Horns of plenty The curved, heavily ridged horns of male ibex grow to nearly 1m long and can weigh over 6kg – intimidating weapons used during bouts to establish a place in the local hierarchy and access to breeding females. Such a powerful creature will likely win more opportunities to mate than less well-endowed rivals.
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PORTFOLIO Boys club A generously proportioned ibex (centre) uses his impressive horns to scratch his back in the meadows he shares with some 70 other males in the Chablais Alps, along the French-Swiss border, south of Lake Geneva. During the summer months – this photo was taken in July – ibex ascend to find fresh grass in higher reaches. discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 53
54 BBC WILDLIFE July 2022 Snow go area A young male ibex descends a rocky ridge dusted with snow following the first fall in late autumn. These heavy goats dislike deep snow, which makes walking arduous and smothers access to food, so typically overwinter at altitudes down to about 1,800m. Between a rock An ibex shelters from heavy rain among granite rocks near the Mont Blanc massif during a June downpour. At this time of year he’s wearing his shorter summer coat, but will moult in September to prepare for the winter. PORTFOLIO
PORTFOLIO Blowing cold A large male is engulfed by swirling snow in the Jura Mountains of north-west Switzerland. With his thick winter fur, woolly undercoat and insulating fat layer, he’s well equipped to endure the harsh conditions – but could lose 50 per cent of his weight over the coldest months, when access to food may be scarce. Twin peak A pair of males break off from grazing to peer around from their ridge-top eyrie in the Chablais Alps – one of several locations where Alpine ibex were reintroduced from the early 20th century, having been extirpated from most of their range by overhunting.
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Under the ridge A mother and her offspring traverse the Aiguille Rouge beneath the jagged ridge of the Mont Blanc massif in autumn. Having mated in December or January, a female gives birth – typically to a single kid – in June; the young ibex will remain with her for about a year. Back from the brink By the 19th century, overhunting had reduced the Alpine ibex population to fewer than 100, clinging on in Italy’s Gran Paradiso and France’s Vanoise massifs. Following natural dispersal and successful reintroductions, today an estimated 53,000 ibex – protected across much of the region – can be found roaming these dramatic landscapes. In bloom Profuse rhododendron flowers provide colourful summer fare for a hungry female ibex in the Aiguille Rouge – a welcome change from the grass that makes up the majority of the species’ diet, along with mosses, lichens, leaves and twigs. Her horns will reach only about one-third the length of a big male’s. discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 57
DAVID GEE/ALAMY 58 BBC WILDLIFE July 2022 Is the answer really blowin’ in the wind? Springwatch’s Guide to Sea Birds episode is available to watch now
WIND FARMS O The UK government wants to generate enough wind energy to be able to power every home by 2030 By JAMES FAIR Renewable energy is a necessity as we aim for net-zero carbon emissions, but it comes at a cost to wildlife discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 59
60 BBC WILDLIFE July 2022 Sussex beach while galeforce winds create a maelstrom of waves threatening to inundate the low-lying land behind isn’t the best time to argue against wind energy. Wind, clearly, is an abundant and powerful force, and the swelling surf is a stark reminder that rising sea levels – caused by climate change – could create havoc for many parts of Britain’s coastline, and increasingly are. But campaigner Zoe Visram is undeterred. “Rampion 2 wind farm is going to cause tremendous harm to wildlife, with the cable [carrying the electricity] coming ashore here at Climping, a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for its vegetative shingle, sand dunes and migratory birds,” she says. “The trench for the underwater cable will impact marine life, including seahorses, black bream, and oyster and mussel beds.” Visram is leading efforts by local residents to stop Rampion 2, a development of between 75 and 116 wind turbines off the coast of Sussex, stretching some 50km from Newhaven to Selsey Bill. Modern wind turbines are enormous – those planned for Rampion 2 could reach 325m high, as tall as the Eiffel Tower, and will be clearly visible from the coast. Two official bodies – Natural England and the South Downs National Park Authority – along with the RSPB, Sussex Wildlife Trust and Sussex Ornithological Society, have expressed concerns about the potential impacts of Rampion 2. These range from seabirds and migrating songbirds colliding with the turbines to the disturbance caused by laying the underwater cable and then digging a 50m-wide cable route that winds 37km inland through the South Downs National Park. “We are very concerned about hedgerows,” says Sussex Wildlife Trust conservation officer Jess Price. “There is no information on exactly how many will be impacted, what length are being removed, where they are and what state they are in. Some may not be very species-rich, others could be remnants of ancient woodland.” The RSPB has expressed particular concern about the potential impacts on northern gannets, which it said the developer – a German multinational company called RWE – was not taking sufficiently seriously. B viewpoint. Once up and running, Rampion 2 will generate up to 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of electricity annually – more than 10 per cent of the total UK wind energy capacity in 2020, and enough to power a million homes. It would make a substantial contribution towards the government’s commitment to quadrupling wind energy generation from 10GW to 40GW by 2030 and achieving netzero carbon emissions by 2050. To put it bluntly, could it be worth sacrificing some trees, hedgerows and seabirds for this? After all, most scientists are agreed that climate change is the single biggest threat to life as we know it. S The dunes at Climping are home to rare sand lizards DUNE: GRAHAM PRENTICE/ALAMY; GEESE: TERRY WHITTAKER/2020VISION/NPL; GANNET:JEFF J MITCHELL/GETTY ABOUT THE AUTHOR James Fair is a wildlife and environmental journalist working on topics from the badger cull to cheetahs in Iran. See more of his work at jamesfairwildlife.co.uk.
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 61 WIND FARMS O The outbreak of war in Ukraine has amplified the issue of Europe being dependent on Russian gas and oil. Wind energy – particularly for an island nation such as the UK – offers a viable route out of this quandary. Increasing our renewable energy capacity, said the Guardian within days of the conflict beginning, “dramatically reduces the power of autocrats, dictators, and thugs”. Jess Price – speaking in mid-February, before Russia invaded Ukraine – says the issue is more complicated than that. “The climate and nature crises are inextricably linked, and efforts to solve one are futile if they also contribute to the other,” she says. “We want to see a move to renewables, and a massive decline in the use of fossil fuels, Dark-bellied brent geese are among the seabirds at risk of disturbance from wind farms but it’s got to be done in a way that’s not harming wildlife.” RWE says it has been actively engaging with a wide range of bodies throughout the process, and that the wind farm is still in a very early, pre-planning application stage of its development. “We are confident that we will be able to put forward a good proposal that strikes the right balance between the significant wider environmental benefit brought by the renewable energy generated, whilst minimising, where possible, the local impacts,” RWE told BBC Wildlife. A wind farm doesn’t have to be on the scale of Rampion 2 to have potentially disastrous impacts on wildlife. Nearly 1,000km north, in a large commercial Northern gannets are on the RSPB’s Amber list Rampion 2 will generate enough energy to power a million homes
62 BBC WILDLIFE July 2022 Wildcats are on the brink of extinction in Scotland O WIND FARMS forestry plantation in Aberdeenshire, Clashindarroch II will consist of 14 wind turbines generating sufficient electricity to meet the demands of 55,000 households. It will be roughly one-twentieth of the size of Rampion 2. Here, it’s feared the removal of trees to make way for the turbines and disturbance during construction could have a seriously negative impact on wildcats, Britain’s only surviving native wild felid. A public inquiry held in late February and early March heard conservationists’ claims that the development will impact at least five to six wildcat territories, equating to one-fifth of a total population estimated to be as low as 30 wild individuals. Ultimately, the wind farm could lead to the “wholesale extinction of the Scottish wildcat in the wild due to its critically endangered status,” they said. Ecologist Dominic Woodfield says Clashindarroch is not the right place for the new wind farm because the degree of risk is so high compared to the “less than 0.1 per cent” contribution it would make to Scotland’s renewable energy output. “Should you really be taking this level of risk with what could be the most important population of wildcats in the country?” he asks. Not all conservation groups agree these wildcats are threatened. Or, more to the point, they don’t agree they are wildcats. Saving Wildcats – a partnership of organisations including the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, the government’s nature advisor NatureScot and Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) – says that the majority of the individuals in Clashindarroch are domestic cat hybrids and therefore not a priority for conservation. T , FLS, and manages the land, has long known that wildcats in Clashindarroch had the potential to become a major stumbling block to the wind farm expansion plans. An email in 2017 warned that two wind farms proposed for the area would result in “significant clear-felling [cutting down most or all trees in an area of wood]”. “I will be surprised if the presence of Scottish wildcats does not become a significant issue during the planning process,” wrote FLS district manager John Thomson. “I flag this simply to ensure that we do not create any hostages to fortune regarding the scale of our felling operations.” The development will impact at least ve to six wildcat territories WIND FARMS WORLDWIDE Construction of both on- and offshore wind farms can pose severe threats to wildlife, the most obvious of which is collision with the revolving blades. The point being that FLS and other organisations were well aware that Scottish wildcats – whether hybrids or not – were in Clashindarroch and therefore potential spanners in the proverbial works, but the project has managed to reach the public inquiry stage regardless. Roo Campbell, NatureScot’s mammals advisor, says the possible impacts of the wind farm pale in comparison to other types of development. “Fragmentation of habitat comes from major roads, fields without much cover and conurbations,” he says. Whatever your view of the wind farm at Clashindarroch, it highlights something Smøla Norway Located off the coast of west Norway, Smøla wind farm consists of 68 turbines and is estimated to kill six to nine white-tailed eagles every year. But one study also showed that any white-tailed eagle territories within 500m of a turbine were subsequently vacated, so displacement was having an impact too. Tarifa Spain There are numerous wind farms located in Tarifa, southern Spain, an area heavily used by migrating vultures, raptors and storks in the spring and autumn. A programme to selectively stop turbines when vultures were nearby reduced mortality rates by 50 per cent. This approach also benefits the Spanish imperial eagle. Altamont Pass California One of the earliest wind farms anywhere in the world, consisting of nearly 5,000 turbines, Altamont Pass was killing up to 60 golden eagles and more than 200 red-tailed hawks every year in the mid 2000s. Overall, raptor mortality has since been reduced by about half as a result of lobbying by bird conservation groups to replace or remove some turbines. Whitetailed eagle at Smøla Redtailed hawk Spanish imperial eagle
