MENSA May June 2024

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Firstof all

ith this issue we're very much taking a walk on the wild side. The idea began with an email from Mensa member Tim Feherty explaining his work with the volunteering organisation African Impact. Tim is a professional photographer, who has trained volunteers in South Africa in the art of wildlife photography, and when we saw some of the pictures he had taken himself, we were stunned.

So a big thank you to Tim for supplying the beautiful image for this issue's cover, and the extraordinary wildlife shots accompanying our fascinating interview with him (p28-35). That led us to put the word out via My Mensa Weekly for any other Mensa members with interesting wildlife-related tales to share and you didn't disappoint (p12-15).The theme then continues through our interview with TV presenter, explorer and scientist Lizzie Daly (p16-21), a deep dive into the world of animal intelligence (p22-27) and our wildlife quiz (p56-57).

Elsewhere, as ever, Mensans make a rich contribution to the editorial mix. In his regular 'Where does that come from?' slot (p8), Stephen Colboum turns his attention to the origins of 'over the moon', the IQ Puzzle Panel delivers its usual fiendish teasers in Mind Games (pS0-55), and we have some great member contributions to Brickbats & Bouquets (p42-43) this time around.

In addition, Chris Hudson tells us about the adventures of the Rambling & Mountaineering SIG (p37), nutritional therapist Alexandra Rojas gives us a guide to tell-tale physical symptoms of stress (p38-39) and Naomi Astley Clarke provides a lovely glimpse into her world of luxury interior designing (p58).

I hope you enjoy all of this as much as I did. And finally, please do have a look at the information on our AGMand Board elections on p44. We're always keen for as many members as possible to get involved in shaping the future of this wonderful organisation.

Best wishes

CATH HILL Chief Executive, British Mensa

THINK TANK

QUESTIONTIME

Our planet hostsan enormousvariety of life; scientistsestimate that there are around 8.7 million speciesof plants and animals in existence.What percentageof all life forms that ever existed are thought to be extinct?And how many species?ANSWERPAGE58

TOTALLYTROPICAL

O Tropical forests cover just 6% of the world's land surface yet around 80% of all documented plant and animal species can be - found there. Gigantic trees form the canopy, where flowering and fruiting takes place. Beneath this, smaller trees provide shelter for birds and reptiles ... and predators. The forest floor, meanwhile, is home to fungi and insects, which all have a role in a finely balanced ecosystem. Rainforests have existed for hundreds of millions of years, yet they are one of our planet's most threatened environments due to human activities, such as logging and large-scale agriculture.

The list#8 Fiverare wild animals

Few of us are probably aware that these animals can be seen in the UK and Ireland, and even fewer have been lucky enough to spot them. Get your binoculars out-here are five unusual wild creatures of land, sea and sky.

Scottishwildcat

2 Prowling some » of the remotest parts of the Scottish Highlands, the Scottish wildcat is the only native cat still found in the wild in the UK and Ireland. A shy and elusive creature, the Scottish wildcat is around 25% bigger than the average domestic cat, with striped fur, piercing green eyes, long legs and a bushy, blacktipped tail.

Now even rarer than tigers, Scottish wildcats are a critically endangered speciesthe result of habitat loss, persecution by humans and interbreeding with domestic cats. However, breeding programmes recently rolled out in the Cairngorms National Park are attempting to save wildcats from the brink of extinction.

Hoopoebird

3 Though mainly » found in the warmer climes of the African continent, around 100 stunning hoopoe birds show up in the UK and Ireland in spring and autumn, typically on the southern coast of England. Keen birdwatchers will recognise the hoopoe bird's light brown body, curved beak, black and white wings and, most importantly, their pink feather crown that raises when they are excited. You might be more likely to hear a hoopoe than see one: its song is a soft "hoohoo-hoo".

Orea

4 » Their distinctive blackand-white colouring and huge, curved dorsal fins make areas unmistakablebut wild sightings of them in our waters are extremely rare. They are present in the seas all around the UK and Ireland, but are most often sighted from the west and north of Scotland, particularly in Orkney and Shetland, where they arrive in the

summer to feast on fish. Orcas acquired the threatening nickname 'killer whale' as they were observed successfully preying on whales much larger than themselves along with seals and seabirds.

Yet despite having this unfortunate reputation, areas are known to be highly sociable, playful and intelligent creatures.

Sandlizard

5 Reptiles aren't the »first thing to spring to mind when thinking of our wildlife, but the UK and Ireland are home to three different species of lizard. Rarest of all is the sand lizard, which is most often sighted in heathland and sand dunes between April and October. The males are the easiest to spot; their

vibrant green flanks are at their brightest during the breeding season in the summer months.

Due to habitat loss, the sand lizard is now only found in isolated areas of Dorset, Hampshire, Surrey and Merseyside, but it is being reintroduced in other areas of southern England, Lancashire and Wales.

TROPHIC CASCADES

How indirect interactions between species can affect entire ecosystems

0 Everyth_ingin nature is connected, but some actors in the circle of life are more powerful than others. Top predators influence ecosystems through what they prey upon. By limiting the density and behaviour of their prey, they indirectly enhance the survival of the next species. These interactions are known as 'trophic cascades'.

For example, sea otters prey on sea urchins, which eat kelp on the sea bed. Without sea otters, the urchin population explodes and kelp forestsessential to the health of our oceans -face devastating depletion.

The trophic cascades theory is credited to American philosopher Aldo Leopold, who observed deer overgrazing on mountain slopes after wolves were hunted to extinction. Some critics consider the theory simplistic but the concept is not controversial as the evidence can be seen. It's also something that has to be carefully considered when it comes to predator reintroductions.

Where does that come from? #8

Investigating the origin of Englishidioms with Mensa member Stephen Colbourn

Overthe moon

Mensa MEMBER

OThis is an expression lodged in our folk memory. Ask a footballer how they feel after a big match win and the traditional answer is "over the moon". Conversely, losers are "sick as a parrot''. However, the phrase's roots lie in these familiar lines:

Hey diddle diddle, Thecat and the fiddle, Thecowjump'd over the moon, Thelittle dog laugh'd To seesuch craft, And the dish ran away with the spoon.

They first appeared in print in a nursery rhyme collection Mother Goose'sMelody published in the

late 18th century. However, it's likely that the nursery rhyme, handed down by spoken word, is much older than that. Indeed the phrase "over the moon" appeared earlier in a comedy play by the Irish journalist Charles Molloy called TheCoquet (1718) as an expression of excited happiness: "Tis he! I know him now: I shall jump over the Moon for Joy!"

The image of the jumping cow may also be inspired by 'the man in the moon', which led JRR Tolkien to write two nonsense rhymes on the subject. One version of his TheMan in the

Spot the imposter #8 Extinct/extant birds

Cows jumping over the moon, the root of our phrase for joy, can be found in beloved nursery rhymes and in the works of JRRTolkien

Moon CameDown TooSoon occurs in TheLord of the Rings when the hobbit Frodo jumps on a table at The Prancing Pony inn at Bree to recite a song created by Bilbo.

In literature 'over the moon' has signified other emotions too. When asked about 'sorrow', a character in the 17th-century play TheHumorous Lieutenant by Fletcher and Beaumont includes the line: "Twould make a man leap o'er the moon." However, thanks to the postmatch interview, moon-related acrobatics are now firmly a metaphor for delight.

Many species of bird have become extinct in recent centuries. Which of these five feathery friends remains extant today?

The only modern species in the genus Pinguinus,this bird of the North Atlantic is only distantly related to the southern hemisphere penguin.

Kakapo

Also known as an owl parrot or moss chicken, this is a nocturnal, ground-dwelling parrot that is native to New Zealand.

Dodo

Endemic to the island

Po'ouli

Passenger pigeon

A small bird native to This elegant grey and of Mauritius, the the island of Maui in bronze bird native to flightless dodo is part Hawaii, the Po'ouli is the North American of the Columbidae also known as the continent acquired family, which also Hawaiian black-faced the name 'passenger' includes pigeons honeycreeper, due to on account of its and doves. mask-like markings. migratory habits. '03M39NVON3

'ONE FAMOUS PATIENT WAS GEORGE WASHINGTON WHO, ON HIS DEATHBED IN 1799, WAS BLED REPEATEDLY'

millennia, at least as far back as the Ancient Egyptians, it's not possible to pinpoint a definitive start date of heroic medicine.

Heroicmedicine

Anyoneup for bloodletting?KatieCutforthdelvesinto another scientifictheory that hasthankfullyfallen out of favour.

0rom leeches to lobotomies, the history of Western medicine has taken some gruesome twists. One approach to healing that was often feared more than sickness itself was 'heroic medicine' -a therapeutic method as old as time that was popularised in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Despite its noble name, the methods of heroic medicine would be considered highly aggressive by today's standards, and the practice began to fall out of favour in the later 1800s with advances in medical science.

Bleeding, blistering, purging: these were the main methods involved. The theory was that the body contains four 'humours'black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood -and that these

Bloodletting, top, was one aggressive method used by practitioners, including US founding father Benjamin Rush

would become unbalanced with illness. Heroic techniques were intended to restore this balance by manipulating bodily discharge and shocking the body back to health.

One of the most common practices of heroic medicine was bloodletting, also known as phlebotomy. Blood was thought to build up in excess and then stagnate in certain areas of the body, causing afflictions; and so removing this blood was believed to restore balance. Other techniques included excavation -using emetics and laxatives to induce the removal of bodily fluids -and the induction of extreme sweating by using toxic substances to create blisters on the skin. As such practices were performed in medical tradition for

However, the rapid acceptance of heroic techniques into mainstream medicine, especially in the US, is often associated with founding father Benjamin Rush, who founded the University of Pennsylvania's medical school and was considered 'America's Hippocrates'. The outbreak of yellow fever in Philadelphia in 1793 was a turning point. As the epidemic ravaged the city's residents, Rush treated afflicted people, including himself, with heroic techniques, such as bloodletting and purging. Modem scholars argue that Rush's methods did nothing but worsen the suffering of the victims of yellow fever he treated, and that in Philadelphia his cures were more dreaded by some than the disease itself.

Nonetheless, Rush passed on his belief in heroic medicine to many students, who then carried the tradition to other parts of the US. One famous patient was George Washington who, on his deathbed in 1799, was bled repeatedly and given blisters of cantharidin to induce sweating. Washington died shortly after receiving this treatment.

Even during its heyday, from around 1780 to 1850, heroic medicine wasn't without critics and, with the advent of modem medicine after the Industrial Revolution, it rapidly fell out of favour. Gentler courses of treatment were proven to be more effective and the idea of palliative treatment, with its emphasis on mitigating patients' suffering, became a primary focus of medical care.

The Tunguskaevent

Early one June morning in a remote area of central Siberia, people watched in awe as the sky split in two. Eyewitnesses described feeling the ground shake and seeing a blinding blue light moving through the sky. At the same time, the horizon erupted and produced a pillar of fire that divided before fading to black. A sound like gunfire echoed across the plains. Then a hot, rushing wind came, smashing windows, knocking people off their feet and leaving destruction in its wake.

®hat witnesses had felt was the effects of an object entering the Earth's atmosphere and causing a huge explosion, estimated to have been between three and five megatons in magnitude -a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. The Tunguska event, as this , phenomenon later became known, remains the largest recorded impact event on Earth -although much larger impacts occurred in prehistoric times.

The explosion flattened an estimated 80 million trees across an area of more than 2,000 square kilometres, and killed three people and many herds of reindeer. The impact occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate (now Krasnoyarsk Krai), Russia in a remote and sparsely populated area. None of the eyewitnesses -Evenki natives and Russian settlers in the surrounding areas -were nearer than 20 miles from the explosion, which in a populated area would have caused an unthinkable amount of death and destruction.

Hundreds of miles from the epicentre, people were knocked off their feet by the resulting shock wave. The explosion was picked up by seismic stations across Europe and Asia, and

airwaves from the blast were detected in the UK, Germany, Croatia and even Washington, D.C. in the US.

For days afterwards, night skies around the world were aglow with the aftermath of the event. In Sweden and Scotland, people claimed to be able to take brightly lit photographs without flashbulbs at midnight.

SHAPEDLIKEA BUTTERFLY

Despite the worldwide impact of the Tunguska event, the first scientific expedition did not reach the area until 1927, due to geopolitical distractions as well as the remoteness of the site.

The eventual expedition was led by Soviet mineralogist Leonid Kulik. Although almost two decades had passed, remnants of the explosion remained in the

area, and evidence pointing to its cause was collected. Kulik described finding an 830-square-mile butterfly-shaped area of destruction and around 80 million uprooted trees.

In the years that followed, researchers discovered microparticles in the area with an extraterrestrial origin, bolstering the theory that the explosion was caused by an object from space entering the Earth's atmosphere -although they were unable to determine its exact nature. Because no

•FOR DAYS AFTERWARDS, NIGHT SKIES AROUND THE WORLD WERE

The massive impact of the Tunguska event, illustrated above, uprooted around 80 million trees and was felt across the world

crater was ever discovered, the is rare in comets. There is some such as the Chelyabinsk meteor, Save object is assumed to have broken dispute that the Tunguska event which caused a similar but the date! up in the atmosphere, probably involved an extraterrestrial body. significantly smaller air burst exploding three to six miles The German astrophysicist over Russia in 2013. 0 International above the Earth's surface. Most Wolfgang Kundt suggested that Astronomers are continually Asteroid Day is scientists now agree that this the explosion resulted from the monitoring our cosmic held on 30 June, object was either an asteroid or a release and ignition of 10 million neighbours and assessing the marking the comet about the size of a tonnes of natural gas from risk of catastrophic comet and anniversary of the 25-storey building and travelling within the Earth's crust. Other asteroid impacts. Programmes Tunguska event. at a staggering 33,500 miles per research has pointed to the have been developed to identify Established in 2014 hour. As the object exploded, it 'verneshot' hypothesis -a potentially threatening near - by a group including created what is known as an air spontaneous volcanic eruption Earth objects (NEOs). Stephen Hawking, burst, resulting in a massive of magma or gas -though no In 2022, NASA'sDouble Rusty Schweickart shockwave and heat blast. shattered rock or gas vents that Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) and Brian May, the The glowing skies reported would support this theory have proved that we can send a occasion aims to around the world in the days been found in the area. spacecraft to push an asteroid raise public after the event suggest that there slightly in its orbit, if one was on awareness of were high levels of water vapour COSMIC NEIGHBOURS a dangerous collision course asteroids and the in the atmosphere, which is an We may never know for sure with Earth. The mission sent a risks they pose to argument in favour of the comet what exactly occurred on that spacecraft smashing into an our planet. hypothesis. On the other hand, summer morning in 1908. But a asteroid moon called Didymos B, the resin of the impacted trees huge body of research has been with the analysis concluding that contained material that is inspired by the Tunguska event it had been able to alter the commonly found in asteroids but and other meteoric phenomena, moon's orbit.

