BBC Wildlife

50 REASONS TO BE Che ful IN 2021 17 BORN TO BE WILD In 2015, the Rewilding Argentina Foundation launched the red-and-green macaw project – an exciting initiative to reintroduce this vibrant and nationally extinct species to Iberá National Park. The bird’s return will not only reinstate an important seed-dispersing Macaws are service, but also create a key to healthy valuable ecotourism attraction. forests. Today, 15 birds are living free in the reserve, and several have paired up to breed. In October 2020, one couple produced three chicks, representing the first wild-born macaws in the country for 150 years. More youngsters are expected, and the population should eventually become self-sustaining. Seven other species are also being reintroduced, including the giant river otter. rewildingargentina.org The scalloped 18 RHINO RECOVERY hammerhead is one of The Javan rhino lives in one place three endangered shark only: Ujung Kulon National Park, on species that commutes the Indonesian island of Java (See BBC Wildlife, December 2020). It’s the world’s along the Cocos- rarest large land mammal, clinging on Galápagos swimway. in mere dozens – but it’s not giving up the ghost just yet. In the past 20 years, Dog: Paul Joynson-Hicks/Canines for Conservation; bee: Richard Becker/Alamy: shark: Brandon 15 LONG LIVE THE 16 SAVING SCOTLAND’S numbers have increased from 45 to 74 Cole/NPL; macaw: Matias Rebak; rhino: Stephen Belcher/NPL; squirrel: Paul Hobson/NPL LEOPARD SQUIRRELS (and counting), thanks to a new marine- based protection unit and ongoing efforts Leopard reintroduction is far from easy. Bright eyed and bushy tailed, the red to eradicate the invasive Arenga palm, You have to prepare a territory for release, squirrel (below) has to be one of our which stifles its foodplants. ensure there’s a decent population of favourite British mammals. Nearly 75 per prey ungulates, protect the animals from cent of the UK population is found in And there’s more good news: poachers and prepare captive-born cubs for Scotland, but numbers have fallen to just conservationists are working with life in the wild. Despite such challenges, 120,000. Fortunately, Saving Scotland’s the Indonesian government to find WWF Russia and partners have been Red Squirrels, led by the Scottish Wildlife suitable land for a second population. working on an ambitious programme Trust, is on the case, monitoring numbers to restore the Persian subspecies to the savetherhino.org Caucasus Biosphere Reserve – the and encouraging communities largest stretch of unbroken forest to take action to save this BBC Wildlife 51 in the country. In late 2020, four harismatic species. As more leopards were released result, numbers are into this wilderness, bringi tabilising – and there is the total to eight. All fingers ope that grey squirrels are crossed that cubs wil n Aberdeenshire can soon follow. wwf.ru removed altogether. January 2021 scottishsquirrels.org.uk

19 STORK SUCCESS MY REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL 22 THE F TURE’S The White Stork Project – an ROS ambitious UK rewilding programme – PRERNA SINGH The roseate tern – ou continues apace, with 21 birds recently BINDRA released into the wild from the Knepp rarest nesting s bird – Estate, having been captive bred at Cotswold Author and conservationist Wildlife Park. Of these, eight have been had a record-breakin year fitted with GPS trackers, and in October, It can be di cult to find good two were recorded migrating over the news in the face of the global in 2020, with 130 breed n Strait of Gibraltar and on into Morocco. collapse of wildlife and ecosystems. The project, supported by the Roy Dennis What gives me hope for India is pairs recorded at its only Taking a tern Wildlife Foundation, Gerald Durrell the unprecedented uprising of UK breeding colony: Coquet for the better. Foundation and Warsaw Zoo, aims to citizens in strong local and national restore these birds to British skies, with the movements to defend nature and the Island, off Northum rland. hope of having at least 50 breeding pairs environment. Plans to build a highway established across the south of England by and railway through Mollem National Roseates almost went extinct in the 1 th 2030. whitestorkproject.org Park in Goa have given rise to Amche Mollem (My Mollem) – a movement century, due to demand fo th feat White storks are bred of impassioned opposition from for the project at students, artists, researchers, lawyers in ladies’ hats. pa s cl on Cotswold Wildlife Park. and even politicians. Similarly, in the state of Assam, people are coming across the UK t c on 20 LOST AND FOUND together to protest against coal Last spotted in Madagascar more mining in the lowland rainforests of efforts have seen this number leap to 2,028 than 100 years ago, the elusive and endemic Dehing Patkai, dubbed the ‘Amazon Voeltzkow’s chameleon has reappeared – in of the East’. Slowly, Indian voices pairs in 2020 – the fifth year in a row that a hotel garden in the island’s north-west. are starting to be heard. The state Little is known about the species, but it’s government of Maharashtra, for the population has increased. rspb.org.uk thought to hail from mangrove forest, example, has abandoned plans to which is under threat from deforestation. develop the forest of Aarey Colony 23 DEVELOPMENTS White stork: Cotswold Wildlife Park; bat: Daniel Hargreaves/www.bats.org.uk; blue whale: Amy Kennedy;tern: David Monticelli/ Researchers suggest it should be classified in Mumbai – one of the last green IN THE DEEP SEA AGAMI/Alamy; pine marten & reef: Scotland: The Big Picture/NPL; frog: Ministry of Housing and Urbanism, Chile as Endangered. spaces in the metropolis – giving its resident leopards a reprieve. Good news for deep-sea dwellers off Scotland’s west coast – 100,000km of water has recently been declared a Marine Protected Area (MPA) – the largest in Europe. Encompassing depths of more than 2,500m, the designation will safeguard important and vulnerable marine habitats, including underwater volcanoes (known as seamounts), slow-growing coral reefs and productive mud habitats. The new protected area contributes to a network of MPAs around the UK, which support a healthy marine environment for the future. New MPA will help to save rocky reefs. 24 FROGS FIGHT BACK One year ago, scientists evacuated 14 Loa water frogs from a pool of muddy 21 BATS BOUNCING OUT The Great British water in Chile’s Atacama Desert. The frogs OF THE BELFRY population of were among the last members of their Britain has an impressive 18 resident species brown long-eared of bat – and, according to the yearly National bats has been species, in the last vestiges of their habitat, Bat Monitoring Programme, run by the Bat Conservation Trust, populations of 11 species stable since 1999. which had all but vanished following surveyed in 2019 appear to be stable or increasing. “It’s a positive trend that suggests that conservation extensive water extraction for mining and action for bats is working, at least for those that are reliant on built structures as a place to roost,” says development. Fast forward to today and, director of conservation Carol Williams. “Nearly 200 bat species are threatened across the thanks to a careful breeding programme, globe, so it’s encouraging to see that, in the UK, some species are showing nearly 200 tadpoles have hatched at the signs of recovery.” bats.org.uk National Zoo of Chile, heralding a new generation of this Critically Endangered species. The next step is to release the frogs into the wild. Loa frogs: a short hop from globalwildlife.org extinction.

50 REASONS TO BE Che ful IN 2021 PROJECT PINE “Over three years, 51 martens In the ancient MARTEN have been brought to Wales, woodland that once and our data shows that they are characterised Britain, Five years ago, the only way to see thriving, with successful breeding the pine marten was a a pine marten in Great Britain every year,” says VWT scientist common carnivore. Jenny MacPherson. as to go to Scotland. In England and Wales, the double whammy Across the border in the Forest of loss of woodland and historical of Dean, another reintroduction predator control had left the project is underway, and further s ecies perilously close to the exit. projects are considered for southern Britain in the coming In 2015, after 30 years of years. This native predator plays research, a feasibility study a vital role in maintaining a and discussions with the local healthy woodland ecosystem. community, the Vincent Wildlife Its return is fantastic news. Trust (VWT) began a landmark project to translocate pine vwt.org.uk martens to mid-Wales. “51 martens have been brought to Wales, and they are thriving.” Blue whales are the 26UP THE BLUES largest creatures ever Antarctic blue whales – those giants of the sea – to have lived on Earth. appear to be returning to South Georgia. The subspecies was heavily exploited by commercial whalers in the early January 1900s, and though hunting blue whales was banned in 1965, with a corresponding recovery across the Southern Ocean in the decades that followed, the leviathans remained rare visitors to this summer feeding ground – until now. A 2020 survey by the British Antarctic Survey recorded 58 sightings off the island, reinforcing other indications that the blues are coming back. bas.ac.uk BBC Wildlife 53

