DECEMBER
2023

Issue 13 Vol 41

discoverwildlife.com

JOURNEYS
Meet the small
animals that
make epic treks
to survive
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INSECTS D
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Tracking lynx and wolverine in Montana
Can tourism be good for the Antarctic?
Restoring Scotland’s ancient wild cattle

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ON THE

THIS
MONTH

The Planet
Earth Podcast

COVER: MAX KÖLBL/BBC; SIR DAVID: PAUL WILLIAMS; GROUSE: FERGUS GILL/MARAMEDIA; AUROCHS: BERT VAN DE BEEK

Exclusive insights, untold
stories and emotional
memories from the acclaimed
natural history storytellers that brought
us the Planet Earth series and Sir David
Attenborough himself
Listen to episodes on BBC Sounds
Black
grouse

Find out how an ancient
bovid has returned to
European soil (p62)

Paleolithic animals are
returning to the wild
Scotland: The New Wild
A spectacular three-episode
showcase of Scotland’s
magnificent wildlife. Witness
Europe’s largest grey seal breeding
colony on the Monach Islands, urban
beavers in Perth, and migrating Atlantic
salmon in the Moray Firth.
Catch up with all episodes on iPlayer

The One Show
Fans of Autumnwatch will
be pleased to hear that the
popular show returned for
a three-part special on BBC One’s The
One Show. Chris Packham, Michaela
Strachan and Gillian Burke bring
audiences their much-loved nature fix.
Catch up with all episodes on iPlayer

Keep in touch
wildlifeletters@immediate.co.uk
instagram.com/bbcwildlifemagazine
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facebook.com/wildlifemagazine

PAUL McGUINNESS, EDITOR

here’s a cave in southern France called
Pech Merle, where you can walk through more
than a kilometre of tunnels and galleries that
were inhabited during the last ice age. The
walls are adorned with the most incredible cave
paintings, which include human handprints, spotted horses,
woolly mammoths and ancient bovids, probably aurochs. It’s a
fascinating place to visit, offering a glimpse of prehistoric life
some 25,000 years ago, when Europe was a very different place.
And now, modern science is able to bring some of these
extinct species back – or at least something very close to them.
James Fair’s feature about a project to ‘back-breed’ an aurochslike animal shows just how far we can
turn back the clock, and, crucially,
asks how bringing back such an
animal can help rewild Europe today.
It’s enough to make the mind boggle!
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

3

EDITOR

Paul McGuinness
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Neil Aldridge, Nick Baker, Bert van de Beek, Simon Birch, Stuart Blackman, Gillian Burke, Jo Caird, Laurie Campbell, JV Chamary,
Robin Chittenden, Nina Constable, Lucy Cooke, Mike Dilger, Suzi Eszterhas, James Fair, Danny Green, Rob G Green, Peter Grob,
Mark Hamblin, Ben Hoare, Matt Horspool, Max Kölbl, Genevieve Leaper, Doug Loynes, Alex Mustard, Imre Potyó, Jenny Price,
Michael Schlamberger, Megan Shersby, James Shooter, Richard Smyth, Wanda Sowry, Nathalie Swain-Diaz, Deya Swift, Joshua Vela,
James Warwick, Leoma Williams, Paul Williams, Konrad Wothe
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4

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

SCALLOPED HAMMERHEAD: IMAGEBROKER/NORBERTPROBST

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

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BBC Wildlife No. 13 Vol. 41

MOTHS: IMRE POTYÓ; LYNX: ROB G GREEN; GIANT PANDA: KONRAD
WOTHE/MINDEN/NATUREPL.COM; TORTOISE: JOSHUA VELA

Travel deep into Hungary’s Börzsöny Mountains

THE COVER
This month’s cover features
a pair of golden-headed lion
tamarins – one of the six star
species in the new BBC series
Big Little Journeys. “They are
super small for a primate and
very fast,” says camera operator
Max Kölbl. “You have to imagine
that the face of a tamarin is
perhaps the size of a polar
bear’s nose, so keeping in focus
while they are moving is tricky.”

Every month, only in BBC Wildlife

NICK BAKER
The vampire spider
gorges on “the proteinrich crimson sauce” within
female mosquitoes P.32
6

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

GILLIAN BURKE
“There are ready-to-go
natural solutions to meet
the challenges of the
climate crisis” P.15

MARK CARWARDINE
Unfortunately, we’re unable
to feature a column from
Mark this month, but look
out for him in a future issue

LUCY COOKE
“Female reindeer use
their antlers to fight males
over prime patches of lifesaving lichen” P.25

MIKE DILGER
The naturalist reminds us
to look up this Christmas to
enjoy ‘pied wags’ gathered
in the trees P.28

08 Wild Times
Catch up with all the latest
developments and discoveries
making the headlines

28 How to see roosting
pied wagtails
As temperatures drop, these
adaptable little birds move into
urban areas to keep warm

32 Hidden World
Meet the tiny arachnid that
attacks mosquitoes to feed
on the human blood within

36 Tracking lynx and
wolverine in Montana
Dedicated scientists are
gathering data on these
secretive creatures in the
Mission Mountains

44 Big Little Journeys
The new BBC Two series
follows small animals that make
epic treks to find mates, food or
new territories

52 Magic show
Breathtaking and ethereal
photographs capture winter in
a Hungarian wilderness

62 Restoring Scotland’s
ancient wild cattle
Aurochs have long been extinct,
but conservationists are
returning a very similar beast to
European soil

70 Can tourism be good
for the Antarctic?

It takes skill and determination to find a Canadian lynx

DiscoverMORE
80 Q&A

As more people are drawn to
experience the frozen frontiers,
it’s time to weigh up the pros
and cons for wildlife

What is a keystone species
and why do whales explode?

86 Species guide
All you ever needed to know
about giant pandas

91 Crossword
Plus Spot the Difference

DON’T MISS...
...the good
news that
the wildlife
of Floreana
Island in the
Galápagos is
being restored
Page 12

92 Photo Club
Including Snap Chat

96 Your Letters
Join the debate

98 Ten insects deadly
to humans
Amazing giant
panda facts, p86

From stingers to disease
spreaders, our pick of
fearsome insects to avoid

discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

7

What’s happening right now

8

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

PETER GRB/CUPOTY

CAUGHT IN THE ACT
Extremely agile with excellent visual
capabilities, the robber fly is a master
aerial hunter. This image reveals – in
mesmerising detail – a planthopper
falling victim to one atop a banana
leaf, and has been shortlisted in the
Insects category of the upcoming
Close-Up Photographer of the Year.

discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

9

Remnants of the
brown summer coat
are still visible on
this individual

10

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

Outdoors:
Mark Stephen and
Rachel Stewart
present
mountain hares
and snowdrops

The tiny jelly is
named after its
box-shaped bell

Suprisingly
smart jellies

As the days become shorter, mountain hares
cloak themselves in a ghostly white camouflage
esplendent in winter white,
mountain hares are a textbook
example of seasonal camouflage.
They stay like this until spring
comes. It’s a phenomenon
commonly seen in the far north,
in animals such as Arctic foxes and
snowshoe hares, but less often at these
latitudes. In fact, the only other British
species that turns into a winter ghost
is the ptarmigan, a bird which, like the
mountain hare, has a stronghold in the
Scottish Highlands.
The transformation from greyishbrown to all-white fur (apart from black

ear tips) is triggered mainly by changes
in day length, with air temperature
playing a secondary role. The process
begins in autumn on the back, moving
across the rest of the body and ending
with the head. Usually, the whitening
continues into the New Year, so
individuals you see in December will
often still have brown noses. Whether
the hares can adapt to keep pace with a
changing climate remains to be seen, but
the upheaval is well underway. In the
Cairngorms, there are already fewer days
with snow cover and by 2080 some years
may be virtually snow-free. Ben Hoare

he Caribbean box jellyfish, like
other cnidaria (a group that also
includes corals and anemones), has
no centralised brain. Instead, it has
a concentration of neurons in each
of the four eye-bearing sensory
structures found within its bell.
Yet, amazingly, research published in
Current Biology has shown that even with
such simple neural circuitry, this 2-3cm long,
mangrove-dwelling creature is capable of
associative learning, the process of acquiring
information from an environment and
adapting one’s behaviour accordingly.
The researchers decorated the side of
their subjects’ tanks with grey stripes that
represented mangrove roots, mimicking the
stimuli that the jellyfish experience when
foraging. By connecting visual stimuli with
mechanical – a collision – the jellies quickly
learnt to keep their distance from the stripes.
The findings are exciting because they
reveal how even simple nervous systems are
able to do advanced learning and “indicate
that learning is an integral part of neural
function,” explains lead author Jan Bielecki
of Kiel University in Germany. Furthermore,
he says, “we can now pinpoint learning cells
in the jellyfish and try to understand the
mechanisms involved in learning”. Jo Caird
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

HARE: JAMES SHOOTER; JELLY: DAMOCEAN/GETTY

Put on your
winter coat

Caribbean box jellyfish
reveal advanced learning
despite having no brain

11

Restoring the Galápagos
Twelve locally extinct species are set to be reintroduced to
Floreana Island, following the removal of invasive mammals
n ambitious new project to
restore the ecosystem of
Floreana Island in the Galápagos
is underway. Plans include
eradicating invasive mammals
and reintroducing 12 missing
species to the southern island
– the sixth largest in the worldfamous archipelago.
Floreana has been dramatically altered
by invasive mammals that were introduced
by humans. Goats that had become feral
were removed in 2007, after decimating the
landscape through overgrazing, and the rats
and feral cats that remain are now being
removed using bait.
The 12 species that will be reintroduced
consist of 10 birds and two reptiles – the
Floreana racer snake and a Galápagos giant
tortoise with very high levels of Floreana
giant tortoise ancestry. “Floreana Island
served as a refuge for
pirates and whalers
who greatly reduced
the populations of
Eliécer Cruz
from Fundación
Jocotoco

giant tortoises that once thrived there,”
says Eliécer Cruz, Galápagos programme
director at Fundación Jocotoco. The
Floreana giant tortoise – a subspecies of
the Galápagos giant tortoise – is believed
to have gone extinct in the mid 1800s, but
a hybrid tortoise population was recently
discovered on Isabela Island, descended
from individuals released by sailors.
“Contemporary issues related to
invasive species on Floreana have resulted
in 55 species being classified as threatened
with extinction according to the IUCN,
and 13 species having become completely
extinct on the island,” adds Cruz. “It is
imperative that we take immediate action
and make concerted efforts to restore this
invaluable Galápagos treasure.”
As well as creating the right ecosystem
conditions, conservationists will need to
ensure that other native species are not
negatively impacted. The risk of exposing
native species to bait intended for invasive
mammals will be minimised by keeping part
of the native short-eared owl population
and five species of Darwin’s finches in
captivity, only re-releasing them once the
risk has been eliminated.
Megan Shersby

Scotland has seen
wildcat reintroductions
in recent years

Britain’s wildlife crisis
he latest and most comprehensive
audit of Britain’s wildlife reveals that
the country is still in the grip of a
biodiversity crisis, compounding its
position as one of the world’s most
nature-depleted countries.
Compiled by more than 60 research
and conservation organisations, the State of
Nature report reviewed 10,000 species and
found that around one in six are threatened
with extinction in the UK. The turtle dove,
the hazel dormouse and the European eel
are among those at risk. Intensive farming
and the continuing effects of climate change
were noted as the two biggest drivers of
nature loss.
“The State of Nature report is a stark
reminder that politicians must not let
nature drop down the agenda – there is
far too much at stake,” says Craig Bennett,
chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts. “We
desperately need better policies that fund

The archipelago's
name comes from
the old Spanish
word for tortoise

Turtle dove numbers are in rapid decline

nature-friendly farming properly, end the
poisoning of lakes and rivers, and create
larger wild and more natural areas, including
in towns and cities.”
Despite the overwhelmingly bleak news,
the report points out that wildlife can
bounce back when given the opportunity
through pioneering conservation projects.
For example, large-scale landscape
restoration projects such as Cairngorms
Connect in Scotland is benefitting a wide
range of wildlife, including black grouse and
wildcats. Plus, in Lyme Bay Marine Protected
Area off the coast of southern England, the
number of species has increased markedly
since trawling was banned in 2008.
“The UK’s nature is a crucial part of our
islands,” says environment secretary Thérèse
Coffey. “That is why we put in law the
requirement to halt the decline in nature and
protect the abundance of species, why we
are committed to increasing the amount of
habitat for nature to thrive and why we were
one of the first countries to pledge to protect
30 per cent of our land for nature
by 2030.”
However, a group of leading conservation
groups is now concerned that there is little
evidence that the government is on track
to meet this target. “Almost four years have
passed since the government committed to
protecting 30 per cent of land and sea for
nature by 2030, but there is still no plan
nor a credible progress report,” says Elliot
Chapman-Jones, head of public affairs at
The Wildlife Trusts. Simon Birch
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

TORTOISE: JOSHUA VELA; WILDCAT: MARK HAMBLIN/AVALON.RED/ALAMY; DOVE: STEFAN HUWILER/IMAGEBROKER/ALAMY

Recent State of Nature report warns that one in
six species in the UK are at risk of extinction

13

Partridge
(not) in a
pear tree

Arable fields offer
vegetation for the
birds to peck at

Spot this festive farmland
bird by casting your eyes
down instead of up

Tweet of the
Day: Bill Oddie
presents the
grey partridge

rey partridges will forever be
associated with Christmas, thanks to
their unlikely starring role in one of
the best-loved carols in English. Even
if you don’t know the other words,
you’ll be able to join in with the final
line about a partridge in a pear tree – a
pretty odd concept, given these gamebirds
spend their lives in fields. In The Twelve
Birds of Christmas, nature writer Stephen
Moss puts forward his theory that every
verse is about a different British bird – the
“eleven pipers piping” are actually common
sandpipers, he suggests, and so on. But we
will never know if he’s right, because the
folk song’s origins are mysterious.
Grey partridges stay in the open in
all weathers – when the going gets tough,
they simply hunker down like clods of
earth. Sadly, modern-day changes in
farming mean they are few and far between
nowadays, something that would have been
unthinkable in the past. BH

ORIGIN
AN ANATOMICAL MISCELLANY

A horse’s
chestnut
orses have two patches of
hardened, hairless skin on each leg.
The ‘chestnut’ is on the inner thigh;
the ‘ergot’ sits behind and above the
hoof. It has long been speculated
that these are vestiges of two of
their ancestors’ five toes. Connecting the
skin to underlying ligaments and equipped
with nerve-endings, they may be involved in
sensing the contraction and extension of leg
muscles. Stuart Blackman
14

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

The chestnut
is more
visible than
the ergot

HORSE: FRANK HILDEBRAND/GETTY; PARTRIDGE: LAURIE CAMPBELL

OF PIECES

NINA CONSTABLE

a single pioneering shoot
catches my eye as it creeps up
my neighbour’s otherwise bare
and neatly painted fence. Hated
by many and overlooked by most, this is
common ivy with nowhere to hide. If you
stare at it long enough, the repeating pattern
of the leaves, branching left then right then
left again, is quite mesmerising ( just don’t
let the neighbours see you).
Meanwhile and far away, the next UN
Climate Change Conference (running from
30th November to 12th December) is about
to go ahead. While this issue of BBC Wildlife
is on sale, COP28 will be undertaking the first
“global stocktake” of how member states are
measuring up to the 2015 Paris Agreement,
the historic pledge to keep mean global
temperatures to 1.5°C of warming, and not
exceed 2°C. Reading more like a romantic
milestone, the conference headline announces
that “it has been seven years since Paris” and
with just seven years left to achieve its targets,
is the honeymoon well and truly over?
COP28 president Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber
certainly thinks so. “We don’t need to wait
for the stocktake to know what it will say,”
he concluded at an address earlier this
year. “We are way off track. The world is
playing catch-up when it comes to the key
Paris goal of holding temperatures down to
1.5°C and the hard reality is that to achieve
this goal, global emissions must fall 43
per cent by 2030. To add to the challenge,
we must decrease emissions at a time of
continued economic uncertainty, heightened
geopolitical tensions and increasing pressure
on energy security.”
The ivy trundles on, making slow, steady
progress across the expanse that is my
neighbour’s fence. This root-climbing plant
does exactly what it says on the tin: highly
specialised adventitious roots, splayed like
tiny fingers clinging on for dear life, allow the
plant to pull itself up bark, rock or mortar
without wrapping itself around or penetrating
the structure. First, the roots mould
themselves to micro-features on the climbing
surface before secreting a glue. Then, the
root hairs desiccate, causing them to coil and
‘scrunch’ around the anchor points, producing
a lasting and energy-efficient hold.
That, however, is where the support from
the structure ends. Unlike parasitic plants,
such as festive mistletoe, common ivy is
self-sustaining, drawing its own water and
nutrition, and only causing difficulties in
already weakened structures.
Once the plant has reached a sufficient
Gillian Burke is a biologist,
writer, film-maker, voice-over
artist and TV presenter. She
joined the BBC Two Watches
team in 2017.

