BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #03

HOW TO SEE AMAZING

CITY CENTRE ANIMALS

MARCH 20 18







March 2018 Volume 36 Number 03









INVESTIGATION
WHY ARE WE
SUPER SO AFRAID OF

SHARKS?

Page 62
WOLF!






The surprising life

of Yellowstone’s

c
p
p
a
e
a
k
l
p
n
fi finest pack leader
e
t
s
WHY HYENAS
ARE AFRICA’S
BRAINIEST
HUNTERS
The man
GEORG who took a

STELLER: puma for
a walk in
In the footsteps of the the woods!
adventurer who gave his
name to so many species







LEARN TO
B
L E A R N T O BLACK GROUSE
TALK MONKEY C
COURTSHIP
The intimate details of W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W
Where to experience Britain’s
primates’ body language m
must-see wildlife spectacle

AS ONE OF THE

10 BEST

SMALL-SCALE CRUISES
THE
THE
THE
THE
THE
THE
THE
THE
T T THE
T THE
THE
THE
THE
T T T T T THE
T THE
THE
THE
T THE
THE
THE
WORLDWIDE BY
THE
THE
THE
THE
THE
THE
T THE
THE
THE
THE
T THE
THE
THE
THE
T THE
THE
THE
THE CHOSEN
THE
T T T T THE
THE
THE
THE
THE
THE
THE
THE
THE
THE
T THE
THE
THE
THE GUA ARDIA
THE GUARDIA A
DIA
DIA
THE GUARDIAN
T T THE GUA ARDIAN
THE GUARDIAN
THE GUARDIAN
THE GUARDIAN
THE GUARDIAN
THE GUARDIAN
THE G G GUARDIAN
THE GUARDIAN
THE GUARDIAN
THE GUARDIAN
DIAN
THE GUARDIAN
THE GUARDIAN
THE GUARDIAN
THE GUARDIAN
THE GUARDIAN
THE GUARDIAN
THE GUARDIAN
THE GUARDIAN
T THE GUARDIAN
THE GUARDIAN
THE E E E E E E E GUARDIAN
THE GUA A ARDIAN
THE E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E E GUARDIAN
THE GUARDIAN
THE GUARDIAN
TH H H H H H H H H H HE E E E E E E E E E E E E E GU UAR RDI I IAN
THE GUARDIAN
NEWSPAPER
HEBRIDEAN
WILDLIFE CRUISES
Sail the Scottish Hebrides aboard our
new small cruise ship Seahorse II, or our
beautiful ex-tall ship St Hilda
Choose from one of our many, superb value, Hebridean wildlife
cruises from April to October. Incredible scenery, rare wildlife,
great range of activities, delicious locally sourced food.
See all latest news on our homepage
www.sthildaseaadventures.co.uk
Contact Colette: +44 (0)7745 550988 or +44 (0)1776 810802 [email protected]

WELCOME

VINCENT MUNIER CAMPED
OUT IN FREEZING TIBET TO
PHOTOGRAPH THE REGION’S GET YOUR
RESILIENT WILDLIFE. DIGITAL COPY
Buy a digital edition of BBC
C
C
Find out more on p78 Wildlife Magazine for iOS,
Android, Kindle Fire, PC or
Mac. Visit iTunes, the Googglle
Play store, Amazon or wwww.
w
zinio.com to find out more.
DINOSAURS
Discover how dinosaurs
conquered the world in
this special issue from
BBC Focus Magazine. Only
£9.99 (P&P is free for BBC
Focus UK subscribers).
Visit www.
buysubscriptions.com/
dinosaurs or call
03330 162 138.
CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE
Find breaking news, fascinating facts and
amazing photos: www.discoverwildlife.com


Get in touch
EDITORIAL
Tel 0117 314 7366
Email [email protected]
Post BBC Wildlife Magazine, Immediate
Media Company, 2nd Floor, Tower House,
Welcome... Fairfax Street, Bristol BS1 3BN
SUBSCRIPTIONS AND BACK ISSUES
UK phone number 03330 162 121
We’re used to looking use the muscles of their faces in similar Overseas phone number 01604 973 729
Email [email protected]
at human faces and ways to ourselves. One glance and the Website www.buysubscriptions.com
working out what look of love, fear, anger, humility and Post BBC Wildlife Magazine, PO BOX 3320, 3
Queensbridge, Northampton, NN4 7BF
kind of mood their superiority is apparent and needs no Subscriptions UK £55.25; Republic of Ireland
owners are in. But body language, chatter or croon to make £65.25; Europe £65.25; Rest of World £70.25
when we’re watching the emotion behind it abundantly clear. OTHER CONTACTS
our near-relations, the Facial expressions were undoubtedly App support bbcwildlifedigital@
buysubscriptions.com
non-human primates, in a documentary, furthest from the mind of Vincent Ads Neil Lloyd 0117 300 8276;
chances are we’re paying more attention Munier, though, on his recent trip to [email protected]
Syndication Emma Brunt 0117 314 8782;
to what they are doing with their bodies, capture images of Tibetan wildlife (p78). [email protected]
and the vocalisations they are making, As you can imagine from the picture
than we are studying their faces. Well, as above, ‘I’m frozen’ was probably the
Vincent Munier top wildlife photographers Fiona Rogers expression most evident on his face! facebook.com/wildlifemagazine
and Anup Shah have shown in their
twitter.com/WildlifeMag
Sheena Harvey Editor
fantastic images (p66) other primates
[email protected]
Contributors Immediate Media Company Bristol is working to ensure that all of its
paper is sourced from well-managed forests. This magazine is printed
on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper.
This magazine can be recycled, for use in newspapers and
MIKE UNWIN NIKI RUST FIONA ROGERS packaging. Please remove any gifts, samples or wrapping and
dispose of it at your local collection point.
Nature writer Niki is a carnivore Photographers
Mike had a conservationist. Fiona Rogers Jan–Dec 15
special wildlife In this issue she (pictured) and total 35,934
experience in the writes about Anup Shah have Apr 14–Mar 15
Commander Islands. He says, one of her favourite animals, spent years with wild primates. 241,000
“I couldn’t help scanning for the spotted hyena. “They get “They still surprise us with
one last Steller’s sea cow. a bad rap but for no good their range of expressions and ON THE COVER: Wolf: Tom & Pat Leeson/ardea.
com; peregrine: Bertie Gregory/2020VISION/
You just never know.” reason,” she says. make us wonder what they are NPL; macaque: Anup Shah & Fiona Rogers; grouse:
See p22 See p44 feeling,” says Fiona. See p66 Scotland: The Big Picture/NPL
March 2018 BBC Wildlife 3

SPECIAL
OFFER
CONTENTS March 2018 SAVE



WHEN YOU
SUBSCRIBE
SEE P30



78

In winter, deep snow forces
prey species to move to
lower slopes in Tibet and
hyena: Will Burrard-Lucas; lion-tailed macaque: Anup Shah & Fiona Rogers; illustration by Peter David Scott/The Art Agency
snow leopards follow
Snow leopard: Vincent Munier; lammergeier: David Tipling/naturepl.com; sealions: Pete Oxford/naturepl.com;































Wild Features Agenda


6 Spawning season 22 Georg Steller 38 Black grouse courtship 55 Hen harrier action plan
Common frogs indicate that Cover story Follow in the Cover story Experience this Brood management scheme
spring is around the corner footsteps of an adventurer must-see wildlife spectacle is given the go-ahead in
northern England
8 March highlights 32 Super wolf! 44 Africa’s brainiest
Neon-blue ‘stars’, early Cover story Yellowstone’s Cover story Why hyenas are 56 Green vision
butterflies, nesting herons finest pack leader and smarter than lions Key objectives of UK’s
and polecats on the move his surprising life 25-year environment plan
65 Go on a Shetland safari
11 Hidden Britain 36 Rainbow river Track and photograph 57 Beyond the headlines
Nick Baker on a fish with a A watercourse transformed otters on this reader holiday There is no reason why
an
tr
e
sf
d
me
or
te
wa
A
rc
rs
ou
big head and ‘piggy’ eyes there can’t be more female
66 Learn to talk monkey wildlife photographers
p
y
Try and spot this
12 Wild events 11 weird fish at low tide Cover story Find out what
Meet ‘wonderwoman’ and primates are trying to say 58 Amazon river dolphins
learn about freshwater fish Why dams are the biggest
72 Bone breakers threat to these cetaceans
14 Urban wildlife Lammergeiers are back in
Cover story How to observe Spain’s Picos de Europa 61 Mark Carwardine
animals in a city centre All you need to know
78 nto the wilderness about National Parks
I
16 Latest science research Cover story Amazing images
New species of Darwin’s of wildlife on the Tibetan 62 Shark conservation
finch and the fear factor Plateau by Vincent Munier Cover story Does fear of them
affect how we protect them?
4 BBC Wildlife March 2018

EDITORIAL
Editor Sheena Harvey
Features Editor Ben Hoare
Environment Editor James Fair
Section Editor Sarah McPherson
Production Editor Jo Price
r
Art Editor Richard Eccleston
Deputy Art Editor Lisa Duerden
Picture Editor Tom Gilks
72 Editorial Assistant Megan Shersby
Contributors Wanda Sowry, Katherine Hallett,
Jenny Price, Stewart Wallis
Down in one: this A shipwrecked Georg Steller
vulture feeds on bones 22 discovered Steller’s sealions ADVERTISING
Group Ad Manager Tom Drew 0117 933 8043
Ad Manager Neil Lloyd 0117 300 8276
Brand Sales Executive
44 Heather Candlish 0117 300 8500
Brand Sales Executive
Dan Granville 0117 300 8523
Brand Sales Executive
Fascinating hyenas, Jordana Widt 0117 314 7357
shown here in a long Direct Advertising Consultant
exposure photograph Max Spalton 0117 300 8530
INSERTS
Laurence Robertson 00353 876 902208
MARKETING
Subscriptions Director Jacky Perales-Morris
Digital Marketing Manager Mark Summerton
Direct Marketing Manager Aimee Rhymer
Direct Marketing Executive Chris Pipe
Direct Marketing Assistant Emma Hunter
Head of PR Dom Lobley
LICENSING & SYNDICATION
Rights Manager Emma Brunt
0117 314 8782; [email protected]
Director of Licensing & Syndication
Tim Hudson
PRODUCTION
Ad Co-ordinator Charles Thurlow
Ad Designer Libby Parfitt
Production Director Sarah Powell
Production Co-ordinator Ian Wardle
IMMEDIATE MEDIA COMPANY BRISTOL LTD
Publisher Marie Davies; Publishing Assistant Rosa
Sherwood; Managing Director Andy Marshall;
CEO Tom Bureau
BBC WORLDWIDE, UK PUBLISHING
President of UK and ANZ Marcus Arthur; Director
Every month 66 for Consumer Products and Publishing Andrew
Moultrie; Director of Editorial Governance Nicholas
Would you Brett; Publishing Director Chris Kerwin;
mess with Publisher Magazines and NPD Mandy Thwaites;
21 Chris Packham this macaque? Publishing Co-ordinator Eva Abramik
[email protected]; www.bbcworldwide.com/
Spring has arrived! uk--anz/ukpublishing.aspx
30 Subscription offer BBC Wildlife provides trusted, independent travel advice and
e
Get your BBC Wildlife information that has been gathered without fear or favour. We
aim to provide options that cover a range of budgets and reveal
digital subscription today the positive and negative points of the locations we visit.
The views expressed in BBC Wildlife are those of the authors
and not necessarily those of the magazine or its publisher.
86 Book reviews The publisher, editor and authors accept no responsibility
in respect of any products, goods or services that may
be advertised or referred to in this issue or for any errors,
88 TV and radio omissions, mis-statements or mistakes in any such
advertisements or references.
© Immediate Media Company Bristol Limited 2017.
100 Q&A All rights reserved. No part of BBC Wildlife may be reproduced
e
in any form or by any means either wholly or in part without
prior written permission of the publisher. Not to be resold, lent,
106 Your feedback hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade at more than
the recommended retail price (subject to VAT in the Republic of
Ireland) or in mutilated condition.
108 Inside the image Printed by William Gibbons Ltd.
BBC Wildlife champions ethical wildlife photography that
e
110 Your photos prioritises the welfare of animals and the environment. It is
committed to the faithful representation of nature, free from
excessive digital manipulation, and complete honesty in
113 Puzzles captioning. Photographers, please support us by disclosing
all information – including, but not restricted to, use of bait,
captive or habituated animals – about the circumstances
114 Tales from the Bush under which your pictures were taken.
Cover story Meet the man
who took a puma for a
walk in the woods
BBC Wildlife Magazine is published by
Immediate Media Company Bristol Limited
under licence from BBC Worldwide.
March 2018 BBC Wildlife 5

WILD MARCH







WHAT TO SEE kk WHERE TO LOOK





David Tipling/naturepl.com Ponds come alive in late
winter as frogs begin to
breed. You may see plenty
of churned-up muddy water
as rival males jostle for
position and try to mate.

2-3 Age in years at which common frogs first C HRI S
CHRIS
breed. They’re less faithful than toads to their
hatching place, and may take advantage of
PACKHAM’S
PACK
newly created pools, ditches or even puddles.
MUST
MUST-SEE
Q BEHAVIOUR
SPAWNING
FOR MORE
BRITISH WILDLIFE
DON’T MISS SEASON
HUGH’S WILD WEST
Airing on BBC Two reshly laid frogspawn has an
until 24 March. uncanny ability to lift our spirits
Fon the chilliest of February and
March days. But not only is frogspawn
a sign that spring is just around the
corner, it’s also extraordinary in itself.
A protein that draws water into the egg
mass is the secret that enables animals
just 9cm long to produce such copious
volumes of jelly. A large female frog may
deposit as many as 2,000 eggs – no
wonder these amphibians have long
been associated with fecundity – and
the spawnings of different individuals
clump together in wobbling rafts.
Unseasonally late freezing weather
can spell disaster for exposed
frogspawn at or above the water level
– killing it off and turning it milky –
though underwater eggs at the bottom
of the floating clumps usually survive.
Hungry mallards and moorhens are
another threat, often feasting at night,
while some spawn isn’t viable and
quickly dies. Remaining spawn hatches
in around two to three weeks, and the
tadpoles embark on a metamorphosis
lasting four to five months. It has been
estimated that only one in 50 eggs
eventually becomes an adult common
frog –a tiny proportion, but sufficient
to sustain the species.

