not the only primates that can swim,” says Benoît. “We regularly observe long-tailed macaques crossing the Kinabatangan River, but [proboscis monkeys] are certainly one of the few species that have evolved webbed feet.” The species can also wade upright through water, behaviour that makes it exceptional amongst monkeys – being habitually bipedal.

PROBOSCIS MONKEYS

Clockwise from top left: Mogens Trolle; Michiel Vaartjes/Nature in Stock/FLPA; Anup Shah/naturepl.com; Jeroen Hendriks/Alamy

The species’ outsized organs create an echo chamber to amplify the monkey’s call.

and female choice as factors in the evolution of large male noses.

According to the 2018 study, “The relative size of an enlarged nose would act as an advertisement signal for conspecific male rivals and an informative visual signal for the recognition of male qualities, such as physical strength (body mass) and reproductive ability (testis size), by females.”

Vocal but peaceful The species’ outsized organs also create an echo chamber to amplify the monkey’s call – useful for intimidating rivals and impressing females.

For this species, vocalisations transmit sexual signals more effectively than visual cues in a dense rainforest with poor visibility, and can be carried over 100– 200m, depending on habitat conditions.

They may also be used to keep the harem close to the core male and protect offspring – the most vulnerable members of the group. “Their strong communication through vocalisations could also be a factor explaining their peaceful social system,” adds Benoît, “Pacific challenges are made via their strong vocalisations.”

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Clockwise from above: males and females can be differentiated by the size of their noses; a female rests on a branch with a group of juveniles; the species’ strict diet consists

of leaves along with seeds and unripe fruit; to track down the right kinds of food, these monkeys have to swim for their supper – across crocodileinfested rivers.

Flexible group organisation in the multilevel society (a distinct type of primate social system, the key features of which are single-male, multi-female core units within larger social bands) at their sleeping trees also demonstrates how harmony is achieved.

“Because the sleeping sites of harem groups are often closely located within 50m, with occasional occurrences of sharing the same tree (we have also observed bachelor groups located very close to harem groups), showing their badge of social status may lessen male-male physical antagonistic interactions, thereby avoiding seriously wounding each other,” Benoît says.

Among primates, larger noses with prominent sexual dimorphism are only seen in this species: females are about

60cm long, weigh 12kg and have smaller noses compared to males that can reach up to 75cm long and weigh about 24kg.

Among proboscis monkeys from harem groups, there is no evidence of strong male-male antagonistic interactions with core male replacements or infanticide.

Whereas this behaviour is commonly seen in primates that form highly sexually competitive societies, such as howler monkeys and langurs.

“It is frequently observed that adult females transfer from one harem to another, sometimes with a newborn infant, and thus core males in harem groups may not be able to maintain stable relationships with females over a long period, and therefore male-male antagonistic interactions are not necessary,” explains Benoît.

Facing threats Though the proboscis monkey is a firm favourite of tourists visiting Borneo, its numbers have plummeted by more than 50 per cent over the past 30–40 years, mainly due to habitat loss for timber, settlement and cultivation. The range of these highly specialised primates is becoming more fragmented, forcing them to travel further February 2021

Meet the neighbours You may be familiar with the proboscis monkey and Bornean orangutan, but what about the other primate species that share Sabah’s forests?

LONG-TAILED MACAQUE

Macaque: Suzi Eszterhas/NPL; gibbon: Roland Seitre/NPL; tarsier: Quentin Martinez/Biosphoto/Alamy; langur: Thomas Marent/Minden/Alamy

Malaysia’s most common primate species is found all over the lowland rainforests of Sabah. It can also survive in small patches of vegetation near urban areas. It eats leaves, shoots and small animals. In coastal areas, it hunts crabs, giving rise to its alternative name of crab-eating macaque.

to find food and descend from the safety of the trees more often, which increases the risk of predation or poaching.

In Sabah, the species is currently totally protected under Schedule 1, Section 1 of the Wildlife Conservation Enactment (WCE) 1997. Totally protected animals under Schedule 1 cannot be hunted. For those killing proboscis monkeys illegally and found guilty of an offence under Section 25 WCE 1997, the penalty is a fine of between 50,000 and 250,000 Malaysian Ringgit (about £9,200 to £46,000), plus imprisonment for no less than six months and up to five years.

According to the IUCN, in some portions of the species’ range, its legal protection suffers from governmental and institutional deficiencies, including lack of conservation funds and knowledge, as well as poor and inappropriate management.

“I’m sure that this is the case in many areas in the range of the proboscis monkey in Borneo. Whether this is due to lack of funds and knowledge, I’m not sure,” says Benoît.

“Proboscis monkeys are mostly threatened by habitat loss, especially mangrove destruction and the encroachment of riparian reserves by people and oil palm plantations.”

February 2021

MÜLLER’S BORNEAN GIBBON This arboreal frugivore (having a penchant for fruits high in sugar) is an important seed disperser. It is classified as Endangered, and has faced a suspected population decline of 50 per cent (or more) between 1990 and 2019.

RED LEAF MONKEY Also known as the maroon langur, this is one of three species of leaf monkey found in Sabah (alongside the grey and silvered leaf monkeys). Red (and grey) leaf monkeys live in tall lowland dipterocarp forests, and feed on the leaves and seeds of trees and lianas.

WESTERN TARSIER This nocturnal, carnivorous primate eats mainly insects and lives in primary and secondary forest, as well as along the coasts or on the edge of plantations.

Its long hind legs and fingers enable it to climb and leap; it has extremely sensitive ears and those huge eyes help it to see in the dark.

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“The state government has endorsed a 10-year plan, which will help protect the species.”

Our boat moves on from the harem group and begins to travel down a tributary, where a tangle of branches and vines hangs low above my head, creating a beautiful green arch, as a kingfisher whizzes past. But as we travel further along the tranquil waterway, looking for more birdlife, the rich rainforest vegetation on one side is replaced with the uniformity of an oil palm plantation that reaches the riverbank.

Preserving habitat Due to proboscis monkeys’ very strict diet, the degradation of habitat can be extremely detrimental to these primates. Benoît and his colleagues studied the species over a 10-year period. When comparing population sizes from 2004 and 2014, they discovered that the sizes of the groups were significantly reduced. Their analysis of habitat changes showed that within protected reserves, there was relatively

little forest loss in the primates’ potential range, which mainly lies 800m from riverbanks.

“This suggests that the protection of swamp forests can contribute immensely to the sustainability of proboscis monkeys within these important habitats,” reveals Dr Marc Ancrenaz, scientific director at HUTAN, an NGO that was involved in the research. “However, larger losses of interior forests meant that habitats had generally become more degraded and fragmented, and this could have contributed to reduced group sizes and limited population growth.”

“Though the protection of forests within the proboscis monkeys’ range had proved effective, this was not the case in unprotected forests, where 12 per cent of the forest was lost and could eventually lead to 23 per cent of the population being threatened,” adds Benoît. “At least a third of these forests has been allocated for oil palm cultivation.”

Technology to the rescue

In 2012, an adult male proboscis monkey, belonging to a one-male social group, was GPS tracked for six months in Sabah.

The data showed that riparian habitats featured heavily in the group’s range.

In 2015, a drone was used to map the habitat in high-resolution. Data revealed that 47ha of forest had been cleared shortly before the drone flights. Thirty per cent of the proboscis monkeys’ home range had been cleared, as well as 11 per cent of sleeping sites. Drone images also showed that the felling extended to the river’s edge, disregarding certain laws.

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Palm oil plantations riverbank of the Kinabatangan.

Following this discovery, a press release (combining drone imagery with GPS data) was published, revealing the loss of habitat for an endangered species that is economically important for Sabah’s tourism industry. “Dissemination of our findings was followed by a cessation on further land clearing along the river, ordered by the Sabah State Government,” says Benoît. “Because the data are visually compelling, it can quickly inform policymakers and action can be taken.” ● Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation: bit.ly/3lWRAaH

For more than a decade, the Danau Girang Field Centre and Sabah Wildlife Department have joined forces to identify and preserve species and habitats in the Kinabatangan floodplain, starting with crucial ecological work in support of endangered animals.

“Initial species population surveys led to international workshops and conferences, which in turn led to direct work with government on rainforest conservation,” Benoît explains.

As a consequence, long-term conservation initiatives and acclaimed rainforest protection policies have been created: “What’s changed since 2014 is that the state government has, for the first time ever, endorsed a 10-year state action plan for the proboscis monkey, which, hopefully, will help improve the species’ protection in Sabah.”

The Proboscis Monkey Action Plan 2019– 2028 was drafted by the Cardiff University professor. He says, “Currently, we are interested in implementing the action plan by increasing enforcement and improving connectivity through forest restoration.

We have also started a new project called Regrow Borneo, which is a carbon-balancing scheme that supports tree planting in the Lower Kinabatangan.”

As well as sustaining local livelihoods and culture, the initiative aims to improve biodiversity and help with the conservation of local ecologies. It’s welcome news for the proboscis monkey and all the other creatures that depend on Borneo’s rich rainforests to survive.

JO PRICE is deputy editor of BBC Wildlife. She visited Malaysian Borneo with Audley Travel.

FIND OUT MORE Proboscis monkeys on the BBC’s Earth’s Tropical Islands: bbc.co.uk/ programmes/p07yh1lp. The Danau Girang Field Centre: dgfc.life/home February 2021

Proboscis: Edwin Giesbers/naturepl.com; palm oil: Adrian Davies/naturepl.com

Illustration Illustrati ion by Stuart Jackson-Carter

Using drones and satellite tracking can be an effective way of informing rapid policy change and protecting species.

BEAVERS extend down to the

Though serious acts of aggression are uncommon among proboscis monkeys (here, a female), the species will use vocalisations and teeth baring to show discontent.

