BBC Wildlife December 2020

YOUR ULTIMATE WILD DECEMBER

December 2020 | Vol. 38 No. 13

COULD YOU SPOT 500 SPECIES BY CHRISTMAS?

MAKING SCOTLAND WILD AGAIN ONE MAN’S 25-YEAR MISSION TO REWILD A HIGHLAND ESTATE

ARMY ANTS On the march with the miniature military

THE ELUSIVE EURASIAN LYNX Meet the ghost cat that haunts the Jura Mountains

JAVAN RHINO A close encounter with the world’s rarest large land mammal

Change with the seasons n our cover feature this month, Peter Cairns laments the view of a neighbour in the Scottish Highlands, who felt that wildlife was little more than decoration, or at best something to tuck into.

Fortunately, not everybody shares that opinion, and Peter’s 25-year journey to rewild his small part of the planet is an inspirational story of how, when we humans stop getting in the way, nature just loves to bloom. Which, as it turns out, is also good for business – something to give a bit of hope during these darks days.

On the subject of more literal dark days, if you think of the festive

Cover: Red Squirrel: Peter Cairns; lynx: Neil Villard;, javan rhino: Toby Nowlan; illustartion by Shelly Perkins; This page: Neil Villard

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period as a time to curl up indoors, while the natural world sleeps outside – or heads for warmer climes – then it’s time to think again. A year or so back, Dominic Couzens set himself the task of spotting 500 species in December – and smashed his target well before Christmas Eve. I wonder if Dominic’s list included any reindeer on the roof…

Before I go, just a quick note about our January 2021 issue (on sale from 17 December). We’ll be celebrating the greatest conservation success stories, both at home and abroad, to kick off the year with a dose of optimism.

Lastly, on behalf of everyone here at BBC Wildlife Magazine, I’d like to wish you all a very peaceful Christmas and a hopeful New Year.

Paul McGuinness Editor

The Eurasian lynx was hunted to extinction in Switzerland, before being reintroduced in the 1970s.

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Lynx: Neil Villard; rhino: Toby Nowlan; woodpecker: Peter Cairns; ants: Daniel Kronauer; fox: Laurent Geslin/naturepl.com; illustration by Shelly Perkins

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The people behind our stories

December 2020

CONTENTS WILD MONTH 12

COVER STORY Just how many species is it possible to spot in the depths of winter?

Seven species to spot What to look for in December

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64 Your ultimate wild December

68 Photo story: Eurasian lynx COVER STORY The elusive cat that prowls the landscape of the Jura Mountains

Nick Baker’s hidden Britain The marine worm Ophelia bicornis

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Mike Dilger’s wildlife watching A visit to our churchyards reveals an abundance of species

22 News

OUR WILD WORLD 91 At home

Why older male elephants may be as important as herd matriarchs

26 Truth or fiction?

Do orcas barge into boats?

27 Mark Carwardine

Natural history TV, books and more

96 Puzzles 98 Your photos 100 Feedback Your letters and Tales from the Bush

The conservationist discusses the latest UN report on biodiversity

28 Meet the scientist Primatologist Anna Nekaris is sinking her teeth into a project focussing on the venomous bite of the slow loris

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In focus Black leopard, northern pike and yellowspotted Amazon River turtle

78 Behind the image

30 Should you kill one species to save another?

80 Q&A

38 Army ants

COVER STORY

TOBY NOWLAN Involved in a photo-ID project to survey the world’s rarest rhino, naturalist Toby tells us about his time in the jungle: “Few humans have ever set eyes on a Javan rhino in the wild, due to the impenetrable nature of their habitat.” See p56

REGULARS

FEATURES We examine the debates surrounding compassionate conservation

DANIEL KRONAUER The associate professor and author puts the world of army ants under the microscope. “These ants take cooperation and efficiency to another level,” he says. “They move as a single giant battalion.” See p38

A wartime wreck bursting with life

Why do some plants like heavy metal?

106 Wildlife champion Clare Balding tells us about her love of Eurasian otters

ALEX MORSS The botanist reveals why old quarries and mines are a stairway to heaven for metal-loving flora. “Hyperaccumulating heavy metals helps plants build defences by means of chemical warfare,” she says. See p80

These tropical arthropods have a surprising set of skills and are on the march across the forest floor

46 Making Scotland wild again Transforming a traditional Highland farm into a home for wildlife took one man 25 years. Was it worth it?

COVER STORY

56 Javan rhino

COVER STORY

The seldom seen Javan rhino is the rarest in the world. Now new research is trying to uncover more about these dwindling jungle inhabitants December 2020

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CLARE BALDING The Eurasian otter is worthy of a gold medal, says sports presenter Clare: “It is such a sleek, fast, muscular, beautiful and technically perfect swimmer that moves like a bullet through the water.” See p106

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September 2018

Shaaz Jung

IN FOCUS | Black panther

September 2018

Excess amounts of melanin – the dark pigment found in skin and hair – can cause all sorts of animals to lose their characteristic coloration, as they take on a striking all-black appearance. Among big cats, the leopard (pictured here, its spots only just discernable) and the jaguar are thought to exhibit melanism in about 10 per cent of their populations. Often referred to as ‘panthers’ in their melanistic state, these arresting felines have gained an almost mystical status.

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IN FOCUS | Winter waters

Jose Pesquero

A northern pike swims through the eerie tangle of an underwater forest. Located in central Spain, between the provinces of Albacete and Ciudad Real, Lagunas de Ruidera Natural Park is home to 15 lagoons, which offer divers “underwater landscapes of tremendous beauty, full of life,” says photographer Jose Pesquero. To get this atmospheric image, Jose dived in winter, when the temperature out of the water was -6°C – though he could enjoy a relatively balmy 8°C once submerged.

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September 2018

September 2018

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IN FOCUS | Lend me your tears

Javier Aznar/Montphoto 2020

In the tropical forests of South America, vital minerals such as sodium can be hard to come by. For some species, this means having to find inventive ways of getting a salt fix. Here, a Godart’s numberwing butterfly drinks the tears of a yellow-spotted Amazon river turtle – crocodile tears are also favoured among insects.

Capturing this incredible image saw Javier Aznar win an Honor Award in the Other Animals category of this year’s Montphoto nature photography competition.

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September 2018

September 2018

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WILDMONTH Whether out and about or hidden away in a sheltered spot, there’s plenty of winter wildlife to track down.

By Ben Hoare

1 | GOLDFINCH

The gilded goldfinch

Mark Hamblin

God knows the world needs all the good it can get right now – Out in the gardens and fields, Goldfinches are gilding the land for free The opening lines of Goldfinch, a poem in Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris’s new book The Lost Spells, remind us that garden birds are joy-bringers in difficult times, yet not something we can take for granted. Canaries in the coal mine, their fortunes should concern us all.

Perhaps this is why we feed birds, and the goldfinch is a perfect example of how doing so can change the populations and behaviour of individual species. In Britain, our relationship with this glittering gem with the tinkling voice

is particularly close. Always a prized cage bird, it nowadays is better known as one of the most familiar visitors to garden birdfeeders. The goldfinch population has soared in recent years, boosted by our winter offerings of countless tonnes of sunflower hearts (until three decades ago an exotic sight in British gardens), which the fine-billed finch adores. According to the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), the UK now has an estimated 1.65 million breeding pairs of goldfinches – more than carrion crows or rooks – a dramatic rise probably also assisted by milder winters.

GET INVOLVED Take part in BTO Garden BirdWatch: bto.org/gbw

TV

AUTUMNWATCH Catch up on the latest seasonal antics on BBC iPlayer.

WILD DECEMBER

WILD DECEMBER 2 | BROWN CENTIPEDE

Life under leaves First things first: centipedes don’t have 100 legs. Some possess rather more, but the brown, or common, centipede gets by with just 15 pairs.

It is among the most impressive of the 60 or so species of centipede in Britain, and mouldering bark and leaves can be a good place to find it. Leaf litter creates a musty microclimate, substantially warmer than chilly winter air, so stays full of invertebrate activity.

This is why so many animals, from blackbirds and robins to chickens and wild boar, love scratching about in leaves.

FIND OUT MORE All about British invertebrates: buglife.org.uk

3 | GREY WAGTAIL

Winter wagtails Both wagtails present in Britain this season frequent built-up areas. Pied wagtails forage on the tarmac of car parks and roost in street trees, including at shopping centres and London Heathrow Terminal 5. Grey wagtails, in summer associated with rushing streams, swap uplands for urban canals and rivers and the puddles on platforms

and office roofs. In 1973’s The Unofficial Countryside, Richard Mabey describes “grey wags” overwintering in London, flitting about the rafts of debris that have built up at canal locks, and hopping between bits of floating polystyrene.

TOP TIP ID videos: bto.org/aboutbirds/bird-id

Centipede: Alex Hyde; wagtail: Colin Varndell; ladybirds: Laurence Counter

RADIO

TWEET OF THE DAY Weekdays at 05.58.

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December 2020

WILD DECEMBER 4 | 16-SPOT LADYBIRD

Toxic clusters Winter is coming, and one of the consequences is the disappearance of insects. With searching, however, some can still be found. Ladybirds overwinter in huddles, occasionally dozens strong, and these may be seen in cracks in bark and walls, around window frames or under piles of leaves. You’re most likely to meet seven-spot ladybirds and non-native harlequins, but others to look for include the black-on-yellow 16-spot ladybird.

Some clusters seem very exposed, yet these beetles are toxic. The brighter the colours, the more toxic the species.

GET INVOLVED Download iRecord’s free European Ladybirds app.

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WILD DECEMBER

6 | DECEMBER MOTH

Fur coats This handsome, if subtly marked, moth is drawn to buildings by artificial light, usually on December evenings, though it may also emerge in October or November.

As befits a winter-flying species, its body is swaddled in thick fur.

The other key feature to look for is cream lines running across Bournville-brown wings. In common with other moths active in winter, the adult insect never feeds – the only thing on its mind is tracking down a mate.

FIND OUT MORE Discover the myriad moths of Great Britain and Ireland this winter: ukmoths.org.uk

ONLINE

NATURAL HISTORIES Brett Westwood on moths.

5 | POLECAT

On the hunt In winter, wildlife often comes to us. So it is with the polecat – an exceptionally elusive nocturnal predator that, despite its ongoing comeback from persecution-driven decline, remains one of the hardest of all British mammals to see.

Like its domesticated ferret relatives, the polecat is a hunter

of small mammals, and at this time of year it becomes a ratter, venturing closer to our outbuildings, chicken runs and allotments. It remains almost impossible to plan a polecat sighting, but you never know.

FIND OUT MORE Polecats: discoverwildlife.com/polecats

7 | BRENT GOOSE

Black magic

Polecat: Mike Lane; moth: James Lowen; geese: David Tipling

The British Isles welcome internationally important numbers of this smart little Arctic goose in winter. In his Tweet of the Day commentary, Chris Packham says the bird is dressed for a funeral, but the excitable yapping of its flocks is far cheerier. There are two forms – dark-bellied geese head to the saltmarshes and harbours of the Channel coast, Thames Estuary and North Norfolk, while pale-bellied geese gather in Northern Ireland, especially at Strangford Lough. All are here for the same thing – lush eelgrass in the shallows.

FIND OUT MORE Wildfowl and wetlands conservation: wwt.org.uk 16

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December 2020

WILD DECEMBER

Hidden

BRITA AN W

Illustrations by Peter David Scott/The Art Agency

orms get about.

The UK’s many species occur in all manner of habitats, not just your garden soil. Among plenty of marine worms, there are a few extraverts that employ fancy fans and tendrils of sticky threads to sift and fiddle particles of edible material into their waiting mouths.

But, mostly, the worm world is a relatively simple place.

By far the commonest strategy is for a worm to swallow soil or silt at one end, and, by a process of internal sorting, scrub it of the organic matter, bacteria and minerals that the animal needs.

Think worm casts on your lawn: the earthworm ingests soil, removes what it needs and excretes clean soil behind it in a wiggly creation on the surface.

Many marine worms do pretty much the same, so a visit to a muddy or sandy shore at low tide will reveal shapes and casts analogous to those on dry land.

But Ophelia bicornis, while superficially resembling many other coastal worms – it has a greenish-grey, segmented body up to 4cm long – is just that little bit different. What a shame

NICK BAKER

Reveals a fascinating world of wildlife that we often overlook.

Ophelia bicornis: a worm of grit and evolutionary determination.

worms rarely get common names, because Ophelia deserves to be called the ‘rectal sand sifter’. I should explain.

Sand isn’t just sand, and mud isn’t just mud – ask any builder, farmer or potter.

They are infinitely variable in composition. Much of the character of a sediment is down to the size of the particles, and in places of tidal flow, the water sorts these into different grades.

In some estuaries, where the water flow is regular and strong, DID YOU fine sediments are KNOW? washed away to Ophelia bicornis is leave a coarse grit well known around of heavier particles.

Turkey, where it is common as Not an easy meal if fishing bait. you’re a thin-skinned, delicate tube of an animal. But evolution has come up with a solution. Enter Ophelia, a specialist grit-eater BUILDING ON THE BEACHES at the northern edge of its Meet the worm that uses sand for construction. distribution in Britain and Dozens of marine worms don’t, above the surface. Fine stringy quite localised here. for the most part, draw too tentacles stick out from this A life swallowing coarse sand, much attention to themselves. sandy structure, with branches especially nutrient-poor gritty However, one species, the to collect particles from the sand, has its challenges. For sand mason worm, water and surrounding starters, you need to swallow does venture into sediment. Some a lot of it. Such sediments are view. It lives are to eat, others also prone to compaction, and vertically in the to maintain the in a worm’s gut constipation of sand, but creates ‘extension’. Look this sort would slow the flow an ‘extension’ for this strange that protrudes a miniature ‘forest’ on and kill the creature. Yet sand centimetre or so beaches at low tide. particles pass through Ophelia

December 2020

OPHELIA BICORNIS

in 15–20 minutes, thanks to a helping hand (not literally a hand, though it does bear a bit of a resemblance to one).

The ‘hand’ is a unique rectal organ called a typhlosole. It often remains hidden inside the worm’s rectum, the only clue being a fringe of paddle-shaped papilla that surround it like petals on a flower. But when the worm is actively feeding – and defecating – the strange handlike device, complete with six or so fingers, appears from within.

The typhlosole prevents constipation by means of a carpet of constantly beating hairs covering its surface. This creates a current of water to loosen the compacted sand grains, while the fingered handlike structure physically pushes out the spent sand. It all speeds up the passage of substrate through the worm’s gut.

To quote my old biology lecturer Tegwyn Harris, who worked extensively on this worm: “It is surely not inappropriate to applaud the ingenuity of a bulk-handling device that puts to novel use the rectum – a region of the digestive tract often regarded merely as a temporary store for faeces.” Quite.

NICK BAKER is a naturalist, author and TV presenter.

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MIKE DILGER’S

WILDLIFE WATCHING CHURCHYARDS IN DECEMBER

In his series of great places to watch wildlife in the UK, the star of BBC One’s The One Show this month discovers the species thriving in the calm, tranquil and unchanging environments of Britain’s rural churchyards.

t first glance, churchyards may simply appear to be parcels of grass with a few trees dotted among the gravestones, providing a moment’s quiet contemplation en route to the church itself.

Yet a closer look reveals that many are not just significant as burial grounds and cultural landmarks, but also as sanctuaries for an array of wild species struggling in Britain’s farmed and postindustrial landscapes.

It now seems accepted that Christianity arrived in the British Isles close to 2,000

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years ago, with the foundations for the subsequent churches and churchyards lain some time afterwards. However, archaeologists have discovered that many early Christian structures were either built into, or alongside, established pagan sites, meaning many churchyards may be older than the churches they encircle.

Yew trees are frequently a feature of churchyards, with a number of specimens around the country thought to be over 2,000 years old. Such immense longevity led to these symbols of immortality becoming the centrepieces of many preChristian rituals. At least 500 churchyards in England and Wales contain yew trees as old as the church itself – some much older.

Many churchyards have changed little while the world has accelerated around them,

and this ‘ecological stasis’ is what makes them particularly appealing to species that colonise slowly and are sensitive to change.

Until the second half of the 20th century, churchyards were seemingly little more than extensions of the semi-natural, lightly managed grasslands seen across great swathes of the neighbouring farmland.

However, modern agricultural methods and urban sprawl combined to devastating effect after World War II, and as millions of acres of meadows disappeared, churchyard walls and hedges were able to shield the wildlife within from the worst effects of herbicides and pesticides. The hallowed nature of burial grounds offered further protection against development.

The upshot of this ‘inadvertent’ management is that throughout spring December 2020

WILD DECEMBER

Clockwise from top left: David Speight/Alamy; Getty; Peter Noyce/Alamy; Steven May/Alamy; Jacqui Dracup/Alamy; Katharina Brandt/Alamy

Clockwise from top left: St Cadoc’s Church in Cheriton on the Gower peninsula; yew is a common feature of graveyards; St Mary’s Church in Selborne, Hampshire; ivy is often seen clambering over headstones and monuments; maidenhair spleenwort grows tuftlike out of walls; golden crustose lichen.

and summer many churchyards are carpeted with meadow flowers, such as ox-eye daisies and yellow rattle. But come winter, it is the simpler plants that take centre stage. With the leaves having fallen, the gravestones and church exteriors become more obvious, revealing splatter patterns of colourful crusts and leafy ledges. Lichens have patently found religion to their liking.

A perfect relationship Lichens comprise a fungus and an alga growing together to each other’s mutual benefit. The fungal partner invariably forms the lichen’s thallus (visible body), thereby giving the internal algal cells protection from droughts and extremes of temperature. These cosseted, December 2020

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WILD DECEMBER

More than 600 different species of lichen have been observed on churchyard stone alone in lowland England.

either sandstone, limestone, granite or slate to find the perfect substrate to colonise. So important has this habitat become for lichens, that more than 600 different species have been observed on churchyard stone alone in lowland England. At some sites, more than 100 species have been recorded – some considered nationally rare.

With this in mind, churchyards frequently need special conservation measures to counter moves to keep them ‘tidy’ by removing old headstones and intensifying mowing regimes. The good news is that careful management should see churchyards continue their important job of providing havens for wildlife, while preserving that well-tended appearance loved by many who visit.

Psilolechia lucida: L Espersen/Biopix

photo-synthesising algae return the favour by providing nutrients for both.

Growing little more than a couple of millimetres a year, lichens’ quiet conquest has gained significant momentum in the unchanging environment and clean air offered in many rural churchyards – particularly in locations where outcrops of rock are abundant. Additionally, the varied geologies of the gravestones have enabled those lichen species preferring

C HO I CE LO CAT I O N S

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1 Fortingall Parish Church, in

S PEC I ES TO LOO K OUT FOR

Perthshire, is home to a gnarly yew tree that is 2,000–3,000 years old, often said to be the oldest tree in Britain.

Yew

2 All Saints Church, Horstead, Norfolk,

With flaky, reddish-brown bark and needle-like leaves that grow in two rows, the yew looks like no other native conifer. It also, unlike most conifers, does not bear its seeds in cones – instead, each is enclosed in a red, fleshy, berry-like structure called an aril, which is open at the tip. The tree reaches heights of 20m.

is a large and botanically rich churchyard that has been managed under the Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Churchyard Conservation Scheme for 30 years.

Maidenhair spleenwort A dainty little fern, maidenhair spleenwort grows in tufted fashion on church walls. It has long fronds, consisting of short, round and paired leaflets, emanating from a black central stem. In Britain, the species is found mainly in western areas, but it has a large global distribution.

Ivy This familiar evergreen climber carpets many churchyards, clambering up the gravestones. Ivy has two leaf forms: the typical five-lobed leaf only

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3 St Mary’s Church, Selborne,

Yellow-green and powdery, Psilolechia lucida loves shady spots.

occurs on non-flowering shoots; leaves on floral branches are larger and more pointed. The black berries provide an important food source for overwintering birds such as thrushes, while invertebrates shelter among the foliage.

