Home/Science/BBC Wildlife Magazine/August 2024/In This Issue
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024ON THE BBC THIS MONTHSecrets of Antarctica’s Giants Don’t miss this dip into the icy waters of this precious wilderness, following a team of scientists as they track and monitor the humpback whales that travel thousands of miles to feed here. Catch up on BBC iPlayer Mammals Another chance to enjoy this epic, six-part BBC One series narrated by Sir David Attenborough, which reveals how mammals have conquered Earth and uncovers the secrets of their success. Catch up on BBC iPlayer The Infinite Monkey Cage In the episode released on 11 July, Brian Cox and Robin Ince discuss the wonder of trees with guests Dame Judi Dench, who has created her own wood, Tony Kirkham, former head of Kew Arboretum, and navigator Tristan Gooley. Catch up on BBC Sounds Keep in touch wildlifemagazine@ourmedia.co.uk instagram.com/bbcwildlifemagazine…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024wild TIMESPRETTY IN PINK Lesser flamingos gather in vast numbers to feed in the shallows of Lake Logipi in Kenya, drawn by the bacteria and algae thriving in the soda lake’s salty, alkaline waters. This image shows just a fraction of the birds assembled and is nominated in the Drone Photography category of the Siena Awards Festival 2024. CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’ California sealions bask in the sunlight just beneath the surface of the Sea of Cortez, Mexico. Photographer Henley Spiers has deliberately composed the image upside-down, so the animals seem to be frolicking in the shallows. The perspective not only gives a dreamy quality, but showcases the grace and “effortlessly contorted positions” of these graceful marine mammals.…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024Vital habitats put in peril by drug tradeCOCAINE, AS IS WIDELY understood, isn’t very good for people. It’s an addictive drug, bad for your health, illegal and expensive. And it’s not great for human society, either. However, the impact of cocaine trafficking on the environment is only occasionally considered. Now, scientists in the USA have looked at how enforcement policies impact the way cocaine traffickers operate, and the effects this has on those areas of Central America that provide habitat for forest-living birds. The scientists found that, following cocaine seizures and other antinarcotics operations, the five most important forest areas within Central America became much more suitable for trafficking activity. Cocaine smuggling can lead to deforestation for a number of reasons, the study in Nature Sustainability reveals. There can be illegal construction of roads and landing strips…2 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024Big cat DNA found on sheep carcassFOR YEARS, THERE HAVE BEEN RUMOURS that big cats are living wild in Britain. Now, for the first time, the DNA of a big cat (belonging to the Panthera genus) has been positively identified on a carcass – a sheep in the Lake District. The analysis was carried out by Professor Robin Allaby from the University of Warwick, who set up a big cat DNA testing service 12 years ago. According to Allaby, it is usually difficult to lift DNA from carcass swabs, but there was no doubt in this case. “Until now, I’ve remained open-minded; that’s my job as a scientist,” he says. “This discovery makes me a convert [to the existence of nonnative big cats in the UK].” Allaby has previously identified part of a claw, found in…2 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024Invasive spiders spreadBAD NEWS FOR ARACHNOPHOBES IN America, as a giant East Asian spider is predicted to significantly expand its range on the USA’s east coast. The joro spider (Trichonephila clavata), a largebodied orbweaver measuring 2.8cm long, with yellow-banded legs, has been in the USA since around 2010. It is thought to have arrived in a shipping container, a common route for invasive insect species. Since being initially spotted in Georgia, the joro has already spread to at least four other south-eastern states, and is set to move further north, according to new research by scientists, including David Coyle at Clemson University in South Carolina. Using species distribution models from crowd-sourced data, Coyle and his team predict the joro will eventually be found throughout eastern North America and in areas of the…2 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024GILLIAN BURKE“STUDYING A SINGLE ADULT barnacle, as if staring into the dark crater of a miniature volcano, is utterly absorbing. At first glance, this strange yet familiar marine