My homework buddy

Judy McGlashan

OMy father, J W Steward, was an authority on herpetology, and wrote books on the snakes and tailed amphibians of Europe. He kept a large number of reptiles in a conservatory, an outhouse and a large rock pool in our garden.

He bred snakes and terrapins, whose eggs were kept warm in a tin in our airing cupboard.

We even had a small crocodile until it outgrew its tank and found a new home in a zoo. My grandmother, who did the cooking in our house, would feed it on scraps of meat and terms of endearment.

All the creatures, which included lizards and tortoises, were caught in

the wild. My father taught me how to do this, and I managed to capture a grass snake and a couple of lizards myself.

The only vaguely tame one was a black rat snake. As an eight or nine-year-old in the 1950s, I was able to hold it, discovering that it particularly enjoyed being wrapped around my neck. My father explained that, being cold-blooded, it liked the warmth of my body.

This became my go-to comforter during challenging homework sessions, especially when dealing with the complexities of maths.

At the time this seemed perfectly normal but, reflecting on it now, it sounds much weirder.

Judyrecallsher

father, right, sharinghis knowledgeof catching reptiles in the wild and his passionfor herpetology

A large gecko claims , the shower room while, below, Paula witnesses a tarantula's demise

The sunbathing python

Paula Prince

Orn 2007, while travelling in India, my family stayed in Ranthambore National Park. After arriving at our accommodation, my seven-year-old daughter wanted to go for a swim in the hotel pool. When we asked reception for directions, the staff told us they were very sorry but the pool was not in use that day. There was a python sunbathing in it.

Sure enough, there was a huge python stretched out in all its glory. It stayed there for most of the week, so my

daughter never got her swim. On another occasion, after a day spent observing tigers in the jungle, my daughter went to take a brief shower. After a few minutes, she came out of the bathroom wrapped in her towel. "I'm sorry, mummy," she said,

"I just can't have a shower today!" "Why not?" I asked. She burst into tears: "Because there's a gecko watching me!" Sure enough, on the wall of the shower was a large gecko.

During another excursion, this time in Tobago in 1998, we joined a guided walk

Gambollingwith gorillas

Diane Rowe

0On a journey to Rwanda for the extraordinary opportunity to observe mountain gorillas, our group seized the precious 30 minutes allotted to observe these remarkable primates. While we watched a particularly imposing silverback, a youthful gorilla unexpectedly dashed from the trees and gave me a playful slap on the bottom. Taken aback, I spun around to face him. He looked back at me with a cheeky expression, reminiscent of a child suggesting, "You're it, now chase me." Given the situation, I thought it best not to engage in his playful challenge. My fellow travellers couldn't help but laugh.

through the rainforest. I suddenly saw a tarantula running towards me and I completely froze. I have suffered from arachnophobia since I was a child. The guide said, "It won't hurt you. It's terrified and wants to hide. A wasp is after it."

This did not improve matters. When I was nine years old, I was stung by a swarm of wasps and ended up in hospital. At that moment I heard a buzzing noise behind me. A huge wasp flew past, just as the tarantula was about a foot away from me. It stung the tarantula, paralysing it in seconds, then dragged it away. It was fascinating and terrifying to watch.

Above, meeting the chipmunks of Ranthambore National Park

Jetsof steam

Alan Glen

Oin November 2022, I embarked on the journey of a lifetime -a voyage to Antarctica. The expedition included landings on diverse terrains, from beaches and ice floes to rugged rocky shores. One unforgettable experience involved boarding an ice floe, where we strolled with a staggering 90 metres of water beneath our feet.

I encountered a variety of penguin species, including chinstrap, emperor, Adelie

Encounterswith elephants

Nikki Rothery

my second trip to South Africa in 2007, I had the pleasure of staying in Knysna, which left a lasting impression on me thanks to Knysna Elephant Park. I had the incredible opportunity to encounter some majestic African elephants, true gentle giants. The park allowed visitors to feed these remarkable creatures and observe them going about their daily routines.

African elephants, distinct from their Asian counterparts, are notable for their larger size and ears. Both male and female African elephants grow tusks, while only male Asian elephants exhibit this characteristic. Due to their size and

and rockhopper. In the midst of a blizzard, we even observed leopard seals lounging on ice floes. On our return voyage across the Drake Passage towards the Falkland Islands, an extraordinary sight awaited us -a super pod of whales. The air was filled with jets of steam, and as far as the eye could see, the exposed backs of cetaceans, both large and small, created a breathtaking spectacle.

temperament, African elephants are generally not domesticated. It was fascinating to learn that they also tend to live longer, with an average lifespan of around 60-70 years.

My adventures were not limited to captive elephants; during a wildlife park excursion, we had a tense moment with a wild and agitated elephant. The experience was undeniably intimidating, prompting a hasty retreat. Connecting with these beautiful creatures brought immense joy. I admire their intricate social structure, characterised by matriarchy. Or, as my guide put it, "The female is the boss".

Theamazingcapybara

Maria Luiza Faissal de Andrade

0I'm originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where I spent most of my life before moving to the UK about three years ago. Growing up in Rio, encountering capybaras was a familiar sight, especially during the sunny summer days. Even when I return to visit my family, these remarkable creatures are still part of the landscape. Typically, capybaras are active in the morning and tend to disappear at around midday.

Observing them as a child, I noticed their social behaviour.

Capybaras often move around in family groups, with mothers displaying a protective nature towards their young. Witnessing this maternal care was a common occurrence. If anyone got too close, the mothers would swiftly chase them away or make a distinct sound as a warning.

When I was little, I was super scared of capybaras, never daring to approach them closely enough to capture a good photograph. However, I found some photos my mum took of these amazing creatures.

Alan snaps rockhopper penguins with seabirds in Antarctica

Mensa MEMBER

Exhilarating and humbling

Elaine Mitchell

Orn 2023, my husband and I fulfilled a lifelong dream of embarking on an African safari adventure. After spending a few days along the Zambezi river at Victoria Falls and exploring the wildlife there, we proceeded to Pilanesberg National Park for the ultimate safari journey; our excursions were both exhilarating and humbling.

Our first wildlife sighting was breathtaking -a pride of 11lions sprawled across the road as we turned a comer. They lingered, allowing us a view of playful cubs, vigilant lionesses and two majestic lions, who maintained an unwavering gaze in our direction.

Later in the same safari, we encountered giraffes manoeuvring through the vegetation before crossing in front of us, providing ample opportunity for taking photos. The grand finale of this particular game drive was an unexpected encounter with a white rhino, who was lying across the track. His

'ONE OF

baby and its mother, who were about 50 yards away until curiosity brought them closer, finally slipped away into the undergrowth. The ranger, with a blend of horn blasts and engine revs, eventually persuaded the bull rhino to move -at his own pace.

Each species we encountered offered us unforgettable experiences, and every game drive left us with a trove of remarkable memories. Two instances stand out and demand recounting.

One afternoon, as we returned to the hotel for lunch, a procession of about eight Jeeps was halted by the presence of two leisurely strolling lions along the trail. In no rush, they sauntered for an astonishing five kilometres, occasionally stopping for a drink -a sight reportedly

THE ELEPHANTS

HALTED ON THE TRAIL CREST, FIXING ITS GAZE ON US'

quite rare. Nobody minded a delayed lunch that day!

The second memorable occasion, fondly dubbed our "Imodium moment", occurred on our final drive. A radio call summoned us to an area where a herd of elephants had gathered. Arriving with three other Jeeps, we witnessed adolescent male elephants engaged in a mild altercation. They crossed the trail only to return to their herd after a brief tussle. However, one of the elephants halted on the trail crest, fixing its gaze on us. Suddenly, he charged towards us, prompting swift evasive action by our ranger and the other Jeep. Our ranger's expertise, acquired from working with elephants in the wild and captivity, averted any harm. The elephant, asserting his authority, soon returned to the herd.

Our journey left us feeling privileged to have glimpsed the lives of these magnificent animals.

Avery determined tortoise

Jenny Turner

0In June 2019, I embarked on a fully escorted holiday to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. As a biologist with a deep connection to Charles Darwin, the Galapagos Islands had been on my travel wish list for many years. I refrained from visiting for a long time due to the high influx of tourists. However, once it was designated a National Park with stringent visitor restrictions, I deemed it the right time to explore.

Our small group of just six individuals experienced an amazing tour of Ecuador. At one point, we reached an altitude of over 4,000 metres in the Andes. Yet,the highlight of the journey was a five-day sailing trip around the Galapagos Islands. It surpassed all my expectations, and I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have had the chance to visit.

One memorable encounter occurred during a trip to a Galapagos Island when I came across a giant tortoise blocking our path. Despite the strict rule of maintaining a distance of two metres from the island's animals, the tortoise remained unmoved. We navigated past it slowly and cautiously, each person taking their tum, all closely monitored by a vigilant wildlife ranger.

t all started with elephants. "I'd love to know what the trigger was but I've always been obsessed with them," says Lizzie Daly. "Atthe age of six I knew I wanted to work with them. They're charismatic and the largest land mammal, yet they combine grace with enormous strength, and they're so intelligent and gentle. I could stare at them all day long."

Many a career dream fizzles away as the years pass by, but Lizzie stayed true to her ambition. When she's not filming TVwildlife shows, disappearing on expeditions or taking part in extraordinary endurance challenges, she can be found working away on a PhD exploring tagging technology for her elephant chums.

"AsI grew up, I started to learn about people like Joyce Poole (the American biologist who co-founded the conservation, research and campaigning organisation ElephantVoices)," says Lizzie. "She created an online library of elephant calls that I loved listening to. All the different rumbles and trumpets communicate different messages -it's extraordinary." Born in the ancient

German town of Kitzingen, in Bavaria, to a German father and Welsh mother, Lizzie and family moved to Cardiff while she was still young.

"I always loved being out and about, exploring the Black Mountains and the Brecon Beacons," she says. "I owe my love for the outdoors to the Welsh landscapeit has a special place in my heart."

Lizzie's parents encouraged her wanderlust and other burgeoning interests, such as science (she's "the only scientist in the family") and filmmaking.

"Alot of my friends loved the outdoors too and would come hiking with my dad and I through the woods," she says. "I loved the opportunity to share that experience with other people and I think that's where the interest in broadcasting came about. I started using an old flip camera that my parents had and I'd film anything I could from seals in the sea to snails in the garden, turning them into little stories."

Lizzie'sfilmmaking career began with a camera of her parents', which she used to film everything from seals to snails; left, carefully tagging a jaguar as part of a project to understand more about these elusive animals

It would prove a stepping stone to a television career. A BBCproducer noticed Lizzie's YouTube videos and invited her to audition for a CBeebies show called The Let's Go Club. She landed the role, becoming its wildlife presenter in 2016. This led to appearances on several other BBC programmes, including The One Show and Winterwatch - and, earlier this year, she hosted the Love Nature series Deep Dive Australia, which was screened in the UK on Sky. Another series called Jaguar Journals follows later in the year.

TRACKING PANTHERS

The latter series saw her scouring the wetlands of the Pantanal (a sprawling area across southern Brazil, and parts of Bolivia and Paraguay) in search of the largest cat species in the Americas.

"We follow the Brazilian scientists, who carry out daily observations of five jaguars," she says. "They're known to be very elusive animals so this place is mind-blowing because they are well established and can be seen regularly enough to build up a long-term understanding of their lives. The team

SWIMMING WITH JELLYFISH

O lfyou've encountered Lizzie Daly before, your first sighting may well have been one of her swimming with a giantjellyfish. These extraordinary images clocked up huge views on social media back in 2019, but it all happened by accident.

Lizzie had created a fundraising project, Wild Ocean Week, for her YouTube channel

and, at the end of the week, planned a trip to look for blue sharks. Poor weather conditions forced a change of plan and, with fellow filmmaker Dan Abbott, she ended up diving off the Cornish coast. The encounter with the barrel jellyfish happened by chance -and it was unusually large. A standard barrel jellyfish (also

known as a dustbin-lid jellyfish) is around three feet long, but this was more like five feet. Lizzie and Dan swam alongside it for an hour -despite its size, its sting is mild and it's not dangerous to humans.

"It really humbles you to be alongside an animal that size," Lizzie said at the time. "It's an experience we'll never forget."

working there is so passionate and they have completely blown the lid on what we know about jaguars as a species."

Does Lizzie ever feel in danger? "I've probably experienced an average amount of danger for the amount of time I've spent in the field," she laughs. "There have been moments with sharks, and getting charged by an elephant, but nothing too bad. The jaguars were interesting because they had to be collared, so you have to sedate them for long enough to do that, and collect samples, but not so long that it endangers them. When you're next to a 100-kilo male jaguar and his leg starts twitching, it does make you think."