Silver linings Natalie Fée, environmentalist and author of How to Save the World for Free, says that 2020 was full of good news... Illustration Michael Driver/Folio “We showed the world that we can come together to You would be forgiven solve a crisis.” for thinking that as an environmentalist and January 2021 founder of a plastic- pollution-fighting organisation, I might have finished 2020 crying into my pillow. Single-use plastic surged as a result of PPE being used to prevent the spread of COVID-19, reusable cups and bottles were off the menu in most cafés and restaurants, and governments around the world were overturning plastic bans. (Happily, not ours! More on that in a moment.) But, thankfully, I haven’t been deterred and, instead of crying, I found myself rejoicing over all the good that came from 2020 when it comes to saving our planet. Admittedly, eco-tears were shed twice last year, thanks to Sir David Attenborough’s Extinction: The Facts and A Life on Our Planet programmes – both absolutely heart-breaking and both absolutely essential viewing. But overall, I’m starting 2021 with a smile on my face, and here’s why… Saving for the future There was huge progress in 2020 in greening the finance sector. Once we’d woken up to the fact that most of our pensions and investments were still funding fossil fuels, fracking and deforestation (something I talk about in more detail in How to Save the World for Free) we put two and two together. We realised that there really was no point saving for our (or our children’s future) if our very savings were putting that future at risk. We put pressure on our big institutions to divest from fossil fuels and we switched to ethical pensions and bank accounts. As a result, campaigners have seen some big wins, with the Church of England and more than half of UK public universities committing to divest from fossil fuels, including 54 BBC Wildlife

50 REASONS TO BE Che ful IN 2021 the University of Cambridge. Even NEST, celebrated this unprecedented change in intensively farmed meat and dairy grew, so the UK’s biggest pension fund, announced our lifestyles, but it did show us that when has the plant-based food sector, with 2020 last July it would ban investments in any faced with an emergency, we act. We showed seeing more people buying vegan products companies involved in coal mining, oil the world that we can adapt, we can change than ever before, and one out of three from tar sands and arctic drilling. and we can come together to solve a crisis. Brits reducing their meat consumption or We took staycations instead of flying abroad, stopping eating it altogether – you could Staying grounded we mobilised our communities, setting up say we’ve been well vegucated! WhatsApp groups to support each other Back in spring, due to global lockdown through what has been, for many, a hugely If you’ve been wanting to eat less meat measures to stop the spread of the virus, challenging year. but have felt a bit at a loss for what to eat the number of plane flights dropped by instead, why not give ‘Veganuary’ a go two thirds, and travel within major cities On my street, our WhatsApp group is also this year and get inspired by half a million ground to a halt. Energy-related carbon used for food sharing, tool sharing and even others doing the same thing? dioxide emissions dropped by a record clothes sharing. All important stuff when 7 per cent in 2020 – the biggest year-on- it comes to reducing our environmental Goodbye single-use, hello reusables year fall since records began in 1900. footprint while building community resilience. That’s something to be hopeful about. Last October, in the UK, we finally said But despite a needed – albeit very farewell to planet-polluting plastic in the temporary – drop in emissions, loved ones As our awareness of the damaging form of plastic straws (although they’ll were getting sick. No environmentalists environmental still be available on request to people (with the exception of a few eco-fascists) impacts of eating with disabilities), stirrers and cotton buds. I was particularly pleased about this one, January 2021 as back in 2017, City to Sea ran a successful campaign called #SwitchTheStick, whereby we got all major retailers to stop making cotton buds out of plastic and make them out of paper instead. Since then, the number of plastic cotton buds washing up on UK beaches has dropped dramatically. So we’re delighted to see the Government finally banning them – and proof, if you need it, that individual action really does make a difference. Another 2020 good-news story is that the free Refill app (refill.org.uk) expanded beyond water, meaning that not only can you find over 30,000 places to refill your water bottle for free, but you can also discover your nearest zero-waste shop and source places to eat, drink and shop with less plastic. Ten years to go wild A report published in October 2020 found that rewilding a third of the Earth’s most degraded landscapes could prevent about 70 per cent of predicted biodiversity loss from happening and sequester about half of the additional carbon dioxide emitted by humanity since the Industrial Revolution. This sparked political leaders from 64 different countries to pledge to reverse biodiversity loss in the next decade, by protecting 30 per cent of land and ocean by 2030. And with white stork chicks hatching – for the first time in more than 600 years – at the Knepp Estate in West Sussex, I think we’ve been given a taste of just how doable this ‘great recovery’ really is. FIND OUT MORE Natalie Fée can be found sharing more good news and tips on green living on Instagram as: nataliefee_ BBC Wildlife 55

Great Green Wall: Tree Aid; monkey: Le Khac Quyet; pangolin: Brett Kuxhausen/Gorongosa National Park; 27 BUILDING A GREAT Planting kapok and The endemic bettong: Gerry Ellis/Minden/Alamy; seal: Doug Perrine/NPL; hirola: Andrew Woodley/Getty GREEN WALL cassia saplings to Tonkin snub- protect the Daka nosed monkey A decade in and now 15 per cent complete, River, Ghana. has increased the Great Green Wall is an ambitious from 50 60 project that aims to grow an 8,000km-wide MY REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL individuals to belt of trees across Africa, revitalising the continent’s degraded landscapes. Tree Aid, Chris Armitage about 160. one of many partners contributing to the initiative, has so far restored and protected CEO 30 AWESOME an area the size of 265,000 football pitches, Global EverGreening Alliance FOURSOME and has supported local people to grow almost 22 million trees. “We’re contributing Australia’s devastating bushfires Four of Vietnam’s most critically to a movement that is re-greening the in January 2020 made headline endangered monkeys have taken a drylands and giving communities more news across the world, but 2021 giant step back from the brink. The ownership of natural resources,” says marks a year of transformative endemic Tonkin snub-nosed monkey director of operations Georges Bazongo. action. The Global EverGreening has increased from 50–60 individuals Alliance – an international NGO to about 160, with its forest home now treeaid.org; greatgreenwall.org – has developed an exciting new officially protected, while the 2016 initiative called ‘Restore Australia’ discovery of a 40-strong population of 28THAT’S THE IDEA! – the largest grassroots restoration Delacour’s langur has almost doubled The Earthshot Prize is a prestigious e ort in the country. It brings the existing national population. new accolade designed to encourage great together 200 of the most capable minds to concoct innovative new ideas and experienced organisations Plans are afoot in 2021 to designate to repair the damage we’ve caused to our a nature reserve to protect the grey- planet. Starting in 2021, five one-million- and institutions, which will shanked douc langur, 500 of which pound prizes will be awarded each year for work directly with farmers, were discovered in 2016, and the Cat 10 years in the categories of nature, climate, communities and landowners Ba langur, confined to a single island oceans, air and waste. Thinking caps on... across six key regions – all of within the Cat Ba Archipelago, is which are home to Australia’s most showing positive signs for survival, r ri rg vital ecosystems and precious with a new spate of births. wildlife. The initiative aims to 29 HOPE FOR restore more than 13 million fauna-flora.org THE HIROLA hectares of land, re-establish January 2021 The hirola is the most endangered biodiversity and recapture antelope in the world – just 500 remain atmospheric carbon. Nature has in isolated pockets of Kenya. In 2012, amazing potential to recover from the community of Ishaqbini, Garissa devastation, and we’re incredibly County, approached the Northern excited to accelerate this process Rangelands Trust for support through a powerful joint e ort. in establishing a protected sanctuary for this dainty little species, kickstarting the first community initiative of its kind in the country. Thanks to their efforts, and support from charities, including TUSK, numbers in the sanctuary have rocketed from 48 to 130 – and counting. tusk.org

50 REASONS TO BE Che ful IN 2021 Heading home: the brush tailed bettong. The Tonkin snub- 33 OF BANDICOOTS nosed monkey AND BETTONGS was thought to be An exciting, large-scale rewilding project extinct until it was is underway by the Australian Wildlife rediscovered in 1989. Conservancy (AWC) in Mallee Cliffs National Park, New South Wales – the largest ever to be undertaken in the state. With stage one – involving the eradication of feral cats and foxes from a fenced area of 9,500ha – now complete, the area is a safe haven ready to be recolonised by native wildlife. At least 10 locally extinct mammals will soon be reintroduced to the park – first, bilbies and greater stick-nest rats, followed by other species, from bandicoots to bettongs. Many have been absent from New South Wales’s national parks for almost a century – nearly all are threatened with extinction. “Conservation is getting these animals back into the landscape, because they all contribute,” says chief executive Tim Allard. “They’ve been part of this country for millions of years.” australianwildlife.org 31 PANGOLIN 32 ELEPHANT ACTION 34 TURKISH DELIGHTS PROTECTORS With a population of 1.3 billion, The Turkish government has human-wildlife conflict is a big issue recently expanded the Gökova Bay Special Poaching has almost sent the pangolin to in India, particularly when it comes Environmental Protection Area – the an early grave, but a team in Gorongosa to elephants, and especially in North country’s only protected stretch of ocean – National Park, Mozambique, is doing Bengal. The Hathi Sathi Foundation, a by 350km . The designation will help to valuable work to help save the species – new organisation based in the Nuxalbari safeguard threatened marine species, opening a dedicated pangolin rehabilitation Tea Estate, is working to mitigate this, such as the Mediterranean monk centre in 2018. In the past two years, seal and sandbar shark. There has wildlife vets and rangers have rescued educating people to co-exist been a reported recovery in more than 40 of these scaly and to allow elephants safe fish stocks in the area in little mammals – which must passage. Since their work recent years, suggesting be kept under constant guard began, there has been no an ecosystem coming – as well as seizing dozens loss of life, crops back into balance. of tusks and leopard skins, or property at resulting in the arrest Nuxalbari – a fauna-flora. and prosecution of shining example org numerous ivory and of how conflict pangolin traffickers. can be managed. BBC Wildlife 57 gorongosa.org hathisathi.org January 2021