creature appears to be a close relation of its bivalve molluscan neighbours, by virtue of sharing the same intertidal rockface, but in fact it has far more in common with marauding crabs and lobsters. For now, the ‘crater’ is sealed shut by two watertight plates that conceal and protect the interior. As the tide turns, the animal sheltering within begins to stir as the two calcareous sliding doors open and feathery legs (cirri), poke out, tentatively sampling for food particles, waving as if beckoning the observer to enter its Lilliputian world. This is the sort of scene I imagined was also holding the…3 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024MARK CARWARDINEI CELAND’S APPALLING DECISION TO RESUME whaling this summer came as a bolt from the blue. The shocking announcement followed months of hopeful speculation, after last year’s hunt was temporarily put on hold due to significant welfare issues. The country’s last remaining whaling company, Hvalur hf, has been granted a licence to kill up to 128 fin whales this summer. It’s devastating news for the planet’s second largest animal, which is still recovering from the ravages of more than one and a half centuries of commercial whaling. At least 915,000 fin whales have been killed worldwide – and they are listed as vulnerable to extinction on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It looked as if Iceland had hung up its harpoons for good – we were on the…3 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024LOOK CLOSEREnjoy your breakfast The blooms tend to be at their best from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, so you don’t need to rush to get out early. You might also want to find something else to keep you occupied on heavily overcast or rainy days, as these ‘fair-weather’ flowers prefer to keep their heads down during bad weather. Roadside reserves Large sections of Namaqualand are still heavily grazed by cattle and have been largely stripped of their floral interest. However, road verges are usually protected by fencing and as a result can produce some of the best flower displays. Pebble plants Looking more like stones for most of the year, hence their name, these specialised succulents burst into flower following the rains. They tend to have two fused leaves above ground that…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024What did they eat?THERE ARE THREE MAIN GROUPS OF dinosaurs. Very generally, ornithischians and sauropods were plant-eaters while theropods were meat-eaters (this is a legacy of evolutionary history, similar to how today’s hoofed animals are herbivores and cats are carnivores). But there are many exceptions, so how do scientists know what a species ate? Although the contents of the gut or dung can provide clues to diet, the best evidence usually comes from studying teeth and jaws. Omnivorous dinosaurs had a combination of sharp and blunt tooth types: pointed for piercing and cutting; rounded for pounding and crushing. Just as mammals can have incisors, canines and molars, dinosaur teeth had a variety of forms, too – such as leaf, cone and pegshaped. While early dinosaurs such as Plateosaurus (‘broad lizard’) were often generalists,…2 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024Could dinosaurs swim?YES. MOST GROUPS WERE PROBABLY competent swimmers, or at least waders. That’s because buoyancy is determined by body density, not weight, so even a massive dinosaur would be able to float (thanks to air sacs in their pneumatic bones). Sauropods left impressions of their forelimbs – but not hind legs – on river beds, implying that they pulled themselves along through the water. According to computer models that predict how dinosaurs floated, a sauropod could keep its back and tail above the surface, but may have been like an unstable cork, vulnerable to keeling over. Given that elephants (similar shape but more dense) are surprisingly good swimmers, it’s possible that sauropods were, too. One family of dinosaurs that probably couldn’t swim is ceratopsians. In the computer simulations, the anatomy and…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024What did dinosaurs sound like?FOR MANY DINOSAURS, WE JUST DON’T know. Whether an animal makes noise depends on factors like diet and social interactions. Did T. rex roar like a lion? While it stayed silent and stealthy as a hunter, it may also have needed to scare away scavengers trying to steal a kill or advertise its presence to a potential mate. But vocal communication would have been very useful for species living in herds. One family certainly made sounds: hadrosaurs. These duck-billed dinosaurs