Kevin Morgans

Wilkinson Cameras Ambassador Photographer For more information about our Ambassadors visit wilkinson.co.uk/blog

kevinmorgans.com @kevmorgans

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February 2021

Behind the image

That’s quite a mouthful  I always tell people on

my workshops, when you see movement, just react to it, or else you’ll miss your shot.

by CHASE DEKKER

2019

Lightning-fast reflexes were needed to capture the moment a hungry humpback accidentally snagged a sealion.

CHASE DEKKER is a wildlife and conservation photographer based in Monterey, California. chasedekker.com

H

umpback whales have been known to accidentally catch the odd pelican or cormorant in their mouths while feeding, but engulfing a 600lb sealion is seriously rare. Wildlife photographer and whalewatching guide Chase raised his camera in an instant. “I always tell people who come on my photography workshops, when you see movement just react to it, or else you’ll miss your shot,” he says.

From July to December, Monterey Bay in California is a prime spot to see migratory humpback whales which – along with other predators, including sealions – are drawn to the area to feed on schooling anchovies. On this particular afternoon out on the boat, there were two or three whales and 200 or so sealions enjoying a feeding frenzy.

“Sometimes, you get up to 90 whales with 6,000 sealions,” says Chase.

Normally, the fellow diners politely ignore one another. The whales will dive down first, followed by the sealions and then the sealions will pop back up, shortly followed by the whales. The humpbacks ‘lunge feed’, taking in large volumes of water and fish, which are strained though baleen – a comb-like structure in their mouths.

Hard to swallow As it happened, this whale came to the surface with something rather more substantial in its mouth, but with an oesophagus the size of a large melon, there was never any chance of the unlucky sealion being swallowed.

“Knowing whales’ friendly nature, I feel extremely confident to this day that the sealion was not harmed,” reassures Chase. “The mouth never shut and the whale slowly sank back down into the ocean with it wide open, so it probably forfeited some fish but made sure the sealion got out.”

Catherine Smalley February 2021

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PARK LIFE From building local schools to translocating 500 elephants, conservation organisation African Parks has led the way in protecting the continent’s precious wildlife.

By Sue Watt

Getty

“O

ur planet is screaming at humanity to wake up and understand the consequences of its actions,” Peter Fearnhead tells me from his office in locked-down South Africa.

“We can listen, or we can continue to ignore it and continue to lament those consequences.

Whether it’s COVID-19, Ebola or fires in Australia, they’re all calls to action.”

Peter understands, perhaps more than most, the urgent need to protect the world’s wild places and their wildlife. He’s the CEO of African Parks (AP), a renowned non-profit conservation organisation that celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. “Protected areas are crucial,” he emphasises. “They’re the building blocks for any strategy to conserve nature.”

Over two decades, AP has gradually taken on responsibility for protecting the biodiversity of 19 national parks and reserves in 11 African countries, covering a staggering 142,000km² across the continent – an area greater than the whole of England.

AP’s portfolio is the largest and most ecologically diverse of any conservation organisation in Africa, rehabilitating precious ecosystems depleted through human encroachment, habitat loss, war, poverty and poaching for an illegal wildlife trade now worth $20 billion a year. From tropical rainforests to savannah, ocean to desert, in countries at peace or suffering under volatile unrest, AP protects wild landscapes in Angola, Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, DRC, Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Large elephant populations in Malawi have led to conflict between the hefty animals and humans.

Will Whitford (x3); education project: Stefan Heunis/AFP/Getty

AFRICAN PARKS

I first met Peter in Malawi in 2016, when I’d been invited to cover the first day of AP’s 500 Elephants Project – the biggest operation of its kind worldwide. Across two years, the elephants would be translocated from Liwonde National Park and Majete Wildlife Reserve to Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve, all under AP’s management.

Liwonde’s elephant population was leading to severe human-wildlife conflict: 60 people had been killed by elephants during the previous four years.

With the team having successfully darted elephants from a helicopter, Peter gave me clear instructions as the chopper whirred overhead, above Liwonde’s golden plains.

“Check this elephant’s breathing, Sue. It should be around six breaths a minute.

If it falls below four, she’s in trouble.”

For 20 long minutes, I sat beside the unconscious elephant, one hand loosely cupping the end of her trunk. Nervously, I counted every warm, fuggy breath as I watched the second hand turning around my watch. Meanwhile, vets and researchers checked the other eight members of her herd

“The sheer scale and professionalism of the translocation made the whole of Africa take notice.”

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before transporting them all to their new home in Nkhotakota, 350km away.

The project made headlines around the world, having “a phenomenal impact,” explains Chris Badger, who’s run Mvuu Lodge and Camp in Liwonde since 1994. “By 2015, when AP arrived, the park was so heavily poached, its very existence was in jeopardy.

The sheer scale and professionalism of the translocations made the whole of Africa take notice. Malawi, often seen as a minor player in conservation and tourism, was leading the way in the protection of this iconic species.”

Clockwise from above: AP helps to fund education in Africa; Sue checks the breathing pattern of an unconscious elephant; the herd was darted with the help of a helicopter; black lechwe in Bangweulu – a protected wetland.

Changing mindsets AP’s founders (including Peter) are leading conservationists and businessmen who wanted a radical new way to protect Africa’s wild landscapes. Where they differ from similar organisations is in their business approach to conservation working in publicprivate partnerships with governments – crucially taking full control of their parks for 20 years or more. AP’s responsibilities cover everything from security and law enforcement, community development and biodiversity conservation to tourism, infrastructure, finance and governance.

It’s this integrated approach to management that has led to AP’s success.

“In the early days, we knocked on the doors of around a third of African countries, explaining what we could do. Not many answered!” Peter says. “Now, governments ask us whether we’ll take on their parks.”

Critics were initially suspicious, believing national parks would become privatised.

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500 ELEPHANTS PROJECT

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AFRICAN PARKS Critically Endangered black rhinos were translocated from South Africa to Chad, to try and aid the species’ survival.

African Parks oversees vast areas that are home to a great variety of species...

Wildlife populations have increased and lions and black rhinos have been reintroduced.

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ecosystem that could be home to some 1,000 lions and 20,000 elephants, Peter says, “We’re persevering with Kafue, because it’s worth persevering for…”

BENIN

Working with communities Support from communities surrounding the parks is pivotal to AP’s success. Many live in poverty and need to be persuaded that animals are worth more alive than dead – they need tangible benefits from their wildlife neighbours that go beyond poaching for the pot. In 2019 alone, over 33,000 people received healthcare through AP initiatives and AP built and/or supported 96 schools.

Some 25,000 children visited the parks to learn about conservation and wildlife, and 610 children received scholarships for further education.

Take Rwanda’s Akagera National Park, which employs nearly 300 local people – communities received over $500,000 last year through AP’s salaries and purchases.

They’ve been supported in developing small enterprises, including mushroom harvesting, beekeeping and chicken rearing. And cultural tours help spread the benefits of tourism beyond the park gates – on a recent visit, cattle-herders in Kayonga village taught me to milk Ankole cows.

When I first visited Akagera in 2013, three years into AP’s management, it was home to 8,000 wild animals. My guide Denyse Umugwaneza described the difference AP had made to central Africa’s largest protected wetlands: “We’ve had more training, more equipment, better security, better vehicles and new roads.”

Pendjari – home to rare West African lions.

W – refuge to Critically Endangered Northwest African cheetahs.

Rhino: Stefan Heunis/AFP/Getty; illustration by Dawn Cooper/The ArtWorks

“That’s because we questioned the traditional approach that government ‘does’ conservation.

We believe ownership of national parks, their policies and legislation, are entrenched sovereign responsibilities. But their day-to-day management is a skill set, it’s not a sovereign role: if someone else can do that better at a lower cost to the national fiscus, then it makes sense,” explains Peter.

The funding comes from philanthropic individuals, institutions and governments, including USAID, National Geographic Society, the EU, Dutch Postcode Lottery, and the Wyss Foundation.

In 2003, Majete in Malawi was the first to sign up. “The government deserves credit for partnering with African Parks,” Chris tells me. “Our government departments are always underfunded, and national parks will never be as important as education, health, food, etc.

Organisations such as African Parks are the only long-term solution.”

Negotiations don’t always run smoothly.

AP first mooted the management of Zambia’s vast Kafue National Park in 2002 – it remains under serious discussion. Both an important source for hydroelectricity and a vital

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CHAD Ennedi – UNESCO World Heritage Site with desert (or West African) crocodiles.

Siniaka Minia – vital wildlife migration corridor with resident populations of lions, cheetahs and antelopes, including the greater kudu, red-fronted gazelle, oribi and roan.

Zakouma – hosts a healthy population of elephants.

DRC (Democratic

CAR (Central

Republic of Congo) Garamba – a recovering but heavily poached park, important for populations of elephants and rare Kordofan giraffes.

African Republic) Chinko –populations of eastern chimpanzees, West African buffalo, Lord Derby’s elands and northern lions.

RWANDA Akagera – Central Africa’s largest wetlands, now home to the ‘big five’.

Nyungwe – one of the oldest rainforests in Africa, with 13 primate species recorded here.

CONGO Odzala-Kokoua – part of the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest, home to 20,000 Critically Endangered western lowland gorillas and forest elephants.

ZAMBIA Bangweulu – a community-owned wetlands and the best place to see rare shoebills.

Liuwa Plain – a vast savannah landscape with the world’s second-largest wildebeest migration

ANGOLA Iona – oryx, zebra and springbok. Part of the world’s oldest desert is also located here.

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MALAWI

ZIMBABWE

MOZAMBIQUE

Matusadona – it has suffered from poaching but has huge potential for renewed tourism – with 240 bird species, lions, buffalo, elephants, waterbucks and impala.

Bazaruto – an Indian Ocean marine reserve that protects rare dugongs.