But if that might seem adventurous enough for most people, Lizzie craves bigger challenges. "When we're putting a TV series together, it's obviously thoroughly planned and well thought through," she says. "And with some of the Arctic expeditions I've done, you do have a crew with you and so, although it's a big adventure, you know that you're relatively safe. So I wanted to know that I could survive by myself in extreme conditions."

The challenge she's referring to is running 140 kilometres solo across Finland in the depths of winter in 2022, with temperatures as low as -3TC. "I was completely alone, self-navigating and running through thick snow," she says.

"PEOPLE LIKE TO PUT YOU IN BOXES. I LIKE TO CHALLENGE THOSE PERCEIVED BARRIERS'

Above, Lizzie pushed herself to extremes during a solo run across Finland in 2022 to show herself that she could do it; left, drifting with and observing a sea turtle up close in the Sea of Cortez off Mexico

"My drinking water kept freezing and I experienced a little bit of frostbite."

Fortunately Lizzie's route took in some of Finland's wilderness cabins, allowing her to rest and warm up at night.

"Youhave to make sure you have enough daylight to get to your next location but if you run too hard and start sweating a lot, the sweat freezes and you can become hypothermic. There's all these little things you have to consider. I loved both the physical challenge and the mental challenge."

When we speak, Lizzie, who is also a drone pilot, had just returned from another assignment, this time in the Sea of Cortez off Mexico, filming blue whales. "We flew SnotBots into the blowholes of the whales to collect biosamples to build

a picture of the species in that part of the world," she says. A SnotBot is a modified consumer drone developed by the UK-based Ocean Alliance, a not-for-profit organisation committed to whale conservation. The SnotBot collects exhaled 'snot' on petri dishes, providing information on DNA,stress and pregnancy hormones, microbiomes, and other indicators of the animal's health and ecology.And importantly, it's non-invasive -the whales are not aware of the SnotBots and feel nothing. "It was phenomenal," says Lizzie. "I'm still buzzing."

Formerly an Outreach Fellow at Swansea University, Lizzie is now working on her PhD there. As mentioned earlier, this is focused on using tag technology to better understand the movements of wild animals, including elephants, in changing landscapes.

"I find it really difficult to maintain a successful career in broadcasting while dedicating the necessary time needed for a PhD," she says. "It's tough in terms of time management, but I get so much from both. I get a real sense of purpose with the broadcasting work, because I reach audiences that I never would with a scientific paper. But equally, research lays the foundation of our understanding of how the planet is changing, and so I think there's a lot of value in balancing these two interests." Part of Lizzie's mission is also to break down

stereotypes. "Science is at the heart of what I want to do," she says. "But people like to put you in boxes and I'm a little tired of the idea that you can't be an adventurous female expert and a scientist. I like to challenge those perceived barriers and I'd love to break the ceiling in terms of having more of a presence in the adventure scientist space on screen as a woman. Too many broadcasters or shows shy away from the science or think that maybe the audience isn't interested. So I'm keen to push for female scientists to be able to tell the story of science in an adventurous way."

Lizzie's also working on a platform to help young women develop outdoor skills in everything from identifying birds to mountain safety. "I'm passionate about empowering more women to develop confidence outdoors and become leaders," she says.

But would today's Lizzie Daly have any advice for her six-year-old self, stumbling bright -eyed upon the wonderful world of elephants?

"What I didn't realise when I was six was that it's not just about the elephants -people are half of the story when it comes to conservation, particularly given the climate crisis. My advice to my younger self? Believe in yourself. There are some people who will doubt you and challenge you but, if you take those moments as opportunities for growth, you can do anything."

FIVE QUICK QUESTIONS FOR LIZZIE

Favourite place in the world?

It's got to be Wales. In particular, the Pembrokeshire Coast means home to me. You know, that feeling when you've been away and then you suddenly see that beautifully lush coastline and wonderful sunset, and you're looking out for seals or you get the puffins returning to the islands in the summer. It's a very special place.

Who's your hero?

The primatologist Jane Goodall. Her career is phenomenal, she works so hard and she's such a wonderful ambassador for conservation.

Tell us something surprising about yourself. I can play the piano to grade eight.

What's for dinner tonight?

Probably something very boring -I'm an awful cook. I'm a veggie and should be more creative but it will probably be something like rice and vegetables.

The last book that you read?

Forget Me Not by Sophie Pavelle. It's her journey across Britain in search of species we should not forget in light of the climate crisis. She's a wonderful writer.

Wildly intelligent

"Isn't it bizarre that the most intelligent animal to ever walk Earth is destroying its only home?" Inspired by the words of primatologist Jane Goodall, we explore how our fellow passengers on this spinning planet are often much smarter than we think

WORDS: LEILAJOHNSTON

othing grabs a headline like a surprisingly smart animal. Nature is buzzing with pro puzzlers and complex thinkers, from octopuses solving mazes to pigeons doing maths. Even bees are cracking locks these days. It's a flurry of brainy excitement, but it serves a serious purpose, too. The conservation effort is energised through these kinds of stories, particularly when we humans manage to muster some humility.

Animal intelligence research has been transformed within living memory, and the moment we started to reconsider our human 'specialness', insights which shifted that worldview came flooding in. Jane Goodall's work with chimpanzees in the 1960s hailed a new era as non-human test subjects were credited with individual characters and named, rather than numbered. Today's highly principled scientists are acutely conscious of their dual role: undertaking groundbreaking research while shining a light on the many other kinds of minds with which we share a planet. PE

Dr Natalia Borrego safely caged while her lion study prowls

LION HEARTED

Dr Natalia Borrego researches the evolutionary drivers of cognition, and creates 'carnivore IQ tests'. She is a post-doctoral researcher with the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior at the Department for the Ecology of Animal Societies, and the Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour, in Germany, as well as the research associate at the Lion Center of the University of Minnesota in the US. Natalia researches animal behaviour and intelligence, and hopes her work will change perceptions.

"I want people to be aware that animals have more intelligence and more emotional capability than they're credited with," she says. "I want to show that they have different personalities, which even 20 years ago was a very taboo idea. I just want people to be aware that they are living, thinking beings."

While studying for her PhD in Wildlife Biology,Natalia grew interested in how and why animals evolve intelligence.

"Back in the day it was thought that humans were the only intelligent animals. Then it went to chimps. Then, as the years have gone on, we've realised intelligence is apparent in different forms

across the animal kingdom." Natalia started out by investigating the 'social intelligence hypothesis', which suggests that social behaviour puts pressure on animals to develop flexible thinking.

"Lions offer a great study system for this because they're the only social big cat," she says. "So we could create a framework of social lions and their asocial relatives." Nobody had looked at big cat intelligence in this way before.

"Mywork has a particular focus on hunting -an aspect where intelligence could make a difference," she tells me. "There are only a handful of studies that look at cognitive skills in lion hunting behaviour. One from the 90s indicates that, at least in Namibia, lions seem to behave like a rugby team, with right centres and wings. That indicates a high level of intelligence. But we've also seen individual lions take down giraffes. So we're wondering when and how they hunt together, and what kind of cognitive abilities they use when hunting. Do they have strategies?"

PUZZLE BOX PIONEER

As part of her pioneering investigations, Natalia creates experiments designed to test the levels and types of intelligence in

'I JUST WANT PEOPLE TO BE AWARE THAT ANIMALS ARE LIVING,

lions. There are videos of her 'puzzle boxes' online: beer fridge-sized containers with a door mechanism the big cats must figure out if they're to get their jaws around the hunk of meat inside. The footage is delightful: the languid beasts gently mauling at the box until they work out how to stop the door rebounding into their enormous heads; Natalia's reactions from inside a safety crate; even the way the humans are in cages while the lions happily explore outside. But the lions aren't the only ones being tested in these studies. Building a Rubik's Cube for the king of the jungle is a complex puzzle in itself.

"Lions are big and like to be destructive," Natalia laughs. "The first few designs we had were metal; they'd just crush them." Eventually, her team settled on high-density polyethylene, used for ship building.

The lions were good at solving puzzles, with some even learning the technique by watching their friends. "It turns out that lions are not as stupid and lazy as people thought. They conserve their energy but, once they figure something out, there's a lightbulb moment. They learn things, and seem to remember for quite a while."

So, exactly how smart are lions, compared to other creatures? Natalia explains why this might not be the right question to ask. "We can't say whether different creatures share the same capabilities, because animals' capabilities are determined by their needs," she says.

"With things like memory and problem-solving, a test for a lion is not going to be the same as a test for a leopard. An animal that has to cooperate might be better at observing others in the group. But even solitary animals have offspring and need some kind of social cognition -they need to recognise and work together with their offspring."

So, the type of intelligence an animal develops comes down to what it needs to be good at. For some creatures, a certain kind of memory is useful.

"Wolves,chimps, etc, have consistent dominance rankings, where they have to remember who's in their group as well as where they rank in relation to the others. You might expect a hyena to be able to do things that a lion never needs to. So it's not a question of what's comparable, so much as 'What would benefit this

animal, and do we see it?'" Perhaps most mesmerising are the signs of intelligence we identify in animals but can't fully explain as an immediate survival benefit. In one of Natalia's videos, an elephant steadily views itself in a mirror. The animal has a sticker on its face. It looks, it understands, the trunk moves up, and the sticker is gone. I tell Natalia how profoundly emotional I found this: an elephant that can recognise itself! She nods and smiles, eyes shining.

"Yeah.There are a lot of moments where you go: oh ...," she pats her heart. "This is a life."

MONKEY PUZZLES

It seems that if we really want to grasp what it's like to be a non-human animal, we need to get over ourselves. We must resist unhelpful urges to compare creatures to ourselves and one another, and we need to develop the selfawareness of an elephant looking in a mirror. Where to begin?

"Meet the animal where they are" is the advice of Dr Hyena Hirskyj-Douglas, director of the Animal-Computer Interaction Lab at the University of Glasgow and member of the Scottish Primate Research Group. Hyena works on interactive computer systems for animals in captivity, offering them opportunities to control their own environment. She gives these smart,

curious animals the freedom to exercise their minds. "The work I do is mostly with non-human primates," she tells me. "I work with monkeys and lemurs and also giraffes, and parrots in homes. My technology gives animals more choice over their enclosure. Animals typically have little choice in their lives, especially in managed care, like zoos. They don't get to decide whether to go inside or outside, leave lights on or off, etc."

Hyena tells me she's building on Professor Hannah Buchanan-Smith's work, which has shown that giving animals more agency improves their welfare and wellbeing. So why don't we hear more about tech for animals?

"There's very little technology that animals can use directly," she says. "This is in part because it's so incredibly hard to make. I mean, we spent decades working on the iPhone for humans, and it still goes wrong."

Even when things seem to be going well, fate can throw a spanner into the works. Hyena's team worked on a device for white-faced saki monkeys to control media in their enclosure. "It's a very cute, very curious, super shaggy looking,

Dr llyena Hirskyj-Douglas is a pioneer of tech for animals, including a 'dog phone', left, and interactive sensors, top left

sos-style monkey." Hyena smiles at the memory. "But how do you build a button for a monkey? They don't really do this pushing action that humans do; they don't have fine-detail fmger movements. So we tried giving them things to pull, and sliders. They used sliders the most."

Hyena's team successfully tested parts of the interface with the monkeys before putting them all together for the final device, but "as soon as we put it in the enclosure, they just didn't use it at all!" For these smart monkeys, the novelty had simply worn off.

"Youface these huge challenges of how to make something that's useful for an animal long term, but the biggest question is: how do you make something that's really beneficial to their lives? What is beneficial?"

All animals deserve this level of thoughtful enquiry, but tech for animals may not become mainstream until we allow our own supposedly sophisticated brains to become curious about other beings for their own sake. It will be a long haul, this work is still niche -but, like Natalia, Hyena is pushing the needle of public perception.

"I use the findings from this technology to show people how diverse, individual and wonderful these animals are," she tells me. "It's an all-fronts approach. I put it where the public can

see it. You see an animal in action doing stuff and you're like: hold on!"

Solid scientific proof is another reliable route to these 'a-ha' moments. Dr Suzana Herculano-Houzel is a biologist turned neuroscientist, known for her pioneering work 'souping' the brains of a wide range of creatures, in order to study their neurons.

HARD CELL

Suzana describes a 'cascade of assumptions', starting with the idea that human intelligence is related to the relatively large size of our brain. If more neurons are required to run a larger body, then larger animals might be expected to have larger brains. Our brains, by that reckoning, are about 7.5 times bigger than they need to be. "If that's true," says Suzana, "then humans are an exception. The theory is that this extra brain volume houses additional neurons that account for our unique intelligence. I've been investigating this -that larger animals need larger brains, that larger brains have more neurons. The bottom line is -no!" She shakes her head vigorously. "No to all of those assumptions!"

Suzana tells me she has found similar numbers of neurons in animals as different in size as rats and giant crocodiles. More important than brain

Dr Suzana HerculanoHouzel's work has given her a profound insight into the workings of animal brains

size or brain-body ratio is the number of associative neurons in the cortex.

"These give the brain flexibility," explains Suzana. "That's where the cortex is important. It allows us to discover patterns and make predictions."

Suzana considers this 'cognitive flexibility' to be a useful practical metric for intelligence, and reassuringly, our intuition about the most intelligent animals is generally supported by her research. Smart -seeming creatures do indeed tend to have higher numbers of cortical neurons. At 16 billion, humans dominate -but gorillas and orangutans aren't far behind, with eight billion. Chimps follow, then elephants, then dolphins. Baboons are level with the unexpectedly brainy T-Rex,at three billion cortical neurons. Parrots and crows boast a cool billion, twice the number found in raccoons. Indeed, Suzana points out that crows and raccoons are considered a nuisance precisely because of their sophisticated minds. "They're so damn crafty!"

MIND READING

There is something untouchable -almost sacred -about the brain. What does it do to a person to see a brain like that: a dazzling constellation of components responsible for every intention, every perception, every memory and idea? I

think of the way that returning astronauts, forever changed by their experience, desperately try to communicate the fragility of the Earth they've seen from space -a planet out of context, hanging peaceful and alone in the darkness. Talking to Suzana is like talking to someone who has been to space. I feel she's seen things most people never will, and that this has affected her very deeply. When I mention Carl Sagan, she nods. "Yes,"she says. "It's extremely humbling."