GET INVOLVED Learn more about the UK’s
amphibians and reptiles at www.arc-trust.org





GLIMPSING
` THE BULGING
GELATINOUS
MOUNDS IN THE
SHALLOWS BRINGS
OUT THE INNER
CHILD IN US.”






BBC Wildlife 7

L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W I L
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
WILD MARCH
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
W
Q STINGING NETTLE
GREEN SHOOTS
As winter turns into spring, the
greening of our countryside becomes a
highlight of nature rambles. Among the
emerging foliage is the vibrant lime-
green of fresh nettle shoots. Nettle is
an underrated wildlife resource – food
for everything from caterpillars to
aphids – and a tasty treat for us at
this time of year, too. But thick nettle
patches can also be a symptom of air
pollution boosting soil nitrogen levels,
with an impact Plantlife’s Trevor Dines
likens to “nutrient-rich junk food”.
GET INVOLVED 28 March is National Weed
Appreciation Day.
Q GERMANDER SPEEDWELL
BLUE STARS
Constellations of tiny, neon-blue
stars in grassy places are probably
germander speedwell. This low-growing,
early-flowering plant brightens up
field edges, verges, hedgebanks and
woodland rides from March, persisting
until midsummer. At the centre of
each beautiful four-petalled flower is a
distinctive white ‘eye’. The romantically
minded may also take comfort from
speedwell’s traditional association with
good luck: the plant was said to help
speed travellers to their destination.
FIND OUT MORE www plantlife org ukwww.plantlife.org.uk
K
UK HIGHLIGHTS




























The essential wildlife events to enjoy this month, compiled by Ben Hoare.















Nettle: Colin Varndell; polecat: David Chapman(captive); comma: Steve Round; bee: John Bebbington; ;
g
en
heron: Laurie Campbell; oystercatcher & speedwell: Genevieve Leaper; greenfinch: Simon Litten
Q GREENFINCH
T
TERFL
U
‘BUTTERFLY’ DISPLAYSS
B
Y’
ISP
LA
Y

D
Not as iconic as the lofty song of skylarks, the
delightful aerial courtship of greenfinches is
no less a sign of spring – and poignant, too,
as the birds are in rapid decline in Britain.
Between March and May, male greenfinches
seemingly go berserk, flying wide loops in a
haphazard fashion with exaggerated slow wing
beats. They resemble bats or giant butterflies
– indeed this is called the ‘butterfly’ display.
As the birds circle in slow-motion at treetop
height, they twitter wheezily.
GET INVOLVED Take part in Garden BirdWatch:
www.bto.org/gardenbirdwatch
8 BBC Wildlife March 2018

WILD MARCH



ALSO LOOK
Q POLECAT Q COMMA
ON THE MOVE EARLY RISERS OUT FOR…
March offers a better-than-usual Your first butterfly of the year will usually be one
chance of seeing our most enigmatic of four species: comma, brimstone, peacock or BEE QUEST
mustelid. Unfortunately, you’re small tortoiseshell. All hibernate as adults, so Naturalists have been known
most likely to encounter the bandit- respond quickly to the sun’s welcome warmth. to engage in friendly rivalry to
masked species as roadkill. This As it flits past, the comma appears strikingly see who spots the season’s
is because the polecat’s breeding orange, but a longer look at one sunning itself first hairy-footed (or feather-
season is now underway, when on a leaf or fern frond reveals the subtlety of its footed) flower bee (below).
males wander in search of mates russet, brown and black markings. The comma This solitary bee loves
and frequently cross roads, often endured a terrible 2016 but bounced back last nectar of early-
during peaks of morning and evening year, with numbers in the annual Big Butterfly flowering
traffic. A lucky few among us might Count up 90 per cent to 2015 levels. Time will tell lungwort
catch sight of a live animal in their how it fares this spring and summer. and red
headlights. Polecats continue to FIND OUT MORE Visit www.ukbutterflies.co.uk and dead-
spread from strongholds in mid- www.butterfly-conservation.org.uk nettle.
Wales and the English Borders into
the rest of Wales and England, so are ODDBALL
no longer rare – just very elusive. INSECT
GET INVOLVED Learn more and report One of our
sightings at www.vwt.org.uk most curious-
looking insects,
the bee-fly, is out and about
now. Its combination of a fat,
furry body and long, rod-like
proboscis held out in front is
unique. Look for it in gardens
and along hedgerows.

SEABIRDS RETURN
Britain’s celebrated seabird
cities stir back into life in
March, as winter’s bare
and bleak cliffs begin to be
repopulated by gannets,
Q OYSTERCATCHER auks, kittiwakes and fulmars.
PIED PIPERS TOADS ON ROADS
By March these charismatic waders, starkly Common toads are also
monochrome save for orange bills and eyes and following ‘marching orders’
pink legs, are leaving wintering areas on estuaries to reach their breeding
and salt-marshes for their breeding grounds. ponds. Help your local toad
Since they breed around the entire coastline of patrol at www.froglife.org/
m TWEET OF THE DAY Britain and Ireland, some may not have far to toads-on-roads
o
ads
r
ds
on
www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/tweetoftheday
go. But growing numbers of oystercatchers nest
inland, especially further north, favouring short,
sparse grassland, arable fields and pebbly islands
TING
in rivers. Newly returned pairs display lustily. Male NESTING
S
RO
and female strut side by side or play chase, with HERONS
S
N
bills open wide to pipe their shrill duets. Greyy herons
FIND OUT MORE More about waders: are aalready
www.wadertales.wordpress.com sittinng on eggs
this month – a
few even lay
in Feebruary.
Tradditional heronries
datee back many years,
and a single tree can
havee 10 or more nests.
20188 marks the 90th
anniiversary of the BTO
Heroonries Census:
www.bto.org/heronries
w

Your chair,
DESIGNED
to fi t you

SINCE 1968
Penrith
Collection

AVAILABLE AS



Armchair


Recliner



Riser Recliner

MATCHING SOFAS
AVAILABLE


2 and 3 seater



UP TO 4 SIZES
OF CHAIR



SELECTION OF
FABRIC OR LEATHER







HANDMADE IN BRITAIN





The Penrith Riser Recliner Chair,
shown here in Kilburn Plain Oyster


CALL OUR CONSULTANTS 01924 507050 Quote WF02
to find your nearest store, book a FREE home visit or request a catalogue


Please send me a free catalogue pack. Please call me to arrange a Home Visit. OCCUPATIONAL
THERAPIST 59 STORES
Name or we’ll come to you
Approved for:
Address Lumbar Support
Chair Width • FREE PARKING
Neck & Shoulder Support • OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
Cushion Firmness • TOILET FACILITIES
Postcode Frame Strength • EASY ACCESS
Armrest Position
Telephone Julie M Jennings
Dip COT, HCPC Consultant Occupational Therapist Now Available in Northern Ireland
Email
Freepost Plus RTKE-LARX-YJSS, HSL (Dept. WF02), Unit 1-3, NO STAMP Visit www.hslchairs.com
Grange Road Industrial Estate, Grange Road, Batley WF17 6LN REQUIRED

WILD MARCH





We
Hidden Weird fish: if you’re
gle-eyed, you might
eag
ot a Montagu’s sea
spo
ail hiding among kelp
sna
at
t
the lowest of low tides.
BRITA


hen I want to spot
something I’ve
Wnever seen before,
or simply meet something very
weird, I head for the coast. The
shores of the British Isles offer
rich pickings for the naturalist, NICK
especially at this time of the year.
One of my favourite coastal BAKER
creatures that I’ve stumbled REVEALS A
upon requires more than a
cursory glance to appreciate its FASCINATING
true lugubrious splendour. Go WORLD OF
rockpooling at the very lowest WILDLIFE THAT the rocks. It’s a difficult place to u
up the bulk of its body. Look
of the low spring tides and explore, which probably explains c closer and you’ll notice a pair of
you’ll increase your chances of WE OFTEN why it is often ignored in favour v very small ‘piggy’ eyes, above a
meeting Montagu’s sea snail, OVERLOOK. of pools higher up the shore. w
wide mouth lined with small,
Liparis montagui. The first thing Persevere and take your time, c crustacean crushing teeth.
you need to know is that it isn’t parting and flipping over the To get a better look, transfer
a mollusc, but a fish in the MONTAG U’S slippery weed, looking carefully th
he fish to a clear-sided vessel.
Here it’ll reveal why it was so
snailfish family, Liparididae. SE A SNAIL under stones and around the H
All the snailfish are pretty kelp holdfasts. You will find tr ricky to dislodge. It will stick to
he side or bottom with a sucker
strange, though I have a plenty of mysterious creatures, th
disc, or PSO (pelvic suctorial
particular fondness for but when your eyes finally fix on d
organ), a beautiful thing with
Montagu’s. Not only is it the your first snailfish you’ll do o
species you’re most likely to a double-take. It’s about r ribs and bony plates radiating
encounter, as it lives in the DID YO U as far from a ‘fishy’ fr
from its centre, hinting at the
intertidal zone of rocky shores KNOW ? fish as you can get – highly modified pelvic fins from
h
w
around most of our coastline, The deepest fish ever like an amorphous, which the sucker is derived.
but when I hunt for it I also found was a new species partially sucked The suctorial organ helps this
T
like to imagine the delight of of snailfish, Pseudoliparis wine gum that has fi
fish to stay in place against the
its discoverer, Colonel George swirei, caught at a been spat out. pounding ocean waves.
p
Montagu, when he saw it for depth of 7,966m. This tiny dollop But how does the sucker
the first time. of sub-marine life – a work on uneven, variable rock
w
You need to search through the brown, pinkish, yellow or s surfaces? Partly, this is by
a
Laminaria zone, where brown slightly mucky orange blob in
ncreasing the volume of the
leathery fronds of kelp grow on – blends in well among the c cavity in the sucker itself (much
crustose algae-covered rocks and li ike suckers on a bath mat). But
he fish is also thought to employ
spidery kelp holdfasts. Moreover, th
h
THE COLONEL NATURALIST it is scaleless, reminiscent in its hair-like bumps on the edges of
slipperiness of an amphibian th
he sucker to form a seal with the
Montagu had an insatiable curiosity for the natural world.
tadpole. And small too: a big one uneven rocks, and to maximise
u
Illustrations by Peter David Scott/The Art Agency army officer and naturalist, and numerous crustaceans. BIG-HEADED s secretion of viscous mucous acts
measures about 5cm long, were
th
he tiny molecular ‘Van der
describe the lesser horseshoe
Colonel George Montagu
W
Waals’ forces. In addition, the
you to stretch it out.
(1753–1815) was a Victorian
bat, over 100 species of snail
li
ike glue, generating something
best known as an ornithologist,
While living in Devon, he spent a
called Stefan adhesion. All highly
c
exploring the South
Like a cat on the hearth, this
lot of time
whose name is s most famously
e
effective, as becomes apparent
West c
oast. It’s not just the
o
strange fish is often found
carried by the Montagu’s
f you try to persuade the fish to
if
snailfi
resting in a distinctive curled-up
harrier, a much rarer
fish that bears his
return to where you found it.
r
niker: there is also
posture, with its tiny, tapering
species in Brittain
mon
nowadays. He was
Montagu’s ray, sucke er
N
bulbous head seems to make
a
also the first to o
is
s a naturalist, author and TV presenter.
March 2018 a and blenny (left). tail beside its head. In fact, the NICK BAKER BBC Wildlife 11

WILD MARCH




EVENTS of gentoo penguins
Gillham greets a group
on an Antarctic
expedition in 1959.



EVENT SPOTLIGHT

Wonder woman

As the Mary Gillham Archive Project comes to a
close, its coordinator Dr Al Reeve will discuss its
achievements at this special event. The project
has been sharing the work and celebrating the life
pioneering naturalist and author Dr Mary Gillham MBE
(1921–2013). Gillham took an active interest in our
natural heritage for over 50 years and a significant
archive was left to the South East Wales Biodiversity
Records Centre when she died. In 1959 she was part of
the first Antarctic expedition to include women.
O 1 March, Cardiff University, free event, http://bit.ly/2qpphdo


FRESHWATER FISH OF BRITAIN
A world of Innovative wildlife photographer and ‘fish-twitcher’ Jack Perks
invertebrates will introduce the UK’s 54 freshwater fish species in this
Derbyshire Wildlife Trust evening talk. Underwater imagery will
Discover fascinating insects help Perks present each species in detail – many of which he has
at Staffordshire Invertebrate encountered – including a pike in Stoney Cove, Leicester (below).
Science Fair this spring. O 13 March, Bradbury Community House, Glossop, adults £3, under-16s free,e,
There will be lots of experts http://bit.ly/2CsV12V
on hand to assist with Act
identification queries, and for nature
talks will run throughout
the day. Many of the stalls 2018 marks the 50th
fly
are suitable for families and anniversary of Butterfly
include fun activities such Conservation, , and to celebrate
t
and
as indoor pond dipping. the chari ty
charity is holding a National
C
O 3 March, Staffordshire Conservation Day of Action on
University Science Centre, free 10 March. Free events will be
silver-studded blue butterfly: Ger Bosma/Getty: blue-winged kookaburra: Steve Day; badger: Sandra Standbridge/Alamy
event, http://bit.ly/2qppQE2 held across the UK for people
to take part in. Volunteers
in Devon will be meeting to
Mary Gilham: Mary Gillham/ANARE; Staffordshire Invertebrate Fair: Andy Dukes; Jack Perks: Rob Cuss;
maintain the open and warm
heathland habitat at Heathfield
Reserve that will benefit silver-
studded blue butterflies.
O 10 March, Heathfield Reserve,
free event, http://bit.ly/2m5zEyH
MARCH EVENTS IN BRIEF