Liwonde – once on the brink of collapse, now there are cheetahs, lions and black rhinos.

Mangochi – a vital forest reserve for elephant dispersal.

Majete – AP’s first park, it is now a thriving ‘big five’ reserve.

Nkhotakota – home to 500 relocated elephants.

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Putting their lives on the line AP’s highly trained rangers face numerous threats in the field.

African Parks works in often-troubled locations against a backdrop of terror and violence. No other conservation organisation in Africa has a ranger force as large as AP’s, which numbers more than 1,000 men and women. They’re well trained and well armed, equipped to counter the increasingly sophisticated challenges of ruthless criminal networks engaging in lucrative poaching.

Many have lost their lives. In 2012, six rangers were murdered by poachers in Zakouma, Chad, during morning prayers. Up until 2017, several rangers had been killed in shooting incidents in Garamba, DRC, where Ugandan rebel militia group the Lord’s Resistance Army and heavily militarised South Sudanese crime syndicates engage in relentless ivory poaching. Latterly, in January 2020, two rangers were murdered by poachers on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe’s Matusadona National Park.

“The worst part of my job is that call when they say ‘Peter, we’ve had a fatality in the field.’ It’s absolutely terrible,” Peter Fearnhead tells me, explaining why AP has developed its ranger force to paramilitary levels. “The more professional our people are, the better trained, the better equipment they have, the less likely that call will happen.

“For everyone in the service of conservation under our responsibility, we have a proper life policy if someone is killed,” Peter continues. “That’s not trying to put a value on someone’s life, it’s ensuring that the family left behind can set themselves up for life. We believe it’s necessary and it’s always appreciated.”

AP rangers stand by during the elephant translocation project in Liwonde.

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In 2019, visitor numbers rose to 49,000 – almost half of them Rwandans – generating some $2.5 million net. Wildlife populations have increased to 13,500 and lions and Critically Endangered black rhinos have been successfully reintroduced.

Not all translocations are successful. In 2018, six black rhinos were brought from South Africa to Zakouma in Chad as part of a project to aid the species’ long-term survival.

Tragically, four died within six months, with tests revealing maladaptation to their diet had led to organ complications. The surviving two remain in good health and AP plans further translocations. But are they worth the risk?

“Translocations are extremely well researched, but any intervention is high risk when you’re flying animals across two thirds of a continent,” Peter explains. “If something goes wrong, we need to understand why, to rule out negligence. We’ve worked with the park and scientific bodies, so for phase two we’re reducing the risk, but we can’t eliminate it completely. To preserve the ecosystem, we must continue these reintroductions.”

Until 2010, when AP became its custodians, Zakouma had been ravaged

by Sudanese Janjaweed militia – notorious armed horsemen who terrorised the local

people and slaughtered nearly 4,000 elephants for their ivory.

Today, thanks to AP, peace has returned to Zakouma and, crucially, to its communities.

“Though our raison d’être is to secure the area for elephants, it’s vital to bring safety, security and stability at a wider landscape level to benefit people and wildlife. Then we’re aligned with our neighbours and they become our eyes and ears when there are problems.”

Communities are benefitting in other ways, too. AP has built and supported 17 schools since 2013 and contributed nearly $40,000 in teachers’ salaries, educating thousands of children. It’s provided medical care in mobile clinics and employment opportunities.

With poaching virtually at a standstill, nature is rebounding. About 150 elephants

“We're aligned with our neighbours and they become our eyes and ears when there are problems.”

February 2021

Will Whitford (x4) giraffe: David Santiago Garcia/Alamy

Left: zebras on the plains of Akagera.

Above: a lion peers through flowering grasses in Liuwa.

Right: populations of giraffe thrive in Chad.

Below: shoebill storks breed in Bangweulu.

PLANNING TO VISIT? ❱❱ African Parks (africanparks.org) has information on each of its national parks, with advice about travel and available accommodation. ❱❱ Steppes Travel (steppestravel. com) and Natural World Safaris (naturalworldsafaris.com) both offer tailor-made trips to many of African Parks’ destinations.

February 2021

have been born in recent years, and numbers of rare roan antelope and Kordofan giraffe are rising. What was once Africa’s lawless ‘Wild West’ has attracted 28,000 visitors since 2010, half of them locals. However, much of 2019’s staggering $41.1 million in tourism revenue came through expert private guides bringing in high-end ‘safari connoisseur’ clients.

Lasting appeal My work has taken me to several AP destinations, including Majete – where I tracked reintroduced black rhinos; Congo’s Odzala-Kokoua National Park, home to 20,000 Critically Endangered western lowland gorillas; and Zambia’s Bangweulu Wetlands – a vital breeding area for rare shoebill storks.

Rob Gardiner, Africa manager of Steppes Travel, believes AP’s success in tourism is due to its flexible approach. “Parks such as Zakouma and Liuwa in Zambia appeal to travellers who want exclusivity and wilderness, to whom travelling with private guides is the norm. Majete and Akagera appeal to the mainstream safari market – Akagera, in particular, has had success with domestic tourism.”

Aside from commercial income and community benefits, tourism importantly brings prospective donors, as Steppes’ MD Justin Wateridge explains. “When carefully managed, tourism has potential to create supporters and lifelong ambassadors of wildlife conservation throughout Africa.

This is crucial when the potential for tourism income is seriously reduced, as it is now with COVID-19.”

Peter sees the pandemic as “a rallying cry for us to do a whole lot more, to treat nature better. If we do nothing, then we shouldn’t expect these incredible ecosystems to survive in the face of growing populations and hugely unsustainable consumption of natural resources. These are global challenges and the scale of success will be determined by the scale of commitment from the global community.”

I ask Peter if he is optimistic about the future of Africa’s incredible wild places.

“Yes, absolutely,” he replies. “Because, despite the challenges, we’ve been able to show that success is possible.”

SUE WATT is a travel writer specialising in conservation and responsible tourism.

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Before Donald Trump took office as president of the United States, there was already just over 1,000km of barrier along the 3,145km USMexico border and, during his administration, some 600km were either built or reinforced. The impact on illegal immigrants and drug imports is up for debate, but the damaging consequences for the 1,500 species that live in this region are becoming clear. For a ground-dwelling greater roadrunner, the border wall presents a huge blockade to its chances of finding a meal.

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Across the

Photographer Alejandro Prieto

BORDERLINE Photo story

February 2021

In 2016, Donald Trump promised to build a “big, beautiful wall” between the USA and Mexico, but – beneath the political furore – the impact of this monolithic barrier on wildlife has largely gone unseen.

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PHOTO STORY MEXICO BORDER

ABOVE A coyote looks through the bars of the border wall in Arizona. With a high population and a diet that includes livestock, coyotes already face persecution as pests by many here. Likewise, during his one-and-a-half-year documenting project, photographer Alejandro faced some hostility, too – contending with cameras being stolen, harassment from border patrol and the constant presence of drug cartels. “These people are dangerous and don’t like people hanging out inside their territory,” he says.

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February 2021

PHOTO STORY MEXICO BORDER

BELOW A Californian ground squirrel next to border fencing in Tijuana, Mexico, where the first section was built in the 1990s. Since then, the Department of Homeland Security has waived more than 30 environmental and cultural laws to expedite construction, including the Endangered Species Act.

RIGHT The border runs from the Pacific Ocean in California to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, traversing an incredible range of different ecosystems and numerous nature reserves and parks, including El Pinacate Reserve, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge. Iconic species such as ocelot, pronghorn, Mexican grey wolf and American bison all roam the border, and rely on an unfragmented landscape for their survival.

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PHOTO STORY MEXICO BORDER

RIGHT Alejandro photographed a jaguar near the border and then projected the image onto the barrier in south-eastern Arizona. The biggest native feline to inhabit the Americas, jaguars almost became extinct due to hunting and loss of suitable habitat.

There are now fewer than 3,500 left in the wild. The ‘sky islands’ – biodiverse patchworks of mountain, desert and grassland – spanning the border between Arizona and Sonora in Mexico, are perfect jaguar habitat.

Conservationists fear that building a wall through this area could mark the extinction of jaguars in the USA.

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PHOTO STORY MEXICO BORDER

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PHOTO STORY MEXICO BORDER

BELOW A bobcat and javelina, also known as a skunk pig, are captured by a hidden camera-trap navigating the same section of vehicle barrier in the Sonoran Desert. “This female bobcat had kittens on the Mexican side and used to cross to the USA almost on a daily basis in order to find food for her little ones,� says Alejandro.

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ABOVE At the moment, much of the border barrier is still permeable, allowing species such as this mountain lion (or puma) to move through the region.

However, the new Border Wall System consists of steel bollards set just 10cm apart, topped by metal plates reaching heights of between 5.4–9m. Like jaguars, mountain lions have low population densities and need to migrate across vast swathes of habitats to find mating partners and maintain genetic diversity.

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PHOTO STORY MEXICO BORDER

ABOVE It is not just the movement of mammals that is affected. Despite their wings, many lowflying bird species may be deterred by a higher, more solid wall. Moreover, wild turkeys, as well as the locally endangered ferruginous pygmy owl – which moves with a swooping, woodpecker-like flight – have a preference for brushy cover, so the wide, open expanse of vehicular access roads running alongside the wall could be as off-putting as the wall itself.

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PHOTO STORY MEXICO BORDER

BELOW Should a storm roll in when the parents are at sea, the chicks instinctively huddle, but not in the well-versed way of their fathers.

“Sometimes a chick runs at the group and leaps directly on top, crowd-surfing its peers,” says Stefan.

“But the young birds soon learn the spirit of co-operation.”

ABOVE As construction work continues apace into increasingly remote and rugged regions, it brings with it hundreds of kilometres of roads, noise, heavy machinery and high-powered lighting – all anathema to sensitive wild animals. “I hope the new Biden administration will stop the building of new segments of wall and hopefully knock down the wall in specific areas where wildlife is vast,” says Alejandro. “There are many other ways to control immigration without disturbing the natural world.”