MY REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL 38STAND FOR SWANS Every year, Bewick’s swans In six years, depart from Russian shores and fly more Satpuda’s tiger than 4,000km to spend wi ter in the population has nearly UK, Netherlands, doubled in size. Denmark and Germany. The swans are protected, yet Beccy Speight one-third of live birds examined have been found carrying shotgun pellets. Research CEO, RSPB suggests that Bewick’s are mistaken for mute or whooper swans, which have This past year has been challenging in weaker legal protection in Russia. WWT’s ways we never could have imagined, Swan Champions project is bringing but nature has provided a beacon communities together across the Russian of light for so many of us during the Arctic to raise awareness of this endangered darkest of days. And now, at a time European population. wwt.org.uk when the natural world needs our 35 TIGER help most – and indeed, we need it – 39SAVE THE In safe hands: TURNAROUND something making me feel positive SAIGA e orts are about 2021 is the next generation of Tigers in central India are increasing, conservationists and activists. After a mass mortality being made to thanks to Born Free’s Living with I am constantly impressed not just event five years help the saiga. Tigers programme. Based in the by the passion and enthusiasm Slow loris; Andrew Walmsley; Beccy Speight: Ben Andrew/RSPB Images; tigers: Aditya Singh/Getty; nuthatch: Barry Mansell/NPL; Satpuda region, the initiative focusses with which young people have ago – the result of saiga: Shpilenok/Wild Wonders of Europe/NPL; swans: Dickie Duckett/FLPA; albatross: Tui De Roy/Minden/FLPA on encouraging communities to picked up the baton, but their co-exist with these iconic cats. Local knowledge, ingenuity and bacterial disease ‘tiger ambassadors’ are deployed to determination to bring about spread the conservation message change. The RSPB benefits hugely – the saiga is across villages, while a mobile from their involvement, and their education unit visits schools. Efforts energy is infectious. bouncing back seem to be paying off – numbers To reverse the nature and climate have jumped from 264 in 2014 to emergencies, and adapt to the in Kazakhstan. 500 in 2020. bornfree.org.uk changes they’re already bringing, requires every single one of us to pull Numbers of together. It is the fight of our time. If any generation understands this and this Critically knows how to act with urgency, it is our younger generation. This gives Endangered me enormous hope. antelope tumbled by more than 60 per cent, but the species has 36 NUTHATCHES proved resilient. By 2019, the COME HOME surviving population had more than 46 brown-headed doubled, and in 2020, 530 calves were born nuthatches to the Ustyurt Plateau population – a record have been number in recent years. fauna-flora.org translocated from Arkansas 40HOOKED ON HELPING The Hookpod – a British invention to restored pine that prevents entanglement in longlines – is vastly reducing the needless deaths of woodlands in Mark Nuthatches albatrosses and other seabirds. In January Twain National Forest, are getting a 2020, the New Zealand Government Missouri. This perky little purchased sufficient devices to equip 15 of new start. the 27 longline boats that fish their waters. To date, not a single bird has been snared songbird – one of the few on these vessels. If 2021 sees wider use of Hookpods, thousands of seabirds could avian species known to use tools – be spared. hookpod.com vanished from the state in the early 1900s, following widespread habitat loss. abcbirds.org The Javan slow loris 37 BRIDGING THE GAPS 41FALCON FORTUNES needs a joined-up Slow lorises – little primates that live across In 2013, a nondescript village canopy, and hosepipes southern and South-East Asia – are in decline, a in Nagaland, north-east India, became are doing the trick. result of habitat loss and the illegal wildlife trade. the backdrop for a conservation horror But the Javan species, now confined to fragmented story – and an incredible conservation patches of vegetation around farmland, might just turnaround. Researchers had documented get a reprieve. Slow loris expert Anna Nekaris, who the indiscriminate massacre of hundreds spearheads The Little Fireface Project, has come of thousands of migrating Amur falcons, snared in large nets slung across roosting up with an ingenious solution to connect these sites. The outcry that followed led to pockets of habitat: create bridges of hosepipe action at several levels, including by the that provide safe passage while irrigating Government of Nagaland, assisted by farmers’ crops. “It’s a win-win for people and the local community and NGOs. Today, wildlife,” says Anna, “and we’ve discovered the birds continue to enjoy safe passage that up to 20 other threatened species through India. conservationindia.org use the bridges as well.” nocturama.org 58 BBC Wildlife January 2021

50 REASONS TO BE Che ful IN 2021 Bewick’s swan is 42 RESTORING A Gough’s birds, however, are under threat, the smallest swan SEABIRD PARADISE a consequence of mice introduced during to visit the UK the 19th century, which prey on seabird (see p12). Nestling in the South Atlantic, Gough Island chicks. Enter the RSPB, who, working with – part of the overseas territory of Tristan da the Tristan da Cunha Government, has Cunha – has been described as one of the developed an ambitious programme – its most important seabird nesting sites in the biggest international project yet – to remove world. This remote little island is home to an the mice from Gough and save at least two eye-popping 8 million breeding birds from million seabirds each year. The organisation at least 24 species, including the Tristan hopes to commence efforts in 2021. and Atlantic yellow-nosed albatrosses, MacGillivray’s prion and Atlantic petrel. goughisland.com Gough Island is home to an eye-popping 8 million breeding birds. The Atlantic yellow- nosed albatross is in trouble on Gough – but the RSPB is fighting its corner.

43COLLABORATION Sta and students ON CAMPUS at the University of Birmingham More than 80 UK universities have man a hedgehog come together to create change for awareness stand. hedgehogs, thanks to the British Hedgehog Preservation Society’s MY REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL Hedgehog Friendly Campus campaign. Staff and students have Barney Long been installing hedgehog-crossing signs and nestboxes, organising litter- Senior director of species conservation, picks and carrying out surveys, and Global Wildlife Conservation the campaign may roll out to schools and colleges in future. “The initiative Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC) is is fostering a new generation of leading the largest-ever quest to find hedgehog champions,” says project and protect species lost to science manager Jo Wilkinson, “giving staff an students the tools to make a real difference – plants and animals that have not to a species vulnerable to extinction in been scientifically documented in at Britain.” britishhedgehogs.org.uk least 10 years. In some cases, they may have gone extinct, but in others, 44 MOOR FOR YOUR MONEY it may be that nobody has been able If you want something done, it’s to look for them. Since launching in sometimes better to do it yourself. This is 2017, 6 of our 25 most-wanted lost what a community in Scotland decided, raising a monumental £3.8 million to buy species have been rediscovered, a 5,000-acre swathe of Langholm Moor. including two this year – the Somali The purchase paves the way for creation sengi in Djibouti and the Voeltzkow’s of the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve, which will boast globally important peatlands and chameleon in Madagascar. ancient woodlands, and offer opportunities These stories turn the doom-and- for eco-tourism. “The world faces a climate gloom narrative of extinction on emergency and a biodiversity crisis,” says its head and remind us that, with Carol Evans, Director of Woodland Trust Scotland. “This is a fight back against both a bit of help, nature can bounce threats.” langholminitiative.org.uk back. This is the hope we carry with us for the natural world into 45 FIRST NATION CONSERVATION the new year: that through the e orts of GWC and partners, In 2019, the Ëutsël K’é Dene First Nation we can give not only the species signed a landmark agreement with the on the edge of extinction a chance, but help our planet – Hedgehog campus: Lora Steadman/BHPS; hedgehog: Olivier Born/Biosphoto/FLPA; tulip: Brett Wilson; wild dog: Richard Du governments of Canada and the Northwest Toit/Minden/FLPA; Tasmanian devil: Aussie Ark; parrot: Glenn Bartley/BIA/NPL; bald eagle: Loic Poidevin/NPL and all life on it, including Territories to create a vast new protected humans – to thrive. area called Thaidene Nëné, or ‘Land of the Ancestors,’ marking a different pathway for conservation – one led by indigenous peoples. Encompassing Canada’s 47th National Park, Thaidene Nëné covers more than 25,000km of boreal forest and tundra habitat, relied on by more 47A PARROT SAVED BY PR than 10 million birds. In the 1990s, the yellow- This conservation eared parrot was all but extinct across its range in Ecuador and model will advance into Colombia; today, some 1,000 are flying again in Colombia. 2021, with even more Populations had crashed due to harvesting of the Quindío wax land considered for palm on which the species depends, but a conservation programme protection – including spearheaded by Fundación ProAves and Conservation International, plus the Seal River a publicity campaign (featuring a touring parrot bus) attracted a flood Watershed of support for the bird, paving the way for a comeback. birdlife.org of northern January 2021 Manitoba, a rich, 12-million- acre mosaic of forest and Bald eagles will wetlands. benefit from audubon.org Thaidene Nëné. 60 BBC Wildlif