WEST IS BEST BUTTERFLIES OF IRELAND FARMING FOR WILDLIFE SCOTTISH BADGERS
Join traveller Sue Walker in Find out how you can survey and Learn about how Worcestershire The natural history societies of
Salisbury as she discusses the record for the new all-Ireland Wildlife Trust’s 150 acre Lower Glasgow, Hamilton and Paisley
wildlife, landscapes and Butterfly Atlas 2021 from Smite Farm is managed for are hosting a talk in Hamilton
reserves of Western Dr Tomás Murray of the nature in this taalk by on the distribution, ec ology
Australia, the National Biodiversity senior land advvisor and behaviour of ba dgers in
ert John
largest of the Data Centre, in this Caroline Corsie for Scotland by expe
e
country’s states. evening talk in Belfast. Malvern local group. Darbyshir re.
Mar
6
ch,
//
13 March, http:// 15 March, http://bit. 1 March, http://bit.t. 16 March, http://
bi
1
bit.ly/2CZPQIY ly/2m2QK03 ly/2F1lrdD bit.ly/2Ay
bit.ly/2AyHkOk
arch 2018
12 BBC Wildlife Ma

BUILD










A FUTURE




WILDLIFE








Wildlife crime is



driving Africa’s



animals to extinction

































B # & #%% $&#%$ %& % !#% &
$%$$ &
!!% & # " %$& &$ %& %& #& " $&$%" % & # &$ %#$& !&
! " " $
# %#$ & %& %&#%$ % & %#&! & #% & " $ &" " & %%! & $& & %$!" % & #&! %&% !" & %!&!# %&
#" !%$ & % $ & " $ & & "# $& & #% & #& # #% " & $%# !" &" "!" !" % &! %& # %#& " !& # % ! & $
#% & % &! &$" " " !&" #% $%$&" & # $% !" $ & " &#%$ %$& &$%" #%$& & " " %& !# & %&$ %$$
&! "$& # % !& % $&! !&
$%$$ &
!!% & $&% % & #%& " %$&! & #%& # &$ & %& # % ! & %% &! & # %& #&
#%$ %& % !#%& " "!"%$ & "! & #&$ #! & %& " & " & & ! #%& #& " " % & #" & & #"


Please donate at bornfree.org.uk/future

WILD MARCH




DILGER’S DOS
AND DON’TS

FORGET
THAT THERE IS AN
URBAN WILDLIFE
CATEGORY in the
annual British Wildlife
Photographer of the
Year competition, so
enter your best pics!
DO REMEMBER
THAT WILDLIFE
DOESN’T CARE FOR
AESTHETIC APPEAL
Some of our grubbiest
brownfield sites may
look unappealing,
but can be home to
exciting urban species.



























Kestrel: Matthew Maran/naturepl.com; fox: Sam Hobson/naturepl.com; parakeet: David Tipling; otter: David Tipling Photo Library/Alamy


With opportunistic urban wildlife happy to
MIKE The zoologist Desmond Morris famously wrote: take advantage of the free bed and breakfast
“The city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human
DILGER zoo.” But to take the first part of his quote on offer, this additional thermal enrichment is
literally, our urban conurbations are in fact much more than just a fringe benefit. For any
much more than just jungle. With their woods,
wildlife that has survived the coldest months
WILDLIFE parks, lakes, rivers, brownfield sites and tower of the year, elevated temperatures during this
crucial period straddling late winter and early
blocks, all crowded together into a complex
WATCHING mosaic, Britain’s towns and cities can boast an spring, could see many urban birds, such
as robins and song thrushes stealing a ‘March’
impressive variety of habitats playing host to a
on their country cousins in the perennial
diverse collection of wildlife.
Another reason why the urban environment
In a city punches well above its weight when pulling mating game.
in the wildlife is that towns and cities are BE AN EARLY BIRD
According to statistics, 83 per frequently significantly warmer than the Get out and about either early or late to
cent of Brits live in urban surrounding countryside. Brought about by maximise the natural delights just beyond
areas, and it’s a fair bet that human activities, the urban heat island effect your doorstep. Dawn and dusk are important
many of these people are means that a number of London’s boroughs, periods for many animals, but urban wildlife
oblivious to the wild species such as Greenwich, Tower Hamlets and the is undoubtedly at its busiest when there are
living right under their noses. Isle of Dogs, can be 4 or 5°C warmer than fewer people around to serve as an irritating
locations such as Epping Forest or Ealing, on and unwarranted distraction. Making yourself
the margins of the city. an ‘early bird’ will also mean that you’ll be able



14 BBC Wildlife March 2018

WILD MARCH

Bristol’s urban
fox population
is well-studied. CHOICE LOCATIONS


London fig tree forests lining the banks
L
England’s capital of the watercourse close to
has a healthy Meadowhall shopping centre.
urban peregrine
population and Cardiff
s
black
t
be
is
o
is best for black redstarts and Recently named the UK’s ‘Top
f
r
ring-necked parakeets. Urban Wildlife Spot’ by the
RSPB, from March onwards
Bristol the capital’s roofs plays host
The world’s most studied urban to 3,500 pairs of herring and
GET OUT AND ABOUT fox population resides here and lesser black-backed gulls.
` EITHER EARLY OR LATE otters have recently been spotted Aberdeen
right in the heart of the city, too.
TO MAXIMISE THE NATURAL The city’s location and abundant
DELIGHTS JUST BEYOND Sheffield m of th is St eel Cit ty ornamental rowans make it the e p

ge
a
l
of
al
ge
m
of
fB

ita
lo

Britain
K
Ke
eep
rit
ain
.
Capital
Ci
y
‘Waxwing Capital of Britain’ Keep
this
St
eel
Wa
ng

Cap
W
axwing
xwi
The real gem of this‘Steel City’
The
The
re
re

YOUR DOORSTEP.” is the River Don. Check out the an eye out for these pink punks.
THE KIT
Binoculars are the essential Mobile phone camera
tool of choice for the budding technology has improved
urban naturalist and will give significantly over the last few
you a fighting chance of picking years. The best camera can
out that elusive black redstart often be the one you have in your
v
u ha
o
ou t
from amongst their concrete- pocket, allowing you to quickly quickly
enc
covered territory. capture a wildlife eencounter.
dlif
er
e
ount
KEY WILDLIFE
e
ck
Peregrine falcon Ring-necked ed
et
The fastest bird on Earth taking parakeet
up residence in our towns These green
gr
and cities must be the urban arrows s have
t
conservation success story adapteed so suuccessfully
nL
d
of the 21st century. March is a to life in Lonondon that it is
fabulous month to watch their now difficult tto spenspend a day
to listen out for the calls of the COMING UP antics as courtship flights and in the city’s suburbs withoutithout
NEXT ISSUE:
wild – from black redstarts and copulation take centre stage. encountering flocks of the noisy
sy
O Mike is watching
blue tits for example – before wildlife in woodland and gregarious escapees.
they become drowned out by Otter
the pneumatic drills, emergency sirens and In 2011 it was declared that otters Black redstart
A female kestrel
reversing lorries blighting many nine-to-five perches on a had returned to every county in A common bird just across the
urban soundscapes. branch in London’s England. With watercourses a English Channel, British breeding
Utilising vantage points from which Hampstead Heath central feature of many towns black redstarts have steadfastly
as less wildlife-
to scan the horizon is another important and cities, it’s perhaps no surprise refused to move away from their
savvy people walk
technique when searching for wildlife, straight past. they’re also now being recorded urban and industrial strongholds
and no other environment has this third along Newcastle’s waterfront, in southeast England. By the end
dimension better covered than towns and Birmingham’s canals and of March, returning birds will have
cities. When trying to spot kestrels and London’s reservoirs. begun to claim their territories.
peregrine falcons, you will never be too far
removed from a well-placed bridge, multi- Otters are moving Feral pigeon
storey carpark or church tower from which to into our towns The feral pigeon has sleeping
and cities.
enjoy the action. If you’re lucky the birds could rough and begging down to a fine
be hiding in plain sight – just don’t forget to art. Pejoratively called ‘flying rat’
pay attention to your surroundings. by those unable to appreciate the
remarkable bird’s finer points, its
MIKE DILGER is a naturalist, wildlife TV presenter and
writer. Watch him on BBC One’s The One Show. ability to breed in every month
of the year means this city slicker
is here to stay.
March 2018 BBC Wildlife 15

WILD NEWS



RIES
DISCOVER



Written by
STUART
gdom.
The latest in scientific research from all over the animal king d BLACKMAN

The much-studied and
fascinating Darwin’s
finch currently known
as ‘Big Bird’.





















Common
ancestor





is
o
o
s
G. conirostristris
G. fortisrtis G . c onir o s G. magnirostritris
G
f
.
magnir
.
G
Descent with
hybridisation
H Hybrid male
Hybrid male Hyb ri d f e m a l e
yb d e a e
d
eage
Q EVOLUTION Big g Bird lineage
AKES
L
A
P
SPEEDY EVOLUTION TAKES PLACE
C
E
A NEW SPECIES OF DARWIN’S FINCH APPEARS IN THE GALÁPAGOS IN THE BLINK OF AN EVOLUTIONARY EYE.
n 1981, there were three University, who, with DID YOU KNOW? hybrids interbred with be formally described. For
species of Darwin’s finch his wife Rosemary, each other, but not with now, biologists call it Big Bird.
Q Darwin’s finches are
Key: S Lamichhaney; finches and key: P .R. Grant, K.T. Grant & Princeton University Press
I on the Galápagos island has dedicated his the textbook example either parental species. Intriguingly, things may
of Daphne Major. Today there life to studying the of adaptive radiation, What’s more, they were have gone very differently had
are four. The fourth appeared archipelago’s finches. in which an ancestral able to prosper because the original immigrant been
population diversifies
over the course of just two The visitor was a their large size and a female. “In these species,
to fill available niches.
generations, and scientists have large cactus finch They aren’t actually powerful bills allowed sons learn the song of their
been on hand to watch it happen. that had made the finches, but tanagers, them to exploit food father while daughters prefer
It started with the arrival of 100km crossing from an exclusively American that is unavailable to to mate with males that sing
a strange avian visitor to the Española. It soon set bird family. Their closest the residents. like their fathers. Thus, if the
relative on the South
island – a large, male finch with about breeding with American mainland is According to immigrant finch had been a
a sturdy beak and unusual song. a resident female the underwhelmingly- Grant’s colleague female it is very likely that the
“We didn’t see him fly in from medium ground named dull-coloured Leif Andersson of hybrids would have mated
over the sea, but we noticed him finch to produce grassquit. Sweden’s Uppsala with the more abundant
shortly after he arrived. He was hybrid offspring. University, any resident species and no new
so different from the other birds Hybridisation between birds naturalist visiting the island species would have formed,”
that we knew he did not hatch from neighbouring islands is not today would recognise four Andersson told BBC Wildlife.
from an egg on Daphne Major,” uncommon. It’s what happened distinct species.
says Peter Grant of Princeton next that is remarkable. The The new addition has yet to SOURCE Science LINK http://bit.ly/2n5E6jK
16 BBC Wildlife March 2018

WILD NEWS



Q EVOLUTION
The
LIFE ON EXPLAINERR

EARTH 6FLHQWLĶF WHUPV SXW LQWR SODLQ

(QJOLVK IRU WKH UHVW RI XV
A chemical analysis of the
most ancient fossils found ECOLOGY OF FEAR
to date reveals that life was Predators don’t just
already remarkably complex eat prey animals, they
3.5 billion years ago. also scare the hell out
“The rocks we studied are of them, and this fear-
about as far back as rocks factor alone is enough to
go,” says J William Schopf of shape ecosystems. After
the University of California, wolves disappeared from
Los Angeles. They contained African elephants have Yellowstone National Park,
learned smoking is bad
five types of single-celled for your health. elk were free to forage
organism that were variously Q MAMMALS wherever their tastebuds
Universe: Pat Gaines/Getty; elephants: J.-L. Klein and M.-L. Hubert/FLPA; wolf: Andy Rouse/NPL; anteater: Pete Oxford/NPL
capable of a range of advanced led them, including into
biochemical processes for TOO HOT TO HANDLE lush but risky riverbank
extracting energy from their habitats. This led to the
environment – while some Burning a simple mixture of burns. “Our findings suggest devastation of specialist
photosynthesised, others dung and chilli can take that, within a period of two riparian vegetation.
processed methane or sulphur the heat out of a tricky weeks, elephants identified When wolves were
compounds. conflict between humans the location and time at reintroduced, the elk
“By 3.465 billion years and elephants, according which the briquettes were looked elsewhere and the
ago, life was already diverse to new research. smouldering,” says Rocío riverbanks recovered.
on Earth; that’s clear,” says Chilli briquettes are widely Pozo of the Oxford team.
Schopf. “This tells us life had used by farmers to stop Nevertheless, says Pozo,
to have begun substantially their crops being trampled, the briquettes offer an
earlier and it confirms but there had been little excellent, non-lethal, short-
that it was not difficult for scientific support for the term elephant deterrent. “We
primitive life to form and to method, until University of hope that it will also provide
evolve into more advanced Oxford biologists tested it a long term benefit – by
microorganisms.” in Botswana. helping to decrease negative
Another intriguing The elephants do indeed perceptions of elephants and
implication is that, if complex keep away from the smoke, therefore combining them
and diverse forms of life can though it didn’t not stop with land-use managements
evolve so easily on Earth, then them coming back between in the field.”
why not on other planets? Who’s afraid of the big, bad
“If the conditions are SOURCE Oryx LINK http://bit.ly/2qXoTTJ wolf? Fear of predators helps
build a healthy ecosystem.
right, it looks like life in
the universe should be
widespread,” he said.

