BBC Wildlife Vol.41 №1 2023

discoverwildlife.com

























BACKGROUND: GUY EDWARDES PHOTOGRAPHY/ALAMY; THIS PAGE: MURMURATION: GUY CORBISHLEY/ALAMY; PEREGRINE: SAM HOBSON/NATUREPL.COM; GOREDALE: ROB FEATHERSTONE/ALAMY
ALAMY; KESTREL: GARY CHALKER/GETTY; CARDER BEE: ANDRE SKONIECZNY/GETTY; PUFFIN: JAMES WARWICK/GETTY; PURPLE EMPEROR & RED SQUIRREL: GETTY; FUNGI: MICHAEL HARVEY/RSPB;
COVER COMPOSITE BY CHRIS STOCKER; COVER IMAGES: WEASEL: DAVID TIPLING/UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP/GETTY; RAZORBILL: ANDREA PUCCI/GETTY; PASQUEFLOWERS: GILLIAN PULLINGER/












We’re marking our
60th birthday by
celebrating great
British nature spots









Avon Gorge peregrine; Goredale
Scar in the Yorkshire Dales It’s our birthday – we’re having

a party and you’re all invited

Which wild place
PAUL McGUINNESS, EDITOR
is your favourite ?


We want to discover hen the first issue of this magazine was
the nation’s favourite published, Harold Macmillan was Prime

UK wildlife hotspot!
Minister, The Beatles had yet to release
Read our special 60th
their first LP, and Zoo Quest was coming to
anniversary round-up
the end of its run as David Attenborough’s
on page 42, then head
first major series for the BBC. Sixty years on and we’re still here
to discoverwildlife.
– albeit having gone through one or two changes since Armand
com/60faves to vote.
You can search all the Denis launched the magazine under its then-title Animals.

places by region, then To celebrate our diamond jubilee, we asked 60 of our friends
have your say with an and colleagues in the wildlife world to nominate their favourite

easy click of the mouse! wild place in the UK. Their choices only serve to highight the
wonderful diversity of life on these islands – see page 42.

Keep in touch And now it’s over to you. We want

you to have your say as we look to find
[email protected]
Britain’s favourite wild place – the
instagram.com/bbcwildlifemagazine

twitter.com/WildlifeMag panel on the left tells you how you can
facebook.com/wildlifemagazine
vote. Here’s to the next 60 years!



discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 3

EDITOR
Paul McGuinness

DEPUTY EDITOR Jo Price ART EDITOR Richard Eccleston
FEATURES EDITOR Sarah McPherson PICTURE EDITOR Tom Gilks
PRODUCTION EDITOR Catherine Smalley SENIOR DIGITAL EDITOR Debbie Graham
EDITORIAL AND DIGITAL CO-ORDINATOR Megan Shersby

CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE...
Nida Al-Fulaij, Doug Allan, Patrick Barkham, Simon Barnes, Amy-Jane Beer, Leif Bersweden, Kate Bradbury,
Gordon Buchanan, Pete Cairns, Fergus Collins, Nina Constable, Ashley Cooper, Dominic Couzens, Roz Kidman Cox, Mya-Rose Craig,
Rebecca Dawson, Oscar Dewhurst, Oliver Edwards, Suzi Eszterhas, Rhiane Fatinikun, Mark Feather, Manu San Félix, Richard Fleury,
Richard Fox, Nick Garbutt, Danny Green, Ben Hall, Will Hall, Daniel Hargreaves, Sheena Harvey, Andy Hay, Wim van den Heever,
Alex Hyde, Kabir Kaul, Miranda Krestovnikoff, Lucy Lapwing, David Lindo, Chantelle Lindsay, James Lowen, Sandy Luk, Megan McCubbin,
Lucy McRobert, Chris Packham, Jack Perks, Jasmine Isa Qureshi, Jini Reddy, Tui De Roy, Tara Shine, Florian Smit, Colin Stafford-Johnson,
Roberta Staley, Sandra Standbridge, Michaela Strachan, Tallulah, Pam Taylor, Ajay Tegala, David Tipling, Jenny Tse-Leon, Karim Vahed,
Fay Vass, Juliet Vickery, James Warwick, Iolo Williams, Savita Willmott