Golden crustose lichen Caloplaca flavescens is a chalk- and lime-loving lichen, which often grows on limestone memorials.

It forms beautiful golden circles that can stand out at quite a distance.

The species belongs

to the group known as crustose lichens, with narrow, yellow-orange lobes around the edge of the main disc, and a more whitish centre.

Psilolechia lucida A powdery-looking species, Psilolechia has yet to be graced with a common name. The bright, yellow-green lichen is usually encountered on acidic headstones, such as those carved from slate or sandstone. It prefers drier, shadier spots and has even been spotted picking out the engraved letters on headstones.

Hampshire, is mentioned in the Domesday Book and was home to the naturalist and writer Gilbert White, who is buried in the churchyard. Here, also, is the ‘Selborne Yew’ – 1,400 years old and considered one of 50 Great British Trees.

4 St Andrews Parish Churchyard, Evesham, Worcestershire, contains the 300-year-old tomb of a local farmer called John Martin. The top limestone slab alone hosts 33 species of lichen – some of them very rare.

5 St Cadoc’s Church, Cheriton, in the Gower Peninsula, is a Grade I-listed building sometimes referred to as the ‘Cathedral of Gower’. The churchyard contains an astonishing variety of lichens, which flourish in the clean Welsh air.

Don’t go without the Field Studies Council’s Guide to Common Churchyard Lichens by Frank S Dobson. A must for all budding lichenologists.

December 2020

WILDNEWS

By ADRIAN BARNETT, SIMON BIRCH, STUART BLACKMAN, BEN HOARE, JO PRICE AND KENNY TAYLOR

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

MAMMALS

Father figures Have we overlooked a vital role for males in elephants’ famously matriarchal society?

lephant society revolves around stable herds of females who raise and educate calves cooperatively under the leadership of an elderly, experienced matriarch. But new research suggests that mature males, too, play a crucial educational role – a discovery that has implications for the regulation of trophy hunting.

Rather little is known about the social lives of males after they leave their natal

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herd in adolescence, says University of Exeter biologist Connie Allen, who conducted the research in Botswana’s Makgadikgadi Pans National Park.

Certainly, the males do have a social life, though their friendships are more casual than those of females.

“Some males have regular friends, but in general male groups are very fluid and changeable,” explains Allen.

“If you talk to the safari guides, they

all say the young males learn from the older bulls,” she adds. “But that hadn’t been scientifically investigated. Males have huge ranges, so they’re really difficult to track.”

Using video camera-traps, Allen and her colleagues have shown that male groups travelling between watering holes are routinely led by the most experienced bulls. “It suggests the younger ones target the old bulls for their knowledge and

December 2020

In the absence of old bulls, males can become hyperaggressive.

Leading the way: elder elephants of both sexes pass their knowledge onto youngsters.

survival skills – how and where to find things like water and fruiting trees,” says Allen. “They seem to occupy a similar role to the females in breeding herds.”

But what’s in it for the mature bulls?

Why should they share their hardwon know-how with potential rivals?

Perhaps, by keeping competitors close, an old bull is able to inhibit their sexual activity. Allen says that, in the absence of old bulls, males can become “hyper-

aggressive” and enter the sexually active state of musth while unusually young.

Mature bulls – with their great size and large tusks – are the most attractive targets for trophy hunters, and enjoy less legal protection than females. “That needs rethinking,” says Allen. “We don’t really know the knock-on consequences of the loss of information built up over 20, 30 or 40 years, but it’s probably going to be damaging to the wider group.”

Then again, Allen adds, targeting bulls that repeatedly raid farms could help reduce human-elephant conflict: “It might make good sense to take out older males that are teaching younger ones to raid crops.”

Stuart Blackman

FIND OUT MORE Scientific Reports go.nature.com/34SNJ7Z Getty

December 2020

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WILD NEWS

From 2014 to 2018, almost 600,000 reptiles (here, a golden gecko) and 99,000 birds (below, a Fischer’s lovebird) were imported to the UK.

WILDLIFE TRADE

Exotic pet trade poses health risks

DID YOU KNOW ?

Researchers call for rethink of legal wildlife trade.

Many of these animals were taken from countries that are considered to be emerging disease hotspots – Cameroon, El Salvador and Indonesia, for example.

According to WAP, importing animals in such numbers risks the spread of diseases caused by harmful viruses, bacteria and parasites introduced into new environments.

“The wildlife trade is a lethal hotbed of disease, because it brings wild animals with immune systems weakened by the stress of captivity, and transport in unnatural proximity to other animals, into close contact with people, often in unsanitary conditions,” says Peter Kemple Hardy, wildlife campaign manager, WAP. A Defra spokesperson says, “The UK is a world leader in wildlife conservation, both at home and abroad.

We have strict measures in place to protect animals

imported into the country and prevent the spread of diseases.

“Well-managed trade can bring important benefits, contributing to livelihoods and economies across the globe. We remain fully committed to ensuring that any trade in wildlife is safe, sustainable, legal, and adheres to high standards of welfare.”

Dr Neil D’Cruze, head of wildlife research, WAP, states: “Even with the best bio-security measures in place, there are still questions about what diseases are being looked for, how new and emerging diseases are being monitored and how we deal with individual animals that are imported but are asymptomatic. Given the health risks, it’s time for a re-evaluation of the commercial use of wildlife.”

Simon Birch

FIND OUT MORE Animals: bit.ly/2GS8eJx

December 2020

Gecko: F. Teigler/blickwinkel/Alamy; lovebird: Getty

he public’s health is being put at risk by the millions of live wild animals being legally imported into the UK from emerging disease hotspots, which are then sold as exotic pets, according to the global animal welfare charity World Animal Protection (WAP).

Using a Freedom of Information request to the Animal and Plant Health Agency, an agency of Defra, researchers found that between 2014 and 2018, more than three million animals were imported into the UK to supply the exotic pet trade, one of the major commercial purposes for importing live wild animals.

These animals included African pygmy hedgehogs, snakes and tortoises.

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The World Health Organisation estimates millions of deaths occur every year from diseases spread to humans from animals.

WILD NEWS Baboons are dividing opinion as they are found increasingly within urban areas of South Africa.

PRIMATES

Rebel without a troop

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young baboon has become a symbol of conflict between animal rights activists and city authorities in Cape Town, South Africa.

The population of chacma baboons around Cape Town has swelled in recent years – to some 500 in 15 different troops. Conflict arises as increasing numbers come down from mountain ground to roam residential areas and take food from gardens, scavenge from bins or enter houses.

To deter this, Cape Town employs a Baboon Technical Team, with scores of rangers who watch the baboons

and use paintball pellets to scare them from suburbs. Rarely, animals deemed particularly troublesome are euthanised. These tactics have enraged people who welcome the baboons in their neighbourhood.

A young male from Slangkop Mountain, known to activists as Kataza, began raids on a coastal village in April. Becoming sexually mature, he then encouraged a small band of females to join him, leading them to town more than 20 times in the next few months. Worried that he was forming an urban gang, the

NEW SPECIES DISCOVERY

Truffle: Dr Alexander Georgiev; baboons: Alan van Gysen

FIND OUT MORE Human Wildlife Solutions: bit.ly/2InSJtR Baboon Matters: baboonmatters.org.za

85 confirmed incidents of bird of prey persecution occurred in the UK in 2019, including shooting, trapping and poisoning, according to the RSPB’s Birdcrime report.

WHAT IS IT? Truffles may not be to everyone’s taste, but these subterranean fungi are totally reliant on being eaten, if their spores are to be spread. This new species apparently appeals to the sophisticated palates of bonobos, who use their hands to dig them out of the earth.

December 2020

Kenny Taylor

IN NUMBERS

Bonobo truffle

WHERE IS IT? Hysterangium bonobo, as it has been formally named, was identified at Kokolopori Bonobo Reserve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but the species was already known to the local human population, who call it simbokilo and use it to bait traps for duikers, porcupines and other mammals. Stuart Blackman

Baboon Technical Team then captured Kataza in September and released him near the Tokai troop, more than 15km away. In response, activists have mounted a ‘Bring Kataza Back’ campaign through a street protest and social media. Kataza, meanwhile, has been trying to get accepted by the Tokai troop, and often sleeps on the roof of a local prison.

12,000km The new species of truffle is loved by bonobos.

is the distance flown by a bartailed godwit from Alaska to New Zealand in 11 days – a new record for avian non-stop flight.

747 FIND OUT MORE Mycologia: bit.ly/3dqBMKO

is a bear in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve that won Fat Bear Week 2020, following a public vote.

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WILD NEWS UK WILDLIFE

Three’s a crowd

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cience is full of surprises, including sometimes the fact that something you thought was bound to be known, actually isn’t. In Britain, as elsewhere, small rodents form a key food-chain link. As grazers and seed dispersers, they are essential to forest and grassland health, while their abundance places them centrally on the menus of predators, both furred and feathered.

How and why their populations change seasonally and annually has been studied for nearly a century.

So, it comes as a surprise to learn that how the species interact among their small and furry selves is, in fact, very little known.

A team of scientists from Oxford University, led by Marc Brouard, studied how two species, the common

wood mouse and bank vole affect each other’s growth rates, looking at individual animals’ sizes and the numbers of each species.

“We expected the two species would interact, with one species doing less well as the other became more numerous,” explains Brouard. Instead, the team found no effect at all.

However, the presence of the much rarer yellow-necked mouse (pictured) reduced the weight of both species.

“We aren’t certain how,” he states.

Clearly, even English woodlands still contain mysteries.

Adrian Barnett

FIND OUT MORE Journal of Zoology: doi.org/10.1111/jzo.12822

TRUTH OR FICTION?

Stress can make orcas strike boats

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

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Reports of orcas ramming boats have caused concern.

– like the vengeful sperm whale in Moby Dick. At the time of writing, the Spanish encounters have not been witnessed by scientists. However, they follow a consistent pattern, so are not in doubt.

Orcas are disappearing from this area, and the pod thought to be involved has as few as 30 adults. Researchers speculate that stress, perhaps caused by whale-watching boats, marine pollution or prey scarcity, might be affecting their behaviour. “Orcas gather around the tuna-fishing fleet in the Strait of Gibraltar in summer,” says Danny Groves of Whale and Dolphin Conservation. “They have been filmed targeting tuna caught on long lines. The battle between fishermen and this critically endangered orca population for overfished and dwindling Atlantic bluefin tuna could be behind the worrying behaviour.” Ben Hoare

FIND OUT MORE Orca conservation: uk.whales.org

December 2020

Mouse: Stephen Dalton/NPL (controlled conditions); orca: Patty Tse/Alamy

A rare spate of attacks has puzzled scientists, but could the pod be in trouble?

SINCE THE SUMMER, orcas have repeatedly rammed yachts in the waters off Spain and Gibraltar, leading many conservationists to suggest the animals are in distress. The unprovoked group attacks have damaged rudders and alarmed crews.

Worldwide, accounts of whales and dolphins deliberately ramming boats are mostly rum-fuelled tales of old, or fiction

WILD OPINION

MY WAY OF THINKING

MARK CARWARDINE The conservationist discusses the latest United Nations biodiversity report and invites your thoughts on the subject.

he United Nations has just published its most damning report yet on the state of the natural world.

It warns that nature is being destroyed at a rate unprecedented in human history – and this is endangering our own survival.

Published by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the report looks at a decade of so-called conservation efforts by 196 ratifying parties (including every member of the UN – with the exception of the United States – plus the European Union). In 2010, 20 targets were agreed under the convention to stem the destruction of wildlife and life-sustaining ecosystems. The world’s nations had 10 years to get their act together and make signification changes.

Well, their time is up – and guess what? They failed. Miserably. Not a single target was met. The scientific warnings have gone largely unheeded, the politicians have continued with ‘business as usual’, and our state of planetary emergency just got worse.

The report – as all such reports seem to do these days – tries to be positive.

It sprinkles glimmers of hope and progress among its 210 pages and stresses that it’s not too late to slow, halt and eventually reverse decline in biodiversity. I understand the need to put a positive spin on everything – or we’d all be jumping off a cliff – but there really is no sugar-coating the reality.

Even some of the purported progress is dubious. According to the report, 7.5 per cent of the world’s oceans are officially ‘protected’. But they’re not really protected. Many European marine reserves, for example, allow destructive trawl fishing, and research shows that some species (sharks, in particular)

Samuel Corum/AFP/Getty

T

December 2020

S Unfortunately,

are worse off inside reserves than outside.

None of this is new. We all know that global wildlife populations are in freefall. And on our current trajectory, the future is scary.

But the powers that be still don’t get it. Even national leaders and other politicians who claim to understand the environmental crisis find it difficult to resist powerful lobbies, short-term interests and, of course, their overwhelming desire for re-election.

They keep promising to do better, but they don’t. Even now, in what feels like apocalyptic times with the skies of California glowing an ominous orange and a global pandemic bringing world economies nearly to a halt – among many other warning signs – the gap between rhetoric and reality seems to be getting wider.

we are long past the stage where scientists alone can solve this crisis. T

As the report states very clearly, the only solution is ‘transformational change’. We have to turn our whole way of life upside-down and get governments, businesses and other stakeholders to understand that conservation is not a competing interest but is fundamental to human survival.

It means putting conservation at the heart of all policy-making. Yes, we have environmental ministries. And, yes, they are crucial. But they tend to be low down the pecking order. There are some exceptions – in France, for example, the powerful Ministry for the Ecological Transition’s broad remit includes everything from biodiversity and climate change to energy and transport – but they are few and far between. The really important stuff – the overwhelming pressures from overfishing, deforestation, transportation, agriculture and energy production – is nearly always under the control of other, significantly more powerful ministries that don’t pay much attention to conservation.

Unfortunately, we are long past the stage where conservationists and scientists alone can solve this crisis.

But history proves that change often starts at the bottom, kick-started by individuals and non-profit groups, and this is our best hope. We have to focus on forcing it up the spiral to the decision-makers post-haste. If they’re not on board, we all lose.

MARK CARWARDINE is a frustrated and frank conservationist.

Severe wildfires have raged across California this year.

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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WILD NEWS

MEET THE SCIENTIST

Anna Nekaris Professor in primate conservation at Oxford Brookes University.

It may look impossibly sweet but don’t be fooled – the Javan slow loris packs a venomous punch and is happy to use it on its own species. he slow loris has large eyes, a big brain, looks incredibly cute and is absolutely deadly.

It is among the few venomous mammals – just one of the many facets of this fascinating animal being revealed by Anna Nekaris’s research.

Another interesting trait is that it mimics an unpalatable animal to put off potential predators – a phenomenon known as Batesian mimicry. In the case of the slow loris, it pretends to be a cobra.

“It is quite cute – you are holding this slow loris to put a radio collar on it and it puts its arms above its head and just starts swaying and hissing at you,” says Nekaris.

But it is when it wraps its arms around its head and hides its face that you’ve got to worry – it is licking the secretion from the gland on the front of its upper arm (the brachial gland), which, when mixed with saliva, adds to the saliva’s

Nekaris and her colleague gingerly handle a slow loris.

Below: imitating a cobra.

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intense – there are no primates that bite each other like slow lorises.T

toxicity. “They strike at you like a snake,” exclaims the primatologist.

In the early days, it was disputed whether a loris’s bite was venomous or not. Nekaris herself was bitten: “I only had a little bit of a terrible reaction – I had a mild anaphylactic shock.” A colleague, who didn’t believe they were venomous at the time, was bitten and hospitalised for a week.

Nekaris originally studied literature and history, wanting to be a journalist, before switching to anthropology.

Her studies took her first to Africa to study bush babies, but as a vegetarian she could not

FIND OUT MORE Current Biology: bit.ly/2TeASaO Little Fireface Project: www. nocturama.org

cope with the culture of bushmeat.

So, she went to India to study the Mysore slender loris.

“I wanted my own ecological niche, so I picked a species that we knew nothing about in a country where conservation action was urgently needed,” says Nekaris.

Her most recent published work is a result of an eight-year study of Javan slow lorises, which has shown that they use their venomous bites in intraspecific competition – open warfare within their own species.

Both males and females use it – the males often to defend mates, and the females to defend resources: lorises eat gum from trees, which they tap over long periods of time, creating territorial assets.

This is very unusual: in a survey of all known independently evolved venomous lineages, only four species were identified to use venom for intraspecific competition.

“The interesting thing is that the intraspecific competition is so intense,” says Nekaris. “There are no primates that bite each other like slow lorises, it is one of the [top] causes of death in rescue centres.”

Andrew Griffiths

December 2020

Andrew Walmsely x2; loris being handled: Dede Ahmad

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NEWS FEATURE

SHOULD YOU KILL ONE SPECIES TO SAVE ANOTHER?

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December 2020

NEWS FEATURE

Some scientists are advocating a radical new approach to wildlife conservation but many others believe it will threaten rare species.

Report by James Fair

S

ince last year, Marc Bekoff, emeritus professor at the University of Colorado, has been among a group of people fighting a cull of Canada geese in Denver by biologists from the US Department of Agriculture.

The city’s park officials say droppings from thousands of resident geese, which live around many of the most popular parks and lakes, are getting into waterways and spreading disease, and numbers need to be reduced.

“They round them up, put them in portable cages and onto a truck and take them somewhere and gas them,” Bekoff tells me.

Last year, he says, they killed about 1,600 geese, this year it was going to be 4,000.

“But I was [recently] told that the killing has stopped at about 500, and I believe that the discussions we’ve been having with people at the highest level have played a role here,” he continues. “We are trying to get a commitment for next year that killing will be off the table, because there are so many easy, cheap alternative options, though the city refuses to agree to this. The geese are sentient beings, and I have invoked the principles of compassionate conservation to stop the killing.”

Do no harm

December 2020

Geese: Kevin Beaty; pipit: Ingo Arndt/naturepl.com

The US Department of Agriculture wants to reduce the number of Canada geese in Denver. Right: the South Georgia pipit, the world’s most southerly songbird, came under threat from invasive rats.

Compassionate conservation is a small, littleknown academic movement started by Bekoff and a number of conservation biologists, mainly in the UK and Australia. It has a set of tenets or principles, of which the main ones are ‘first, do no harm’, ‘every individual matters’ and ‘seek peaceful co-existence between humans and non-humans’. It claims to stand in stark contrast to traditional wildlife conservation, where the lives of individual animals are treated as being less important than the survival of populations or species.

“My take is that killing’s off the table,” Bekoff says. “Killing animals is not an option.”

Which is fine – unless you happen to be a conservation scientist trying to save the last few South Georgia pipits, as Tony Martin was, for instance, when he took on the job of ridding the British overseas territory in the South Atlantic of non-native rats and mice.

Or if you’re trying to prevent American grey squirrels from invading Anglesey, in Wales – and almost certainly sending the island’s native red squirrels into terminal decline – as Craig Shuttleworth, scientific advisor to the Red Squirrel Survival Trust, is. To protect Anglesey’s squirrels, Shuttleworth has a grey squirrel culling programme to create a buffer zone on the Welsh mainland around the Menai Strait. “If you don’t cull, it’s goodbye red squirrel,” he says.

Shuttleworth believes the compassionate conservation movement threatens his work.

“They are offering non-intervention as a way forward, and a politician who is looking at resources might think they don’t need to do anything, because they can follow the mantra of ‘do no harm’ and everything will be fine,” he says. “It’s not fine.”

Toxic approach Shuttleworth culls grey squirrels by trapping and shooting, but in many parts of the world – perhaps most notably, but not only, Australia and New Zealand – poison is used to tackle their introduced species, which include an array of mainly European species, such as foxes, domestic cats, stoats and weasels and (in New Zealand) possums. In New Zealand, 58 bird species have gone extinct thanks to the non-native invaders.