NEW SPECIES

SPOTLIGHT
RED SILKY ANTEATER


WHAT IS IT? The world just got six new contenders
s
to the title of the cutest animal on Earth. Silky
anteaters have long been considered to belong to
a single species, but a new analysis of hundreds of
museum specimens suggests it should be split
into seven, including a dashing red silky variety.
WHERE IS IT? Widespread and not uncommon
Further proof Earth across the forests of South and Central A snoozy silky
may not be alone in anteater doesn’t
complex life forms. America, silky anteaters are arboreal, nocturnal, need to descend to
solitary, elusive and rather mysterious. Little the ground to sleep.
is known about their behaviour or ecology.
SOURCE PNAS
LINK http://bit.ly/2mmeVpi SOURCE Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society LINK http://bit.ly/2D41R36
y/2D41R36
March 2018 BBC Wildlife 17

WILD NEWS




WILDLIFE
UPDATES

AMPHIBIOUS ANTIDOTE
A legless, snake-like
amphibian from South
America may point the way
to treating cirrhosis of the
liver. Research published in
y
Journal of Anatomy shows
that ringed caecilians
produce specialised cells
that break down
the damaging
proteins that
accumulate
during the
Well-fed urban Cooper’s
hawks in Albuquerque stick disease.
around all year and claim
Q HABITAT the best nesting sites. PENGUIN FIND
A 57 million-year-
MOVE TO THE COUNTRYSIDE old giant penguin
fossil has been unearthed
in New Zealand. Nature
Some species merely survive in “The urban female hawks of immigrant females for Communications reports
our cities. A few thrive. And the begin searching out and surrounding native habitats.” that Kumimanu biceae
Cooper’s hawks of Albuquerque, claiming nesting territories A similar effect has also been would have stood 1.7m
New Mexico, US, do so well that before the rural hawks return shown for sparrowhawks in tall and weighed 100kg.
they are now spilling out into in spring, and thus obtain the UK. Again, an abundance The bird may have filled
the countryside, where they are nesting sites without direct of avian prey in cities – plus a niche vacated by
helping to sustain rural Cooper’s competition from migrants,” a landscape that favours the marine reptiles.
hawk populations. says Brian Millsap of New hawks’ hunting technique
The hawks do extremely well Mexico State University. – means urban birds are CHILLY RECEPTION
feeding on the dense population “Because of this advantage, reproductively more successful The cold receptors of
of urban doves. In fact, so well fed the urban Albuquerque than their country cousins. hibernating hamsters and
are they that, unlike their rural Cooper’s hawk population not ground squirrels are less
counterparts, they don’t need to only supports itself but also sensitive than those of
SOURCE The Condor
migrate south for winter. serves as a substantial source LINK http://bit.ly/2FMR3Ey non-hibernators such as
rats and mice. According
to Cell Reports, this
Q BEHAVIOUR might allow them to drop
Peccaries show their body temperature
HOW PECCARIES emotion like apes significantly without
and elephants.
experiencing discomfort.
REACT TO DEATH
MIX AND MATCH
When eight-year-old Dante de Kort aimed a camera- It’s tough being an
trap at the body of a collared peccary that had immigrant. Current Biology
reports that dispersing
died in his backyard in Prescott, Arizona, he had
Hawk: Alan Murphy, BIA/Minden/FLPA; peccary: Claudio Contreras/NPL; amphibian: Hilary Jeffkins/NPL; mongoose: Mike Wilkes/NPL by its herd-mates. Not only would they stand behaviour changed significantly from their normal first – they are exhausted
dwarf mongooses
hoped to film whatever came to scavenge it. What
contribute little to their
he recorded, though, was far more remarkable –
adopted social group at
evidence that pigs grieve for their dead.
For the next 10 days, the carcass was visited
and weak, and residents
are unwilling to accept their
and stare at the body, but they would prod, push
helpp. After five
and attempt to lift it with their snouts. They also
months,
n
“Th
i
defended it from coyotes and other scavengers.
“The animals showed distress and their i
d di t
d th
l
h
though,
According to Mariana Altrichter of Prescott
they are
y
College, Arizona, who led a scientific analysis of
daily patterns,” she told BBC Wildlife. “It went
fully y integrated
the footage, it was behaviour that resembled that
beyond what could be considered just curiosity.”
soc ciety.
dies. She calls it grieving.
18 seen in elephants and apes when a group member SOURCE Ethology LINK http://bit.ly/2mjyUVM members of
BBC Wildlife



Wolf & Wildlife Safari in


Yellowstone




25 years experience in creating exceptional
wildlife holidays worldwide


Track wolves in remote Lamar Valley
Explore Grand Teton & Yellowstone National Parks

Expert-led small group tour
Search for bison, coyote, moose, eagles and more

Comfortable lodge-style accommodation


8-day Yellowstone Ultimate Wolf & Wildlife Safari


Call our experts today




wildlifeworldwide.com

Contact our wildlife experts
01962 302 088 [email protected]

Notes OPINION







from an From CHRIS PACKHAM
English MARCH TEMPTS US OUTSIDE WHERE OUR

SENSES ARE SWAMPED WITH BURSTS OF
wood BIRDSONG AND DRUMMING WOODPECKERS.









t’s March and the sun is smiling After traipsing
too hard. Its unrestrained cheer through February,
is fraudulent, because whilst its my poodle has
crisp brilliance streaks through the pepper in his paws
I tea-stained hazel poles and lights a again. He trots and
thousand silver stripes, it is just too shiny, tiptoes like the roe
too showy, too superficial to seriously I pretend not to see
worry winter’s lingering grumpiness. as it blends for its
March is the pretender, the ‘It’ month, English breakfast in
it’s the month in the mini-skirt. It’s the the hazel cage. Its
giggler – it brims with childish charm. nose sparkles and
March flits, March tickles, March teases. I imagine that, for
March catches your eye like an imagined all its feeble fancy,
lover’s smile, March wakes the child in you, March feels good for
March makes you skip. March shows off the self-conscious
all its new things – the first gin-clear sky, buck. And then we
a flash of primrose yellow and a twinkle reach the gate and
of wood anemone white. March is radiant, open it to rapture.
March is sharp, March is shrill. And when I know it’s coming
you see it, you’ll tell your friends you’ve but I can’t stop the
bumped into May, that it flirted with you, quake. The surge,
that you snuck a kiss and felt its warm the shout when it
eyelashes flutter on your cheek. March has bursts out into the
the audacity to promise you bluebells. scratch the skin you’ll find winter is still lane. I can’t control the explosion – that
But March is untrustworthy and it there nodding smugly beneath. instantaneous electrifying supernova
makes fools of us all. It tempts us to rush But for its swanky kitsch and glamour, which detonates in my brain and for a
into spring by swamping our senses. It March does have one gaudy saving grace moment sets me reeling. It’s so brilliant I
brandishes bursts of birdsong, bigs up the – it almost inevitably serves up the most can feel its glory, taste my joy. I’m giddy.
robin and the wren, makes a dance as well startling sight of the year in our woods. It It darts through the shade and flits up,
as a song of the thrush and tricks you by is nature’s bling for sure, it’s garish and splitting the spectrum, smashing it apart
chiff-chaffing from the crest of the naked it’s glitzy, and if you don’t like fireworks to make a brand new colour. Yellow! But
hedge. It will announce itself with a roll then you may not share the childlike glee it isn’t yellow. The primroses are yellow,
of the woodpecker’s drum, it will wipe I experience each year when I see it. daffodils are yellow, celandines are yellow
your nose of the scent of bonfires and But I make no apologies: for me simple – this thing is more than that primary hue.
of the ruddy muddy rot of Christmas is best, and if it’s shocking then it’s It’s luminous: it appears to generate its own
time, it will tug at your curtains a little exciting and I love it when wildlife slaps light, not just reflect March’s feckless rays.
earlier and beg you to come out to play. me round the face. It has an uncanny intensity, as if the rest of
And you’ll jump up and rush out in a We’re up, we’re out, it’s sparkly. The nature’s yellows are watered down and only
jumper… but then run back for a coat. chiffs are chaffing and a great spot is doing this creature has been poured neat from
Because March lacks gravitas. It’s a brilliant John Bonham impression. We the pot of the purest pigment.
just not big or clever both have our coats It’s like all the world’s sulphur has
enough to outwit the MARCH FLITS, on. Scratchy sniffs a been condensed into four thin slivers of
Beneath its pretentious ` MARCH TICKLES, pees on it. I snigger, tissue and when exposed to the first
mean inertia of winter.
primrose and then
sunlight of the year it ignites and
MARCH TEASES.
becomes another star, burning so
facade, March is
Illustration by Owen Davey/Folio squelchy. It might dry MARCH CATCHES foxy scent and we are brightly that it dulls everything around
he obliterates some
it. The brimstone dances on fire and its
a few leaves, and get
both happy because
YOUR EYE LIKE A
embers will set spring alight.
them waltzing, set
I just know if we go
them rustling the first
down to the woods
LOVER’S SMILE.”
CHRIS PACKHAM is a naturalist and TV presenter.
time since Halloween,
today we can be sure
See him on BBC Two’s In Search of the Lost Girl by
but when you kneel to
BBC Wildlife
March 2018 of the big surprise. catching up on iPlayer: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer 21

STELLER























The remote Commander Islands

to the far east of Russia are a
haven for all manner of amazing

wildlife. And as Mike Unwin
discovers, they have had

an interesting, albeit
chequered, past.

Explorers landing on the
remote Commander Islands
were greeted with breathtaking
scenery and an abundance of
wildlife, including (from top
left) sea otters, tufted puffins,
Steller’s sea lions and orcas. puffin: Otto Plantema/Minden/FLPA; sea lions: Pete Oxford/naturepl.com Landscape: John Holmes/FLPA; sea otter & orca: Dmytro Pylypenko/Alamy;

he beach below me is littered with
slumbering sea mammals. Northern fur
seals sprawl in their hundreds, females
heaped around the darker males. Steller’s
sea lions cluster around the rocks to the
north, their longer bodies gleaming ochre
in the morning sun. Harbour (common)
T seals, sleek and mottled, are hauled out on
a wave-cut platform. And what are those furry scatter
cushions strewn along the shoreline? They’re snoozing
sea otters, curled up like cats.
Amid the somnolence there’s also action. Bleating
fur seal youngsters pursue each other in and out of the
surf. Pallid glaucous-winged gulls wheel and squabble
over the rookery. And, perhaps most surprising, two
smoky-furred Arctic foxes trot casually among the larger
mammals. Hardly bigger than the gulls, the alarm they
provoke appears disproportionate.
Something bigger catches my eye: a long grey back Clockwise from commander Vitus Bering on his Great Northern Expedition.
breaking the waves just beyond the surf. For a moment top left: Steller’s This mammoth undertaking, commissioned by Emperor
Sealion on rock: Andrew Stewart/Splashdown/REX/Shutterstock; sealions on sand: Mike Unwin; sea cow illustration: Paul D Stewart/NPL;
sea lions haul out;
I’m thrown, my head filled with images of another large Peter the Great, involved 3,000 men and cost one sixth of
an Arctic fox is
beast, long gone, until binoculars reveal a telltale dorsal Russia’s annual income. The fleet duly circumnavigated
dwarfed by lazing
Steller portrait: Denis Zinoviev/University of Tyumen; eider: Harri Taavetti/FLPA; arctic fox: Getty; shipwreck illustration: Getty
fin. A minke whale. Of course! It’s a reminder, though, giants; an artist’s the northern Pacific and was the first to explore the coast of
that these waters were once the final home of Steller’s depiction of Vitus Alaska. Conditions were gruelling, with unrelenting fog and
sea cow, an animal not seen since 1759. Bering’s shipwreck violent storms. During the voyage the St Paul disappeared l
in 1741 during his
r
r
Great Northern without trace. The St Peter, carrying a dying Bering, limped
DRAMATIC HISTORY Expedition. home westwards. In November 1741, with the rigging gone
So where is this sea mammal Serengeti? I’m on the North and half the crew lost to scurvy, it was wrecked 24km off
Cape of Bering Island, the largest of the Commander what the crew assumed to be the Kamchatka coast but what
Islands or, as they are called here in the Russian Far East, – after a longboat recce ashore – turned out to be an island
the Komandorski. This remote archipelago lies 175km east that was subsequently given Bering’s name.
of Kamchatka and, though On that longboat was German
n
Russian, is the westernmost of naturalist Georg Wilhelm Stöller,
the Aleutian Islands chain that now known as Steller. He had
n
extends across the northern b
been documenting the expedition
Pacific from Alaska. It is f from day one, making many
separated from its nearest discoveries new to science. Having
d
neighbour by 333km of ocean, b
been eating seaweed to stave off
s
an international dateline and a scurvy – though persuading few of
t
fiercely patrolled US border. the crew to do the same – Steller
The Commanders’ rich was still in decent health. It was
w
biodiversity is inseparable from h
he who broke the bad news to
their extraordinary history. The B
Bering about the land they had
islands were not discovered r reached: as a naturalist, he knew
f
until 1741 when two ships – the from the Arctic foxes and huge,
St Peter and St Paul – set sail m
mysterious sea mammals that it
r
l
c
from Kamchatka under Danish could not be Kamchatka.
24 BBC Wildlife March 2018

COMMANDER ISLANDS





GEORG STELLER’S

LASTING LEGACY





Steller found the
sea cow (left)
and it helped
keep him alive.