had breathing tubes passing through a crest made of nasal bones. This is prominent on Parasaurolophus (‘like ridged-lizard’), whose long crest sweeps back along the top of its head. In the 1980s, palaeontologist David Weishampel followed the path of airflow through a skull and predicted that the hadrosaur sounded like…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024Which dino had the longest neck?Of all the long-necked sauropods, the one with the longest was Mamenchisaurus (‘horse-gate brook lizard’). It had a neck 15m long, roughly half its total body length, containing more vertebrae than in any other sauropod (over 15 instead of a dozen or so). This would have let the dinosaur browse from the highest trees, and one of its discoverers suggests that Mamenchisaurus might have used its extended feature for ‘necking’ --– as seen in giraffes, when males swing their necks to land blows in fights over territory or mates, or for sexual display.…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024Grand tour1 CAMARGUE, FRANCE Mediterranean wetlands safeguarded by private research institute Tour du Valat 2 IBERIAN HIGHLANDS, SPAIN Rewilding Spain is helping the wildlife and local people of these rugged mountains 3 GREATER CÔA VALLEY, PORTUGAL Rewilding Portugal is improving this natural corridor, home to Iberian lynx 4 GROTE NETEWOUD, BELGIUM Nature organisation Natuurpunt is allowing water to flow back into the forest 5 MEUSE VALLEY, THE NETHERLANDS An unlikely collaboration between miners and ecologists is rewilding a river 6 LILLE VILDMOSE, DENMARK Northwestern Europe’s largest raised bog is being restored for the future 7 LIFE LYNX, SLOVENIA A transboundary initiative is saving these endangered felines in the Dinaric Alps 8 CENTRAL APENNINES, ITALY Wolves, bears and crayfish are being conserved with the help of businesses 9 VELEBIT MOUNTAINS, CROATIA Rewilding…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024MONKEY AROUNDSILVER SPRINGS State Park is a 1,895ha Florida gem, where springfed waters meander amid thick forests. It’s a lush natural oasis that a host of wildlife calls home, from iconic species such as the Florida manatee and American alligator, to a plethora of birds, turtles and fish. But there’s also another creature living wild here that you wouldn’t expect to encounter in any forest in the USA, a species usually associated with the temples of Nepal or the forests of South East Asia. It’s the rhesus macaque, which has thrived in Silver Springs for an astonishing 80 years. Depending on who you ask, these monkeys are either a wondrous addition to the park or an invasive primate species that simply shouldn’t be there. Many of the details surrounding why and…8 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024SNAP-CHATHow did your career start? I’ve been interested in wildlife since I was a child. For my 7th birthday, I asked for – and was given – a pair of binoculars. I used them to observe the buzzards, hares and deer that lived nearby. I enjoyed the sightings so much that I wanted to photograph them, so I used my mother’s camera. Then I realised that photography is quite an expensive hobby, so I decided to sell some photos. I sold my first photo when I was 14. You’ve spent a lot of time in India. What is it about this country that appeals? India is now considered to have the largest human population in the world. Yet the biodiversity is still spectacular – almost no mammal species have been…3 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024Big Cats 24/7ON SALE22nd AUGUST In this ambitious new series for BBC Two, an elite camera team spends six months following the lives of the lions, cheetahs and leopards that roam Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Don’t miss our behind-the-scenes special from executive producer Tom Jarvis and series producer Rowan Crawford, who share the highs, lows and immense challenges of following these predators around the clock.