ALEJANDRO PRIETO is a wildlife and underwater photographer from Guadalajara, Mexico. He is currently working together with Alianza Jaguar AC, a foundation dedicated to jaguar conservation, and won the Wildlife Photojournalism award in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2019 contest. alejandroprietophotography.com

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F LY I N G Amid glistening landscapes and colossal icebergs, there’s much more to Antarctica than its populations of penguins, as any intrepid birder will discover, if willing to brave the coldest place on Earth.

David Merron/Getty

By David Lindo

Icebergs can often be havens for wildlife, as they provide respite for marine predators, such as penguins and seals, and are often attractive to their major prey – fish krill and zooplankton.

SOUTH

ANTARCTICA

Clockwise from top left: Peter Orr/Getty; David Lindo; Tui De Roy/Minden/FLPA; Suresh Krishna/Getty; David Tipling/naturepl.com

A

ntarctica is a destination that many of us dream of visiting. After all, who wouldn’t want to walk in the footsteps of the likes of Hillary, Scott, Shackleton and latterly, of course, the great Attenborough?

Strange it may sound, but Antarctica never featured on my own birding bucket list. Don’t get me wrong – like millions of others, I was mesmerised by the mind-blowing images of towering, blue-rinsed icebergs on the BBC’s Frozen Planet; not to mention the antics of ‘criminal’ Adélie penguins, the continent’s most emblematic bird family. Despite these wonders, and even though I’ve ‘done’ cold before – I’ve shivered in the Cairngorms and waded through waist-high snow in the far north of Norway – Antarctica, to me, was the final frozen frontier; certainly not somewhere for a self-respecting resident of Notting Hill.

How things can change. I have now been to Antarctica twice in the space of three months, and it was all that I imagined several times over, plus a large dose of what I did not foresee. Much has been written about the seventh continent – enchanting, fragile and hostile are words that come to mind when I try to describe this other-worldly land.

Antarctica is a place where you can experience the wildlife adventure of a lifetime while learning in the very classroom of climate change. The Antarctic Peninsula – the snaking, rugged finger of land that projects north from the main continent, and the focal point of my trip – is one of the fastest-

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warming areas on Earth, second only to regions of the Arctic Circle. According to the British Antarctic Survey, the mean annual temperature here has now increased by 3.2˚C in the past 60 years.

Unlike the Arctic, which is ice-topped water surrounded by land, Antarctica is ice-topped land surrounded by water. It’s the coldest (and windiest) place on the planet, where the mercury can drop to an unimaginable –94˚C. Most Antarctic experiences start at one of two coastal settlements, Ushuaia (Argentina) or Punta Arenas (Chile). Both are the archetypal frontier town, populated by backpack-laden travellers of all nationalities. Once Cape Horn – the southern tip of South America – fades behind you, it’s still a three-day sail before your first glimpse of the giant, tabular icebergs that herald your arrival into Antarctica’s waters.

Twitching and pitching Most of my fellow passengers used this time to hibernate, read books or attend to their seasickness. Few ventured up on deck other than to exercise or to twitch the occasional cetacean clocked and duly announced by the crew on the bridge. For me, this perceived ‘dead’ period was actually an incredibly fruitful time for birdwatching. It was February, and the seas were alive with commuting sooty shearwaters, medium-sized seabirds that partake in one of the longest migrations known. Those in the Pacific can traverse more than 60,000km from their natal islands around New Zealand to the North Pacific

Top left: the calving of icebergs contributes to changes in sea levels and may be speeding up due to global warming. Inset:

David pictured with penguins. Above: crabeater seals can weigh up to 300kg.

Below: the blackbrowed albatross has a wingspan of more than 2m.

Ocean. These monumental distances are rivalled only by those of the Arctic tern, a summer visitor to the UK, whose migrations can span a jawdropping 90,000km.

The thousands of birds that I was seeing were probably breeding relatively nearby, in Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands.

Dotted among them were a handful of diving petrels, whose bullet-quick descents into the water were too swift to allow identification.

Five diving petrel species reside in the southern hemisphere; all are very similar.

Two of them, the Magellanic and common, are known from this particular region. Small and with whirring wingbeats, they look and fly much like little auks, an unrelated species February 2021

ANTARCTICA

ICEBERGS: The cold science WHAT IS AN ICEBERG? An iceberg is a large piece of freshwater ice floating freely in open water. To be an iceberg, the height of the ice must be greater than 5m above sea level, the thickness must be greater than 30m and the ice must cover an area of at least 500m².

Smaller pieces of floating ice are termed ‘bergy-bits’.

Nothing prepares you for your first iceberg. These behemoths loom on the horizon, standing like gates to another realm.

Top right: biologists are interested in icebergs because of the large influence they can have on the distribution and abundance of organisms in polar oceans due to their effect on nutrient levels and salinity.

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that hails from the Arctic – a nice example of convergent evolution.

Also trailing the ship were numerous black-browed albatrosses, which I soon came to accept as the default albatross of the trip.

They were impressive creatures, resembling huge, thin-winged great black-backed gulls, but even they were dwarfed by the wandering and southern royal albatrosses that I would later encounter while crossing the notorious Drake Passage.

Named after Sir Francis, this treacherous patch of sea spans the 800km between Cape Horn and the South Shetlands, a raggedy collection of islands just north of the Antarctic Peninsula. Crossings can be horribly rough, with swells of up to 13m bringing vast quantities of water smashing across the ship’s bow. The choppiness is due to the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which flows eastwards

HOW DO ICEBERGS FORM? Ice on land flows towards the ocean as glaciers and ice sheets. If the ice reaches the sea, it often continues to extend as floating ice shelves or ‘ice tongues’.

Pieces of ice naturally break off and float away – these are icebergs. When icebergs break off, the process is known as calving.

DO ICEBERGS FLOAT? All icebergs float initially.

However, they may become grounded when they enter waters that are too shallow, and they become stuck on the sea floor. They could remain grounded for months or even years until they melt enough to continue drifting.

WHY DO THEY APPEAR BLUE, GREEN OR STRIPEY? Icebergs appear blue because ice absorbs more longer wavelength light (yellow/red colour) than shorter wavelength blue

light, therefore reflected light is blue. However, certain parts may otherwise appear green or brown, which is the result of other particles in the ice that change how the light is reflected. Particles such as algae, rock dust and patches of saltwater can all make the icebergs appear multicoloured.

HOW MUCH OF AN ICEBERG IS UNDERWATER? About 90 per cent is below the water, hence the phrase ‘just the tip of the iceberg’.

Since water expands as it freezes, the same mass occupies more space and so ice is less dense than liquid water. Because of this density difference, icebergs float. Due to minor variations in the density of the iceberg and sea water, there is some variation in how much iceberg is below the water.

DO ICEBERGS EVER TIP OVER? Large tabular icebergs do not flip frequently, but other icebergs are known to dramatically roll over.

Since icebergs are mostly below the water and most melting also happens below the water, they can become top heavy, unstable and roll.

As icebergs disintegrate, they can also split, and large pieces can dramatically fall off into the ocean.

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Clockwise from top left: Kevin Elsby/Alamy; Ralph Lee Hopkins/Getty; James Lowen/FLPA; Alamy

around the continent, creating a waterflow about 600 times more powerful than that of the Amazon River.

If you can stomach the bouncing and lolling, the Drake Passage is a brilliant place to observe seabirds in sometimes startling numbers, particularly towards the convergence with the much colder Antarctic waters. Having survived my first night at sea, I peered through my porthole in the early morning to be greeted by countless shearwaters and petrels, including the tiny Wilson’s storm petrel, skimming the surface of the water. The cluttered mass of beaks and feathers was briefly interrupted by an enormous wandering albatross, which swung lazily in and out of view. I threw on my clothes and sprinted – as best as I could – along the rocking corridors, up to the deck. When I got there, looking down into the churning waves, I saw a pod of at least 25 humpback whales, including a female flanked by her calf.

Humpbacks, along with other cetaceans, seals and seabirds, gather in these waters to feast on the vast numbers of phytoplankton and associated copepods and krill, the building blocks of the Antarctic food-chain. It was utterly spectacular.

The birds continued to impress. Flocks of beautiful piebald cape petrels swirled behind the ship, along with a couple of dark whitechinned petrels (something of a misnomer, as the white markings on their ‘chins’ are the size of pinheads) and southern giant petrels – the vultures of the open sea. Though arguably not the most beautiful, these formidable birds are incredibly graceful in the air; swilling around with great charisma as they inspect the water – and, indeed, any bystanders watching from the deck – for food items.

Into the deep freeze Nothing prepares you for your first iceberg.

Initially, these behemoths loom on the horizon, standing like unearthly gates to another realm. As the hours pass and you draw closer, you start to get an overwhelming sense of their enormity. When you finally drift past, you stare upwards then downwards, pondering the depths to which the submerged ice might reach. The colours are incomprehensible, too – a spectrum of dazzling white to brilliant blue. The bluer the berg, I learned, the older it is.

One ice-tower was circuited repeatedly at its peak by a flock of snow petrels, fluttering like little white angels inspecting a stark white plinth. Further along, hauled out on the flat of a low-lying floe, were about 130 crabeater seals, variously loafing and baring their teeth 76

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Charging from cabin to deck to spy a sei whale, my bottom half was clad only in long Johns.

Above: sooty shearwaters migrate huge distances. These birds can be spotted around the Falkland Islands and Tierra Del Fuego.

at each other. Though this is an abundant Antarctic species – some 15 million are spread over the pack-ice zones – the crew had never observed such a large gathering in one place.

Complementing this unusual encounter was another first for the whole ship – the sight of a forlorn and rather confused-looking emperor penguin, who should have been huddling with his brethren hundreds of miles south on the ice-covered mainland.