The naturalist who discovered leaves and berries he’d gathered –
Steller’s sea cow was born Georg though many ignored this advice
Wilhelm Stöller in Windheim, and over half the crew perished
Germany, in 1709, and moved to from this condition.
Russia in 1734. Joining Bering’s Steller was also notably ahead of
Great Northern Expedition in 1740, his time in the respect he showed
he discovered several new species, towards the native peoples that
including Steller’s sea lion, Steller’s the expedition encountered, whose
eider (below), Steller’s sea eagle, cultures he rigorously documented.
Steller’s jay and the spectacled Indeed, his sympathy for the native
cormorant, as well as the famous sea Kamchatkans during his subsequent
cow. His navigational skills proved travels led to his imprisonment,
wher
,
e
cus
ac
ng
critical in finding Alaska, where accused of fomenting rebellion. He

a
Alask
ed

omenting
b
re
f

of

e first non-native
MANY OF THE 6,200-ODD he became the first non-native died of a fever on 14 November
died of a fever on 14 No
MANY

OF
,200-ODD
6
THE
ile his scientific
to set foot, while his scientific
1746, at the age of jus
1746, at the age of just 37,
ISLANDS THAT UP THE BRITISH knowledge enabled his w hile tr a v ellin g b ac k
ISLANDS THAT UP THE BRITISH
bled his
while travelling back to St
a
companions Petersburg. After h
Petersburg. After his death,
ISLES ARE FOR WILDLIFE DN aboard the Captain James Cook was
ISLES ARE FOR WILDLIFE DN
Captain James
among many
St Peter to amon
.
MAINLAND
THE
FROM THE MAINLAND. escape scurvy by exp
FROM THE MAINLAND.
FROM
y by
explorers to
use his notes
feeding on the e use
Another Steller
vitamin C-rich h and jo
and journals.
cast member...
The sea mammals were, of course, what came to
be known as Steller’s sea cows. These giant sirenians RUSSIA AND THE RUSSIA
measured up to 9m and topped 8,000kg, some 25 COMMANDER
times larger than the dugong, their closest relative today. ISLANDS
Almost everything we know about them comes from
Steller’s meticulous records. He described their forked
tail, their downward-pointing muzzle for grazing on
kelp, their coarse, bark-like skin that had beneath it a Bering Sea
layer of fat 24cm thick. He also recorded their behaviour,
noting that they were monogamous, that they grazed Bering Island
Kamchatka
in small groups on the inshore kelp beds and that they
Peninsula
surfaced for air every four to five minutes.
For the shipwrecked crew, many of whom failed to
Commander
survive that brutal winter stuck on the island (Bering Islands
himself died on 8 December), the sea cows were
primarily a source of food. It was many months,
however, before they managed to kill an adult – a group Pacific Ocean
of sailors ramming a hook into the back of one grazing
March 2018 BBC Wildlife 25

individual so their companions on shore could haul it in Above: tufted some 27 near-complete skeletons – the first unearthed on
on a rope. Such was the animal’s strength that even then it puffins, named Bering Island in 2006 – plus various sailors’ sketches.
after their golden
managed to drag all 40 men into the water. Eventually the The sea cow was not the only victim of the slaughter.
head plumes,
catch was beached – the first of many to follow. breed on the During the Russian ‘fur rush’ that followed, the
By the summer of 1742 the survivors had built a new Commanders. promyshlenniki (fur hunters) took a staggering toll on the
ship from the wreckage of the St Peter and by September Below: a statue of wildlife of the North Pacific. Sea otters were plundered for
were back in Kamchatka, more than two years after Vitus Bering is a their luxuriant fur, the densest of any mammal, with an
memorial to crew
they had set out. Their return was a triumph of human estimated one million killed. The Bering Island population
members who
endurance. For the wildlife of the Commanders, lost their lives. was nearly wiped out, but has gradually recovered since
however, it heralded disaster. Inspired by the crew’s tales, hunting was prohibited in 1924. The Northern fur seal met
Siberian fur traders soon descended on the islands. They a similar fate: during the 19th century, following the sale
slaughtered sea cows, salting the meat for their onward of Alaska to the United States, San Francisco fur traders
voyages and using the hides for clothing and the fat for slaughtered close to 800,000 in just 20 years.
ngly rapid.
lamp oil. The decline of the species was shockingly rapid.
AD
IN
he animal
HE
G
By 1768, just 27 years after Steller’s discovery, the animal HEADING ASHORE
ct.
forever associated with him was declared extinct. T o d ay , get t
Today, getting to the Commander Islands remains a
the most
g
hallen
e.
Rumoured sightings have persisted ever since, the most c challenge. My visit is part of an expedition cruise down
generally
recent from the Gulf of Anadyr in 1962, but have generally t the Russian northeast coast, from Chukotka south to
ia
uss
he R
been explained away as misidentified whales. Fossils from K amchatk a
sils from
Kamchatka. We’ve been at sea for nine days and it was
the Pleistocene have shown the species once ranged more o n l y t h e p r
ed more
only the previous night, in a heaving swell, that we made
broadly in the North Pacific. Steller, sadly, could not our overni
ot
our overnight crossing to the archipelago – with no
guarantee of landing. But we’ve been lucky: this
it for
bring back a specimen. Indeed, with a weight limit for guarantee
the return journey of only 150kg, he was forced to jettison morning th
morning the sun is shining and the sea flat calm.
jettison
most of his expedition collection. Today, however, we have From the seal-crammed beaches of the North Cape, we zodiac: Mike Unwin; orca: Pete Oxford/NPL; owl: Andy Rouse/NPL; monument: Rick Price/Getty Puffins: Andrew Stewart/Splashdown/REX/Shutterstock; sea otters: Tim Mellings/Alamy;
From th
we have
sail south to Nykorsky, the archipelago’s only settlement.
sail south t
Today it is home to 613 people, half Russian and half
Today it is
SEA COW SIGHTINGS HAVE native Aleut, its ramshackle tumble of buildings
native Ale
betraying a troubled recent history. Once boasting a
betrayin
PERSISTED SINCE, BUT HAVE heavy military presence and lucrative fur farms, it
VE
heavy m
fell int
fell into dereliction after the 1990s break-up of the
D
E
GENERALLY BEEN EXPLAINED Soviet
Soviet Union left the islands abandoned. But then
conse
AS MISIDENTIFIED WHALES. S.S. conservation came along.
I g
I go ashore in a Zodiac, accompanied by marine
26 BBC Wildlife March 2018

COMMANDER ISLANDS



























































Top: sea otters region’s orcas. Olga explains how the Commander Islands
are flourishing in probably represent a crossroads between ‘resident’ fish-
the Commanders. eating populations of the Kamchatka coast and ‘transient’
Above: biologist
Olga and her mammal-eating populations that roam the North Pacific.
daughter (far left) Since 2007, many hundred individuals have been
ride on a RIB. Left: identified and monitored, producing findings with far-
these islands are reaching conservation implications. Detailed analysis of
an exciting place
biologist and cruise guide Olga Belonovich, who first images, for example, has detected fluctuating body mass
to study orcas;
came to the Commander islands in 2006 to study Below: snowy owls in selected individuals, revealing the possible impact of
Steller’s fur seals. Now settled here with her family, she occasionally turn over-fishing on their nutrition. With orcas still persecuted
works for the Russian Research Institute of Fisheries up and breed here. by fishermen (as revealed by bullet holes in some study
and Oceanography studying, among other things, animals) and still a potential target for the aquarium
northern fur seals and their relationship with orcas. industry, there is no room for complacency.
ne Olga explains how the
Other c
As we tramp the shoreline Olga explains how the Other cetaceans under scrutiny include the little-
w fall within the Komandorsky
known Baird’s beaked whale, with over 130 individuals
Commander Islands now fall within the Komandorsky known Ba
Reserve. “We hope the
Zapovednik Biosphere Reserve. “We hope the now catal
now catalogued. Research also continues into the
45km protected zone will always be in place,” flourishin
ll always be in place,”
flourishing populations of northern fur seals and
Steller’s sea lions, and sea otters are of special interest.
how this
she tells me, explaining how this Steller’s s
reserve extends a buffer around the Current
around the
Currently suffering a dramatic decline in Alaska
and ac
whole archipelago. and across the Aleutians, they are increasing their
Numerous conservation projects popu
population on the Commanders by some 13 per
on projects
now focus on the rich wildlife of cent a year and now number 10,000. Researchers
ildlife of
cen
are tagging individuals, conducting necropsies
these waters. The Russian Cetacean Habitat ar
an Cetacean Habitat
a
Project, for example, has been studying the and studying sea urchin populations in order to
s been studying the
March 2018 BBC Wildlife 27

HOW TO VISIT THE COMMANDER ISLANDS
WHEN TO GO a 12-night wildlife cruise from 14 June
The only straightforward way to visit 2018. Price from around £5,300 pp
the Commander Islands is currently full-board, including guided
as part of an expedition cruise from excursions, lectures and debriefs
May to September. Most trips start or (www.aqua-firma.co.uk; 01428
end at the port of Petropavlovsk on 620012). Silversea Expeditions has a
HUMPBACK WHALES AND DALL’S the Kamchatka Peninsula, some 8.5 12-night cruise on 14 July 2018 from
hours’ flight from Moscow. £7,740 pp all-inclusive, with shore
PORPOISES APPEAR AS WE excursions, sea tours and a lecture
TOUR OPERATORS Below: stoats
have somehow programme (www.silversea.com;
CRUISE TOWARDS THE JAGGED Wildfoot Travel’s 12-night ‘Jewel of
gained a toehold 0844 251 0837).
the Russian Far East’ cruise departs
on South
KAMCHATKA PENINSULA. 3 September 2018. Price from
Ronaldsay and FURTHER INFORMATION
mainland Orkney, UK nationals require a Russian visa
£5,580 pp full-board, including shore
threatening the
understand – as Steller tried 275 years ago – just excursions and on-board activities and must also allow three months
Orkney vole.
why these islands allow life to flourish so prolifically. (www.wildfoottravel.com; 0800 195 to process the additional landing
Our shoreline stroll ends at a statue of Vitus Bering, 3385). Aqua-Firma Worldwide offers documentation required.
gazing out across the island where he now lies buried.
Olga’s husband Serge awaits us in a tundra buggy. We drive
inland for a taste of the island’s desolate, treeless interior.
Olga describes the challenges of life in such an isolated Above: Nykorsky towards mainland Russia. Our return voyage is rather less
place: how delightful it is that everybody here knows each has a tiny human turbulent than the outward crossing – calm enough for Olga
population.
other but how impossible it is to organise English lessons (who else?) to spy the tall dorsal fins of orcas slicing through
Below: red-legged
for her daughter. She muses about opening up the islands a flat blue sea. Humpback whales and Dall’s porpoises
kittiwakes breed
to visitors. “These islands are fragile,” she tells me. “I’m only on the also put in an appearance as we cruise towards the jagged
sure that tourism can be important to conservation, as long Commanders Kamchatka Peninsula, where a plume of smoke rises from
as tour operators behave responsibly.” A snowy owl glides and a few other one conical snow-frosted summit.
remote islands in
across the tundra, pure white against autumnal gold. Up on deck I reflect that this is the very same route plied
the North Pacific.
by Steller on his final voyage, when he carried with him
tales of astounding wildlife and left behind the bodies of
SEABIRD CITY tales of astounding wild
odiacs exploring the
his companions. Since then, from the fur traders to
nds us in Z
fi
The following morning finds us in Zodiacs exploring the his companions. Since
the Soviets, generation
rugged southwest of Bering Island. Nosing around the sea the Soviets, generations have come and gone from the
ing Island. Nosing around the sea
f
cliffs we get some idea of the Commanders’ celebrated avian Commanders, each plundering the islands in their own
Commanders, each pl
the C
ommanders
’ celebrated avian
g
ht from the surf;
ducks take fli
bounty: rafts of harlequin ducks take flight from the surf; way. Today, at last, this
way. Today, at last, this extraordinary natural treasure
n
puffins – tufted and horned – commute to and from their trove seems to be in sa
trove seems to be in safer hands.
ned – commute to and from their
d-legged kittiwakes, a species found
cliff-top colonies; and red-legged kittiwakes, a species found
Nykorsky & gull: Jenny E. Ross/NPL their more numerous black-legged cousins. More Islands courtesy of Wild N + FIND OUT MORE
barely anywhere else, line the breeding ledges alongside
e the breeding ledges alongside
ack-legged cousins. More
NWI
MIKE UNWIN is a
U
MIKE
s breed here in the
than one million seabirds breed here in the
nature writer. He
nature writer.
Russian Cetacean Habitat
season and even now, at the end of summer,
the end of summer,
Project: http://uk.whales.
visited the Co
visited the Commander
org/wdc-in-action/
the noise and numbers are impressive.
are impressive.
Islands courtesy of Wildfoot
russian-cetacean-
That afternoon we weigh anchor
gh anchor
Travel (www.wildfoottra
Travel (www.wildfoottravel.com)
and set sail west, back
aboard the Spirit of End
March 2018
28 BBC Wildlife aboard the Spirit of Enderby. habitat-project



Save when you subscribe


to the digital edition


























































Available from

BBC Wildlife Magazine is full of breathtaking photos

and fascinating features on the most interesting animals


and habitats in the UK and around the world.

With the latest news and conservation issues, practical

expert advice and ideas for really wild days out, you will

understand and enjoy nature more.

















































Enjoy our Premium App experience now available from

SUPERWOLF







The life of an alpha male wolf that led Yellowstone’s famous Druid pack told us much about

what animals think and feel. Carl Safina investigates in this extract from Beyond Words.





wenty-one was the most though, the imbalance meant plenty of himself between the humans and the rest
famous wolf in Yellowstone food. But even though wolves had been of his family. This pup would later be given
National Park. “If ever there absent longer than most people could tracking collar number 21.
was a perfect wolf,” says remember, just before Twenty-one was At age two and a half, Twenty-one left
expert wolf-watcher Rick born, someone shot his father. his mother – and an adoptive father– and
McIntyre, “It was him. A wolf does not do well as a single mother. his birth pack. He waltzed into the family
THe was like a fictional Researchers reluctantly decided to capture known as the Druid Peak pack fewer than
character. But he was real.” Even from her and her pups and feed them for a few two days after its alpha male had also been
a distance, Twenty-one’s big-shouldered months in a one-acre pen. When humans shot illegally. The Druid females welcomed
profile was recognisable. brought food to the pen, all the other wolves this prime male wolf; their pups loved the
Utterly fearless in defence of his family, fled to the opposite fence, but one pup would big new guy. He adopted the pups and
Twenty-one had the size, strength and pace a little rise in the enclosure, putting helped feed them. With no hassle at all,
agility to win against overwhelming odds.
“On two occasions, I saw Twenty-one take
on six attacking wolves – and rout them
all,” Rick says. “Watching him was like
watching Bruce Lee fighting, but in real life.
I’d be thinking: ‘A wolf can’t do what I am
watching this wolf do’.” Watching Twenty-
one, Rick elaborates, “was like watching
Muhammad Ali or Michael Jordan – a one-
of-a-kind talent at the top of his game, with
talents outside of ‘normal’.” And normal
for a wolf isn’t like average for a human,
because every wolf is a professional athlete.
Twenty-one never lost a fight. And
he never killed any defeated opponent.
Twenty-one was a superwolf. He came into
the world in the first litter of pups born
in Yellowstone in nearly 70 years. His
parents had both been trapped in Canada
and shipped to Yellowstone to reintroduce
wolves into a system that had become out
of balance, with too many elk (a relative of
Eurasia’s red deer) for the land to bear.
After almost 70 years without wolves, the
elk had built to such to Yellowstone
Robbie George/National Geographic Creative/Alamy and hunger. For the National Park,
Wolves were
numbers that winter
reintroduced
for them meant scarcity
introduced wolves,
USA, in 1995.