…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024Life coachingEURASIAN OTTERS LEAD PRETTY SOLITARY LIVES. Except, that is, when it’s time to make more otters. The male, known as the dog otter, doesn’t stick around, however. After mating, he’s off. So if you see two or more otters together, they’re almost certainly a mother and cubs. The bitch develops a strong bond with her young (two or three is typical) and they stay with her for 10 months, maybe longer. Most births are in the summer, but it could be late summer or autumn before the cubs have waterproof coats, enabling them to swim for the first time. From this moment, the family can be seen exploring and playing in the shallows, as the youngsters learn the important business of being otters. The north and west of Scotland has…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024Elephant in the roomAUGUST TRADITIONALLY SEES A FLURRY of messages to BBC Wildlife with readers wanting to know the identity of a strange miniature snake in their gardens. The serpent usually turns out to be an elephant hawkmoth caterpillar, which does look a bit like a small, fat snake, albeit with six tiny legs under the head and several stumpy ‘sort-of’ legs (called prolegs) further along its body. The spectacular larva sports a pair of enormous false black eyes, an adaptation to spook birds and other predators, and has a horn at its rear end. One reason people tend to notice this beast, size apart, is that it takes to wandering over lawns, paths and patios. Another is that, after a summer spent munching on the leaves of rosebay willowherb or fuschia, the…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024Grizzly-polar hybrids rare, study findsA NEW STUDY HAS SHOWN THAT hybridisation between grizzly and polar bears is actually extremely rare, with only eight incidences recorded in the wild. Climate change is causing the ranges of grizzlies and polar bears to expand and overlap, leading to the hypothesis that hybridisation is increasing. Hybrids of the two bear species are often referred to as ‘grolar’ or ‘pizzly’ bears, depending on the paternal lineage (grolars are fathered by grizzly bears; pizzlies are fathered by polar bears). Some scientists, including Dr Ruth Rivkin from Polar Bears International (and co-author of the study), say that while hybridisation might help polar bears survive in warming environments, the most likely outcome is the loss of polar bears as a unique species. In a bid to determine how many polar-grizzly bear hybrids…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024ROCK STARA sudden skittering and a green-and-grey lizard dashes into a rocky crevice. It’s a wall lizard (Podarcis muralis), familiar in the Mediterranean, but this is Bristol’s Avon Gorge in August, a stone’s throw from the city’s famous Clifton Suspension Bridge. The rock-loving reptile loves it here and has also been introduced to a few other places in the UK, including Bournemouth’s cliffs, a village in Somerset and the Isle of Wight.…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024Now you see them…OUR SUMMER OF SWIFTS ENDS ALL TOO suddenly. One day, you look up at dusk and the darkening sky is full of common swifts careering around the rooftops – these are the fastest birds on the planet in level flight. Twenty four hours later, there is no screaming and there are no sickle-shaped silhouettes hurtling past. The swifts have gone. Britain and Ireland lie at the northwestern edge of the common swift’s breeding range, and most of the swifts that migrate here from Africa will head south again at the end of July or in early August. Incredibly, the younger non-breeding birds – usually one or two years old – often depart even earlier, in late June or early July, having flown all the way from the tropics to spend…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024LIGHT MY FIREThe broadcaster, naturalist and tour guide shares the most breathtaking seasonal events in the world THERE CAN BE FEW FINER EXAMPLES of the natural world’s ability to transform a landscape than the one that unfolds in South Africa’s Namaqualand in August and September. Here, a strip of semi-arid desert that runs along the country’s north-west corner transforms from a dusty, dry and barren land into the botanical equivalent of an explosion in a paint factory. Triggered by winter rains and cooler spring temperatures, swathes of bright orange, yellow, pink and white flowers suddenly appear – almost overnight – to carpet the terrain as far as the eye can see. And like all the best wild spectacles, the display is also ephemeral by nature, with the ensuing hot, dry summer usually…3 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024CAN’T TAKE MY EYES OFF YOUThe popular naturalist, author and TV presenter reveals a secret realm of overlooked wildlife FOR MOST PEOPLE, FLIES FALL INTO THE background noise. They rarely grab our attention, and unless they bite us or threaten our hygiene, we barely give them the time of day. Malaysian stalkeyed flies (Cyrtodiopsis dalmanni) are no exception. These tiny insects go about their business in the densely vegetated forest understory, where there is plenty of food in the form of rotting plant material. As far as flies go, they don’t even fly very much, or very well, preferring to scuttle around on spindly legs. Stalk-eyed