50 REASONS TO BE Che ful IN 2021 46 ALL EYES present in Bicaur and Mupa ON ANGOLA National Parks. “Despite the obvious challenges, we have Angola may still be healing seen an astonishing focus from a 30-year civil war, but its by the Angolan government government has not lost sight on conservation,” says Sara of its rare species, working Elizalde, from the Angola closely with the Zoological field team. “Our surveys have Society of London (ZSL) been a real source of hope. on conservation initiatives. We have found wild dogs in ZSL is currently monitoring areas where we feared they cheetahs and African wild had vanished, as well as viable dogs in 15 countries across cheetah populations. One Africa, with a particular focus survey even uncovered the on Angola, and the findings first evidence of a cusimanse are positive: surveys have –a shown that, for the first time t in 50 years, wild dogs are Areas of wilderness in Angola could provide an important stronghold for African wild dogs. “We have seen an astonishing focus by the Angolan government on conservation.” 48DEVILS DOWN UNDER 49SAVING RED SISKINS 50TIP TOP Wild tulips in Asia Australia is celebrating: for the first In 2003, the South Rupununi, TULIPS signify a healthy time in 3,000 years, the Tasmanian devil Guyana, played host to the remarkable ecosystem. (below) is back in the wild on the mainland. discovery of a population of endangered red We may love a bouquet of The species succumbed to competition from siskins. Members of the South Rupununi introduced dingos, and its return has been Conservation Society (SRCS) became tulips, but few of us will heralded by the release of 26 individuals guardians of this rare bird, and have since into a sanctuary in New South Wales. “In accumulated 15 years of data. SRCS now know that the plant’s wild ancestors are 100 years, we will look back at this day as works with local communities to improve setting in motion the ecological restoration threatened with extinction. Tulips grow of an entire country,” says Tim protection, and has Faulkner of Aussie Ark, where launched an education in much of Eurasia, particularly on the the devils were captive-bred. programme destined “This is an animal that will to reach 1,500 students mountains of the five ‘Stans in central engineer the environment y 2023. “We need to around it, restoring and nserve species that Asia, but are declining as human pressure rebalancing our forest ecology.” a tr ct tourists and to preserve degrades the landscape. However, scientists biodiversity – education is critical to aussieark.org.au this,” says programme co-ordinator from Cambridge University Botanic Garden Neal Millar. srcs-gy.com January 2021 and Fauna & Flora International have teamed up with partners in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to save these iconic blooms. “We’ve brought together a community that is now conserving not only wild tulips but also a landscape neglected in the past,” says lead researcher Brett Wilson. fauna-flora.org; botanic.cam.ac.uk BBC Wildlife 61

Chris and Megan get back to nature with BBC Wildlife in the New Forest, autumn 2020. “Every single person has the power to get up and make a di erence.”

50 REASONS TO BE Che ful IN 2021 Club together The Self-Isolating Bird Club was the online hit of 2020, but presenters Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin only have eyes on the future… By Paul McGuinness | Portraits Tom Gilks “Iwas the most angry young man,” yesterday that’s going to make a difference. Chris Packham says. “At times, I’ve Because, ultimately, every single person become the most angry older man. has the opportunity and has the power, the But that anger, I understood a long potential, to get up and make a difference. time ago, it’s implicitly important No matter how small their actions might that you don’t damage yourself with be, there is something positive and a benefit that anger, you don’t let it become a that can come of that. negative energy, you turn it immediately into a creative force.” How do you motivate yourself on the With a new book, Back to Nature, more di cult days? exploring how an increased engagement Chris: They’re very few and far between. with wildlife benefits both ourselves I mean, I can see things that will frustrate and our environment, presenters and me and very, very rarely – once or twice a conservationists Packham and Megan year – they’ll depress me. But I’m such a McCubbin are talking positivity. Chris resilient fighter that, basically, I just don’t has just returned from the Isle of Wight, allow it to break my step, really. I mean, and is bubbling with excitement: “I saw social media gives you access to some a white-tailed eagle, can you believe it?” pretty horrific stories and images and those The reintroduced raptors are just one of sorts of things, but you just have to become the many projects in the UK offering a ray inured to them. I can’t afford to let any of of hope for the future. But with a recent those things get to me, to the point that they barrage of bad news, it can’t be easy to slow my desire for progress. maintain a positive outlook… So if anything, in true punk styley, if they Megan: We’ve got a long way to go, make me more angry, I just turn that energy but there are incredibly positive stories into something positive. For me, that’s been happening all around us. So for me, I like a way of life since my teens and early 20s. to focus on those and wake up and figure out what I can do today that’s different from During the first lockdown, a lot was made of the idea that while we were all BBC Wildlife 63

Eagles on the Isle of Wight, like doves with an olive branch. And equally, we can encourage it, we don’t just have to stop doing things, we can positively do things. We can restore habitats, we can repair ecosystems, we can reintroduce species. We’ve got all of these technologies at our disposal, we just need to get on with it. Do you think the current ‘green revolution’, especially among young people, will succeed in indoors, outside our windows, nature making genuine change? was fighting back… Chris: We know from scientific research Megan: It’s not fighting back, it’s just that in order to change a population’s mind quietly reclaiming, and I think that gave a about something, you need 25 per cent or lot of people the escapism, it gave a lot of more of that population to change their people the hope that we needed. mind. There are problems with the science I think if you give wildlife and nature the and our understanding of it. And that is that space, it will 100 per cent take over. I mean, at 24.9 per cent, you’re not going to do it, look at the site of Chernobyl and how that you need to get to 25. And the trouble for has adapted so quickly, much quicker than the campaigners is that they don’t know I think any scientist expected. Now there’s where they are. It’s impossible to canvas foxes, there’s deer, there was a moose… and census where a population stands on And I think, in lockdown, a lot of space its beliefs. So you could be at 24.9 per cent that was next to wild areas, but was mainly and you just need to win that other fraction taken over for human land use, became of a percentage point to get over the line. Or quiet. And therefore, the wildlife that lived you could be at 14, 13 or 10. And that’s why next door was able to poke its nose in, have some of these movements start backsliding, a bit of a wander and explore around. It because people get tired and they get fed up wasn’t necessarily established in those areas with doors slamming in their face. but they were exploring They don’t use that and, given the chance, “We had a as an energy, they don’t would have become use that to fuel their established over time. goshawk determination. They Chris: Look at the grass eventually get worn down, verges. We didn’t cut y into our they grow up, end up them, they were full of wearing blue and brown, Eagles: Ian Day/Forestry Commission; storks: Nick Upton/naturepl.com wildflowers that normally window during in the words of The Clash. had their heads cut off But if you had that luxury by over-zealous councils, lockdown.” at one point in your life, highways and private you don’t have it now. This landowners. They couldn’t is not about tomorrow, go out, the machines were grounded and, all climate change is already here, it’s burning of a sudden, we’ve got more insects buzzing America, it’s burning Australia, it’s flooding around our roads. We’ve got a lot of happier Indonesia, it’s flooding Yorkshire. And the people looking out and seeing all of those impact will be immediate and catastrophic. wildflowers and thinking, “Well, that looks And this is not my observation, this nicer than a boring piece of verge.” is global science presenting data that’s I think a lot of people woke up to the fact been analysed and peer-reviewed. There’s that we have to offer nature so little in order no ambiguity about it whatsoever. So it’s for it to gain so much, that all we needed to hard, but we don’t like things that are easy. do was not cut the verges for three weeks, in Aldous Huxley said, “There’s nothing like a one respect. good struggle against contentment”. 64 BBC Wildlife January 2021