ADDRESS Our Media, Eagle House, Bristol BS1 4ST, UK
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Mary Blanchard ZOOLOGY LECTURER, UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

PHOTOGRAPHY AND ETHICS
BBC Wildlife champions ethical wildlife photography that prioritises the welfare of animals and the environment. It is committed to the faithful
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any products, goods or services that may be advertised or referred to in this issue or for any errors, omissions, mis-statements or mistakes in any
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© Our Media Ltd 2022.



GETTY




4 BBC WILDLIFE January 2023

Slide on
over to page 40
and get your
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BBC Wildlife No. 01 Vol. 41


















The entrancing Siberian jays of northern Eurasia














THE COVER

This month’s composite cover
celebrates 60 years since the
magazine was first published
in 1963 under the title Animals.
Clockwise from left, it features
the following British species:
weasel, razorbill, pasqueflower,
kestrel, shrill carder bee, puffin,
purple emperor butterfly, red
squirrel and bottlenose dolphin.










Every month, only in BBC Wildlife





















NICK BAKER GILLIAN BURKE MARK CARWARDINE LUCY COOKE MIKE DILGER
Learn about the larvae that “Seals are terrified of us, so “I was dancing around my The ‘lesbian’ Laysan From distinctive tracks to
can survive without oxygen we really need to give them office when I heard Jair albatrosses that pair up wallows and rooted pasture
for six weeks, with our a wide berth and enjoy Bolsonaro was no longer with the same sex to raise and verges, Mike reveals
lively naturalist P.38 them from a distance” P.17 president of Brazil” P.31 a clutch of eggs P.27 how to spot wild boar P.34


6 BBC WILDLIFE January 2023

YEARS








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

34 Foraging wild boar
Mike Dilger sets the challenge of
seeing a wild boar this winter, or at
least their tell-tale signs

38 Hidden Britain
Nick Baker on the pond olive –
a mayfly larva that thrives during
frozen winters using a handy
SIBERIAN JAY: FLORIAN SMIT; ELEPHANT: JABRUSON/NATUREPL.COM; FENNEC FOX: BBC NHU; EGGS: LLOYD DAVIS/PHYS.ORG/CREATIVE COMMONS
metabolic trick

42 60 favourite
wildlife hotspots
We are celebrating our 60th
anniversary with a special round-up Keeping Kenya’s hungry elephants from harm
of UK locations. Find out how to vote
for your favourite!

72 Stunning Siberian
jay photos
MORE
Magical images of this intelligent,
forest-dwelling bird, from German
photographer Florian Smit

82 Saving seagrass in Ibiza

Read about the super-plant of the
Mediterranean Sea and one man’s 100 Q&A
Can bumblebees play?
mission to protect it
106 Go Wild
90 Elephant-friendly Chris Packham presents a

farming new BBC documentary on
wild canids
How growing crops that are less
appetising to elephants could 109 ID Guide
prevent conflict with farmers How to find a few treasures
for the nature table

115 Crossword
DON’T MISS... 116 Photo Club
Plus Spot the Difference

This month’s competition

...the little-known 120 Your Letters
penguins that lay Join the debate
one and a half
eggs – and then Fennec foxes star 122 Tales from the Bush
brood just one in a new BBC Two One young man’s close
Page 14 series p106 encounter on a night dive




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What’s happening right now











































































LEAP FORWARD

Botswana’s Okavango Delta
consists of floodplains, forested
islands and waterways: a
haven in the Kalahari Desert
that attracts thousands of
animals, including red lechwe.
WIM VAN DEN HEEVER The antelope retreat to remote
islands in the evening for safety
and return to bigger islands in the
morning to graze. These females
are springing across a channel to
a main island as a male looks on.