flies are handsome creatures, though – a warm russet brown with white blotches on their wings and a pair of spiny protuberances on their thorax. But I’m skirting around…3 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024FAST ANSWERSHow many species were there? About 1,000 non-avian dinosaurs have been identified in the fossil record, but a mathematical model estimates that around 2,000 species of dinosaur existed during the Mesozoic era – around 500 ornithischians, 500 sauropods and 1,000 of the more diverse theropods. Confusingly, birds are not descended from the ‘bird-hipped’ ornithischian group, but from ‘reptile-hipped’ theropods. Were they warmblooded? Probably. Dinosaurs are often depicted as slow, lumbering beasts, under the assumption that their physiology was similar to living reptiles – ‘cold-blooded’ ectotherms that rely on external heat sources to control body temperature. This is in contrast to ‘warm-blooded’ endotherms (mammals and birds) that generate internal heat via metabolism. Based on growth, dinosaurs had metabolic rates halfway between the two, meaning they were mesotherms, or ‘lukewarm-blooded’ vertebrates. The…2 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024Were they good parents?THEY WOULD HAVE TERRIFIED EACH other (and us!) but did dinosaurs have a softer side? Like most birds and reptiles, dinosaurs laid eggs. Parents made nests and some incubated and protected their offspring before hatching. But after birth, baby dinosaurs soon had to fend for themselves. When parents did look after their young, as commonly occurs in mammals, it likely wasn’t for very long. Parental care can be inferred by finding dinosaur bones and eggs in close proximity. This sometimes causes naturalists to jump to conclusions, however, as illustrated by a famous case that gave one species an undeserved reputation. In the 1920s, explorer Roy Chapman Andrews (an inspiration for Indiana Jones) went to Mongolia and discovered eggs next to a theropod – a group whose members are often predators.…2 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024Could a ‘Jurassic Park’ ever work?THE ORIGINAL JURASSIC PARK FILM featured iconic species like Brachiosaurus, Triceratops and T. rex. Would these really be the best candidates if science could recreate dinosaurs for a wildlife park? Before adding fauna, we need flora – prehistoric plants to produce energy for a sustainable ecosystem and self-replenishing resources so that animals could feed themselves, instead of relying on zoo keepers. This results in a food chain with nourishment levels in the form of a pyramid. At the base are producers – plants that feed consumers, herbivores like Triceratops, which in turn feed one or two levels of carnivores and omnivores, with apex predators like T. rex top of the food chain. The next step is to pick a geological period. In a park with a Triassic (252-201 MYA) theme,…4 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024What did dinosaurs really look like?PALAEONTOLOGISTS CAN USE FOSSILS such as teeth and bones to predict the size, shape and even the internal physiology of dinosaurs, but what about their external appearance? Until recent years, what a dinosaur looked like was largely an educated guess, but now new discoveries and technology are revealing that dinosaurs were in fact colourful and feathered. Were all dinosaurs colourful? Some were, but we may never know how many. Dinosaurs were once depicted in dull greys and greens because it was assumed they looked like living reptiles, with scales (made of the transparent protein keratin) and bony plates (osteoderms – as seen on crocodiles). By contrast, the extinct reptiles presented to kids are often brightly-coloured. As one children’s book says, “The truth is no one knows what colours dinosaurs were.”…3 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024TIDES OF CHANGEAn underwater world Kelp forests are incredibly rich habitats, with a complex structure that provides food and shelter for a vast array of marine species (here, kelp rockfish). A type of cold-water alga, kelp grows in temperate and polar regions worldwide, notably along the Pacific coast of North America. However, in the waters off California, this habitat is in severe decline, a result of warm-water events in 2014 and 2015, and overgrazing by sea urchins. The loss of this diverse forest has had huge implications for the local marine ecosystem. The short and the tall The 30 or so species of kelp found off California come in myriad forms. The tallest is the giant kelp, which can grow up to 50 metres and forms towering underwater forests. Sub-canopy kelps