50 REASONS TO BE Che ful IN 2021 The first breeding storks in England since the battle of Agincourt. If you want 25 per cent of the population, you need to reach out to as broad a part of that population as possible. It’s no good preaching to the converted, it’s no good looking at focus groups within that population, because there simply won’t be enough people there. For you, what are the big conservation success stories in recent times, here in the UK, that give you hope for the coming at the same time, that’s what I’m saying, months and years? you’ve got to try and balance these things Megan: Storks are back, that’s pretty cool. out. And also turtle doves are increasing on Chris: Eagles are back. And ospreys, in that Knepp Estate. So, it’s not that we’ve lost Poole Harbour. them and we’ve got no chance of getting Megan: There are so many conservation them back, they’re getting them back gems that are incredibly exciting and because they’re doing the right thing. positive. For the first time, we have breeding It’s just that not enough people are being white storks, on the Knepp Estate, the first encouraged or told or made to do the right time since 1416 – over 600 years – and they thing. And that’s what we’ve got to work on. are breeding successfully, and they had chicks that fledged. So, that is an incredibly Back to Nature o ers practical advice exciting thing to come forward. for people who do want to ‘do their bit’, You know, we moan that the beavers aren’t but is also a reminder of why nature back properly yet but there are talks about matters so much to us… them being more introduced. Recently, the Megan: We wanted to provide options for beavers on the River Otter were allowed to people to get involved, to start helping. But stay. It’s all these steps that are important also remind them about why we’re doing and are worth celebrating. Are there enough this in the first place. Because, you know, steps? No, but there are it comes from a love of small ones that are going “If you give wildlife, it comes from on. The eagles, that’s being in awe of it, it comes brilliant – eagles on the wildlife the from that fascination as Isle of Wight. a kid. Where Chris had Chris: We had a goshawk space, it will a ladybird on his finger, fly into our window during or I had a pet tortoise, or lockdown. A goshawk – a 100 per cent whatever. It comes from goshawk! When I was a take over.” those kind of interactions kid, the idea that you’d and then it builds up ever have a goshawk flying Chris: Activism, we say into your window, that in the book, you know, it’s you’d have peregrine, raven, red kite on putting a hole in your fence for hedgehogs. your garden list in the south of England, You’ve taken some action, you’ve done was beyond anyone’s comprehension. something positive for a species, an So, we do see positive things. environment. Not just one, the hedgehog I know what you’re going to say to me, fleas that come with it and all of the things you’re going to say ‘Yes, but, as you’ve that it eats and the things that eat it… already confessed, Chris, from the same FIND OUT MORE time, we’ve seen catastrophic declines in turtle dove, 95 per cent’. Turtle doves nested Back to Nature: Conversations with the Wild in my school grounds when I was a kid by Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin is and now there are none in Hampshire. But published by Two Roads. January 2021 BBC Wildlife 65

The remote Russian outpost of Wrangel Island hosts extraordinary Arctic wildlife – musk oxen, spectacular white-plumed birds Bear andhundredsofbreedingpolarbears. Photo islandstory Photographer Sergey Gorshkov Words by Paul Bloom eld

A young male polar bear ambles across a frozen lagoon on Wrangel Island. During the brief Arctic summer between June and September, after sea-ice has melted, hundreds of bears stalk their favoured prey – bearded and ringed seals, plus walrus – on these shores. By autumn, wind breaks up the coastal ice, and most bears depart back onto the pack ice for the winter.

PHOTO STORY WRANGEL ISLAND A mages: Sergey Gorshkov/naturep .com TOP: In late May or early June, ABOVE: An Arctic fox warily An Arctic fox holds a snow goose egg huge numbers of snow geese approaches the colony, keeping in its jaws as the fierce Arctic wind – more than 440,000 in 2019 – a watchful eye on a pair of whips its coat – by June, a curious return to Wrangel from winter adult geese. Foxes target nests, mid-moult mix of long, white winter grounds on the Atlantic coast particularly in summer when fur and the dark summer pelage of North America. Most head to lemming numbers are low, better suited to hunting lemming the Tundra River valley, where a attempting to drive o female amid the now largely snow-free vast colony covers some 20km . birds to steal eggs and even tundra. An adult fox might snatch Having mated, a female lays her catching weak or sick adults up to 40 eggs each day, caching eggs in a shallow depression – though large male geese are leftovers in the snow for later. lined with grass and down. formidable adversaries. January 2021 68 BBC Wildlife

PHOTO STORY WRANGEL ISLAND January 2021 BBC Wildlife 69

Three boisterous four-month-old fox cubs enjoy a spot of rough and tumble – play-fighting is an important part of their development. Born in May, in litters typically numbering 8–10, pups leave the den aged about five weeks. By late summer, they’re increasingly exploring their surroundings and honing the art of hunting, progressing from insects to the lemmings that are a primary food. 70 BBC Wildlife January 2021

PHOTO STORY WRANGEL ISLAND ABOVE: An extensive bar beach BBC Wildlife 71 encloses a lagoon at Cape Blossom on the west coast of this 7,600km wilderness of tundra and mountains. Wrangel was declared a zapovednik – strictly protected area – in 1976, and today its only human inhabitants are a few rangers and, in summer, researchers and the occasional visiting photographer like Sergey. RIGHT: A Wrangel lemming ventures out onto the tundra. Lemming numbers are cyclical, with peaks and troughs that a ect predator populations. “When I visited Wrangel Island in summer 2010, its lemming population was booming,” recalls Sergey. “Consequently, Arctic foxes and snowy owls were also thriving: each fox burrow had up to 16 cubs, and 8–10 snowy owlets were crammed into each nest.” January 2021

PHOTO STORY WRANGEL ISLAND LEFT In May 2011, Sergey opened the door of his hut to come face to face with this notoriously fierce and rarely spotted wolverine – another Wrangel resident that pilfers snow goose eggs. The largest terrestrial mustelid is well adapted to life in the freezer, with snowshoe-like paws, thick, frost- resistant fur and a vast home range – a male’s territory, which can overlap with those of several females, can span several hundred square kilometres. BELOW A snowy owl chick adopts a defensive posture – hunched forward, wings spread, baleful yellow eyes glaring at the interloper. This timid bird is challenging to photograph, says Sergey: “I was unbelievably lucky that the owl came so close to me.” These ghostly white raptors arrive on Wrangel in late spring to breed, returning to the Russian mainland from September when food on the island becomes scarce. Young owls then fledge during August. 72 BBC Wildlife January 2021

Wrangel is known as the ‘nursery ward’ of polar bears: until recently, up to 500 females gave birth on the island each year, though dwindling numbers of their snow- set dens are active. Sergey photographed this family shortly after the cubs first emerged from their den in March. Litters of two are normal and they need to master survival skills quickly – not just hunting but also eluding adult males, which kill perhaps 10 per cent of cubs.

PHOTO STORY WRANGEL ISLAND

A pair of musk oxen display their shaggy, woolly coats and the curved horns they wield during courtship in late summer, when bulls repeatedly butt heads at speeds reaching up to 40kph. This hardy species shared the island with mammoth in prehistoric times, but was then extinct in Russia for many centuries. Twenty musk oxen were reintroduced to Wrangel from Alaska in 1975, and today the population numbers more than 1,200. Since the reappearance of wolves on the island two decades ago, these hulking herbivores increasingly form large herds. SERGEY GORSHKOV is a Russian photographer whose image of an Endangered Siberian tiger scent-marking a fir tree in the Russian Far East won the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020 grand title.