Matt Hayward is a conservation ecologist from the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, with a particular interest in threatened species, and he says there is no alternative to using the controversial poison 1080 (teneighty) to kill feral cats and foxes in Australia in order to protect native mammals.

“Unless we can get

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NEWS FEATURE

large areas free of them, we will lose species such as bilbies, woylies and bettongs – any small mammal macropod from mouse-size up to a small wallaby,” he says. These are all endemic, so you lose them from Australia, and you lose them forever.

Hayward admits that the writhing of animals poisoned with 1080 “looks horrible” but insists there is no alternative. You could never control foxes and cats over the vast spaces of the Australian outback by any other method currently available.

Culture of killing Alongside Bekoff, another leading light in the compassionate conservation movement is Arian Wallach. Originally from Israel, she moved to Australia to study dingos, and found herself shocked at the culture of killing in the country. “If you went up to anyone in the street, for the most part, they would

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generally imagine conservationists to be compassionate,” she says. “Most people wouldn’t know that people are going around killing squirrels to save the world.”

So, what’s her answer? First of all, she rejects the idea that, in most situations, you have a binary situation where you either save this or that. “In those rare cases, where that is the case, I don’t have an obvious straightforward answer,” she adds. “But I would start by bringing the best minds together to find creative solutions.”

In the case of feral cats and foxes, she argues that the solution is already there in the shape of dingos, which prey on the smaller introduced carnivores.

Not only that, indiscriminate poisoning kills the dingos, she argues, leading to an increase in the animals they want to control. Hayward says dingos don’t control the smaller predators because there are too many of them and they breed too quickly.

But Wallach takes it further. In line with a small but seemingly growing trend, she describes herself as not a “nativist” – someone who draws a line between wildlife, for example, that evolved on the Australian continent and that which arrived with humans. “I’m not in the business of causing eradications,” she says. “I wouldn’t want to do it to an Australian fox, any more than I would want to do it to an Australian koala.”

Morals and metrics One of the key features of compassionate conservation is the idea of sentience – that animals have feelings and emotions and are therefore individuals in their own right.

While this may seem uncontroversial, it does open up a ‘Pandora’s box’ of dilemmas.

Where do we draw the line, people ask? If a cat is a ‘being’, what about a slug?

Wallach largely rejects this line of thinking. “I take a view that we have ethical obligations to trees and butterflies and flies and whatever,” she says. But, if pushed, she argues that science has demonstrated mental, emotional and social complexity in

December 2020

NEWS FEATURE

“By virtue of any power it might have to influence decision-makers, I fear that a donothing philosophy could potentially be very damaging to the natural world.”

Both Martin and Shuttleworth also make important points around the level of scrutiny and care that goes into any culling programme. For the eradication of rats and mice on South Georgia, Martin considered trapping and euthanasia as well as kill-traps, but both were deemed impractical because of the size and topography of the island.

You’d need thousands of people to set and check the traps – even then, you would never catch every single animal. “We also looked at the possibility of contraceptive drugs and other means of killing rodents, but none had a hope of working in those circumstances,” Martin says. Anything but killing 100 per cent of invasive rodents would have been a failure, he points out.

“Most of those who really care about the nature would, I trust, consider that compassionate conservation is best served by correcting the mistake, removing the predators and thereby saving the animals that called the island home long before humans arrived to mess things up.”

Alternative solutions

Squirrel: Chris Robbins/Alamy; helicopter: Ingo Arndt/naturepl.com; greater bilby: Photo Researchers/FLPA; sign: Tony Miller/Alamy

“Had we not removed the rats from South Georgia, entire bird species would have become extinct.” all mammals and birds and, for example, cephalopods. We are discovering more about reptiles and fish, too.

“It would be harder for me to make the case for blowflies than it would for elephants, but at the moment, the interests of individual elephants don’t really count in conservation, anyway,” she says. “They are still just metrics – their population size and the ecological effects they have are all that matters.”

But it’s more complex, more subtle than that, she argues. It’s easier for us to maintain a “smaller moral world” where all we care about are, for example, people who are genetically related to us. “I would say we

December 2020

Clockwise from top left: in the UK, grey squirrels put native reds at risk; bait for the South Georgia rat eradication project; bilbies are eaten by feral cats in Australia.

should embrace our ethical vulnerabilities, allow our moral terrain to become more complex,” Wallach says.

Can’t save them all Tony Martin is alarmed by what he calls the “sad naiveté” of the compassionate conservationists. “I’m sure these people mean well, but they presumably aren’t aware of the inhumane cruelty implicit in their policies,” he says. “Had we not removed the rats and mice from South Georgia, millions of young birds would have been eaten alive, and entire bird species would have been rendered extinct.

So, does the killing for conservation have to go on forever? Not necessarily. Some scientists, for example, are experimenting with so-called gene drives that would render a population of, say, rats infertile or only able to give birth to offspring of one sex.

Bekoff sees this as an acceptable solution.

“If someone said to me, ‘We’ve got to stop you from making more Marcs, and we can kill you or sterilise you or do something else nonlethal’, then that’s the choice I would make.”

Back in the real world, a low-tech version of this has been proposed for Denver’s Canada geese – if you oil their eggs, so they don’t hatch, you eliminate or reduce the problem.

We live in a world in which terrible abuses of human rights, let alone animal rights, take place on a daily basis. Can we really afford to start worrying about the suffering inflicted on cats, rats, foxes, and so on, in order to protect vulnerable species? Or should we look at it another way – can we afford not to?

JAMES FAIR writes about wildlife, conservation and the environment.

Jamesfairwildlife.co.uk

BBC Wildlife

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WAKE UP IN THE PHILIPPINES

ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE Breathtaking tropical landscapes, world-class dive sites, unique wildlife and a wealth of eco-adventures – the holiday of a lifetime awaits you in the Philippines. Dream today... travel tomorrow ARE YOU DREAMING of thrilling wildlife experiences on beautiful tropical islands?

It’s time to start imagining your trip to the Philippines. Snorkel with giant whale sharks in crystal-clear waters, spot a tarsier, the world’s smallest primate, in tropical jungle, dive warm seas to marvel at vibrant corals, explore emerald crater lakes or marvel at 2,000-yearold rice terraces carved into mountainsides – the Philippines has all the ingredients of a truly unforgettable adventure holiday.

As the world’s second biggest archipelago nation with 7,641 islands, there is a unique biodiversity here, including over 100 mammal species and 180 bird species that are unique to the Philippines. Importantly, the country also prides itself on being a leader in responsible and sustainable tourism. With a coastline over 36,000km long, there are stunning bays and coves to explore, making it the ultimate destination for lovers of pristine waters, watersports and white-sand beaches, while lush forests, fascinating volcanic landscapes and vibrant cultural life beckon in the interior.

A DIVER’S PARADISE Voted World’s Leading Dive Destination in the 2019 World Travel Awards, the Philippines’ nutrient-rich waters are teeming with an astounding variety of

sealife. The Philippines is within the Pacific Ocean’s Coral Triangle, one of Asia’s most diverse marine ecosystems, and is home to over 500 species of hard and soft corals and more than 3,200 species of fish. A dive from the isle of Malapascua is a good start point, said to be the best place to spot thresher sharks and rays, while photogenic mantis shrimps and seahorses can be seen around Gato Island.

For staggering diversity, from miniscule nudibranchs to gentle-giant whale sharks, a dive in Palawan’s Tubbataha Reefs National Park is a must. See nesting hawksbill and green sea turtles, dolphins, manta rays, schools of barracuda and Amos Rock’s colourful corals.

THRILLING ENCOUNTERS The fascinating island of Bohol offers unique experiences and a distinctive cultural heritage.

Travel inland to visit the conical Chocolate Hills – over 1,260 limestone hills covered in grass that turns brown in the dry season – or meet tiny tarsiers in a conservation park. A whale and dolphin watching trip to Pamilacan Island on the Bohol Sea is also a must.

On Cebu, swim with a massive school of sardines in Moalboal, or take a boat to Olango Island’s bird sanctuary for a sighting of an Asian dowitcher or Chinese egret. Learn the secrets of the Bojo River mangroves on a tranquil canoe tour led by community guides, then explore the

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE At low tide, walk across a breathtaking sand bar to reach Palawan’s tiny Snake Island BELOW, CLOCKWISE Traditional boats moored in a Coron Island bay; the whale shark is a gentle giant; see tiny jumping primate the tarsier on the islands of Bohol or Samar OPPOSITE Don’t get too close to prickly lionfish; reach lush forest crossing a suspension bridge over Loboc River, Bohol

island’s culinary heritage with a meal of lechon (roasted suckling pig) and puso (rice in banana leaves).

Palawan, with its powder-white beaches and beautiful coastline, isn’t just an islandhopper’s paradise. Look for monitor lizards and monkeys on a jungle trail near Sabang’s Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park or spot Irrawaddy dolphins in Malampaya Sound.

PARADISE FOUND Named the world’s most beautiful island by Condé Nast Traveller Magazine and Tripadvisor in 2019, tiny teardrop-shaped Siargao is no longer a secret among surfers. Famous for its fantastic waves, Siargao boasts palm-tree fringed lagoons, pristine coves, sparkling whitesand islets and a vibrant restaurant scene. Take a boat trip to idyllic Sohoton Cove, backed by towering limestone hills covered in tropical forest or see the glowing stalagmites and stalactites in Magkukuob Cave.

Such a wealth of exciting experiences awaits you in the Philippines, you’ll be planning a return trip before you leave!

Speak to an expert and start planning your dream trip with Audley audleytravel.com/the-philippines or call 01993 627421 itsmorefuninthephilippines.co.uk #itsmorefuninthephilippines

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LAST JUNGLE RHINO OF THE

Words and photos by Toby Nowlan

Concealed within Java’s dense tropical forest, the world’s rarest rhino remains a mystery to most. With only a few dozen left, the race is on to learn more about these seldom seen creatures.

Seldom m seen, the shy Javan an rhino rhiino is is a Critically Endangered species, whose range has been reduced to one Indonesian siian island. island.

Enjoy our Premium App experience now available from

As top arthropod predators in tropical rainforests, the biology of army ants is built around hunting in vast battalions. Discover life on the forest front line.

Words and photos Daniel Kronauer

ARMY ANTS TS S ON THE MARCH H with the

MINIATURE

MILITARY

Joining together (literally), nomadic army ants form bivouacs (nests) where they take shelter and protect their young.

ARMY ANTS

any of us, at one time or another, will have paused to admire ants scurrying up and down the cracks between our patio slabs or among the blades of grass in our lawns, working efficiently in their co-operative societies to build nests, retrieve food and feed their young. In the UK, the species you’re most likely to encounter is the common black garden ant, which lives in colonies of up to a few thousand individuals.

But further afield, in rainforests around the world, there are ants that take cooperation and efficiency to another level.

They move as a single giant battalion, overwhelm prey animals many times their own size and create ‘buildings’ out of their own bodies. These are the army ants, whose spectacular behaviour and biology has inspired the writings of early explorernaturalists as well as novels and horror films.

The name ‘army ant’ refers to a group of ants that comprises some 400 species, most of which occur in tropical Africa, Asia and Central and South America. I have studied these ants for the past 17 years, following their colonies for weeks at a time and enduring their bites and stings – and their

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fascinating adaptations never cease to amaze me.

An army ant hunting swarm is one of the greatest spectacles of the natural world. Many times, during fieldwork in the tropical rainforests of Costa Rica, Kenya and Venezuela, I have been startled to see a patch of rainforest floor up to 20m wide suddenly come alive with a surging flood of hundreds of thousands of ants, streaming across the leaf-litter and up into the vegetation in their search for prey.

When one of these tiny warriors encounters a suitable meal – perhaps a katydid or earthworm – it emits a chemical signal that attracts an entire platoon. The ants are ruthless in their efficiency, quickly overwhelming their target, pinning it down and neatly severing it into small pieces suitable for transport. In just one day’s raid, they will capture tens of thousands of arthropods and other invertebrates.

Snack attack Army ants are also known as ‘driver’ ants, because their swarms drive out a wave of fleeing animals. Even if a fugitive escapes the intruders, it is nowhere close to safety.

Dozens of birds gather at army ant swarms, ready to snack on the escapees. Some species are so specialised that they keep December 2020

ARMY ANTS

track of the various colonies in a particular region of forest, feeding almost exclusively at the incursions.

Alongside the birds are scores of flies.

Some hover above the advancing front like miniature helicopters; others perch on twigs and leaves, darting down to a fleeing arthropod when the opportunity arises.

These flies are parasitic, and their maggots develop inside the bodies of insects and spiders. It has been estimated that more than half of the animals that escape are ultimately killed by being eaten from the inside.

Army ant societies are among the largest on the planet, with estimates of 20 million individuals for some African species.

One I have got to know particularly well is Eciton burchellii, which lives in colonies of approximately 500,000 and inhabits tropical and subtropical forests from Mexico to southern Brazil. This species has a broad prey spectrum that includes katydids, cockroaches, centipedes and scorpions, and many other large arthropods.

Most prominent on its menu, however, are other ants – particularly the large carpenter ants. As their name suggests, carpenters live in galleries constructed inside trees and logs. When the army ants launch an attack, the ensuing battle can last for hours. Initially, the defenders block the nest entrances to keep the intruders at bay.

Sometimes, they hold their ground and the plundering horde moves on. But more often than not, the barricades fall, with the army ants ransacking the nest and carrying away both adults and offspring.

Closer to home Clockwise from top left: army ants create a large suspended bridge using their bodies as the structure. Those not part of the bridge carry the larvae across it during an emigration; several

submajors team up to transport a large katydid leg; an ant chain helps form the scaffolding of the bivouac; when an ant finds a gap in the trail, it will plug it with its own body, so others can cross.

An army ant hunting swarm is one of the greatest spectacles of the natural world.

December 2020

E. burchellii hunting swarms also enter homes and buildings – something I’ve witnessed on several occasions – but their visits are not always unwelcome. These ants offer a pest control service that is highly efficient, involves no toxic chemicals and comes entirely free of charge.

In the wake of the onslaught, the ant traffic collapses into thin streams that ultimately coalesce into a thick, booty-laden base column. Along this, in the opposite direction, a constant succession of new warriors hurries to join the fight. This multilane, contra-directional ant highway meanders across the rainforest floor for over 100m, retracing the trajectory of the day’s raid.

One of the things you notice when observing this species, is that the ants come in different forms, shapes and colours.

The soldiers are the largest, sporting conspicuous, ivory-coloured heads with menacing, sabre-shaped mandibles. They don’t attack or carry prey; their only function is to defend the colony – a task they perform BBC Wildlife

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If a prey item is too large and heavy for one individual, the ants work co-operatively. masterfully. A soldier anchors its mandibles into your skin, then uses the leverage to drive in the stinger and inject its venom.

So strong are its jaws that they have been used as sutures in traditional medicine.

The soldiers are lined up over a wound, and, once their mouthparts are fastened on both sides, their bodies are clipped off.

Second in line are the submajors: a specialised, uniformly brown porter caste.

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sling large, bulky objects under their bodies.

If a prey item is too large and heavy for one individual, the ants work co-operatively, with several teaming up to transport anything big and bulky. Research has shown that these teams are ‘superefficient’ – able to collectively carry heavier loads than team members can individually.

While the soldiers and submajors are arguably the most striking members of the workforce, they are in the minority.

By far the most numerous are the regular workers, with dark heads and thoraxes, which come in a range of sizes. They are not as menacing as the soldiers, but they, too, bite and sting. Once, studying a colony in Venezuela, high in a tree, several dozen rained down on me. I brushed most of them off, but was still twitching in pain an hour later as yet another straggler made its presence felt.

Army ants’ propensity for teamwork goes far beyond hunting and collective carrying.

Working together, they are masters of living architecture, like insect Lego. When an ant stumbles into a small gap along a trail, it remains in place as long as traffic is high, using its body as a pothole plug. If the gap is too large for a single ant, others will join it to form a bridge, adjusting the width, length and position of their construction dynamically in response to the flow of ants.

Similarly, when ants are travelling over thin branches, individuals assemble into flanges that widen the path.

Early naturalists attributed these collective phenomena to the ants’ reasoning powers, but more recent research has shown that this elaborate coordination is instead achieved via some simple local rule – or set of rules – that translates into largeDecember 2020

ARMY ANTS

Dinner guests Army ant colonies are desirable for many other animals and some have figured out how to crack the ants’ defence and to hustle their share of the colony’s riches – either eating the ants’ food, or preying on the ants and their brood themselves. The adaptations of these social parasites, which evade, deceive, and exploit the ants, are astounding.

THE ROVE BEETLE ECITOPHYA SIMULANS

Clockwise from far left: army ants overwhelm a katydid; an emigration column of ants relocating, carrying their larvae as they go; soldiers, with sabre-like mandibles often guard these columns; army ant queens are rare.

scale behavioural correlations. ‘Don’t move while your nest-mates are walking over you’ seems to be one such rule.

Home bodies With perseverance and a bit of luck, you might be able to follow an ant trail to its source – and herein lies the architects’ masterpiece. Unlike most ants, army ants do not construct permanent nests in the soil.

Instead, they assemble into constructions made up entirely of their own bodies, known

December 2020

as ‘bivouac nests’. In E. burchellii, these dwellings are entirely above ground, often suspended from logs or the base of large trees, and can measure up to a metre across.

The design is supreme. Ants that form chains and meshes by connecting little hooks on their feet are the scaffolding of the structure. Passageways and brood chambers, where the smallest workers care for the young, are all lined by interlinked bodies.

In the sultriness of midday, the ants loosen the fabric of their home, allowing ventilation.

In the cooler hours of the night, the bivouac tightens, trapping heat to provide an incubator for the developing young.

During the many months I have spent in the field, I have seen more than 100 of these encampments – one I remember especially vividly. We had been tracking a colony of Eciton hamatum, a close relative of E. burchellii, for a few days.

One night, the ants constructed their nest on the open forest floor,

lives exclusively in the colonies of E. burchellii.

It not only looks like an ant, it also smells like one. The beetle achieves its disguise from the ants by frequently grooming them and transferring their signature surface chemicals to its own body.

THE CLOWN BEETLE NYMPHISTER KRONAUERI, a social parasite of the army ant Eciton mexicanum, hitchhikes to new nests by attaching its mandibles to an ant’s waist. The beetle retracts its head and folds its legs into grooves on its underside to evade attack.

THE FEATHERWING BEETLE CEPHALOPLECTUS MUS can be found with several army ant species.

It often rides on the ants during colony relocations and has a smooth, drop-shaped body that is impossible for the ants to grasp.

THE BIZARRE MITE MACROCHELES RETTENMEYERI attaches to the feet of the army ant Eciton dulcium to suck hemolymph.

The mite’s hind legs are shaped like, and take over the function of, the claws the ants use to assemble into chains during bivouac formation.

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Their successful predatory lifestyle has forced them to become nomadic and move on to new hunting grounds.

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A raiding column heads out on manoeuvres.

Right: Daniel's ‘ant cathedral’ photo was among the 2019 Wildlife Photographer of the Year winners.

December 2020

ARMY ANTS

against a fallen branch and two large leaves.

The resulting structure resembled a cathedral with three naves, the ants streaming in and out like tourists visiting St Paul’s. It was a monumental piece of architecture.

Looting and shooting But why would army ants prefer such an ephemeral nest? The answer is that their successful predatory lifestyle has forced them to become nomadic. There is no use looting a village that has just been sacked – instead, you must move on to new hunting grounds.

And what could be more convenient for a wandering tribe than an encampment requiring no building materials?

Relocations begin in the evening, at dusk.

Increasing excitement emanates from inside the bivouac, and the returning hunting party is reversed by workers pushing out from the nest. Soon, traffic flow is entirely outbound, and the bivouac melts away. Somewhere in the dark night of the rainforest, along the route of the preceding raid, a new bivouac assembles, to which the ants carry their larvae and provisions, accompanied by a potpourri of fantastic house guests.