Penguins are an obvious highlight of the Antarctic. Only the emperor and Adélie are true Antarctic natives, though the chinstrap, gentoo and punk-haired macaroni breed around the northern reaches of the Antarctic Peninsula, and king penguins occur on the northern sub-Antarctic islands. While Adélies are increasing in the region as a whole, these tough little birds are struggling in areas of the continent known for climate change, with numbers tumbling by more than 65 per cent.

I had to wait until we reached the South Shetlands for my first experience of penguinspotting. We made landfall and spent an hour with a colony of gentoos, which assembled on the icy shore and were busy preening.

It was about this time that I started to become accustomed to the rapidly changing weather patterns and, most crucially, the cold.

One morning, charging from cabin to deck to February 2021

ANTARCTICA

PENGUINS FEELING THE HEAT The effects of climate change on Antarctica’s penguins are varied. Adélie penguins in parts of the Antarctic Peninsula are at particular risk, due to their dependence on krill. Krill need sea-ice to breed, and the reduction of ice here in recent years has triggered a crash in numbers. Higher temperatures may also prompt their chicks to hatch earlier, when little food is available.

Emperor penguins’ breeding habitat is also threatened, but gentoos, which are better adapted to warmer conditions, are coping more successfully with the thaw. Likewise, king penguins, which feed on fish rather than exclusively on krill, could benefit from melting ice.

spy a sei whale, I didn’t even realise that my bottom half was still clad only in long Johns.

Being an urban birder, I often look beyond the more obvious and colourful to scrutinise the less prominent and usually dun-coloured members of birdkind. Antarctica, in contrast to the UK, has a pronounced lack of small birds. All of its 22 regularly occurring species are in some way connected to a marine existence. There are no raptors, a predatory niche filled by the likes of marauding skuas, kelp gulls and southern giant petrels. I was surprised to learn that several vagrant waders have made it this far; there have even been records of barn swallows swilling around in Antarctic airspace.

Magical moments Top: the Adélie is the smallest species of penguin in the Antarctic.

Above: Wilson’s storm petrel will hover above the water, picking food from just beneath the surface. Left: a curious minke whale inspects a dinghy.

February 2021

Many of my bird and cetacean sightings were gleaned from the ship’s deck, but we made regular excursions in characteristic orange Zodiacs (inflatable rigid dinghies), in a bid for some close-up encounters. The ‘handbrake’ moment of my Antarctic experience came one impossibly blue-sky afternoon, when I was gliding with four other passengers along quiet, flat waters, admiring the surreal formations of the sculptured ice floes.

Suddenly, a violent blow erupted from behind me, followed instantly by the acrid smell of

severely fishy breath. I spun around to see a 14m-long Atlantic minke whale cruising just below the surface. It swam directly towards and then beneath us, mere centimetres from the underside of the boat. I peered over the other side to see it powering on, head tilted, a kindly eye meeting mine. To the delight of everyone on the water, the whale then spent the next 35 minutes inspecting all the crafts in that small vicinity. If I’d had no interest in nature before that encounter, I would have given up my job and dedicated my life to conservation there and then.

Antarctica is a special continent. With global warming threatening its very survival, I was so happy to have had the opportunity to experience its icy magic before its ecosystems and habitats alter beyond recognition. I may not have been the first black person ever to step foot onto the frozen continent, but I hope I was the first urban birder.

DAVID LINDO, AKA The Urban Birder, is a writer, broadcaster, speaker and tour guide. ● Special thanks to Wildfoot Travel wildfoottravel.com and Hurtigruten hurtigruten.co.uk BBC Wildlife

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This month’s panel

GILLIAN BURKE

S A R A G O O DAC R E

B E N H OA R E

E L L E N H U SA I N

L AU R I E J AC KS O N

RICHARD JONES

ALEX MORSS

H E L E N P I LC H E R

Naturalist & TV presenter

Geneticist

Editorial consultant

Wildlife film-maker

Wildlife tour leader

Entomologist

Ecologist

Science writer

We solve your wildlife mysteries.

Email your questions to wildquestions@immediate.co.uk More amazing facts at discoverwildlife.com

Q&A

BEHAVIOUR

Are animals ever afraid?

Frog: Mark Kostich/Getty; snake: James Christensen/NPL; aerial: Andrew Holt/Getty; sanderling: Gary K. Smith/NPL

F

ear is extremely useful – it helps organisms survive. Its roots can be found about 550 million years ago, when primitive worms evolved specialised nervous systems that helped them respond to external stimuli. Over time, animals evolved many different responses to fear. Some are instinctive – red-eyed tree frogs, for example, lay their eggs in trees but if a hungry snake approaches, well-developed eggs can quickly hatch, saving the tiny tadpoles, which then rain from the sky.

In other cases, the fear response must be learned. Australian conservationists taught endangered Tammar wallabies to be afraid of red foxes – a novel, non-native predator – by allowing them to watch other wallabies getting freaked out.

Of course, non-humans don’t perceive things exactly as we do, but given that we share so much underlying neurochemistry, is it really such a stretch to assert that some animals might ‘feel’ scared like we do?

Helen Pilcher

The cat-eyed snake (left) feeds on the eggs of the red-eyed tree frog (main).

February 2021

Q&A

Trees should be chosen carefully when used to breathe new life into urban areas.

BOTANY

Do we plant the wrong street trees?

A

third of England’s city trees belong to a handful of species: Leyland cypress, hawthorn, sycamore, silver birch, ash, privet and London plane. Across Europe as a whole, at least half of all street trees are from just five genera.

Though these urban trees bring many benefits – shade, wildlife habitats, flood and pollution reduction, carbon capture and a boost to wellbeing – they create problems if not chosen wisely.

Evergreens capture more polluting carbon monoxide, nitrous and sulphurous oxides and dust, yet are wind-pollinated, which means the trees billow out prolific pollen that makes hay fever worse. The London plane withstands heavy pollution, yet releases high volatile organic compounds that react with pollutants to create harmful ground-level ozone. Choosing native trees is better for wildlife and can help air quality, but only in the right places. In narrow, canyon-like streets that trap pollution, low hedges or green ‘living’ walls are better. Alex Morss

February 2021

BBC Wildlife

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Q&A VOCALISATIONS

ARACHNIDS

Do animals use slang?

How do spiders stay in touch?

Zipf’s Law, the researchers found, applies equally to African penguins.

In fact, this trend towards brevity has also been found in the vocalisations of several non-human primates and across a diverse range of animal behaviour, suggesting that compressing information is a general strategy to make coding and decoding of information more efficient.

Gillian Burke

piders communicate using sight, touch and smell. One of the common topics of spider ‘conversation’ is around the hunt for a mate, and modes of communication differ according to species. Diurnal jumping spiders see in UV light and their eye arrangement gives them excellent depth perception, whereas the average tarantula is active at night and typically detects only movement and light/dark.

These differences explain why peacock jumping spiders ‘talk’ by dancing, whereas tarantulas and other nocturnal spiders use chemical cues and touch, such as vibrating the female’s web to get her attention. Meanwhile, Pisaura mirabilis males present females with silk-wrapped gifts – actions may speak louder than words. Sara Goodacre

S

A male peacock spider.

African penguins keep it simple and to the point.

MARINE BIOLOGY

How do jellyfish function without a brain? hough jellyfish may seem little more than a bag of angry water, they are sophisticated predators that can eat, swim, reproduce and taunt humans all without a centralised brain. Instead, they have networks of nerves that send signals around the body so that, for example, a single tentacle can deftly move a piece of prey to the invertebrate’s mouth.

T

One group of nerves, the ‘diffuse nerve net’, relays sensory information to the muscles, while another group, the ‘motor nerve net’, stimulates muscles to contract.

Meanwhile, finger-like structures on the edge of the bell, called rhopalia, contain pigment spots that sense light and crystals that help the jellyfish to sense up and down. They also help to co-ordinate the pulsing rhythm of swimming. An evolutionary success story, jellyfish have been around for more than 500 million years: who says being brainless has to hold you back? Helen Pilcher

Jellyfish get by perfectly well without a brain.

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BBC Wildlife

February 2021

Penguins: Richard Du Toit/naturepl.com; spider: Adam Fletcher/Biosphoto/Alamy; jellyfish: Yamaguchi Tomoya/EyeEm/Getty; ground squirrel: Donald M. Jones/naturepl.com; flying squirrel: Nick Hawkins/naturepl.com; platypus: Laura Romin & Larry Dalton/Alamy

MG! Humans, it turns out, are not the only animals to shorten frequently used words and phrases.

A 2020 study of African penguins – very social birds, long studied for their vocal repertoire – discovered that their braying display songs follow the same principles of language compression as human speech. The research was carried out by analysing recordings of penguins in Italian zoos.

In human speech, various linguistic laws, such as Zipf’s Law of brevity, are used to describe how individual words become shortened through heavy usage.

O

Q&A BIOLOGY

Whi animals Which survive freezing? n nature, water crystallises to form ice at about 0°C and it is largely this, rather than temperature, that poses a mortal danger. When ice forms, cells are ruptured by the expansion, or pierced by the growth of sharp crystals.

Many insects prevent ice forming by dehydrating their bodies. North America’s wood frog can famously go weeks below zero and withstand –14°C, because its blood is high in natural cryoprotectants such as urea, glycerol and glycogen. These work like antifreeze, bonding so strongly with water molecules that they cannot bond with each other to form ice crystals.

The only mammal able to cool below zero is the Arctic ground squirrel. During an eight-month hibernation, its core temperature falls to –2.9°C. It survives by ‘supercooling’ itself, so that water in its body is unable to form crystals around a nucleus and freeze solid.

I

Arctic ground squirrels are super cool – their unique adaptations help them survive freezing temperatures while hibernating.