Blue tits: composite image Blue tits devour the orchard’s caterpillars. Top right: hundreds January 2021 of apple varieties are grown in the UK. 76 BBC Wildlife

Throughout the year, a wealth of wildlife reveals itself in a tranquil English orchard. Story Benedict Macdonald Photos Nicholas Gates Changing SEASONS Deep in the Malvern Here, it is believed that early Silk Road Hills, a traditional traders (and their horses) vectored the orchard stands proud as Kazakh apples westwards towards the a place of extraordinary Mediterranean, where they were grown abundance in the by enterprising Greeks and Romans. barren farmland around. For six years, The Romans, in turn, transported fellow naturalist Nicholas Gates and the fruit-bearing apple northwards into I have been studying its wildlife. This France – but it was not until the early biodiverse haven was once a sight that Medieval period that the apple trees we would have covered the one-time fruit- know and love today would finally arrive growing counties of Herefordshire, in Britain. When they did, it was the Worcestershire and much of appetite of Henry VIII that made this Gloucestershire, Devon and Somerset. possible. His fruiterer, Richard Harris, cultivated many varieties of apple, and It’s January – under a soft snow across the Tudor period – and even under blanket, the orchard, its trees bent Cromwell – orchards were incentivised under the weight of ice-clad mistletoe, across the country. By the early 1600s, heaves and chatters with winter Herefordshire was described as being thrushes. Fieldfares, redwings and song like “one continuous orchard”, bearing thrushes descend from the trees in their the extent of fruit-growing areas we now thousands and the static fizz and pop of only see in places like Greece, where starlings can be heard everywhere. When olive groves continue to carpet the land the farmlands all around are dead and for mile after mile. devoid of life, here it’s winter feast time and the banquet hall is full. Growing unpopularity Orchards were once a staple of rural Two centuries on, by the late 1800s, all life, much as they remain in the older of this would change. Declines in cider farming systems of Eastern Europe. We manufacture and the intensification cultivated most of them here in Tudor of arable farming would slowly render times, yet the older history is infinitely orchards agriculturally obsolete. Yet more fascinating. The apple trees in here was a perfect balance – a sharing Britain’s orchards today do not, in fact, arrangement between people and wildlife originate from our native wild crab rarely bettered. Orchards provide us apples. They originate, instead, from a with apples, pears, cherries and plums, remote mountain valley in Kazakhstan. leading to ranges of cider, perry, wood, January 2021 BBC Wildlife 77

ORCHARDS creatures come to use them over time – but many modern orchards no longer enjoy the rich wildlife bounty of the one that we study. Pesticide use wipes out species such as spotted flycatchers by removing their flying prey. Taking away dead wood stunts the biodiversity potential of an orchard, as it’s often in dead limbs that you find the most life. But it doesn’t have to be this way. charcoal and, of course, they sequester red eyes. This is a rich hunting ground for Food webs carbon to boot. If that doesn’t give us predators by day and night. enough, they can, simultaneously, provide By summer, it becomes apparent to us that shelter and forage for grazing animals. Tawny owls, of which no fewer than five the best pest-control service in this orchard pairs breed around the orchard, will already is not chemicals, which haven’t been used So why, for almost a century, have we got be tucked up in their woody tree caves, here since the 1930s, but the orchard’s wild rid of almost all our traditional orchards? incubating eggs. One year, we found one inhabitants. Treecreepers, foraging to feed As the snow begins to fall and the thrushes nesting right amid a colony of jackdaws – their young, act as tree ‘dentists’, removing beat a reluctant retreat to the fortress-like and to our amazement, its chicks fledged thousands of tiny invertebrates that may blackthorn hedges, it seems sadder than quite safely. By night, the orchard feeds otherwise harm the growth of the trees. ever that we cannot reinstate the orchard the owls with a ready supply of mice and, as an icon in our countryside once more. particularly, bank voles. And as bank voles Hundreds of pairs of blue and great are occasionally taken out of the picture by tits, nesting in almost every other tree, A bumper crop of wildlife owls, their vacated burrows become the new act as a cleansing service – taking, by homes of bumblebees. our calculations, close to a million small By early March, the orchard we’re studying caterpillars from the trees each summer. is transformed. The lush verdure of the The narrative of the orchard’s creatures Spotted flycatchers, skewering a range organic pasture layer is revealed, studded is woven intricately together. Even the of flies and wasps, further control insect with anthills and beetle-bored fallen boughs. woodpeckers, the ‘aerial beavers’ of this numbers. Walking through the orchard by The sharp, crisp drumming of the lesser ecosystem, carve out new cavities each early May, the blackthorn’s white already on spotted woodpecker, one of our adopted spring. The following year, these will be the wane, you find the trees in good health. orchard’s most prized avian inhabitants, used by a range of new colonists, from Ecosystems, it seems, are very capable of vies with the loud gunfire of its great robins to redstarts. Each woodpecker home looking after their own. spotted cousins. Green woodpeckers ‘yaffle’ becomes, over time, a desirable residence. (a fluting laugh) between the maze-like In the past few decades, the Common fruit trees. In the sky overhead, a pair of Orchards, unlike most forms of modern Agricultural Policy has been criticised goshawks, from a nearby wood, scour the agricultural land, remain, therefore, for subsidising farmers based on certain orchard below for an easy meal with fierce ecosystems as much as farms. Unbeknown practices that have a negative impact on to many of their owners, a whole array of biodiversity and ecosystems. Now, many of the apples we eat come not from glorious It becomes apparent that Top: the oldest Herefordshire orchards but the fruit- the best pest-control service corner of the growing areas of South Africa. Yet as any is not chemicals but the orchard is home culinary enthusiast will tell you, British orchard’s wild inhabitants. to mature trees, apples, weathered by rain and sun, are the cavities of among the best in the world. If we want which provide to get growing them once more, then shelter to wildlife we may need to consider subsidising the during the winter. types of farming that could better sustain us in the future. By late summer, clouds of twittering swallows, fledglings from their parents’ first brood, gather on the wires beside the old hop-kiln. Hornets whizz through the orchard airspace like banded bullets, snatching unwary bees in mid-flight. Redstarts, flashes of borrowed orange all the way from sub-Sahelian Africa, are now feeding their young, tucked deep within the heart of the old pear trees. But summer is all too short. Before we know it, each year, the apples are looming large on the trees, the swallows gone, and the crisp autumn wind begins to blow. This begins, in many ways, the most 78 BBC Wildlife January 2021

ORCHARDS Pressing issues: the UK’s lost orchards The People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) has identified that more than 90 per cent of traditional orchards have been lost since the 1950s. To combat this, it has helped set up the Orchard Network – a partnership of organisations helping to conserve traditional orchards across the UK. From promoting ‘apple days’ (usually held in mid-September) to encouraging engagement with community orchards to helping advise on traditional orchard management, Orchard Network is working to protect these disappearing habitats. With a global downturn in cider sales, orchards are still being grubbed up across the UK and converted to other forms of farming. Traditional orchards were added to the list of Priority Habitats in 2007, but PTES says protection is still weak. Looking to the future, a new subsidies scheme could help to prevent further destruction of these precious hotspots for British biodiversity. Consultations are currently underway to achieve this. Clockwise from ‘apartments’ in tree top: a good supply trunks; a female of beetles and lesser spotted other invertebrates woodpecker blends keeps birds such as in with the bark; redstarts well fed; active in summer, jackdaws are among rhinoceros beetles the avian residents can be seen resting of hollowed-out on dead wood.

ORCHARDS 80 BBC Wildlife January 2021

The orchard resembles Clockwise from above: – an old Kingston apple tree – has fallen. a primeval forest – a in summer, the orchard Planting new trees has already begun, but beetle-riven place that brims with life; great tit it will take decades before they reach the takes you back in time. chicks, eager for their fruit-bearing majesty of the orchard’s oldest next meal; a blackbird standards – apartments fit for woodpeckers nest is concealed within and beetles, for fungi and owls. a tree cavity. Left: a male nuthatch passes But in our warming climate, this food to his mate. orchard’s veteran apples are more imperilled than ever before. Mistletoe, magical and enchanting time of the year. be dropped. These, years later, will grow which can be harmless in small quantities, As September dawns, the late evening air through the enormous hedgerows of the can now operate later and later each year – fills with clouds of bats, all hawking for orchard, which, at this time, reveal quite sucking sap that would usually be frozen. moths around the orchard canopy. Once what an invaluable part of the ecosystem Warm winters are bad news for orchards, or twice a year, an emergence of crane flies, they are. Bullfinches raid hips from the because without long periods of chill hours their larvae quite safe within the orchard’s wild roses, marsh tits forage in the hazels (below 6°C), apple trees can succumb both unsprayed soils, will carpet the ground in a and elders, and song thrushes fiercely to mistletoe attack and disease. December frenzy of wings and legs. defend little portions of their real estate. is always an uncertain time – and the time that we look, worried, to the future. By the end of the month, the first pears Soon, the fieldfares will arrive and are falling – the orchard’s owners zealously everyone in the hedgerow will fall into line If we can save our last traditional gather them up and the perry-making behind this most rapacious and aggressive orchards – and plant more – in time, we operation begins. The old cider press heaves of diners. At this time, tiny dramas play out can reinstate one of the greatest sharing back to life, as the amber juice of pulped unseen all around the hedge lines. In the arrangements between people, farming pears is collected and siphoned into jars ivy-clad oaks, dense mating balls of ivy bees and wildlife ever created. If not, we will for fermentation. Towers of pumice, the – a vicious scrum of males, all vying for one lose a place so rich in life that it scarcely pulped remains of the juicing process, female underneath – can be discovered. bears thinking about. are enterprisingly left outside to divert any errant wasps or hornets from straying Past, present and future As snow once again blankets the orchard, inside. The air grows crisp and cool, and and fiercely territorial robins are the only as the blues turn to blacks, the tawny owls Of all orchard life, the strangest has to be sound as the sky darkens, we hope that are already hooting away – establishing the fungi. By November, chicken of the Britain can save its traditional orchards in the bounds of territories in this tense woods fungus erupts from the bark of time. And we can… because we must. apartment block of trees. many trees. It is now that the orchard resembles, more than ever, a primeval BENEDICT MACDONALD is the The harvest will continue across forest – a beetle-riven, ancient place that co-author of Orchard: A Year in November, but not just for the orchard’s takes you back in time. England’s Eden (Harper Collins). owners. The ‘chattering acorn gatherer’, the jay, is hard at work. Each acorn will be Each year, by December, the orchard FIND OUT MORE Discover your local stashed in a different place, but some will bears more wounds than the years before. Breaking loose from the soil, another giant community orchard via the PTES website: bit.ly/ptes–orchards January 2021 BBC Wildlife 81