32 BBC Wildlife March 2018

talkin g

POINT






Twenty-one had left home and immediately that kind of confidence is what wolves need
become the alpha male of an established every day of their hunting lives.”
pack. It was his big break in life. Early in Twenty-one’s run as an alpha,
Twenty-one was “remarkably gentle” three females in his pack gave birth. That
with the members of his pack, says Rick. was extraordinary. Usually only the alpha
Immediately after making a kill, he would female, or matriarch, breeds. The three
often walk away to urinate or lie down, to litters reflected the unnaturally abundant
allow other family members to eat their fill. food supply. An astounding 20 pups
survived, swelling an already large pack
ne of Twenty-one’s favourite to a hard-to-believe 37 wolves, the largest
things was to wrestle with ever documented. Because the pack’s size
little pups. “And what he really resulted from a food base so artificially
loved,” Rick adds, “was to swollen after seven decades devoid of
Opretend to lose. He just got wolves, the three-dozen-member pack
a huge kick out of it.” Here was this great might have been the world’s all-time largest.
big male wolf. And he’d let some little wolf “Only Twenty-one had what it took to
jump on him and bite his fur. “He’d just fall run an outfit that large,” Rick comments.
on his back with his paws in the air,” Rick It wasn’t all peaceful. The high density of
half-mimes the action. wolves probably produced unnaturally high
“The ability to pretend shows that you wolf-on-wolf conflict. In territorial defence
understand how your actions are perceived and in pursuit of expanded territory, Twenty-
by others. It indicates high intelligence. I’m one participated in plenty of fights.
sure the pups knew what was going on, but Wolf territorial fights resemble human
it was a way for them to learn how it feels tribal warfare. When packs fight, numbers
to conquer something much bigger. And count, but experience matters an awful



















AS A PUP, WOLF TWENTY-
ONE WOULD PUT

HIMSELF BETWEEN
HUMANS AND THE REST

OF HIS FAMILY.


















March 2018 BBC Wildlife 33

talking

POINT






lot. As adults of both Right: Twenty-one
packs beeline to or away leading the Druid
pack. Top right: the
from rivals or battle for
moment he was
their lives, juveniles rescued as a pup.
can seem lost in the
confusion. Wolf pups
under a year old often seem dismayed by
an attack, and a juvenile that gets pinned by
attackers may simply give up. Wolves often
target the alphas of the rival pack, as if they
fully understand that if they can rout or kill
the experienced leaders, victory will be theirs.
Fatal conflict between tribal groups isn’t
just a human or chimpanzee thing. The
second-most-common cause of wolf death in
the Rockies is being killed by other wolves.
(Being killed by humans is first.) But, as
mentioned, Twenty-one never lost a fight
and he never killed a vanquished wolf. His
restraint seems incredible. What could it be?
Mercy? Can a wolf be magnanimous?
When a human releases a vanquished
opponent rather than killing them, in the
eyes of onlookers the vanquished still loses
status but the victor seems all the more
impressive. You can’t be magnanimous
unless you’ve won, so you have proved
yourself by winning. And if you show at stake is reproduction. Dominance lets called Arabian babblers. He noticed that they
mercy, your lack of fear shows tremendous you outcompete others for food, mates and compete for the opportunity to fight rivals.
confidence. Onlookers might feel it would preferred territory, which boosts reproduction. He considered such birds altruistic because
be desirable to follow such a person. So, can a wolf be magnanimous? the fighters vie for the honour of being seen
In humans, as we’ve noted, letting a putting themselves at risk on behalf of their
istory’s most esteemed, highest- vanquished rival go free is a show of both group. If they were soldiers, they’d come
status leaders are not ruthless extra strength and extraordinary self- back to the nest wearing medals.
strongmen like Hitler, Stalin and confidence. In free-living animals, the public Onlookers are impressed – and they
Mao – they are Gandhi, King display of excess is sometimes called the should be. But releasing a beaten but
H and Mandela. Peaceful warriors ‘handicap principle’. The message is: “Notice potentially lethal rival greatly ups the ante.
earn higher global status than violent ones. that I have enough to spare. I have so much, An individual that shows such exceptional
Muhammad Ali was a practitioner of combat in fact, that I can afford to handicap myself.” confidence boosts their own status. Some of
who spoke of peace and refused to go to war, Almost any kind of excess will impress, as those confident animals might be wolves.
and his status rose to unprecedented heights long as it’s something that’s valued, such Some might be superheroes.
with his rejection of killing. as bravery, beauty or wealth. In humans, “Why doesn’t Batman just kill the Joker?”
For humans and many other animals, elevating one’s status by displaying excess asks Rick rhetorically, before volunteering his
status is a huge deal, preoccupying one’s wealth is called conspicuous consumption. answer. “In admiring the hero who restrains
mind, occupying one’s time and costing Many animals bid for status by flaunting his strength, we are impressed with the
energy. And for it, much treasure and blood is excess accumulation, such as peacock tails or hero’s power,” he says. “A story in which the
risked. Wolves do not understand why status long, luxurious hair. The iconoclastic Israeli good person kills the bad guy isn’t nearly as
and dominance are so important to them, any researcher Amotz Zahavi, who first coined interesting as a story where the good guy has
more than do humans. Without consulting the handicap principle, studied social birds a moral dilemma. In what’s been called the
our opinion our brains produce hormones
that make us feel strongly compelled to strive
for status and assert dominance. Dominance
feels like an end in itself. BY SPARING THE CASANOVA WOLF, TWENTY-ONE HELPED
Here’s why: high status aids survival. Status
is a daily proxy for competition for mates ASSURE HIMSELF MORE SURVIVING DESCENDANTS.
and food. Then, whenever mates or food are
in short supply, the high-status individual AND IN EVOLUTION, SURVIVING DESCENDANTS ARE
has the advantage. The thing at stake is
survival, and ultimately in survival the thing THE ONLY CURRENCY THAT MATTERS.


34 BBC Wildlife March 2018

Above: as an greatest movie of all steps back. The pack members are looking in his Blacktail pack remained uninjured
adult, Twenty-one time, Humphrey Bogart at Twenty-one as if saying, ‘Why has Dad – including grandchildren and great-
was a strong and has won the love he has stopped?’” The Casanova wolf jumped up grandchildren of Twenty-one.
confident leader.
sought. But he arranges and ran away. Wolves can’t foresee such plot twists
things so that the other man does not lose But Casanova kept causing problems for any more than people can. But evolution
his wife and is not hurt. We admire him for Twenty-one. Well, why doesn’t Batman just does. Its calculus integrates long averages.
that. When we see strength combined with kill the Joker so he won’t have to deal with By sparing the Casanova wolf, Twenty-one
restraint, we want to follow that individual. him anymore? With Casanova and Twenty- helped assure himself more surviving
It greatly enhances status.” one it didn’t make sense – until years later. descendants. And in evolution, surviving
The character in the movie feels bound by After Twenty-one’s death, Casanova briefly descendants are the only currency that
his ethics. But do wolves have morals, ethics? became the Druid pack’s alpha male. But he matters. Anything that’s helped descendants
Rick chuckles at the thought. “It would be wasn’t effective, Rick recalls: “He didn’t know survive will remain in the genetic heirloom.
scientific heresy to say they do. But…” what to do, just not a leader personality.” So in strictly survivalist terms, ‘should’
In Twenty-one’s life there was a particular And although it’s very rare for a younger a wolf let his rival go free? Is restraint an
male, a sort of roving Casanova, a continual brother to depose an older one, that’s what effective strategy for accumulating benefits?
annoyance. He was strikingly good-looking, happened to him. “His year-younger brother I think the answer is: yes, if you can afford
had a big personality, and was always doing had a much more natural alpha personality.” it, because sometimes your enemy today
something interesting. “The best single word Casanova didn’t mind; it meant he was free becomes, tomorrow, a vehicle for your
is charisma,” says Rick. “Female wolves were to wander and meet other females. legacy. What Rick saw play out over those
Main image: Mark Miller; Bison & pup: US National Park Service want you to say anything bad about him. His model of a responsible alpha male and a chair at Stony Brook University, New York.
happy to mate with him. People absolutely
years might be just the kinds of events that
ventually Casanova, along with
are the basis for magnanimity in wolves,
loved him. Especially women. Women
and at the heart of mercy in men.
would take one look at him – they didn’t
several young Druid males, met
some females and they formed the
Blacktail pack. “With them,” Rick
irresponsibility and infidelity; it didn’t matter.”
CARL SAFINA is an American
One day, Twenty-one discovered this E remembers, “he finally became the
ecologist, author and TV presenter
Casanova among his daughters. Twenty-one
who holds the ‘Nature and Humanity’
ran in, caught him and began pinning him
great father.” Meanwhile the mighty Druids
were ravaged by mange and diminished by
to the ground. Various pack members piled
interpack fighting; the last Druid was shot
in, beating up Casanova. “Casanova was also
This is an edited extract from
big,” Rick says, “but he was a bad fighter.
near Butte, Montana, in 2010. Casanova,
Beyond Words: What Animals Think
Now he was overwhelmed and the pack was
in a fight with a rival pack. But everyone
finally killing him. Suddenly Twenty-one
www.souvenirpress.co.uk.
BBC Wildlife
March 2018 though he’d been averse to fighting, died and Feel (Souvenir Press, £20 hb); 35

inFOCUS


RAINBOW



RIVER



Every year, deep in Colombia, a river is transformed
into a riot of colours reminiscent of the psychedelic
Sixties. SUSANNE MASTERS investigates.

IN FOCUS










The river’s dramatic
shift from green to
red, pink and yellow Olivier Grunewald
depends on bright
sunlight and pristine,
fast-flowing water.






































From July to December, Caño Cristales signed, that access improved dramatically. It’s
becomes a blaze of colour running through now easier than it has been for decades to see
shades of green, yellow, pink and red. No the miraculously colour-changing river.
wonder this Colombian watercourse has As areas like this open up in post-conflict
been called ‘Rainbow River’, ‘Liquid Rainbow’, Colombia, conserving biodiversity has
‘River of the Gods’ and the most beautiful come to be seen as both a challenge and
river in the world. The cause? An aquatic an opportunity to develop a new ‘green’
‘weed’ called Macarenia clavigera. economy that protects the environment.
The magical effect occurs when Macarenia No single-use bottles are allowed at Caño
grows in full sun with crystal-clear oxygenated Cristales and visitors’ packed lunches are
water rushing over it. In these conditions the wrapped in banana leaves, keeping the river
entire plant becomes vibrant raspberry-red, and its surrounds litter-free. Swimmers can
from its base where it clings to rocks to its enjoy a close view of Macarenia clavigera,
feathery tips that sway in the flow of water. but must not wear sun-cream or insect
But where it grows in dappled shade or repellent to avoid contaminating the water.
deeper water, the plant turns soft pink, green- Serranía de la Macarena National Park
leaved and red-stemmed or even yellowish. is the only place in the world where this
For many years, this legendary spectacle spectacular plant grows. But it is beauty
was inaccessible due to the conflict between protected at a price – $28 million, the amount
Farc guerrillas and the Colombian government. an oil company wants in compensation from
By 2009, government forces had gained the Colombian government after fracking
control of La Macarena, the nearest town rights it had acquired for nearby land were
to Caño Cristales, and as safety improved revoked in order to safeguard the park.
tourism began to grow. But it was not until O Susanne Masters writes about plants and
June 2017, when a peace accord was finally wild swimming; www.susannemasters.com

Highland FLING










The UK would be

the poorer without
sparring black
grouse to serve up

an unforgettable
wildlife spectacle,

and Ben Hoare
discovers that fire,

storms and messy
foresters are what

they need to thrive.





















Mark Hamblin/2020VISION/NPL Feathers fly as rival

blackcock square up
at their lek in the
Cairngorms National
Park. Note the inflated
red wattles, known as
combs, over each eye.
