8 BBC WILDLIFE January 2023

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10 BBC WILDLIFE January 2023

Let it snow,




let it snow,




let it snow






Ptarmigan stay cosy

when the weather

outside is frightful






he arrival of winter and hostile
weather conditions is a challenge
if your natural home is on rocky
tundra or an alpine summit. But when
temperatures plummet, rock ptarmigan
know how to cope. These small, Arctic
grouse excavate caves to make the most of
the insulating properties of snow because it
is comprised of a high percentage of air.
The birds moult into their white plumage
each autumn for camouflage and hunker
down in these caves during winter nights
or bad spells of weather. Found in northern
Europe and some areas of south-central
Europe, rock ptarmigan are well-adapted
to life between 2,000m and 4,800m.
They favour windswept ridges and slopes
because they help expose the sparse ground
vegetation that the birds depend on for food.
This female was spotted in a cave when
the temperature was -20°C in Sweden in
December. She left her snowy sanctuary
at the end of the day to feed and was
photographed when she stopped briefly.



MEET THE PHOTOGRAPHER

“I realised she


was very bold”


Norwegian photographer Orsolya
Haarberg stayed in Sarek National Park,
Sweden, with the aim of capturing Sami
moving their reindeer herds. “I left my
cabin early in the morning
and came across this
female ptarmigan,”
ORSOLYA HAARBERG/NATUREPL.COM slowly, the
she says. “When
I approached


bird did not
flee so I spent
the whole day
with her and
took this image
when she left
her cave.”




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Bucking





the trend






Brown trout choose to breed

in cold rivers during winter




ost freshwater fish spawn in
late spring, as the water
temperature in rivers, lakes and
ponds begins to rise. Brown
trout, instead, breed in winter,
with reports of spawning from
November through to February and March.
The rivers they favour are often those also
used by our rapidly declining wild salmon,
and share three features: they are chilly,
well-oxygenated, (cold water carries a lot
of oxygen) and have deep beds of clean
gravel. River pollution is calamitous for
these magnificent fish.
Before spawning can occur, the female
trout – like female salmon, known as
hens – must make one or more hollows
in the gravel. Facing upstream, they turn
on their side and thrash their powerful
tail to push the stones aside. The finished
scrapes, called redds, are frequently visible
from the bank as pale patches lacking silt
or algae. At last, the territorial male trout
patrolling this section of river is able to
fertilise the females’ eggs as they deposit
them in the redds. But he needs to be on
guard. If he’s not careful, a sneaky, lower-
ranking male will swim up alongside and
take his chances. Ben Hoare


12 BBC WILDLIFE January 2023

The greater
white-toothed
shrew has not
been recorded
in Britain before





































New species


of shrew in



Sunderland




Greater white-toothed

shrew discovery is a

first for mainland UK



new species of non-native mammal
has been confirmed for mainland
Britain after a social media post led
to the chance discovery of a greater
white-toothed shrew in North East
England. The unusual-looking,
long-snouted mammal caught the eye
of ecologist Ian Bond and subsequent
DNA tests confirmed that it was a greater
white-toothed shrew, which is found across
Western Europe and North Africa but up
until now was not found in mainland UK. TROUT: JACK PERKS; ALLAN: SAM BROWETT; SHREW: RUTH CARDEN
This shrew species was also discovered in
Ireland nearly a decade ago where it is having
a negative impact on Ireland’s native shrews.
“The greater white-toothed shrew is
known to outcompete the native pygmy
shrew in Ireland,” says Allan McDevitt from
the Mammal Society. “It is urgent that its
distribution and potential impact
in England is assessed.”
Research is underway
to establish how the
greater white-toothed
shrew arrived
A brown trout in
in England.
the River Derwent,
Derbyshire. It has a Simon Birch
golden body and
ringed dark spots Allan McDevitt studies
shrews in Ireland


discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 13

One egg





or two?