are…4 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024ALL YOU EVER NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUTPoison dart frogsPOISON DART FROGS BELONG TO the family Dendrobatidae. There are approximately 200 species and they are found in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America. Their poison is used by tribes to tip their blowgun darts when hunting, giving the amphibians their common name. Many Dendrobatidae species are poisonous, with varying degrees of toxic skin, but some are more deadly than others. One in particular is famously considered to be one of the most toxic animals on Earth. What’s the most toxic poison dart frog? Poison dart frogs secrete toxins through their skin, which can cause symptoms ranging from mild numbness to paralysis, and even death. The Endangered golden poison frog (Phyllobates terribilis) is endemic to the rainforests of Colombia, and though it is only about 5cm long, it…4 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024GO WILD!The crossword ACROSS 1 Finch with a musical song (6) 4 Animals (6) 9 Natterjack, perhaps (4) 10 Plant also known as the tropical white morning-glory (10) 11 Another name for a longhorn beetle in the genus Monochamus (6) 12 ___ eel, ocean fish in the family Serrivomeridae (8) 13 Alpine wildflower (9) 15 Filament that grows from a follicle (4) 16 Bird that may be collared or mourning (4) 17 ___ pine, North American evergreen (9) 21 Noise-producing frog organ (5,3) 22 Season for leaf-peeping (6) 24 Black-and-white bird of Australia (6-4) 25 Puffins and guillemots, say (4) 26 Grassland ecoregion (6) 27 Small falcon (6) DOWN 1 Spotted cat (7) 2 Tropical seabird that may be brown or black (5) 3 Organism in the genus Ulmus (3,4) 5…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024Sex-changing animals1. Clownfish I’m afraid that the film Finding Nemo is not quite biologically accurate. Clownfish start out life as males then can later change sex to become females. If the large dominant female is removed from a group, then the largest male will become female and take her place. Thus, in real life, Nemo’s dad could have become female (and might have even mated with his son). 2. Bearded dragon Like mammals, bearded dragons start off genetically male or female, however, if temperatures creep above 32ºC during egg incubation, those with the typical male chromosome will instead develop into females. The exact reason for this female-producing strategy is unknown. 3. Humpy shrimp Named after the humps along their abdomens, these shrimps can also start off as males and then become…3 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024Every month, only in BBC WildlifeNICK BAKER “Stalk-eyed flies can have an eyspan of some 17mm, making them wider apart than the body is long” P.36 GILLIAN BURKE “Hopefully a few more people will go out to experience nature as nature intended” P.27 MARK CARWARDINE “Iceland’s decision to resume whaling this summer came as a bolt from the blue” P.31 LUCY COOKE “Female termites were found tobe controlling the switch to asexual reproduction” P.29 MIKE DILGER “When the rains fall, the arid lands of South Africa are set ablaze with botanical colour” P.32…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024Wilding: the movieIN 1987, FARMER CHARLIE BURRELL AND HIS wife Isabella took over the Knepp Castle Estate in Sussex. What the couple inherited was 1,400 hectares of marginal and exhausted soil, intensively farmed since the Second World War and sprayed, tilled and fertilised to within an inch of its life. After 16 years of trying, Charlie realised the farming game here was up; he needed to carve out a new future for the estate that involved working with the land, not battling against it. That new future was rewilding and the restoration of biodiversity. Wilding tells the story of the pioneering and now famous project that began as “just an experiment”. Using a combination of reconstruction and first-person narration, imbued with delightful wildlife throughout, it charts Knepp’s transformation from failing farm to…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024GREEN GODDESSAs long as the average person’s little finger and startlingly green, like a Granny Smith apple, female great green bush-crickets are among the largest, most impressive insects in Britain. But while they look exotic, these omnivorous crickets with huge antennae are, in fact, native. In summer, the species can be found lurking in lush vegetation in South Wales and southern England, especially on the coast.