I wonder if Suzana believes her research will lead to a new appreciation of other creatures, as evidence mounts that animals are more similar to us than we would like to think. "I hope so," she says, then pauses thoughtfully. "But I hope it starts with the realisation that we're just one more animal. We happen to be the one that lucked out in affording our enormous number of cortical neurons. What brought us here is a history of opportunities, rather than being chosen or selected. We've an image of our ancestors winning a race over and over again. It's simply not accurate."

CLOSE COUSINS

How can we unravel some of these persistent myths without bruising our delicate human ego? Dr Gillian Forrester has a unique research framework that seems to benefit both animals and humans equally. An evolutionary and developmental psychologist, Gillian is one of the few researchers creating studies for humans and great apes, "using exactly the same experimental paradigm for all great ape speciesincluding us". Like Suzana, Gillian's research into language development has found that humans aren't as physically special as we might have hoped.

"We originally thought humans were unique in having parts of their brains dedicated to language," she tells me. "But natural selection doesn't really do that. You don't build new brain bits for different species -you cobble on top of what's already there." Our language capability is likely to have developed over very ancient brain systems.

"We think that language was originally physical; a gestural system. It probably involved our whole bodies, maybe whole scenes of gestures." About four million years ago our ancestors started walking

on two legs, freeing up their hands to make tools. The same types of tools have been found across multiple sites and down generations, suggesting a sophisticated communication system was in place. Gillian tells me that the process of making these tools may have helped catalyse the very language that allowed them to spread.

"Using and making tools requires you to put things in the correct order," she says. "It's very much like syntax. We now know that the bit of your brain that helps you solve problems with your hands is highly overlapping with the parts that control speech."

Not only do all great ape species have extensive gestural vocabularies, these are cultural -changing between groups. Gillian believes they could be a good proxy for our ancestors. "If they're toolusers and gesture users, they are probably showing the same kinds of behaviours we showed, as ancient humans," she says. "If we want to dispel the Dr Gillian Forrester's research explores the

fact that language is unique to humans, we need to show how it links to these older behaviours."

Ingeniously, Gillian and her team have developed a puzzle box that operates as a physical form of human syntax.

"It's a flat maze with lots of holes. You stick your finger in and move from top to bottom, to get a nut out of the hole." Some of the boxes represent nouns (you physically move the nut), some let you give action to the cogs without touching it; these are 'verbs'. Combined correctly, they represent abstract sentences.

"If the apes could solve them, it could be evidence that apes can use syntax," says Gillian, adding, "We use syntax to solve all sorts of problems that require hierarchical motor sequences. It's just about putting things in the right order. You use syntax to make a ham and cheese sandwich!" Some individuals in every group were able to solve the most

complex puzzles, and the fact that children with higher language ability were able to solve the bigger 'full sentence' boxes -even when age was removed from the equation -reinforces the idea that language and motor syntax are linked. If humans and animals hold the answers to one another's questions, we should all be trying harder to hear what creatures have to tell us.

"Based on our genetic proximity to them, we have to assume that animals feel the same things that we do," Gillian tells me. "They are likely to experience joy, love, fear, grief, can think ahead, can remember before. Evolutionarily, our brains are so similar. The only reason we don't afford other animals these capabilities is because they can't speak to us in human words."

Like the other researchers, Gillian's work has an outward-facing aspect. Much of what she shares is visually

"WE DON'T AFFORD ANIMALS THESE CAPABILITIES BECAUSE THEY CAN'T SPEAK TO us IN HUMAN WORDS' DR GILLIAN FORRESTER

captivating, and eminently shareablechipping away at public perception. She shows me some startlingly beautiful pictures of great apes taken with thermal imaging cameras, the bright colours showing a rush of blood to the eyes at moments of stress, "to increase vigilance". She has similar images of humans and, as you look between them, you see the human in the animal, the animal in the human, and the rippling energy oflife in both.

Intelligence in the animal kingdom is functional. It's as mundane and rational as it is astonishing -and it's increasingly apparent that it's everywhere. Humans cannot afford to ignore it. We have a raft of issues to resolve rather urgently, all of which are exacerbated by our habitual distance from the natural world. But we are all capable of glimpsing the larger picture. Perhaps intelligence is not the end of a story about humans 'winning', it's the light behind a much bigger door that we are only just beginning to open.

• Try our Animal Magic quiz on p56 to test what you know about the talents of our fellow creatures.

overlap of gesture and language among great apes

hen Tim Feherty arrived in South Africa for the first time, he was feeling anxious. Although excited to be working as a photography coordinator on a wildlife reserve, it was a new country, a new job and a new culture. "When I arrived at the reserve in the dark, my new boss apologised that everyone else was asleep and led me to my cabin," says Tim. "Then he said: 'Welcome to Africa -look up.' As soon as I did that and saw the stars, all of my fears evaporated. I'd never seen the Milky Way like that before. It was humbling, It made me feel fantastically insignificant and, if I was insignificant, then so were all of my problems. It was a lovely moment."

Born and bred in Bangor, Northern Ireland, Tim had lived there until the age of 25, picking up a degree in Visual Communication at nearby University of

Ulster (Belfast campus). He then embarked on a five-year spell working on cruise ships as a photographer.

"Photography has always been a very Zen place for me," says Tim. "When you're focusing so deeply on something else, it makes you stop thinking about yourself. I find it a relief to stop worrying about the problems of the world and just focus on the task in hand."

Then, in 2014, serendipity took Tim to Africa. Looking for a change of direction, a chance conversation in a pub led him to contact an organisation called African Impact that runs volunteer programmes in conservation, including wildlife photography. It just so happened that a photography coordinator role had become available, and Tim walked straight into the job -moving initially to KwaZulu-Natal, where he was greeted by that memorable starry sky.

A few months later, he moved to Hoedspruit, near South Africa's Kruger National Park, and his job expanded to include designing the wildlife photography course for volunteers.

Supported by guides, he would then escort the volunteers around the reserve in vehicles to see the animals close up, help them develop their photography skills, and also build their understanding and respect for nature.

"Aswith anything in photography, the better you know your subjects, the better your pictures," says Tim. "Take hipposthey are mostly nocturnal because they don't deal with sunlight very well. So, at sunset, they start to move around and do a bit of stretching. That gave us wonderful opportunities to find them at a waterhole as the sun was setting behind them. We also taught the photographers that the welfare and safety of the animals is paramount. For example, using a camera flash on nocturnal animals can potentially blind them. Using a flash on rhinos or elephants at a watering hole can be really uncomfortable for them because of their sensitivity to light. I've seen it done, unfortunately, but however dramatic the shot might be it doesn't justify doing that."

And how do you know if you're getting too close? "The animal has two circles," says Tim. "The inner circle is its fight or flight zone, the outer circle is its safety zone. So if you infringe on that wider circle, and it obviously varies from

Understanding animal behaviour is key to capturing wildlife shots, such as this mighty hippo at sunset

"IT'S THAT MOMENT WHERE THE ANIMAL LOOKS AT YOU AND YOU'RE EITHER FOOD OR NOT ... YOU'VE PUT YOURSELF BACK IN THE FOOD CHAIN'

animal to animal, they'll start to give you warnings -an elephant might flap its ears, stamp its feet a little bit or trumpet, while a snake will sit up and make itself look bigger. There's a beautiful saying in Africa that snakes don't bite people, people let themselves get bitten. If you don't read the snake's or other animals' behaviour, it's their territory and it's your fault. A snake has no interest in humans as a food source so the only reason they would waste venom is if they are feeling threatened."

There have been times when Tim has been very close to animals on the reserve, so understanding those circles can prove a matter of life and death.

"I was in a Jeep with no doors when we came across a pride of lions," he says. "So we just sat there, watched them and tried to get photographs, which is quite difficult because lions just lie around for most of the time. However, whether we disturbed them slightly or it was just time to move, they all got up and started walking past us. There was the lioness first, then three juveniles, then another lioness and, what we hadn't previously realised, a male behind them. He spotted us and shook his head a little. They ignored us but walked within about two metres of the vehicle. I froze. I didn't want to take a photograph just in case the noise did something. But it's that moment where the animal looks at you and you're either food or not, and the choice is not yours. You've put yourself back in the food chain."

Tim held his nerve as a male lion asserted its authority and moved within metres of the guide's Jeep

'THE CHEETAHS DISAPPEARED AND THE SIGHT OF ALL OF THE VULTURES REALISING THEY HAD THE KILL TO THEMSELVES WAS EXTRAORDINARY'

Left, the honey badger and Tim's favourite animal after having witnessed a remarkable scene; above, an opportunistic hyena steals a cheetah's kill after seeing off dozens of vultures

"Of course, the lion identifies things differently to us," he adds. "It sees a truck with six people on it as one entitysomething that moves around the reserve but doesn't really bother them apart from making noises. That's why the guides stop people from standing up on a vehicle because it changes the outline. The vehicle becomes bigger, which the lion might interpret as aggression."

Another scary moment came on a night drive through the reserve when an elephant crossed the road and was angered by the headlights. "It started chasing us down the road," recalls Tim. "The guide was fantastic -he reversed at about 30 miles an hour all the way back."

Some of Tim's most striking experiences involved big cats on the hunt. "I remember that we spotted these two cheetahs," he says. "Youcan often tell by their behaviour that they're hunting because they're always looking around and maybe chirping. The noise that cheetahs make is almost like miaowing -they're the only one of the big cats that

don't roar. When they saw us they dashed off but we found them about 200 metres down the road and they were on a kill (an impala), which can be pretty brutalnature at its most powerful. They take it in turns to eat while the other one keeps a lookout as cheetahs are the weakest of the big cats.

"Then, within about 10 minutes, the vultures started to appear. Another 10 minutes later, there were about 60 of them. The more brazen ones would come in and one of the cheetahs would chase them off. But then more of them moved in and eventually the cheetahs gave upit's not worth their while because if they get injured they can't feed or defend themselves against predators.

"So the cheetahs disappeared and the sight of all of the vultures realising they had the kill to themselves was extraordinary. The big boys go in first because their beaks are really sharp and they can tear through the hide, plus they're big enough to fend off the smaller vultures. So there's this hierarchy, and

'WE WERE VERY CLOSE AND THAT WAS OBVIOUS FROM THE LEOPARD'S BEHAVIOUR BECAUSE IT STARTED SNARLING AND HISSING'

then the smaller ones get their tum. They were at it for about 20 minutes or so until someone else arrived on the scene. It was a hyena. Hyenas are very hardy and more used to fighting than cheetahs, so it came bulldozing in and chased all the vultures away. Hyenas get a really bad reputation and it's all because of Mr Walt Disney. But they are fantastic family creatures and superb hunters. The last shots I got were of the hyena wandering away with most of the kill in its mouth."

Another standout moment was a close encounter with a leopard. "One of the guides had spotted a leopard making a kill the night before," says Tim. "After doing that, leopards tend to stash the kill up in a tree and then sleep off the hunt, because it takes up a lot of energy for one animal. So we were given a rough idea of where the leopard might be and, unusually, went offroad in search. The guide was just trying to navigate around bush and logs and rocks and things,

when we turned a comer and there's the leopard, right there on the kill. So we were very close and that was obvious from the leopard's behaviour because it started snarling and hissing.

"So the guy said, we've got five seconds, take your shots and then I'm moving backwards. He didn't go backwards immediately because the leopard would interpret that as erratic behaviour. So we stopped, paused for five seconds and then started moving backwards slowly about 50-60 metres until the leopard relaxed. The guide then left the engine running so that the leopard got used to it and, every now and then, we slowly moved 10 metres closer again, until the leopard was still comfortable but we had a really good view. It just took our breath away. It was such an incredible sight because leopards are so elusive.

"However, after about 15 minutes, we heard another Jeep approaching and they

Tim framed this astonishing image of a leopard up close as it warned off any intruders, who might have dared to steal its porcupine dinner

African adventure

were so loud -the people were cheering and hollering. The leopard heard them because it stood up and posed beautifully, framed by the tree with the porcupine in its mouth. Then it vanished. The idiots in the other Jeep never got to see it."

Tim's African adventure lasted three years. He wanted to stay and start a tour operator business but that was scuppered by the pandemic. He's now back in Bangor working as a wedding and portrait photographer, but he has been back to South Africa a couple of times.

"The last time I went was just for fun," he says. "I stayed in Hoedspruit and got great shots of kingfishers feeding, and the bush babies coming down at night. The owner had set up a hose underground running to a little bowl. When we turned it on, animals such as

kudus or warthogs would use it as a watering hole, so we had our own little pseudo wildlife spot; it was wonderful."

"Africaspoiled me," he adds. "And I can't do a wildlife interview without mentioning my favourite animal. It's the honey badger, and it all stems from witnessing a lioness attacking one on the reserve. It had the honey badger's head in a vice-like grip in its jaws but it would not give up. It was clawing away at the lioness's face and, at the end ofit, that lioness knew she had been in a fight. For 21 minutes, the honey badger struggled on before eventually dying. The lioness got its meal but I fell in love with the honey badger that night. They have a reputation for being aggressive but they're just defending their territory. They're superb creatures."

"Africa spoiled me" says Tim as he thinks back to his remarkable three-year wildlife experience

A magical image of a kingfisher claiming its prize from a hosepipe ·watering hole' at Hoedspruit

Sharpen your mind and expand your horizons at Mensa at Cambridge 2024

Thursday12-Sunday15 September,SidneySussexCollege,Cambridge

Join us in beautiful Cambridge for four days of inspiring presentations, good food and hospitality in the superb historical surroundings of Sidney Sussex College.