Eventually, the queen’s entourage appears.

The single queen lays all the eggs and is by far the largest and most essential member of the society. Without her, the colony would be doomed. During the nightly emigration, she is almost always surrounded by a protective shield of soldiers.

Army ant queens are quite different from the queens of your standard ant. Not only are they enormous, they never grow wings. Most other ant species send out many young queens on mating flights – the December 2020

larger, winged individuals you sometimes see in spring. Once inseminated, the young queens shed their wings, dig a hole in the ground and lay their first eggs to start a new colony. This slowly grows over the years, until it reaches a size at which it produces new queens. This reproductive strategy doesn’t work for army ants, because a tiny incipient army would certainly fail. Instead, large army ant societies split in two, and each selects a queen. Army ant queens are among the rarest of all insects, and never leave the safety of their colony.

The downside of not being able to fly is that army ants cannot disperse across unsuitable terrain. For example, genetic research has shown that rivers pose

insurmountable barriers. This implies that the rampant habitat fragmentation we see today poses a serious threat to army ants, which in turn will affect the diversity of prey populations and the many species that rely on these ants to make a living. If we want to conserve these incredible ants and their array of associates, we must ensure that their processions through the tropical rainforests of the world can proceed unimpeded.

DANIEL KRONAUER is associate professor at The Rockefeller University in New York City, and author of Army Ants: Nature's Ultimate Social Hunters (Harvard University Press, £47.65).

When teamwork goes awry That no individual in an army ant colony knows what the group should be doing is best demonstrated by so-called ‘ant mills’, or ‘death spirals’. During heavy tropical downpours, clusters of ants can become trapped on featureless, man-made surfaces, such as paved roads. Once the rain has ended, the ants hesitantly venture out while depositing trail pheromone. But because the

‘Death spirals’ occur when the ants lose their pheromone trails and end up navigating themselves into a deadly never-ending game of follow the leader.

rain has washed away the earlier trail, they quickly turn back. As trail pheromone builds up around the cluster, the ants begin to walk in a circle, blindly following each other, sometimes

until they die of exhaustion.

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Aerial: scotlandbigpicture.com

Above: today, the farm is known as Ballintean Mountain Lodge and sits within a 120-acre rewilding reserve. Left: a small herd of Highland cattle provides natural grazing at Ballintean, improving biodiversity.

Below and right: visitors can enjoy spotting wildlife on the doorstep – including pine martens and badgers.

Highland

FLING

A conservation photographer and rewilding advocate recounts his 25-year story of transforming a traditional Highland farm into a nature-focused getaway.

Words and photos by Peter Cairns

REWILDING

t was summer 1994 when, with a gleaming property brochure in my hand and apprehension running riot in my stomach, I drove up a windy, wooded glen shadowed by towering Scots pines. When the trees petered out, Ballintean Farm came into view – its yard littered with dilapidated caravans and an eclectic mix of rusty machinery.

I had no idea what I’d expected, but this wasn’t it. An hour or so later, I thanked the farmer for showing me around but told him: “It’s too big, too much money and too much work.” I was glad to drive away.

Six months later, I moved in.

I spent the first 15 years of my working life trawling Britain’s motorways driving trucks. Chomping on endless chocolate bars, I had plenty of time to reflect on the world and my place within it. As the years rolled by, a growing unease set in.

I started to resent the injustice around our relationship with nature and, eventually, I knew I could no longer be a bystander.

I made the decision to turn a passing interest in nature photography into a profession. I knew the Highlands would be the backdrop, but the reality was that I parachuted into a remote Cairngorms glen – with my wife, six-month-old baby and two

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dogs – with very little idea of what life ahead looked like.

The morning after the move, our nearest neighbour called by. She owned the farm next door and no doubt wondered what these wet-behind-the-ears newcomers were all about. We stood watching the clouds scud across the mountains. “You’d never get tired of that view,” I reflected. “Aye, but yer cannae pay the bills with a view.” Her dismissive tone was a jolt, then, as I pointed to a young roebuck crossing the river, her next response was a dagger through my heart. “And the only animals worth much are those you can eat.” I smiled politely, but in that instant, I knew my life’s work was to prove her wrong.

Ballintean nestles in Glenfeshie, on the western edge of the Cairngorms National

Incessant grazing pressure from large deer herds meant our efforts were constantly thwarted.

Above: the dramatic landscape of the Cairngorms. Top right: crested tits nest nearby. Right and bottom right:

the farm has been transformed – both the building and its surroundings – over the years, helping to bring back nature.

Park. In 1994, it comprised 52ha of closecropped grassland alongside the River Feshie, one of the most dynamic river systems in Europe. The Feshie’s potential for flash flooding was manifested in the number of old fences strewn across the riverbed. But these looked like part of the natural landscape compared to the abandoned cars that lay partially buried in the gravel.

Thwarted by deer For years, the farm had been used as a riding centre, and when we moved in, the ground supported nearly 70 horses.

The gravelly soils of the river floodplain were grazed bare and, one summer night, when I counted 92 red deer in the field, I understood that we had become custodians of a fast-food restaurant for the local grazers, both wild and domestic.

With the horses gone, we tentatively started planting native trees, but the December 2020

REWILDING

incessant grazing pressure from large deer herds meant our efforts were constantly thwarted – nothing made it above knee height. Our neighbour peered down from her tractor, shaking her head.

“The only way to get trees growing here is behind a fence.” Having spent months uprooting miles of rusty stock fencing around the farm, I wasn’t about to put it all back up.

Open for business Meanwhile, we set about fixing up the old farmhouse to live in, and a neighbouring cottage to rent out. The most challenging obstacle, however, was the renovation of a large stone steading to accommodate tourists. It took all of our money, most of our resolve and nearly our marriage, but on May 25, 1997, with our bank account empty and the paint still drying, the doors opened and in walked a group of birdwatchers. We were up and running.

December 2020

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REWILDING

Speyside Wildlife, a local birdwatching holiday provider, became regular users of what is now Ballintean Mountain Lodge, and were good enough to offer me some guiding work. As I sat on the summit of Cairngorm one spring, watching a male ptarmigan with a group of birders, I had one of those rare lightbulb moments.

One of the guests produced a monstrous telephoto lens and started crawling closer to nail his shot. It was obvious that the rest of the group, content to sit at a distance, weren’t happy. Here was an opportunity.

Fast forward 12 months and I’d jumped into a legal partnership with Mark Hamblin, an established wildlife photographer.

Photography tourism was barely a thing back then, but very quickly we were running nature photography tours around the world.

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Travel is a great educator and, in a few short years, my eyes and mind were opened to new landscapes and wildlife. I saw bears roaming the forests of Finland, wolves pulling down bison in North America, and thousands of cranes gathering on migration in Sweden. More importantly, I started to ‘read’ the landscapes I spent time in.

I learnt about vegetation succession, predator-prey dynamics and trophic cascades. I started to see Scotland very differently and realised that though its beauty and drama is undeniable, the abundance and diversity of its nature was severely impoverished.

Scotland’s ecological decline is largely unseen, even to people who live and work here. Unravelled by centuries of burning, draining, felling and overgrazing, millions of treeless acres now dominate the map.

Species that were once prolific now teeter on the edge, and invisible are the animals hunted to extinction – lynx, wolf, elk, crane, boar. It became apparent to me that our perception and understanding of Scotland’s ‘wild nature’ was severely skewed.

Shifting the balance

Juniper and gorse began smudging the hillsides and open glades. Ballintean came back to life.

In 2003, I got a call from Paul Lister, an eco-philanthropist who had recently bought Alladale Estate in Sutherland.

He wanted me to photograph the story around a massive programme of ecological restoration – reconnecting woodland, revitalising drained peatlands and reintroducing lost species. In parallel with Paul’s acquisition of Alladale, a hugely controversial and significant deer cull took December 2020

REWILDING

Rewilding Scotland There is a growing list of nature recovery projects across Scotland, which vary in size, approach and ambition. All however, share a vision of an ecologically richer future.

GLEN AFFRIC, HIGHLAND Rewilding work has been shaping this most magical of Scottish glens for over 60 years. The ancient, isolated pines that once saw wolves walk beneath them, are now surrounded by a new generation of trees, freed from the pressures of over-grazing and commercial extraction. Today, Glen Affric is part of a fledgling landscape-scale initiative to create a mosaic of rich habitats that will benefit nature, climate and people.

Cattle: Niall Benvie; oyster bed restoration: Eric Holden/Narwhal Expeditions; Glen Affric: Gary Williamson/Alamy

Top left: a badger forages in front of the farmhouse. Top right: hides come in handy when observing the resident wildlife and offer a bit of shelter during the worst of the winter weather.

Above: the seawilding project is restoring oyster beds on Loch Craignish. Left: the rewilded Glen Affric.

which would once have straddled watersheds across much of Scotland.

SEAWILDING, ARGYLL

CARRIFRAN, SCOTTISH BORDERS

DUNDREGGAN, HIGHLAND

The Carrifran Wildwood is an inspiring example of what can be achieved when a group of passionate individuals comes together. The story began at the turn of the century when a bare glen in the southern uplands was

This 10,000-acre estate is owned

by Scottish rewilding charity Trees for Life. A major element of the woodland restoration work at Dundreggan is the re-establishment of rare montane vegetation – dwarf birches, willows and alpine shrubs,

Above: the Allt Ruadh river flows through ancient woodland in Glenfeshie. Below: Peter introduced Highland cattle, giving them free rein to graze across the landscape.

place on Glenfeshie Estate, just a mile or so from Ballintean. These two events changed everything, The reduction in deer in Glenfeshie was brought about by long-term overgrazing impacting on the ability of native woodland – and its associated species – to regenerate. With no natural predators, deer had proliferated and for a long time, this was welcomed by the estate, its revenue and capital value primarily based on the number of deer that could be shot on its grounds. With deer numbers in the area reduced, however, our trees started to grow – not the meagre handful we’d planted, but on their own, December 2020

purchased to recreate an ecological oasis, a tapestry of native woodland, open glades and highaltitude vegetation. Today, the transformation stands like a beacon in this ecologically impoverished region.

in their hundreds and thousands. Birch and pine sprung from bare gravel banks, alder and willow took root along shingle bars in the river, and juniper and gorse began smudging the hillsides and open glades.

Suddenly Ballintean came back to life.

With the help of raptor legend Roy Dennis, we built an osprey platform, which was immediately occupied. Tawny owls, great-spotted woodpeckers and crested tits nested in our veteran trees; red squirrels started to use the emerging woodland corridors; redstarts, jays and

The principles of rewilding cannot stop at the shoreline. Seawilding is a community-led project to restore native oyster beds to Loch Craignish, and in so doing, promote the wider restoration of degraded coastal ecosystems. The first 60,000 oysters are now in the water, thanks to volunteers.

cuckoos flitted across the increasingly blurred lines between trees and grassland.

We introduced a small herd of Highland cattle to boost insect numbers, encourage seed dispersal and diversify the floodplain vegetation – they now graze across a wide, largely unfenced landscape. Scotch argus appeared in their droves in the damp glades that the cattle opened up. I started to see otter spraint along the burns, and pine martens – once the holy grail of wildlife sightings – are now nightly visitors to our accommodations, along with badgers.

The riverbed – once a wide eexpanse of bare shingle – has slowly become more complex, with deadwood creating pools w aand tree roots providing sshelter for young fish, while tthe river itself has been driven iinto myriad channels, slowing iits passage downstream.

And what magic wand did we wave to create this d pulse of life? None. We are p no doubt beneficiaries of n neighbouring landowners, n who for the most part, like w us, can see the potential in u rrestoring and reconnecting BBC Wildlife

51

Cairngorms Connect in numbers The project with a vision to enhance habitats and species across the National Park.

348ha of blanket bog restored.

114ha of Scots Pine plantation restructuring.

184ha of non-native conifers removed from forest.

550ha of new native woodland planting.

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December 2020

REWILDING

Left: Scotland is one of the few remaining strongholds for red squirrels in the UK. Peter’s rewilding efforts saw them use the area. Above:

raptor conservation specialist Roy Dennis helped Peter create the right conditions for ospreys. Right: a pine marten in Glenfeshie woodland.

this landscape, and are prepared to give nature some breathing space, some freedom to express itself and to forge its own outcomes. Ballintean sits on the edge of Cairngorms Connect, Britain’s biggest habitat restoration initiative, encompassing 600km of forest, river and mountain, a seamless landscape dedicated to wildlife.

It is rare in Scotland to find a number of landowners willing to collaborate around a shared vision, but in this part of the Cairngorms, and increasingly elsewhere, some remarkable results are being achieved.

Worthwhile venture Our tourism business continues to prosper with families and groups from all over the world coming to immerse themselves in the wild nature of the Cairngorms.

Photographers, walkers, cyclists, yoga enthusiasts – they all follow their chosen pursuit against the backdrop of a landscape in recovery. We began to invest the profits from tourism, not only in pushing forward our own rewilding efforts but those of others. We started to see that our business was part of a growing nature-based economy supporting local jobs and services and placing a tangible economic value on the restoration of wild nature.

The principles on which Ballintean has evolved is now known as rewilding, a bold vision to breathe new life into our damaged and degraded ecosystems. With the looming clouds of climate breakdown and global biodiversity loss, we have to reimagine our relationship with nature; we have to learn coexistence and inter-dependence. The recent pandemic has brought into sharp focus both the dangers of over-exploiting the December 2020

More than anything, rewilding is a social and cultural process – it’s about winning hearts and minds. complex tapestry of nature, but also, our dependence on a world rich in life.

Promoting the benefits of a rewilded Scotland has become my world. The past three decades have, I hope, equipped me with ecological knowledge but, more importantly, I have learned a lot about people, their motivations, priorities and values. Rewilding might be seen as a physical process, but it relies on people seeing opportunity in a different approach to land management. More than anything, rewilding is a social and a cultural process – it’s about winning hearts and minds.

My neighbour died several years ago, and I regret not being able to talk with her about rewilding, and to try and dispel the notion of nature as purely a decoration.

I think she believed that the Highlands

couldn’t comfortably accommodate both nature and people.

Today, Ballintean is home to an expanding programme of rewilding retreats run

by Scotland: The Big Picture – a charity that advocates for rewilding. I hope that our small Highland farm provides an environment for a fun, fulfilling and inspirational guest experience, but that we also demonstrate the economic and social case for an ecologically restored landscape – to prove that the view, and the animals within it, can pay the bills.

The success of what we’ve worked for will not be measured in my lifetime, but when this fragment of the Highlands sits within a nationwide network of vibrant communities full of young families, who see that their needs are linked to the diversity and abundance of the nature around them.

PETER CAIRNS co-founded conservation media projects such as Tooth & Claw, Wild Wonders of Europe and 2020Vision. Peter is now Director of rewilding charity Scotland: The Big Picture.

FIND OUT MORE Rewilding in Scotland: scotlandbigpicture.com Visit the Cairngorms: ballintean.co.uk BBC Wildlife

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LAST JUNGLE RHINO OF THE

Words and photos by Toby Nowlan

Concealed within Java’s dense tropical forest, the world’s rarest rhino remains a mystery to most. With only a few dozen left, the race is on to learn more about these seldom seen creatures.

The shy Javan rhino is a Critically Endangered species, whose range has been reduced to one Indonesian island.

JAVAN RHINO

e’re woken with a jolt by panicked shouting in the forest. When the commotion is followed by thunderous crashing just outside our tent, we’re well and truly pulled from our jetlagged slumber. It’s 4am in the Javanese jungle – we arrived and made camp just a few hours ago, exhausted after an eight-hour trek. Pulling on our junglewear, expedition partner Kyle McBurnie and I cautiously head out to investigate.

We find Chenglus, our expert tracker, sitting by the campfire looking dazed and unnerved – his mouth hanging open in shock as he slowly shakes his head. I gently ask what’s happened. Chenglus tells me that he made a small fire on the beach by the lagoon next to our makeshift camp and slept there, until he was woken by a furious snorting sound, as a bull rhino the size of a small car charged out of the darkness towards him.

He believes the rhino had seen the fire from the forest and wanted to take a closer look (perhaps out of territorial defiance, perhaps sheer curiosity), entering the lagoon and wading across its breadth. When the animal was within a few metres of Chenglus, it finally noticed him, turned to flee and crashed into the forest close to camp.

Chenglus has more experience with Javan rhinos in the wild than perhaps anyone else alive, yet he’d never known anything

Aerial: Kyle McBurnie

W

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I spent weeks searching the forest where these rhinos live, to no avail.

They’re almost mythical. like this. To put this unlikely event into context, the Javan rhinoceros is the rarest large land mammal on Earth. The global population stands at about 70 individuals, and they all live in one forest on the island of Java, Indonesia.

Stomping ground Once enjoying a vast distribution across most of Asia, as far west as India and as far north as China – in habitats ranging from the highest volcanic peaks to the lowest mangrove swamps – the rhino’s home has been shrinking for 3,000 years.

Wars, habitat loss and trophy hunting were initially to blame for the rhino’s demise, until about 100 years ago when it faced a booming appetite for its horn.

Rhino horn has the same chemical makeup as fingernails and hair, yet gram-for-gram is now more valuable than diamonds. The species’ horn was historically sought after in Asia as a treatment for anything from cancer to snakebite, but nowadays it’s being used as

Top left: the island of Java. Top right: giant palms populate Ujung Kulon National Park. Right: rhinos are hard to find amid the tangle of vegetation.

a supposed cure for hangovers – hunting is pushing rhino species to the brink.

The Javan rhino clung to existence in Vietnam until 2010, when the last individual (an old female) was found with her horn hacked off in her remote forest home. The Vietnamese rhinos were a different subspecies, and her death sealed the extinction of her kind.

There have been no Javan rhinos in captivity for more than 100 years, and very few images exist of the species, so it’s not surprising that we know less about this rhino than any other. Few humans have ever set eyes on a Javan rhino in the wild, due to their extreme rarity and shyness, and the impenetrable nature of their habitat. Last year, I spent weeks searching the dense forest where they live, to no avail. They’re almost mythical.

Java’s Ujung Kulon National Park – a jungle of giant palms on a tsunamibattered peninsula in the shadow of Krakatoa – is the rhino’s only remaining stronghold. It is a rare example of a nearDecember 2020

JAVAN RHINO

Quick, take a picture How photo-ID helps researchers understand and protect species.

Most of the information required to conserve species – from population and range size to movement patterns and nutritional health – relies on recognising individuals. Historically this has required capturing and handling animals, but that can be especially problematic when working with the world’s rarest species – there are very few individuals, they’re often extremely shy, and they typically live in remote areas. Photo-ID is now widely used as an effective, less-invasive way of distinguishing individuals.

As a result of photo-ID efforts since 1980, an image catalogue now exists for most of the remaining 300 North Atlantic right whales. It’s provided much of our knowledge about the species’ population and habits – informing its conservation.

December 2020

Every wrinkle and scar tells a tale, and helps identify individuals.

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JAVAN RHINO

On the trail of a legend With Chenglus recovered from his startling encounter on the beach, we set off on our first river transect in the dark, paddling as slowly and silently as possible. After working our way upstream by torchlight for an hour or so, pushing through curtains of vines and rafts of fallen debris from the canopy, Meetha (who I’m sharing a canoe with) freezes. He pats my shoulder and points into the blackness at what appears to be a log, floating motionlessly under the cover of an overhanging tree.

As we drift a little closer, the log acquires a new shape – it’s wide and round at one end and tapered to a narrow tip at the other.

A jet of wet air erupts from the tapered end, making it look and sound exactly like a surfacing whale. I realise that 8m in front of us is a living, breathing Javan rhinoceros – a myth no more.

Two saucer-like ears rotate in opposite directions. The body is armoured like a

tank with segmented plates – these are formed by thick folds of skin that shift as the animal moves.