Ellen Husain

3 questions on

Mammals that glow in the dark

1

WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON?

This is biofluorescence, where fluorescent proteins in living things reflect light. The light is absorbed at one wavelength (blue), then re-emitted at another (blue-green, green, pink, yellow or red). Over the past 50 years, the phenomenon has been seen in fungi and more and more groups of animals, including amphibians, fish, birds, scorpions and marine invertebrates. It occurs in shells, bones, muscle teeth, and keratin-based skin, beaks and feathers.

February 2021

2

BUT WHICH MAMMALS CAN DO IT?

In the 1980s, biofluorescence was first documented in mammals when UV light was shone on museum specimens of North and South American opossums (their belly fur glowed candy-pink). All the species were nocturnal, which suggests the ability may have something to do with communication or camouflage in low light. Then, in 2019, came the discovery that North America’s three species of flying squirrel (left, Glaucomys sabrinus) – also nocturnal – glow pink.

3

WILL WE FIND ANY MORE GLOWING MAMMALS?

We just have. In October 2020, US researchers announced that the platypus (below) glows blue-green under UV light.

As before, the chance discovery came while examining preserved ‘skins’. Hot on the heels of this, curators in Western Australia checked their own collection, and found that wombats also glow under UV. It shows the value of museum collections, and we may yet find more biofluorescent mammals.

Ben Hoare

Q&A MARINE BIOLOGY

Sperm whales are pestered by petrels around longline fishing boats.

Do sperm whales have predators?

S

perm whales are the planet’s largest ‘active’ hunters – blue and fin whales may be mightier, but as filter feeders, don’t target individual prey items. However, size alone doesn’t make sperm whales immune to becoming prey themselves. Their main foes are killer whales, while other potential assailants include false killer whales and large sharks. Calves are most likely to fall victim and the adults will form a protective ring, known as marguerite formation, around any vulnerable group members.

Another, somewhat unexpected, adversary has recently come to light.

Giant petrels and sperm whales both feed around longline fishing boats in the Southern Hemisphere, and the petrels have now been seen ripping chunks of flesh out of the whales. The birds bother the whales enough for them to give up and dive or take avoidance measures such as rolling. Laurie Jackson

The Explainer

Marine snow

ENTOMOLOGY

Do larvae have a gender?

M

In the ocean, it never stops snowing. The ‘snow’ is a shower of dead microscopic organisms, faeces, mucous, fish scales and other organic detritus, falling constantly to the inky depths.

On the way down, much is captured by filter-feeding animals, with the rest settling on the ocean floor as a thick, oozy layer of silt. It is ‘manna from heaven’ for deep-sea urchins, worms and other creatures.

Marine snow, by cycling carbon through different layers of the ocean, is what enables most deep-sea communities to exist.

Ben Hoare

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BBC Wildlife

Bees, wasps and ants operate a system known as haplodiploidy, where an unfertilised egg, with only the cohort of maternal chromosomes, becomes male, but a fertilised egg, with chromosomes from both male and female parent, becomes female.

Usually, male and female larvae look identical, but the embryonic gonads can sometimes be seen in male flies at the maggot stage, and in translucent caterpillars. Richard Jones

It’s not easy to tell apart male and female caterpillars, such as the Old World swallowtail.

February 2021

Whales: Franco Banfi/naturepl.com; caterpillar: Paolino Massimiliano Manuel/Getty; urchin: David Shale/naturepl.com; slime mould: Valeria Zvereva

Deep-sea urchins feast on marine ‘snow’.

aleness or femaleness may not be evident until insects reach the adult stage, but their gender is determined at the point an egg is laid.

In insects, sex determination is usually based on sex chromosomes passed down through the maternal ovum and the paternal sperm. In butterflies and moths, for example, a Z chromosome from the mother and a W from the father gives a ZW male offspring; Z from each parent gives a ZZ female.

Q&A

What is it? a

SLIME MOULD If we zoom in, a woodland floor becomes as otherworldly as the deep sea. Here, some slime mould of the species Stemonitis fusca provides a perch for an assassin bug, perhaps hunting springtails or other tiny creatures feeding on the mould. No longer considered fungi, slime moulds

are only distantly related to the fungal realm, yet equally ancient and mysterious. During their adult stage (shown here), many develop into a superorganism, or plasmodium, consisting of myriad strands that support complex reproductive structures.

Ben Hoare

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OUR WILD WORLD

At home

Bring a little extra wildlife into your life with the best of this month’s TV, books, podcasts, streaming and much more.

Iolo, Michaela, Gillian and Chris are back, catching up with badgers (below) and much more.

Superstars of the season Enjoy sensational wildlife with this year’s Winterwatch.

Presenters: Jo Charlesworth; badger: Damian Kuzdak/Getty

TV choice

WINTERWATCH 19–29 JANUARY, BBC TWO AND IPLAYER

Over the past 12 months, The Watches have continued to connect audiences with nature while the pandemic has made it more difficult to travel and experience the natural world for ourselves. Now, the team is back with the winter instalment.

Though COVID restrictions remain in place, affecting how the programme is filmed, there’s still plenty to look forward to, as the locations visited in autumn return to our screens. Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin are based in the New Forest, with live cameras enabling us to catch up with a familiar family of badgers. At this time

February 2021

of year, the humbug-striped mammals spend more time in their setts, escaping the worst of the chill. Meanwhile, Michaela Strachan is bound for Scotland’s Tentsmuir National Nature Reserve, Gillian Burke will be at RSPB Old Moor in Yorkshire, while Iolo Williams is reporting from Mid Wales.

As ever, pre-recorded sections let us explore the country vicariously – from the Orkney Isles to Sherwood Forest, RSPB Minsmere in Suffolk and more. Learn about the history and conservation of red kites in Britain, discover Loch Carron’s brittle stars –

spindly relatives of starfish – and witness the nocturnal hunting behaviour of tawny and barn owls (filmed using the latest night-time camera technology).

Megan will also be championing species unlikely to win any popularity contests. While encountering jellyfish, rats and giant slugs, she challenges their bad reputations and reveals why these creatures are vital to our ecosystems.

Whether it’s COVID or the icy weather stopping you from heading outdoors, with Winterwatch on the box, you needn’t stray far from the sofa to enjoy the best of the season’s wildlife.

Angharad Moran

BBC Wildlife

85

OUR WILD WORLD TV

Gordon got to know cheetah mother ‘Savannah’ as she raised her cubs.

Cheetah Family and Me CATCH UP ON BBC IPLAYER

Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan embarks on his latest adventure to get close and personal with another animal family – this time, following two cheetah mums as they work against all odds to protect, and provide food for, their gorgeous young cubs. Gordon tracks ‘Savannah’ and her six-month-old youngsters through the Tswalu Kalahari reserve, which is in the grip of a multiyear drought.

Eight hundred kilometres to the south at the Samara Reserve, we meet ‘Chilli’, another cheetah mother who has recently given birth to a new litter. These tiny, fuzzy felines are led on an epic journey to follow migrating antelope – but to get there means travelling through a valley filled with deadly lions and elephants.

Gordon takes us along on this exhilarating journey as he sees first-hand the challenges both Savannah and Chilli must adapt to in a changing world – even if that means risking it all.

Tay Aziz Wildlife film-maker

WILD STRE AM DOCUMENTARY SERIES Atlantic: A Year in the Wild Discover the creatures that live and feed in the waters of the vast Atlantic Ocean.

My5, until September 2021 DOCUMENTARY SERIES Wild Amazon From jaguars and harpy eagles to capybara and giant river otters, explore the complex environment of the dense Amazon rainforest.

All 4, streaming now DOCUMENTARY Dark Side of Crocs Learn more about powerful predator the Nile crocodile and its hippopotamus neighbours.

My5, streaming now

TV

BOOK

Meerkat: A Dynasties Special

Fantastic Beasts: The Wonder of Nature

CATCH UP ON BBC IPLAYER

BLOOMSBURY AND NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, £25

This new instalment of the Dynasties series follows a young and inexperienced meerkat family living in the Makgadikgadi salt pan in Botswana, which is known as ‘The Great Nothing’. Dominant female ‘Maghogho’ must unite her family in this perilous landscape if she is going to raise her young to adulthood and form her own dynasty.

With exiles, dust storms, bloody brawls and parenting that leaves a lot to be desired, Meerkat is full of drama and nerve-racking moments that will leave viewers willing these animals to survive. The music, performed by the Hungarian Studio Orchestra, perfectly reflects the highs and lows of this uneasy family dynamic.

This book will be a delight for naturalists and Harry Potter fans, and the perfect combination for those that are both. Accompanying the exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London, the book explores the magical creatures from J K Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, as well as the mythological and real, though bizarre and awe-inspiring, creatures of our ‘Muggle’ world.

Each chapter begins with an essay, written by a range of experts and conservationists, including marine biologist Helen Scales, presenter Gillian Burke and natural history writer Patrick Barkham. Packed with content, this book will leave you in no doubt about the wonder of nature. Megan Shersby

Rebecca Gibson Wildlife writer

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BBC Wildlife

February 2021

OUR WILD WORLD JEWELLERY

Mulberry Mongoose FROM £25, MULBERRYMONGOOSE.COM

Looking at the collection of fashionable jewellery designs from Mulberry Mongoose, you wouldn’t suspect that some of the components are created using snare wire confiscated by rangers in the African bush. Based in Zambia, the company uses the wire, along with beads, charms and other elements, to produce contemporary handmade accessories for women and men. The well-made pieces include everything from bold gladiator cuffs and necklaces to dainty drop earrings, minimalistic chains and beaded bracelets. Each item is delivered in a pouch sewn from traditional chitenge fabric, making them great (pre-wrapped) gift ideas.