Catch all the
episodes of
the Watches
on iPlayer

Nature holds many
potential solutions to the
challenges of our time

OPINION

“Is the Paris Agreement honeymoon
well and truly over?”
height, it shape-shifts from its juvenile lobed
leaf form to its adult form with heart-shaped
leaves on stems that stand proud, followed
by an explosion of nectar-rich flowers in the
late summer and autumn.
More than 70 insect species have been
recorded feeding on ivy flowers in the
UK, while its deep-purple berries sustain
blackbirds and other thrushes through the
winter months. The buds and leaves are a
food source for various insect larvae, and
from woodland to brownfield and urban
sites, the dense blankets of evergreen foliage
offer year-round shelter for birds, bats and
other small mammals.
Having a greater-than-the sum-of-itsparts effect on the diversity and abundance

of other wildlife, common ivy is considered
a keystone species. As if this is not enough,
it has also been shown to clean the air and
insulate buildings, and is used in medicines
and herbal remedies.
While over two weeks in Dubai COP28
wrestles its way through a beguiling pile
of climate interventions and technological
innovations, it’s worth remembering that all
these remarkable benefits are provided by
just one of the almost 300,000 plant species
worldwide. It would appear there is an
abundance of ready-to-go natural solutions
to meet the environmental challenges of
the climate crisis. Perhaps one barrier to
embracing natural solutions is that they tend
to be less profitable.

discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

15

TIME TO CHILL OUT

eady-eyed and adorable, the hazel dormouse is one of just three
kinds of British mammal to hibernate, along with hedgehogs and
bats. Touch one now and it would feel cold as stone, its body
chilled to 1-2°C. During hibernation its metabolic systems slow
to the merest flicker – three or four heart beats and breaths per
minute keep it ticking over until April or May.
16

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

Keith (left) helps out
on a variety of tasks

MEET THE VOLUNTEER

Keith Dobell
The retiree cares for a park, an old railway track and
a wood in his home county of Northamptonshire

Hazel dormice often
hibernate in piles of
leaf litter at the base
of trees or hedges

encourages wildflowers such as bluebells and
primroses, increasing their foothold. I think
the wildlife has benefitted as the habitat
improves. We know there are rare bats on
the Brampton Valley Way, and we even have
some orchids growing in secret spots.”

“On some days, the weather conditions
are glorious, but other times it can be
pretty muddy, cold and unpleasant. On the
worst of days we manage to find jobs inside
“Personally, I enjoy the exercise,
maintaining tools, building nest boxes
comradery and frequent contact
and refurbishing signs. One of
with visitors (plus their
the trickier tasks is working
many dogs!),” Keith says.
on 45° slopes clearing
“Our team of volunteers
views from the benches
from the Friends of
beside the old railway
Brampton Valley
track on Brampton
Way and Brixworth
Valley Way – ideal if
Country Park are a
you are a mountain
great bunch. The squad
goat but less so for us
Pond maintenance
of 12 consists mainly
septuagenarians! We
is one of the wetter
of elderly people but
managed to win grant
tasks for volunteers
we have had a recent
funding to buy batteryand welcome injection of
powered equipment. Manual
younger recruits. Initially,
work is all very well but
I went along as a day’s respite
mechanical help is a blessing.”
from caring for my wife, who had
dementia, but now come frequently. I only
“There is nothing extraordinary about our
live half a mile away, so it’s very convenient
work other than the pleasure it gives us,
to pop to the park and avoid the housework.”
but the appreciation we get from the public
makes it worthwhile. I will simply continue
“Keeping the scrub under control helps the
to enjoy my days cutting back scrub and
young trees to get more light, and removing
digging out old drains until my limbs object
unwanted plants and exposing the ground
too much.”

DORMOUSE: DANNY GREEN

At 75 years of age, Keith Dobell relishes
the opportunity to “give back”, spending
several days a week breaking a sweat
maintaining and improving Brixworth
Country Park, over 20km of the Brampton
Valley Way and Martin Moore Wood in
Northamptonshire. The work is physical –
involving cutting back overgrown vegetation
and hazardous overhanging trees, through to
repairing pathways – but rewarding.

discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

17

Marvel Comics character Venom and the
attractive new spider named after him

NEW SPECIES DISCOVERY

Venomius
tomhardyi
Celine Gamble
(right) and
colleagues
release oysters

Ocean superheroes
MEADOW: GETTY; OYSTERS (X2) ZSL; VENOM SPIDER: ROSSI ET AL./EUREKALERT/CREATIVE
COMMONS; ILLUSTRATION BY ZEESHANOO VIA PIXABAY/EUREKALERT/CREATIVE COMMONS

Release of 10,000 oysters in North East England
promises to improve water quality and marine life

18

ative oysters (Ostrea edulis) were
once a mainstay of Britain’s coastline,
providing essential water conditions
and habitat for myriad marine species.
However, since the 1800s, habitat
loss, over-harvesting, pollution and
disease have led to a 95 per cent decline in
the population.
In order to boost their numbers,
conservationists from The Wild Oysters
Project have released 10,000 of the molluscs
onto an underwater ‘oyster reef ’ off the
coast of North East England. The 7,500m²
reef was created by depositing 750 tonnes of
‘cultch’ (local stones and scallop shells)
onto the seabed. More than 100
local volunteers helped clean
the oysters before they were
laid onto this substrate. It’s
hoped that next season
they will release larvae that
will then settle in nearby
areas, kickstarting the
species’ recovery.
Oysters are filter-feeders
and each mature individual
BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

is “capable of filtering approximately 200
litres of water a day – around a bathtub’s
worth – which in turn contributes towards
improving our coastal water quality,” says
project manager Celine Gamble.
As well as serving as powerful water
filtration systems, removing pollutants
and excess nutrients from the sea, oyster
reefs are important habitats for many
other species of marine wildlife, including
European eels, blue mussels, sea bass,
brittlestars, crabs, nudibranchs and pipefish.
The Wild Oysters Project – a partnership
between the Zoological Society of
London, Blue Marine Foundation and
British Marine – is undertaking
restoration work across the
UK. This release was made
possible by Groundwork
North East and Cumbria
and £1.18 million from
People’s Postcode Lottery.
Daniel Graham
Native oysters were once
common on the UK coastline

WHAT IS IT?
This distinctive orb-weaving spider is
sufficiently different from other members
of its family to be assigned a new genus
of its own. Though closely related to the
leaf-rolling spiders, which hide in a curledup leaf built into the centre of their web,
this species instead constructs a unique
silk-lined retreat.
WHERE IS IT?
The spider was found in coastal forests
in Tasmania, where it builds its web only
at night and dismantles it during the day.
The researchers subsequently found
further specimens languishing in museum
collections of un-named species taken
from the coast of the south Australian
mainland.
WHAT’S THE MEANING BEHIND THE
SCIENTIFIC NAME?
The pattern of black spots on the spider’s
abdomen reminded the researchers of
the face of the Marvel Comics character
Venom, played by the actor Tom Hardy in
the 2018 film adaptation. Stuart Blackman

IN BRIEF

Making meadows
National Highways and Plantlife have
launched a new £8 million programme
called Meadow Makers, which will help
to restore the biodiversity of more than
100ha of grasslands across
seven sites in the South
West and North
East. It’s a vital step
towards Plantlife’s
goal of restoring
100,000ha of
species-rich
grassland
by 2040.

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There’s good news for
both white (pictured)
and black rhinos

Glimmer of hope
for Africa’s rhinos

20

onservationists are cautiously
optimistic over the future of Africa’s
beleaguered rhinos, with the latest
survey showing that from 2021 to 2022
numbers increased by just over 5 per
cent to 23,290.
Rhino numbers have been decimated
in recent years by a deadly combination of
habitat destruction and the illegal trade in
rhino horn, which has resulted in thousands
of rhinos being slaughtered. However, thanks
to a combination of protection and biological
management initiatives, rhino populations
are now finally slowly recovering.
“With this good news, we can take a sigh
of relief for the first time in a decade.
However, it is imperative to further
consolidate and build upon this
positive development and
not drop our guard,” says
Michael Knight, chair of
the IUCN African Rhino
Specialist Group.
The survey reveals
that the population of
black rhinos, which has been
massively impacted by poaching
BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

for their horns, has increased by almost 5 per
cent to 6,487. While northern white rhinos
are down to just two surviving individuals,
southern white rhinos now number around
16,803 animals, an increase of just over 5 per
cent, the first increase since 2012.
Despite the welcome news, the impact
of poaching is still ever-present, with at
least 561 rhinos killed across Africa last year.
Whilst the number of illegally killed rhinos
remains stubbornly high and is of concern to
conservation authorities, this figure shows a
significant reduction from the height of the
poaching crisis in 2015 when 1,349 African
rhinos were poached.
According to the IUCN, Africa’s
large animals, including rhinos,
are important biodiversity and
ecological drivers. They create
habitats for other species,
providing opportunities for
future global restoration and
rewilding options.
Simon Birch
Michael Knight chairs the IUCN
African Rhino Specialist Group

Holly berries are
much loved by
birds in winter

FACT.

The wandering albatross has the
largest wingspan of any living bird,
up to an impressive 3m, which is
very useful if, like them, you spend
almost all your life at sea. Compare
that to the world’s smallest bird, the
bee hummingbird, which has
a wingspan of about 3cm.

ALBATROSS: KERRY HARGROVE/GETTY

RHINO: HENRIK KARLSSON/GETTY; HOLLY: LAURIE CAMPBELL

Latest survey reveals promising population increase

FESTIVE FRUITS

o plant has closer ties to the festive season than holly. Its
scarlet berries, which form only on female trees, appear as early
as August and may in theory linger all winter, though hungry
thrushes and people taking cuttings put paid to that. Since heat
and sunshine often lead to a heavy berry crop the year after, the
UK’s 2022 heatwaves could produce a good display this December.
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

21

HS2 construction at
Jones Hill Wood in
Great Missenden,
Buckinghamshire

Ancient woodland
still at risk from HS2
Scrapping the northern phase has spared some sites,
but woodlands and reserves remain under threat
undreds of hectares of woodland
and species-rich grasslands have
been saved from the axe as a result
of the decision to scrap the northern
phase of the high-speed rail link
HS2. Conservationists said 190ha of
woodland, including nearly 15ha of ancient
woodland, plus hundreds of ponds and
thousands of individual hedgerows, had been
threatened with destruction from Phases 2a
and 2b.
But Phase 1 between London and
Birmingham will still wreak significant
environmental damage, according to The

Wildlife Trusts, which called for “better and
more effective mitigation to make amends
for the magnitude” of the impacts.
“Over 104,000 people signed our letter
to the government asking that HS2’s impacts
on nature be properly scrutinised and that
the scheme’s design be modified to limit the
damage,” says director of policy and public
affairs Joan Edwards.
A report published by The Wildlife
Trusts in 2020, What’s the Damage?, set out
in detail which important areas for nature
were under threat from HS2. A total of 53
designated wildlife sites were identified as

FROM THE BBC WILDLIFE ARCHIVE December 2003

being within 500m of the scheme and at
“potential risk of significant harm”.
With the northern leg no longer going
ahead, 19 sites are now still at risk. No
Special Areas of Conservation (SACs)
– nature reserves designated under the
European Habitats Directive – or Ramsar
wetland sites will be impacted, but Ruislip
Woods National Nature Reserve, 300ha of
ancient woodland within Greater London, is
still in the firing line.
Phase 1 of HS2 will also affect the
Birmingham and Black Country Nature
Improvement Area (NIA), which received
grant funding from the Department of
Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) of
more than £0.5 million – the line will destroy
an estimated 80-90 per cent of Park Hall
Nature Reserve, which sits within the NIA.
HS2 Ltd says it has minimised any
impacts as much as possible. On Phase 1, it
says 32 ancient woodlands will be affected,
“but in 19 of these, the total area of loss is
less than one hectare.” Total loss of ancient
woodland area will amount to only 20ha,
it adds. James Fair

NEXT ISSUE
COMMON
WHELK
EGG CASE

Stormy winter
seas strand all
kinds of natural
treasure on
our coasts

22

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

DOG WHELK: GETTY; RUSLIP: JUDI SAUNDERS/ALAMY; AERIAL: JIM DYSON/GETTY

Ruislip Woods, the largest area of woodland in
Greater London, will be impacted by HS2

Be a voice for
the wild.
An advocate for
the endangered.
Study Wildlife Conservation at NTU and turn your
passion into a career that makes a real difference.

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‘A national treasure.’

BILL BRYSON

DAN SNOW

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и$ZLWW\LQWR[LFDWLQJ
paean to Earth’s most
ZRQGURXVFUHDWXUHVк

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‘Exquisite and timely.’

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‘Some of the best nature
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and wildly funny.’

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EDMUND DE WAAL

From the author of the bestselling 6XSHU,QŮLQLWH

Soaking
up some
winter sun
Look out for overwintering
butterflies during mild
spells this December

“

24

hill December brings the sleet/
Blazing fire and Christmas treat.” It’s
a beautiful if somewhat sentimental
image… except a lot has changed
since 1834, when Sara Coleridge
wrote her popular poem, The Garden
Year, about the passing of the seasons.
Now, in some winters, large parts of
lowland England see little or no sleet or
snow, and temperatures can turn incredibly
mild. And insects have been quick to
respond – especially butterflies.
Two British species, the speckled
wood and red admiral, overwinter as adult
butterflies but don’t enter full torpor. That
means they can be roused by midwinter
sun, and December sightings are becoming
more frequent. Make sure to report any
such observations, for example using
Butterfly Conservation’s free iRecord
Butterflies app. Other species that
overwinter as adults but which become
fully dormant, including the brimstone,
peacock, small tortoiseshell and comma
butterflies, are much less likely to stir
during mild spells. BH

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

FEMALE
OF THE SPECIES
REINDEER

Lucy Cooke explains why the females
of this Christmas icon have antlers too
eindeer are synonymous with
Christmas. But are the antlered
beasts that pull Santa’s sleigh male
or female? Rudolph has antlers,
so he must be a male right? Well,
it’s not that simple. Reindeer are
the only species of deer for which
males and females both grow a set
of seasonal armaments – a bit of
detective work is required in order to work
out the sleigh-puller’s true sex.
Antlers are considered a classic example
of sexual selection – the evolutionary force
that arises from the struggle for mates.
Male reindeer use these elaborate bony
outgrowths to fight one another over access
to groups of females. During the annual
rut they’ll lock horns in battle – shoving
one another like Sumo wrestlers trying to
eject an opponent from the ring. Females
will shop around male territories and
preferentially choose to mate with those
sporting the most impressive head gear.
Antlers are energetically expensive to grow,
and an indication of a male’s size, strength
and overall health. Mating with a winning
male ensures the best genetic stock for their
offspring, and so the male with the biggest
antlers gets to sire the most.
The fact that female reindeer also sport
antlers is something of a conundrum. Why
would females bother to grow such a costly
adornment when they need all their energy
to raise offspring?
The answer is in the reindeer’s
circumpolar environment. All six species
are found in countries surrounding
the Arctic and are suitably adapted
for a life in the freezer. They have
a hairy muzzle to reduce heat
loss and very broad hooves to
help them walk on snow. They
are also the only deer that can
digest lichen, which sustains

Catch up
with Lucy’s
three-part
BBC Radio Four series,
Political Animals

Some mothers do ‘ave ‘em

them through the long winter months. But
not without some work. Reindeer must
dig down into the snow, spending precious
energy in order to expose patches of this lifesaving green stuff.
Female reindeer are pregnant over
the winter and need to consume as many
calories as possible, so they use their
antlers to fight males over prime patches
of exposed lichen. A battle they easily win
as the males only sport their antlers for the
rutting season. By winter, once they have
mated, they shed their costly adornments to
save energy. But females retain theirs and
subsequently dominate the males, stealing
food to feed their growing fetuses.
Therefore Rudolph, with his winter
antlers, must have been a female. Well,
maybe not. Reindeer are the only semidomesticated deer on the planet. The Sámi
have tamed them to pull their Nordic
sleds. Traditionally males are used,
but only ones that have been
castrated. These steers don’t
shed their horns until spring, so
Rudolph may have been a male
after all, albeit one with
no testicles.