We’re downwind of him, so he hasn’t picked up our scent – which is lucky, considering that all rhino species use their exceptional sense of smell to detect approaching danger, picking up chemical cues from a great distance. I slowly raise my lens and start to shoot, capturing its wrinkled face and small, neat horn.

It continues to bathe in front of us for 10 minutes or so, before climbing out and melting into the wall of vegetation that rises out of the riverbank. We wait for a while in silent, jubilant disbelief at what we have witnessed, as we hear it trundle off through the jungle, palms cracking as they buckle under its weight.

Close-up encounters Back at camp, we review the images. The rhino’s small, grey horn, compact head and relatively un-wrinkled face indicate to the trackers that this is a young male, perhaps eight years old (only male Javan rhinos have horns, and they are the smallest horns of all five rhino species). These features should make this male easy to identify in any other images we obtain – a promising start for photo-ID. We can also see he doesn’t look malnourished and appears in good health.

This exciting start fills us with hope for the weeks ahead, but working in tropical rainforest during the wet season comes with conditions – one of which is rain, lots of it, most of the time. We lose almost every other day on the river to torrential downpours, which flood the entire camp and plague us with swarms of biting flies.

Empty weeks of waiting and searching go by until one morning, just after sunrise, we paddle around a bend in the river, squeezing our canoes through a screen of fallen bamboo, and land almost on top of an enormous male rhino sitting in the middle of the channel. We’re only a few metres from him, yet he doesn’t flinch – rhinos have terrible eyesight and, luckily, we’re downwind again, so he can’t smell our approach. He appears to be enjoying his bath, snorting and puffing with his

The rhino continues to bathe in front of us, before climbing out and melting into the wall of vegetation.

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Top left: only the males are adorned with a horn.

Top right: expert tracker Chenglus.

Right: waterways provide access through Java’s dense forest.

Aerial: Kyle McBurnie

pristine wilderness somehow enduring on the most populated island (there are more than 140 million residents) on the planet.

We are in Ujung Kulon to determine whether we can survey the rhinos using photo-identification. If we can identify individual rhinos from photos – based on differences in their horns, wrinkles on their faces, scars and ear notches – and manage to photograph them multiple times, we could learn much about the remaining population’s ecology and life history, and how best to protect it.

Working with hugely knowledgeable rhino trackers (Chenglus Wahab and Meetha Kamita), our plan is to navigate the tangled river channels that wind deep into the rhinos’ core range.

Rhinos are (perhaps surprisingly) sensitive to overheating and sun damage – every day, they seek fresh water to cool down and mud to apply as sunscreen.

For this reason, we believe they may be using the channels to bathe and wallow.

Travelling by canoe on the water should be less disturbing than tramping through dense forest on foot, boosting our chances of seeing a rhino… in theory.

December 2020

JAVAN RHINO

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eyes closed, only his head and back bulging above the water surface. In the daylight, I see he has the same bulky size, rounded shape and purplish skin of a hippo.

We photograph all parts of his face in great detail – every ear tuft and skin notch, wrinkle and scar, and capture each part of his giant, plated head as he adjusts his position. His large, ridged horn indicates he is an older male. He has a unique bright pink scar behind his left ear – a skin lesion caused by a fungal parasite, the trackers tell me. He has a long, triangular front lip that hangs over a narrow, conical jaw.

This allows him to effectively grasp leaves from bushes and trees – the Javan rhino is a browser (unlike the wide-mouthed white rhino that grazes on the African savannahs).

After a 20-minute dip, the rhino rolls himself towards the water’s edge, heaving his bulk through the mud and up onto the bank, revealing the scale of his body.

I photograph the articulating plates of skin that bunch around the neck, hindquarters and knees until he picks up our scent and barrels off through the thicket of palms.

Having turned back, we are still several miles from home base when our canoe snags on a vine and punctures. Starting to take on water, we urgently paddle for camp, to avoid the resident saltwater crocodiles.

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Starting to take on water, we urgently paddle for camp, to avoid the resident saltwater crocodiles.

After patching up the canoe, days of paddling go by and the closest we come to a rhino is a wet mud-streak where one has recently slid down the riverbank. The only living mammal we actually see is a deer the size of a large rabbit (the endemic Java mouse deer), nibbling at the undergrowth.

Make me a match And then our luck changes. After heading upstream, we come across a large male rhino snoring loudly in the mud at the river’s edge. After photographing him in detail, we analyse the images and note many features that match the animal we’d photographed four days earlier – it’s the same rhino! The encounter provides the first evidence that we can use photo-ID to effectively identify individuals and help survey the species.

Above: once found across Asia – from Myanmar and Thailand to Cambodia and Vietnam – the Javan rhino is down to its last stronghold.

Working in hot, wet jungles also means high infection risk, and when I lacerate my foot on a submerged rock, we have to evacuate to the nearest town before it turns septic. This means an early end to the expedition, but not before we secure detailed images of four different rhinos across five sightings – each animal distinctly identifiable, providing the clearest photographic record of the species and, we hope, the basis for a lasting photo-ID catalogue of individuals.

The Javan rhino may be the most endangered large mammal on the planet.

Habitat encroachment due to a growing human population at the edge of the national park and the spread of an invasive Arenga palm (which reduces the area available for rhinos to feed) have put new pressures on the species. With all December 2020

JAVAN RHINO AT A G L A NC E | I N D ON E SI A’S R A R E R H I NOS

Sumatran rhino: Mark Carwardine/Getty

remaining individuals in a single forest, their final stronghold is also extremely vulnerable to disease and natural disaster.

Fears that tsunamis caused by Krakatoa’s near-constant eruptions could wipe out the species at a stroke have provoked plans to capture and relocate animals elsewhere, forming a second population (though these are currently on hold).

Being cooped up together does, however, mean that, unlike many other Critically Endangered mammals (including the Sumatran rhino), these animals can easily find each other, promoting gene flow and limiting inbreeding. Additionally, the rhino’s only home is intact and so well protected by patrol units that poaching has not been recorded for nearly two decades, despite the rising demand for rhino horn.

In short, the species is not beyond help.

By uncovering more about its mysterious life, perhaps we can still ensure a future for the elusive, one-horned, jungle rhino.

TOBY NOWLAN is a naturalist and writer. He’s planning more photo-ID work for 2021. His expedition was in co-operation with the Indonesian National Park Service. It was supported by the Transglobe Expedition Trust and Fairlie Healthcare.

December 2020

JAVAN RHINO

SUMATRAN RHINO

Rhinoceros sondaicus

Dicerorhinus sumatrensis

SIZE

Up to 4m in length, 1.4–1.7m high.

Up to 3m in length, 1–1.5m high.

WEIGHT

900–2,300kg

500–950kg

POPULATION

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IUCN STATUS

Critically Endangered

Critically Endangered

HABITAT

Mosaic of lowland tropical forest with open grassy glades.

Dense tropical forest in both highlands and lowlands.

HORNS

Has the smallest front horn of all living rhinos. One of only two living rhino species to have one horn (the other being the Indian rhino). Horn length usually less then 20cm but can be up to 27cm. Females are hornless.

The only Asian rhino with two horns, its front horn length is 25–80cm, while its rear horn length is less than 10cm.

LIFESPAN

Estimated average in the wild: 30–40 years.

Estimated average: 35 years.

BREEDING

Females thought to give birth to a single calf every 3–5 years. Age of sexual maturity thought to be 5–6 years for females and 10 years for males (this is based on the Indian rhino).

Females thought to give birth to a single calf every 3–5 years. Age of sexual maturity is estimated at 6–7 years for females and 10 years for males.

BEHAVIOUR

Dung heaps or ‘middens’ act as communication hubs. These rhino drag one hindfoot, scenting a scrape with secretions from the foot glands.

No known use of twisted sapling visual markers (as used by Sumatran rhinos).

Several snorting, ‘bleating’ and ‘neighing’ sounds reported, but this species is far less vocal than the Sumatran rhino.

A very vocal species, it produces many whistling and whining noises. These rhinos also use dung middens as communication hubs and will scratch their hind feet in dung after defecating then throw it over bushes to spread the scent. It also marks trails with faeces and urine. Scrapes soil and twists and breaks saplings to act as visual cues (perhaps to mark territories).

DISTRIBUTION

Gunung Leuser National Park

JAVAN RHINO The three subspecies of Javan rhino once occurred across a vast area of Asia.

Rhinoceros sondaicus inermis disappeared from India, Bangladesh and Myanmar a century ago, while the last R. s. annamiticus was found poached in Vietnam, in 2010.

Just R. s. sondaicus now survives and only in Java.

SUMATRAN RHINO Two out of the three subspecies remain. Northern Sumatran rhino, once distributed across Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar, are now presumed extinct. There are 2–15 Bornean rhinos surviving in Kalimantan. While western Sumatran rhinos now survive solely on the island.

East Kalimantan E

SUMATRA BORNEO

Bukit Barisan National Park

Way Kambas National ational Park JAVA Ujung Kulon National Park

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Dreaming of a

wild Christmas

If you’re prepared to wrap up warm, and know where to look, the last month of the year can offer surprising wildlife riches.

Words by Dominic Couzens | Illustrations by Shelly Perkins 64

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t’s nearly December. The madness of Christmas is upon us, the light is hardly light at all, and the days are becoming apologetically short. The countryside seems to sleep under frost or gloom.

Many nature lovers resign themselves dolefully to the indoors, assuming that there isn’t much to see, other than reindeer, holly and mistletoe (and robins wearing hats).

A year or two back, I felt the December doldrums approaching as usual, but then a thought struck me: is this month really so bad for wildlife watching, other than the odd starling roost? Is there anything that is at its best in the last month of the year? Is everything sleeping, hiding or laying low, or is it just wildlife watchers who do this?

Are there hidden riches in December, ones that we might not expect? What about rockpooling, for example? What might be hiding in fresh water? And how about fungi and mosses? There are always birds about, but what about mammals?

After some quick research and a few begging emails and calls (it was late November) I decided to juggle the upcoming craziness of December with a wildlife challenge, based in my home county of Dorset. I would try to look for as many types of birds, flowers, lichens, insects and so on, as I could, aided by as many experts as could

I

December 2020

DECEMBER WILDLIFE

The gem anemone just looks like an alien invented by a movie producer.

spare the time at short notice.

To take what would hopefully be a realistic target, I would aim for 500 species.

An early start The first day of December dawned cold, dull and damp, as only this month can.

I opened the curtains and duly recorded a silver birch, pedunculate oak and ivy in the garden; a crow flew over and a grey squirrel chattered in irritated fashion. Naturally, a robin hopped across the lawn. Three plants, two birds and a mammal – the challenge was underway. Just 494 ‘things’ to go.

I kicked off with a morning of rockpooling at Kimmeridge Bay, on the Jurassic Coast.

My contact was Steve Trewhella – an author and expert in marine and shoreline plants and animals – a man who makes a rockpool sound as thrilling as a jungle. The day was so sepulchral grey that the sky and sea seemed to meld into each other, and the waves lapped disinterestedly over the shoreline boulders.

The pools, though, shimmered with life.

“This is a flat periwinkle,” proclaimed Steve, sounding as though he was making a coffee order, pointing at a collection of small ovoid shells – some the colour of earwax, others pink, all adhering to the rocks. The pools produced a satisfying surge of mollusc December 2020

sightings – rough periwinkle, grey top shell, limpets, common periwinkles, a delightfully spiralled dog whelk and some smart, conical Cingula trifasciata, which looked like tiny ice-cream cones – vanilla with orange stripes.

We saw several seaweeds, too.

The jewels in the rockpool were the sea anemones, small but menacing, each a tentacular death ray. There were red beadlet anemones, deadly snakelocks anemone pretending to be a gentle seaweed, and gem anemone (say that after a Christmas cocktail), which just looks like an alien invented by a movie producer.

A couple of hours in Steve’s company was more than enough to prove that the seashore is alive and kicking in the midst of December.

It simply isn’t the season that most people head outdoors to look. I ended the first of the month with more than 80 species in the bank.

A week later found me back at the seaside, but this time on the slopes above the Jurassic Coast, on the chalk downland and woodland of Durlston Country Park, near Swanage.

Today’s enthusiasts were members of the British Bryological Society, and we were looking for mosses and liverworts. I soon discovered, though, that bryologists are never purely bryologists – everybody was interested in everything, from lichens to birds to beetles. The mosses formed the soft underbelly of universal fascination.

Ideal conditions Britain, it turns out, is something of a bryophytic nirvana, with internationally important moss communities and almost a tenth of the world’s species. Our damp climate is a boon, because mosses need a film of water for reproduction. They thrive in the damp BBC Wildlife

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DECEMBER WILDLIFE BECOME A PANNSPECIES LISTERR conditions of December – their sweet spot.

We quickly found 30 species.

On the same trip, our enthusiasts identified several species of lichens. These are symbiotic associations between fungi and either algae or cyanobacteria, and they grow everywhere from tree trunks to stone walls – there are often exciting species on gravestones (see p18). Lichens look the same year-round, and Britain is once again a lichenologist’s dream.

Apparently, a top-class operative can nab you about 500 species in a single day.

I couldn’t find a lichenologist with free time but, the day after the moss quest, I found myself on a fungi foray in the New Forest, with the exceptional mycologist Malcolm Storey as my guide. Mycologists and bryologists are both all-rounders in the biological sciences cricket team, so he was as delighted as I was to flush a woodcock from the fungi-rich undergrowth as we searched, while bramblings flew helpfully overhead.

(As an experienced birder, I had already notched up 70 species or so.) One of the first fungi we found was almost a bird, a mass of turkey tail covering a tree stump. This bracket fungus is named after the coloured concentric bands across it, which fancifully resemble the tail of a turkey.

December is well beyond the peak autumnal time for fungi, but Malcolm assured me that a whole day’s searching can yield 100 or more species. In one of the prime spots

in Britain, in the light rain, the soil smelling heavy and mulchy, we easily managed 32 in just a morning. We found a glistening inkcap, an artist’s bracket and a snapping bonnet, which wouldn’t sound out of place in a studio, plus a wrinkled crust, a butter cap and a bitter oysterling. One innocent-looking fungus, a petite mushroom with an orange cap, turned out to be a funeral bell. It was exciting to peer closely at something packed with enough toxins to kill you.

Net profit Having survived my brush with death, and now armed with a list of about 300 ‘things,’ my next assignment was freshwater ecology or, to give it a less glamorous title, ponddipping. My guide was ecological consultant Robert Aquilina and his chosen location was some floodlands along the River Avon.

His impressive net was soon at work in the sluggish ditches and riverbanks.

It seemed weird to add a damselfly to my December tally, and still more so a mayfly.

Yet here they were in their work clothes – the mayfly like an aquatic earwig with three tails, and a banded demoiselle a little chunkier, but with well concealed killer jaws and

Some people spend their whole year looking for ‘things’ of all kinds. ds. The These naturalists call themselves pan-species listers. To them, a new slime-mould constitutes a great day. They might be specialists in mosses or birds, but they love all natural history and use their pan-species listing as an excuse to get into under-recorded groups such as spiders, flies or seaweeds. They tend to be assiduous in adding their observations to the official record.

They have a website brc.ac.uk/ psl, which is attached to that of the Biological Records Centre. Just for fun, they compete amongst themselves for the biggest list of ‘things’ seen in someone’s lifetime – it ranges from the low hundreds to 12,742 species (Jonty Denton) –extraordinary dedication to the listing equivalent of a fun run. Why not join them and enrich your own wildlife watching, by taking notice of the things that most people overlook?

It was confirmed as a swamp orb mussel, a rarity found at a handful of sites in the UK.

sharp claws. Both were like frogs waiting for a princess to kiss them in a few months’ time. It was hard to imagine the slim, leggy creature writhing in the net becoming a dancing damselfly, bouncing in the summer breeze like a slow-motion hummingbird.

As for Ephemera danica, its mating frenzies over the shimmering waters are proverbially brief, yet its existence is far from ephemeral underwater – lasting for two years.

Our pond-dipping proved productive. A leech called Erpobdella testacea was a good find, adding to my far-from-burgeoning annelid list, while bugs scored well – with the predatory trio of backswimmer, common water boatman and lesser water boatman. We found freshwater shrimps and a water hoglouse (an isopod, like a woodlouse.) Robert pointed out a wide range of aquatic plants and, for the first time this month, we encountered several fish. In the winter, many fish retreat to deeper waters December 2020

and are quite inactive, so it was generally a case of finding tiddlers – the three-spined stickleback, bullhead and minnow.

Towards the end of the trip, Robert peered at the bottom of his net and frowned. “A freshwater mussel, but which one is this?” he said. We had already clocked half a dozen snails. After some deliberation and puzzlement, he took some photos and shrugged. A month or two later, it was confirmed as a swamp orb mussel (Sphaerium nucleus), a rarity found only at a handful of sites in the UK. It is amazing what you can discover during a December pond dip.

Going on a plant hunt By now I was close to my goal, and I had a feeling that a botanical blitz would get me over the 500 line. It was only 17 December. I met up with two of the most talented botanistcum-writers in Britain, Bob Gibbons and Peter Marren, on a warm, gentle morning with pretensions of sunshine. The only previous occasion I had botanised with Peter, he had spent considerable time quoting Shakespeare, so I knew it would be entertaining.

Sure enough, a whistle-stop tour through the Purbeck heartlands made the botany

soar. One of the many talents of experienced plant enthusiasts is to forsake those tacky ornaments known as flowers, and use the vegetative parts instead. Every metre of turf examined yielded something new, a Devil’s-bit scabious here, a pale butterwort there. They are magicians, these readers of leaves, berries and nuts, faded stems and vegetative scrap.

Somehow, Bob and Peter eked out grasses and sedges in droves, using arcane clues and years of experience. On the Purbeck moors, we encountered all three species of sundews, a bladderwort and the odd pondweed.

Some plants, of course, were in flower.

December holds greater riches than you could possibly expect. The Botanical Society of the British Isles holds the New Year Plant Hunt on the last three days of December every year and has encountered over 600 species in bloom in the wild state.

Our winter’s tale was over by lunch – an oak marble gall was the last catch of the day, number 522 of the month. “What are you going to do now?” asked Bob. “Enjoy Christmas,” I replied.

I did, too. In the following days, I added dribs and drabs, the odd spider (there are eight species you can get indoors), several moths plus a sika deer and a field vole. As the light faded on 31 December, the last thing I saw was an otter on the weir at Blandford Forum. For the first time ever, I was sorry that the month was over.

DOMINIC COUZENS is a British birder, author and journalist specialising in avian and natural history subjects: birdwords.co.uk BBC Wildlife

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Phantom Photo story

Elusive and enigmatic, the Eurasian lynx haunts Switzerland’s Jura Mountains.

Neil Villard has made it his life’s work to capture this spectral species.

Photographer Neil Villard

The Eurasian lynx, which, as its name suggests, has a broad range extending across Europe and Asia, has had a turbulent history in Switzerland – hunted to extinction by the early 20th century, then reintroduced in the 1970s. Nearly 50 years on, this solitary, elusive cat clings on in the Jura Mountains, threatened by loss of habitat and prey, road collisions and poaching.

Captivated by the species since childhood, Neil spent three years seeking this phantom feline, eventually sighting one in winter 2012. It was another three years before he managed to capture a quality image. Since then, spending up to 60 hours a week in the forest, Neil has come to know four individuals well.

of the

forest

PHOTO STORY EURASIAN LYNX

Lynx live in high-altitude forests.

They are particularly fond of steep areas with rocky ridges and escarpments that offer shelter away from human disturbance.

Prey species include roe deer (right) and chamois, but these cats are also opportunistic hunters – taking badgers, foxes and even wildcats.

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December 2020

PHOTO STORY EURASIAN LYNX

BELOW Many places inhabited by lynx provide a refuge for other fragile species, including the peregrine falcon, eagle owl and golden eagle (pictured). Golden eagles are rarely seen in Jura, but they are known to take advantage of lynx kills that are left out in the open.