S Many people feed the monkeys daily, because of karma or just because they love them.T 82 BBC Wildlife January 2021

Behind the image Big brother 2019 is watching by JOAN DE LA MALLA Getting to know the inhabitants – human and simian – of an unusual Thai town helped Joan capture a telling image of urban wildlife. JOAN DE LA MALLA Visit Lopburi in central Thailand, and you’ll be is an award-winning left in little doubt who’s wildlife photographer in charge: long-tailed and an associate fellow macaques. “The monkeys act like kings of the city,” explains of the International Joan, who captured this striking shot League of Conservation of one of the city’s simian denizens scampering beneath the piercing gaze Photographers. of a species-mate in mural form. joandelamalla.com Tourists have long been drawn to Lopburi’s ‘monkey temple’, the 13th- century Khmer monument Prang Sam Yot, thronged with long-tailed (or crab-eating) macaques. In recent years, though, groups of monkeys have expanded across the city: by September 2020, more than 4,500 were estimated to roam Lopburi’s streets. Historically, locals have revered their primate neighbours, considering them disciples of the monkey-god Hanuman. As numbers rose and their behaviour became more troublesome, though, opinions have diverged. “Many feed the monkeys daily, because of karma or just because they love them,” says Joan. “But ask someone with a business and they might feel differently, if they have to invest in protecting their shops, especially if they sell food.” To address the problem, authorities have launched a sterilisation programme, though it’s yet to really take effect. The art of coexisting This monkey mural is one of several in the city centre near the temple. “For me, this is the most impressive – symbolising how the human population accepts the macaques as part of their culture. It reflects the way people and monkeys coexist here,” says Joan. “The human inhabitants understand that monkeys were living here for many centuries before the city expanded into their territory.” Paul Bloomfield January 2021 BBC Wildlife 83

This month’s panel GILLIAN BURKE BEN HOARE ELLEN HUSAIN LAURIE JACKSON ALEX MORSS LAUREN PHARR KATE RISELY LEOMA WILLIAMS Naturalist & TV presenter Editorial consultant Wildlife film-maker Wildlife tour leader Botanist Ornithologist BTO Science writer We solve your wildlife mysteries. Email your questions to [email protected] More amazing facts at discoverwildlife.com BIOLOGY Why are polar bear noses black? Polar bear: Paul Souders/Getty; tree swallow: Vicki Jauron/Getty; velvet ant: John Abbott/naturepl.com ORNITHOLOGY Polar bears might look white, but as conducting light to the bear’s skin, they’re not. Their fur is actually whose dark pigmentation soaks up How does light transparent. Their skin, meanwhile, is the sun’s rays. pollution a ect birds? black – so not only do they have black noses, but their paws have black pads Having a black nose probably offers Afew birds may benefit from artificial too. Perhaps counter-intuitively, these protection against harmful UV. Polar light at night, known as ALAN by are all likely to be adaptations to a cold bears are descended from grizzlies, researchers. Peregrine falcons, for example, climate. The dense fur coat acts as a which have pink skin, and it’s thought are known to use the urban glow to hunt after thick layer of insulation. Transparent they developed dark skin to cope with dark. But light pollution is likely to be bad hollow fur fibres scatter light, creating life in the freezer. Their cubs are born for more species. As in people, it disrupts an almost glowing white effect, as well with pink skin, which begins to darken circadian rhythms, making birds more active after about five months. Ellen Husain at night. It interferes with migration, too – since skyglow affects the stars, which birds INVERTEBRATES use to orientate. When is an ant a wasp? A study of North American tree swallows found that nestling development can be Velvet ants are unusual solitary in her abdomen together. On top of impacted by light pollution – the chicks wasps that take their name from this, she has a potent sting. may be smaller, show signs of stress and the flightless females, which look like take longer to fledge. There’s also evidence extremely hairy ants (the males are Even if a predator that artificial light can harm an adult bird’s more recognisable as wasps). Their could get past her varied physical health. Research in great tits vivid orange, red or yellow coloration defences, they would find discovered that malaria infections were is a warning that reptiles, birds, her reinforced exoskeleton incredibly more common in birds that roosted under amphibians and mammals have all tough to crack. It is believed that white artificial light. So, it would seem learned to avoid. A female velvet ant the female velvet ant’s formidable that brightly lit, 24/7 lifestyles are not only assaults an attacker’s senses with armoury evolved to protect her while harmful to humans. Lauren Pharr chemicals and squeaks loudly – an off- she searches for the nests of solitary putting noise created by rubbing plates bees and wasps, where she will 84 BBC Wildlife sneakily lay her eggs. Laurie Jackson January 2021

Q&A January 2021 Left to right: tree swallows would rather not see the light at certain times of night; velvet ants are actually wasps; a polar bear’s coloration is the result of an optical illusion. BBC Wildlife 85

Q&A SYMBIOSIS BOTANY Do all animals need ‘friendly’ bacteria? Why are spirals so common in nature? F riendly bacteria reside in our guts, helping us to break down food, If you count the clockwise and anti- fight infection and perform a host of clockwise spirals of the fruits on other services. But the term belies the a pineapple, scales on a pine cone or true complexity and sheer wonderment inner florets on a daisy, you will see of an inter-kingdom relationship. a pattern that occurs widely across As scientists delve into the world nature. It has evolved independently, of friendly bacteria, more of these countless times, in unrelated intricate relationships are uncovered. species of plants and animals, and usually follows a mathematical Even tiny barnacles have their own phenomenon called the Fibonacci consortium of friendly bacteria. A sequence. It begins: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, recent study found that as the free- 13, 21, 34; two adjoining numbers in swimming barnacle larvae settle the sequence are found in many of down to live out their adult lives nature’s spirals. on rocks, they acquire a line-up of bacteria completely distinct from their Scientists have suggested the surroundings or any other stage of resulting shapes may occur as the their life-cycle. How this happens is best adaptation for efficient light still being investigated. Gillian Burke capture and nutrient use. None has proved it, but researchers in Japan The bacteria in might have come close. In 2020, barnacles are a their study argued that powerful bit of a mystery. mechanical processes and genetic traits enabled plants to stay true to the spiral consistently, regardless of strong environmental influences, in all but 1 per cent of the plants they examined. Alex Morss True to form: the scales on lodgepile pine cones follow the Fibonacci sequence. ORNITHOLOGY Warb er: Lu s M gue Ru z Gordon; p ne cone: Gera d Cors /Getty; barnac es & bu dog: Getty; wolf: Edwin Giesbers/naturepl.com (captive); frog: Renato Augusto Martins/Wikipedia/Creative Commons Why would reed warblers feed gold nch chicks? T his photograph, the parent’s nesting attempt taken at a reedbed in has failed. Spain, shows a fascinating Many species have been instance of instinctive seen doing this – usually behaviour, which is not garden birds such as blue the result of a conscious and great tits, wrens, house decision but triggered sparrows, blackbirds and by an external stimulus. robins. Reed warblers are Birds probably feed not often recorded feeding nestlings of other species goldfinches or other species. in response to the strong But, since they are frequently signals of begging sounds host parents to cuckoos, it is and wide-open baby perhaps not surprising that beaks. Though very rare, it they do. They clearly aren’t most likely occurs when the very good at knowing what ‘wrong’ nest is close to the their chicks should look like! parent’s own chicks, or when Kate Risely January 2021