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 63 that most conservationists agree on – there is very little in the way of proper forward planning on where wind farms are located. Jack Thompson, the RSPB conservation officer dealing with Rampion 2, says the organisation sees many proposals that should never have got to the planning stage because of how they will affect wildlife. “One of the things we want to push for is for the impacts of all wind farm developments to be looked at more holistically, so that we make sure we direct the efforts of the Crown Estate [which hands out licences] and all developers towards those key spaces where the potential for energy generation is still good, but not close to seabird colonies,” he says. P – – is not the only problem, according to Catharine Horswill, a conservation scientist with University College London and the Zoological Society of London. She says that the way the impacts on seabirds are being assessed underestimates what could happen in reality. Horswill studies black-legged kittiwakes, one of the UK’s fastest declining seabirds. It’s not clear exactly what is bringing about this decline, but it’s likely a combination of rising sea temperatures changing the distribution of prey such as sandeels, and overfishing of the same species. As a result, breeding success is considerably lower than it needs to be to keep populations stable. But in a paper published in March, Horswill shows that modelling used by developers does not take these breeding declines into account, which means the long-term impacts of wind farms could be even greater than feared. She and other scientists are concerned about plans for a trial floating wind farm that could be located just 25km from two of the UK’s most important seabird islands, Skomer and Skokholm, off the coast of Pembrokeshire. Here, long-term monitoring is helping scientists understand how seabirds are being affected by climate change and fisheries. “In an ideal world, we wouldn’t be placing wind farms anywhere near these important seabird islands,” Horswill says. In the Firth of Forth and Tay area of north-east Scotland, the concerns are even more concrete. A total of eight wind farms, three with consent and another five in various pre-application phases, are planned in a region that includes Bass Rock – home to the world’s largest northern gannet colony – the Isle of May and various onshore seabird colonies. Just for those wind farms that have been given the go-ahead, it has been estimated that “over 1,000 gannets and hundreds of kittiwakes could be killed each year during the summer months alone, and many hundreds of puffins could die as a result of losing important feeding areas,” according to RSPB Scotland. Where wind farms that are predicted to have an impact on seabirds do go ahead, developers are now required to put in place compensation measures. “The current flavour of the month is kittiwake hotels,” says Horswill. “Building artificial structures for kittiwakes to nest on.” The idea is that by creating additional breeding habitat, you will increase the number of young birds fledging annually. But, she points out, kittiwakes are struggling due to lack of food, not lack of nesting space. “The requirement for companies to compensate for the impacts of wind farms could have resulted in a step-change in marine conservation,” she adds. “For example, if they were to fund a reduction in fishing for sandeels, that could be really beneficial for kittiwakes and other species such as puffins.” T ’ new-found zeal for renewable energy should surely be welcomed, but there’s no escaping the potential costs to wildlife. As Jess Price says: “When people say that we should put Rampion 2 somewhere else, part of me thinks, ‘Well, there’s something there already’. Practically every inch of the sea, if there is not a project happening, there’s a company trying to get a licence for one.” The bottom line, say both campaigners and conservationists, is that we should be looking at reducing our energy consumption while also making the transition away from fossil fuels. Otherwise, we’ll merely be swapping carbon emissions for biodiversity loss. Or, to put it another way, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Human-made ‘hotels’ (below) for black-legged kittiwakes are intended to compensate WILDCAT: ANDY ROUSE/NPL for population losses CONTROLLED CONDITIONS ; HAWK: ALAN MURPHY/ BIA/MINDEN/NPL; WHITE TAILED EAGLE: LOHMANN/ BLICKWINKEL/ALAMY; IMPERIAL EAGLE: DANIELE OCCHIATO/AGAMI/ALAMY; PUFFIN: DANNY GREEN/NPL; KITTIWAKE: MAREK SZCZEPANEK/GETTY; HOTEL: ROGER JOHANSEN/ALAMY Skomer’s puffins may have to negotiate a floating wind farm
64 BBC WILDLIFE July 2022 O SEASHELLS ALEX HYDE/NATUREPL.COM Seashell
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 65 SEASHELLS O Heading to the seaside this summer? Take a moment to admire the intricate shape and form of seashells, which reveal so much about their mysterious former inhabitants. By HELEN SCALES secrets This fabulous array of seashells was discovered on the Isle of Skye SEASHELLS O
66 BBC WILDLIFE July 2022 O SEASHELLS ABOUT THE AUTHOR Helen is a marine biologist, writer and broadcaster. Her latest book, on sale now, is What a Shell Can Tell (Phaidon, £16.95). Find out more at helenscales.com. and escape between the tides. Get sandy toes, listen to the waves - and always, always look for seashells. A day at the beach isn’t complete without a sandcastle decorated with these marine treasures, or a few in the pocket to bring home. Adorning bathroom shelves and windowsills, seashells are not only fond reminders of a visit to the sea, but they have many secrets to share and stories to tell about the animals that made them and the wonders of their watery world. Any shell, after all, was once part of a living, breathing sea creature. Learn to decipher these hidden messages and you’ll start to see seashells in a whole new light. Every time you pick up an empty seashell, you’re holding a mollusc’s abandoned exoskeleton, which these softbodied animals use as a multi-purpose tool. This is their home, their place to hide and the attachment point for muscles to help them move. There’s a plethora of shells to find, made by different kinds of molluscs, in habitats all around the UK coasts. Rocky shores and tide pools are home to lots of sea snails (gastropods) with elegant spiralling shells, including dog whelks and periwinkles. When it’s alive, a sea snail pokes its tentacled head out of its shell’s open hole and crawls along on a muscly foot. At low tide, limpet-like chitons with ‘coat-of-mail’ shells, creep about under rocks, their shells in eight plates across their backs. Sandy beaches are the domain of cockles, razor clams and other types of bivalves, each bearing a pair of crinkled and fan-shaped shells that clamp tightly together to keep their soft bodies tucked up inside. Many bivalves burrow deep down in the sand and reach into the water with a snorkel tube, called a siphon, to breathe and filterfeed on tiny particles. You’ll often find single, disarticulated bivalve shells or pairs still joined together. Sometimes, you’ll stumble across the shells of bean clams scattered across sandy beaches like thousands of purple, orange and yellow butterflies. U , and other crustaceans, which routinely shed their shells and grow new, bigger ones, molluscs keep their shells throughout their lives and gradually expand them. Look closely at the inner-most whorl of a sea snail and you should be able to make out the tiny shell it had when it first hatched from an egg. As it grows bigger, a mollusc uses its soft body tissue (the mantle) to lay down more layers of shell made chiefly of calcium carbonate, the same chalky material as a hen’s eggshell. Like tree rings, seashells have seasonal growth lines that are sometimes visible from the outside. Counting the most prominent lines across a bivalve shell can give you an idea of how old it was when it died. Many marine molluscs live for several years; some for much longer. Ocean quahogs from the North Atlantic can live for centuries. One individual, nicknamed Hafrún, meaning ‘mystery of the ocean’ in Icelandic, lived for 507 years, making it one of the longest-lived animals ever to have had its age accurately measured. Scientists use seashells, especially the long-lived ones, as climate archives that hold a treasure trove of detailed information about the changing ocean. Shells can tell the past temperature and Long-lived ocean quahogs can reach up to 13cm in length A coat-of-mail shell with its eight armoured plates Unicorn horn-like turret shells can drill down into the sand or mud G
SEASHELLS O discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 67 CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: GEOFF SCOTT SIMPSON/NPL; NICK UPTON/ NPL; INGO ARNDT/NPL; PREMAPHOTOS/ALAMY; PHILIPPE CLEMENT/NPL Searching along the rocky shore The lower reaches of rocky shores are good for finding all sorts of sea snails, such as top shells, sting winkles and cowries. Look out for dogwhelks laying clutches of eggs under rocks and attacking mussels, which fight back by tying the predators up in their sticky byssus threads. Low tide is the best time to enjoy some meditative shellseeking at coastal spots such as Porthdinllaen in Wales