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PHOTO STORY EURASIAN LYNX

The thick carpets of snow that blanket the Jura Mountains in winter pose no problems to a lynx. Its large, wide paws enable it to pad across the surface without sinking – fur on the bottom of its feet provides grip. Snow actually helps the species to hunt – the slender hooves of its deer prey sink easily, so it takes less effort to catch them.

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December 2020

PHOTO STORY EURASIAN LYNX

ABOVE A chamois can sustain a lynx for several days. After a kill, the cat will eat straightaway, “almost always starting with its favourite part – the hind leg,” says Neil. “When it has eaten its fill, it hides the remainder of the carcass with a covering of vegetation.”

LEFT Tracks in the snow are the easiest way to follow a lynx in this remote habitat.

“I also look out for snags of fur and scent-marks, and I use camera-traps,” says Neil. “But lynx are almost supernatural in their ability to disappear.”

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PHOTO STORY EURASIAN LYNX

Having been on the move for several hours, two seven-month-old cubs stop for a rest. Young are born in June, and by the age of two months are starting to follow their mother on hunting trips.

By eight months, they are almost as large as the female, leaving virtually identical tracks in the snow. At 10 months, as spring is rolling in, they disperse to seek territories of their own.

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December 2020

BELOW The range of a male lynx can vary between 150–400km .

The extent of forest cover and availability of prey determines the size of the territory. Sadly, the species is facing degradation of habitat across its range.

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PHOTO STORY EURASIAN LYNX

Switzerland’s lynx are in a critical situation. “The species belongs in this landscape,” says Neil. “Not only does it keep deer populations in check, but it also captures the imagination, awakening an interest in nature. For me, the lynx is the soul of the forest in which I grew up, a guardian of the wild, a fragile vestige of a changing world.”

NEIL VILLARD hails from the Swiss Jura. He works in chemical ecology and is also a part-time professional photographer. He is passionate about our large predators, devoting the past 10 years of his life to the Eurasian lynx.

S The diversity of

species here, with the historical poignancy and archaeological interest, make this a fascinating dive site.T

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December 2020

Behind the image

From wrecks to riches

by ALEX MUSTARD

2013

Sometimes destruction is just the start of the story, as with the SS Thistlegorm, now home to hundreds of marine species.

n 6 October 1941, the SS Thistlegorm was anchored in the Red Sea, awaiting passage to the Suez Canal.

It was the fourth voyage of her 18-month life – and would be her last. At 1.30am, the Sunderland-built steamer was bombed by two German Luftwaffe planes dispatched from Crete.

SS Thistlegorm was an enormous supply ship, packed with vehicles and equipment – including motorbikes, trucks, tanks, rifles, munitions and even two heavy steam engines – all destined for the British Eighth Army at Tobruk.

With the bombs landing in the ammo hold, the ship crumpled like a tin can, sinking in less than 10 minutes.

O ALEX MUSTARD is a leading underwater photographer who has worked in some of the world’s top diving sites. amustard.com

A new incarnation Nearly 80 years on, the ship’s ghostly remains nestle quietly on the seabed, with much of the cargo still intact – a moment of tragedy frozen in time and a memorial to the nine men who died.

Yet, life has sprung from the torn metal. With the passing decades, the ship has become a sanctuary for marine wildlife, her freight now encrusted with coral and swathed in anemones; her chambers shimmering with schools of colourful tropical fish. “Different species are attracted to different parts of the wreck,” says Alex. “Nocturnal feeders, such as soldierfish, hide away in the darkest crevices by day; batfish hang above deck, like dinner plates; turtles sleep in quiet corners. The diversity of species here, together with the historical poignancy and archaeological interest, make this a fascinating dive site.”

Thus Thistlegorm – today, one of the most popular dive locations in the world – continues in death as she did in life: a supply ship, but now she provides home and opportunity for marine creatures, her dark holds forming the largest cave system in the Red Sea. Sarah McPherson December 2020

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This month’s panel

GILLIAN BURKE

ED DREWITT

SA 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 K S O N

ALEX MORSS

L EO M A W I L L I A M S

Naturalist & TV presenter

Naturalist

Geneticist

Editorial consultant

Wildlife film-maker

Wildlife tour leader

Botanist

Science writer

We solve your wildlife mysteries.

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

Q&A A

Salamander: Gil Wizen/MYN/NPL; chimp: Getty; harebell: Nick Upton/NPL

ECOLOGY

Other than coral, do any animals photosynthesise? handful do. After grazing on algae, some sea slugs retain the chloroplasts (tiny photosynthetic structures) and these are engulfed by their own cells. They also assimilate some of the algal genes, enabling them to produce chlorophyll. The slugs have been recorded using the pilfered structures to sustain themselves for up to 10 months, earning them the nickname ‘solarpowered sea slugs’.

So far, only one vertebrate is known to have a comparable association with

A

algae – the spotted salamander. Soon after being laid, the salamander’s eggs are colonised by algae, which turn the gelatinous spheres green.

The algae appear to thrive on waste, such as ammonia produced by the developing salamander embryos, and in turn provide oxygen and carbon.

This enables the embryos to develop faster, increasing their survival rates.

The algae more or less disappear by the time the larvae hatch, so the partnership appears temporary.

Laurie Jackson

Left to right: spotted salamanders have a mutually beneficial relationship with algae; it’s war for the planet of the apes; harebells thrive in harsh conditions.

December 2020

Q&A

BEHAVIOUR

Do other animals have wars? he author John Steinbeck wrote “All war is a symptom of man’s failure as a thinking animal.” But are we the only species to go to war? While the vast scale of human conflict may be unparalleled, one could make an argument for simpler warfare among animals. Chimpanzee border patrols carry out often-lethal attacks on neighbouring communities.

From 1974 to 1978, Jane Goodall documented a ‘war’ between two

T

BOTANY

Why do some plants like heavy metal? ld quarries and mines can be so polluted that you might think these ex-industrial badlands were an ecological highway to hell.

But some extremist plants thrive among the eruption of poison, by switching on genes that lock heavy metals safely away inside roots, shoots or leaves.

At least 450 plant species can hyper-accumulate heavy metals, some in concentrations thousands of times higher than other plants.

The strategy helps them to outcompete those plants and to build defences against browsing

O

December 2020

animals, by means of chemical warfare. You might see a quiet riot of harebells at a former quarry, while a purple haze of bentgrass and arsenic-laden Yorkshire fog grass grows into the void.

Mine spoil is also a stairway to heaven for nickel-loaded metal maidens such as pennycress; the cadmium-junkie black nightshade; and some wild peas, daisies and figworts.

Alex Morss

chimp communities in Tanzania – a sustained violent conflict resulting in the destruction of one side. This seems to fit the definition of warfare.

At a micro level, ants will storm the nests of other colonies and take slaves.

Recent research has highlighted similar behaviour among populations of naked mole rats, too.

Whether or not it can be classed as ‘war’, animals fight over resources – territory, mates, food – not for reasons of religion, ideology or revenge. These unflattering tendencies seem to be unique to us. Leoma Williams

Q&A BOTANY

Why do leaves have so many different shapes? leaf’s job is to harvest light and carbon to make food as efficiently as it can, without getting scorched, frozen, dried, drowned, infected or eaten. That’s why shape, texture and thickness matter.

Snowflake trees surely take first prize for leaf complexity. Their broad leaves have bases like webbed feet, along with gaps to capture light more efficiently in dappled shade, while peculiar lobes cool them down in humid heat. Drip tips and a glossy texture also provide high rainfall tolerance and resistance to algae.

However, many tree species, such as the North American white oak actually switch leaf shape, in response to light and temperature. Alex Morss

A

ORNITHOLOGY

Which birds of prey are the strongest? his accolade belongs to several immense eagles, including the harpy and crested eagles of Central and South America, Africa’s martial eagle, the Philippine eagle (pictured) and the New Guinea eagle.

The harpy and Philippine eagles both reach a metre or more from meatcleaver bill to tail tip, with wingspans double that. The fearsome duo’s legs are 3–4cm thick, armed with curved, dagger-like talons; their hind talons

T

are up to 7cm long, comparable to those of a large brown bear.

Across the globe, this group of mighty raptors seize prey close to their own weight, including monkeys, sloths, porcupines, forest wallabies and small antelopes. Since a female harpy eagle weighs as much as 9kg (males are half this), she can pluck a full-grown howler monkey out of a tree. But stories of eagles carrying away children worldwide are either hoaxes or myths. Ed Drewitt

Trevesia palmata is also known as the snowflake tree.

MAMMALS

Do anteaters only eat ants?

Going against type: giant anteaters are also partial to a termite or two.

the giant anteater’s diet. This species is equipped with powerful claws for breaking into sun-hardened termite mounds. Like all anteaters, it lacks teeth, instead using its sticky, tubular tongue (up to 60cm in length) to penetrate the labyrinthine passageways to hoover up the writhing contents.

When describing anteaters, however, people have tended to go for ant-inspired names. The giant anteater and the two species of tamandua belong to the family Myrmecophagidae, which is Latin for ‘anteating’, while tamandua means ‘catcher of ants’ in Brazil’s indigenous Tupi language.

Ellen Husain

Eagle: Patricio Robles Gil/NPL(captive); plant: Alan Gregg /Alamy; anteater: Christophe Courteau/NPL; crane fly: John Abbott/NPL; larva: Marco Salemi/MYN/NPL; beaver: Jim Brandenburg/Minden/NPL

iven that a 2m-long giant anteater can consume about 35,000 ants a day, they do appear to be well named.

But ants aren’t their only prey. Though the insectivorous mammals are incredibly specialised, their adaptations are equally suited to feasting on termites, which in some grasslands may make up most of

G

Q&A 3 questions on

Curious crane flies

1

ARE THESE LONG-LIMBED INSECTS ACTUALLY FLIES?

Yes, these are true flies in the order Diptera. The name translates as ‘two wings’, and reflects the fact that flies have two wings, unlike the four in other flying insects. Look closely at a crane fly, and you should see a little pair of stubby ‘drumsticks’ sticking out of the thorax. These are halteres, thought to have evolved from what was once a rear pair of wings. They vibrate in flight, acting as stabilisers, like the gyroscopes in drones and helicopters.

2

HOW COME THEY CROWD INSIDE OUR HOUSES?

Commonly known as ‘daddy-longlegs’ in the UK, crane fly adults (right) bump clumsily around our homes after being attracted to lit windows at night. Their sudden appearance, usually in autumn, is due to a mass hatch of maggots.

Called leatherjackets, the larvae (left) have passed their time munching roots in damp soil, and look fairly ordinary save for, as Erica McAlister puts it in The Secret Life of Flies, “their most exquisite anal breathing tubules”. Sadly, due to pesticides, huge swarms of crane flies are mostly a thing of the past.

3

WHY DO THEIR LEGS TEND TO FALL OFF?

Their delicate, gangly limbs seem too fragile to be much use – almost a liability.

In fact, fragility is a secret weapon. As McAlister’s book explains, a bird that attacks a crane fly will often end up with a leggy mouthful, enabling the insect to escape (albeit with fewer limbs, as they don’t grow back). Their legs are also an adaptation for perching on blades of grass.

Ben Hoare

MAMMALS

How do beavers build dams in the dark?

B

eavers are rightfully having their moment – their potential as natural habitat restorers is recognised by ecologists on both sides of the Atlantic. But since these ecosystem engineers have a very dim view of the world, one wonders how they create their complex, watertight dams. With only nose and eyes breaking the surface as they swim, beavers hardly have a great vantage point, especially considering they are most active at night.

However, where light fails, sound leads the way. In an experiment in the 1960s, the mammals were played running-water noises through loudspeakers, with the results proving that sound directs their dambuilding. In much the same way that a dripping tap annoys us, beavers are instinctively drawn to even the faintest trickle of water, working to plug up any breaches until blissful silence is restored. Gillian Burke

Industrious and intelligent, beavers know which way the water’s running.

Q&A ARACHNIDS

How long can a spider hold its breath?

S

piders need oxygen for respiration, just as we do.

They use internal structures known as book lungs (Q&A May 2020). Book lungs are open to the outside, have a large internal surface and the spider’s ‘blood’ circulates nearby. Unlike our lungs, a spider’s book lungs use passive movement of air, with no active ‘breaths’.

If a wetland spider goes underwater, bubbles of air get trapped in the many fine hairs covering its body.

The ability to trap air among the hairs on its body is a lifesaver for the raft spider.

Dolomedes raft spiders are a good example of this.

The silvery coat of air bubbles caught around their body enables them to submerge for up to an hour before reappearing.

So, though spiders can’t hold their breath, as such, many will survive encounters with water that leave them submerged for minutes – and potentially hours, though likely not days. All without needing to ‘take a breath’.

Sara Goodacre

The Explainer

Spider: Jussi Murtosaari/NPL; pansie: Christina Kilgour/Getty; lorikeet: William Osborne/NPL; cocoon: Piotr Naskrecki

Zygomorphic

Mirror, mirror: pansies are zygomorphic.

A flower that has a single plane of symmetry – for instance, the left and right sides might be mirror images of each other, but not the top and bottom – is said to be zygomorphic. New research by biologists at California State University looked at how popular this shape is with pollinators.

The team found that zygomorphic flowers are visited by fewer species of pollinator than other shapes of flower. The finding is a wake-up call – these flowering plants may be at risk of extinction if any of their key pollinators disappear.

Ben Hoare

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Rainbow lorikeets soak up water with their tongue.

ORNITHOLOGY

Why do birds lift their head to drink?

W

hen robins, tits and other small birds drink from a bird bath or pond, they take a sip and point their bill upwards, so the water flows down their throat. These birds use gravity and squeezing movements in their mouth to swallow the water. This is known as tip-up drinking, and it’s one of two ways in which birds drink. Many familiar species worldwide do it, including songbirds, crows, ducks, some parrots and chickens. But pigeons, doves, lorikeets and

budgerigars employ the second method.

When drinking, they stay in the same headdown position, a behaviour called (you’ve got it) tip-down drinking. Woodpigeons keep glugging as water is drawn into their mouth by capillary action and pumped into their throat by their tongue. Australia’s rainbow lorikeets suck up water with their feathery tongue, then squeeze it out by pressing against the roof of their mouth.

Ed Drewitt December 2020

Q&A

What is it? a

ERMINE MOTH COCOON When moth caterpillars turn into a pupa, they spin a silken cocoon around their body, using spinnerets on their mouthparts. Cocoons often resemble tubes or tent-like shelters, and keep out the elements and most predators; those of the silk moth, Bombyx mori, provided the raw ingredients for the lucrative silk trade. But some moth caterpillars, such as this species in Costa Rica, spin a semi-exposed ‘cage’ reminiscent of fishnet tights or the mesh bags in which citrus fruit are sold. Evidently, this is still a sufficient defence.

Ben Hoare

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ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE

WILDLIFE JEWELLERY BY EMMA KEATING Working from her studio on the Kent coast, Emma celebrates the beauties and the beasties of nature in silver.

She creates 3-dimensional models in wax, using photographs as her guide, and then casts them into silver (and occasionally gold). Inspired by her first model, the red-eyed tree frog, many of her models are similar to life-size – looking like they might just crawl or fly away! Her pieces range from the stunning Madagascan moon moth to the strangely beguiling European praying mantis – but she has a particular weakness for native British wildlife, such as the endangered Sussex emerald moth.

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WILDLIFE GIFTS BY THE REDWINGS HORSE SANCTUARY Redwings Horse Sanctuary has lots of products in its online shop perfect for all your feathered garden friends! The wild bird drinker incorporates a tray to enable birds to comfortably drink water which is essential to their wellbeing, and the nest box is made from FSC timber and lightly stained to provide a stylish addition to your garden.

The charity also has a great selection of feeders filled with mealworms, seeds or suet which can be enjoyed by your feathered garden visitors all year round. All sale proceeds go towards the care of Redwings’ 1,500 rescued horses, ponies, donkeys and mules ensuring that they are looked after all year round too!

01508 481000 | redwings.org.uk

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE MEADE TELESCOPES – ASTRONOMY FOR ALL The Adventure Scope 80mm is great for exploring. Combine wildlife spotting and astronomy with this refracting telescope, ideal for exploring both land and sky objects, day or night! The portable design comes with a backpack that makes it the perfect choice for any travelers, hikers, or campers.

The lightweight and compact scope comes with two 1.25” eyepieces, 20x and 60x magnifications, a red dot finder scope and an erect-image diagonal making locating objects easy and allows for viewing the sky at both low and high magnifications.

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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, products, streaming and much more.

From tiny tarsiers to lions and bears, encounter the creatures that come out at night.

Wildlife after dark Join Tom Hiddleston for an exploration of nocturnal species.

Courtesy of Apple

TV choice

EARTH AT NIGHT IN COLOR APPLE TV PLUS, FROM 4 DECEMBER

With the latest camera technology being used by wildlife documentary filmmakers, we have become accustomed to some incredible sights and scenes finding their way into our homes via our TV screens. But now these series can promise something truly extraordinary – enabling us to see in the dark.

Following in the footsteps of Night on Earth (released on Netflix in January), this new Apple TV Plus series offers another thrilling dive into unseen nocturnal worlds. While night-time cameras might once have shown us grainy pictures in monotone colours, Earth at Night in Color makes use of December 2020

powerful low-light cameras, which are 100 times more sensitive than the human eye, creating clear colour footage filmed by moonlight.

Spanning six episodes, the series sets out to explore six continents – all in darkness. Narrator Tom Hiddleston’s soothing tones lead us into the twilight world, where tiny tarsiers prime their ears before the hunt, and fireflies perform in hypnotic displays. We follow Europe’s brown bears – forced to occupy the night-time by human persecution – and watch Brazilian jaguars bonding beneath the light produced by click beetle larvae.

As well as showing us some littlefilmed nocturnal species, the series captures unusual behaviour from

creatures that are more well-known.

Episode one opens with a pride of African lions, and takes us on a thrilling night-time hunt with a solo lioness.

The show also includes the now typical ‘making of’ section that follows the main event. This, too, is a treat – watching brave film-makers scaling rainforest trees in the dark, skiing through the night, and wielding cameras so powerful they are usually used to capture the galaxy.

The deep, dusky colours and the stars glistening above give this series a hushed, ethereal quality. It creates the sense of peering into a hidden world. Released in early December, it’s just in time to bring you a bit of Christmas magic.

Emma Pocklington Nature writer

BBC Wildlife

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OUR WILD WORLD WHO’S HIDING IN THE JUNGLE? Featuring gorgeous illustrations, this game will have children racing against their parents to be the first to spot and match the animals concealed on the habitat cards. £14.99, Laurence King

BUILD YOUR OWN MICROSCOPE Made from sustainable cardboard, this kit is surprisingly sturdy and an effective microscope – effecting 30x magnification. £16.99, Build Your Own Kits

INTERACTIVE SOLITARY-BEE HIVE Made from FSC-certified wood, this bee hotel has a lid that opens onto a clear tray, in order to see inside, as well as stacking trays to help with inspection and cleaning. £32.99, Wildlife World

STOCKING FILLERS Want even more gift ideas for nature lovers? Head over to our website for plenty of inspiration: discoverwildlife. com/gift-ideas ANIMAL PRINT 10L ROLLTOP RUCKSACK A fantastic example of recycling, these rucksacks are made from old bouncy castles and come in giraffe, zebra, and leopard designs. £89, Wyatt and Jack

GORILLA CONSERVATION COFFEE Your cup of coffee can support farmers living next to Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, and help protect mountain gorillas. £9 for 250g, Money Row Beans

BEE EMBROIDERY KIT Intricate details bring the bumblebee design to life in this embroidery kit

by Emillie Ferris. Butterfly, moth and fungi kits are also available. £45, Emillie Ferris on Etsy

MARIPOSAS BOARD GAME New from award-winning game designer Elizabeth Hargrave, this fun wildlife-themed creation focusses on the migration of monarch butterflies – from Mexico and across eastern North America, and back again. £39, Alderac Entertainment Group

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WHALE TAIL BRACELET (AQUA) This handcrafted, unisex bracelet can be easily adjusted to fit any wrist. For each bracelet sold, 1kg of plastic is removed from the marine environment. Available in 10 colours, it’s jewellery that makes a difference. £17, Ark & Sea

December 2020

OUR WILD WORLD BOOK

Feed the birds: a simple way to attract avian visitors to your garden.