The extreme

reproductive

strategy of

the ‘forgotten

penguins’















































ome birds lay 20 eggs per out. Virtually no work has ever been transition between a two-egg and a one-egg
clutch; others lay just one. Most done on them and you never see them on strategy. He says that while most penguins
fall somewhere in between. And documentaries, because no one’s allowed raise two chicks, species that nest far from
yet there’s a little-known species to go there and film.” their feeding grounds tend to reduce their
of penguin that lays one and a half. For his latest research on the species, clutch to a single egg.
Erect-crested penguins are, published in PLOS One, Davis and his Emperor and king penguins, for
according to Lloyd Davis of colleagues drew on data collected on a example, stop laying after the first egg.
New Zealand’s University of rare visit to the colonies in 1998. This For the erect-cresteds, though, it’s not so
Otago, “the forgotten penguins,” has revealed that erect-crested penguins simple, because for some reason they put all
largely because of the inaccessibility of employ a highly unusual egg-laying strategy, their effort into the second egg rather than
their breeding colonies on the uninhabited in which the first of the two eggs they lay is the first. “The problem is that you can’t lay
Bounty and Antipodes Islands 800km off only about half the size of the second. a second egg until you’ve laid a first
New Zealand. Davis says the difference is more egg,” says Davis. “So all you can
“No one visits them,” says Davis. “Sure, pronounced than in any other do is reduce the investment
every now and then, in the past, you’d bird. The smaller egg is not in the first egg as much as
get shipwrecked sailors or sealers there. brooded by the parents and you can.”
But the only people visiting those islands never hatches. Stuart Blackman
these days are scientists who have gone Davis believes that this
through the rigorous permitting process, bizarre situation represents University of Otago's
which is basically a fence to keep people a snapshot in a process of Lloyd Davis


14 BBC WILDLIFE January 2023

Grey herons hunt
by walking through
the shallows or
standing still



















The second egg the
penguins lay is much
larger than the first












Gillian Clarke
presents the grey
heron on Tweet
of the Day





Approach with care




This month, go heron watching – but try not to be seen




he grey heron breeding season is quick to take off with an irritated croak. As
but weeks away – from early February, naturalist Amy-Jane Beer says in The Flow,
these birds start to pair up and “herons can’t bear to be watched,” adding
construct their messy stick nests. In it may help to scrutinise them sidelong.
the meantime, short midwinter days Between their solitary fishing sessions,
can be excellent for heron watching. grey herons spend an inordinate amount
Grey herons do much of their hunting in the of time standing around in fields, often in
half-light around dawn and dusk, striding groups. It appears that while loafing they are
through the shallows or standing stock-still simply digesting their last meal. Given they
with a characteristic hunched neck. Approach can swallow eels 20–30cm long, these may be
cautiously, because they are famously nervy, pretty substantial. BH





IN BRIEF
FACT.
Mystery solved?

Fairy circles are circular gaps in PENGUINS: TUI DE ROY/NATUREPL.COM; EGGS: LLOYD DAVIS/PHYS.ORG/CREATIVE COMMONS;
grassland that form a distinctive
pattern – but what causes them? The broad black LLOYD: SCOTT DAVIS; HERON: DANNY GREEN; FAIRY RINGS: DR STEPHAN GETZIN
The University of Göttingen stripe on a
has shown that, after rainfall, male great tit's
grasses within the fairy circles chest is a sign
in the Namib Desert, Southern of its status.
Africa, died immediately. The larger
Soil-moisture data revealed the stripe, the
that the grasses around the more attractive
Erect-crested penguins circles depleted the water within Fairy circles in the the bird is to
breed on the Antipodes the circles, likely inducing the death Namib Desert females looking
and Bounty Islands of the grasses inside the circles. for a mate.




discoverwildlife.com BBC WILDLIFE 15