Not only does the Mulberry Mongoose team put the snare wire to good use (it’s processed and filed, so there are no sharp edges), it Snare wire has donates never looked some of so stylish. its profits to help fund more anti-snare patrols. AM

ON OUR WEBSIT E

Cheetah: Gordon Buchanan/Hello Halo TV/BBC; meerkat: Jess Webster/BBC

FORAGE IN FEBRUARY Gorse can flower year-round, so gather some petals for this recipe for making gorse kick mead by nature writer and author Tiffany Francis-Baker. discoverwildlife.com/mead EASY-PEASY PONDS Ornithologist, TV presenter and author Dan Rouse shares a simple how-to guide for creating a pond from old tubs and sinks. discoverwildlife.com/tub-pond PRETTY AS A PICTURE Venture into the world of vultures with fantastic images from Ian Parson’s latest book: A Vulture Landscape. discoverwildlife.com/ vulture-gallery

February 2021

YOUNGER READERS DERS

Water World

BY BEN ROTHERY, PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE CHILDREN’S UK, £20

This is clearly a personal book for author and illustrator Ben Rothery. The introduction and conclusion, a letter to the reader, connect our oceans with human life and play on the strong relationship between us and sea life. The letter is a call to arms and a stark reminder of the fragility of oceans, balanced with hope and empowerment.

The illustrations lift the book to another level, being beautifully drawn, striking and

capturing some more unusuall species, i s such as mangrove horseshoe crabs and whale lice, balancing the spectacular with the more obscure, while the text that accompanies them is informative.

At times, the structure feels a little random – including wolves and tigers alongside mudskippers, for example. But overall, this is a great book for children interested in marine life, offering a solid introduction to the biology of the sea and how people can take action to save it.

Lucy McRobert Wildlife writer ● MORE CHILDREN’S NATURE BOOKS Read our reviews: bit.ly/31x288e R

BOOK

TV

The Book of the Earthworm

Penguins: Meet the Family

BY SALLY COULTHARD, HEAD OF ZEUS, £14.99

CATCH UP ON BBC IPLAYER

I thought I knew quite a bit about earthworms – until I picked up this charming little book. It starts with a slightly conflicted statement; an opening gambit stating, “Not a lot is known about worms”. Then proceeds to fill the next 138 pages with solid, well-researched, quirky, fun and sometimes grave ecological facts.

Covering subjects as diverse as the mysteries of earthworm singing, worms in space, worm moons, worm social lives, herding worms, raining worms, worms and pollution, and microplastics and worms – the only thing I couldn’t find was a reference to worms as invasive species themselves. This is an easily digestible compendium of everything earthworm.

Liz Bonnin narrates this enjoyable hour-long celebration of the diverse penguin family, with plenty of surprises on a whistle-stop tour of the different species. Snowy scenes don’t even make an appearance for the first 15 minutes.

The programme itself hops around a lot to fit everything in, from fresh perspectives on the easily recognisable emperors to glimpses into the family’s evolutionary history and some rare relatives. The dramatised predation scenes aren’t for anyone feeling fragile, but the nuanced sequences looking at human impacts on penguin life, and how they are continuing to adapt, are really engaging. Add in some cutting-edge science and it’s a must for anyone who’s wondered what lies behind the waddle.

Nick Baker TV presenter and naturalist

Ella Davies Nature writer

BBC Wildlife

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OUR WILD WORLD

PUZZLES

Win a prize with our crossword, and test your wildlife knowledge.

Wild quiz

Vasiliy Vishnevskiy/Alamy

Answers in our April 2021 issue

DECEMBER ANSWERS ACROSS: 1 passenger

pigeon, 9 Arbutus, 10 warbler, 11 in rut, 12 snout moth, 14 Guatemala, 16 femur, 17 alarm, 19 guinea pig, 21 toothless, 24 birds, 25 sea wasp, 27 antenna, 28 spotted redshank.

1) Which bird do these feathers belong to?

A Pied wagtail B Starling C Great spotted woodpecker

DOWN: 1 praying

mantises, 2 Siberia, 3 ectotherm, 4 gases, 5 raw, 6 ifrit, 7 eelworm, 8 northern goshawk, 13 okapi, 15 algae, 16 flea bites, 18 avocado, 20 piranha, 22 heart, 23 skate, 26 pod.

DECEMBER WINNER A Camm East Sussex ACROSS 1 Small crustacean (6) 4 ___ deer, name for the musk deer, because of its tusk-like teeth (6) 9 Raptor that might be red or black (4) 10 The platypus and echidna (10) 11 Single-celled organism (6) 12 Love-in-___, folk name for the wild pansy or heartsease (8) 13 ___ monkey, long-nosed Asian primate (9) 15 Killer whale (4) 16 Beak (4) 17 Large mammal of South Asia that eats fruit, ants and termites (5, 4) 21 North American insect sometimes called the green fruit beetle (8) 22 Sugar-rich liquid that’s produced by plants (6) 24 Small immature fish (10)

25 Carrion ___, black-plumaged bird similar in size to a rook (4) 26 African scavengers (6) 27 Brightly coloured songbird that might be golden, green or brown (6) DOWN 1 Seabird that has a long lower mandible (7) 2 Female ruff (5) 3 The Life of ___, 2002 BBC wildlife series (7) 5 Tropical bird in the tyrant flycatcher family (6) 6 Common shore crustacean (5, 4) 7 Living in the lower reaches of the ocean (4-3) 8 Little-seen waterbird of South-East Asia (9, 4) 14 Large white-headed raptor of North America (4, 5)

16 ___ Trust for Ornithology, a not-for-profit, founded in 1933 (7) 18 Neotropical bird in the family Thraupidae (7) 19 Large sea snail (7) 20 Genus of terns that includes the common and Arctic (6) 23 Evergreen tree of Mesoamerica (5)

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BBC Wildlife

3) Bark extracts from which tree act like aspirin?

A Holly B Willow C Ash

4) Whose bill, according to the Aztecs, was made from rainbows?

A Toco toucan B Scarlet macaw C Resplendent quetzal

A Watermelon B Durian C Pumpkin

6) Who said an ant’s brain is “perhaps more marvellous than the brain of a man”?

A Jane Goodall B Charles Darwin C Mary Anning

WIN RSPB SPOTLIGHT BOOK BUNDLE

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A Red squirrel B Bank vole C Hedgehog

5) What is the heaviest fruit in the world?

Crossword compiled by RICHARD SMYTH, quiz set by BEN HOARE

HOW TO ENTER This competition is only open to residents of the UK (including the Channel Islands). Post entries to BBC Wildlife Magazine, February 2021 Crossword, PO Box 501, Leicester, LE94 0AA or email the answers to February2021@wildlifecomps.co.uk by 5pm on 12 February 2021. Entrants must supply name, address and telephone number. The winner will be the first correct entry drawn at random after the closing time. The name of the winner will appear in the April 2021 issue. By entering, participants agree to be bound by the general competition terms and conditions shown on this page.

2) What mammal links Anglesey, Brownsea and Tresco islands?

Enter for the chance to win this bundle of four RSPB Spotlight books, published by Bloomsbury, worth a total of £51.96. bloomsbury. com

Find out the answers on p93

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February 2021

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February 2021

❱❱ Secrets of the Sahara – beyond the sand dunes, the world’s largest hot desert is full of surprises ❱❱ Bioluminescence – we shine a light on the species that glow in the dark ❱❱ Guillemot eggs – cracking a mystery that has had scientists baffled for centuries

MARCH ISSUE ON SALE 11 FEBRUARY BBC Wildlife

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OUR WILD WORLD

Your photos

Amazing images taken by our readers Enter our Your Photos competition at discoverwildlife. com/submit-your-photos

Star photo

Hail, Caesar While photographing a group of bonnet macaques in the summer heat in the forests of Karnala in Maharashtra, India, I happened to notice one male sitting a few meters away. He was the alpha male of the group and his facial structure reminded me of the

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character Caesar from Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Cautiously, I began to approach him, hoping not to scare him away. I set my camera to burst mode so that, as the male turned, I could capture him looking straight into the lens.

Aishwarya Sridhar, Mumbai, India

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OUR WILD WORLD 1 Peace of home As we face this pandemic, I returned to my home in India. I found a pond and heard some frogs, so I sat there for some time until this bull frog came near me and I could get some photographs of him.

Shivendra Singh, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India

2 Sunset silhouette

1

2

The Maasai Mara is my favourite park, and I would never want to miss the magical dawn and dusk. One evening, as my driver and I were heading back to our camp, we saw a single grazing impala on the horizon, with the beautiful sun in the background.

Suresh Kumar, Bangalore, India

3 Aerial combat

3

Wai Khru is the name of a ceremonial dance that Muay Thai fighters perform before they start their bout. Interestingly, these intermediate egrets seemed to follow a similar tradition before they started their territorial fight in the wetlands of Mangalajodi, India.

Rajdeep Deb Purkayastha, Agartala, India

4 Aliens among us A peacock mantis shrimp mother holds her bright coloured red eggs against her belly. Her alien-like appearance gives this photo a supernatural atmosphere. The ocean is truly a different world.

Kevin De Vree, Erpe-Mere, Belgium

5 Blue beauty

4 February 2021

5

Found early one morning along the banks of the River Itchen, Hampshire, this magnificent banded demoiselle had finished drying off the night’s dew, ready to face another day.

Michael Blacknell, Bishopstoke, Hampshire BBC Wildlife

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OUR WILD WORLD

Feedback Star letter

By contacting us, you consent to let us print your letter in BBC Wildlife Magazine. Letters may be edited.

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A real sharks fan I have just read Mark Carwardine’s brilliant piece on sharks and people’s innate fear of them (My way of thinking, November 2020) and I want to applaud him, as ever.