…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024Thismia malayanaWHAT IS IT? This strangely beautiful plant, which grows up to about 10cm tall, is a member of the Burmanniaceae family, a group of mostly inconspicuous species that produce a huge variety of unusual flowers. This species bears golden, star-shaped blooms that attract the fungus gnats that pollinate it. WHERE DOES IT LIVE? So far, it has been found at two tropical rainforest sites in Peninsular Malaysia, where it grows among leaf litter and rotting wood on shady forest floors. First spotted in 2020 in the Tengku Hassanal Wildlife Reserve in the state of Pahang, it was later found in Ulu Bendul Recreation Park near Negeri Sembilan. WHAT’S THE MEANING BEHIND THE SCIENTIFIC NAME? The genus, Thismia, which contains another 108 species, was described in 1844 by a Mr William…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024FEMALE OF THE SPECIESTERMITES ARE THE unloved outcasts of the social insect world. Whereas bees are praised for their pollination skills and ants are lauded for their industry, termites are an affront to human civilization, chomping their way through everything we hold dear: our books, our homes and even our cash. In 2011 an errant gang of termites burrowed into an Indian bank and ate $220,000 in banknotes. Termites are the original anticapitalist anarchists and, frankly, deserve respect. These blind relatives of the co*ckroach have been doing astonishing things since the time of the dinosaurs, from maintaining complex societies with divisions of labour to constructing vast skyscrapers complete with air conditioning. Now we can add overthrowing the patriarchy to the list. In 2018, Dr Toshihisa Yashiro of Kyoto University reported finding the first…3 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024TOPFIVE PLACES1 SKILPAD WILDFLOWER RESERVE Located within Namaqua National Park and featuring plants from the Arctotis, Dimorphotheca and Osteospermum families 2 RICHTERSVELD CULTURAL AND BOTANICAL LANDSCAPE On the border with Namibia, this is a great place to start your wildflower quest and promises succulents, including plants from the Aloe family 3 GOEGAP NATURE RESERVE Positioned just east of Springbok, this botanical hotspot features granite koppies, quiver trees and open plains 4 NIEUWOUDTVILLE WILDFLOWER RESERVE Situated east of the town and high up on the Bokkeveld Plateau, this protected area contains a fine selection of bulbs 5 WEST COAST NATIONAL PARK Found just inland of Saldanha Bay, this outpost represents your last chance for a flower fix before the season ends…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024When did dinosaurs first evolve?Email your questions to wildlifemagazine@ourmedia.co.uk WHILE THE WORD DINOSAUR STEMS from the Greek for ‘terrible lizard’, dinosaurs aren’t lizards. This distinction is based on anatomical features, notably the legs. A lizard’s legs stick out at right angles from its body, producing a sprawling stance, whereas a dinosaur’s legs are tucked underneath. Keeping a big reptile upright requires strong joints between the hips and backbone, which the ancestors of dinosaurs made by fusing together vertebrae to form a modified structure – the sacrum. The origin of dinosaurs dates back to at least 230 million years ago (MYA). A group of reptiles called archosaurs had two branches on the evolutionary tree of life, a ‘crocodile line’ (Crurotarsi) and a ‘bird line’ (Avemetatarsalia), which are distinguished by bones near the ankle. Dinosaurs emerged…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024Which dinos could fly?POWERED FLIGHT IS THE ABILITY TO USE muscles to flap your wings and generate lift. The ancestors of modern birds weren’t the only ones to achieve this feat – other groups of dinosaurs also found weird and wonderful ways to stay aloft. One species that might have flown is Yi qi (‘strange wing’), whose bizarre aerofoils resembled those of bats. While the surface of a bat’s wings feature a membrane of skin (patagium) stretched across its legs and elongated fingers, Yi qi’s membranous wings were supported by its arms and a ‘styliform’ wrist bone unique to the scansoriopterygid dinosaur family. The aerodynamic potential of Yi qi hasn’t been tested, however, and so it may have been a mere glider. Microraptor (‘tiny thief’) is a dinosaur that was certainly capable of…2 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024How did dinosaurs mate?WITH DIFFICULTY! AFTER A FEMALE sauropod indicated her receptiveness (maybe by releasing pungent odours then moving her tail aside), a huge male would have had to raise himself onto his hind legs before mounting. Meanwhile, dinosaurs like Stegosaurus would have needed to avoid hurting