68 BBC WILDLIFE July 2022 acidity of seawater the molluscs grew in; they can even indicate when volcanoes erupted or hurricanes struck. S endless variety of shapes, but in fact they’re all versions of the same basic pattern: a spiral. That much is obvious in snail shells and less so in clams and other bivalves, but their shells are indeed spirals, just ones that flare wide open. The precise shapes of molluscs’ spiralling shells are a nod to their different habitats and modes of living and moving. Scallops rest their flattened, fan-shaped shells on the sandy seabed. Occasionally, they stir themselves into the water column and swim for short distances by clapping their shells together like castanets and squirting propulsive water jets through their siphon. Turret or auger shells are long and slender, resembling little unicorn horns, enabling them to drill down into sand and mud. Limpets have volcano-shaped shells that they clamp down tightly to rocks so they don’t get swept away by waves or pecked off. Their conical shells are difficult to grasp, and they use their foot like a suction cup and glue themselves in place with specialised slime. Molluscs often ramp up their defences by adding corrugations and spines to their shells, making them difficult for predators to handle. Spiny oysters in the Mediterranean are covered in prongs that encourage seaweeds and sponges to settle and grow, giving them camouflage on rocky reefs. Lots of molluscs add a shiny layer of mother-of-pearl, or nacre, to the insides of their shells. Abalone are some of the shiniest ID GUIDE 10 seashells to spot on the beach Spotted cowrie The size of a little fingernail, these small beauties are not easy to spot but well worth the effort. Similar Arctic cowries don’t have spots. Blue ray limpet The intricate crystal structure of this shell reflects only blue wavelengths of light. Slipper limpet These sex-changing snails form ‘mating piles’ – larger females with smaller males on top, which eventually turn into females. Wentletrap Like a miniature, spiral staircase, these are a rare sight around the UK. Once highly collectable, people even made fake wentletraps. Painted topshell A distinct topshell due to its neat, conical shape and eye-catching pink and purple patterns. Above: just a few centimetres long, a janthina snail suspends itself from air bubbles beneath the sea surface. Right: a spiny oyster blends in with the ocean floor. SLIPPER LIMPET,CUTTLEBONE, PIDDOCK: PHILIPPE CLEMENT/ARTERRA/ALAMY; COWRIE: JELGER HERDER/BUIEN BEELD; TOPSHELL: NICO VAN KAPPEL/BUITEN BEELD; BLUE RAY LIMPET: SUE DALY/NPL; WENTLETRAP: JELGER HERDER/BUITEN BEELD/ALAMY The shiny interior of abalones – an edible mollusc, its shells are used for jewellery
SEASHELLS O discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 69 shells, their insides swathed in oily greens and blues, and people often use them to make jewellery, buttons and decorative inlays in furniture. Yet the gleaming interiors of these shells evolved not for beauty, but for strength. Engineers have discovered the nanostructure of nacre helps to make shells crack-proof. Nacre, made from essentially the same calcium carbonate as the outer shell, is laid down in a series of tiny, brick-like layers held together in a stretchy matrix of chitin – the chief structural material of insect exoskeletons. This can stop cracks from spreading when a crab grabs a shell in its claws, or when a fish bites down. If you find a seashell that’s shiny on the outside, it’s been worn away in the tumbling waves, revealing the nacre underneath. O pigments in their shells that help hide them in their habitat. Flat periwinkles have rounded shells that resemble the green and brown gas chambers of the bladderwrack seaweeds they inhabit along rocky shores. Janthina snails float below the sea surface, suspended from a raft of air bubbles and their shells are deep violet-blue, camouflaging them in open water. Meanwhile, the colours and patterns on many seashells remain much more mysterious and serve no obvious purpose. The rayed artemis, for instance, is a bivalve common along European shores with a shell covered in saw-tooth zigzags. It spends its time burrowed deeply in sand, mud and gravel, so those patterns aren’t seen until PERIWINKLE: PAUL R. STERRY/NATURE PHOTOGRAPHERS LTD/ALAMY; COCKLE: ALAMY; ABALONE: GETTY; RAZOR CLAM: PHILIPPE CLEMENT/NPL; JANTHINA: GEORGETTE DOUWMA/NPL; SPINY OYSTER: VISUALS UNLIMITED/NPL; HERMIT CRAB: ALEX HYDE/NPL empty shells wash up on a beach. The borrowers While you’re exploring rockpools, keep an eye out for shells that are scuttling about in a distinctly non-molluscan fashion. If you glimpse little legs and pincers poking out, then you’ve found a hermit crab. These crustaceans lost their ability to make shells and instead pick up empty seashells. If you’re especially lucky, you might spy hermit crabs lining up to swap shells. Cuttlebone Commonly seen, these are the spongy, internal shells of cuttlefish, another type of mollusc that are distantly related to snails and bivalves. Rough periwinkle The world’s most misidentified mollusc, the shells exist in many colours and patterns. Razor clam These champion diggers look like overgrown fingernails. They swiftly bury themselves in the sand, sometimes squirting out water. Common piddock A boring bivalve! Piddocks bore burrows in soft rocks, starting when they’re small larvae. Spiny cockle Look out for cockles covered in bristly spines. Like many shell adornments, these help deter predators from eating them. lam
70 BBC WILDLIFE July 2022 O SEASHELLS No-one has yet worked out exactly why molluscs evolved their shell patterning. One idea is that they use their patterns as a marker to guide them as they lay down more shell material. Shell-making is not a continuous process. A mollusc needs to remind itself where the previous growing season left off, so it can align its mantle and continue to grow in the right places, otherwise it could easily grow a useless, wonky shell. T for on seashells that will tell you what kinds of food their resident molluscs ate when they were alive. Herbivorous, seaweed-eating snails, such as periwinkles, tend to have smooth, rounded openings to their shells. You can spot predatory snails by the notch in their shells. This is where their elongated nose (or proboscis) pokes out and sniffs the water for chemical traces wafting from their prey. A sea snail follows its nose and creeps up on its target. You can also tell how a mollusc died from clues left behind on its shell. A single, neat hole shows it was the victim of another mollusc, likely a whelk or a necklace shell. They use their sharp tongue (the radula) and release acid secretions to drill through shells, then slurp out the soft insides. Dog whelks have a penchant for eating mussels, but these bivalves can fight back. Mussels make sticky byssus threads to fix themselves to rocks and these also come in handy for wrapping up dog whelks and halting them in their tracks. An etched circle on a seashell that hasn’t drilled all the way through is evidence of an unsuccessful attack. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT In the UK, there are no laws against collecting empty seashells from beaches. But you can be mindful of minimising your impact on the environment by making sure you carefully turn rocks back over after you’ve peered underneath and by not trampling over delicate habitats. Be sure to only take seashells whose occupants have already departed and resist the urge to take bucketloads home. Leave some for other people – and hermit crabs – to find. Buying seashells is a different matter. Large, shiny shells on sale in good condition have most likely not been picked up empty on beaches, but were taken from living animals. A lack of regulations means it can be very hard to know if shells on sale have been collected without impacting wild populations of molluscs. Be careful not to take too many Can you take shells home? A shell covered in dozens of holes wasn’t attacked by dozens of whelks, but by the encrusting sponge Cliona celata, also known as the boring sponge, which looks like gooey yellow paint. These sponges excavate the calcium carbonate of seashells, creating characteristic branching chambers known as entobia, which palaeontologists have found in fossilised shells that lived hundreds of millions of years ago. Boring sponges colonise various shells around the UK coast, oysters in particular. They don’t eat the mollusc inside, but they do weaken shells and make them more likely to get crushed and eaten by other predators, such as crabs. Sponge-smothered oysters also divert more energy into adding additional material to shore up their shells, and as a result they don’t grow as big, much to the annoyance of oyster farmers. Mysterious patterns The rayed artemis (above), common along European shores, is covered in sawtooth zigzags. It lives buried in the seabed where its patterns remain unseen, so their purpose is a mystery. It’s possible the decorations are a form of molluscan note-taking, reminding the animal where to add more layers to its shell. HANDS: ZUZANA JANEKOVA/EYEEM/GETTY; RAYED ARTEMIS: PHILIPPE CLEMENT/NPL; SINGLE HOLE: HELEN SCALES; DOGWHELK & PERIWINKLE: PAUL R. STERRY/NATURE PHOTOGRAPHERS LTD/ALAMY; COCKLE: CARSTEN KRIEGER/MYN/NPL; ETCHED CIRCLE & ENCRUSTING SPONGE: PHILIPPE CLEMENT/NPL
Shell detectives Clues to a shell’s past life Humans aren’t the only shell-collecting animals. Carefully watch the seashells in a rockpool and you might spot some that aren’t gliding slowly around, but scuttling. Hermit crabs have lost the ability to make their own shells and must instead borrow empty ones. When the time comes for hermit crabs to find a bigger shell, they organise themselves into orderly queues, with the smallest individual at one end and the largest at the other. Two big crabs may tussle over the biggest, best shell. Once their contest is decided and the victor claims the prize, all the other smaller crabs move into the vacated shell of the crab next in line. Down in the deep sea, carrier shells (Zenophoridae) pick up empty seashells, as well as pebbles and coral fragments. They glue these bits and pieces onto the outside of their shells as extra defence from predators. And the most intelligent molluscs of all, the octopuses, have learned how to use seashells as tools. Like hermit crabs, the octopuses’ ancestors gave up the ability to make shells long ago. But today, they can sometimes be observed with a pair of matching clam shells in their possession. When the octopus feels threatened, it quickly fashions them into a shelter. S to tell us about the sea, what lives there and how everything is connected – often in unexpected ways. Every day, as the tide rises and falls, new shells arrive on the beach and lie waiting for us to come along and find them. Next time you pick up a pretty seashell on the seashore, take a moment, as you admire it shape and form, to think about who made it and the life it might have had. SEASHELLS O SINGLE HOLE The victim of another mollusc, which has pierced the shell then sucked out the soft insides. Holes are often much neater than this one pictured. MULTIPLE HOLES A shell peppered with multiple holes was infested with an encrusting sponge, which drills chambers called entobia. SHELL NOTCH Indicates this is a predatory species. The elongated nose (or proboscis) pokes out to sniff out prey. SMOOTH ROUND OPENING Shells without a notch are commonly herbivores, including periwinkles and topshells. LINES ACROSS RIDGES Some shells show their age with seasonal growth lines across their shells. discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 71 ETCHED CIRCLE A neat ring that hasn’t punched all the way through indicates a mollusc that survived a drilling attack.