Lucy is a broadcaster,
zoologist and author of
Bitch: What Does It Mean
To Be Female? (Penguin
paperback on sale now)
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

SPECKLED WOOD: ROBIN CHITTENDEN; ILLUSTRATION BY HOLLY EXLEY

Speckled woods can
be found in gardens
and parks, as well as
woodlands

25

Use a hand lens
to truly appreciate
redshank moss

Miniature
forests
n murky December days, take
inspiration from the evergreen
vibrancy and endurance of moss.
This most ancient of plants – older
than the oldest dinosaur – is as tough
as they come. It grows incredibly
slowly and is able to thrive without soil. As
Elizabeth-Jane Burnett says in her luminous
book Twelve Words for Moss: “Where nothing
is living, moss can be the spark that triggers
new life.”
Britain is rich in mosses and their sheer
diversity can be offputting to the novice
bryologist, so start by getting to know a few
of the most abundant. Redshank moss is a
good species to begin with. Soft, yellowishgreen cushions of it are all around us, often
on roofs and between cracks in tarmac. It
loves growing on fire-blackened earth, hence
its alternative name: fire moss. From time to
time, each cushion sends up a tiny thicket
of spore-producing stalks that looks like a
miniature red forest. BH

POO
CORNER
ID GUIDE

European
rabbit
Rabbit poo is very small – only pea-sized –
and is usually black, light brown or green
in colour. It is sweet smelling and filled with
plant pieces. According to The Mammal
Society, “Rabbits eat a wide range of
plants, including grasses, cereal
crops, root vegetables and young
shoots of meadow plants. They
will eat tree bark, especially
when snow covers other food
sources.” Rabbit poo can be
found in grassland, field edges
and hedgerows. Look out for
droppings scattered at latrines
near burrow entrances.
26

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

Rabbit poo is
up to 1cm in
diameter

RABBIT: SYLVAIN CORDIER/GAMMA-RAPHO/GETTY; DROPPINGS: JASON SMALLEY/NATUREPL.COM; MOSS: GENEVIEVE LEAPER

Colourful cushions of
redshank moss sprout
in lowly places

WILDLIFE SPECTACLES
The broadcaster, naturalist and tour guide shares the
most breathtaking seasonal events in Britain

ROOSTING PIED WAGTAILS

WAGTAIL: GARY CHALKER/GETTY; ROOST: GETTY

Remember to look up this
Christmas to enjoy gangs of
‘pied wags’ gathered in the trees

28

ne of the most joyous and timehonoured festive traditions for many
this month must surely be decorating
the Christmas tree. But while
adorning the tree in the warmth of
your homes, do spare a thought for
the feathery baubles festooning a number of
urban trees outdoors, as pied wagtails join
forces each dusk to collectively see out the
long, cold winter nights.
Identified by their monochromatic
plumage, jerky walk and habit of constantly
pumping their long tails, pied wagtails are
without doubt one of the most beloved
members of our wonderfully diverse
avifauna. Breeding across most of
Britain, these adaptable little
birds are often, but not

Did you know?
One theory for why pied
wagtails wag their tails
is that it helps flush out
their insect prey

BBC WILDLIFE

always, close to water and tend to prefer
‘open country’ in farmland, moorland and
even town parks. Insectivorous by nature,
their favoured food is taken from the ground,
the water’s surface or snatched midair. Flies,
midges and caterpillars are popular meals.
Our ‘pied wags’ are considered a race of
the white wagtails found in mainland Europe
and most are resident here all year round.
However, ringing data suggests that those
breeding in Britain’s northern uplands are
forced to southern England and Ireland as
autumn proceeds, while some fair-weather
wags will even opt for a spot of winter sun in
southern Europe.
Winter also sees a behavioural
change, as the wagtails abandon their
strategy of hanging out in ones and twos
in the countryside and instead form
communal roosts in our urban centres.
Certainly, the ability of human-made
structures, such as roads and buildings,
to absorb and retain heat better than
grassland or woodland in winter results

A roost of pied wagtails
congregates outside
Heathrow Airport
Terminal 5

“Roads and buildings
absorb and retain heat
bettter than grassland
or woodland”

discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

29

Mike Dilger’s
TOP

FIVE
PLACES

WILDLIFE SPECTACLES

1

BIRMINGHAM
The trees marking the
corner where Dale End
meets Albert Street in
the city centre play host
to a pied wagtail roost
all winter long

BELFAST
A roost of several hundred
pied wagtails forms each night
in the trees lining Bridge Street
in the city’s Cathedral Quarter

5

4

WAGTAILS: STAMP; STAMP: IVAN VDOVIN/ALAMY; MACAQUE: LESLIE CHIVERS/500PX/GETTY

BRIDGEND
Each night, around 200 pied
wagtails congregate in the famous
Christmas tree positioned outside
Barclays bank and at the junction of
Queen Street and Caroline Street

30

levels drop to a critical level, they’ll simply
in a phenomenon known as the ‘urban
then flit across with their characteristic
heat island effect’. So pronounced is this
bounding flight to where they’ll spend the
that winter temperatures in London, for
night. Ornamental trees planted around
example, can be up to 10°C higher than in
shopping centres or supermarkets seem to
the surrounding countryside. When this
be highly favoured by wagtails,
is combined with the relative
particularly when located near
paucity of predators found
“An urban
street lights. Their distinctive
wherever humans gather in
roost in Kent ‘chizzick’ calls from the bare
any number, it’s not difficult
are often barely
to work out why pied wagtails
was estimated branches
audible above the hustle
find the bright lights and busiest
to have
and bustle of the Christmas
thoroughfares in cities such an
shoppers down at street level.
attractive proposition.
contained
can vary in size
It’s also now broadly
around 4,300 fromRoosts
between a few tens to
accepted that the birds use
individuals” several hundreds of birds, with
this ‘coming together’ as an
even larger tallies occasionally
opportunity for information
recorded. One of the highest
exchange. Essentially, those
known counts occurred during the winter
birds that have struggled to find enough food
of 1977, when an urban roost in Orpington,
during the day can follow any better-fed
Kent was estimated to have contained
individuals to richer feeding grounds the
around 4,300 individuals. Roosts also tend
following morning.
to be ‘gifts that keep on giving’, as those
As dusk approaches, the wagtails will
wagtails that successfully negotiate the
often begin to coalesce in benign little gangs
winter months will then return to the same
at locations such as carparks and flat roofs,
site the following year.
close to their roost of choice. When the light
Tracking down a winter roost near you
should not be too onerous and will consist of
little more than looking and listening out for
the wagtails as they begin to gather around
an hour before darkness falls. By keeping
your eyes down, as well as up, you may spot
collections of guano on the pavements and
below any trees – a sure sign that you’re
getting ‘warmer’.
So why not sack off your shopping
an hour early, because to the discerning
naturalist, this much underrated winter
spectacle is infinitely more favourable than
Roosting together offers pied wagtails safety,
encountering a Christmas bargain.
warmth and a chance to share knowledge!

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

YORK
As the area around Parliament Street
in the city centre is transformed into a
Christmas market, don’t forget to look
up at dusk as pied wagtails descend to
roost in the line of London plane trees

2

3

HEATHROW
AIRPORT
TERMINAL 5
One of the largest
roosts in Britain,
anywhere between a
few hundred and a few
thousand pied wagtails
spend each winter
night in a select number
of trees between the
terminal and the nearby
multistory carpark

LOOK CLOSER

Easy pickings
Some pied wagtails take advantage of
insects squashed on car grills and
number plates for an effort-free meal.
Moth enthusiasts have even reported
that enterprising individuals visit light
traps left out from the previous night to
pick off those moths that didn’t quite
make it into the trap!

White wagtail
A few individuals of this
continental nominate
race make it to the UK
each year and can be
distinguished by their
pale silver-grey backs
White wagtails
and rumps, which
on a Hungarian
contrast with the black
postage stamp
back and rump of a male
pied wagtail or the smoky
grey upperparts of his mate.

Unlikely places
Wagtails are attracted to sewage farms
due to the elevated temperatures caused
by the biological processes. An added
bonus is that they are a breeding ground
for insects, too, thus providing the perfect
bed and breakfast.

NEXT MONTH

Mike widens his scope to
spectacles across the world...

Discover
more

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Nick Baker’s
HIDDEN WORLD
The popular naturalist, author and TV presenter
reveals a secret world of overlooked wildlife

VAMPIRE SPIDER

Too small to bite a human, this
arachnid manages to get a taste
of the red stuff elsewhere
spider that drinks human blood
and is attracted to smelly socks
might sound like the stuff of an
overimaginative arachnophobe’s
mind. Still, Evarcha culicivora is
very much a real thing. It is called
the vampire spider by some, and while
it isn’t quite the blood-sucking fiend its
name might suggest, the truth is even more
bizarre and interesting.
As a member of the imminently likeable
and charismatic jumping spider family
(Salticidae), close up it has all the hallmarks
of these popular spiders, except that it is a
bit of a ‘little brown job’ (the informal term
used by birders to describe brown birds
that are difficult to distinguish) and is easily
overlooked in favour of its larger or more
extrovert cousins.
At first glance, the vampire spider is dull
and seemingly unremarkable-looking. It is a
drab brown-and-grey colour and relatively
small in stature, growing to less than 5mm
long. However, what it lacks in obvious

32

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

flourish and flamboyance it more than

name? The clue lies in its scientific one:
culicivora means ‘mosquito eater’ and the
species hunts these infamous insects with
a single-minded focus. It is a mosquito
makes this spider so unique.

The lake is a perfect nursery for all flying

species. Our spider, however, doesn’t just
jump on any of these insects. Instead, it is
Not only does it prefer mosquitoes to
any other similar-sized insects, but it also
specifically targets the females. This is
because it is only the females that feed on
the blood of humans and other mammals,

“The pernickety
predator will
choose the
blood-engorged
prey every time”

ILLUSTRATIONS BY PETER DAVID SCOTT/THE ART AGENCY

Compound
eyes

At less than 5mm,
a vampire spider is
about the same size
as its mosquito prey

discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

33

The Canada lynx
ranges from Alaska
through Canada
and into northern
US states

36

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

LYNX & WOLVERINE O

Canada lynx and wolverines
are secretive creatures, but
dedicated scientists in
Montana are tracking them
to inform conservation
By ROB G GREEN

Not a bear: the
wolverine is the
largest member of
the weasel family

The Mission
Mountains are a
range within the
Rocky Mountains

he sound of cold steel
against cold steel breaks
the silence that typically
accompanies winter this high
up in the Mission Mountains.
Luke Lamar readjusts
the hammer in his hand, looks around as if he’ll
somehow spot the echo he’s created, and then
takes another swing at the nail that’s pinning
the deer leg against the tree trunk. It’s -17˚C,
and he grunts as he drives the nail through
frozen muscle until he’s convinced it’s secure.
38

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

It has to be. If he’s going to collect
DNA samples from the Canada lynx and
wolverines he’s studying, he has to make sure
they’ll struggle with the bait long enough to
leave a trace.
As conservation director for the
Montana-based organisation Swan Valley
Connections (SVC), part of Luke’s job is to
organise efforts to learn more about two of
the most elusive species on the planet. He’s
responsible for planning and implementing a
Rare Carnivore Monitoring Project that looks
to collect lynx and wolverine data in an area
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rob G Green is a a documentary photographer
and videographer based in Montana in the
USA. He is a National Geographic
Explorer and Emerging League
Member of the International
League of Conservation
Photographers, and focuses
on the connection and conflict
between people and place.

LYNX & WOLVERINE O

of North America known as the Crown of
the Continent, a Switzerland-sized expanse
of national parks, ranches, forests, mountain
ranges and communities that contains some
of the most intact wildlife habitat on Earth.
Working specifically in the south-west
portion of the Crown, Luke and his fellow
researchers have spent the past 10 years
collecting lynx and wolverine data across the
roughly 600,000ha they survey. The data
has given researchers a better idea of how
many individuals are in the region, whether
they’re male or female, their movement
patterns and even family genetics. This
wealth of information can then be used to
determine trends and activity hotspots, and
in turn guide conservation efforts and forest
management plans.
Before this monitoring began in 2012,
little was known about the lynx and
wolverines of the Southwestern Crown.
“You can’t conserve a species if you don’t
know anything about it,” Luke says. “We
have learned an awful lot about lynx and

“Luke and his fellow researchers
have spent the past 10 years
collecting lynx and wolverine data”
Where is the Crown of the Continent?

The ecosytem stretches across
the Rocky Mountains of British
Columbia, Alberta and Montana

discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

39

OLYNX & WOLVERINE

Wildlife
coordinator
Eric Graham
attaches meat
and ‘hair snares’
to a tree

How to make a bait station
A small portion of roadkill deer or elk is secured to a tree and
wire brushes are nailed into the trunk. As the animal climbs
the tree for a bite of food, the wire brushes snag hairs that
are later collected and sampled for various DNA markers,
providing an insight into elusive wildlife populations.
When it comes to finding the best location for a bait
station, researchers will set them up on an animal’s known
travel route to increase the chance of its success. Welltrained researchers can detect animal tracks from the back
of snowmobiles while travelling up to 50kph as they ride
high up into the mountains.
One of the reasons biologists use non-invasive ‘hair snares’
is that it avoids the need to capture, sedate and handle an
animal, greatly reducing any stress caused. The work takes time
and dedication. Even in harsh conditions, researchers must check
more than 100 bait stations across their study area once every 2-3
weeks to collect samples and reset bait.

wolverine in this landscape and how things
have changed in just the past 10 years.”
That knowledge doesn’t come easy
though. “Sometimes we’re working on
beautiful sunny days, and sometimes it’s in
blizzard conditions or sideways, cold rain,”
Luke says. “We’re out there in pretty much
any weather condition. The only time we
don’t go out is when the high for the day is
below -17˚C. A lot of preparation goes into
safety. There are always those winter risks
where something could go wrong and you
could have snowmobiles that break down in
the field, and then you end up spending the
night in the middle of nowhere. We have to
be ready for that.”
40

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

Why one would even think to conduct
research in such challenging conditions
comes down to two main reasons: wildlife
is easier to track across snow; and bears
are hibernating. Even though lynx and
wolverines exist in the Southwestern Crown
year-round, researchers would rather not
contend with hungry grizzlies tearing apart
bait stations in the middle of summer. As
such, biologists ride snowmobiles high up
into the mountains during some of western
Montana’s coldest months, cut tracks
through the deep snow until they’ve found
an active wildlife route, and get to work.
Luke drops the hammer on the packed
snow and sheds his jacket before wrapping

wire around the skinned deer
leg, sourced from roadkill,
to make it even harder for the
carnivores to pull it down. Below it,
he tacks a dozen metal brushes to the trunk.
The idea is relatively simple: use the bait
to lure the species up the tree for a quick
meal, then collect the hair samples that get
snagged on the brushes in the process. The
harder it is to free the bait from the tree, the
more times the animals try, and the more
DNA samples they leave behind.

W

hat makes this
approach unique is
that it’s non-invasive,
meaning it doesn’t
require researchers to
capture, sedate, handle, collar and release
an animal back into its habitat in order to
harvest useful data (see box). It’s also a more
effective way of collecting data, but even so,

The Canada lynx
is 50cm tall at
the shoulder with
furry paw pads for
walking on snow

“You could have snowmobiles that break down and you
end up spending the night in the middle of nowhere”
LUKE LAMAR, CONSERVATION DIRECTOR AT SWAN VALLEY CONNECTIONS

last year researchers set up 239 bait stations,
spent a total of 275 days in the field and
logged over 7,000km in track surveys, yet
were only able to collect genetic material
on 13 wolverines and 35 lynx in the entire
Southwestern Crown. It shows just how rare
these two species are.
To even attempt to scan this large
an area for such reclusive wildlife takes
more than just grit and endurance in harsh
conditions, it takes cooperation. In the
mountainous and often heavily forested
terrain, partnerships are critical to ensuring

the work is done thoroughly and on time.
While SVC has spearheaded much of the
study, it’s been supported by dozens of field
technicians and funding from organizations
and agencies including the US Forest Service,
the Nature Conservancy, the Bureau of Land
Management and the University of Montana.
“None of this would have happened
without our partners,” Luke says. “We
couldn’t have pulled this off by ourselves.
It took a group of people, and they realise
that just looking at their individual lands for
lynx and wolverine is only part of the story.

They also see how habitat connects across
the landscape. We’re now having much larger
conversations about land management.”

E

ric Graham is one such
partner. With more than
20 years of field experience,
his ability to track wildlife in
the Southwestern Crown is
unparalleled. Working as wildlife coordinator
for another local conservation group called
the Blackfoot Challenge, he assists SVC by
setting bait stations and collecting genetic
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

41

material. He has been involved with the
project from its inception, and his respect for
the work is matched only by his respect for
the wildlife he chases, whose territories can
be huge – a single wolverine’s home-range
can span as much as 1,500km².
“When you’re out there, you’re following
in the footsteps of those animals and seeing
exactly how they move through the country,”
he says. “When you’re backtracking –
following an animal’s tracks backwards to see
where they’ve been and what they’ve done
– you might find remains of snowshoe hare
prey and see where they went on a hunt, or
where they bedded down for a while. I’ve been
blown away by the way they move up and
down steep ridges. It’s like they’re climbing
the tallest peaks just for the fun of it.”
Translating that respect into policyguiding data takes help from the National
Genomics Center for Wildlife and Fish
Conservation in Missoula, Montana. As a
founding researcher at the facility, laboratory
supervisor Kristi Pilgrim has been working
since 1999 to develop the non-invasive model
for harvesting wildlife DNA. Her team’s
analysis of bait-station samples provides
a better idea of what’s happening – and
changing – on the landscape.
“One thing that is really important about
our work is that it’s not just a standalone
product,” she says. “The information we get

Top: snowshoe hair is the lynx’s preferred prey,
but they will take squirrel, rodent and grouse.
Bottom: samples are prepared for analysis.