How to Attract Birds to your Garden

BY DAN ROUSE, DK, £16.99

If I’d had access to this book when I last moved house and re-worked the garden, I reckon I’d now be attracting most of the birds on the British list!

Okay, I may be exaggerating – but you’d be hard pressed to find a more useful, readable and attractive guide to creating a thriving domestic ecosystem than this one.

Dan’s book addresses every aspect of nurturing a wildlife garden – not only for birds but invertebrates and small mammals, too. Take the section on plants for moths. I already provide for my birds, butterflies and bees, but I’d never thought about that sort of specialism – my local nursery should expect a visit soon.

Chapters cover food, water, shelter, why and what to choose; caring for the health of the garden and its visitors; bird species and behaviour; and dealing with problems. Each section builds on the one before to give you irresistible reasons to transform your space.

Sheena Harvey Nature writer and former editor of BBC Wildlife

WIL D STRE A M

Bird feeder: Jason Ingram/Dorling Kindersley

DOCUMENTARY SERIES Autumnwatch Catch up with the team as they marvel at the season’s wildlife from the New Forest to Fife.

BBC iPlayer, until October 2021 DOCUMENTARY SERIES John Bishop’s Great Whale Rescue The comedian follows the story of two captive beluga whales being relocated to a sanctuary.

ITV Hub, streaming now DOCUMENTARY Inside the Bat Cave Gain access to the hidden life of a greater horseshoe bat colony, including the birth of the next generation and its progress.

BBC iPlayer, until October 2021

BOOK

BOOK

Back to Nature

The Stubborn Light of Things

BY CHRIS PACKHAM & MEGAN MCCUBBIN, TWO ROADS, £20

This book comes straight out of lockdown: relatable, current and relevant to anyone who turned to nature for solace during 2020. The writing is quick, detailed and, at times, lyrically beautiful.

It has a conversational feel, but a tighter edit could have made it 20 per cent shorter. I struggled with the narrative at times – it’s jumpy, covering a lot of topics and feeling rushed. And, whilst interesting, I found the pop-out boxes and asides distracting.

As a historical marker, it summarises all the major challenges facing the natural world very well. It has Packham’s characteristic call-to-arms: a sense of urgency, with tangible ideas of how you can make things better.

Lucy McRobert Wildlife writer

December 2020

BY MELISSA HARRISON, FABER, £14.99

From cockney sparrows to hybrid crocuses, there’s something for every flora and fauna enthusiast in Melissa Harrison’s latest book. This collection of Harrison’s Nature Notebook entries for The Times provides an insightful timeline and comparison of nature in the city and countryside, as she transitions from the hustle and bustle of the capital to rural Suffolk’s countryside.

Filled with an array of species and local references, it may not quite relate to readers who are unfamiliar with them. But this inspirational book will still make you want to invest in a pair of binoculars and a magnifying glass, ready to explore the nature on your doorstep.

Chloe Petrylak Nature writer

BBC Wildlife

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OUR WILD WORLD TV

Waterhole BBC TWO, COMING SOON

How can one small water source support so many different species? That’s the question posed by this BBC Two series, which sees Chris Packham and Ella Al-Shamahi embark on an experiment south of the Serengeti.

Filmed in three bursts across a six-month period, the programme follows the construction of an artificial waterhole at Tanzania’s Mwiba Wildlife Reserve, rigged with cameras to monitor the animals that come to drink, hunt and graze nearby. While Chris and Ella have no preconceptions about how popular their creation will be, it’s mere minutes before the site welcomes a band of warthogs – the first of many guests.

Overall, it’s entertaining viewing – if you build it, they will come.

Jon Bauckham Journalist

Giraffe: Wim Hoek/Shutterstock

Giraffes and much more visit the waterhole.

OUT IN TH E GA RDE N PROTECT PONDLIFE Place clay tiles in your pond, to provide shelter for amphibians over winter. If pond water freezes, put a pan of hot water onto the ice until it melts, so the water isn’t deprived of oxygen.

SEASONAL TREAT If you’ve harvested a glut of rosehips this winter, why not make a tasty syrup with this recipe from Lucy McRobert: discoverwildlife.com/syrup OUTDOORS ACTIVITY You can still encourage children to head outdoors, connect with nature and boost their identification skills in winter.

Read our guide to bark rubbing: discoverwildlife.com/bark-rub

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YOUNGER READERS EADERS

Wild City

BY BEN HOARE, ILLUSTRATED BY LUCY ROSE. PAN MACMILLAN, £12.99

Did you know that moose are on the loose in Anchorage, Alaska or that giant orca live along the coast in Vancouver, Canada? We naturally think about towns as places for people but many animals are happy to live close to our doorsteps, too. Wild City by Ben Hoare (editorial consultant for BBC Wildlife) introduces some of the magnificent wildlife among us every single day.

Interesting facts give explanations off how different urban settings help animals thrive – you’ll find out why Cape Town’s weather attracts lots of sea life, and where reptiles like to hang out in Bangkok – while detailed illustrations will leave you with an impression of what these global cities feel like overall.

The countryside is welcoming for its own finds, but Wild City shows us that you don’t have to leave town to discover the cool wildlife around.

Zakiya Mckenzie Writer O MORE CHILDREN’S NATURE BOOKS Read our reviews: discoverwildlife.com/ R childrens-books c

BOOK

BOOK

Strange Sea Creatures

The Gull Next Door

BY ERIC HOYT, FIREFLY BOOKS, £19.95

BY MARIANNE TAYLOR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, £21.99

A young wunderpus octopus, staring you right in the eye, is the perfect choice for the opening spread of Eric Hoyt’s latest book celebrating the oceans’ wonders.

It’s the first of a pageant of night-time vertical migrators that, for me, are the most compelling images in this book.

Page after page, we see the surprising shapes, colours and intricate details of secretive animals – many in their juvenile forms – that dash to the surface on nocturnal forays. Hoyt’s curated collection of images from various underwater photographers continues into the deep twilight zone and onto the seabed, showcasing the mesmerising range of life far beneath the waves.

Gulls are renowned for dividing opinions, but Taylor has been a firm fan since childhood. Her latest book covers gull behaviour, ecology and even folklore, in a conversational style without assuming any previous knowledge.

Though filled with intriguing facts – kittiwakes are the only gulls that don’t have ‘gull’ in their English name – some sections, such as the segment on feather terminology, are a little overwhelming, but Taylor freely admits that “gull identification is a minefield” and this is what makes the gull group so addictive.

The book also contains Taylor’s own beautifully intricate sketches, which provide an added tool for identification.

She’ll make gull lovers of us all!

Helen Scales Marine biologist

Rebecca Gibson Wildlife writer

December 2020

“AFTER MANKIND” BY DAVID YARROW

Over 30 years, Tusk has supported forwardthinking and successful conservation work in Africa.

We have helped pioneer a wide range of successful conservation initiatives across more than 20 countries, increasing vital protection for over 70 million hectares of land and more than 40 threatened species.

The conservation projects we support provide not just protection for Africa’s wildlife, but livelihoods and wellbeing for thousands.

Sadly, the impact that COVID-19 is already having in Africa could undo years of progress.

TUSK TRUST, 4 Cheapside House, High Street, Gillingham, Dorset, SP8 4AA

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The collapse in tourism and other revenue is threatening rural livelihoods and conservation L VY[Z SLHKPUN [V PUJYLHZLK WVHJOPUN HUK habitat loss. With little chance of local economies or tourism recovering for a long time, our project partners expect 2021 to be their hardest year yet.

We must do all we can to help them protect jobs and livelihoods, and to continue their ]P[HS ^VYR ;V ÄUK V\[ TVYL HUK [V Z\WWVY[ our work visit www.tusk.org

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OUR WILD WORLD

PUZZLES

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

Wild quiz

Gregory Adams/Getty

Answers in our February 2021 issue

OCTOBER ANSWERS ACROSS: 9 haulm, 10

beech tree, 11 beeswax, 12 leopard, 13 sumac, 15 sow, 16 moa, 17 cow, 19 moorhen, 20 kid, 23 eft, 24 tit, 25 raven, 27 ortolan, 29 nun moth, 32 black swan, 33 skein

1) Where will you find holly berries?

A Male trees B Female trees C All holly produces berries

DOWN: 1 chub, 2 museum,

3 smew, 4 ibex, 5 yellow chat, 6 Ohio, 7 great auk, 8 meadow, 13 sac, 14 comet, 15 smooth newt, 16 miner, 18 wheatear, 21 den, 22 Phoebe, 26 violet, 28 lake, 29 nene, 30 nest, 31 hind

OCTOBER WINNER P Seligman Cardiff ACROSS 1 Extinct bird of North America, Ectopistes migratorius (9, 6) 9 Genus of Mediterranean shrubs with red berries (7) 10 Chiffchaff or Blackcap (7) 11 Of a male deer or antelope, ready to breed (2, 3) 12 Member of the Lepidoptera family Pyralidae, whose caterpillars are often viewed as pests (5, 4) 14 Country of Central America, noted for its biodiversity (9) 16 Mammal thigh bone (5) 17 Call that warns of danger (5) 19 Cavy (6, 3) 21 ___ Catfish, an edentate fish found in Australian (9) 24 Animals in the class Aves (5) 25 Venomous jellyfish, Chironex fleckeri (3, 4)

27 Feeler; sensory appendage that comes as a pair (7) 28 Arctic-breeding wading bird, Tringa erythropus (7, 8) DOWN 1 Predatory insects – the females sometimes eat the males after mating (7, 8) 2 Vast region of northern Asia, home to subspecies of tiger and roe deer (7) 3 Animal, like a reptile or insect, that doesn’t generate its own body heat (9) 4 Substances exchanged within a mammal lung (5) 5 Of milk, etc – untreated (3) 6 Bird of New Guinea, notable for excreting toxins (5) 7 Nematode (7)

8 Large bird of prey, Accipiter gentilis (8, 7) 13 Large herbivore of central Africa (5) 15 Photosynthetic organisms such as Chlorella (5) 16 Marks left by a parasitic insect in the order Siphonaptera (4, 5) 18 Fruit formerly known as an alligator pear (7) 20 Omnivorous freshwater fish of South America (7) 22 Vital organ in most animals (5) 23 Flat-bodied cartilaginous fish that might be barndoor or bottlenose (5) 26 Group of whales or other marine mammals (3)

2) What is a baby rabbit called?

A Pup B Cub C Kitten

3) Which British bird moults part of its bill in winter?

A Puffin B Curlew C Kingfisher

4) The Arctic fox is the only native land mammal in…

A Iceland B Finland C Ellesmere Island

5) Which mammal uses loose underarm skin as a pocket?

A Red squirrel B Three-toed sloth C Sea otter

6) Fish scales are often an ingredient in…

A Glass B Soy sauce C Lipstick

Crossword compiled by RICHARD SMYTH, quiz set by BEN HOARE

Find out the answers on p101

WIN SOPHIE ALLPORT GOODIES HOW TO ENTER This competition is only open to residents of the UK (including the Channel Islands). Post entries to BBC Wildlife Magazine, December 2020 Crossword, PO Box 501, Leicester, LE94 0AA or email the answers to December2020@wildlifecomps.co.uk by 5pm on 10 December 2020. 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 February 2021 issue. By entering, participants agree to be bound by the general competition terms and conditions shown on this page.

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Enter E f the for chance to win a Sophie Allport oven glove, apron and tea towel from her new Ducks collection. sophieallport. com

General terms and conditions 1. Visit www.discoverwildlife.com/generalterms-and-conditions-2020 to read the full terms and conditions. 2. Competitions are open to all residents of the UK, including the Channel Islands, aged 18 years or older, except employees or contractors of Immediate Media and anyone connected with the promotion or their direct family members. 3. Entries received after the specified closing date and time will not be considered, and cannot be returned.

4. Only one entry will be permitted per person, regardless of method of entry. Bulk entries made by third parties will not be permitted.

5. The winning entrant will be the first correct entry drawn at random after the closing time, or, in creative competitions, the one that in the judges’ opinion is the best. 6. Promoter: Immediate Media Co Bristol Ltd.

December 2020

DON’T MISS NEXT ISSUE

EDITORIAL Editor Paul McGuinness Deputy Editor Jo Price Section Editor Sarah McPherson Production Editor Angharad Moran Art Editor Richard Eccleston Picture Editor Tom Gilks Group Digital Editor Carys Matthews Editorial and Digital Co-ordinator Megan Shersby Editorial Consultant Ben Hoare Contributors Benedict Blyth, Lisa Duerden, Jenny Price, Wanda Sowry

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PUBLISHING Managing Director Marie Davies; Publisher Andrew Davies; Promotions and Partnerships Manager Rosa Sherwood; Publishing Assistant Lara Von Weber; Group Managing Director Andy Marshall; CEO Tom Bureau

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BBC Wildlife provides trusted, independent travel advice and information that has been gathered without fear or favour. We aim to provide options that cover a range of budgets and reveal the positive and negative points of the locations we visit.

The views expressed in BBC Wildlife are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the magazine or its publisher.

The publisher, editor and authors accept no responsibility in respect of any products, goods or services that may be advertised or referred to in this issue or for any errors, omissions, mis-statements or mistakes in any such advertisements or references.

BBC Wildlife champions ethical wildlife photography that prioritises the welfare of animals and the environment. It is committed to the faithful representation of nature, free from excessive digital manipulation, and complete honesty in captioning. Photographers, please support us by disclosing all information – including, but not restricted to, use of bait, captive or habituated animals – about the circumstances under which your pictures were taken.

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December 2020

kk Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin help us banish the January blues, as we kick off 2021 with a bumper crop of good news stories for nature kk Bowhead whales – life beneath the sea-ice kk Meat-eating plants – the UK’s carnivorous flora is making a comeback

JANUARY ISSUE ON SALE 17 DECEMBER 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 City break Every summer, lesser and greater flamingos visit Mumbai in large numbers to feed and roost. But during the COVID-19 lockdown, about 150,000 came to a lake near a housing society. Never before has the lake seen such a huge surge in flamingos.

So, I decided to go there one April evening and photograph them using a drone. It took me many attempts to get this image, which showcases the birds in an urban environment. I'm so happy I managed to capture them.

Aishwarya Sridhar, Mumbai, India

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BBC Wildlife

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4 December 2020

OUR WILD WORLD 1 Taking it easy In October 2016, it was a privilege for me to spend time with the charismatic mountain gorillas who inhabit the dense rainforests covering the slopes of the Virunga Mountains in Rwanda.

Here, the adult male is sleeping in his habitat.

Amartya Mukherjee, Bangalore, India

2 Spot the difference

1

Fascinated to hear about the first spotted zebra foal to be recorded in the Maasai Mara last year, I went to Kenya on a safari and spent two days looking for the youngster.

I finally found him and photographed him with his mother.

Ratish Nair, Mumbai, India

3 Showing off During the breeding season of the yellowspotted agama lizard, males acquire intense coloration. When they are alarmed, their head becomes deep blue – they are also called ‘blue-headed’ agamas.

Sajeev Kumar, Quatar

4 All aglow

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While diving the polluted harbour of Ambon in Indonesia, I found this bigfin reef squid beneath lots of plastic. The curious squid came to take a look at the camera, its glowing colours popping against the black water.

Kevin De Vree, Erpe-Mere, Belgium

5 What a mouthful

5 December 2020

I was on Saltee Islands, off the south-east coast of Ireland, in the hope of getting this very shot.

This male puffin had just landed on the cliff edge with a haul of sandeels and was parading his catch.

John Holden, Rosslare Harbour, Ireland BBC Wildlife

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OUR WILD WORLD

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Tackling the bullies Alex Morss’s ‘What plants are Britain’s biggest bullies?’ (Q&A, November 2020) should have included native plants, as two of these cover an area much greater than that invaded by the aliens you list.

I am referring to bracken and soft rush, which have replaced countless acres, often of species-rich grassland, with monocultures of limited ecological value.

Areas of flower-rich hay-meadow in the Scottish Highlands, which I knew in my youth, are now jungles of bracken A lack of woods means bracken can take hold.

Rabies scare

where dry, and solid rushes where wet.

Both species are definitely ‘bullies’ and sterilise many areas that should be open for regeneration of native woodland.

Just because plants are native does not mean they’re not serious ecological problems, if we’re aiming for biodiversity.

Robin Noble, via email Alex Morss replies: You highlight a challenging conservation issue. There are more ‘bully plants’ than we had space for!

Unlike aliens, bracken and rushes are ancient natives. These pioneer plants take advantage of largely disrupted ecosystems.

Humans have created perfect artificial conditions for them to dominate, due to land management and by stripping woodland, whose shade and competition would naturally keep them in check. Also, we eliminated many animals that would otherwise trample, graze and help sustain a much more diverse mosaic of habitats.

100 BBC Wildlife

wildlife (The sky’s the limit, August 2020). It depends whether the operator is responsible and has the welfare of the wildlife foremost in their thoughts.

I have travelled on wildlife trips for more than 30 years and the behaviour of fellow travellers has deteriorated at an alarming rate. It started with beach boys from Mombasa, driving off-road in Tsavo East National Park because holiday makers had poor (if any) viewing equipment, to hot-air balloons in the Mara, harrying the wildlife, to serious misuse of bird-call apps, to taking selfies and posting photos on social media. Most wildlife tourists today haven’t a clue about the

Colston Avenue, Bristol, BS1 4ST

wildlife and frankly don’t really care about it, so long as they can post photos and impress their friends! These idiots, armed with drones buzzing about, will be a disaster!

Peter Thomas, France

Room for a few more?

If you want to release all these formerly native species – such as bison, beaver, or wolf – what impact will it have on our current native species? I have seen a decline in common birds, and our raptors are under threat. Yes, some species are trying to recolonise, but I feel this plan for reintroduction is flawed, as there will be no room for the species to flourish and our local wildlife may struggle.

Habitat loss and competition for resources may push some species over the brink, once lost never regained. HS2 is a great example, where our native wildlife will find it challenging to adapt. We allegedly have a problem with gull attacks, what would we do if it were a wolf or bison? People are not ready or prepared for once-native mammals to be reintroduced, for there is limited information on what the consequences will be. I cannot understand why this issue is so important when all our existing native species are struggling to survive.

Paul Gomersall, via email

Planting the future I did enjoy reading Alex Morss’s passionate plea for the more intelligent use of our urban public spaces to help boost biodiversity (Where did all the wildlife go?, August 2020), and I agree very much with her contentions.

Alex mentioned various examples and, in particular, the December 2020

Bracken: R A Kearton/Getty

never saw the family again, as Whilst reading James Fair’s shortly afterwards, women and article on wildlife markets children were evacuated from (August 2020) I was curious to the Canal Zone, due to the Suez note rabies being considered Crisis. I sometimes wonder in animal to human spread of what happened to them as they disease. This reminded me of must have still been in hospital. when an Alsatian dog and her Anna Thomas, via email pup were shot next door to us because they had contracted Disaster drones rabies. We were questioned Ben Hoare raised the subject as to whether we had been of the use of drones and the in contact with them, as they impact they may have on were very friendly towards us children.

This was in Egypt in 1956. The dogs’ owners and their little girl went to hospital where we were made to understand they would undergo very The trade in painful treatment. wildlife can spread disease.