O UMBRELLABIRDS A male long-wattled umbrellabird perches quietly during the day, with its wattle in ‘normal’ mode 72 BBC WILDLIFE July 2022
UMBRELLABIRDS O The long-wattled umbrellabird always eluded the limelight, until one photographer succeeded in bringing this striking avian out of the shadows Story and photos by MURRAY COOPER DARK DANCING IN THE discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 73
O UMBRELLABIRDS 74 BBC WILDLIFE July 2022 Typical lowland Choc rainforest in a downpour – wet! E C Ecuador and Colombia, the male longwattled umbrellabird is without doubt among the most extravagant-looking birds of the neotropics. This handsome, blackfeathered species looks most impressive during the mating season from November to February, when his outlandish, Elvis-like hairdo
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 75 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Originally from South Africa, Murray lives in the Ecuadorian Amazon and is a photographer and conservationist. See more at murraycooper.com. expands over his beak, and his extraordinary wattle – resembling a phallic necktie – swells to twice its normal size. Given its legendary looks, you may wonder why the umbrellabird has managed to evade the limelight for so long. It has never been photographed properly before – and this has a lot to do with the hours it keeps, and the dark, dangerous neighbourhood in which it lives. I first learned about the long-wattled umbrellabird in 1991, when I left South Africa for Ecuador and took up the job of creating the 21,000-acre Los Cedros Reserve in Ecuador’s north-western Chocó. Thumbing through my bird guide, I chanced across a A world first: Murray’s shot of a male courting a female in 2014. With wattle engorged, he bows and emits his mooing mating call. reference to this mysterious bird and its ostentatious courtship display, and decided it had to be seen to be believed. It wasn’t until 2001, however, that I actually set eyes on the species, having joined a scientist who had located a nest in the southern stretch of the Chocó, and needed images for his research paper. I’ll never forget the thrill of being one of the first photographers to witness the first officially described nest of the long-wattled umbrellabird, complete with resident female. One afternoon, returning to camp after a day at the nest, I stumbled across a male perched in plain view and managed to snap a few shots. They were not good enough to be publishable, but it was a serious ‘eureka moment’ nonetheless. I knew then that photographing this charismatic species and its flamboyant courtship ritual would become my life’s mission. After all, there could surely be no better ambassador for the precious, dwindling habitat that is the Chocó. Encompassing The Chocó rainforest is not well studied, but scientists estimate that it is home to: O Over 10,000 vascular plants, with the highest endemism in the world – about 25 per cent are only found here O About 800 bird species – of which more than 50 are endemic O 190 or so mammal species O More than 185 reptile species O 139 known amphibian species O More than 300 butterfly species Life in the Chocó ECUADOR PERU CHOCÓ RAINFOREST COLOMBIA
76 BBC WILDLIFE July 2022 A mother feeds a katydid to its small chick. It took over five minutes to be swallowed. more than 140,000km from south-eastern Panama through Pacific Colombia into north-western Ecuador, this is a Pleistocene refuge (it escaped the mass extinctions of the last ice age) located on the equator and subject to the highest recorded permanent rainfall on the planet – up to 14m a year in some places. Together, these conditions create the perfect recipe for off-the-charts diversity (see box on p75). A WWF, just five per cent of the Ecuadorian Chocó remains, following waves of deforestation from 1970 to the 1990s. The umbrellabird itself is currently classed as vulnerable, but scientists postulate that this status should be upgraded to endangered, not only on account of habitat loss, but also owing to its highly specific requirements. To survive, umbrellabirds need healthy primary forest with an abundance of chapil palms, whose fruits they depend on. The bird has declined by at least 30 per cent in the past decade to fewer than 10,000 individuals. Little did I know what I was getting myself into. Capturing images of this creature would be mercilessly difficult. I remember talking to seasoned photographer Tui du Roy about the two weeks she spent trying to document the very same bird, emerging from the forest with not a single usable image. “It’s about the hardest subject matter and situation imaginable,” she told me. First, there’s the location. The males’ preferred display areas comprise the tops of steep ridges in wet, remote rainforest, where scores of deadly vipers, including the 3.5m-long bushmaster, pose a serious threat to anyone that dares to walk the trails at night, and where vectors of tropical diseases, including leishmaniasis, cluster in the vegetation. Even if you can summit the skiddy, muddy slope unbitten, unstung and unscathed, you must then contend with the technical difficulties of photographing what is essentially a very dark bird in very dark surroundings. Focusing is nigh-on impossible, since there is barely any detail for a camera to register, and even if you’re lucky enough to capture some semblance The male’s preferred display areas comprise steep ridges in wet, remote rainforest where deadly vipers live
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 77 UMBRELLABIRDS O of your subject, there’s a 90 per cent chance that thick mist will shroud your image into nothing but a hazy memory. B I , and planned for my first expedition in 2008. I was looking into potential locations when I met ecologist Jordan Karubian, who was leading a local research team in a study of the umbrellabird’s role in the seed dispersal of the chapil palm. By attaching tiny radio-transmitters to the birds’ tails, the researchers were able to track their movements. Knowing that the birds take roughly an hour to regurgitate the chapil seeds after feasting on the fruits, they learned that the males deposit about half the seeds near their lek sites, while the females distribute them more evenly throughout the forest. Then, using DNA to identify which adult trees the seedlings came from, they were able Chapil palms give way to coastal plains and then Andean mountains in the distance Murray’s expedition log 2008 One trip. Unsuccessful. Misty every day and too dark. Achieved just one decent silhouette of a male using a 1/5 second camera exposure. 2009 Three trips – one for a fruiting chapil palm only. Managed just a handful of images due to bad weather and bad luck. One close call with a bushmaster viper. Two new cases of leishmaniasis in the research crew. 2011 One trip. Entirely unsuccessful. Raining constantly and bad light. 2013 One trip. Lots of looking for nests and new lek sites. Unsuccessful. One camera short-circuits due to the humidity. Two very bad snake encounters. Extremely disheartening. Gave up early but couldn’t return home as road washed out. 2014 One trip. Subpar conditions. Capture the male displaying to the female for the first time, with all kinds of jiggin’! I finally have my moment! 2019 Three trips – two for the nest, one for the lek. Stayed on site with local farmers. Perfect weather and plenty of action. New camera takes things to a whole new level. Finally complete the portfolio. to show how umbrellabirds help disperse the seeds of chapil palms, highlighting the importance of these birds in maintaining genetically diverse local palm populations. The team went on to create the Foundation for the Conservation of the Tropical Andes (FCAT), which has since established a 600ha reserve in the area, improving the chances of survival of the umbrellabirds and their forest cohorts. I joined the researchers on a trek to their best lek-site at the Bilsa Biological Reserve, and knew immediately that this was the spot. It was the perfect ridgetop, affording almost eye-level views of good display branches, and boasted a large, active umbrellabird community, which comprised about 15 males. As a bonus, it included a dry place to rest before the return hike home, in the form of a basic research station. Yet success would not come easily. It would take me 10 expeditions up these muddy slopes – a total of 140 days over 11 years – to complete my portfolio. Each mission lasted 10-25 days, and my game plan was always the same. I would meet with Jorge Olivo, a field biologist and a member of Karubian’s team, and we’d head to the lek site together. We’d go without cameras first, to determine the most active display branch and thus where to site my hide. We’d spend a few days making as informed a choice as possible, but because I could only train my camera on one branch, luck would inevitably play a role. On some occasions, the birds displayed tantalisingly close to, but not on ‘my’ branch; other times they displayed on obscured branches. With the hide in position, my daily routine was: wake at 2.30am, get food and caffeine in the system, load equipment onto AT A GLANCE The only passable shot from Murray’s 2008 expedition Murray had to avoid hognosed pit vipers
A clan will defend a huge territory and travel up to 40km to hunt when prey is 78 BBC WILDLIFE July 2022 O UMBRELLABIRDS donkeys, hike 40 minutes to my four-wheel drive, drive 30 minutes to the reserve, and hike another 40 minutes through nasty mud – constantly scanning for vipers – to be in my hide by 5am. Rinse and repeat, 140 times. S , I spectacle, nor the challenge. The action starts at about 5.20am, when the first suitors fly into the lek site. By 5:45, with all the males present, the show begins in earnest. Each contender gets busy staking out his territory and preferred courtship branches, performing various warm-up moves and calling with what can only be described as a haunting ‘moo’. As the displays gets underway, the males flap their wings loudly and emit a cacophany of peculiar guttural sounds. Around them, a raucous mix of birdsong mingles with the sounds of the fading night, and howler monkeys throw in their tremendous roars. Up to five females can be present at a lek and they are fussy to say the least. An individual can spend days observing the males before her interest is piqued, at which point she flies in closer. That’s the cue to pull out all the stops: mooing, gurgling, head-bobbing, wing-spreading – anything that comes to mind as the shortlisted suitor desperately attempts to win her over. The female then flies off to see what the other candidates have to offer, eventually returning to whoever left the best impression. As if in a grand finale, the selected beau – at this point so utterly exhausted that he is almost falling off his branch – ups his game in a frenzied last display, after which copulation takes place. And that’s the last An immature male eyes some juicy palm fruits Murray’s aim is to make his photography work for local conservation causes SPOTTER’S GUIDE Other birds in the Chocó Esmeraldas woodstar Vulnerable and decreasing – 1,000-2,700 individuals. Chocó endemic. At 6cm, it’s one of the smallest hummingbirds. There’s only one good location to see it in Ecuador. Scarlet-breasted dacnis Vulnerable and decreasing. Chocó endemic. Relatively easy to see in one locale in Ecuador, usually foraging in mixedspecies flocks. Club-winged manakin Least concern and decreasing. Chocó endemic. Beats its wings at 107 times per second, producing a ‘tik-ting’ sound to attract females. Toucan barbet Near threatened and decreasing. Chocó endemic. Recent DNA shows it’s more closely related to toucans than Old World barbets. Rose-faced parrot Least concern and decreasing. Chocó endemic. Stunning parrot that can be seen flying overhead in large flocks. Banded ground-cuckoo Endangered and decreasing – 600-1,500 individuals. Chocó endemic. One of the rarest and most sought-after birds of the neotropics. Great green macaw Critically endangered and decreasing – 35-50 individuals in the Ecuadorian subpopulation. It is the second heaviest macaw in the world.