A wolverine peeks
around a tree near a bait
station research site
42

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

LYNX & WOLVERINE O
from DNA tells us one piece of the picture,
and then we can overlay that with other
movement data on lynx or wolverine over
time. I like that our research is best when
it is complemented by the help of others
as well as from other data streams – that’s
when you can get a fuller picture of the
species or the ecosystem.”

W

hat might be even
more useful than
what the research
says about lynx and
wolverines now is what
it might reveal about their future. While
reintroduction efforts have occurred in
places such as Colorado, the Southwestern
Crown is one of the southernmost naturally
occurring ranges for lynx and wolverines. As
both species rely on a healthy snowpack for
both hunting and den sites, climate change
could threaten their long-term survival. Now
equipped with a decade of research data,
SVC and its partners can use the information
as a baseline to monitor changes that could
impact wildlife down the road.
“It’s important to monitor that southern
edge of their distribution, because that’s
where you’d expect climate change impacts
to show up first,” Luke says. “These animals
are the canary in the coal mine.”
Take lynx, for example, which have
evolved to hunt in the snow. Their wide
paws, long legs and near-silent movement
through terrain make them remarkable
predators. Their preferred meal is the
snowshoe hare, which can make up a
whopping 95 per cent of their diet. When
hare populations are healthy, lynx thrive.
When there are too many lynx, hares are
over-hunted, resulting in a decline in lynx
populations until hare numbers rebound.
In most cases this cycle is natural, but what
is not yet known is just how deeply climate
change will impact this relationship.
Even though snowshoe hares change
coats between white and brown depending
on the season, it can take up to 10 weeks
to change colour completely. If winters are
shortened or snowpack is reduced, their
white coat against the brown dirt makes
them more vulnerable prey not only for lynx,
but also for predators less suited to hunt in
snow. Their population could plummet at
unnatural rates, which means lynx numbers
could soon follow suit. With Canada lynx
already listed as Threatened under the

Lab supervisor
Kristi Pilgrim
and technician
Bryce Tipton

Back at the lab
Once hair (and scat) samples have been collected from the field, they are stored with desiccant
beads to keep them dry and preserve their DNA. They are then taken to the National Genomics
Center for Wildlife and Fish Conservation in Missoula, Montana. Here, DNA is extracted in a
dedicated laboratory and tested to determine the species. Any samples that are identified as lynx
and wolverine are then further investigated to identify the sex and even the individual animal.
By comparing the findings to those on existing databases, researchers can determine which
individuals are new to an area. The data and results allow individual lynx and wolverines to be
followed through space and time, and reveal how they are using the landscape.

Endangered Species Act and a decision on
whether or not to list wolverines expected in
the coming months, work such as the Rare
Carnivore Monitoring Project is critical in
informing decisions on protecting wildlife.

B

ut just because these
ecosystems may be sensitive to
climate change doesn’t mean
they’re destined to fail. Lynx
and wolverine are learning to
adapt and although the Southwestern Crown
also hosts human activities such as ranching,
logging and timber-thinning initiatives that
reduce forest fire risks, there are efforts to
create landscapes where they and humans
can successfully coexist. The study’s results
give forest managers the most accurate data
about where animals are and, importantly,
where they are not.

“As both species rely on healthy
snowpack, climate could threaten
their long-term survival”

“We get a lot of lynx and wolverine
detection on what we call the ‘working
landscape,’ where there’s logging, recreation
and other things,” Luke says. “You can have
landscapes with both logging and lynx, you
just have to be thoughtful about it. We are
proud to have some of the rarest species on
Earth where we live and work, but it doesn’t
have to be an either/or situation to protect
them. You can have good land conservation
and land management activities and still
have these species. That’s one of the reasons
why this work matters.”
If you look hard enough from this high
up in the Mission Mountains, you can almost
see Highway 83 through the snow that’s
started to fall, cars filled with people eager
to explore and settle in the valley below.
Luke understands that newcomers will keep
finding their way here to discover their
own slice of paradise, and with them will
come development that threatens to tilt the
balance he and his partners are trying hard to
maintain. As if realising he’s working against
the clock, he snaps up his jacket, starts his
snowmobile and takes off down the trail.
He throttles toward the next bait station,
looking to uncover mysteries in a place still
wild enough to hold them.
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

43

The star species of the new
series, clockwise from top
left: lesser bushbaby, goldenheaded lion tamarin, Labord’s
chameleon, water vole,
Tawainese pangolin
and painted turtle

44

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

SMALL ANIMALS O

A closer look
at the smallbut-mighty
animals that
must travel
vast distances
to survive
By LEOMA WILLIAMS

ig Little
Journeys is a new three-part BBC Two
series that follows six tiny animals as
they undertake epic, make-or-break treks
through the wild to find mates, food or
new territories. Here, we take a closer
look at the small-scale star species of the
show, from the golden-headed lion tamarin
that risks life and limb to relocate to new
feeding grounds in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest,
to the brave water vole that swims across a
deep Scottish loch in search of a home and
a mate. We also profile some other mini
marvels of the animal world that undertake
voyages of great distance and peril: the
European eel, ancient murrelet and
Atlantic salmon.
To follow the species featured in the
series, the BBC team worked closely with
scientists and conservationists around
the globe. The animals were filmed using
a mixture of technologies, including 360°
camera rigs, low-light camera traps, and
probe and borescope lenses, which give a
small-animal view of the world. “I like to
think of the series as Honey, I Shrunk the
Audience, because we experience what it’s
like to be an animal as small as a walnut
travelling through a world of giants,”
says series producer Paul Williams. “We
felt that it was time to shine the light on
nature’s unsung heroes – because when
you’re a teeny turtle or a pint-sized tamarin,
the world is full of unexpected danger,
adventure and opportunity.”
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

BBC NHU

Catch up with
BBC Two’s
Big Little Journeys

45

If they survive their
first year, painted
turtles can live up to
60 years in the wild

Even adults
are smaller
than a crow

Ancient
murrelet
North Pacific islands

A quick dash followed
by a long swim

Painted turtle
The long and dangerous road to home
These tiny turtles can be found across
North America and show off their beautiful
red streaks while basking atop logs and
rocks in lakes, marshes, streams and
ponds. At other times of year, they might
be hibernating in the mud at the bottom of
these slow-moving water bodies.
However, terrestrial habitats are also
important to painted turtles as the females
lay their eggs on land. They will travel some
distance to find the perfect nesting spot,
preferring warm, sandy banks. Unfortunately,
these are often on roadsides and when the
hatchlings – just the size of a 10p coin –
make the long and perilous journey back to
their wetland home, they must navigate busy
highways thundering with traffic, as well as

contending with predators such as red foxes,
ravens and raccoons. So, it’s not surprising
that juvenile mortality is high.
At the site featured in Big Little Journeys –
Algonquin Provincial Park in Canada – only
1 per cent of the hatchlings will ever make it
as far as adulthood.
Features in episode one

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Leoma Williams is an animal
behaviour researcher and
science writer, currently
investigating the evolution
of sociality in primates and
studying social birds for a PhD.
46

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

The turtles have
attractive markings

Ancient murrelets are small seabirds
in the auk family (the same group as
guillemots and puffins, among others)
that breed in colonies on islands in the
North Pacific. Females lay two eggs in a
burrow dug out from the soil between
tree roots or under logs, or sometimes
between rock crevices.
Once hatched, the chicks spend
barely any time in the nest. At just
1-3 days old, these tiny hatchlings
must make the high-risk journey from
their burrow to the sea. They travel at
night to reduce the risk of predation
and move completely under their
own limited steam, as their mother
will be waiting for them in the water
already. She directs her offspring using
recognisable calls, and once reunited,
the little family then starts to swim –
which they continue to do for at least
the next 12 hours.
After that, they are fed at sea, where
they ride the waters until it is their
time to breed. Due to their super-quick
departure from the burrow, ancient
murrelets spend less time on land than
any other bird.

TURTLE (X2): DEYA SWIFT/BBC NHU; MURRELET: GLENN
BARTLEY/NATUREPL.COM; TAMARIN: MAX KÖLBL/BBC

Canada, USA and Mexico

SMALL ANIMALS O
These primates are
endemic to Brazil’s
Atlantic Forest, but
only 12 per cent of
their habitat remains

Golden-headed lion tamarin
Brazil

With the forest empty, it’s time to move on
These modest-sized monkeys are found
only in north-east Brazil, in fragments of
the Atlantic Forest, where they live high in
the trees in family groups of five to seven
individuals. Members communicate vocally,
using calls and whines to greet each other,
maintain pair-bonds and signal the presence
of another group in their territory.
Tamarins defend large home ranges
relative to their body size – up to a kilometre
squared. Territorial adults of the same
sex can become very aggressive, with
interactions including chases, fights and
long, noisy bouts of calling.

Tamarins have a varied diet, feeding on
leaves, fruit, insects and even reptiles and
amphibians. Living in a shrinking habitat
means food is scarce, and the family featured
in the series needs to find a fresh territory,
particularly as there are two new mouths to
feed. The family embarks on a five-day trek
through the fragmented forest, trying to stay
out of sight of hungry harpy eagles overhead,
in search of a new home. This they find in
the form of a cabruca, where humans grow
cocoa in the shade of the forest. They won’t
go hungry again.
Features in episode two
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

47

OSMALL ANIMALS

Taiwanese
pangolin
Taiwan

Males are ready to
breed when they
reach two years old

Atlantic salmon
Atlantic Ocean

One great migration from river to sea – and back again
Adults
swimming
back to their
natal rivers

48

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

Also known as the Formosan pangolin,
this subspecies of the Chinese pangolin is
found in bamboo forests, grasslands and even
farmland. These scaly mammals are severely
threatened by poaching, driven by high global
demand for their scales and meat. Breeding in
the wild is thus all the more important.
Female pangolins are only receptive for a
few weeks, so the males embark on intrepid
quests to track them down, leaving scent as
a calling card and using their sensitive noses
to detect female pheromones. If they have no
luck in their own territory, they venture into
the unknown – in the series, it’s a bamboo
forest, an olive grove and, fortunately, a
patch of protected forest.
Taiwanese pangolins are luckier than
most. The population of Chinese pangolins
is thought to have dropped by as much as
80 per cent, but thanks to protection laws
and growing public awareness, Taiwan is a
comparative safe haven.
Features in episode two

The life-cycle of an Atlantic salmon
is monumentally complex, involving two
mammoth journeys. Eggs are laid and
hatch in freshwater streams and rivers, in
shallow depressions created by the female.
After hatching, the young undergo distinct
growth stages while still in freshwater. First,
as sac fry (tiny larvae that still have a yolk
sac attached) they hide in the gravel. Once
this food store is depleted, the fry leave the
protection of the gravel and start to swim,
feeding on plankton. The next three stages
of development are known as parr, smolt and
post-smolt.
It is during the smolt phase, in which
the fish undergo a number of physiological
changes, that salmon head downstream to
the sea, in their first great migration. This
watery journey can be hundreds of miles
long and is frought with danger. The smolts
must evade a gauntlet of predators as well as
contend with obstacles in the form of dams
(both beaver- and human-made), which can
slow them considerably. The lucky few that
survive to reach the ocean remain there for
1-2 years, until they reach sexual maturity.
Finally, as adults, they travel all the way back
to their natal streams to spawn. It’s a natural
marvel that we still don’t fully understand.

SALMON: NICK HAWKINS/NATUREPL.COM; PANGOLIN: PAUL WILLIAMS/BBC NHU; CHAMELEON: NATHALIE SWAIN-DIAZ/BBC NHU; WATER VOLE: JOSEPH SHEPHERDSON/BBC NHU

A scaly mammal on a
mission to find a mate

The matchsticksized chameleon
must contend with
hungry snakes

Poor eyesight
makes a vole’s
journey tougher

Water vole
United Kingdom

Searching high and low
in the Scottish Highlands

Labord’s
chameleon
Madagascar

The only way is up for
this short-lived reptile
This diminutive reptile holds the dubious
record for the shortest lifespan of any
four-legged vertebrate. Named after
French adventurer Jean Laborde, who was
shipwrecked – and later became a formidable
industrialist – on the island of Madagascar,
Labord’s chameleon is the epitome of ‘live
fast die young’. It has an obligate year-long
life-cycle, in which eggs are laid in early
March and hatch with the first rains in
November. After a rapid period of growth,
youngsters reach maturity by January, breed
and die. This means the chameleons spend
most of their lives in the eggs, and only as
much as 4-5 months out of them.
For the female of the species, the journey
is a vertical one, taking her high into the
trees to find a mate, then back down to the
forest floor to lay her eggs. Along the way,
she must see off female rivals and avoid a
host of predators.

Semelparity – the strategy of
investing in only one mating event
before death (as opposed to iteroparity,
which is characterised by multiple
reproductive cycles over a lifetime)
is much more common in fish and
insects than it is in tetrapods (fourlegged vertebrates) – making Labord’s
chameleon pretty unique. It is thought
that this strategy may lead to higher
overall reproductive success in animals
that experience resource scarcity and
high rates of adult mortality. Due to
their extremely short lifespans, Labord’s
chameleons are under a lot of pressure
to make their few months count. It is
a race against time to find a potential
mate and reproduce, leading to stiff
competition and ferocious fights
between males.
Features in episode three

Another animal with a fleeting life.
Though they can live for up to two years in
captivity, the average lifespan in the wild is
just five months. Water voles make the most
of their short time on Earth, fitting in three
to four litters of up to five young. They live
along rivers and streams, and around ponds
and lakes, and have expansive territories
for their diminutive size. Breeding females
fiercely defend patches of up to 150m along a
waterway, while males can have home ranges
of up to 300m.
In this series, we follow the story of a
plucky female in a Scottish Highland valley,
who flees for her life when threatened by a
predatory mink. Her search for a new home
and a mate takes her a week, and sees her
travelling 12km up and down a mountain,
and swimming across a vast, deep loch.
Unfortunately, these little rodents
are experiencing one of the most serious
declines of any wild British mammal.
This is due to habitat loss caused by the
intensification of agriculture, and the spread
of the American mink, which is particularly
adept at catching and eating water voles.
However, there is hope: the decline has
sparked a wave of reintroduction projects.
Features in episode three
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

49

There has been
around a 95 per
cent drop in eels
reaching Europe in
the past 40 years

European eel
Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea

Young eels, or ‘elvers’, travel
thousands of kilometres

50

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

Eels have long baffled naturalists, and
we are only just starting to understand
their life-cycle. The primary issue for a long
time was that nobody had ever set eyes on
anything they could classify as a young eel –
something that led Aristotle to hypothesise
that these creatures sprang up fully formed
from the mud.
It was eventually discovered that eels do
not spawn in the rivers in which they live,
but instead travel to the sea to breed. This in
turn begged the questions of where they go
and how on earth they get there.
We now know that all European eel
spawning takes place in the Sargasso
Sea – a region of the Atlantic Ocean near
the Caribbean. The exact location of
the spawning grounds has not yet been
discovered, despite many expeditions. Every
autumn, the eels travel some 5,000km to
reach these productive breeding waters,
and once hatched, the little larvae swim all
the way back to the European rivers their
parents came from.

ELVERS: JANE BURTON/NATUREPL.COM; EEL: NEIL ALDRIDGE/NATUREPL.COM;
BUSHBABY: JOSEPH SHEPHERDSON/BBC NHU

From the Sargasso Sea to the rivers of Europe

SMALL ANIMALS O

Lesser
bushbaby
South Africa

When the forest-dweller
becomes a city-slicker
Bushbabies are small, wide-eyed, nocturnal
primates that leap through the trees of subSaharan Africa. South Africa has two species:
the greater and lesser (Mohol) bushbaby.
These petite prosimians are numerous and
widespread, thought to be the most common
primate in Africa. They feed mostly on small
invertebrates, but also forage gum from the
trunks and branches of acacia trees, which
provides carbohydrate and calcium.
These sugary meals are well used, as
bushbabies are extremely athletic. Lesser
bushbabies can jump 2.25m upwards
from a standing start and as much as 4m
horizontally as they move between branches,
thanks to the strong jumping muscles
that make up some 10 per cent of their
bodyweight. In jumping tree-to-tree, they can
cover remarkable distances – more than a
kilometre a night.
Young males must make an important
journey before adulthood. Ejected from the
natal territory, they suddenly find themselves
alone, hungry and vulnerable to predators.
But, as the series shows, if they can find their
way to a city, a new family awaits. Unrelated
bushbabies often team up in urban areas
because there is less competition for food.
Features in episode one

City lights
promise food
for a young
bushbaby

discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

51

Forest foray
The Börzsöny Mountains in northern
Hungary are one of the country’s most
densely forested mountain ranges.
For centuries, iron ore was mined here,
and the comparatively warm and moist
environments of the now-abandoned
tunnels provide an important hibernation
site for lesser horseshoe bats. There
are up to 400 resident individuals, who
occasionally break their winter rest to fly
out and feed among the bare trees. Imre
captured this moment of departure using
a camera trap positioned outside one of
the tunnel entrances.