themselves on spikes and plates. And if sexual intercourse was similar to what happens in crocodiles and birds, reproduction would mean internal fertilisation – penis into cloaca – and it would have been quick. But as yet, no fossils have caught dinosaurs in the act of copulation. Scientists are more confident about courtship behaviour. A trackway in Colorado features hollows (some over 5m long) created by the backwards scraping of large theropods, which could be evidence of a lekking ground or lek – a place where…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024How were dinos discovered?THE FIRST SPECIES TO BE IDENTIFIED and named were the carnivore Megalosaurus (‘great lizard’) and herbivores Iguanodon (‘iguana tooth’) and Hylaeosaurus (‘forest lizard’). Fossils from all three were discovered in England in 1824, 1825 and 1833 respectively, and described by geologists like William Buckland. Naturalists recognised that the trio were all giant reptiles, but they weren’t grouped together. Then, in 1842, the brilliant English anatomist Richard Owen realised they had a common feature – four or more vertebrae near the hip region, double the number seen in living reptiles. Based on their large size, Owen dubbed the group ‘dinosaurs’, which translates to ‘terrible lizard’ but in the sense of ‘fearfully great lizard’. Owen thought dinosaurs were awesome, not awful. Owen was an influential figure. He was founder of the Natural…2 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024SEEKING A NEWWILD“SHALL WE JUST GO for it? What have we got to lose?” “Our jobs, our house and possibly one of the kids, but yes, let’s do it.” This was the conversation I was having with my wife, Gemma, one spring evening in 2022. We were deliberating the trip of a lifetime – a year-long family tour of Europe’s rewilding sites. I have enjoyed some kneerubbingly good experiences with wildlife at home in Scotland, but I’ve always been greedy for more, particularly the large-scale restoration of ecosystems currently taking place across the continent. The plan was simple. We’d leave our jobs, sell our house, buy a motorhome, pack up our children – Isla (19 months) and Brodie (3) – and Tyson the dog, and hit the road. We’d team up with…10 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024ON THE ROCKSSTAND ON THE WIDE SANDY BEACH in the Suffolk seaside town of Lowestoft, looking out over the cold, grey waters of the North Sea, and you’ll see a peculiar sight: poking up above the waves, mounted on bright yellow towers, are a pair of structures that look for all the world like yurts. They are not yurts, yet these structures are accommodation – of a sort. The intended residents? Black-legged kittiwakes, mediumsized seabirds that spend most of their lives out at sea but return each year, between March and August, to a few select locations on the British coast to breed. These artificial nesting structures (ANS) were installed in spring 2023 as an ecological compensation measure for a windfarm to be built 160km off the Yorkshire coast. Named Hornsea 3,…9 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024Photo CLUBHit parade I was watching greater flamingos on the lake at Bhigwan Bird Sanctuary. A quarrel broke out and two of the birds started to bash each other with their beaks. Anindita Datta Muhuri Pune, India Great coat The junk bug is voracious, snacking on other bugs’ eggs and stabbing prey with sharp mouthparts. It gets its name from the plant matter and exoskeletons of past victims worn on its back to deter predators. Rosa DunbarTai Tapu, New Zealand Night watch It was 2am when I caught these winged termites flying around a neon light. Called alates, they swarm out of the colony to breed and establish new colonies. Anindita Datta Muhuri Kolkata, India Red alert I live near Pench National Park. I love to take a stroll there and…1 min
BBC Wildlife Magazine|August 2024Mandarin marvelsAFTER READING NICK UPTON’S FEATURE on Mandarin ducks (April 2024), and the reader response (Your Letters, June 2024), I wanted to share our experiences with these ducks. We are fortunate to live close to Christchurch Park in Ipswich. Mandarin ducks regularly use the Wilderness Pond there, with a maximum of 21 individuals counted last December. They appear to have no fear of people and will come very close to pick up scattered grain. About a year ago, one Mandarin duck was doing an ‘injured wing’ display to lure a dog away from an oak tree. I had to explain to the owners that these ducks nest in trees and that the fledglings have to jump down from the nest-hole, in this case into long grass. Once they realised, the dog…2 min