Our international conference has once again attracted speakers from a wide range of backgrounds, who will share their expert knowledge and analysis with us. As always, delegates will have the opportunity to ask questions and take part in discussion after each talk.

So if you enjoy high-quality presentations and great company, all within a city of world-changing discoveries, history and culture, then do join us this September!

Full package price: £650 (includes talks, all meals and gala dinner, accommodation, refreshments and a dedicated hospitality room).

Flexible payment option: spread the cost across three instalments. Call 01902 772771 to set up.

DON'T MISS OUT ON OTHER UPCOMING MENSA EVENTS

• Mensa Games Tournaments (heats run until October)

• Mensa Golf Championship (Friday 5 July, Stratford-upon-Avon)

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• Mensa Music Weekend (Thursday 8-Sunday 11 August, Rugby)

• Scottish Mensa Annual Gathering (Friday 23-Monday 26 August, Dumfries)

• British Mensa Annual Gathering (Thursday 24-Monday 28 October, Leeds)

• Mensa Games Weekend (Saturday 16-Sunday 17 November, Birmingham)

We can all transform our mindsets, says Nicole Vignola

Your feedback in an expanded Brickbats & Bouquets

RESEARCH, INSIGHTS, MENSA NEWS AND E TS

Blowing away the cobwebs

Chris Hudson, editor of the Rambling & Mountaineering SIG newsletter, on al fresco dinner parties and the role of pubs ©

hris Hudson's first experience of a day out with the Rambling & Mountaineering SIGwas certainly one to remember.

"Organised by Scottish Mensa, it was intended to be a sixcourse dinner party on the top of Skiddaw, in the Lake District," he recalls. "Because of bad weather, we didn't actually make it to the top, so we settled for a sheltered gully about halfway up. We carried everything up ourselves -tables, chairs, cutlery, condiments and, of course, food and wine."

It was here that Chris met Stephen Nelson, who became secretary of the group. "Stephen organised lots of great activities, such as our annual event at The Coppermines, Coniston (again in the Lake District), where we would take over the old foreman's cottage

Chris, bottom right, has roamed far with the group, including to the Lake District, where a foreman's cottage, above, is a handy event venue for a few days. Other regular events were monthly outings to the Malvems, plus a country walk every month organised by coordinator Bob Berry (west Warwickshire and Worcestershire) and myself (east Warwickshire and Northamptonshire). These are nearly always circular; starting and finishing in pubs. Certain pubs remain firm favourites."

SWITCHING HATS

Chris's enjoyment of walking led "':;:::;~:----- him to edit Compass, the 1 °" group's newsletter. "I put ----~:.:......: 2~~Utogether an editorial, which is really a personal diary with one or two interesting stories from newspapers. Politics and religion are most definitely

out, and anything too topical that might feel dated by the time the newsletter appears. The rest of Compass is made up of book and film reviews, and extended articles on people like George Mallory and Alison Hargreaves. "The letters page is a problem because I haven't been able to get one going," says Chris. "People just won't send me letters! Contributing articles is another problem but just recently I've been lucky with one or two interesting ones. I also write short stories from time to time and include them in the newsletter. Newspaper articles, suitably rewritten, and poetry are other ways of getting 12 pages off to Mensa Head Office every eight weeks."

Alexandra Rojas on how to spot warning signs of stress

Are you feeling stressed?

Feelingstressedon a regularbasis can havea seriousimpacton our health. Mensa member and nutritionaltherapistAlexandra Rojaspicksout eightcommon warningsignsto lookout for.

®e're all familiar with the word 'stressed' referring to a person's state, making it easy to forget that our human biology is not adapted to endure it for prolonged periods of time. Yet unfortunately, prolonged stress is a reality for many -and is recognised as a universal premorbid factor associated with risk factors for many chronic diseases. Here are eight physical manifestations of stress to look out for -and the ways in which they affect us.

IHEADACHES AND MIGRAINES

Stress is a common trigger for tension headaches and migraines. For some, stress can make headache episodes more painful and contribute to

chronic headaches, with sufferers experiencing pain more than twice per week. Only two consecutive days of high stress are strongly predictive of headaches, whereas two days of low stress can be protective. The reason for the link could be due to chronic stress activating an opioid-mediated, pain-modulating mechanism, with an initial reduction of pain to allow our bodies to respond to a perceived threat. But then, with repeated activation, it leads to an increased pain sensation.

2 SHALLOW BREATHING

Our respiratory rate (the number of breaths we take per minute) increases during states of fear or anxiety, with less time spent exhaling carbon dioxide

'IF WE ARE STILL IN FIGHT OR FLIGHT AT BEDTIME, OUR MELATONIN LEVELS WON'T RISE SUFFICIENTLY TO NUDGE US TO SLEEP'

(expiratory time). Anticipation of fear or anxiety also increases respiratory rates, which decreases the amount of oxygen going to vital organs and does not allow for detoxification via our breath.

3 POOR DIGESTION

Chronic stress is linked to the dysregulation of our gut-brain axis. Our central nervous system (in our brains) and enteric nervous system (in our guts) coordinate the hormones and enzymes we need for digestion via two key processes: mechanical and chemical. Stress impairs both of these abilities, resulting in a triad of digestive issues: these are low stomach acid, insufficient digestive enzymes and low gut motility (movement).

4 LOWLIBIDO

Long-term activation of our fight or flight mechanisms can lead to the development of sexual dysfunction in the mid to long term. Mechanisms aren't well understood but one hypothesis is that chronic activation of cortisol reduces the availability of gonadic steroids e.g. sexual hormones, such as testosterone, oestrogen and progesterone, all of which play crucial roles in libido for men and women.

5 PMS SEVERITY AND IRREGULAR PERIODS

Studies report that women with high levels of perceived stress present with dysmenorrhea -painful periods -due to the interlink between adrenaline and cortisol, which increases the synthesis of pain mediators (prostaglandins) and can promote uterine contractions. Similarly, excess cortisol reduces available raw material to synthesise hormones, such as progesterone and oestrogen, which are key for a healthy menstrual cycle. It is no surprise that some women under intense stress can skip a period or lose it altogether for months.

6 MUSCLE TENSION

THINK TANK

Walks in nature, forest bathing and other calming pursuits send vital messagesto your brain and ease the stress mechanism

Most of us have experienced muscle tension during temporary stress but, with constant stress activation, it can become chronic. Magnesium metabolism could be at play. A review found muscle tension is associated with a magnesium-depleted state. In addition, magnesium and stress create a vicious cyclestress increases magnesium loss and a magnesium-depleted state can make the body more susceptible to stress.

7 INTERRUPTED OR SHORT SLEEP

Stress and sleep are intertwined, and they feed each

other within a negative feedback loop. Studies show that stress impacts our sleep stages, resulting in less deep sleep.

This stage is thought to be the most restorative as it allows our bodies to recover from daily stressors. Deep sleep can be achieved at the rise and during the peak of melatonin release (our sleep hormone). For most, this is between 10pm and 2am; however, if we are still in fight or flight around bedtime, our melatonin levels won't rise sufficiently to nudge us to sleep.

8 LOSS (OR INCREASE} OF APPETITE

Stress can cause you to overeat or undereat. For acute stressors, hunger tends to decrease as it allows the body to concentrate on the immediate threat. When chronically activated, cortisol can play a role here though the mechanism isn't dear. It may be related to insulin release and the impact on a hormone called ghrelin, which influences how hungry we feel.

Stress cannot be eliminated but it can be managed so that it doesn't become a chronic state. It's important to listen to our bodies' cues early on and ensure we send the right signalling back to our brains that we'll be alright. There are so many things you can do to send that signal. The most powerful are actually free and can be done in less than five minutes at a time: try singing, humming, dancing, slow purposeful breathing, meditation, prayer, mind-body practices like Qigong, petting an animal, spending time with children or the elderly, a walk outdoors, forest bathing or looking at nature, a bath, a cold shower, sex, a cup of herbal tea, a chat with a friend ...the list goes on. Take care.

• Contact Alexandra at www. alexandrarojashealth.com

Do you find yourself held back by a pattern of negativethoughts?If so, neuroscientist

NicoleVignolabelievesshe can help. In her new book REWIRE, she explainshow we can all transform our mindsetsby understandingneuroplasticity.

0he three-pound universe sitting in your skull consists of 100 billion neurons with trillions and trillions of connections that work together to create your own internal world, one that is influenced by the outside world yet will never be experienced by anyone else.

The neurons in your brain are responsible for communicating information, and the more we repeat something, the stronger the pathways of communication become -like a small footpath that turns into a dirt road that eventually becomes a tarmac highway. Neuroscientists even have a fun phrase for this term: neurons that fire together, wire together.

So when we continuously repeat thoughts to ourselves like 'I am not good enough', the brain perpetuates this thought, strengthening it, and it becomes deeply ingrained.

Without even realising it, you're repeating this narrative in the background like the soundtrack to your life. When certain actions, responses or behaviours become ingrained and performed almost instinctively, without a conscious and deliberate decision-making process,

REWIRE Break the Cycle, AlterYourThoughts and Create Lasting Change

Change

Your Mind, Change Your Life

NICOLE VIGNOLA

Nicole Vignola's page-turner opens our minds to the possibility of shedding unhelpful behaviours and beliefs by reprogramming our brains

we call this automaticity. This is how you can find yourself going down a very familiar route with your train of thought; it happens almost automatically. When we repeat certain things, the message between these neurons is transmitted more easily and, before you know it, you've reinforced a belief that seems impossible to shake.

This works both ways, though. We can learn and strengthen pathways but we can also weaken them over time. Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to change and adapt in response to the internal and external factors that shape it. The connections, functions and structures of the neurons reorganise themselves in response to repetitive input.

For a long time, neuroscientists thought that the brain was incapable of change after we reached a certain age, but more recently we've learned that the brain can change in adulthood.

It may be harder to do so in our older years but not impossible; it just requires a little more concerted effort. In fact, the molecular structures of the brain, invisible to the naked eye, all suggest that the brain is

With her new book, Nicole hopes to make neuroscience accessible for everyone and ultimately change people's lives by sharing this 'secret' of our brains

designed to change, and it is arguably one of the most important aspects of our neurobiology. It allows us to learn new things and unlearn unwanted behaviours, and means that we can adapt according to our circumstances and new experiences. The brain quite literally reorganises itself to create new synapses and form new connections.

A synapse is a tiny gap that allows neurons to communicate with one another. At the synapse, one neuron sends a message to another. This is where the exchange of information takes place using chemicals called neurotransmitters.

Our brain is a remarkable piece of machinery that we can programme and continue to upgrade so that we can live a full life that's governed by autonomy and control. You are in control of your life. You can change at any age, and you can break free from the negative narratives and self-limiting beliefs that hold you back from taking control of the steering wheel.

What prompted you to write this book?

My aim was to make neuroscience accessible to

'OUR BRAIN IS A REMARKABLE PIECE OF MACHINERY THAT WE CAN PROGRAMME AND CONTINUE TO UPGRADE SO THAT WE CAN LIVE A FULL LIFE'

people. But more importantly, I wanted to help people understand why they behave in certain ways.

When they gain an understanding of what is happening in their brains and how to change it, they start to realise that it's not them, but it's their brains!

This helps individuals gain autonomy in navigating everything from low self-esteem, bad habits and our negativity bias to growth mindset and mental resilience.

Can neuroplasticitybe embraced by everyone acrossthe spectrum of neurodiversity?

Yes,neurodiverse brains are capable of neuroplasticity, Varying neurodiversities will mean that individuals will need to take a more individualised approach and tailored strategy to help navigate change, but neurodiverse brains are capable of creating

new pathways in the brain should they wish to. I want to highlight the challenges that neurodiverse individuals encounter in a world that expects them to change.

I aim to bring attention to the fact that neurodivergent people are capable of making new habits and adopting

healthier patterns of thinking in a way that serves them.

Can you give us one simple tip for optimisingour brains?

One of the lowest-hanging fruits for brain health is proper hydration -even a 2% dehydration can reduce our cognitive function and brain processing speed. To make faster and better decisions, hydrate efficiently, particularly first thing in the morning.

• Rewireby Nicole Vignola is published by Penguin MichaelJosephon 9 May.

Brickbats &bouquets

ALIENLIFE

I was heartened to read the article about alien life (November/December, p28-33). I've always leaned towards the view that there has to be alien life out there. The logic that we are the only life forms in existence sitting on a tiny planet in the middle of a massive solar system seems more ridiculous than the alternative.

The fact that my childhood was awash with Star Wars and Star Trek stories certainly fed into my adventurous nature. Many myths, religions and legends describe our relationship with beings with remarkable powers -could it be that our subconscious is calling out to the universe? Have beings from remote universes supported humankind through some of our biggest challenges? The thought that one day our messages sent into deep space may be responded to is both exhilarating and scary. Maybe that 'contact' will be a harbinger ...when our current reality and legends fuse

to a more coherent holistic understanding of the universe and our place in it. I'll keep that date in my diary -2035!

Sarah Prime

WASPLATORIGHT?

Reading the article on Limitarianism (March/April, p48-49), I was reminded of Part 4, Section 3 Final Provisions for Unity, in Plato's The Republic, where he says that both wealth and poverty ruin and corrupt. He thinks that the rich will become idle and careless, as wealth produces luxury and a desire for novelty. When a state has too many wealthy people it is likely to cause destabilisation of the state and social cohesion will suffer. This will be especially apparent in times of war, where it may be fatal to the state. It's good to see that Plato's ideas are still alive after so many years.

Nick Pal

MIMRAM AND FOULMIRE

Thank you to Bee Hall for her very interesting article about c:...·---Qs--

GETIN TOUCH

If you have anything you'd like to share with us. email editor@mensa.org.uk or write to us at IQ, Think Publishing, 65 Riding House Street. London. W1W7EH

The digitalpostman broughtus a bulgingbag of correspondencefor this issue-here are someof the emailsthat caughtour eye

place names (March/April, p44-47). Her example of an accidental change for the better(S)nottingham -reminds me of two examples more local to me, both with more deliberate PR intentions. Firstly, the name River Mimram, in Hertfordshire, was considered too racy /vulgar by the Victorians, who took out the unacceptable 'ram' and called it the River Maran. However, in more recent times, it has reverted almost universally to its original spelling.