52

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

PORTFOLIO

Photos by IMRE POTYÓ

Even in the depths of winter, Hungary’s
Börzsöny Mountains bustle with wildlife
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

53

Spore ghost
A puffball mushroom releases its spores as
dusk falls, creating a spectacular array of
swirling shapes. Capturing the moment of
release, which can be triggered by disturbance
as slight as a raindrop landing, is “like action
photography”, says Imre.

Creek view
The rays of the setting sun cast the bare
treetops in gold, a view caught from the partly
frozen surface of a fast-flowing creek in the
Börzsöny foothills.

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER
Imre Potyó is an environmental
scientist and award-winning
nature photographer,
currently working in the
Danube-Ipoly National
Park Directorate in the
Börzsöny Mountains,
Hungary. He also works in
education, giving talks and
leading tours.
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BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

PORTFOLIO

Moonlit mission
The common toad is widespread in Hungary.
In March, males emerge from hibernation
and embark on the long journey back to their
breeding grounds, where they seek females
under cover of darkness. Lake Bajdázó, the
largest lake in Börzsöny, is known for hosting
large toad gatherings in spring.

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55

Frozen wings
Swarms of male winter
moths adorn the bare
forest branches from
late October to early
January, in search of
the wingless females.
Temperatures are
usually in the 0-10°C
range, but on this
particular night had
dropped to a chilly -7˚C.

Ice kingdom
Börzsöny’s old, giant trees
stand carpeted in rime – a
hard frost that forms when
the water vapour in cloud
or fog freezes very quickly.
When the icy splinters
become too big to cling to
the branches, they drop
off and swathe the forest
floor. “Seeing the trees like
this is an amazing, rare
sight,” says Imre. “It’s like
walking in a freezer.”

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BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

PORTFOLIO

Up and away
Not tiny balloons flying away in the
darkness, but a trio of slime moulds,
each just a few millimetres wide. The
pinkish spheres, attached to dead wood
by slender stalks, contain the spores and
grow darker in hue as they mature.

A drop to drink
A tiny insect drinks from minuscule water droplets that cling to fungal hyphae growing across the stone walls
of an abandoned mine tunnel. The image was created using a very high magnification, capturing a scene that
represents just a square centimetre of this hidden underground realm.
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57

Jewel in the soil
Even tiny arthropods can be successfully adapted to freezing environments,
as demonstrated by this pretty springtail, browsing on a dewy leaf. These
creatures are just 1mm long, and with a penchant for feeding on fragments
of dead wood, play an important role in soil formation.

Tributary treasure
The stone crayfish is the rarest, most highly
protected freshwater crayfish in Hungary. It is
a European species, occurring mostly in the
tributaries of the Danube. Imre stumbled upon
this individual moving slowly along a rocky
creek bed, capturing the portrait by placing his
camera in a small glass tank.

Hanging out
A lesser horseshoe bat roosts in a former
mine tunnel, having just returned from a flying
visit to the surrounding forest. The mine is
closed to the public in order to protect wildlife;
special permission is required to enter. Imre
has spent the past ten winters exploring this
underground world and documenting the wild
creatures that now call it home.

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BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

PORTFOLIO

Mushroom moth
Mushrooms are not just for autumn
– some species, including the
antler fungus, appear in winter and
can withstand even the harshest
frosts. Imre was photographing this
specimen when out of nowhere,
a December moth appeared and
alighted on its antlers.

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59

The gathering
Common frog tadpoles –
here accompanied by a
colourful springtail – gather
in a temporary pond that has
formed in the tracks of a truck.
One spring, this small patch
of water became a hub for
mating frogs, so Imre and his
colleagues fenced it off and
topped up the water levels
as the weather warmed. With
their habitat safe, the tadpoles
successfully developed into
adults and then dispersed into
the forest.

View from above
December often brings curtains
of fog to the foothills of
Börzsöny. However, climb a few
hundred metres and the view
changes. “The sun is shining,
and the sky is blue,” says Imre.

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BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

PORTFOLIO

Spring forward
Clinging to what looks like a bubbling
formation of ice, a tiny springtail is on a
feeding mission. Note its long antennae,
which it uses to interpret its environment.
“Rarely is the life of such a small creature
witnessed in such cold conditions,” says
Imre. “I love the winter atmosphere
of Börzsöny, with its ever-moving and
occasionally bustling miniature life.”

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61

STAFFAN WIDSTRAND/NATUREPL.COM

AUROCHS O
Several countries across
Europe, including the
Netherlands (here), are
already home to tauros

By JAMES FAIR

Tauros are the closest thing to the extinct
aurochs. And they are coming to the UK.

n 2022, a film crew
working on the Lika
Plains near the Adriatic
coast of Croatia picked up some
remarkable behaviour. A small herd of
aurochs had been released into the area a few years
earlier, and thermal-imaging video footage showed
the bulls responding to the threat of a pack of wolves
by forming a semi-circle and facing outwards with
their fearsome horns to the front.
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BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

LANDSCAPE: MICHAEL SCHLAMBERGER;
TAURUS BULL: DANIËL DOORAKKERS/ALAMY

Long horns act as
a defence against
predatory wolves

AUROCHS O

The grasslands of
Croatia’s Lika Plains
have been grazed
by tauros since 2014

Cows and calves sheltered behind this
defensive shield, along with a group of
wild horses, including a foal.
Ronald Goderie, a Dutch ecologist
who has been closely involved in the
European rewilding movement for four
decades, says there is historical evidence of
aurochs protecting themselves in this way,
and of other species taking advantage of it.
“That’s what we had heard, but it had never
been filmed,” he adds. “It’s a semi-circle
with cows and wild horses behind it, and the
wolves outside showing a lot of aggression.”
The footage demonstrated how the release
of the aurochs into this part of Croatia was
beginning to recreate interactions between
megafauna that have not been seen in Europe
for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. It
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Fair is wildlife journalist
with a specialism in controversial
issues. He spent 18 years as a
writer and commissioning editor
at BBC Wildlife. Read more about
James at jamesfairwildlife.co.uk.

“Aurochs – a wild bovid from which
all domestic cattle are descended –
went extinct nearly 400 years ago”
showed just how far rewilding has come in
the past two or three decades. And it revealed
that aurochs – a species whose last surviving
individual died in 1627 – were playing their
part in creating this new, wilder continent.

T

hese same animals could be
coming here to the UK – to
the Isle of Arran in the Firth
of Clyde, to be precise. And
while they’re not going to be
hunted by wolves, it will be intriguing to see
how they behave and what impact they have
when they arrive.
But first, let’s rewind. Because as you
might already know, the aurochs – a wild
bovid from which all domestic cattle are

descended – went extinct nearly 400 years
ago when the last, lonely female died in
the Jaktorów Forest in Poland. If that’s
the case, how can they be bellowing again
not just on the Lika Plains, but also in
the Iberian Highlands east of Madrid, the
former military training area of Milovice in
the Czech Republic, and the De Maashorst
reserve in the Netherlands?
The answer is that they haven’t been
cloned – they’ve been brought back by
‘back-breeding’ from primitive domestic
cattle. Scientists led by Goderie identified
six breeds from Italy, Portugal and Spain
that they would use in order to produce an
animal that was as close in appearance to the
original aurochs as possible. Since this is not
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65

OAUROCHS

in any real sense the actual, original aurochs,
they have given it the name ‘tauros’ (taurus
is both the Greek and Latin word for bull,
and os is Dutch for cow – similar to our word
ox), but most rewilding groups continue to
mostly use the term aurochs.
Goderie is part of a movement that
believes one way to restore ecosystems in
Europe is to bring back low densities of
animals that replicate how large grazing
herbivores such as aurochs and wild horses
called tarpans would have behaved. Until
now, these rewilders, who also inspired
Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree at Knepp,
have used various cattle breeds such as
Highlands, belted Galloways and longhorns.
It is a philosophy markedly different
to the more predator-focused rewilding
philosophy that emerged from the USA
in the 1990s, where wolves and other
charismatic carnivores are believed to aid

the recovery of forests by creating corridors
of fear and dispersing deer and other
herbivores, permitting regeneration.

E

uropean rewilders believe
that predators have a part to
play, but they are not the main
focus of their efforts – indeed,
Goderie makes the point that
on mainland Europe, many predators such
as wolves and lynx are returning without
human intervention. Across Europe, farmers
are abandoning one million hectares every
year – marginal land that’s not economically
viable to farm any longer. It’s estimated that
30 million hectares – that’s an area nearly
the size of Germany – of agricultural land,
grasslands and semi-natural habitats will no
longer be farmed or occupied by 2030.
In order to maintain and enhance wildlife
in this changing landscape, this rewilding

“Grazing animals create microhabitats that increase plant
and invertebrate diversity”
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BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

philosophy says it’s important to bring back
grazing animals – bovids especially – because
they create micro-habitats that increase
plant and invertebrate biodiversity, resulting
in knock-on impacts for larger species.
An obvious example is how cow dung
becomes food for beetles and flies, and the
latter in turn become food for bats, birds and
badgers, while the way cows feed produces
a diverse sward length that encourages
invertebrate diversity. More primitive cattle
breeds, including the aurochs, do something
more – they disturb grasslands by creating
so-called ‘bull pits’ in the ground that can
then be colonised by pioneer plant species
and ground-nesting insects.
According to Goderie, bulls make these
pits as “fitness rooms”, building up their
neck muscles by ramming their horns into
the ground. This behaviour is only likely
to take place where you have cattle in
natural herds and a number of competitive
bulls. Goderie refers to one area of the
Netherlands where there was a mixed herd
of Heck cattle and the bulls were culled.
“You can easily spot and measure the bull
pits on Google Earth,” he says, “and after
they were culled, they have all disappeared.
That’s the role of testosterone in the
landscape.”

FOOTAGE: MICHAEL SCHLAMBERGER; BULL PIT: BERT VAN BEEK PHOTOGRAPHY

A still from footage
of tauros responding
to the threat of wolves

A muscular male
pounds at the earth,
forming a ‘bull pit’

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67

STEP BACK IN TIME

History of
the aurochs
O The aurochs (Bos primigenius) is
the wild ancestor of all domestic cattle
(Bos taurus). Scientists recognise three
subspecies that were originally found in
Europe and the Middle East, India and
North Africa.
O Males were probably black with a paler
dorsal strip, while females were brown.
Males and females differed greatly in
size and weight, with the largest males
tipping the scales at around 1-1.25 (maybe
up to 1.5) tonnes – it was one of Europe’s
heaviest land mammals.
O They were a woodland, woodland
edge, grassland and wetland species.
Extensive loss of woodlands and
overhunting were the two main factors in
their demise. By the 13th century, aurochs
were only found in Poland, Lithuania and
some parts of modern-day Bulgaria and
Romania, and by the early 1600s, the
last known herd was restricted to the
Jaktorów Forest in Poland.
O The famous cave paintings of Lascaux
in southern France depict aurochs. One
painting, in the Hall of the Bulls, of a bull
auroch is the largest cave painting of an
animal ever found at more than 5m long.

The Lascaux cave
paintings were
discovered in 1940

“They are not a very vocal animal,
and signs of aggression are likely
to be shown in their head position”
Heck cattle are, if you like, the elephant
in the room when it comes to resurrecting
the aurochs. It’s a breed that originated
from Germany’s Weimar Republic of the
1920s and 30s in an attempt to back-breed
aurochs, and is therefore associated with the
Nazi philosophy of eugenics. This ethically
dubious attempt to recreate the extinct
cattle is what motivated Goderie to try again.

D

erek Gow, one of the most
influential British rewilders,
previously had a small herd
of Heck cattle at his farm
in Devon, but he got rid of
them because they were dangerous. “The
big mistake we made was putting them into
120 acres of woodland and pasture and they

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BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

just decided they wanted to live their own
lives,” Gow says. “Walking there became
increasingly hazardous. I was charged by a
bull once, and it really meant it.”
Gow still has cattle (and one bull that
“spends most of his time sleeping”), but
there’s much less of the digging and gouging
that helps to initiate other natural processes.
He maintains that just by producing their
dung (as long as the cattle are not treated
with anti-parasitic drugs such as ivermectin),
they provide a benefit for other species.
It seems that the aurochs, or tauros, do
not have such a grumpy streak as the Hecks.
The 1,300ha De Maashorst reserve in the
Netherlands has a herd, and at weekends
the place is populated with members of
the public on mountain bikes and e-bikes

De Maashorst reserve must meet the needs of
both the recreational visitors and the grazers

AUROCHS O
Herds are bred to
be well-adapted to
their local climate

LASCAUX: GETTY; CYCLIST: BERT VAN BEEK PHOTOGRAPHY; SNOW:
BERT VAN BEEK PHOTOGRAPHY; RESTING: JANA SCIGELOVA/ALAMY

It’s hoped that wild
tauros will become
self-sustaining

and in wheelchairs, and there have been no
alarming incidents.
It’s important, Goderie says, to have
good herd management and to communicate
to visitors how to interpret behaviour. They
are not a very vocal animal, and signs of
aggression are likely to be shown in their
head position. “You should keep at least
25-50m away from natural herds and look
at what they are doing. If they scrape the
ground with their hooves and wiggle their
heads, somewhere deep within the primitive
part of your brain, it’s saying, ‘Okay, this is
dangerous, turn back.’”

S

o where and when could we
see these prehistoric giants
weighing as much as 1,0001,250kg – equivalent to a
medium-sized car – in Britain?
The answer lies in the south-west corner
of the Isle of Arran, where Cumbrian David
Bennett owns the 250ha Drumadoon Estate.
“Drumadoon has been settled for the
past 10,000 years since the Loch Lomond ice
sheet retreated and it’s been farmed for the
past 6,000,” Bennett says. “People have left a

mark on the land with monuments and there
are sea caves filled with Celtic and Norse
inscriptions going back to Neolithic times.”
Part of the Northwoods Rewilding
Network, Drumadoon has been largely left
to its own devices for the past 30 years.
It’s a mix of coastline, woodland, heather
moorland and scrub, and Bennett believes
that what it needs now is a small herd of
large herbivores to kick start some more
productive ecological processes.
“We know aurochs were in Scotland,
there’s evidence of them as far north as
Orkney until the early Bronze Age [about
3,000 BC],” he says. “We think there’s also
a possibility they were roaming on Arran
alongside the earliest settlers.” It seems
likely, indeed, that those aurochs on Orkney
were taken there by humans, the first part
of a global domestication process that
eventually produced an animal that has
shaped human civilisation and culture almost
more than any other.
David is working with a nature
restoration technology company called
CreditNature, which is hoping to encourage
corporate investment in rewilding by

issuing what it’s calling Tauros Impact
Tokens. Speaking in Oxford in early June,
CreditNature’s Sophy Jones explained
how these tokens were a “digital asset
that represents a fractional stake in the
establishment of a tauros herd that delivers
measurable ecosystem impacts”.
You may be wondering why company
directors would decide to spend a pot of
money on helping Bennett acquire a small
herd of prehistoric cattle. The answer is that
there is growing pressure for companies to
account for their impact on nature under
rules being developed by the global and
government-supported Taskforce for NatureRelated Financial Disclosures. Alongside
this, there is an evolving interest in funding
nature restoration as a way for companies
to demonstrate their commitment to good
corporate governance.
Much needs to be done before the
aurochs finds its way back to Britain after an
absence of some 5,000 years. But if and when
it does, then another small – well, a tonne
or more of flesh, bone and fearsome horns
– piece in the jigsaw of our ancient, natural
fauna will have fallen back into place.
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69

MATT HORSPOOL

70

Tourist activity
may be causing
localised gentoo
penguin declines
in Port Lockroy

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

ANTARCTIC TOURISM O

As more people are drawn
to experience the frozen
frontiers, can tourism to the
seventh continent be a good
thing for nature?
By DOUG LOYNES

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71

OANTARCTIC TOURISM

was halfway through my dinner when the
expedition leader announced that our ship was
surrounded by a pod of killer whales. Rushing out onto
the observation deck, I watched as velvet ribbons of
black and white rippled through the frigid waters of the
Antarctic Ocean in pursuit of a solitary fur seal, leading
it on a deathly dance around the vessel where more
orcas waited in ambush. It was a breathless scene that
could have been plucked straight from an episode of
Frozen Planet.
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BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

BOAT: BARTOSZ STRÓŻYŃSKI; WHALE: DEREK OYEN

The Sylvia Earle and
a smaller Zodiac boat
used for expeditions

By photographing
whales visitors
can help scientists
track individuals

But I was sharing this moment not
with a hardened BBC film crew but with
CEOs, stockbrokers and a semi-retired
schoolteacher, aboard the Sylvia Earle.
It’s a sign that cruise tourism in
Antarctica is a booming business and that
more people than ever are experiencing the
pull of our planet’s final, frozen frontier.
According to the International Association
of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO), my
companions and I were joined by more than
100,000 others on the ice during the 2022-23
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Doug Loynes is the winner of
National Geographic’s 2020
Travel Writing Competition
and his work on sustainable
tourism has featured in a
number of publications.

season (October to March). It’s a significant
increase from the highest previous figure of
75,000 during the 2019-2020 season, and it’s
reignited the debate about the sustainability
and ethics of these tourist expeditions in the
world’s most fragile ecosystem. But while it’s
important to emphasise the environmental
impact of the industry, there’s a growing
sense that tourism, if managed sustainably,
can actually make a positive contribution to
conservation in Antarctica and beyond.
Regulating the tourism industry in
Antarctica is a challenge that’s been
undertaken by IAATO, an oversight body
that’s grown from 7 to 100 members since
it was founded in 1991. Operating within
the Antarctic Treaty’s legal framework
for the overall governance of Antarctica,
IAATO promotes responsible and
sustainable tourism practices in the region

by establishing guidelines to which all
its members – tour operators and travel
companies working in the Antarctica tourism
space – must adhere, from smaller, cleaner
Zodiac engines to new biosecurity protocols
to protect Antarctic birdlife from the threat
of avian influenza.