UMBRELLABIRDS O discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 79 umbrellabird is a highly intelligent and rare species, I couldn’t use any artificial light for fear of disrupting its reproduction. I was shooting at 1/2 to 1/4 second shutter speeds, which is far from easy with a monster 600mm zoom and an incredibly hyperactive subject, and I’d usually end up with little more than a few blurry blobs. I was also enveloped in thick mist and rain on a daily basis. Reluctantly, after four years of effort, I called it quits, and decided to wait for technology to improve. B 2013, camera sensors had taken a huge leap forward, so off I went on my sixth shoot. Nothing much came of that, but on my seventh, in 2014, luck was on my side. The mist had lifted and the birds were performing well – and I managed to capture the world’s first known images of a male umbrellabird displaying alongside a female. At long last, my moment had come. I returned to the Chocó three times in 2019, twice to shoot the nest and chicks, and once to shoot the lek. Vast gains in camera technology allowed for faster shutter speeds, making things considerably easier. I achieved an almost grainless image of one well-endowed male with one of the best wattles I had ever observed. I also captured a female nesting, and witnessed a fledgling taking flight. The long-wattled umbrellabird is a wonder of nature: sensational, unforgettable, almost supernatural. Projects such as FCAT provide hope for its future, but the challenges – including habitat loss and fragmentation caused by palm and coca plantations and extractive industries; weak government management and growing human populations – are many. The world is starting to wake up to the consequences of human actions, but the big question is whether we can react in time to preserve the hidden marvels of the rainforest. For now, I should be calling this mission a wrap, but I know I will be back. The longwattled umbrellabirds and I have way too much history. A particularly well-endowed male seen in full daylight the male will see of his mate until the next time she is ready to breed, as males have no role in building nests, nor in the rearing of the single chick. It may be something of an anticlimax after all that fanfare, but, if the nest is not predated by a toucan or snake, their brief union starts a new generation. The drama at the lek would seem the moment for a photographer to make his move – except you can’t see a thing. In the understory of the tropical rainforest, it is still essentially the dead of night. Even at 7.30am, when the party abruptly ends as the males abandon the dance floor in search of food, it’s still hopelessly dark. I kept on trying though. My first five expeditions between 2008 and 2011 produced very little by way of images, due largely to camera sensors lacking the high ISO (light-gathering) capabilities needed for such intensely gloomy conditions. As the There’s mooing, gurgling, head-bobbing, wing-spreading – anything that comes to mind
80 BBC WILDLIFE July 2022 STUART BLACKMAN ANSWERS A marsupial’s pouch is surely its most obvious distinguishing feature. And yet only slightly more than half of them possess one. In the vast majority of species, they are found only in females, who famously use them to nurture and transport their young, which are born at a very early and helpless stage of development. In only one species of living marsupial do the males have one too. The South American water opossum (Chironectes minimus) is the world’s only semi-aquatic marsupial. While females use their pouch in the conventional way, in males it has more to do with making babies than nurturing them. A male opossum tucks his testicles into his pouch before entering the water. It’s not known whether this is for protection, streamlining or both. Males of the extinct thylacine, or marsupial tiger, once native to Australia and New Guinea, possessed a similar organ, thought to have protected their genitals from snagging on undergrowth. Do any male marsupials have pouches? Email your questions to [email protected]
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 81KANGAROO: SEBASTIAN KENNERKNECHT/MINDEN/ALAMY; PARAKEETS: JEARU/ZOONAR/ALAMY STUART BLACKMAN Science writer CHRIS VICK WDC HELEN SCALES Marine biologist SARAH MCPHERSON BBC Wildlife JV CHAMARY Biologist BBC WILDLIFE EXPERTS DAVID LINDO ANSWERS Aside from the familiar ring-necked parakeet, found mainly in London, there may be a tiny population of monk parakeets in the UK. About 15 years ago, the species was earmarked for eradication by DEFRA due to fears of it becoming a pest. In its native Argentina it can build colonial nests on telegraph poles that reach the size of a small car, causing the poles to collapse. The birds also raid fruit farms in large flocks. Another parrot with a fingernail grip in Britain is the Alexandrine parakeet, a denizen of south-east Asia, which sometimes appears at ring-necked parakeet roosts. There was also once a colony of budgies on the Isles of Scilly. The birds were being fed by a resident and when he left the islands in 1975 the population died out. Email your questions to wildquestions @immediate. co.uk ASK US DAVID LINDO Naturalist DAVE HAMILTON Horticulturalist A baby kangaroo, or joey, will stay in its mother's pouch for about six months Which parrots reside wild in the UK? Monk parakeets are cute but a pest to some
82 BBC WILDLIFE July 2022 This honour reputedly goes to the aptly named large garden bumblebee (Bombus ruderatus) – but only by a smidge: the queens of several other species are barely 1mm smaller. Once common in the UK, Bombus ruderatus now has a patchy distribution across the southern half of the country, mainly buzzing around the Fens, Cambridgeshire and the East Midlands. FACT. Female nursery web spiders prey on males, so in order to mate the male attaches a bundle of food to himself, pretends to have carked it and, when she tucks in, springs to life and makes his move! RECORD BREAKER! HELEN SCALES ANSWERS Bluefins are the biggest and most valuable tuna in the ocean. They have also been the most endangered. All three species – Atlantic, Pacific and southern – have been overfished since the 1950s when they became popular for sushi. Fears grew that they were heading for extinction and catch limits were introduced. That seems to be paying off, because bluefins are showing signs of recovery: in 2021, the IUCN categorised Atlantic bluefins as of least concern, meaning they’re unlikely to go extinct any time soon; southern bluefins have been downgraded from critically endangered to endangered, reflecting their increasing population size; and Pacific bluefins are still listed as near threatened and they could still face trouble. Demand remains high, but they’re doing better than they were. Are blue n tuna no longer an endangered species? DAVE HAMILTON ANSWERS Unlike insects and animals, plants can’t run away from predators. Instead, they need to use different forms of defence. Some plants, such as blackthorn and roses, have thorns, while others prefer to employ powerful chemicals. The coffee bean, the coca plant and the opium poppy produce alkaloids to either overstimulate or sedate their predators. An insect that feeds on a coca leaf will become so overstimulated it can’t keep itself on the plant, for example, while those feeding on opium poppies become too lethargic to eat. Caffeine, too, may overstimulate insect prey, but its presence in a flower may also attract bees. Studies suggest that low levels of the drug in the nectar are just enough to tap into the reward centre of a bee’s brain without doing it any harm. Why do plants contain drugs? PILL COCKROACH: NICKY BAY; BUMBLEBEE: HENK WALLAYS/ALAMY; COCA: YAKOV OSKANOV/ALAMY; TUNA: RICHARD HERRMANN/MINDEN/NATUREPL.COM Some Indigenous communities in the Americas chew the leaves of coca plants as a pick-me-up The large garden bumblebee in its Britain’s largest bright stripes bumblebee Q A Bluefin are the largest tuna species and can live for up to 40 years
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 83 WHAT ON EARTH? There is little love out there for cockroaches. But this fine specimen is clearly way too cool to let that bother her. Then again, she’s no ordinary cockroach. While male pill cockroaches are of the traditional, scuttling, winged variety, the flightless females look more like a woodlouse or pill millipede, and share their ability to roll up into an armoured ball in the face of danger. They also happen to be a rare example of an insect that suckles its young. The nymphs sup ‘milk’ exuded from glands on their mother’s legs. SB Chill pill
84 BBC WILDLIFE July 2022 CHRIS VICK ANSWERS Like humans, dolphins have two hemispheres in their brain. But while we rest the whole of our brain (and body) through sleep at the same time, for dolphins it is not so easy as all that. Dolphins have to come to the surface when they rest in order to breathe, which they do consciously (ie by choice). If they didn’t surface, they could drown. They also have to be alert to changes in local conditions and to the presence of predators such as sharks, or even humans. So what evolutionary trick must they perform to get the sleep they need? Dolphins close the left eye when the right half of the brain sleeps, and vice versa, alternating which half of the brain is sleeping so that they can rest without losing consciousness. Dolphins often lie motionless at the surface, breathing regularly, or swim slowly close to the surface. In shallow water, they might sleep on the seabed, rising regularly to breathe. So, they do sleep, but not like we do. How do dolphins sleep underwater? FAST ANSWERS How long do glowworms glow for? It’s the female that glows, often perched atop a grass stem, to attract a mate. On late evenings in June and July, she illuminates the tip of her abdomen for an hour or two until a suitor comes along. Pairing may happen right away or could take a few days, at which point she turns off the beacon, descends with the male and lays her eggs. SM Who is Cetti of Cetti’s warbler? Francesco Cetti was an 18thcentury zoologist and Jesuit priest. Born in Germany to Italian parents, he relocated to Sardinia in 1765 (at the invitation of the king himself) to improve standards of education. The warbler that carries his name was first recorded in Britain in 1961 and today breeds in wetland habitats in southern England and South Wales. Listen out for its loud, almost angrysounding song. SM What is the fastest growing plant? Bamboo! Thick rhizomes store energy produced by mature canes to give the emerging shoots an energy-rich, speedy start in life. In optimum conditions, some species can grow a staggering 91cm a day. Bamboo evolved to outcompete trees in dense woodlands. DH s BAMBOO: GETTY; WARBLER: D. OCCHIATO/AGAMI/BLICKWINKEL/ALAMY; GLOW WORM: EVAN BOWEN JONES/ALAMY; DOLPHINS: NATALIA PRYANISHNIKOVA/ALAMY A female glow-worm lights up for love Dolphins are mammals and so must visit the surface to breathe air, even when dozing Q A Bamboo can grow 4cm an hour