Unfortunately, we

WRITE TO US BBC Wildlife, Eagle House,

OUR WILD WORLD removal of turf by Extinction Rebellion at a Cambridge college. I don’t know all of the detail of that case, but I am pleased to record that many universities have put much time and effort into creating biodiversity hotspots across their green spaces.

I spent many years working for the universities of Bath and of Bristol and can testify to the commitment made at both institutions – albeit while accepting that it came from a low initial base.

For sure, there is a lot more to be done but I do believe that a significant start has been made. There is plenty to celebrate and many excellent case studies are out there.

Patrick Finch, via email

TALES FROM THE BUSH

Disturbing the peace A dramatic encounter broke the silence on the Zambezi, as Courtney Hoffman watched buffalos risking life and limb.

Have a wild tale to tell? Email a brief synopsis to sarah.mcpherson@ immediate.co.uk

Can our urban green spaces work for wildlife?

Courtney Hoffman

Cape buffalos crossing the Zambezi face many perils.

o quiet moment in Africa should be taken for granted, as I discovered during a boat safari in Zambia’s Lower Zambezi National Park. Motoring gently downstream, I could see elephants picking through the tall grass on the riverbank, while pods of hippos appeared sporadically in the water, exhaling through their gigantic nostrils. It was all very peaceful – until we rounded a bend. There, on the Zambian side, was a herd of cape buffalo preparing to cross the water to Zimbabwe.

Joseph, my guide, quietly brought the boat to a halt in the papyrus, as we anticipated the buffalos’ next move.

The bovids were searching for a spot to cross. Some of the older bulls and cows eventually made the move, entering the water and swimming hard against the fast current, the grunting and splashing of their efforts echoing along the valley. More and more followed, until the river was a seething, splashing mass of bodies.

Most of the herd had reached the safety of the other side when I saw a juvenile alone on the far riverbank. Left behind by the adults, it jumped into the water and started swimming, desperate to catch up. It made

N Where the wild wolves were I feel absolutely disgusted with the Norwegian parliament’s decision regarding the culling of wolves (Wild news, September 2020). In what world does it make sense to kill endangered populations to stop them killing sheep – an easily bred animal that is very common in number?

The UK had wolves too… until we killed them all. Now Norway will also be saying goodbye to this beautiful creature. Humans continue to be a disgrace to the rest of the animal kingdom. I buy this magazine because I love animals but with every new issue I read, there is another species being culled.

Shannon Ripsher, via email QUIZ ANSWERS (see p96) 1B, 2C, 3A, 4A, 5C, 6C

December 2020

it halfway, then suddenly submerged, vanishing from sight. As we strained to see why the calf had disappeared, the water exploded suddenly.

The buffalo surfaced, splashing and bellowing, its rear leg clamped firmly in the jaws of a young crocodile. Its eyes were filled with terror as it desperately tried to resist the predator’s death roll. Minutes of intense struggling passed, then both parties hung motionless in the water, as if gathering their strength for the final battle.

The fight resumed, then the buffalo turned limp and slowly sank among the hyacinth weeds. Quiet descended over the river once again, as we took it all in. Joseph reached for the ignition, ready to re-start the engine, but the silence was once again broken by a loud splash. It was the buffalo erupting from the water – having managed to kick free of its captor, it was now paddling for its life.

Emerging from the shallows, the feisty yet exhausted calf collapsed on the sandy bank.

It took a few minutes for it to catch its breath, then it stood up and rejoined the herd.

S More and

more buffalos followed, until the river was a seething mass of bodies. T

COURTNEY HOFFMAN went on Safari in the Lower Zambezi National Park in November 2019.

BBC Wildlife

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VIEWPOINT

WILDLIFE CHAMPION

CLARE BALDING In our series about people with a passion for a species, we ask broadcaster and author Clare Balding why she is besotted with the Eurasian otter.

Interview by Jo Price

Why have you chosen the Eurasian otter?

full recovery. After pioneering skin grafts on her face were attempted in 2013, blood tests revealed she was pregnant. In the face of such despair and negativity, Thandi has become a symbol of hope that we can beat the poachers. I couldn’t get over the brutality of that attack and wanted to write about her to raise awareness that the fight isn’t over.

As a sports presenter, I am very conscious of athleticism. So, for me, the otter would be an Olympic gold medallist in swimming. It is such a sleek, fast, muscular, beautiful and technically perfect swimmer that moves like a bullet through the water.

It is also an excellent indicator of a healthy ecosystem and is a species that is very difficult to see, making it all the more rewarding when you do.

Describe an otter encounter that’s stayed with you In 1994, three otters were reintroduced to the River Itchen in Hampshire.

Since then, the elusive creatures have thrived, and regular sightings have followed – especially near Winchester City Mill. A few years back, I visited the location to do some filming.

Arriving at dusk, we waited for hours and then suddenly everyone went quiet. “There! There!” We saw one otter, just briefly and it felt so magical.

What needs to be done to protect habitats in the UK?

hours and then everyone went quiet. We saw one otter and it felt magical.T

see so many people heading outside to enjoy our wild areas, especially during lockdown.

But I would make a plea to people to be responsible – take your litter home with you and don’t trash the place!

I think we have to get quite serious about it, because all that waste ends up polluting our environment and vital wildlife habitats.

Your new book, Heroic Animals, celebrates A 100 incredible creatures.

Give us an example In 2012, three rhinos were darted in Kariega Game Reserve, South Africa, and their faces were hacked for their horns. Only two were found alive and disfigured. They were rescued and named Thandi and Themba but, sadly, only Thandi made a

There are lots of great examples of how animals have influenced our lives but a historic tale that I enjoyed learning about was the story of Zarafa the giraffe who was a gift from Muhammad Ali of Egypt to King Charles X of France in 1827. She docked in Marseille after travelling on a specially adapted ship and, because they couldn’t come up with any transport to get her to Paris, she walked right across France, creating a massive stir as people came to see her.

Zarafa even inspired a wave of giraffelike hairstyles! She set off on 20 May and eventually got to Paris by 9 July.

CLARE BALDING is a BBC presenter and author.

Her latest book, Heroic Animals: 100 Amazing Creatures Great and Small, is out now.

The expert view The most common otter field signs to look out for are footprints and spraint on banks, and often a muddy slide dropping into the river. The presence of these mammals indicates clean water, as they eat 15–25 per cent of their body weight each day and therefore need a healthy food supply. After making a remarkable recovery since hunting and certain chemicals were banned, we can now enjoy otters in every UK county.

Dave Webb UK Wild Otter Trust

December 2020

Clare: Pako Mera/Alamy; otter: Ronald Messemaker/Minden/FLPA

I’ve spent lots of time walking in the British countryside and am very aware of the abundance of riches that we have. Therefore, I was delighted to

S We waited for

How does the book explore the relationship between humans and animals?

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BY APPOINTMENT TO HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II SWAROVSKI OPTIK SUPPLIER OF BINOCULARS

NL PURE ONE WITH NATURE SEE THE UNSEEN

YOUNG WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

YOUNG WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2020

2020

FOREWORD Winning Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2019 was a massive honour and catapulted me into new and exciting opportunities. Only a few months after the awards night, I was invited to speak at the World Economic Forum, which gave me valuable connections and ideas that I hope to try in the future.

Throughout 2020, I’ve been speaking to international and local press and have been given the chance to do more photography work in New Zealand, where I live.

This special supplement focuses on the three Wildlife Photographer of the Year youth categories for entrants aged 17 and under.

As an amateur and young photographer, it’s daunting and difficult to be compared to older, professional photographers who have had years of experience. Photography can be a hard game to break into, so by having separate categories for young photographers, the competition – now in its 56th year – enables children and teenagers to compete within their own experience level and recognises emerging talent early.

CRUZ ERDMANN, Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2019 winner

WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR is run and developed by the Natural History Museum, London, where the winning and highly commended entries can be viewed until 6 June 2021. For details of the exhibition, how to enter the next competition, and dates and venues of the regional exhibition tour, visit: wildlifephotographeroftheyear.com

HIGHLY COMMENDED 10 YEARS AND UNDER

KRY⇧TOF BARTU⇧KA CZECH REPUBLIC

Caught in the act Kry tof woke to a beautiful day, high in the Austrian Alps. He was staying in a hut with members of his young naturalists’ club. While everyone else was still asleep, he and his friend crept out to take pictures.

Spotting a male chamois grazing in a meadow, they began to stalk it.

Native to the mountains of centralsouthern Europe, the Balkans and the Near East, northern chamois are nimble, hoofed grazers and browsers that walk on two toes (as do sheep and deer). Females live in herds but older males are solitary.

The boys approached slowly as the chamois moved up the slope, still grazing. Then it disappeared behind a rock. Following up the steep terrain, Kry tof worried about falling into the abyss with his camera. Suddenly the male appeared above, catching them in the act but giving Kry tof his shot.

Olympus E-M5 Mark II + 40–150mm f2.8 lens + 1.4x teleconverter; 1/1250 sec at f4; ISO 320.

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Supplement to BBC Wildlife Magazine

YOUNG WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

Supplement to BBC Wildlife Magazine

2020

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Supplement to BBC Wildlife Magazine

YOUNG WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

2020

WINNER

10 YEARS AND UNDER

ANDRÉS LUIS DOMINGUEZ BLANCO SPAIN

Perfect balance In spring, the meadows near Andrés’ home in Ubrique, Andalucia, Spain, are bright with flowers, such as these sweet-scented Sulla vetches. Andrés had walked there a few days earlier and seen European stonechats hunting for insects, but they were on the far side of the meadow.

Andrés asked his dad to drive to the meadow and park, so he could use the car as a hide, kneel on the back seat and, with his lens on the windowsill, shoot through the open windows. He was delighted to see stonechats flying close by, alighting on any stem or stalk as a vantage point to look for prey. It was already late in the day, and the sun had gone down, but it seemed that the low light intensified the birds’ colours.

He watched this male closely.

It often landed on branches or the top of small bushes, but this time it perched on a flower stem, which began to bend under its delicate weight. The stonechat kept its balance and Andrés framed his perfect composition.

Fujifilm X-H1 + XF 100–400mm f4.5–5.6 lens; 1/50 sec at f5.6; ISO 800.

Supplement to BBC Wildlife Magazine

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YOUNG WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

2020

HIGHLY COMMENDED 10 YEARS AND UNDER

VIDYUN R HEBBAR INDIA

City signature A signature spider hangs in its web over a roadside in Bangalore, India. Vidyun had watched it every weekend for a month, noticing how often it rebuilt its web – and changed its signature.

Signature spiders are orb-weavers that decorate their webs with stabilimenta – letter-like zigzags. The purpose of these stabilimenta is still not clear, but it may be that they warn birds of the web, so saving on webbuilding. Or they may attract insects by reflecting UV light. This spider had a leg span of 6cm but when it lined up its legs with the stabilimenta, it looked bigger, perhaps warning off certain predators.

Vidyun set out to capture his subject against the backdrop of a tall apartment complex, to show how “the spider was living among us in my big city”.

Nikon D5000 + Nikkor 85mm lens; 1/1600 sec at f6.3; ISO 200.

HIGHLY COMMENDED 15–17 YEARS OLD

LEFEI HAN CHINA

Spoon-feeding A spoon-billed sandpiper scoops with its unique bill as it searches for marine invertebrates on the Tiaozini mudflats in Jiangsu, China. Lefei had to move slowly and carefully over the wetlands and eventually crawl to get close enough to capture this portrait of one of the most endangered birds in the world.

Spoon-billed sandpipers depend on intertidal habitats as vital stopovers during their long-distance migration between breeding grounds on the

Russian tundra and wintering sites across South-East Asia. Along this great journey, they are threatened by the destruction of feeding and roosting sites and by subsistence hunting.

Photographing a spoon-billed sandpiper is a challenge, as they feed in mixed flocks with other small waders and can be difficult to spot. It took Lefei an hour to locate one. He watched as the wader swayed its beak from side to side, “ready to scoop with its spoon”.

Canon EOS-1D X Mark II + 500mm f4 lens + 1.4x extender; 1/2500 sec at f9; ISO 640; Manfrotto MVH502AH video head + support.

Supplement to BBC Wildlife Magazine

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YOUNG WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

2020

HIGHLY COMMENDED 15–17 YEARS OLD

HANNAH VIJAYAN CANADA

The perfect catch A brown bear pulls a sockeye salmon from the shallows of a river in Alaska’s Katmai National Park, which contains Pacific coastline, mountains, lakes, rivers and an estimated 2,200 brown bears. In spring, when bears emerge from hibernation in their mountain dens, many of them head down to feed on sedges in open meadows and forage for clams on the mudflats.

Then they feast on the vast numbers of nutrient-rich sockeye salmon that start arriving, gathering in the estuaries before heading upstream to spawn.

The presence of the salmon until autumn ensures the bears’ survival through the winter.

The greatest concentration of bears is around the waterfall at Brooks River, where viewing platforms enable visitors to watch bears catching salmon leaping up the falls. Hannah chose to focus on a quieter scene and a different style of fishing. Instead of snatching at leaping fish or jumping on them, this female put her head under the water to look for one. Hannah had been watching for some time before she achieved the composition she wanted.

Nikon D850 + 300mm f4 lens; 1/2000 sec at f4; ISO 2200.

Supplement to BBC Wildlife Magazine

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HIGHLY COMMENDED 15–17 YEARS OLD

MATTHEW HENRY CANADA

Snow moose When Matthew spotted the moose – in Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba, Canada – it was snowing heavily. Using his car as a hide, he waited as the moose walked through the snow towards him, her wide hooves like snowshoes. Females don’t have the huge antlers of males, but their long noses make them instantly recognisable.

His chance of a creative shot came when she paused to drink from a puddle. Every few seconds, she would glance back, her head outlined against her dark, wet fur. The heavy snowfall stopped Matthew’s auto-focus working, but he had just enough time to experiment with shutter speeds and capture both the effect of snowfall and the details of her face.

Nikon D800 + 70–200mm f2.8 lens; 1/1600 sec at f4; ISO 1000.

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Supplement to BBC Wildlife Magazine

YOUNG WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

2020

HIGHLY COMMENDED 11–14 YEARS OLD

ARSHDEEP SINGH INDIA

Treetop douc When his father planned a business trip to Vietnam, Arshdeep researched the country’s wildlife online. It was after he read about the endangered red-shanked douc langur that he asked his father to take him along.

The meeting was near Son Tra Nature Reserve, Vietnam’s last coastal rainforest and a stronghold for the langur. Found only in Vietnam,

Laos and Cambodia, the primate is threatened by habitat loss, hunting and trade. Douc langurs live in the canopy, which is a challenge for a photographer. Arshdeep had just three days at Son Tra. On the second day, he was rewarded when a male appeared. It was a struggle to shoot at an angle clear of leaves but, just for a second, the langur glanced at him.

Nikon D500 + 500mm f4 lens; 1/1600 sec at f4 (-0.7 e/v); ISO 560.

Supplement to BBC Wildlife Magazine

11

HIGHLY COMMENDED 11–14 YEARS OLD

EVIE EASTERBOOK UK

Paired-up puffins A pair of Atlantic puffins in vibrant breeding plumage pause near their nest burrow on the Farne Islands.

Every spring, these small islands off Northumberland attract more than 100,000 breeding pairs of seabirds. While guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and fulmars crowd onto the cliffs, puffins nest in burrows on the grassy slopes above.

When wintering at sea, their plumage is a dull black and grey, but by the time they return to breed, they are sporting black ‘eyeliner’ and brightly coloured bill plates that have fused into an unmistakable beak – one which, to other puffins, also glows with UV light.

Evie had longed to see a puffin, and when school broke up, she and her family managed two day trips to Staple Island in July, before the puffins returned to sea in August.

She stayed by the puffins’ burrows, watching the adults returning with mouthfuls of sandeels. Puffins are long-lived and form long-term couples – Evie concentrated on this pair, for a characterful portrait.

Puffins worldwide are in decline, vulnerable to the effects of climate disruption, including more frequent storms and warmer water, which has reduced the availability of sandeels, their staple food.

Sony DSC-HX400V + 24–210mm f2.8–6.3 lens; 1/250 sec at f5.6; ISO 80.

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Supplement to BBC Wildlife Magazine

YOUNG WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

Supplement to BBC Wildlife Magazine

2020

13

WINNER 11–14 YEARS OLD

SAM SLOSS ITALY/USA

A mean mouthful On a diving holiday in North Sulawesi, Indonesia, Sam stopped to watch the behaviour of a group of clownfish.

He was intrigued by the expression of one individual, the result of its mouth being constantly open, holding something. When Sam downloaded his photos, he saw tiny eyes peeping out of the clownfish’s mouth. It was a tongue-eating louse, a parasitic isopod that swims in through the gills as a male, changes sex, grows legs and attaches itself to the base of the tongue, sucking blood. When the tongue withers and drops off, the isopod takes its place. Its presence may weaken its host, but the clownfish can continue to feed.

Nikon D300 + 105mm f2.8 lens; 1/250 sec at f18; ISO 200; Nauticam Housing + two INON Z-240 strobes.

HIGHLY COMMENDED 10 YEARS AND UNDER

FILIP NIZIOLEK POLAND

Chick with a chance A little tern chick calls for its breakfast as its parent arrives with a fish. Filip was with his father and friends in a hide, watching the birds on an island in the Kalensko reservoir beside Poland’s Odra River. It is part of the Islands of Life conservation initiative, bringing ground-nesting birds back from the brink.

The group had arrived at the hide in the dark. As the sun rose, the island had become busy with life – little ringed plovers, oystercatchers, common and little terns, all of them feeding chicks. Filip chose to focus on a little tern, a chick with a chance here of fledging safely.

Nikon D5 + 500mm f4 lens; 1/6400 sec at f4; ISO 1600; tripod + Wimberley 200 head; hide.

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Supplement to BBC Wildlife Magazine

YOUNG WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

2020

WINNER

15–17 YEARS OLD

WINNER YOUNG WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

2020

LIINA HEIKKINEN FINLAND

The fox that got the goose It was on a summer holiday in Helsinki that Liina, then aged 13, heard about a large fox family living in the city suburbs on the island of Lehtisaari. So, Liina and her father spent one long July day watching the two adults and their six large cubs. In another month, the cubs would be able to fend for themselves, but in July the parents were still bringing food for them.

It was 7pm when the vixen arrived with a barnacle goose. Feathers flew as the cubs began fighting over it. One finally gained ownership. Dragging the goose into a crevice, the cub attempted to eat its prize while blocking access to the others. Lying just metres away, Liina was able to capture the expression of the youngster as it attempted to keep its hungry siblings at bay.

Nikon D4 + 28–300mm f3.5–5.6 lens; 1/125 sec at f5.6 (-0.3 e/v); ISO 1600.

Supplement to BBC Wildlife Magazine

15

BACK COVER

HIGHLY COMMENDED 10 YEARS AND UNDER

FRED ZA⇧EK C ESTONIA

Badger caught worming In Karula National Park, Estonia, which Fred’s family visit every summer, there is always a chance of seeing a badger.

As the summer nights are very short, the badgers emerge in daylight. Out with his camera one evening at sunset, Fred spotted a badger feeding on a hill a distance away. What excited him was the chance to photograph it against the evening sky. Staying downwind, he began to creep closer.

After half an hour of stalking, his shoes wet through with the evening dew, he managed to get close enough to hear the omnivore digging with its long claws for earthworms. Though badgers will eat most things – insects, small mammals, frogs, birds’ eggs, fruit or grain – earthworms can comprise the majority of their diet, up to 80 per cent, which they suck up like spaghetti.

Nikon D500 + 300mm f4 lens; 1/500 sec at f4; ISO 1600.

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS Visit discoverwildlife.com/peopleschoice-56 from 1 December 2020 to see amazing images from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 56 People’s Choice awards and to find out how to vote for your favourite picture.