E

co-friendlier ships are
making a difference, too:
every season a new vessel
seems to be launched and
lauded as the greenest on the
White Continent. In 2019, Norwegian cruise
operator Hurtigruten’s MS Roald Amundsen
made history as the first battery-hybrid
powered ship to sail Antarctica’s Northwest
Passage; three years later, AE Expeditions
added the Sylvia Earle to its fleet, a 100
per cent carbon-neutral vessel boasting
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73

Penguin-watching
from kayaks is one
of the activities on
offer to guests



A minke whale
surfaces near Greg
Mortimer, another
AE Expeditions
passenger ship

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BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

ANTARCTIC TOURISM O
Microplastics are
collected from small
sample areas

MINKE: SCOTT PORTELLI; KAYAK: MATT HORSPOOL; MICROPLASTICS: MASSIMO BASSANO; PENGUINS: RICHARD I’ANSON; SEAL: LAUREN BATH

A trip to South Georgia in the Southern Ocean
offers the spectacle of vast colonies of up to
100,000 king penguin breeding pairs

sustainable technologies such as a dynamic
positioning system instead of a physical
anchor to prevent damage to the seafloor.

T

he original Sylvia Earle,
a legendary marine biologist
and ocean conservationist,
wouldn’t have lent her name
to the ship if it didn’t fulfil
certain environmental obligations. What’s
more, Earle has set out her own plan for
how the vessel can play an important role
in supporting essential scientific research
and wildlife conservation in the Antarctic
and beyond. She refers to it as a “floating
ambassador”, with expeditions offering “an
incredible opportunity for people to learn
about these extraordinary marine habitats
in situ and, as a result, become ambassadors
for protecting them”. The key, she says, is to
“inspire a network of hope”.

There are six different
species of seal to see
in the Antarctic

Hope is exactly what Jo Ruxton, founder
of conservation charity Ocean Generation,
felt after travelling aboard the Sylvia Earle
for the 2023 Antarctic Climate Expedition.
Reflecting on the abundance of wildlife she
said: “When you’re constantly bombarded
with negative news you fold into yourself.
You start to think ‘What’s the point?’ But
when you’re there, when you see all that life,
you see that there is hope”.
Paraphrasing Earle, Jo says that in the
past we didn’t know what the solutions were.
“But now we have so much knowledge. We
know what we need to do. We just need
people to get on board”. To achieve that,
there might be value in getting people on
board in a literal sense.
Marine biologist Roger Kirkwood has
worked as an expedition leader with AE
Expeditions since 1999 and shares the
same vision. “We want to make Antarctic

ambassadors out of our passengers by
inspiring a passion for wildlife, the Antarctic,
and our planet,” he tells me. An impressive
programme of lectures from experts in every
field, from glaciology to ornithology, serves
this agenda and lends important context to
the visceral experience of being out on the
ice observing wildlife in its natural habitat.

C

laire Christian is executive
director at the Antarctic and
Southern Ocean Coalition
(ASOC), an organisation
that represents the unified
voice of the NGO community on Antarctic
environmental issues. She agrees that
when it comes to motivating people and
governments to take action to protect
Antarctica “the wildlife and the landscape
are the best tools we have to get people to
care”. This can fuel a conservation ethic that,
for some, might lead to adopting sustainable
habits in daily life back home. Others, such
as business leaders, might have the power
and influence to drive sustainability at an
organisational level.
Claire is, however, careful not to overstate
the argument that Antarctic cruises can
increase environmental awareness and create
climate activists or ambassadors out of its
passengers. “Whether it results in direct
political action is impossible to quantify,”
she says. “But at least you can start a
meaningful conversation about environmental
stewardship with a captive audience.”
There is another, more tangible benefit
that comes with tourism that Claire is keen
to highlight. “There’s great research relevant
to Antarctic conservation happening on
these ships,” she tells me, referring to citizen
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75

OANTARCTIC TOURISM
science projects that allow passengers to
actively contribute to scientific research
by collecting valuable data. Sometimes,
these contributions can lead to significant
scientific breakthroughs. In 2023, for
instance, the expedition team from Viking
Cruises published a paper following an
encounter with the near-mythical giant
phantom jellyfish during routine dives with
tourists in the the Antarctic peninsula.
More often, though, citizen science is
simply about gathering small amounts of
data from remote sites to further understand
– and hopefully protect – the Antarctic,
whether it’s sampling for microplastics and
phytoplankton or recording sightings of
species on shared databases (see box).
It’s all precious information for scientists
such as Mairi Hilton, wildlife monitor at Port
Lockroy, famously home to the world’s most
southerly post office. She says that without
the assistance of tourists a database of this
size would take many years – and a lot of
money – to gather. “Tourism makes this sort
of research possible,” she says.
Does that mean that the benefits of
tourism in Antarctica outweigh the costs?
It’s a difficult question to answer according
to Kevin Hughes, environmental research
and monitoring manager at the British
Antarctic Survey (BAS). “We have seen a
dramatic increase in tourism over the past

A Secchi disk
measures water
transparency

Science on the ship
Three ways tourists can help marine research
SAMPLING FOR MICROPLASTICS
Microplastic particles in the ocean can act as transport vectors
for harmful toxins, disrupting delicate ecosystems and potentially
endangering wildlife. Suspected microplastics found by Sylvia Earle
passengers on Antarctica’s beaches are brought back to the vessel’s
citizen-science laboratory, where they can be studied under the
microscope, recorded and made available for further analysis by
researchers at the Big Microplastic Survey. Scientists can then map
where and in what concentrations microplastics are being found.
SEABIRD SURVEYS
With the help of expert naturalists, passengers are encouraged to
upload their seabird sightings and observations to eBird, an online
database used by scientists to study bird distribution, behaviour and
migration patterns. Ebird data has contributed to valuable research
and conservation initiatives around the world, but insight from remote
regions such as Antarctica wouldn’t be possible without citizen science
and buy-in from the tourism industry.
SAMPLING FOR PHYTOPLANKTON
The base of the marine food-web and believed to account for 50
per cent of the photosynthesis on the planet, phytoplankton are
microscopic organisms that also serve as an indicator of ocean health.
But global phytoplankton levels are declining and it’s essential that
scientists have access to data from around the world to pick out
patterns and uncover the reasons. By collecting phytoplankton data
on dedicated excursions on smaller Zodiac boats, the Sylvia Earle
contributes to the Secchi Disk Study, the world’s biggest citizenscience plankton study.

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BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

A birdwatcher’s dream: swooping snow petrels
can be seen from cabin windows

WATER SAMPLE: JAMIE LAFFERTY; SHIP: BARTOSZ STRÓŻYŃSKI; PETREL: JAMIE LAFFERTY

Up to 132 passengers can
travel on the Sylvia Earle,
with each deck named after
a female conservationist

two decades,” he says. “But in terms of
monitoring for tourism impacts, there’s a
huge gap in the literature.”
Where there have been studies,
researchers have called for caution in the
interpretation of results. A 2019 study from
BAS suggested that increased visitor numbers
at Port Lockroy may be contributing towards
a localised decline in the gentoo penguin
population size and breeding success. But
Hilton explains that unreliable snowfall
patterns and changes in sea ice that delayed
the breeding season are other factors
contributing to the bird’s decline.

A

bigger threat to
Antarctica’s wildlife than
the footfall of tourists
comes from the ships that
bring them. Black carbon,
or soot, is produced when fossil fuels are
burned, darkening the surface of the snow
and ice, and significantly increasing the
rate of snowmelt as more solar radiation

is absorbed. A 2022 study showed higher
concentrations of black soot around popular
landing sites for Antarctic cruises and
scientific activity, but if there is a link, the
blame doesn’t lie solely with the tourism
industry: the same paper suggests that the
use of fuel-powered equipment at research
stations means that snow loss attributable to
the carbon footprint of each researcher is ten
times greater than that of a tourist’s.
Hughes also points to other activities,
including the construction of research
stations and airstrips, as having much more
demonstrable impacts than tourism, calling
for all industries to consider their footprint in
this delicate region.
But focussing solely on the local impact
of tourism is ignoring the elephant seal in
the room. Contradictions are baked into
the Antarctic tourism experience, as Claire
explains. “We love wildlife. We want to see
wildlife. We want to protect wildlife. But
it’s our cumulative carbon footprint that is
causing them the greatest damage.”

“Education and hands-on scientific
enquiry is an important part
of the cruise experience”

A paper in 2011 indicated that the average
tourist trip to Antarctica results in almost
half a ton of CO2 emissions per passenger
per day. Over a nine-day voyage, that
amounts to well above the global average for
a person for an entire year. “We all need to
think about carbon emissions and personal
responsibility,” Hughes says. “And whether
going to Antarctica on a cruise ship really
supports that idea of trying to protect it.”

T

he danger that climate
change poses to the Antarctic
ecosystem and its wildlife
is well-documented. But as
Jo reminds us, to give up
hope that Antarctica can be saved would
be to write its death sentence. And if cruise
tourism is here to stay, it’s essential that its
potential as a force for good can be realised.
Earle encourages visitors not to go to
Antarctica “just to absorb” but to “give back
and share what you’ve learned elsewhere”.
It’s a challenge that tour operators have
taken up, pivoting away from indulgent
voyeurism towards an emphasis on
education and hands-on scientific enquiry as
an important part of the cruise experience.
Encouraged to take a wider view of the
threats that Antarctica faces, tourists can’t
avoid fronting up to the link between their
actions at home and the impacts on the
fragile environment they’ve had the privilege
of experiencing. Because, while the debate
around the merits of Antarctic tourism rages
on, it’s impossible to deny the power of this
otherworldly place to inspire, to confront
and to ask questions of its guests. “People
are more likely to take action to protect
things they have a connection to,” Hilton
says. And if Antarctica has its advocates, it
also has hope.
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

77

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With Stuart Blackman
Email your questions to wildquestions@immediate.co.uk

What is a keystone species?
amed after the wedge-shaped
stone at the top of an arch, which
locks the other stones into position
and prevents collapse, a keystone
species is one that plays a central
role in the structure of an ecosystem.
Beavers, for example, physically
change the landscape through their
dam-building, creating habitats used by
other species. And some top predators
enable diverse vegetation to flourish by
controlling the number of grazing animals.

80

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

The term does not apply to just
any influential organisms. Crucially,
keystone species are those that have a
disproportionately large effect relative to
their abundance. It would not apply to,
say, trees or reef-building corals, which
have a huge effect on ecosystems because
of their abundance.
According to Robert Paine, the
zoologist who coined the phrase in the
1960s, it “was intended to convey a sense
of nature’s dynamic fragility and the

unsuspected consequences of removing
(or adding) species”.
Paine had experimentally removed
ochre starfish from areas of rocky shore,
which led to mussels – the starfish’s prey –
crowding out other encrusting organisms.
Other keystone species include sea
otters, which are highly influential in the
functioning of kelp forests, and wolves,
whose loss from Yellowstone – and
subsequent reintroduction – had dramatic
effects on the national park’s ecology.

Sea otters reduce
the number of sea
urchins, which
heavily graze kelp

being transported on a trailer to a research
ype ‘exploding whale’ into your
centre in the Taiwanese city of Tainan,
search engine and you will be
soaking cars and pedestrians in blood and
rewarded with material that is not
organs. Another celebrated example – again
for the faint-hearted. Yes, exploding
a sperm whale and documented on video
whales really are a thing. For the
– occurred on the Faroe Islands, when a
record – and to put your mind at ease
biologist cut into the animal in an attempt
just a little bit – we are talking dead whales
to release the gases in a controlled manner.
here. Nevertheless, you have been warned.
The idea of exploding whales has caught
It usually starts with a whale carcass
on to the extent that just the anticipation of
washing up on a beach. Most whales sink
such an event is enough to generate news
to the seabed when they die, where they
stories, as happened in 2014, when a blue
provide a bonanza resource for marine
whale washed up in Newfoundland, Canada.
scavengers – sharks, hagfish, crabs, eels
No doubt, many were disappointed when it
and specialist bone-eaters such as Osedax
simply deflated slowly.
zombie worms.
But perhaps the most
There are scavengers on
“Balloons
famous example involved
land, too, for whom a washed-up
don’t get much dynamite rather than gas
whale presents the opportunity
bigger than pressure. Controlled explosions
of a lifetime. But while a flock of
are not an uncommon method
gulls can make short work of a
a gas-filled
of disposing of whale carcasses
dead bird or a discarded bag of
whale”
on popular beaches to deal with
chips, a dead whale presents a
the smell and risk of disease.
far bigger challenge, and nature’s
By dispersing the flesh in small fragments, it
clean-up operation inevitably takes longer.
can be more easily dealt with by scavengers.
As decay sets in, gases from the
But it doesn’t always go according to plan,
decomposition process build up inside the
especially when too much explosive is
body causing a rise in internal pressure. And
used. As one reporter described, while
whale skin can withstand a lot of pressure.
covering the disposal of a sperm whale in
Left alone, these gases usually leak out
Florence, Oregon, in 1970, “the humour of
eventually without excitement. However,
the situation suddenly gave way to a run for
the process has been known to end in more
survival as huge chunks of whale blubber fell
spectacular fashion when humans have got
everywhere. Pieces of meat passed high over
involved. Play with balloons and it’s not
our heads, while others were landing at our
unlikely that some will pop. And balloons
feet.” A car parked a quarter of a mile away
don’t get much bigger than a gas-filled whale.
was flattened by one chunk. And apparently
In 2004, for example, the BBC reported
it didn’t make the beach smell any nicer.
on a dead sperm whale that exploded while

discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

SEA OTTER: SUZI ESZTERHAS/NATUREPL.COM; WHALE: STR/APPLE DAILY/AFP/GETTY

A resident said the
smell from the exploded
sperm whale in Taiwan
was “really awful”

81

Q A

largely because so many have been so well
preserved in the permafrost of the frozen
north – not only bones, but flesh, skin, fur
and DNA.
We know, for example, that underneath
all that hair, the woolly mammoth looked
pretty much like a larger version of the
Asian elephant – smallish ears and a robust
forehead – albeit with longer, curlier tusks,
a slightly humped posture and a marginally
shorter tail.
Genetic studies have confirmed that the
mammoth and the modern Asian elephant
are more closely related to each other than
either is to the African elephant, and that
many of the mammoth’s unique genes
were involved in physiological tolerance to
extreme cold.
This has led to research into
the possibility of inserting
mammoth genes into
elephants to create coldadapted hybrids that
could, for example,
replace the extinct
megafauna of North
America. It may even
prove possible to clone a
mammoth by inserting its
genome into the egg cell of
an Asian elephant.
While it’s easy to think
of mammoths as being of
surely the most celebrated) is
“Mammoths the distant past – honorary
certainly mammoth enough
hung
on until dinosaurs, even – it’s worth
to capture the collective
remembering that they were
imagination, but it was no
only 3,700
still going when humans
bigger than the elephants that
years ago”
started recording their lives on
continue to trundle through the
the walls of caves. A warming
African savannah. A significant
climate and hunting by humans finished off
part of its appeal is no doubt its magnificent
mainland populations about 10,000 years
pelage, which would have helped keep it
ago. But they hung on in remote outposts
warm during the Ice Age.
such as Russia’s Wrangel Island until only
As for how else the mammoth differs
3,700 years ago. And, who knows? Perhaps,
from modern elephants, we’re in luck,
one day, they – or something very much like
because we know a lot more about it
them – will be back.
compared to many extinct animals. This is
A mammoth and
(inset) its close
modern relative
the Asian elephant

ammoths hold a special place in
the part of the human brain that
thinks about extinct species, where
they jostle for space with dinosaurs
and the dodo. Which is perhaps
a little surprising as there’s no
shortage of spectacular extinct elephants
out there. But Stegodon, Gomphotherium or
Palaeoloxodon namadicus (a contender for
the largest land mammal that ever lived)
don’t even have common names, let alone
lead roles in Hollywood movie franchises.
The woolly mammoth (not the only
member of the genus Mammuthus, but
RECORD BREAKER!