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 85 MICROBE: CHRISTOPH BURGSTEDT/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/GETTY; CRAB: ZINA HEG/500PX/GETTY A have a body with two distinct sides – one left and one right – that are roughly mirror images, at least in the embryo. That ‘bilateral symmetry’ can even be seen in starfish, before the larvae develop into adults with multiple arms radiating from the centre (‘radial symmetry’). But while left and right may look similar, the bodies of most creatures are only superficially symmetrical. How are animals asymmetric? Asymmetry can appear across the whole body. One example is flatfish: a juvenile starry flounder swims vertically and has eyes on opposite sides of its head, but one eye will migrate across its skull as it matures so both eyes end up on either the left or right of a lopsided adult. The male fiddler crab, meanwhile, has one major claw – used to fight rivals and impress females – that can reach half the animal’s total size. Each body part can have asymmetry too. Parts can exist in mirror-image forms that can’t be superimposed on one another – like our right and left hands, for example. Known as ‘chiral’ structures, they can take either right-handed (dextral) or left-handed (sinistral) forms. What determines the direction of the asymmetry? The direction of asymmetry can be fixed or random. Fixed asymmetries include a narwhal’s tusk – an elongated left tooth with a left-handed spiral in 100 per cent of individuals. By contrast, studies of American lobsters show that the dominant crusher claw forms from whichever side is preferred as a juvenile, so the proportion of left to right ends up 50:50. Generally, random asymmetry is determined by chance and influenced by environmental cues, whereas fixed asymmetry is largely inherited and programmed by genes. Is asymmetry common? Yes. Asymmetric features can be striking, but many are subtle. The vast majority of animals have fixed asymmetries that aren’t visible externally. The position of the human heart (as well as the stomach and spleen) is off-centre to the left of the body, while the liver and gall bladder are to the right, for instance. Lungs typically differ in many vertebrates: humans have two lobes on the left and three on the right side; mice have one lobe on the left and four on the right; and most snakes have only one functioning lung on the right side. In rare cases, genetic mutations or accidents during development can create reversed mutants: having organs in an abnormal, mirror-image arrangement (heart on right) gives the rare condition ‘situs inversus’. It causes health problems for some individuals with the condition, but most suffer no ill effects. What causes asymmetry to develop? Forming a symmetrical body is the default path during the development of an embryo, so the process of establishing distinct left and right sides is called ‘symmetry breaking’. Details vary among animal groups, but it’s triggered by the chirality (handedness) of molecules that interact with the cell’s scaffolding system, the cytoskeleton. Just as being left or righthanded affects how people manipulate objects, chiral molecules transfer their asymmetry to the body by shaping cells. Why does asymmetry evolve? Natural selection has favoured some asymmetries directly, like flatfish adapted to life as bottom-feeders. Other features are indirect by-products of evolution, like the arrangement of internal organs. According to one theory, having a gut longer than the WITH EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGIST JV CHAMARY body enabled vertebrates to absorb nutrients efficiently. But to pack in that extra length the gut had to start by twisting either left or right, which had knock-on effects within the limited space of the body cavity. What’s special about snails? A snail’s asymmetry is clear from the direction of the coil of its shell. Snails are the only animal group in which individuals flip chiral form without causing disease. Compared to common ‘righties’, rare leftie garden snails have genitals on the other side of their heads. That causes difficulty in mating, unless you’re internet ‘shellebrity’ Jeremy the Snail, who produced offspring after geneticist Angus Davison recruited citizen scientists to find other lefties for Jeremy to mate with. NEXT MONTH WITH JV THE MICROBIOME Life in and around organisms INSTANT EXPERT Asymmetry: why it exists in animals A fiddler crab shows off his mega claw
Your guide to getting closer Go to nature this month WILD! BOOK HIGHLIGHT OF THE MONTH 86 BBC WILDLIFE July 2022 Birdgirl By Mya-Rose Craig, Vintage, £16.99 T who haven’t heard of ‘Birdgirl’ – the 20-year-old ornithologist Mya-Rose Craig. At 17, she became the youngest person to see half the bird species in the world and has established a global reputation as a leading birder, environmentalist and diversity activist. Her adventures are now being brought to life in her second book, in which she tells the story of how she – and her family – came to love these extraordinary creatures. Beyond the expected tales of thrills and adventures around the world, this is a frank, open account of how birdwatching provided solace during Mya-Rose’s teenage years, when her mother was suffering a breakdown brought on by bipolar disorder. As she reflects on the journeys she has taken, it’s clear that Mya-Rose sees political and environmental activism and campaigning as a natural progression from her birding. Following on from her debut book We Have a Dream, here she continues to highlight the importance of including indigenous communities in conversations about climate change. This is just as much her family’s story as Mya-Rose’s own. We are taken on a trip around the globe, introduced to dozens of vibrant, characterful birds and given an insight into a fascinating family of bird-lovers. B B V T A personal story of birding, activism and family
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 87OLIVER EDWARDS In 2020, Bristol University awarded Mya-Rose an honorary doctorate for her activism work community, because at present it is only 0.6 per cent VME, meaning that it does not have knowledge of those communities and so finds it impossible to engage with them. This is the first time you’ve placed your own – and your family’s – story at the centre of your work. How did that feel? It was incredible to have the opportunity to write my book, especially as I had the space of the Covid-19 lockdown to write it. I had been thinking about this book since I was nine years old, even having some of the chapter names. However, it was totally different to be thinking about a cohesive book. Lots of birding tales went into it but I then deleted them, so the whole thing was a journey for me. I also had no idea at the start that I was going to write anything about my mum’s mental illness, as it seemed too private, but our family story didn’t make sense without that context. What do you want people to take away from your book? My most important message is that things are often not as they seem on the outside. While I might have seemed lucky to have travelled so much, going birding around the world, as a child I would have given it all up in a second for my mum to be better. Your family has long been involved in the birding community. Do you think you would have found your way into it without their influence? As a dual-heritage white British and thirdgeneration British Bangladeshi young woman, I think the chances of me taking up birding or being part of the UK birding community without my parents already being into it would have been extremely low. I am enormously grateful for their influence and their determination to ensure both my sister and I went out into nature as much as possible from an early age. I understand I am privileged to have had these experiences and feel sad that others who are of minority ethnic or urban backgrounds never experience the beauty and tranquility of nature. That is why setting up Black2Nature and running nature camps for other young minority ethnic young people and their families is so important to me. Why do you think we need diverse voices in the ornithological community? As a British Sylheti woman, my mum has always been a huge role model to me. I hope I can be that role model to other visible minority ethnic (VME) children and teenagers. It’s essential to have ethnically diverse voices within the ornithological MEET THE AUTHOR Mya-Rose Craig The activist, birdwatcher and author shares her experiences and hopes for the future ‘Birdgirl’ wants to share her passion for nature with other visible minority ethnic children, teenagers and their families