I watched Jaws as a child and had a very vivid imagination, so that night my dark-blue carpet became the sea and sharks were just waiting for me to step out of bed to eat me. After a few months of this, I decided to learn a bit about sharks and have been hooked ever

The great white shark often gets a bad press.

Wild about wildlife

BBC Wildlife

since! As a teenager, I even painted a shark’s maw around my headboard – which I would love to do again, though my husband is less keen!

The book, and film, tell a story – there is artistic licence applied but there are some factual elements included and the film uses some live footage shot by Rodney Fox (a great hero of mine) and Ron and Valerie Taylor. However, it is a shame that, even after all this time, Jaws is held up as the truth about sharks instead of myriad research papers, documentaries and books on the subject.

There are over 400 species of shark and more than 100 of those are endangered. Very few are known to have ever attacked people. So, I fully support Mark’s comment about feeling “passionately that we should respect and care for them – as we should for all wildlife – dangerous or not”.

Elaine Tinsdale, Kent

When some of the restrictions did briefly lift, I managed to get away with my family. I took along my magazines – now my stepdad is hooked, too. So much so that my mum bought him a subscription for Christmas.

Along with this, my mum enjoys watercolour painting and she used the great images in BBC Wildlife to paint, with some lovely results.

Thanks again for being a pleasure in these otherwise worrying times.

Ruth Palmer, Scotland

2020) is something familiar to me. As a teenager who is very interested in nature, I know that a lot of teenagers don’t know much about it.

The article, thankfully, does not suggest this is due to too much time on screens, which is a relief as ‘you spend too much time on screens’ has become a reason used by a lot of parents as an explanation for almost everything, and it’s rarely right.

Keeping connected The article on how teenagers are falling out with the natural world (Teenage fix, October

Are teens missing out on nature?

WRITE TO US BBC Wildlife, Eagle House, Colston Avenue, Bristol, BS1 4ST

The main problem is that there is not enough information on websites where teenagers actively browse. Most of the wildlife websites that I go on, and a lot of the natural history books that I buy, were recommended to me by BBC Wildlife Magazine.

Admittedly I’m an exception to the normal rule – I cannot recognise Pokémon characters with any degree of fluency compared to animals – but I have not had any information on nature from school.

Tobias M, via email

Money talks Thank you, Mark Carwardine, for your great article – and the lack of sugar coating – on the issue of big industries, ‘the powers that be’ and conservation (My way of thinking, December 2020).

At last, someone doesn’t avoid tacking the difficult issues.

Unfortunately, the subject of money is what stops people, organisations and governments that could make a difference from paying much attention to conservation. It doesn’t make them money – today is important and not tomorrow.

As you say, they’re more worried about getting the results they want from the next election – and there are millions more thinking alike in their day-to-day lives… we’re doomed!

This time, I cannot see how the small people will win – I think it will take a huge natural disaster to kick-start governments.

If only huge profits could come from conservation, we’d probably be the ‘healthiest’ planet in the solar system!

Michael Sole, via email February 2021

Shark & squirrel: Getty

I just wanted to write to you to let you know how much enjoyment your magazine has brought to me and my family members during these troubling pandemic times.

To be honest, I’m not a regular buyer of magazines but during lockdown I had a birthday and my best friend bought me a subscription to BBC Wildlife Magazine.

Several editions later, I just can’t imagine what I must have missed out on by not buying this magazine sooner.

I am an illustrator – much of my work is inspired by nature – and the magazine has been hugely inspiring for my work, especially as the lockdown put a stop to some of my usual nature excursions from taking place.

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Want to get something off your chest? This is the ideal place

OUR WILD WORLD

TALES FROM THE BUSH

Lost and found If you ever lose a tiger, Hakimuddin Saify seems to have a knack for tracking them down without even trying…

Have a wild tale to tell? Email a brief synopsis to catherine.smalley@ immediate.co.uk

Red squirrels may benefit from the presence of pine martens.

Seeing reds

QUIZ ANSWERS (see p88) 1C, 2A, 3B, 4A, 5C, 6B

February 2021

India’s Satpura Tiger Reserve is home to some elusive felines.

 A chilling roar

t was day one of the third Satpura Bird Survey at Satpura Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, India.

Along with a colleague, I had been assigned to an area deep in the jungle, but I wasn’t expecting a feline encounter.

Instead, I busied myself with the varied and colourful birdlife, enjoying sightings of species such as the changeable hawk eagle, Jerdon’s leafbird and Indian grey hornbill.

However, about 20 minutes into the survey, a spine-chilling roar stopped me in my tracks.

There was a tiger, and it had to be less than a kilometre away, in the direction of a nearby ravine. We drove towards the sound, to see if we could catch a glimpse of the cat, but after 30 minutes of fruitless searching, we turned our attention back to the birds.

The next morning, we were out on survey once again and I asked my driver to take us back to the ravine. No sooner had we parked up than the peace was shattered by the piercing alarm calls of hanuman langurs.

There, ascending a steep slope on the opposite side of the ravine, was a male tiger in his prime. Surprise turned to astonishment when we realised that he was not alone, but accompanied by a female, wearing a radio collar. They eyeballed us cautiously before

I

melting into the bush – the range of these tigers is offlimits to tourists, and they are not accustomed to visitors.

Our driver was confident that he knew where the pair would emerge, and we hotfooted it there. He was right: just five minutes later, the male appeared and sat on a rock, like a king on his throne. He observed us for a good 15 minutes, looking repeatedly over his shoulder, as if willing his mate to join him. When she finally appeared, we were amazed to observe what appeared to be a powerful bond. We watched them, spellbound, for an hour.

As it turned out, the female had been introduced into the reserve in July 2019.

Her radio collar had stopped working, and she had somehow evaded the camera-traps.

Forest officers had lost track of her, and had spent three months wondering where, in 2,700km² of dense jungle, she could possibly be. They were delighted to know she had been sighted – and to learn that she is now half of a breeding pair. I went to Satpura to find birds, I never thought I’d find a lost tiger.

stopped me in my tracks.

It was a tiger, and it had to be nearby. 

HAKIMUDDIN F SAIFY is a wildlife enthusiast, birdwatcher and eBird editor for the state of Chhattisgarh, India.

BBC Wildlife

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Hakimuddin Saify

I read, with interest, the article regarding pine martens preying on grey squirrels more than reds (Wild news, October 2020).

When we moved to the Scottish Borders in 2010, red squirrels were often seen in our garden, with the very occasional grey. However, over a two-year period, this reversed completely to the point that, since 2012 and until recently, we had not recorded a single red.

Over the last couple of years, we have had several sightings of what we were reasonably sure was a pine marten. In March 2020, our suspicions were finally confirmed by a good camera-trap clip captured at night – pine martens were now definitely in our area.

In recent months, we have enjoyed sightings again of several different red squirrels and though the greys are still about, they certainly are not in the same numbers.

Our observations appear to confirm that when pine martens recolonise an area, they have a beneficial effect on the local red squirrel populations.

John Weir, Scottish Borders

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VIEWPOINT WILDLIFE CHAMPION

ADAM HART In our series about people with a passion for a species, we ask science presenter and author Adam Hart why he loves the common wasp.

Interview by Jo Price

Why have you chosen the common wasp?

food for larvae, pulp to extend the nest and removing the rubbish.

Wasps are perhaps the most misrepresented of all animals. The common wasp, Vespula vulgaris, is a champion predator, homemaker and carer as well as being one of nature’s most superb architects. The species has the most fascinating social life and, up close, is stunningly beautiful.

Common wasps are also remarkable pest controllers – taking huge numbers of caterpillars from crops and gardens. Predators in general increase biodiversity, and wasps do a bit of pollinating along the way, too.

We should treasure them, rather than loathe them!

Why does the species have such a bad reputation?

Common wasps are attracted to picnics, because we have what they want – sugary foods and lovely little morsels of protein ready to be carried off to feed their sisters back at the nest. Even as a wasp-lover, I have to confess to sometimes being a little bothered by them at the end of the summer, if I am eating or drinking outside. But many is the time I have seen honeybees bothering a beer garden and wasps getting the blame!

What is the social structure of a common wasp colony?

 Wasp workers How does this social insect build its nest?

collect wood pulp and use their mouths to create papier mâché.

Why do wasps sting?

The common wasp stings for defence.

Stinging is a dangerous activity, because the animal being stung is unlikely to take it well! Contrary to what many think, wasps are not especially aggressive but, and I speak from experience, if you mess with their nests then expect some pain.

Their iconic black and yellow stripes are an example of aposematic coloration, an advertisement that the animal is not worth tangling with: simply, they mean danger!

ADAM HART is a professor at the University of Gloucestershire and author of Unfit for Purpose: When Human Evolution Collides with the Modern World (Bloomsbury).

The expert view The Big Wasp Survey (BWS) asks people to sample wasps in their gardens to find out which species are where. V. vulgaris is easily confused with Vespula germanica. BWS reveals that V. vulgaris is more widespread, but much less abundant than V. germanica. BWS data will help us understand how wasp populations and lifecycles are affected by land use and climate.

Seirian Sumner, professor in behavioural ecology genetics, evolution and environment, UCL

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February 2021

Adam: Donna Prentis; wasp: Chris Mattison/naturepl.com

The common wasp nest is incredible.

Hexagonal ‘combs’ house larvae, and an envelope protects and insulates.

The whole thing is made from paper. Wasp workers collect wood pulp and use their mouths to create papier mâché.

Look closely and you actually see each worker’s contribution in the different sections. If you find an old common wasp nest, take a look at one of nature’s marvels. If it’s active then, from a safe distance, look at the endless passage of workers moving in and out – bringing

Colonies have a queen and hundreds, or even thousands, of female workers.

The queen is the mother and the workers her daughters. While the queen lays the eggs, the workers look after the colony. Males and potential new queens are produced at some point and, after mating, the potential queens overwinter, ready to start a colony from scratch come spring.

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