What is the biggest
bear in the world?
The two contenders in this battle of the
heavyweights are the polar bear and the Kodiak
bear, an island subspecies of brown bear from
southwestern Alaska. Males of both may exceed
600kg, much heavier than grizzlies, say, which
usually weigh in at less than 400kg. Body weight
can be misleading, though, because it fluctuates
according to fat reserves. It’s also hard to compare
the athletic, lankier polar bear with the more
robust, stockier Kodiak. While the former’s bones
are relatively long, for example, the Kodiak’s skull is
slightly bigger. This is probably one to call a tie.

82

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

Kodiak bears fatten
up on salmon

FACT.

Despite not
having a brain,
a Venus
flytrap can
count. Only
the second
time an insect
brushes
against its
hairs will
calcium levels
rise enough to
cause the trap
to close.

BEAR: SUZI ESZTERHAS/NATUREPL.COM; ELEPHANT: BRUNO GUERREIRO/GETTY; MAMMOTH:
MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/GETTY; PIPEFISH: ALEX MUSTARD/NATUREPL.COM

What’s the difference
between a mammoth
and an elephant?

WHAT
ON EARTH?

Bottoms up
seagrass. Indeed, their name reflects their uncanny ability to be overlooked
even when right in front of you. Their one nod to convention is that, unlike
their gender-bending seahorse cousins, it is the female (on the right) that
gestates the brood, in a pouch formed from specialised fins.

discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

83

FAST ANSWERS

The cinnabar moth’s
red colour warns
of its danger

Aldabra giant tortoises can be ancient

How long do
tortoises live?
It’s likely no coincidence that tortoises
are both very slow and very long-lived.
Their longevity is almost certainly
linked to their slow metabolism, which
results in a more gradual accumulation
of harmful genetic mutations and toxic
biochemical byproducts. Pet tortoises
can live into their eighties, and giant
tortoises routinely live to more than
100 years. Tortoises are probably
the longest lived of all vertebrates,
but not of all animals. In 2006, an
ocean quahog – a marine clam – was
estimated to be 507 years old.

How many hearts
do octopuses have?

Are there any
poisonous moths
and butterflies?
utterflies are unlikely animals.
Not only are they very beautiful,
but as day-flying, colourful insects
they should be easy targets for
predators. Yet they seem untroubled
by such dangers as they flit between
flowers. This confidence stems from the fact
that many are armed with toxic – or at least
distasteful – chemicals. The bright colours
warn predators of the danger.
Many, such as the monarch, ingest these
chemicals through foodplants as caterpillars
and store them into adulthood. Not all
colourful butterflies are toxic, though. The
hues can serve other functions, such as
finding mates. Some perfectly edible species

84

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

mimic the colours of poisonous ones to
deter predators without incurring the cost
of producing a chemical arsenal. The colours
of African swallowtails, for example, vary
with geographical area in order to mimic the
local toxic species. From a predator’s point
of view, it all adds up to give the general
impression that any colourful day-flying
insect is best avoided.
Butterflies’ largely nocturnal cousins, the
moths, tend to be more muted. However,
this trend is bucked spectacularly by many
day-flying moths, such as cinnabars,
which adopt the butterfly strategy
of bright colours backed up by
chemical defences.

Octopuses pump their blood around
their circulatory system using three
hearts instead of one. While a ‘systemic’
heart supplies the animal’s body, two
‘branchial’ hearts supply each of the
two gills where the blood is oxygenated.
In vertebrates, both these functions are
performed by a single four-chambered
heart that can distribute a portion of the
blood to the lungs for oxygenation.

What’s the rarest
bird in the world?
It’s hard to pinpoint any one species. It
would certainly have to include species
that are officially listed as extinct in the
wild and hang on only in captivity: the
Guam kingfisher, Alagoas curassow,
Hawaiian crow, Socorro dove and Spix’s
macaw. Then there are those known to
persist in vanishingly
small numbers in
the wild: the cherrythroated tanager and
Fatu Hiva monarch. Other
candidates include the
so-called “lost birds” such
as the Himalayan quail, not
seen since 1876.
Socorro dove

DOVE: ALAMY; MOTH: LOIC POIDEVIN/NATUREPL.COM; TORTOISE: JAMES WARWICK/GETTY

Q A

cavengers are often
stigmatised and their names have
negative connotations. We call
people ‘vultures’ if they wait to
exploit vulnerable individuals,
and those who ‘laugh like hyenas’
are loud, foolish or hysterical.
But despite these stereotypes,
scavengers can be useful.
What’s a scavenger?
It’s an organism that feeds on dead
organic material. Whereas a predator kills
prey, a scavenger consumes matter that’s
been discarded or died from predation,
injury, disease or old age. Some species
are ‘obligate scavengers’ that survive
by scavenging, others are ‘facultative
scavengers’ that scavenge when necessary.

IVORY: PAUL SOUDERS/GETTY; RACCOON: MICHAEL DURHAM/NATUREPL.COM

And what do they eat?
Everything from body parts to faeces! Many
animal scavengers are omnivores. They
aren’t picky eaters and thrive on human
activity – waste in rubbish bins feeds foxes
and raccoons (nicknamed ‘trash pandas’),
and cars make roadkill for crows.
But most scavengers prefer specific
items from nature’s menu of dead
delicacies. Some dung beetles are herbivores
that eat partly-digested plant material in
poo, for instance, others are meat-eaters
that eat flesh from carrion.
How do carnivores find carrion?
Carrion-eaters need good eyesight and/or
smell to detect a dying creature or rotting
carcass. Odours of decay – normally the
signal that a meal could cause sickness
– repel most animals but will attract
scavengers from far and wide.
In habitats such as the bottom of the
ocean, carrion provides a rare bounty.
Though dead whales occasionally wash-up
on shore (see page 81), most sink to the
seafloor. Here, animals devour soft tissues
before Osedax worms drill for oily nutrients
that their symbiotic bacteria turn into
organic molecules that not only fuel the
worms, but ultimately the whole ecosystem.
On land, carrion is a more frequent (albeit
unpredictable) food source: vultures can
follow a wounded animal, hyenas can bully
cheetahs off the prey they chased.
Are all hyenas scavengers?
No! Contrary to popular belief, only two of
the four living species, brown and striped,
are primarily scavengers. Both mainly forage
for dried flesh from a large carcass but will
supplement this with small vertebrates,
fruit or insects.
The other species have contrasting
diets: the dog-like aardwolf eats termites
and the spotted hyena is an apex predator

Raccoons will root
through rubbish bins
in search of food

INSTANT EXPERT

Scavengers: natural
waste management
WITH EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGIST JV CHAMARY

with a complex social system. Spotted
hyenas usually hunt alone, but a clan can
bring down zebra or even buffalo.
What about vultures?
All but one of the 23 vulture species are
obligate scavengers, but they don’t have
a common ancestor and consist of two
separate groups. Old World vultures
belong to the same family as eagles and
hawks, while New World vultures include
Andean and California condors and often
have a superior sense of smell. Through
convergent evolution, the two groups
independently acquired similar features
for carrion feeding and their adaptations
include broad wings to soar vast distances
and find food, plus a bald head to keep cool
and to stop feathers being covered in flesh.
Different species have distinct feeding
niches. In Africa, for example, the lappetfaced vulture tears off tough hide and
ligaments with its powerful beak; the
white-backed vulture and Rüppell’s griffon
(the world’s highest-flying bird) gorge on
internal organs; hooded and white-headed
vultures pick scraps; and the bearded

vulture drops bones to smash them into
pieces small enough to swallow.
Why are vultures especially important?
By stripping a carcass, vultures speed-up
the process of decomposition that’s then
continued by microbes, insects, worms
and fungi recycling whatever the birds
leave behind. Vultures are also keystone
scavengers because as they circle a dying
creature, they lead other animals to food.
But their stomachs are acidic enough to
destroy deadly pathogens that can be
transmitted (from leftover carrion) by other
scavengers, such as rats. Thanks to the
speed and efficiency with which the birds
clean carrion and help prevent the spread
of disease, African vultures have earned the
title ‘soap of the savannah’.

NEXT MONTH WITH JV
IVORY

Why is it still so highly prized?

discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

85

Living high up in China’s
mountainous forests, it’s
rare to see the shy and
elusive giant panda

ALL YOU EVER NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT THE

Giant panda
BY SARAH MCPHERSON

uddly-looking with highly
distinctive black-and-white fur
and dark ‘spectacles’, the giant
panda – often referred to simply
as the panda – is an undeniably
popular and much-loved bear,
both the national animal of China
and, of course, the iconic logo of
the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
Is the giant panda really a bear?
Yes. Genetic studies have placed the
giant panda in the bear family (Ursidae).
However, its identity has been hotly
debated – it was at one point placed in the
Procyonidae family, which includes racoons.
The giant panda is the only member of its
genus, Ailuropoda.
Where does the giant panda live?
Giant pandas live in mixed forests in

86

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

the mountains of south-west China (the
Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces),
usually at altitudes of 1,500-3,400m.
Their preference for the high life is not
necessarily through choice – pandas have
been pushed out of lowland habitat as a
result of human encroachment.
What do pandas eat?
Bamboo, bamboo and.... bamboo. A panda
must consume up to 38kg of bamboo a
day to survive, giving rise to its alternative
name of ‘bamboo bear’. It does also feed on
grasses, and takes the occasional insect or
rodent. By spreading seeds via droppings,
pandas contribute to the health of forests.
How big are giant pandas?
They are approximately 70-90cm tall at the
shoulder, and they weigh in the region of
100-150kg.

How many giant pandas are there?
According to WWF, the current wild
population is estimated at 1,864. Numbers
are increasing thanks to conservation
efforts to protect, restore and link areas
of panda habitat. In 2016, the species was
downgraded from Endangered to Vulnerable
by the IUCN.
Why are giant pandas endangered?
Habitat loss has been the main driver
(though the species has been hunted in the
past for its fur), with panda forests cleared
for farming and the timber trade. Today,
habitat loss and fragmentation remain the
most significant threats to the species’
long-term survival.
Climate change is also a real danger,
with large amounts of the panda’s bamboo
habitat predicted to disappear in the coming
decades. According to the IUCN, declining
bamboo availability could reverse the gains
made in the past two decades.
How do parents raise their young?
Pandas have a slow birth-rate, with females
only giving birth once every two to three
years. In the wild, the tiny, helpless
newborns are kept in a natal den (in a

PORTRAIT: WILL BURRARD-LUCAS/NATUREPL.COM; FEEDING: CUB: AN YUAN/CHINA NEWS SERVICE/GETTY;
GROUP: ERIC BACCEGA/NATUREPL.COM; ANOTATION: RAIMUND LINKE/GETTY; LEOPARD: BARONESS/500PX/GETTY

Q A

A group of subadults
hang out together at
a nature reserve

hollow tree or among rocks) for the first
three months of life, after which they
are moved to a dense patch of bamboo.
A cub remains with its mother for up to
three years before becoming independent,
starting to transition from milk to bamboo
at the age of six to eight months.
Panda births commonly result in
twins, but in the wild, only one cub usually
survives. In captive breeding facilities,
keepers often play a game of ‘baby swap’
with mothers of twins, caring for one
cub while the other is looked after by the
mother. The female is then distracted,
allowing the cubs to be exchanged.

Top: bamboo makes up 99 per cent of a giant
panda’s diet and the animals spend about 12
hours a day eating. Above: cubs are born pink
but have coloured fur within three weeks.

Can captive breeding help the wild
population to recover?
Captive breeding pandas is a complex
endeavour. Even in the wild, females are
picky about their mates, and have an
incredibly short window of fertility (up to
72 hours per year). In a breeding centre,
where there are few males on offer, it’s even
more difficult. Even if a male and female are

A PANDA’S SPECIAL FEATURES
AT A GLANCE
Scientific family name:
Ursidae
Lifespan: up to 30 years
Height: 70-90cm at
the shoulder
Weight: 100-150kg
Huge, powerful jaw
muscles for chomping
tough bamboo
Thumb-like bone on
the wrist that helps
to grip bamboo

Black-and-white
coat is thought to
aid camouflage
Thick fur
keeps
it warm
in cool
upland
forests

put together at exactly the right time, they
may be completely disinterested in each
other, or not be sufficiently versed in the
mating game. Scientists therefore tend to
rely on artificial insemination.
The first captive-born panda, Ming
Ming, was born in Beijing Zoo in 1963.
Today, there are more than 600 pandas in
zoos and breeding centres across the world,
many of which are loaned from China.
Captive breeding pandas is an expensive
business, leading some conservationists
to believe that the money would be better
invested elsewhere, but a 2018 study
showed that the environmental benefits
exceeded the costs. Nonetheless, few
captive-born giant pandas are released into
the wild. The first release took place in
2006, but that individual, known as Xiang
Xiang, died within a year, possibly after
falling from a tree.
Are giant pandas usually good climbers?
Yes. Young pandas like to rest in trees and
are extremely adept climbers, whereas
adults tend to stay on the ground. In the
wild, this survival strategy helps to keep
juveniles safe from predators such as jackals
and snow leopards while their mothers feed
on the forest floor.
Are giant pandas related to red pandas?
Not closely. The red panda is in a family
all of its own – the Ailuridae. However,
it exhibits similar behaviour to the giant
panda, eating predominantly bamboo.

NEXT MONTH

LEOPARD

The tree-loving cat

discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

87

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The crossword
ACROSS
1 Michael ___, environment writer, author of
Say Goodbye To The Cuckoo (8)
5 Plant genus named after the botanist
Alexander Curt Brade (6)
10 ___ loris, primate of India and Sri Lanka (7)
11 Fruit tree in the genus Prunus (7)
12 Bottom-dwelling river fish (5)
13 Plant in the nightshade family, cultivated
for its spongy fruit (9)
14 Wild ovine of North America (7,5)
18 Nightjar of the eastern USA (4-4-4)
21 Student of living systems (9)
23 Large African antelope that may be
common or giant (5)
24 ___ night lizard, Mexican reptile of rocky
habitats (7)
25 Ernst ___, 19th-century German zoologist
and naturalist (7)
26 Collective noun for crows (6)
27 Climbing vines (8)
DOWN
1 ___ thrush, bird also known as stormcock (6)
2 ___ bluet, damselfly from a Greek island (6)
3 Hawaiian ___, small crustacean (3,6)
4 Creatures that produce both male and
female gametes, such as snails (14)
6 More scarce (5)
7 The ___, edible mushroom also known as
the waxy laccaria (8)
8 Mounds formed by some kinds of social
insect (3,5)
9 How To Be A ____, book by author and
journalist Simon Barnes (3,11)
15 Very small songbird of the South-West
Pacific (9)
16 Another name for the sap-rich deciduous
tree Liquidambar (8)

17 Long-extinct reptile (8)
19 Erectile hairs or feathers on the neck (6)
20 Mature organisms (6)
22 Mediterranean fruit tree (5)

October answers
Across: 1 pigeon, 4 scotch, 9 blue,
10 oceanarium, 11 drones, 12 aconites,
13 persimmon, 15 holt, 17 roar, 18 epiphytes,

21 wallaroo, 23 fulmar, 25 cranesbill, 26 ruby,
27 lesser, 28 iguana.
Down: 1 polar bear, 2 green, 3 opossum,
5 condor, 6 territory, 7 house,
8 metamorphosis, 14 starlings, 16 The
Gambia, 19 puffleg, 20 wrasse, 22 April,
24 larva.

GETTY

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

A male northern pintail preens its feathers on a nature reserve in California. It’s what’s called a dabbling duck, meaning it feeds on the
surface of shallow waters. Can you spot all five differences between these images? The answers can be found on page 97.

discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

91

w

Homemaker
Male baya weavers construct
their nests from long, thin
grass stems, and position them
on trees or human structures.
Parth Kansara,
Nakhatrana, India

Rose tint
Navi Mumbai in India hosts
migratory flocks of flamingos
every year. During the last
two months of their stay,
they turn pink and the entire
lake becomes pink, too.
Vibhash Garg,
Navi Mumbai, India

92

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

SHARE!
Send your pics to
discoverwildlife.
com/submit-yourphotos to see them
in print!

Reflections
The ever-enchanting
habitat of Kaziranga
National Park was at its
best when I took this
image of an Indian onehorned rhinoceros.
Sumon Das,
Kolkata, India

Just right
Everything came
together for this
magical image of a
burrowing owlet –
the perch, the look
back and the light.
Blake Hess,
Greeley, USA

Rest stop
I captured this peaceful male
banded demoiselle on the
Ringstead Downs in Norfolk.
These delicate insects are a joy
to watch as they flit around the
water’s edge.
Julie Pinborough,
Blackheath, London

discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

93

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BRYAN ALLEN/ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES

£5!

Enjoying some
one-on-one with
a red fox

Deer in atmospheric early morning mist

WITH BBC WILDLIFE PICTURE EDITOR TOM GILKS

Neil Aldridge talks expensive bats,
confiding beavers & urinating foxes
Why wildlife photography?
Photography has been in my family for four
generations, and I can’t remember a time
when I haven’t had a camera. Growing up in
South Africa around such incredible wildlife,
the two passions just evolved and merged.
What’s been your most challenging
subject to date?
I’ve photographed many human-wildlife
conflict stories, including pangolin poaching,
but the strangest relationship I’ve worked on
is between the British and the red fox. On
one hand, people hunt foxes for fun; on the
other, people rehab them in their homes.