Secondly, Fowlmere is a village in Cambridgeshire with a watery RSPBnature reserve, making for an accurate descriptive name. However, I discovered through Victorian maps and railway plans that it was then officially called 'Foulmire', which no doubt was also an accurate description at the time!

Peter Neville

BALFOURON PALESTINE

Re: 'Bob's your uncle' (March/ April, pll) -the reference to the Balfour Declaration of1917 is

UMITAIIIANIS~I by IngridRobeynsarguesthat awealthcapshouldbeimposedon the 'super rich'toreduceinequalityandcreatea happier, lessenvioussociety.It'sa viewsureto provoke debate, if notalwaysa predictableone.Inthis exclusiveextractfor IQ,Ingridsetsouthercase.

incomplete. The full text reads: "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being dearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

Whilst Stephen references the first part of this, many modern politicians seem to have forgotten the second. The issue of Israel and Gaza has been extensively debated in Polyphony (the Politics SIG newsletter) and I'm grateful to editor Antony Robin for reproducing the full text.

Alan Scott

TRULYMAGICAL

I enjoyed the Hey Presto article (March/April, p30-37). I've been a magical entertainer for almost 60 years, starting when I was 13. I have been an escape artist, a mentalist (mind reader) and, mainly, a children's entertainer. However, my favourite audience has been adults with learning difficulties. My working life has been truly magical.

Charles H Temple

NOT MY CUP OF TEA

In the Mind Games quiz (January /February, p63), question 15 asks 'which herb gives Earl Grey tea its distinctive flavour?' The answer is 'bergamot' -but bergamot is a type of orange not a herb.

Gerry Bell

5% SAGADISCOUNT

I recently joined the Saga Travel Group as an independent travel advisor and learned during training that Mensa members receive a 5% discount with Saga. Who knew? I've been a member for more than 35 years and this was news to me. I'd really appreciate the opportunity to let members know about this, particularly as many are aged over 50 and still bright and active enough to take advantage.

Samantha Gore-Lyons

PHILIPPALANGLEY

We'd like to clarify three minor points made in the interview with Philippa Langley in the March/April 2024 issue of IQ.

Expanding on the Balfour clause, left; points of order in Philippa Langley's quest for Richard Ill

e While Philippa paid for the archaeological search and dig for the R3 project, the exhumation licence was applied for by her archaeological contractor, the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS).

• Philippa was misquoted in saying that Richard Ill "usurped" the throne. As she went on to explain in the article, she challenges that view of the much-maligned king.

• The screenwriters for TheLost King film were Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope.

Election notice

Nominationsare invited for electionto the BritishMensa Board

®e are looking for three new Directors to join the Board of British Mensa to support in the transformation of the society, which is designed to improve our membership growth and engagement, and ensure the continued success of British Mensa.

The Directors will serve a three-year term, beginning in October 2024, and will join the six Directors continuing their terms on the Board. We are particularly seeking applicants

with knowledge, skills and experience in financial management, risk management and safeguarding to supplement the knowledge, skills and experience of current Board members. Nominees should be well-organised, willing to take on projects, and have the ability to work collaboratively and as part of a team. Those elected will be given an induction

We're seeking new Directorsfor our Board. Could it be you?

2024 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING: HOW TO SUBMIT A MOTION

The Annual General Meeting (AGM)will be held on Saturday 26 October at the Hilton Hotel, Leeds. To submit a motion, the proposer must obtain the signatures of another 10 members of British Mensa in support of the motion. A motion may be

accompanied by a supporting statement of not more than 1,000 words. The deadline for submitting motions for consideration is 12 noon on Friday 28June.

• For full details of how to propose and submit a motion, and how the

Governance Advisory Committee can help advise you on your submission, visit mensa. org.uk/2024-agm. To receive a hard copy of this information, please contact Carolyn Skitt on 01902 392513 or email administration@mensa. org.uk.

and be supported in their roles by fellow Board members. Serving on the British Mensa Board requires a considerable amount of time, and nominees should be prepared to set aside on average five hours per week and, additionally, attend full-day Board meetings approximately five times a year, two Board Workshop weekends and the AGM.Nominees should also be aware that the Directors of the company assume the considerable legal and fmancial responsibility that is inherent in that position. To stand for election, a member must have a nominator and 10 supporters and submit a personal statement in support of their nomination along with answers to questions about their experience and views on the society, and a photo of themselves, by 12 noon on Friday 31 May 2024.

• The nomination pack is available at mensa.org. uk/2024-election-notice as well as details of the election process and information about the Election Committee, which ensures that the elections are conducted fairly. For a hard copy of this information, please contact Carolyn Skitt on 01902 392513 or email administration@mensa. org.uk.

Mensa=

IN THE MENSA COMMUNITY YOU CAN:

Engagewith like-mindedindividuals:foster connections and explore what it means to be a member of Mensa.

Take part in vibrant online discussions:discuss an infinite number of topics and talking points. JoinSpecialInterest Groups(SIGs):share information within your specific areas of interest, revitalising the SIG experience. Enjoystreamlined communication:connect seamlessly with volunteers and Mensa Head Office. Be part of a supportiveenvironment:ask for advice, encouragement or assistance from your Mensa peers.

ALREADY A THRIVING HUB!

• Many members have enthusiastically taken to Mensa Community since its launch, participating in conversations on a multitude of topics.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION TODAY!

• Mensa members can log in to Mensa Community

and start connecting straight away. Smartphone users can save the platform to their home screen for convenient access and app-like notifications, ensuring you never miss a Mensa beat.

• If you haven't signed up yet, log in usingyour My Mensa logindetails at community.mymensa. mensa.org.uk

MensaInternationalUpdate

running in time for member validation as part of the International Elections this year.

FROMYOUREXCOMM

Ann Rootkin,British Mensa

0n October 2023, the IBD said goodbye to British National Representative Chris Leek, who has been a consistent driving force in Mensa International for 25 years. This was brought about due to a 2022 change to British Mensa's governing documents. These now limit directors' three-year terms to two in succession, although it is permissible to stand again after a two-year break.

Chris will be sorely missed, both by British Mensa and Mensa International, and it now falls to me to take his place on the Executive Committee. I hope I can even partially live up to his excellent record!

Consequently, I found myself in London, on a cold January weekend, for a faceto-face meeting of the International Executive Committee (ExComm). Although we had a brief meeting prior to the IBD weekend in Dallas, this was my first "real" meeting and I was a little nervous. However, I was made very welcome by all the longstanding ExComm members, and didn't find them nearly as intimidating as I had feared!

Over the course of the weekend, we discussed a number of topics, which included the five elected officer positions on ExComm (Chairman, Treasurer, Director of Administration, Director of Development and Director of Small

National Mensas), which are up for election this year. The incumbents are keen to ensure a smooth handover to the new ExComm, who will take up their posts in July. Details such as which processes and procedures need documenting and which outstanding actions can be closed were discussed.

There was discussion about the format of the face-to-face IBD meetings held each year, when all of the Chairmen of Full National Mensas can meet each other and exchange ideas. Possible changes for the 2024 and 2025 meetings were proposed that could result in substantial cost savings.

We talked about the development of new Mensa groups and the first Gathering of Latin American Mensas (GLAM),due to take place in Rio later this year. This initiative aims to encourage budding Mensa groups in the South American continent.

We also discussed the ongoing CRMproject. The CRMis ready to be populated with limited membership details, but all groups need to sign a contract with MIL regarding specific purposes for which data will be used. The system will be fully General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)compliant and will hopefully be up and

There was a progress update on the new publicfacing part of the Mensa website. This is being rewritten based on WordPress, to make maintenance much easier. The public-facing part of the website is where we potentially attract new members from new countries and we want it to be easily updated without any risk of affecting the separate member area.

We also discussed the status of the project to implement an online test for Mensa membership. An adaptive, online test has been developed and is currently being normed in the UK. Once these fmal stages are completed, individual National Mensas will be able to use the test, if they wish. This electronic test can be taken using tablets/iPads/ laptops etc., by such means as each Mensa chooses.

In other news, this year's European Annual Gathering (EMAG)is taking place in Bucharest, Romania, between 31 July and 4 August. Bookings are being taken at emag24.eu. The 2024 IBD meeting will take place in Perth, Australia, between

10-13 October, and EMAG 2025 will be held in Cardiff, Wales, UK, between 6-10 August 2025.

21ST MENSA SLOVENIASKI WEEKENDPOHORJE2024 Stanis/avRozman

incethe foundation of Slovenian Mensa in 2002, a tradition has emerged for members to meet in a wintery environment. It's no surprise that the event gained traction as most Slovenians are keen skiers or at least love to spend time in the country and outdoors. Usually set in the third weekend of January, since 2010 this small getaway holiday also hosts and unites fellow Mensans from all over the world. For this year, an ambitious organisational team decided to take the whole event even further. The Mariborsko Pohorje ski resort was chosen as the best for the challenge of how to offer as many interesting experiences as possible, both indoor and outside, regardless of weather conditions, with activities for non-skiers as well, so as many people as possible could participate. Different workshops included fractal drawing, wellness therapies, reiki, hiking, survival courses, and many more.

The grand and gala winter paradise

In less than four days, a visitor could see it all: too warm, typical climate change-impacted weather on Thursday afternoon, followed by a surprise snowstorm early Friday morning, to finally have fresh snow and bright sun Saturday and Sunday, with clear star-filled nights in

Ann Rootkin

between. Skiers really had their schedules full if they wanted to take advantage of everything that was offered. There was very little time to rest and regenerate, but everybody wanted to look their best at the Saturday's gala Casino Royale event with a James Bond dress code.

Maribor is special This weekend was anything but just an alpine weekend on the ski slopes. Maribor is the second largest city of Slovenia and has a lot more to offer besides skiing and a casino. It's a rare setting -all the smaller south-faced hills opposite the ski slopes are full of vineyards. This special region has its own charm, as anyone visiting different parts of Slovenia will confirm. Even the sports competition was special this time. Mensans raced down the snowy slope on 'Plezuh', a small single-ski sled, that requires balancing (some did better than others) on a tiny seat while making turns through gates, trying to clock the best time. Not only was the Mensa crowd up to that challenge; after all the skiing, walking over sometimes icy and slippery paths, driving in wintery conditions etc. there were no accidents, and everybody returned home safely.

One for the record books

Between 18-21January, a total of 89 participants from

19 countries met above Maribor to socialise and enjoy what the region has to offer. This year's team is even more proud of the number and variety of experiences offered. The organisers combined resourceful Maribor local volunteers and veteran Slovenian Mensans who have the experience of organising home events as well as travelling around the world and participating at Mensa gatherings, such as Silvensas, EMAGsetc. A lot of effort was invested into following the good practices seen elsewhere, with a desire not only to further expand and improve their own traditional event but to build further on a growing community, enabling Mensa Slovenia to host even bigger and better events in the future.

LAZINESS AS AN INDICATOR OF INTELLIGENCE

TarynDryfhout

0n a world that puts value on hard work and productivity, laziness may seem like the last trait a highly intelligent person would possess. However, research reveals that laziness is common amongst the highly intelligent, and can actually serve as a subtle indicator of a high IQ. While this challenges societal norms,

some laziness is not simply a lack of motivation but rather can reveal complex internal processes that are taking place in the brain. Scientific research indicates that laziness, when viewed through a different lens, offers a rich insight into the cognitive processes of intellectually gifted people.

The science of laziness

Productivity is a bit of a buzzword at the moment, and the idea of productivity tools and the routines of impressively accomplished people, such as Richard Branson, make it easy to see why laziness is considered to be synonymous with lack of intelligence. While traditionally the world of success and intelligence may, onthesurface,notsupport laziness, science does.

A study published in the Journal of Health Psychology showed that people who are less physically active tend to be more intelligent. This was attributed to what was called a "need for cognition", where people pursue intellectual activities that provide mental stimulation rather than physical. The research also showed that people with a high IQ are less likely to become bored, since their internal cognition is always fired up, thinking through problems, memories and plans. This may mean that some individuals prefer to sit on the couch watching documentaries, completing a crossword or just thinking, as opposed to hitting the gym. This is because the latter does not give them the cognition they desperately crave.

Those with a lower IQ turn to more external, active tasks such as sports or fitness as they are more likely to get bored when left with just

their own thoughts.

School struggles and the misconception of laziness I found this research to be particularly relatable. As a school student, all of my reports and teacher-parent evenings were filled with the same phrases: "She is very bright. If she applied herself, she would do very well." While this backhanded compliment was intended to motivate me, it essentially just labelled me as lazy. However, this was a false laziness. On reflection, my lack of application was probably more to do with my ability to grasp concepts more quickly than my peers, finding the classroom environment slow and unchallenging.

This meant I quickly became unengaged with the work as I found it lacked enough intellectual stimulation to keep me motivated. My perceived laziness did not, perhaps, accurately reflect my situation. Instead, it neglected a complex interplay of factors, one of which was high IQ.

Digital gaming is a good example of false laziness. Gaming is often perceived as lazy because people have to sit while they play, but anyone who has played games such as Fortnite or Baldur's Gate 3 knows that these games require problemsolving skills and strategy.

Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are both prolific gamers and they are not likely to be deemed lazy or unintelligent.

What does this mean for laziness?