38 BBC Wildlife March 2018

uzzy shapes materialise on the hillside
barely 20m away. It’s just gone 4am,
still dark and close to freezing, though
this is early May. Gradually, the ‘combs’ (swollen tissue that can be inflated at
smudges resolve into about two dozen will) resemble war paint.
male black grouse. They have gathered Then there’s the sound. No other British birds
F at their communal display ground, sound anything like black grouse. A constant soft
or lek, as they do every dawn, and this lek at the bubbling, which goes by the beautiful word ‘ro-
Glen Tanar estate next to Balmoral on Royal cooing’, rises and falls over the lek. My scribbled
Deeside is one of Britain’s biggest. notes record that it’s like the “hubbub of distant
The birds’ snow-white undertail coverts, fanned conversation”, “wind in sails” or “whipping
into absurdly flamboyant Elizabethan ruffs, shine ropes”, though this doesn’t begin to do it justice.
like beacons in the murk. Extra white splodges The ebb and flow of ro-cooing is punctuated
decorate their wings and shoulders. As the sun with uglier hisses, like raspy throat-clearing,
crests the horizon, it becomes possible to make and sudden flurries of wings as birds rearrange
out the difference between the jet black of each themselves or jump briefly into the air.
male’s face and belly and its gorgeous, indigo- All across the lek, blackcock – to use their
suffused neck and back. Over the eyes, crimson traditional name – are ro-cooing, pouting,
squaring up to one another, scurrying to new
positions to challenge different males. Their
movements back and forth appear somehow
synchronised, reminiscent of people fencing or
relaxing by practising Tai chi. In reality, lekking
is a serious business: the displaying males are

competing for females. Known as greyhens, these have
subtle, finely vermiculated plumage to avoid attracting
predators while incubating eggs among the heather and
guiding chicks during their vulnerable first two months.
Today, the greyhens pick their way through the lek
nervily, pausing occasionally to look up or preen. They’re
fertile just three weeks of the year, usually in May, and
seldom turn up at other times. Yet the males continue
their bravado blustering at daybreak most of the year,
always on the same arena of close-grazed grassland, only
calling a halt between early June and August.
In all I count an impressive 27 blackcock (a year earlier,
in 2016, 34 attended this lek) and 19 greyhens. Finally, by
5.50am, activity is petering out. One by one the grouse fly
Clockwise from top left: David Kjaer/naturepl.com; Chris Knights/rspb-images.com; Adri Hoogendijk/ Buiten-beeld/ Minden/Getty; Mark Hamblin/2020VISION/NPL; Alamy
up the sheltered valley or onto the nearby heathery moor
to start feeding, though to avoid disturbance I stay in my
tiny hide for another two hours before Colin McClean,
Glen Tanar’s wildlife manager, bounces up the track in his
Land Rover to collect me. He says I’ve just seen roughly
40 per cent of the estate’s black grouse population. Clockwise from
top left: females,
called greyhens,
SPARRING MATCHES
are beautifully
Many ornithologists have studied the fascinating sexual camouflaged; a
powerplay at leks – various North American grouse also greyhen inspects
display competitively, as do great bustards, waders such a lek in spring;
as ruff and an array of tropical birds worldwide, including the grouse feed in
trees and shrubs
manakins, cock-of-the-rock, birds-of-paradise and some
at certain times;
hummingbirds. (Kob antelopes, hammer-headed fruit one of Archibald
bats and certain fish, bees and flies lek too.) In some Thorburn’s many
species of bird that lek, sound is more important than classic paintings
of leks, from 1901.
visual theatrics: thrush-sized screaming pihas have dull
brown plumage, instead sparring with explosive whistles
that reverberate through the South American rainforest
like polyphonic mobile ring tones.
Until recently, it was assumed that blackcock holding fitter individuals can improve their own, otherwise poor,
territories near the centre of a display ground achieved odds of mating. Perhaps they benefit by association,
most couplings, but mate choice might be more complex or maybe they get lucky with females that escape the
than that. It seems top attention of dominant males busy bickering.
males may be successful NO OTHER BRITISH BIRDS Before heading to Royal Deeside, I visit the Corrimony
whichever spots they RSPB reserve near Glen Affric, on the other side of the
occupy, with some SOUND ANYTHING LIKE mighty Cairngorm massif. At first light its site manager
managing to retain their Simon McLaughlin shows me two of the reserve’s six
popularity from year to BLACK GROUSE. A SOFT black grouse leks, and explains that he does a full count of
year. Meanwhile, according the males twice a year. He recorded 37 on his first survey
to the ‘spatial spillover BUBBLING RISES AND of 2017, with 45 his maximum the previous year. “This is
hypothesis’, lower-ranking a fabulous area for the species,” he smiles. “Three other
males that stick near these FALLS OVER THE LEK. leks are within walking distance of my home. Once I
40 BBC Wildlife March 2018

BLACK GROUSE































found a rackelhahn, a black grouse–capercaillie hybrid.”
Sadly ‘capers’ have since died out around here, with most
now in forests near Aviemore in the Cairngorms.
“Leks are a bit like that old nightclub cliché,” continues
Simon. “Women at the edge of the dancefloor, a bit coy at
first, eyeing up the talent… it’s a lads night out, all chests
puffed-out and shoulders back. You can imagine the male
grouse going: ‘Well, well, here we are again, let’s get stuck
in then.’ When I take parties of birdwatchers to see our
leks, they can’t help imagining the birds with Newcastle
HOW TO SEE A BLACK GROUSE LEK accents. Not very politically correct, I know!”

WHEN TO GO O A lek can be watched from a new TESTOSTERONE AND TROPHIES
Lekking grouse are easily disturbed, drystone viewing ‘butt’ at the Coire Since the male grouse are usually related, a lek is actually
so watch from a vehicle or hide, na Ciste car park on the CairnGorm more like a dysfunctional family bust-up. “They probably
ideally on a tour. Most trips take place Mountain road (grid ref NH998073). come from four or five generations,” says Simon. “Males
at dawn in March–May, but leks are For more details, search ‘Dates with tend not to move far in their lifetimes, whereas females
active all year except summer. Follow Nature’ at www.rspb.org.uk can travel 30–40km.” But with the lekking birds putting
the birder’s code of conduct: www. so much energy into their testosterone-fuelled rituals,
blackgrouse.info/forbirdwatchers NORTH ENGLAND one wonders why they don’t catch the eye of predators.
O Wild North Discovery (www. “The answer is they do!” Simon says. “I have seen a male
SCOTLAND natureholiday.co.uk/birdwatching. peregrine take a lekking male. It was brutal.”
O Highland wildlife tour operators html; 01388 529154) offers private Whenever the demands of managing a large RSPB
that visit grouse leks include Aigas tours to a lek in Teesdale, County reserve permit, Simon likes to get away from his garden
(www.aigas co.uk; 01463 782443), Durham, from £100 for four people. office to watch his beloved grouse. “There’s so much
Glenloy Wildlife (www.glenloywildlife. O Cumbria’s RSPB Geltsdale we still don’t know about them, and I enjoy questioning
co.uk; 01397 712700), Heatherlea reserve organises black grouse established facts. For example, black grouse in the UK
(www.heatherlea.co.uk; 01479 viewing in late March and April; are all supposed to occur below 400m. But I’ve spotted
821248) and Speyside Wildlife (email [email protected]; a male up on the skyline at around 680m. At first I
(www.speysidewildlife.co.uk; 01697 746717). thought it was a ptarmigan, which of course is the grouse
01479 812498). normally associated with the high tops.”
O Glen Tanar is a Royal Deeside NORTH WALES Male black grouse in their full finery, complete with
estate with a very big lek observable From March to May the RSPB unique lyre-shaped tails, are spectacular creatures – small
wonder they became a popular subject for majestic oil
from a small private hide (£100 per runs guideed trips to a hide at won d er t h ey b ecame a
person). Other photographic hides Coed Llandegla Forest, paintings by artists specialising in the Highlands,
may be available for species such as near Wrexham, such as Archib a ald Thorburn, who worked from the
his death in 1935. Blackcock were
golden eagle and peregrine, as well though vieews 1880s until h
as half-day Land Rover safaris (www. can be disstant; popular to o o with sportsmen, and hunting for
i
glentanar.co.uk; 01339 886451). (email Verra. trophies is partly to blame for the species’
O Northshots, run by pro wildlife McCarthyy@ massive decline in both range and numbers
photographer Peter Cairns, offers rspb.org.uuk; over th e past century.
sessions in photographic hides in the 029 20355 On c ce, black grouse could be seen in
ble places across much of the British
Highlands (www.northshots.com). 3008). suitab
Isles, , on lowland commons and heaths
March 2018 BBC Wildlife 41

4


5







2


4



4





1 6













3





3










as well as on higher ground. They clung on in Somerset’s Surprisingly, black grouse remain a legal quarry in Far right: males
Quantock Hills until as late as the 1960s. John Gooders’ Britain – the season runs from 20 August to 10 December have lyre-shaped
tails. Below: the
classic book Where to Watch Birds, published in 1967 and – though given their scarcity as a Red-listed species of
birds’ diet includes
revised in 1974, mentions black grouse at Exmoor and conservation concern, few people choose to target them berries of rowan,
RSPB Coombs Valley in Staffordshire, though notes for nowadays. Some greyhens may be shot accidentally, hawthorn and
the former area that “watchers particularly anxious to see mistaken for red grouse. However, the only significant bilberry (shown).
Ltd/Alamy; tail: Paul Hobson/FLPA; bilberry: Bob Gibbons/Alamy Illustration by Stuart Jackson-Carter; flying: Paul R. Sterry/Nature Photographers in 1986, black grouse had vanished from most of these LANDSCAPE CHANGES
hunting now takes places elsewhere in the species’
black grouse are advised to look elsewhere. There are very
few on Exmoor.” The species was also listed for Cheshire’s
European range, for example in Scandinavia.
Dane Valley and Derbyshire’s Goyt Valley.
By the time the New Where to Watch Birds came out
But it wasn’t guns so much as dramatic changes in
the landscape that did for the grouse. Worst has
locations; the sole Welsh site given was Lake Vyrnwy
arguably been the post-war afforestation
RSPB reserve. The retreat continued into the 1990s and
beyond. Today, black grouse occur in only a few regions
of uplands with conifers, the drying out
of Wales and northern England, with their stronghold
of naturally boggy land by digging drains
in Scotland’s Highlands. A 2005 survey put the Scottish
and the widescale replacement of rough,
population at just 3,344 lekking males, and found 1,521 in
of rye grass to support higher stocking
England and 213 in Wales. They’re holding their own or
increasing in some places, still disappearing in others.
densities of sheep. Black grouse, it seems,
42 BBC Wildlife tussocky grazing with more uniform areas March 2018

BLACK GROUSE





5



WHAT DO BLACK
GROUSE NEED?

Complex mosaics of habitats are
ideal, with contrasting open and
forested, damp and drier areas.


1. SHORT GRASSLAND
Black grouse lek on close-grazed
areas with no fences and good views
of their surroundings. They like
unimproved pasture, such as the ‘in-
bye’ fields on upland farms, just below
the open hill.
2. HEATHER
Heather, especially over 40cm tall,
is used for roosting and by females
sitting on eggs and guarding chicks.
Heather shoots are also a winter food.
4 But solid blocks of ‘blanket’ heather
moorland stop chicks moving around.
of the non-native trees and opened up the forest. Then
3. BOGGY ZONES in 2015 we had a major storm that flattened trees like
From February to April, females fatten matchsticks. Rewilding on a grand scale!”
up on cotton-grass buds; in summer, Simon’s deliberate rewilding at Corrimony includes
chicks are led there to hunt insects; teaching forestry contractors, instead of extracting
and in late summer and autumn the conifers neatly, to be: “a bit clumsy. I ask them to swing
grouse eat rush and sedge seeds. their machines around to splinter and half-topple trees. I
want the guys to make a mess of it,” Simon laughs.
4. MIXED TREES He is also busy blocking drains. “This will benefit the
Unlike their red relatives, black grouse grouse, and as the reserve will hold onto more water, the
feed in trees. Larch, Scots pine, birch, rivers Enrick and Coiltie downstream will be less prone to
rowan and hawthorn are all important, flash floods. So people in nearby valleys should benefit too.”
but commercial conifers are avoided. Perhaps the trickiest problem is red deer. “Browsing
by deer stops saplings spreading, and it is younger, open
5. FOREST EDGE forest that black grouse prefer. So we cull some deer,
Where more light reaches the about 40 annually, and use fences. But then grouse fly
ground along forest edges or in into the deer fences. Now I’m marking them to reduce
clearings, black grouse feed on the collisions. As wardens, our job is to manipulate habitats.
are fussy birds with specific needs. rich growth of bilberry, cowberry and If something doesn’t work, we stroke our chins, then try
“They require a patchwork quilt other shrubs. something else. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
of habitats,” explains Simon, “and Glen Tanar also offers hope. It’s a Highland sporting
rely on different areas at different 6. SHELTERED GROUND estate – the Honourable Jean Bruce, mother of current
times since their diet changes In gullies and hollows, grouse feed on owner Michael, played with the Queen at Balmoral as a
seasonally. Sometimes they feed the seeds of grasses and herbs and child. But Michael has dared to diversify, promoting
in trees – on birch buds in winter, strip the buds and berries of shrubs. ecotourism while retaining traditional income streams
larch buds in April and May, the such as salmon fishing, deer stalking and grouse shooting.
pollen of Scots pine in June, and Scots pines, birch and rowan are allowed to encroach on
rowan and hawthorn berries in autumn. What we refer to the heather moor. Foxes and corvids are controlled, other
as ‘edge habitats’ are key, for instance where forest meets predators celebrated. Around 10 species of owl and raptor
a grassy area, damp hollow or heathery moor. The birds now breed, including golden eagle, peregrine, merlin and
love clearings and recently felled or planted forest, and a sometimes hen harrier. And black grouse flourish.
mix of tree species.”
Funnily enough, in June 1997 it was an angler’s cigar + FIND OUT MORE BEN HOARE is
that first gave black grouse a much-needed boost in the Chris Watson records a black BBC Wildlife's
Corrimony area. “It sparked a huge forest fire that burned grouse lek for BBC Radio 4’s Features Editor,
Soundstage: www.bbc.co.uk/
for days,” says Simon. “We would never do anything like and also writes the monthly
programmes/b07cykc8
that, but it was fantastic for the grouse. It cleared out a lot Highlights section (p8–9).
March 2018 BBC Wildlife 43

Don’t miss
ANIMALS
BEHAVING BADLY
Coming soon in April






































































Misunderstood mammals:
spotted hyenas have a
reputation as being sly and
cowardly, but are in fact
intelligent hunters with a
remarkable social system.

and


























Photos by Will Burrard-Lucas
Spotted hyenas are
bucking the trend for

large carnivores being
in decline. Niki Rust

explores why.

SPOTTED HYENAS











































AS I WHOOPED INTO THE KRUGER

NIGHT, A SOLITARY HYENA CAME
TROTTING OVER, RIGHT ON CUE.