MATT MARAN

Any epic fails?
I was documenting London’s foxes with
Matt Maran. He had already photographed
a youngster that had learned to jump into a
bin to look for food, and we wanted to film
it. We witnessed the behaviour one more
time and I thought I was recording, but I
hadn’t hit the button.
What’s been your most memorable
encounter with a wild animal?
Photographing beavers in a lake in British

Columbia with Cheryl-Samantha Owen. We
were submerged to our noses in the freezing
water with our cameras on tripods just above
the surface. The beavers weren’t bothered
and it was a privilege to share their space.
Have any animals damaged your gear?
Yes, the foxes. The cubs would chew our
tripods and jump on our backs while we were
crouched down. Once, I landed my drone
and one fox immediately urinated on it.
What’s been your least productive shoot?
Grey long-eared bats – the UK’s rarest
breeding bat. The budget only covered one
shoot, and I spent it all on just the sensor I
needed. I did 25 shoots and came away with a
six-shot story. But it was a great opportunity.
Any advice to share?
Stay close to home. You can really tell
the story of a species or place if you can
visit again and again, and can react to the
weather. There is exciting wildlife in Europe
that needs photographers to champion it.
See more of Neil’s work at
conservationphotojournalism.com

How to
photograph
wildlife in
winter light
Wildlife photographer Mike
Hamblin offers top tips on ways
to make the most of the special
clarity and warmth of the
light at this time of year. Visit
discoverwildlife.com/winterlight for the full article.
OBACKLIGHT
“For dramatic backlit shots,
shoot towards the sun when it’s
closest to the horizon. This will
produce beautiful rim lighting
around your subject and a
warm glow.”
OLOW-ANGLE LIGHT
“In winter, the sun arcs low in
the sky, bathing everything in
warm light, especially early and
late in the day.”
OFLAT LIGHT AND SNOW
“Digital cameras handle flat
lighting very well, so I shoot in
all weathers. (A plastic bag and
elastic bands will keep your
camera dry.)”

discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

ROBIN: GETTY; DEER: MIKA SCHICK/GETTY

SNAP-CHAT

Snow needn’t be seen as a hindrance

95

o

Deborah wonders
whether a fox may
have been behind
this strange scene

The mystery of the
Battersea sausage stash
live in Battersea and this spring a
vixen brought her litter of five cubs
into my garden every day from late
afternoon to early the next morning.
This lasted all summer. They fed and
played all night, totally trashing my
garden in the process. I had just replanted
everything only to come downstairs
the next day to find that something –
presumably one of the foxes – had left
slices of sausage meat beside each plant
in one of my flowerbeds and had started
digging a hole beside the wall.
Would this have been a fox? It’s
curious that there are slices of meat beside
each plant. I wonder if the animal might
have been disturbed before it had finished
what it intended to do. I can’t think what
it might be apart from a fox.
Have you come across this behaviour
before – burying food next to plants?
Perhaps the animal is marking the spot
or using the plant’s scent to disguise the
scent of the food?
Deborah Colson, via email

96

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

PRODUCTION EDITOR CATHERINE
SMALLEY REPLIES:
Based on your description, it sounds likely
that it is a fox attempting to bury meat in
your flowerbeds. Foxes are known to hide
food in the ground in order to consume it at
a later date – a behaviour know as caching.
As you suspect, it’s possible the animal was
disturbed before it was able to place the
meat within the hole it had dug. I’m not sure
why it would place the meat beside each
individual plant, but freshly dug flowerbeds
are particularly favoured sites.

Social not sexual
I read with interest the article by
Leoma Williams in the November issue
regarding same-sex sexual behaviour in the
natural world.
There were several examples given
of same-sex captive penguins incubating
eggs, and I wonder if this could be,
in part, a response to the inevitable
restrictions placed on wild animals held in
captivity. We know, for example, that the

natural behaviour of wolves is far removed
from the behaviour of captive packs, and
this has led to much misunderstanding
of the wolf ’s social character. Has similar
behaviour in wild penguins ever been
documented? (I appreciate that there are
probably significant practical limitations to
consider here!)
I also wonder whether the other
examples cited are mostly nothing more
than simply the natural world’s version of
‘the boys having a beer’ or ‘a girls’ night
out’, where the relationships so important
to social animals are reaffirmed. Within the
natural world, social bonds and ties within
groups need to be regularly re-established
and strengthened and, having little to
do with actual reproduction, same-sex
‘sexual’ behaviour is actually just one of the
natural world’s ways to maintain the social
cohesion so vital to the group’s survival.
Christa Parrott, via email

Venomous snakes
I was surprised that the fer-de-lance wasn’t
included in your Top 10 article on deadly
snakes (October 2023). My wife and I had
a very close encounter with one on a path
through the Braulio Carrillo National Park
in Costa Rica. I was very nervous when

moving past it. Most places where tourists
stay have ready access to an antivenom but
the locals, particularly those working in
fields, are most susceptible, as the snake’s
cryptic camouflage makes it difficult to see
at a safe distance. Incidentally, the reaction
to run for help could end badly. By doing
so, it accelerates the passage of the venom
towards the body’s vital organs.
Richard Stewart, Ipswich

A request
I enjoyed reading the Top 10 article on
deadly snakes. It would be nice to see more
articles about reptiles and amphibians.
Chris Murphy, Derby

WH Hudson

The annual rut
is a high-octane
spectacle

I found the article on WH Hudson
fascinating. I am sure he did annoy a few
English naturalists with his actual local
knowledge. It is good to know his friends
honoured his contribution to nature with
the sculpture.
Fiona French, via email

It’s not revenge

FOX: GETTY; REINDEER: STEFANO UNTERTHINER

I have to say that I do agree with Mark
Carwardine’s column on killer whales
attacking boats in the September issue.
These animals are amazing and have been
misused for a long time, but I really do not
think that these attacks are revenge.
Instead of thinking of ways to destroy
things we do not understand, we should be
taking lessons from them. Thank you for
writing this article!
Constance Warren, via email

Answers to Spot The Difference on page 91

GET IN TOUCH

Email
wildlifeletters@immediate.co.uk

Post
BBC Wildlife, Eagle House,
Bristol, BS1 4ST
By contacting us you consent to let us print your letter
in BBC Wildlife. Letters may be edited.

NEXT MONTH

Reindeer
Once hunted to the brink of extinction,
the Svalbard reindeer – a subspecies
endemic to the Norwegian archipelago
– has since rebounded, but its future
remains uncertain. Award-winning
photographer Stefano Unterthiner has
recorded its life through all four seasons,
shining a light on the new
ON SALE
challenges it faces in what
is now the fastest-warming
place on Earth.
ER
DECEMB

14 t h

discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE

97

TopTEN
The bite of a tsetse
fly can be fatal
to humans

but bees. These hornets
have an astonishing
capacity to decimate whole
hives of honeybees. They
kill off the workers until
the workforce is severely
depleted and then enter
the hive and take the
larvae, too.

Locusts

Assassin
caterpillars

Mosquito

Deadly insects
Our pick of 10 fearsome insects,
from stingers to disease spreaders
1 Mosquito
The mosquito is responsible for more
human fatalities a year than any other
animal. It is, however, not the mosquitoes
themselves that are deadly, but the
parasites, bacteria and viruses they carry
and pass on through their bites. The disease
they transmit that has the highest death
toll is malaria, caused by a blood-borne
single-celled parasite. Malaria claimed an
estimated 619,000 human lives in 2021.

2 Tsetse fly
Historically, this tiny animal has been
implicated in inhibiting human settlement
in vast swathes of Africa. It carries a
deadly disease called sleeping sickness.
Like malaria, it is transmitted by a bite and
caused by a single-celled parasite. Without
treatment sleeping sickness is often fatal.

3 Flea
In transmitting the bubonic plague from
infected rodents to humans, the humble
human flea was responsible for killing more
than 25 million people in 14th-century
Europe. In fact, fleas are such effective

98

BBC WILDLIFE December 2023

disease carriers that during WW2 the
Japanese army air-dropped plague-infected
fleas on Chinese cities as biological warfare.

4 Kissing bug
The deceptively friendly-sounding kissing
bug is also a disease carrier that feeds on
vertebrate blood. The disease-agent of
significance is the parasite Trypanosoma
cruzi, which causes a nasty illness called
Chagas disease. About 6-7 million people
have Chagas disease globally and it causes
approximately 10,000 deaths per year.

5 Bee
Outside of disease carriers, there are
actually very few insects that are dangerous,
venomous or poisonous enough to be fatal
to humans. But bee stings can be fatal to
the small percentage of people that have an
anaphylactic allergic reaction. Every year in
the UK there are around 10 reported deaths
from wasp or bee sting reactions.

These stinging ants
clamp down onto
the skin of their
victim and inject a
powerful and painful
venom, which some
people are fatally allergic to.
For most people, however, the
worst they will experience is a
burning sensation and raised
pustules on the skin.

8 Assassin caterpillar
The larval stage of the giant
silkworm moth, this caterpillar is
known as the world’s deadliest. Its toxicity
comes from venom-injecting bristles that
function as a defense mechanism against
predators. The toxins have anti-coagulant
properties, disrupting blood’s ability to
clot properly. Symptoms include a burning
sensation, vomiting, kidney failure, internal
bleeding, and in rare cases, death.

9 Locust
When swarms of these grasshoppers move
across landscapes, engulfing fields and
devastating crops, they can cause famine
and consequently many human fatalities.
These swarming phases are triggered by
a dry spell followed by rapid rainfall and
vegetation growth. The drought forces
them together onto any remaining areas of
vegetation, then the rainfall and subsequent
abundance of food allows them to breed
rapidly – creating a perfect storm.

10 Blister beetle
The last on our list has the potential to
be deadly to humans, but you would have
to eat quite a few of them. What they are
more likely to kill are horses, as they can
get mixed up into the hay or alfalfa they
eat. Blister beetles secrete a toxin (and
defensive agent) called cantharidin, which
causes skin blistering. Leoma Williams

NEXT MONTH

6 Asian giant hornet

ARCTIC ANIMALS

Though known as the ‘murder hornet’, it is
not people this insect is likely to murder,

...from polar bears to walruses

POLAR BEAR: PATRICK J. ENDRES/GETTY; MOSQUITO: JOAO PAULO BURINI/GETTY; CATERPILLAR: GEORGE GRALL/ALAMY; LOCUSTS: INGO ARNDT/NATUREPL.COM; TSETSE FLY: KIM TAYLOR/NATUREPL.COM

7 Fire ants

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Date

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Interior

Oceanview

Veranda

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IN ASSOCIATION WITH

COVER POLAR BEAR
by Paul Souders

A polar bear shakes its head while
swimming along the coastline of
Spitsbergen Island, Svalbard, Norway

SPARROWHAWK
by Paul Walters

A female sparrowhawk takes flight from
the grass in the low, bright sun at RSPB
Marshside in Merseyside

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE

Tobago, go beyond

we-inspiring images from
talented photographers are
part of the recipe that makes
BBC Wildlife the world’s best
wildlife magazine.
Our 2024 calendar features beautiful portraits
of 13 different predators from around the world.
Many of these have been cherry-picked from
the outstanding submissions we receive for the
magazine’s Photo Club pages each issue. We
always love to see your photographs, so please
keep them coming!
If this calendar leaves you feeling inspired to
take your wildlife photography to the next level,
check out top tips from the professionals as
well as information on the latest international
awards to enter at discoverwildlife.com.

B

lessed with swathes
of deserted white
beaches, lush rainforest
and crystal-clear
turquoise sea, Tobago
is the quintessential tropical paradise.
The island’s unspoilt landscape also
offers travellers a secluded way to view
an abundance of wildlife, both on land
and below its waters.
Avian delights
Among its many natural treasures,
Tobago is home to over 260 species
of bird, including the white-tailed
sabrewing (a rare hummingbird), the
blue-backed manakin and the whitenecked jacobin. One of the best places
to see some of Tobago’s avian gems is
the Main Ridge Forest Reserve. This
UNESCO Biosphere Reserve is the
oldest protected forest in the western
hemisphere and a top destination for
birdwatching. Hike one of its famed
trails, such as the Gilpin Trace or Miss
Mills Trace, with a certified local guide
to experience Tobago’s diverse birdlife
up close.
Beneath the waves
Tobago is a tiny island, located off
the coast of Venezuela, and stretches
just 50km in length and 16km wide.

Its unique position sitting between
the wild Atlantic Ocean and the calm
Caribbean Sea means that divers can
enjoy a wide variety of experiences.
With over 50 sites around the island,
there are opportunities for everyone,
from the novice to the experienced.
Dive beneath its waters to discover
a magnificent array of sea life, from
barracudas to sea horses and from
sharks to rays.
Beaches & dreams
The island is home to many gorgeous
bays that are ideal for relaxed
afternoons. Be sure to visit Pigeon
Point, a white-sand beach stretching
for miles with calm waters that
are perfect for paddling. Tobago’s
protected beaches are also famously a
destination for leatherback turtles who
head to the island between March and
September to lay eggs under the cover
of darkness.
Whichever way you choose to
experience Tobago, you will always
go beyond the ordinary.

January
MONDAY

TUESDAY

1

2

New Year’s Day
Bank Holiday
UK

Bank Holiday
Scotland

8

9

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BBC Wildlife February
issue on sale

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SNOW LEOPARD
by Morup Namgail

It is a challenging task to photograph
a snow leopard, but this one in Ladakh,
India, was captured using a camera trap

February
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5

TUESDAY

6

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7

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1

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8

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TIGER
by Aditya Singh

A wild Bengal tiger mother and her
two subadult cubs in the dry forests
of Ranthambore National Park, India

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ADITYA SINGH/GETTY

BBC Wildlife March
issue on sale

March
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4

TUESDAY

5

WEDNESDAY

6

THURSDAY

7

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

1

2

3

8

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EUROPEAN GREY WOLF
by Vlad Sokolovsky

A wolf looks out from among the tree
trunks. The comeback of deer, wild boar
and other prey species in Europe has led
to the predator expanding its range.

BBC Wildlife spring issue
on sale

11

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25

Good Friday
Bank Holiday
UK

VLAD SOKOLOVSKY/GETTY

St Patrick’s Day (substitute)
Bank Holiday
Northern Ireland

April
MONDAY
1

TUESDAY
2

WEDNESDAY
3

Easter Monday
Bank Holiday
England, Wales and NI

THURSDAY
4

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

5

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BBC Wildlife April issue
on sale

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INDIAN FOX
by Parth Kansara

While their mother is out hunting, two
Indian fox pups play with each other in the
Great Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, India

May
MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY
1

THURSDAY
2

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

3

4

5

GREAT HAMMERHEAD SHARK
The largest member of the hammerhead
species swimming off the coast of Bimini
in the Bahamas

BBC Wildlife May issue
on sale

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Spring
Bank Holiday
UK

BBC Wildlife June issue
on sale

WILDESTANIMAL/GETTY

Early May
Bank Holiday
UK

June
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BBC Wildlife July issue
on sale

AMERICAN CROCODILE
by Rick Beldegreen

A crocodile moves from the swamps of
Banco Chinchorro in the Caribbean into
clear water to feed on fish scraps tossed
away by local fishermen

July
MONDAY

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Battle of the Boyne
Bank Holiday
Northern Ireland

15

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BBC Wildlife August issue
on sale

29

30

31

LION
by Mubarak Muhammadali

A lion cub plays with its mother. Lions are
highly social and physical touch helps
them bond and aids their overall health.

August
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LITTLE OWL
by Anne Coatesy

Three little owls peep out from the trunk
of an old oak tree. The bird is the smallest
in the UK, just 20cm in height.

Summer
Bank Holiday
Scotland

26

Summer
Bank Holiday
England, Wales and NI

27

28

29

ANNE COATESYL/GETTY

BBC Wildlife September
issue on sale

September
MONDAY

TUESDAY

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BBC Wildlife October issue
on sale

23

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26

OTTER
Matthew Roper

An amazing light display and
reflections were created by this otter
shaking its head during a night-time
shoot in Lincolnshire

October
MONDAY

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BBC Wildlife November
issue on sale

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ARCTIC FOX
by Andrew Edge

This blue morph Arctic fox had been curled
up against a structure to avoid the worst of
a storm in Iceland, and had woken covered
in ice and frozen snow

November
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BBC Wildlife December
issue on sale

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ORCA
by Ross Wheeler

A pod of eight or nine orcas skulks
silently through towering icebergs
in the Antarctic Peninsula

December
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POLAR BEAR
by Paul Souders

A polar bear shakes its head while
swimming along the coastline of
Spitsbergen Island, Svalbard, Norway

St Andrew’s Day (substitute)
Bank Holiday
Scotland

9

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Christmas Day
Bank Holiday
UK

Boxing Day
Bank Holiday
UK

PAUL SOUDERS/GETTY

BBC Wildlife January 2025
issue on sale