While this research is great news for those of us who prefer the couch over the treadmill, we must be careful not to fall into the trap of excessive lethargy and procrastination, as this could impact on our physical

This year's Slovenia Ski Weekend was so much more than skiing

and mental health.

expression or volunteer work, committees and officer roles. Individuals with a high IQ there's something for We have an array of open mensa world journal should prioritise their everyone in our organisation. vacancies waiting to be filled introspective time and by passionate and dedicated

intellectual activities that Engage in exciting individuals like you. satisfy their need for competitions

Become part of our cognition, but they also need Challenge your creativity and dynamic international team, to recognise the importance artistic flair by participating where you can make a of activity in creating a in our annual competitions. tangible difference while healthy, balanced lifestyle. The Poetry Competition honing your talents and Being sedentary does not 2024 beckons poets to explore fostering personal growth. need to look like hours and the theme of "Memories" hours of Netflix. It could be while the PhotoCup Positions available for sitting at your desk to plan Competition invites application in 2024:

out your week or mapping photographers to capture the

• International Archivist out your monthly goals. So, theme "Fire". For more details

• International don't feel guilty if you don't and inspiration, visit our Communications Officer(s) volunteer or new to the get out of bed at Sam like website and delve into our

• International SIGHT Mensa community, our Richard Branson does. It's not past winners' achievements: Coordinator(s) dedicated team is committed necessarily laziness; you

• bit.ly/MI_poetry

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• Gifted Youth Committee need to thrive in your the average bear.

• Governance Papers volunteer position. Contribute to a global Advisory Committee

MAY2024 cause

Don't miss this opportunity

• Name and Logo Committee to play an active role in Reprinted from the Mensa Participation in the blood eNewsTeam shaping the future of Mensa WorldJournal, issue 136, May donation challenge (bit.ly/

• International Standards International. 2024. Editor, Kate Nacard MLBM24) can save lives and Committee

Together, let's harness the leave a lasting impact on

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FROM YOUR EXCOMM communities worldwide. Network Committee intellect to inspire positive IsabellaHolz,admin-mil@

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®Connect and collaborate Moderator(s) community. Join us to online

• PhotoCup Team connect with fellow Mensans,

ear member, in Join our vibrant online expand your network and the previous issue, community on Workplace Each position holds a create lasting memories. you might have (bit.ly/Miworkplace), where two-year term (2024-26) I look forward to seeing read about our members engage in lively except for the International you there! forthcoming events. For those discussions and exchange Volunteer Network who missed it, you can catch ideas on myriad topics. Committee, which is

AUSTRALIAN MENSA up on the 2024 events There's a group for many appointed annually. The SETTO CELEBRATE calendar at bit.ly/MLevents. varying interests, from Mensa official start date for each role DIAMOND JUBILEE

We also invite all of you to life to science, books to real will be in October 2024,

ANNIVERSARY! participate in our diverse estate & property, or following the IBD Meeting. Celebrations marking range of activities and psychology to movies. Expand Interested candidates can 60 years since Australian initiatives. Whether you're your horizons, forge new find detailed role descriptions Mensa was founded will take drawn to intellectual friendships and enrich your on bit.ly/2023-MI. The place at Rydges World Square challenges, creative intellectual journey through website also includes Hotel in Sydney city centre meaningful interactions with information about the from 18-20 October, the fellow Mensans from around application process, which is weekend following the 2024 the globe. due to start in June/July. IBD meeting in Perth from Please note that all our 10-13 October.

Volunteer and make members worldwide are The weekend will kick off a difference eligible to apply. on Friday night with a cruise

Are you eager to take on a Through a comprehensive of Sydney Harbour on a Tall more active role within onboarding process, Ship. This will be open to Mensa International? Seize volunteers will gain valuable both child and adult the opportunity to join our insights into responsibilities, members, with hidden volunteer team and organisational structure and 'diamonds' to be discovered contribute your skills and collaborative opportunities. by any pirates on board! (You Isabella Holz expertise to various Whether you're a seasoned can be a pirate even if you

have as little as an eyepatch!) Saturday is Conference Day, when eight prestigious speakers will be presenting their field of expertise in the context of what has been achieved in the last 60 years, and what they foresee during the next 60 years.

The conference will open at 9am, with the final speaker finishing at 5pm. There will be plenty of time to ask questions and to socialise as we will schedule substantial morning tea, afternoon tea and lunch breaks. There will be alternative activities for attendees as well.

A children's conference will be held at the same venue, concurrent with the adults' conference.

Saturday night will be the Gala Dinner, with a theme combining diamonds and

MEMBERPROFILE

Six-year-old American Mensan Declan Lopez showed signs of being gifted almost from birth.

At just a few days old, Declan could hold her own bottle. She began speaking by the age of six months and mastered phonics before she was one. Though both sides of the family contain many smart people, parents Meachel and Delano were surprised by their daughter's exceptional abilities.

Mum, Meachel, who was 34 when Declan was born, has devoted herself to keeping Declan and her four-year-old brother Maddox (who also seems gifted) fully stimulated. Meachel works from home in her own e-commerce business and dad, Delano,

Declan creates her own vlogs

intelligence. What more appropriate than a James Bond Diamonds Are Forever theme? Wear a tuxedo, spywear, diamonds or whatever! Our keynote speaker will be Life Member Peter Shann Ford -journalist, author, and inventor.

Sunday is reserved for city tours -pub crawls, exploring the remains of Sydney's first settlement, shopping,

is a high school teacher/ coach in their community in northern New Jersey.

Declan seems to be curious about everything, including vexillology (the study of flags), country capitals and different cultures. She likes maths, reading, science, geography and language. Meachel keeps things interesting by using toys, games and videos in her daily lessons.

Using YouTube videos, Declan has learned to count in Mandarin, Korean, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Indonesian and German, and is now working on Russian.

markets, Sydney Harbour Bridge climbs, ferry rides to Manly or Taronga Park Zoo, and anything else you have indicated you would like to do in Sydney with your fellow Mensans!

• More information on www.mensadiamond.org or write to Teresa: recruiting@ mensa.org.au or Therese: tmb@ozemail.com.au

The Periodic Table fascinates Declan and she can break down elements by categories, atomic number, atomic weight and symbols.

She enjoys algebra, has a strong interest in coding and physics and is fascinated by the forces that keep things in motion.

In the autumn of 2023, she entered public kindergarten, where she endured some bullying for being different and had a bit of trouble relating to most kids her age.

She and her younger brother transferred to a private school for gifted children in January 2024, where Declan was accelerated to first grade and is now developing good friendships.

At the age of five, Declan's parents had her IQ tested in an effort to get her into gifted programmes. Her IQ score of 137 got her into

MENSA INTERNATIONAL mensainternational@ mensa.org

+44(0)1400272675 www.mensa.org

MensaWorldjournal

Editor: Kate Nacard (mwjeditor@mensa.org)

Mensa. Thus far, the family hasn't found local Mensans in Declan's age group, but they hope that will change the more they get involved in regional events.

Like any little girl, Declan likes to play 'pretend', sing, dance, colour in and dress up in costume, and she loves fashion. Additionally, she has been creating vlog videos since she was four on topics ranging from fun facts to her doing advanced maths. She is writing a children's book with her father. Her unusual ability to speak clearly at her age and memorise lines has made her parents consider acting offers coming her way.

Declan has been featured on TV (CNN, ABC, Inside Edition and News 12 NJ)as well as in print (USAToday). Here in Mensa, we are cheering her on and hope to do a follow-up profile when she is older.

Mind Games

Logic,maths,wordplay and other mindbendersto put your brain through its paces

Many thanks to the IQ Puzzle Panel and our guest setters for creating the puzzles on pages 50-55. The panel consists of Mensa members Colin Packer,Jezz Sterling, David Hogg, Elliott Line, Carol Selwyn-Jones, Steven Goodwin, Soo Alkan, John Clarke and Pete Hooton.

1. GENTLEAPPETISERS

i. Word ladders x 2

Change FOOTto BALL one letter at a time in four moves.

Change BLACKto SHEEPone letter at a time in seven moves.

ii. Countdown (easyish)

Reach the target number using any or all of the six numbers just once by means of any combination of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division:

2 4 5 25 Target: 644

iii. Anagrams

Can you solve these anagrams of countries?

ELM GATEAU

BUNKO SAFARI

NICETHIN EELS

CAVITYANTIC

iv. Relativity

What is the closest relation that your mother's brother's brother-in-law could be to you?

v. Missing parts

If 70% have lost an eye, 75% an ear, 80% an arm and 85% a leg, what is the minimum % that have lost all four?

vi. Odd one out

Which of these words is the odd one out and why?

ACCENT ALMOST BEEFY BIRTH BIJOUX EFFORT

vii. Remove a letter

Remove the tail from a type of winged insect to leave a particular place where something is situated.

viii. Chameleon

The word CHAMELEONcan change into a five-letter word and a four-letter word e.g. duplicate and utterance= CLONE& AHEM. Clues to the words are given in pairs below:

5-LETTERWORD 4-LETTERWORD

ix. Tool kit

To each word below, add one letter and then rearrange them to form the name of a tool e.g. CHIN+ W =WINCH.The added letters, in order, will spell the name of a traditional tradesman.

1. WATERS

2. SPIRE

5. BARROW

6.

x. Three-letter word

What are the following five words? And what is the same three-letter word that is contained in each?

????X:fZ - a disordered mixture

X:fZ??- a place of assembly

? X:fZ??- a highly seasoned stew

X:fZ??- extreme suffering

? X:fZ??- a shallow lake

xi. Anyone for tennis?

Rafa, Roger and Novak want to play tennis with Martina, Serena and Venus -but only four can play, two men and two women.

• RAFAsaid: "I will only play if Martina plays"

e MARTINA said: "I won't play if Roger plays"

• ROGERsaid: "I won't play if Novak or Serena play"

e NOVAK said:" I will only play if Venus plays"

e VENUSsaid: "I don't mind who I play with"

Which two males and which two females end up playing tennis?

2. A NEVER-ENDINGCIRCLE

Solve the clues and then rearrange the answers into a circle so that the final two letters of each word are also the first two letters of the next. It doesn't matter where you start as you will always come back to the beginning. You must use all 12 words -no short cuts!

1. Skin irritation (4)

2. Used to sell snacks in the cinema (9)

3. As well (4)

4. Smallish herbivorous mammal (5)

5. Last (8)

6. Leave out (4)

7. Extinct marine reptile (13)

8. Monstrous Greek whirlpool (9)

9. Thought transference (9)

10. Mrs Tiggywinkle's noisy relative? (5)

11. Quarantine (7)

12. Self-evident truth (5)

3. EASTEREGGS

In the grid below, each coloured egg stands for a different number. Some rows and columns have been added together and their totals given. What is the value of the blue egg?

4. OUT OF THE BLUE

Find our names from the following clues:

1. Larva who took Cuthbert to court

2. Helps a friend out of this world

3. French ego sleeping

4. Patron saint of bricklayers and stonemasons

5. Harry Corbett's third

6. Six eaten by father

7. Descendent of Charles makes a song and dance

8. Tailless brother of Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail

9. Saintly driver of emergency vehicle

Who are we collectively? The answer will come to you out of the blue!

5. TRICKYCOUNTDOWN

Reach the target number using any or all of the six numbers just once by means of any combination of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Target:939

6. TRIPLETS

Join up six of the groups of three letters to make two nine-letter words which are antonyms. PRO ERF

7. SIG SUDOKU

Solve the Sudoku grid and find the Mensa Special Interest Group (SIG)

This is just the same as normal Sudoku but with letters instead of numbers.

8. EASYAS ABC

1. Why do lexicographers need an ox house?

2. Depending on how you write a letter of the alphabet, you might use a single stroke or two. If permitted to retrace over a line, that two-stroke pattern could be achieved with a single stroke. Which two letters can never be drawn in this way?

3. We often think of the "little letters" as lower case, after the location of the typographer's tray of moveable type, as used in printing. But what were they called before the invention of the printing press?

4. "Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs" is an example of what type of sentence?

5. Most lexicographers structure their dictionaries in alphabetical order. Pictorial languages, such as the Chinese group of languages, cannot do so. In what ways can those dictionaries be ordered?

6. Which two letters do not appear on the periodic table?

7. Why is hydroxyzine a unique word?

8. What word is an anagram of itself?

9. If all the positive integers were written in sequence as English words, the number 1 would be the first to contain the letter 'e', as in 'one'. What are the first words to contain the letters 'a', 'b', 'c' and 'd'?

10. What is the largest number which, when written in words, contains no repeated letter?

11. What are the only four letters which can appear doubled, at the beginning of an English word?

9. GENERALKNOWLEDGEQUIZ

1. Which sea within the Atlantic Ocean has no land boundaries?

2. Which famous person has a home at Ray Mill House in Wiltshire?

3. Which battle, fought in Somerset in 1685, remains the last battle fought on English soil?

4. Which cricketer, who played for the West Indies in the 1920s and 30s, went on to become Britain's first ever Black peer?

5. What was the only chemical element to be named after a place in Britain?

6. In the Bible, what is the fifth book of the New Testament following the four Gospels?

7. Which European country is known, in its own language, as Hrvatska?

8. In which country can you travel across the desert on a train known locally as "the Ghan"?

9. What was the first lV show in which Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker appeared together?

10. What is the only form of motorised transport allowed on the Isle of Sark in the Channel Islands?

Questions 11-19 are all cinema-related ...

11. Which actor first gained recognition playing a cowboy hitchhiker in the 1991 film Thelma and Louise?

12. Which actor co-starred with Marilyn Monroe in the 1953 film GentlemenPrefer Blondes?

13. Which 1955 film, one of just three to star James Dean, was based on a novel of the same name by John Steinbeck?

14. Which actor and singer played the pianist Sam in the classic film Casablanca(as in "Play it again, Sam", which was never actually said)?

15. Which actor won a posthumous Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 2009 for his performance in the film TheDark Knight?

16. In the Dirty Harry films starring Clint Eastwood, what was Harry's surname?

17. Which 1999 film is about three students who go into the Maryland backwoods to investigate a mystery and never return?

18. Who is the only director to have made three films that grossed more than $2 billion?

19. Which actor is the daughter of Melanie Griffith and the granddaughter ofTippi Hedren?

20 . but what do the answers to questions 11-19 all have in common, which has nothing to do with the silver screen?