Even when ou don’t often get to eat dinner next to one Hyenas have a bad reputation – but do they deserve it?
alone, a spotted of Africa’s most ferocious predators. The As intelligent, highly social creatures, spotted hyenas have
hyena keeps tantalising smell of roasting meat from found a way to adapt to life in the African savannah like
in touch with
other members numerous barbecues had lured several no other animal. While many large carnivore populations
of its clan with of the impressive mammals to our South are declining globally, spotted hyenas do not seem to have
whoops, yells African tourist camp, and they prowled suffered quite so significantly. I wanted to find out why.
and a manic outside looking for an easy meal. So what
cackle, which
gave rise to its Yis a naive wildlife conservationist to do ADAPT TO SUCCEED
other name, when faced with the prospect of eating her butternut Spotted hyenas have been given a ‘Least Concern’
laughing hyena. squash in the presence of a spotted hyena? Invite it to tea, classification by the IUCN, with a total population anywhere
of course. I just had to figure out how to communicate in between 27,000 and 47,000 strong, making them the most
the language of Crocuta crocuta. abundant large carnivores in Africa. There are a number
A light bulb went on in my head: I remembered learning of possible reasons why they’re faring relatively well. It
that repeated short whoops are a hyena rally call when an could be because of their highly social clan life, though that
individual needs back-up from the rest of its clan. As I wouldn’t explain why they are doing better than equally
whooped into the blackness of the Kruger night, a solitary social lions or African wild dogs. Alternatively, it could be
hyena came trotting over, right on cue. Even though I down to a superior way of hunting, or because they’re more
knew there was a impassable, chain-linked fence between adaptable than other social large carnivores. I needed to
us, a deep sense of bewilderment came over me as this speak to some predator experts to learn more.
formidable 60kg carnivore stared at me from just 2m away. Amy Dickman, a lion conservationist in Oxford
It’s never a good idea to feed any wild animal, University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit
particularly ones that can crunch through bones the way (WildCRU), explains that lions hunt by stalking followed
squirrels eat nuts, so I did not share my veggie meal by a quick chase. “You will see lions give up a hunt fairly
with my wild companion. Instead, we sat there for a few easily if the initial charge is unsuccessful, while hyenas
moments trying to figure each other out. As I gazed into continue chasing prey at speed for long distances – often
the hyena’s dark brown eyes, I couldn’t help but think several kilometres – and wearing it down,” she says. This
that this magnificent creature deserved a lot more respect might be significant.
than we currently give its kind. Spotted hyenas are built for endurance. Their huge
46 BBC Wildlife March 2018

Spotted hyenas
trot past marabou
storks. Right: females are
responsible for raising cubs.
Cubs leave the den at
nine to 12 months old.
Left: the spotted hyena is
dog-like in appearance.






























Cooperation can improve the
hunting success of spotted
hyenas – but this depends
on prey availability.

SPOTTED HYENAS CAN

ACTUALLY OUTCOMPETE
CHIMPANZEES IN SOME

COGNITIVE CHALLENGES.




































hearts, accounting for up to one per cent of their body carnivores, as African wild dogs are arguably better at Above: the
weight, are comparably far heavier than those of lions, hunting. There must be more to it than that. spotted hyena is
which make up only 0.5 per cent. This is what enables Adaptability may come into it. The likelihood of named after its
dark spots, which
hyenas to run long distances without getting tired. So the hunting success increases when spotted hyenas work
fade with age.
first clue as to why spotted hyenas are faring better than together as a team, but because they can also hunt alone Below: African
lions could be that they have a different hunting tactic, and don’t necessarily depend on each other, this makes wild dogs rely
in part due to their physiology. them more flexible. They can take down larger prey such heavily on the
rest of their pack
Fans of African wild dogs may at this point be thinking as wildebeest and zebras when hunting as a group, and
when hunting,
that an endurance chase is exactly the style of hunting when hunting alone switch to targeting smaller prey – whereas hyenas
that these canids use. Packs of wild dogs can run for impala and springbok, for example. can hunt alone or
miles without getting tired. Like a relay race, lead sprinters The highly social nature of spotted hyenas could be collectively to
will run in front for a while, then will be replaced by helping to sustain their populations in other ways too, since take down prey.
other pack members when they become tired, as seen to they seem to be immune to many diseases. Having built up
dramatic effect a while ago in BBC One’s The Hunt. some resistance to rabies, canine distemper, anthrax and
streptococcus, they do not suffer from disease outbreaks as
JOINT EFFORT much as African wild dogs and lions. “Spotted hyenas that
nsity and constantly interact through
Wild dogs also depend heavily on the rest of their pack live at a high density and constantly interact through
when it comes to hunting. Although spotted hyenas live exchanging saliva, keep each other’s immune systems
va, keep each other’s immune systems
of antibodies,” says Arjun Dheer,
in big groups, they hunt alone or in clusters of two or boosted and full of antibodies,” says Arjun Dheer,
t the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and
three, whereas wild dogs invariably work as a pack to take a hyena expert at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and
down large prey. Teamwork is the key to why wild dogs Wildlife Research. “This can offer a protective effect
ch. “This can offer a protective effect
are so successful at hunting. against pathogens.”
ns.”
Hyenas have yet another trick up their sleeve. Zazu
yet another trick up their sleeve. Zazu
“Wild dogs are generally considered the most the hornbill may have described them as “slobbering,
successful hunters,” says Dani Rabaiotti of the Zoological
y have described them as “slobbering,
African wild dog: Tony Heald/naturepl.com success rates of 40 per cent when taking down adult research is showing just how clever they are. Professor
oachers” in The Lion King, but new
Society of London, an expert on the species. “They have
g
mangy, stupid poachers” in The Lion King, but new
g
wing just how clever they are. Professor
wildebeest. This is higher than spotted hyenas that
of Michigan State University has been
Kay Holekamp of Michigan State University has been
have a hunting success rate of around 30–35 per cent.
studying spotted hyenas for over two decades and
d hyenas for over two decades and
Even when lions hunt in groups, their hit rate is usually
hat the species is in certain respects
has discovered that the species is in certain respects
as intelligent as primates. Spotted hyenas actually
primates. Spotted hyenas actually
thought to be only around 30 per cent.”
mpanzees in some cognitive
So it can’t just be the spotted hyenas’ hunting tactics
outcompete chimpanzees in some cognitive
that leave them better off than the continent’s other large
en given a team task where two
2
20
20
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
20
2
2
2
20
2
20
2
20
20
2
20
2
2
20
2
20
2
2
2
2
2
2
20
20
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
20
20
2
2
20
2
2
20
2
2
2
2
2
20
2
2
20
2
2
20
2
20
2
2
20
20
20
20
2
20
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
2
2
2
2
2
20
20
2
2
2
2
20
2
20
20
2
2
2
20
2
2
2
20
2
20
2
h
20
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
20
20
20
2
2
2
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
0
01
01
0
01
0
0
01
01
0
8
0
8
8
8
0
0
01
0
0
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
0
0
0
0
01
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
01
01
01
0
01
01
0
01
01
0
0
01
01
2
2
2
0
0
0
01
0
0
0
0
01
01
0
01
01
0
0
01
0
0
01
01
0
0
01
01
0
0
0
0
01
01
0
01
0
0
0
01
0
0
0
0
01
01
0
0
01
0
0
01
0
0
01
01
01
h
a
a
a
a
ar
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
ar
a
a
a
ar
ar
a
ar
ar
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
ar
a
a
a
ar
a
ar
a
a
a
c
c
c
c
ch
c
c
c
c
c
ch
c
c
ch
c
c
ch
c
ch
ch
a
a
ar
a
a
a
ar
a
ar
ar
ch
a
c
ch
ch
ar
a
a
a
ar
ar
M Mar
Mar
M M M M Ma
Mar
Ma
M M M M M Ma
M Mar
Mar
M M M M M M M M M M Mar
Mar
Ma
Ma
Mar
Mar
Ma
Mar
Ma
Mar
Ma
Ma
M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M
Ma
Mar
Ma
Ma
M Mar
Mar
M M M Mar
Mar
M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M Ma
M M M M Mar
Ma
Mar
M M M Mar
Mar
Ma
Ma
Mar
M M M M M M M M M M Ma
M M M Ma
Mar
Mar
Mar
Ma
Ma
Mar
Mar
Ma
Ma
Mar
Mar
Mar
Ma
a
ar
a
Ma
Mar
Ma
Ma
Ma
M Ma
Mar
Ma
Ma
Ma
Mar
Mar
M Ma
Mar
Ma
Mar
M Ma
Ma
Ma
Ma
Ma
Ma
Ma
M M M M Ma
March 2018
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
ch
c
ch
c
ch
c
c
c
c
c
h
h
h
h
h
ch
c
c
ch
c
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
h
c
c
c
c
c
c
c
ch
c
c
c
ch
ch
ch
c
ch
ch
c
c
c
c
c
ch
ch
ch
ch
c
c
c
c
c
c
c
c
c
c
ch
ch
ch
c
ch
ch
c
ch
c
ch
c
c
ch
c
ch
c
ch
ch
c
ch
c
c
c
c
c
c
c
c
c
ch
c
c
ch
c
c
c
ch
ch
ch
c
c
c
c
c
ch
c
48 BBC Wildlife challenges. When given a team task where two Ma r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r ch 2 01 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8

UNLOVED AND

UNDERSTUDIED


Spotted hyenas have long been the underdogs of the
predator world. Not only are they bottom of the list of
large carnivores that tourists want to see on safari, but
they’re also less studied. Carnivore biologist Stephanie
Dolrenry feels that this could be because wild felids and
canids, such as lions, cheetahs and African wild dogs,
feel more familiar to us, whereas hyenas are pretty
odd looking. “Their morphology is ‘weird’, with females
having very male-like genitalia,” she says. Admittedly, the
populations of lions, cheetahs and wild dogs are lower
and in more trouble but, even so, the disparity is striking.

SPOTTED HYENA VS SPOTTED LION
AFRICAN LION HYENA

Above: spotted
Scientific journal articles 1,300 2,320
hyenas live
published in 2016
in clans and
frequently
Research/national conservation 8 26 hunt in groups.
Right and below:
projects in 2017
the species is well-
known for being
International conservation 1 9 a scavenger but
organisations working on is also an adept
the species hunter, capable
of bringing down
a wildebeest.

individuals must work together to tug two ropes to obtain a
food reward, the hyenas cooperated and problem-solved far
better than non-human primates.
And spotted hyenas can even count. If you play them
unfamiliar whooping calls, they respond differently to the
sound of one, two or three individuals. Some researchers
think they can even count up to six or seven. This skill may
help hyenas to judge the size of non-familiar groups to tell
whether it’s worth trying to steal a kill.

CITY SLICKERS
What about diet? Here too, spotted hyenas prove more
adaptable than lions or African wild dogs, having been seen
eating a vast array of animals ranging from tortoises to
young elephants. Such a flexible diet helps them to thrive
in many different habitats. They’ve even colonised the
Ethiopian city of Harar, scaveng
Ethiopian city of Harar, scavenging livestock carcasses.
As spotted hyenas are among only a few species in Africa
As spotted hyenas are among
able to break open bones, they play an important role in
able to break open bones, they
ecosystems. Their powerful jaws can bite through a zebra’s
ecosystems. Their powerful jaw
femur with ease. But they don’t just suck out the nutritious
femur with ease. But they don’t
marrow – they also consume so
marrow – they also consume some of the bone itself, which
is excreted as a white powder. T
is excreted as a white powder. This bone-crunching helps
to dispose of carcasses and enables other scavengers and
to dispose of carcasses and ena
decomposers to reach otherwise inaccessible parts of the
decomposers to reach otherwis
anatomy so that entire carcasse
anatomy so that entire carcasses are utilised and recycled.
Spotted hyenas also scavenge
Spotted hyenas also scavenge, albeit not quite as much
as legends suggest. It was once
as legends suggest. It was once thought that the species
relied on scavenging lion kills,
relied on scavenging lion kills, but this was disproven in the
1970s when naturalist Hans Kr
1970s when naturalist Hans Kruuk showed that it’s actually
the lions doing most of the stealing. Play recordings of
the lions doing most of the
hyenas eating to lions and the big cats will stop
hyenas eating to lion
BBC Wildlife 49

HYENA HEARING IS SO
WELL ATTUNED THEY CAN

HEAR PREDATORS KILLING
PREY UP TO 10KM AWAY.
































what they’re doing to follow the sound to see if they can Above: vultures versus the size of their group. Lion kills are only pillaged
pilfer food. In Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Crater, hyena kills help hyenas and when they outnumber the cats 4:1, but they won’t risk it if
other species to
are the main source of food for some lion prides. male lions are present. They can expel any cheetah from a
find a meal. The
Though their reputation as idle scavengers is kill, but are more careful around African wild dog packs.
tell-tale circling of
undeserved, hyenas nevertheless won’t turn down a free the birds shows The ability of spotted hyenas to gauge whether they can
meal. During the day they will scan the horizon, looking the carnivores steal someone else’s dinner proved to be an important
for circling vultures. Their hearing is so well attuned to where to locate lesson while I was on safari in South Africa. As we
dead animals.
the sound of death that they can hear predators killing finished off our ‘sundowners’ in beautiful Sabi Sands
prey or feeding off carcasses up to 10km away. Game Reserve, we were packing up to head back to camp.
Having located a carcass, the hyenas will assess if there’s Before leaving, a guest decided to use the ‘bush toilet’.
a chance of ousting the current diners. They base their Suddenly I noticed a spotted hyena appear from behind
calculations on the type and number of rival predators a rock. The nosy creature started to make a beeline for
the poor lady, by now mid-pee. Gathering some troops
together, we began to walk towards her, shouting and
CRUNCH TIME waving our hands. Thankfully, the hyena saw that it was
too risky to take down this woman now that she had
There are many myths about spotted hyenas and the back-up from another 10 members of her pack. Lesson
misconception that they’ve got the strongest bite of learned: when you’re in the land of hyenas and are
all predators is one of those. As hyena expert Arjun caught with your pants down, make sure a big group of
Dheer says: “Their bite force is less than that of lions, friends has got your back.
tigers and saltwater crocodiles, but it’s their unique So a winning blend of brains and brawn seems to be the
morphology that allows them to consume bones.” secret of spotted hyenas’ success. They outcompete more
A spotted hyena’s skull has a ‘sagittal crest’ running adept hunters like African wild dogs by sheer brute
along the top – a bit like a bony mohawk – which the strength, while faring better than lions because they’re
body-builder jaw and neck muscles attach to. more adaptable and better able to live alongside humans.
s
e
Combined with wide premolar teeth, these Far from being “mangy poachers”, spotted hyenas suffer
m
the
olar teeth,
adaptations together help create bone- less from disease than many large predators, have complex
p create bone-
crunching jaw strength. problem-solving abilities and are more proficient hunters
than lions. And for that I think they deserve our respect.
Hyena skulls have a NIKI RUST works on + FIND OUT MORE
prominent sagittal
Skull: Beth Windle crest. This skull is from conflict at WWF; wwf.panda.org. Spotted hyena research
carnivore conservation
a male found dead after
in Tanzania: https://
and human-wildlife
taking on a buffalo.
hyena-project.com
50 BBC Wildlife March 2018