88 BBC WILDLIFE July 2022 L S -S on to the BBC Wildlife radar when she wrote the children’s books to accompany the BBC’s Blue Planet II and The Green Planet. Her latest non-fiction book for children is this charming biography of natural historian Sir David Attenborough. Working with illustrator Helen Shoesmith, Leisa takes us on a journey with Sir David from his childhood in Leicester, through his early career in television, to his adventures over land and sea. He has been an inspiration to generations, and this book serves as a great introduction into the work of this most legendary of broadcasters. But this is more than just another biography. We also meet many of the animals that have inspired Sir David, which allows us to view the wild world through his eyes. A beautiful celebration of an icon. CHILDREN’S BOOK OF THE MONTH WildLife:TheExtraordinary Adventuresof SirDavid Attenborough By Leisa Stewart-Sharpe, illustrated by Helen Shoesmith, Hatchette, £12.99 C W A A By Leisa Stewart The Hidden Kingdom of Fungi By Keith Seifert, Greystone Books, £18.99 Mycologist Keith Seifert takes us deep into the fascinating world of fungi. We learn about the role that fungi have played in everything, from the development of antibiotics and making wine, cheese and beer, to creating alternative energy sources and reducing plastic pollution. Birds, Beasts and Bedlam By Derek Gow, Chelsea Green Publishing, £20 Derek Gow, farmer-turnedrewilder, is on a mission to try to save Britain’s threatened species. In this book he tells us all about the realities of turning his Devon farm into a wildlife breeding centre for white storks, water voles, harvest mice, wildcats, dormice and more. An Immense World By Ed Yong, Bodley Head, £20 Writer Ed Yong examines the animal realm in his second book. Go beyond the confines of your own senses to discover how other animals experience the world – how bees see flowers and songbirds hear their own tunes. You’ll soon discover that each animal has its very own unique sensory bubble. Cornerstones By Benedict Macdonald, Bloomsbury, £17.99 While the natural world is under threat, this book by conservationist Benedict Macdonald shows us how Britain’s cornerstone species, such as beavers, boars, whales and lynx, may provide the answers we’ve been looking for – and help us rescue our biodiversity. By Gr £18 My Se us th wo W th fungi have played By Ch Pu De far rew on to B th species In this b Wri exa anim in h boo bey con you sen dis other animals experie Wh nat is u thi con Be Ma sh ho co species, such as be BOOKS ROUND UP RADIO HIGHLIGHT Clipped Wings Catch up on BBC Sounds In this new documentary for BBC Radio 4, naturalist Lucy Hodson recounts an incident where she suffered a sexual assault while birding on a nature reserve, and the effect it had on her: anxious about watching nature alone, carrying anti-assault spray, putting her back to a tree when looking through binoculars. She speaks to four other women with outdoor hobbies – mountain biking, backpacking, running and birding – about their experiences, how they mitigate risks, and their advice for her on how she can assuage her fears and enjoy nature again. Lucy Hodson shares her experiences
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 89 ID GUIDE D features of London’s Natural History Museum and has thrilled visitors for the last 100 years. But the diplodocus skeleton has been absent for three years, visiting eight venues around the country with ‘Dippy on Tour’. He’s impressed over two million people along the way, and has now returned home for a new exhibition at the museum. The free installation celebrates the places Dippy has visited on his travels, and highlights the changing states of the nation’s wildlife. It will run until 2nd January 2023, at which point Dippy will continue on his travels. Dippy the dinosaur is a replica of a Diplodocus carnegii skeleton, the original of which is based at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, USA. There are several casts of this dinosaur around the world, but Dippy was the first of its kind, a gift to King Edward VII from the industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who funded both the Pittsburgh museum and the original dinosaur’s excavation. This replica was unveiled at LUCY HODSON: JAC PHILLIMORE/BESPOKEN MEDIA; DRAGONFLIES: FELICITY ROSE the Natural History Museum in 1905. COLE; DIPPY: TRUSTEES OF THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, LONDON. Dippy has returned home to London EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHT Dippy returns FOUR SPOTTED CHASER This species’ name comes from the two dark spots along the leading edge of each wing. SOUTHERN HAWKER A large dragonfly measuring up to 70mm in length, males are dark with green-and-blue markings. Dramatic dragons Discover the UK’s dragonfly species this summer. Larger and bulkier than damselflies, dragonflies rest with their wings open rather than closed. For more ID guides, visit our website: discoverwildlife.com/identify-wildlife BROAD BODIED CHASER The males have broad and bright-blue abdomens, dotted with yellow spots along the sides. Natural History Museum until 2nd January 2023
90 BBC WILDLIFE July 2022 A USA Syria in 2017, Abdulhafez Al Ibrahim joined Refugee Education & Adventure Challenge (REACH) as a youth participant and fell in love with nature and wildlife. He has since climbed the ranks of the organisation and is now an adult volunteer, helping kids from refugee families get out and about in Chicago’s nearby forests and waterways. What does your average trip as a volunteer look like? I take refugee kids on outdoor adventures within a three-hour drive of the city, introducing them to the natural world and doing activities, such as wildlife and habitat assessments, river clean-ups, cutting down harmful invasive species, kayaking, camping, cycling and hiking. As part of the team, I’ve been able to co-create floating gardens on the Chicago River, clean up riverbanks to protect wildlife and humans, and clear forest spaces for native plants and animals to grow. Why did you decide to stay on with the organisation as a volunteer? When I was one of those kids – young, curious and full of energy – I remember MEET THE VOLUNTEER “I had nowhere to go and breathe fresh air” Abdulhafez Al Ibrahim is determined to help kids from refugee families develop a passion for nature being stuck in a place where I had nowhere to go and nowhere to breathe fresh air, or even ask a simple question outside of my house. Joining REACH allowed me to discover all the activities you can do in nature, so I want to give more kids the chance to experience nature as I did. Plus, I want to do everything in my power to protect nature. Looking back, what are some of your volunteering highlights? All the countless times I’ve seen the kids really start to engage with the environment and push each other to fall in love with local wildlife, such as frogs, snakes and bald eagles. My proudest moment as a volunteer, however, was during a camping trip last summer. It started raining while we were making lunch, and we watched the kids come together and build an improvised tent above the campfire using trees, rope and logs found around the campsite. I was impressed with the teamwork and the fact we barely had to give any instructions. I have grown and become more responsible with so many kids depending on me to mentor them. 5 THINGS WE LOVE Steve Backshall Adventure women’s T-shirt, £22.99, mountain warehouse.com 2 4 Truckee BP 250 LX camera backpack, £106.95, lowepro.com 3 SHANA WILLS/REACH 5 Solitary bee hotel, £25.99, shopping. rspb.org.uk Abdulhafez has been volunteering to help refugee kids connect with nature Avocets limited edition print, 1from £125, robertefuller.com n 25, robertefuller.com The Lost Spells Card Game, 5 £14, thamesandkosmos.co.uk
July 2022 BBC WILDLIFE 91 ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE BIRD GUIDE Celebrate all things birding with these top picks, from must-have optics and cameras to unmissable holidays and tours Photo © [henk bogaard] / Adobe Stock
MORE SEE THE UNSEEN NL PURE ONE WITH NATURE BY APPOINTMENT TO HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II SWAROVSKI OPTIK SUPPLIER OF BINOCULARS
July 2022 BBC WILDLIFE 93 ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE TAKE IN YOUR SURROUNDINGS Many of us are fascinated by nature. Whether it’s the joy of birdwatching or the simple pleasure of going on a hike with friends, the great outdoors has something for everyone. And for many explorers, a good pair of binoculars is a real asset. It’s only when you look through the lenses of a topquality pair of binoculars that it becomes immediately clear just what a di erence they make. The newest additions to the Nikon PROSTAFF binocular family are no exception. THE NEW PROSTAFF P3 AND P7 The PROSTAFF P3 and PROSTAFF P7 are both excellent binoculars. They are the perfect accessory for all wildlife enthusiasts, from those who enjoy the occasional nature walk to seasoned photographers chasing that perfect, elusive shot. We talk you through all you need to know about these two new products. PROSTAFF P3: EXCELLENT FOR BEGINNERS The PROSTAFF P3 is a great choice for anyone looking to invest in their first pair of binoculars. The model is simple to use and boasts multilayercoated lenses for brighter, clearer images. The P3 also has a highly-reflective silver-alloy coat that, applied to the mirror surfaces of the prisms, provides a crisp, clear field of view. The P3 is incredibly durable. Not only is it waterproof, it also possesses a fog-free design that keeps your view clear regardless of what the weather has in store. In addition, rubber armouring protects the binoculars from any unforeseen knocks and bumps. PROSTAFF P7: HIGH PERFORMANCE BINOCULARS The PROSTAFF P7 continues the exceptional reputation of its predecessor, the PROSTAFF 7S. This model o ers an especially strong optical performance and users can anticipate a brilliantly bright, sharp image, even in low light. Another standout feature is its perfect focus — the dioptre adjuster allows you to calibrate focus to account for any di erence in vision between each eye. Once you’ve set the dioptre, you can lock the adjuster in place to prevent unintentional movement. Every PROSTAFF P7 model boasts long-eye relief (15mm or more), making these binoculars perfect for those who wear glasses. This model is also incredibly easy to clean: an oil and water-repellent coating on the objective lens and eyepieces enables you to quickly wipe away moisture, fingerprints and smudges — a great help when you’re braving the elements. OBSERVE WILDLIFE WITH EASE Find out more at nikon.co.uk Lightweight and user-friendly, the new Nikon PROSTAFF binoculars are an excellent choice for wildlife enthusiasts Binoculars are perfect for outdoor adventures, but what is it about the new Nikon PROSTAFF binoculars that make them so essential? The PROSTAFF P3 and P7 models offer stunningly sharp images
ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE BIRDS OF THE WORLD SABAL PALM SANCTUARY This 527-acre preserve is host to a wonderful assortment of birds and other wildlife and is home to one of the last stands of oldgrowth Sabal palm forest in the United States. Green jays and chachalacas frequent our feeder, armadillos rummage around our trails and calls of great horned owls often haunt the forest. There are over three miles of nature trails available at the sanctuary. From walking down to the Rio Grande River to taking a stroll through the Sabal palm forest, there is something for everyone to enjoy. In 2010, Gorgas Science Foundation (GSF) reached an agreement with the National Audubon Society to lease and operate Sabal Palm Sanctuary, allowing us to reopen this incredible place to the public. sabalpalmsanctuary.org | +1 956 541 8034 BIRDWATCHING BOAT TRIPS Chichester Harbour is a bird watchers’ paradise, being the single most important site for waders and wildfowl on the south coast of England, home to a colony of seals and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Get close to the birds and the seals aboard Solar Heritage, a unique solar-powered, virtually silent, passenger vessel with a wildlife accredited skipper, live commentary and specialist trips with nature experts. conservancy.co.uk | 01243 512301 AMAR AVES BY MEXICO KAN TOURS The Yucatán Peninsula is known for its beautiful beaches, colourful coral reef, lush jungle, a culture that gave rise to one of the most impressive civilisations and much more. To discover it through its wildlife is equally fascinating. With over 550 species of birds, including 12 endemics, the Yucatán Peninsula o ers an exquisite diversity of birds in di erent ecosystems. From a half day tour close to your hotel to a multi-day trip, Amar Aves by Mexico Kan Tours is the one-stop shop to design your perfect birding holiday. mexicokantours.com | [email protected] birdwatchingtulum.com | +52 984 140 7870 The River Exe estuary in Devon is a Ramsar Site of Special Scientific Interest, internationally recognised for its prolific migratory bird life during winter. Award-winning Stuart Line Cruises o er exceptional wildlife cruises during this time. Whether you consider yourself a novice or an expert, leading local ornithologists will guide you with an informative live commentary. Stuart Line Cruises has a fleet of modern vessels with open upper decks with blankets, and covered, heated lower decks, boasting comfort whatever the weather. Friendly crew serve Chunk of Devon pasties, hot drinks and organic soup from the fully licensed on board café. stuartlinecruises.co.uk/guided-bird-watching-cruise 01395 222144 STUART LINE CRUISES
ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE Put a feather in your cap with these brilliant bird holidays and tours NT BIRD SPECIALISTS BIRDING & PHOTOGRAPHIC SAFARIS Join renowned bird guide Luke Paterson (21 years’ local, professional experience) on award-winning birding and photographic adventures in Australia’s Northern Territory. You’ll seek many of the 300 plus endemic and specialty bird species, plus iconic fauna in Darwin, Kakadu and beyond. Our special-interest services and experiences are amongst the best on o er. Come and experience it for yourself (spaces are limited, please book early). Five-star reviews – luxury vehicles – target species – private cruises – fully accredited operators supporting remote indigenous communities and conservation. ntbirdspecialists.com.au | [email protected] LORD HOWE ISLAND Lord Howe Island is Australia’s premier seabird island. Taking just a 90-minute flight from the capital, Sydney, you are immersed in one of the world’s most stunning island landscapes, with 14 seabird species breeding on its beaches, cli s and ridges. There are three shearwater species; three petrel species, including the white-bellied storm petrel; five tern species; masked boobies and the world’s largest breeding colony of red-tailed tropicbirds. Most of these species can be seen by everyone, whether on a bike ride or from a short walking trail. On this UNESCO World Heritage Site, sooty terns nest on beaches shared with snorkellers, and black noddies and white terns nest in the island Central Business District. lordhoweisland.info | @visitlordhoweisland ©Ian Hutton ©Ian Hutton ©Rian Cope A visit to Cave Creek Ranch is a return to a quieter, more peaceful time in a spectacular canyon setting. The Ranch has been hosting guests for over 100 years and has been a sanctuary for much of that time, so the wildlife, while not tame, is not afraid of people. Some of the peacefulness comes from no cell service, no phones, WiFi or televisions in the rooms. The o ce does have WiFi which extends to the front porch and main birding area so you will not be cut o , just not bothered in your room. All rooms have kitchens and bathrooms. The most common guest comments include “magical”, “paradise”, “amazing” and “beautiful”. We hope to share this part of heaven on Earth with you. cavecreekranch.com | [email protected] CAVE CREEK RANCH ©Robert Royse MALLORCA TOURISM Mallorca is a birding hotspot with easy access to a mosaic of Mediterranean habitats. The location of the island means that many birds stop here during their spring and autumn migrations. In addition, many species live on the island all year round. Eleonora’s falcon, black vulture, Bonelli’s eagle, red-knobbed coot, purple swamphen, European bee-eater, the endemic Balearic warbler and Balearic shearwater, are just a few examples of bird species that can be observed. mallorca.es | @MallorcaTourism
E-Ko E-ko Tours provide expert birding tours to predator-free islands to get close encounters with some of New Zealand’s rarest birds. Fully guided half-day tours. Rowi kiwi (one of the rarest birds in New Zealand) is also possible to see upon request. Book direct for the best deals. www.e-ko.nz | [email protected] | 0064 (0) 3 573 8040
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 97 BRENT DURAND/GETTY ACROSS 8 Turbot or grouper, say (4) 9 Concerned with living systems (10) 10 Small predatory mustelids (6) 11 Hooved mammal in the genus Moschus, native to Asia (4,4) 12 Small, upright-swimming marine creature in the genus Hippocampus (3,5) 14 Rook or jackdaw, perhaps (6) 16 Omnivorous mammal that might be black or grizzly (4) 17 Large 14 Across (5) 18 Undeveloped shoot (4) 19 Modified gland found in squid, cuttlefish and octopus (3-3) 21 Wren-like bird of New Zealand (8) 23 Scottish lake, sometimes said to be home to an unknown water creature (4,4) 26 Shelled gastropod (6) 27 Predatory sea fish of the Indo-Pacific (10) 28 Hearing organs (4) DOWN 1 Small, shingle-nesting seabird with a yellow bill, Sternula albifrons (6,4) 2 New World passerine species related to the mockingbirds (8) 3 ___ kestrel, small migratory falcon (6) 4 Limbless, long-bodied invertebrate (4) 5 ___ nuthatch, bird endemic to a Mediterranean island (8) 6 Twitcher, possibly (6) 7 Cold-water marine fish of the family Merlucciidae; often eaten with chips (4) 13 Immature eel (5) 15 Songbird native to South Asia (6,4) 17 Deciduous US trees, Ulmus thomasii (4,4) 18 Brightly coloured bird of Asia, Africa and Southern Europe (3-5) SPOT THE DIFFERENCE A pod of Atlantic spotted dolphins plays in the waters north of Bimini, a chain of islands in the Bahamas. They can hold their breath for up to 10 minutes, though most dives are less than six minutes. Five changes have been made to this image. Find the answers on page 103. The crossword 20 Vast desert habitat of North Africa (6) 22 Preserved remnant or impression of a prehistoric organism (6) 24 Sunfish (4) 25 ___ eel, marine fish, important as food for seabirds (4) May answers Across: 1 aquatic warbler, 10 osier, 11 ear covert, 12 wolf eel, 13 deep sea, 14 trout, 16 net-winged, 19 botanists, 20 salpa, 22 tuatara, 25 stooped, 27 in eclipse, 28 tiger, 29 hare’s-tail grass. Down: 2 quillwort, 3 aerie, 4 ice plants, 5 World, 6 rookeries, 7 leeks, 8 Rutland, 9 godwit, 15 tentacles, 17 tusk shell, 18 Galapagos, 19 batfish, 21 alders, 23 A Year, 24 alpha, 26 otter.
98 BBC WILDLIFE July 2022 PRIZE-WINNING PHOTO Vision in blue A late-summer visit to the beautiful St Catherine’s Hill nature reserve in Hampshire saw it still busy, with summer butterflies flitting around feeding on the abundant devil’s-bit scabious. As the sun was just emerging from behind a cloud, I managed to get this image of a spectacular common blue butterfly perched with its wings rimmed with light. It turned out to be my shot of the day. Mike Blacknell, Hampshire Worth £116! This month, our star photo wins a kora Yardang jersey. Kora creates technical activewear using premium yak wool from the Himalayan communities it supports. Its mission is to create fabrics that harness the incredible properties of this wool to allow you to go further on your adventures. Visit koraoutdoor.com. WIN A YAK WOOL JERSEY
discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 99 How’s it hanging? This great horned owlet jumped out of the nest a little too early. He didn’t know how to fly yet and was also not very good at hanging on to his tree. He fell from high up but managed to grab onto these low branches. He tried to get back up but he didn’t have the strength or the skills. Soon he got tired and he started to look below and around. Amazingly he made a flip and landed without a hard crash! Jack Zhi, California, USA He’s behind you I was at the Bor Dam near my hometown of Amravati, trying to capture a bokeh effect. These black-winged stilts, with their impressive long legs, started mating with the male standing on top of the female’s back. Vinay Badhe, Maharashtra, India Hiding in plain sight I was volunteering at Easter Lake when I came across this bizarre insect. At first I thought it was a shrivelled flower petal, until I saw it move. It turned out to be the caterpillar of the camouflaged looper. Ashton Jordan, Iowa, USA
100 BBC WILDLIFE July 2022 Pelicans in the mist This was taken from a small fishing boat on the lake, early on a misty morning, and the Dalmatian pelicans were towards us as we drifted. I attempted to shoot with over exposure, keeping the rear two birds slightly out of focus to add to the atmosphere. Andy Edge, Lake Kerkini, Greece Beach bully Whilst visiting Anna Maria Island, I saw a great blue heron seem to get quite irritated by a sanderling, and suddenly strike out and catch the smaller bird. After a short struggle, the sanderling managed to get free and fly off. Kirk Behymer, Florida, USA That’s my perch! I captured this interaction between an Indian roller (left) and a black drongo (right) in the grasslands of Tal Chhapar, with a group of drongos trying to mob and chase the roller away from its perch. However, the roller stayed in place and the drongos gave up. Sudhanshu Tiwari, Rajasthan, India Send your pics to discoverwildlife.com/ submit-your-photos for a chance to win!