10. FOURWAYS CROSSWORD

by Ron Gerard, guest puzzle setter

In this crossword, the clues may be rightwards [conventional across], leftwards [the reverse], downwards or upwards. Figure out which way each solution must run. Don't be surprised if you need to fit something like YRANOITCID into the grid. There are 10 each of leftwards and rightwards answers and eight each of upwards and downwards answers.

Horizontal

1. Picked up astronaut in valley (4)

3. Boundaries are what bowlers love to get (5)

6. Express disapproval of that man's son (4)

8. Interested in contents of printout (4)

9. Maybe St George's picture for the compiler to study (4)

10. Reserve or Esther or Daniel (4)

11. Land backward farmer can't parcel (4)

13. Illness from swimming pool I dipped in (5)

16. Unfortunately Ford model is in a state (6)

17. My tedium without YouTube is fair (6)

18. Concealed snug? (6)

20. Second of movies inspired by children's plaything getting broadcast (6)

22. Frantically snaring a lark (5)

25. Curly hair tips from awkward family restraining order (4)

26. I leave syringa on return visit (4)

28. Hard cash for broken 9H (4)

29. Loose gundog has no limits (4)

30. Agreed to article about me (4)

31. Fruit hard to ignore at Belgian school (5)

32. Drunk mead with cheese (4)

Vertical

1. Block northern owl, perhaps (4)

2. Firing jute? (7)

4. Decapitated Mr Tod by river crossing city (6)

11. SHIFTY ROMAN?

What quote is authentically hidden here in one of the oldest (and simplest!) ciphers known?

Bkto Bojo Boio

5. I eat after ten (6)

6. Workers after Christmas period getting transfers (7)

7. Fabulous loser? (4)

12. Clever Scot can't be heard (5)

13. A hundred pile up for a bargain (5)

14. Final letter from Rhodes? (5)

15. Primarily Seventies medical comedy series is a big hit (5)

19. Irritated by alternative anodyne (7)

21. Take into account unstable nuclide (7)

23. It's cold here for French relative without one (6)

24. Incorporeal nonentity (6)

25. New eggs for star (4)

27. Beginners of claim actually let me settle (4)

12. BEAN COUNTING

I have a bag containing a mixture of black and yellow beans. The probability of randomly drawing out two differently coloured beans is not high. However, I have discovered that I can exactly double the probability of drawing two different beans by firstly removing two yellow beans and replacing them with two black beans.

How many beans of each colour were in the bag?

13. CRYPTICCROSSWORD

Clarsach #15 by Val Hinkins, guest puzzle setter

Across

8. Demolished both sides in court -situation is terminal (8.7)

9. Misread instructions and wear very flat costume to fancy dress party? (2,6)

10. Protection removed from Boer War rifle -it is replaced by ordinary wrap (6)

11. Hotel has tree in commanding position (4)

13. Folly to mask reek of brutality? (10)

14. Last word about Clio, say, to sailor rebel at flashy games venue (9,6)

17. Cruel agent shot in Bulgaria, perhaps (5-5)

19. Lair exposed by extremely severe tempest (4)

21. Taciturn, Isaiah returned before period of fasting (6)

22. Dump chief as viable -even with violent disruption (8)

24. Discredited planetary theory has time and space mostly wrong (9,6)

Down

1. Sweet-talk the French, going after advance pairs of camouflage jodhpurs (6)

2. Shrill cries from stables? (4)

3. Key is to be seen in odd, selfless behaviour (8)

4. Oratorio, say, from parrot heard at inn, with US comic in medley (10,5)

5. Segregate pupils for play in real-time (6)

6. Inflexible and stubborn people, very loud and born in the boondocks? (5-5)

7. Gathered Colonel has time off for coffee date (8)

12. Report of girl abducted in front of empty lobby, made in error (10)

14. MCPUZZLER'SBAR

Mr McPuzzler's bar has tables with four legs and bar stools with three legs, and there are four stools at each table. At a certain point in time:

• half the tables were filled with customers.

• a further quarter of the tables were half full.

• the other tables were either empty or had just one customer.

Given that all the customers have two legs and that there are a total of 426 legs in all (tables, stools and customers). how many tables are there in McPuzzler's Bar?

15. Reds?Return half a dozen bottled in trade centres (8)

16. Little woman starts summer trip touring Ethiopia -a hidden gem? (8)

18. Sociallyacceptable lieutenant I first met online last month (6)

20. Tense support for prickly napper (6)

23. Finallysecure barriers trap puma that's turned up at recess(4)

15. TENACIOUSSUDOKU

Tenacity is required to solve this one!

10. FOURWAYS CROSSWORD

15. TENACIOUS SODOKU E

Method: There must be a multiple of four tables, so start by assuming four. Two are full, with 24 legs, one is half full with 20 and the other has 16 or 18. In total we have 84-86. Dividing 84 into 426 gives five remainder six, so there are 20 tables, of which 10 are full, five half full, three solo (to give the extra six legs) and two empty.

Solution: 20

14. MCPUZZLER'S BAR

Darwin in the north. "Ghan" is short for Afghan, as Afghan workers did much of the construction work). 9.

13. CRYPTIC CROSSWORD (Clarsach #15)

YY = 5/7, BB= 0, BY or YB= 2/7. After I take out two Ys and add two Bs, we have four Ys and three Bs, so the probabilities change to: YY = 2/7, BB= 1/7, BY or YB= 4/7.

In the bag were six yellow (YJbeans and one black (B) bean. The probabilities are as follows:

12. BEAN COUNTING

Veni Vidi Vici (the Caesar shift: each letter shifted by six)

11. SHIFTY ROMAN?

1. CLASSY BIRDS

Animal magic

In this issue'squiz,it'stime to find out how much you know about your fellow livingcreatures?

Much maligned as 'flying rats', pigeons have in fact demonstrated quite advanced recognition abilities. But which cultural accomplishment has been attributed to our feathered frenemies?

A When played a range of pop and classical music, they expressed a strong preference for Taylor Swift, and appeared to dislike Gustav Mahler.

B They can easily tell the difference between two different artists and even historical art movements.

C They were mesmerised by classical ballet, but appeared agitated to violence when made to watch amateur dramatic productions.

2. RISING STARS

Researchers at the University of Auckland found that crows have serious problem-solving skills. When offered treats floating tantalisingly out of reach in tubes of water, the birds worked out that dropping objects down the tubes made the water level rise. Archimedes-like, they also dropped objects that sank rather than floated. Researchers put corvid problem-solving skills on a par with young humans -but what age of children?

A One to three year olds.

B Five to seven-year-olds.

C Nine to 11-year-olds.

3. STEM CELLS

We don't tend to think of plants as intelligent in any usual sense, but a kind of

Catch the pigeon at cultural pursuits

memory has been observed in them, encoded in the DNA in their cells. How have they been seen to use this 'epigenetic memory?

A They remember the traumatic vibrations of machinery, and will shrink away from lawnmowers, etc.

B They remember individual bees and issue more UV light to encourage the fluffiest ones.

C They remember and forget when it's cold so that they flower at the right time.

4. FIN & GAMES

The empathetic elephant has ways of sharing the love

Dolphins are famous brainboxes, showing off their slippery smarts in all kinds of surprising behaviours. But which of these have they not been known to do?

A Adopt their own, distinctive, 'dolphin' names and whistle them to one another.

B Squirt water out of their mouth to copy people smoking.

C Mock long-haired divers by draping seaweed over their own heads.

5. GENTLE GIANTS

Elephants are known for their empathetic nature, as well as

their fondness for peanuts. But which of these have they been observed to do?

A Console a fellow elephant in distress by putting their trunk in its mouth.

B Hose down the car of their keeper when it gets dirty.

C Steal bananas from safari tourists to give to locals.

6. CREST EFFORTS

Smart parrots aren't news, with some researchers putting the intelligence of these whimsical mimics on a par with the average four-yearold child. But which of these achievements have cockatoos not been credited with in the last decade?

A A cockatoo picked five locks in order to access a single cashew.

B Male palm cockatoos carve drum wooden sticks and 'rock out' to attract mates.

C A sulphur-crested cockatoo placed in the Air Guitar World Championships.

7. SMART HOME

The octopus's abilities have caught the headlines in recent years, with this cephalopod's mischievous antics including stealing from crab traps, using tools and carrying venom from other creatures to use as a deadly weapon. Which sophisticated behaviour do they display when it comes to their homes?

A They develop subaquatic 'gardens' outside their dens.

B They have a 1980s penchant for crazy paving.

C They build ornate shelters out of shells and stones.

QUIZSETTER: LEILAJOHNSTON

8. HIGH ACHIEVERS

Recent research seems to show that giraffes demonstrate an understanding of maths but which branch have these longnecked boffins proved adept at?

A Statistics -they understood that a container with more treats was more likely to produce a treat they liked.

B Arithmetic -they were able to assess quantities of treats better than big cats.

C Calculus -they appeared to understand changing speeds of predators and adjusted their herd movements.

9. POWER NAP

Animal cognition is often underestimated; we humans like to believe we're uniquely privileged to have such sophisticated brains. In 2018, though, a team at the University of Buenos Aires discovered that even zebra finches dream. What were they dreaming about?

A Devices monitoring their brainwaves suggested they were dreaming about the tests they'd been doing for the scientists, the classic 'exam dream'.

B Devices monitoring their throat muscles suggested they were dreaming about singing their favourite ditties.

C Devices monitoring their pheromones suggested dreams of romance, perhaps a lost love, back in their native Australia.

10. HIVE MIND

Even the humble bee displays remarkable emotional sophistication. Entomology eggheads have found bees to be great problem-solvers, exhibiting self-awareness. They even experience a form of PTSD.

How was this discovered?

A After being grabbed by robotic spiders hidden in flowers, the bees became paranoid and rejected even perfectly safe flowers.

B Bees recruited for a 'beard of bees' stunt retreated from men with facial hair for several months afterwards.

C Seeing a fellow bee trapped under a glass, the bees became agitated, but not when they saw a wasp in the same predicament.

11. BLOW OFF STEAM

Orcas are famed for their giant brains and astonishingly clever behaviour. Which of these antics have the playful cetaceans been found to engage in, seen as evidence of pranking humans for laughs?

A They have been known to swim upside down to impersonate an upturned

Could a cockatoo outsmart a giraffe in brain games?

fishing vessel, presumably to entice real fishing boats.

B In captivity, they have been found to willingly beach themselves on the poolside for belly rubs.

C In the wild, they suck in their bodies to appear thinner than they are to encourage humans in passing ships to throw fish to them.

12. SUSPICIOUS MINDS

Squirrel intelligence won't surprise anyone who saw the old 'Mission Impossible' beer advert -or indeed anyone with a bird feeder. But which of these brainy behaviours do the resourceful rodents exhibit?

A They hide ink-releasing fungus in their caches, which explode on contact, instantly ruining the stolen nuts and revealing the perpetrator.

B When other squirrels are burying nuts, they spy on them through primitive telescopes of rolled-up leaves.

C They create fake caches if they suspect other squirrels are watching, using sleight of paw to conceal the nut in their armpit.

''

What's key is understanding how people want to live

NAOMIASTLEYCLARKE

0The London-based interior designer explains how her dream career developed.

Didyou alwayswant to be an interior designer?

As a child, I was very much into art, stitching and needlepoint, and had a passion for cosiness and wanting to make the best of space. So that interest was always there but it wasn't until later that I thought about it in terms of interior design.

I studied English literature and creative writing at university but didn't know what I wanted to do afterwards. Then a friend said: "Every time I see you, you're moving your bedroom around." That prompted me to do a one-year course in interior designand that's what I've been doing for the past 26 years.

How did you developyour business?

The first time I sent out an invoice was really exciting because I didn't really think I knew what I was doing, and I certainly didn't have a grand plan. But as the years went by, I got more and more work, and everything started scaling up. Then, about 10 years ago, I started to take my branding much more seriously.

How would you describethat brand?

I'm very much focused on what my clients want rather than what I might want if I was them. Of course, I guide them but I believe it's important to show that you're flexible and not closed off to other ideas.

What's key for me is understanding how other people want to live. Some like showing off, others prefer restraint. Some like to feel organised,

others enjoy a bit of chaos, and so on. Being able to interpret this visually is quite a skill. And I believe it's a learned skill rather than a natural talent -the more experience of life you have, the easier it gets.

What do you like about Mensa?

I did the tests for a bit offun, never thinking that Mensa would invite me to become a member -and I was thrilled when they did. It's a broad generalisation but, as a woman, I think some people can make assumptions about what I might or might not be good at. As it happens, I'm very good at maths, and

having Mensa membership is good for my confidence. I use maths a lot in my work and being a Mensan reminds me that I'm doing much more than plumping up cushions.

What do you enjoy in your free time?

I live with my husband and children -we tend to spend the first half of the week in London and the second half in Dorset. As well as being with them, I enjoy hiking, walking and yoga. And I just love stitching and maths.

• Findout more about at Naomi'swork at www.naomiastleyclarke.com

Mensa MEMBER

Naomi balances time with her design team and precious family moments

Ifyoulikewordgames, you'lllove·Lost4Words'!

FindTheSingleWordThatCanBePlacedBefore OrAfterEachWordOnTheCard,ToCreateFour NewWords.

Lost4 Wordsis a quick-firewordgame.Pityourwits andknowledge againstyouropponentsandthe clock!With a huge500challenges included,bethe first playeror teamto correctlyidentifythe connectingwordon 15differentcardsandreachthe finish lineon the scoreboard.It's a brilliantfamilygame!

2 to 4 players.Ages7 to adult.Boxsizeapprox.23.5cmx 8.5cm

Examples:Theblue-borderedexamplesontheleftarethechallenges.Thegreen-bordered examplesarethesolutions,whichappearonthebackofeachcard.