Q&A ALLERGIES Can animals have allergies? Yes. Just like us, our pets can get hay fever, suffer food intolerances and even be allergic to their owners. Domestic animals such as cats, dogs and horses seem to suffer more than their wild counterparts, showing allergies to certain foods, fleas and environmental substances, from grass pollen and mould to human dandruff. Pets are thought to be more susceptible to allergies because they spend so much more time indoors and thus have weaker immune systems compared to animals exposed to the great outdoors. It may also be harder for wild animals with allergies to survive and reproduce, in which case, natural selection would be expected to weed them out. A sneezing tiger wouldn’t catch its prey very often! Leoma Williams Wolves are less likely to su er with allergies, compared to their domestic canine cousins. 3 questions on Venomous amphibians AREN’T FROGS POISONOUS, SO THERE ARE AMPHIB B T DO Y H E NOT VENOMOUS? THAT USE VENOM? VENOMOUS BITE? People frequently mix up ‘venom’ and In 2015, researchers in Brazil reported It turns out that they do. Five ‘poison’ – including JK Rowling, in her their somewhat painful discovery of years after describing the frogs’ Harry Potter books. Strictly speaking, the first known venomous frog. During extraordinary spiny defence, Jared and venom is injected into prey or an enemy a field trip, Carlos Jared was hurt while his colleagues are back with another by fangs or stings; a poisonous animal handling a Greening’s frog, which, it stunning discovery from Brazil. This is harmful only if it is touched or eaten. later transpired, has small venom spines time it involves the world’s first known For example, many snakes are venomous, around its head. Similar spines were amphibians with a venom-laden bite: with just a handful of unusual caecilians. The team examined four poisonous species (Q&A, May then seen in a second Brazilian species of the burrowing, legless 2020). By contrast, in species, the Bruno’s casque- amphibians and found venom glands amphibians, poison headed frog (pictured). inside their mouths, located near the is common but Because these frogs can teeth. These could be for defence but venom almost inject an attacker, they also to help them swallow prey. unheard of. are truly venomous amphibians. Ben Hoare BBC Wildlife 87

Q&A EVOLUTION How fast is evolution? Evolution is often considered a environmental change can lead to a rapid slow process. Charles Darwin took proliferation of a rare characteristic, for granted that change was gradual which then goes on to become the and trudged along, like the Galápagos norm. The classic example is peppered tortoises that partly inspired his theory. moths, which became darker during the But in reality, there is no one rate, no Industrial Revolution, since it offered steadily ticking clock as species alter better camouflage on soot-stained trees. over millennia. It can happen more As humans exert increasing pressures quickly than you may suppose. on the natural world, we may see more examples of fast evolution. Evolutionary change depends on random mutations in an organism’s Leoma Williams DNA. These tend to occur at a Typically white with steady rate, but some have black speckles, the bigger effects than others. Change also takes place in peppered moth’s response to selective pressures melanistic form came on populations – a sudden into its own in soot- choked cities. Moth: Stephen Dalton/naturepl.com; bat: Marko Konig/Getty; colobus: Bernard Castelein/naturepl.com; Jelly: Magnus Lundgren/naturepl.com The Explainer PRIMATES Balancing act: primates such as the Ecotone Do monkeys Zanzibar red colobus must traverse treetop Bats often hunt along ever fall to forest-edge ecotones. routes with care. their deaths? Though it might sound like a January 2021 photography filter or something Sadly, even nature’s to do with paint, ‘ecotone’ is how finest acrobats scientists describe a transitional sometimes fall back area between two ecosystems. down to Earth. Primates of all sizes, from lemurs This could be the treeline on to howler monkeys and a mountain, a patch of scrub chimpanzees, are known to between more-open grassland suffer fatal falls. This despite and forest, or a marshy area along the fact that they are superbly a riverbank. Ecotones protect the adapted for their treetop ecosystems on each side, while lifestyle – broad hands and providing distinctive conditions feet with nail-clad digits that many animals and plants (and, in some species, favour, something known as the opposable thumbs) give ‘edge e ect’. Often they support an amazing ability to a wider species mix than more- grasp; long limbs help with swinging through uniform habitat. trees; and long tails assist Ben Hoare with balance. Monkeys in the Americas also have ‘prehensile’ 88 BBC Wildlife tails that can grip branches. Young primates hone their physical dexterity through play, but it is all too easy to be distracted when you’re having fun. Youngsters can also fall out of roosting trees and badly constructed overnight nests. Luckily, smaller animals stand a better chance of surviving a fall than larger ones. Laurie Jackson

Q&A What is it? BROWN PAPER NAUTILUS Bet you looked twice! It takes a moment or two to fathom this astonishing underwater image, a 2020 runner-up in the GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. Taken at night o the coast of Luzon in the Philippines, Magnus Lundgren’s picture shows an octopus hitching a ride on a jellyfish. Female brown paper nautiluses, unusual octopuses also known as argonauts after the heroes in Greek mythology, are well known for surfing on the bells of jellyfish, perhaps using their host for defence or to help trap food. Ben Hoare

OUR WILD WORLD At home Bring a little extra wildlife into your life with the best of this month’s TV, books, podcasts, streaming and much more. Attenborough’s back TV choice Sir David’s latest series celebrates Earth’s uniqueness. O COMING NEXT ISSUE Toby Nowlan/Silverback Films A PERFECT PLANET and how it shapes and supports wildlife We go behind the scenes around the globe – volcanoes, sunlight, COMING SOON TO BBC ONE weather and oceans. The fifth episode f A Perfect Planet in our examines the impact of the latest force ebruary issue, on sale Following recent hits such as Our Planet of nature to affect wildlife – humans. rom 14 January 2021. and Dancing with the Birds, Silverback Films has done it again – producing Stunning landscapes and fascinating another remarkable series, featuring the species are celebrated, from the slopes reassuring tones of David Attenborough. of Hawaiian volcanoes to the lands In this latest offering, we explore the drenched by monsoon rains, and the ‘Goldilocks effect’ – where a variety of frozen wood frogs that thaw in spring. factors have combined on Earth to create the only planet in the universe, “Powerful yet fragile forces allow life that we know of, where life has evolved. to flourish in astonishing diversity,” says Attenborough. “They make Earth Each of the first four episodes truly unique – a perfect planet.” focusses on a different force of nature, Megan Shersby

OUR WILD WORLD The bears of Kamchatka, Russia – here, a mother and cub – feed on the salmon runs of Kurile Lake, at the foot of active volcanoes.

OUR WILD WORLD BOOK Penguin: A Story of Survival BY STEFAN CHRISTMANN,TENEUES PUBLISHING, £35 work through a year of hardship in order to research, with the capturing of intimate successfully raise their young. The book moments unknown to science – such as the Christmann’s sumptuous balances impossibly cute images of downy adults spotted feeding chicks that aren’t their offering is more than just a little chicks with heartbreaking shots of own, suggesting a deeper, more collaborative collection of incredible award- youngsters and a ‘crèche guardian’ that have approach to childcare. winning photographs. We also fallen down into a snow gulley and perished. get touching, first-hand witness The human impact is not forgotten here, with Conveyed strongly throughout the narrative accounts of the daily trials of an emperor the recognition that it is climate change, and is the idea that penguin survival relies on a penguin colony from the German-born an early melting of the sea-ice, that has led to system of deep trust and affection between physicist-turned-nature photographer and an increase in this kind of tragedy. partners, and members, of the colony; this film-maker. The stage is set during read leaves us pondering the truest and ‘overwintering’ in Antarctica, as the colony But the real triumph of the work is purest forms of love and teamwork. highlighting the role photography plays in Debs Allbrook Marine biologist O VIEW MORE PHOTOS from There’s he book in our online gallery: warmth in iscoverwildlife.com/penguin-gallery numbers, but some hardy WILD STREAM individuals break away YOUTUBE Gone Feral from the A new adventure series from crowd. wildlife photographers Edwin Towler and Harry Read, featuring PODCAST BOOK competitive challenges. bit.ly/goneferal What Planet Fathoms YOUTUBE Are We On? BY REBECCA GIBBS, SCRIBE PUBLICATIONS, £20 60 Seconds Zoologist Amy Hall explains BBC RADIO 5 LIVE / BBC SOUNDS Much has been written biological adaptations such as about whales but Giggs seabird coloration and altruism. This podcast leads listeners finds plenty more to say bit.ly/amyhallwildlife through some of the most and think about in Fathoms. contentious climate-based With distinctive prose, as DOCUMENTARY conversations – offering philosophical as it is Flint tangible solutions when we need them scientific, this is a challenging and most. Wildlife presenter and biologist Liz illuminating portrait of the oceans’ great A hard-hitting programme on the Bonnin chairs a dynamic trio of hosts, cetaceans and what they mean to people. water-poisoning disaster in Flint, with BBC correspondents Matt McGrath Giggs brings fresh perspectives to USA, narrated by Alex Baldwin. and Victoria Gill. The impressive array of notorious issues of noise, plastic and guests, beginning with Sir David chemical pollution, while asking bigger BBC iPlayer, until Attenborough and including celebrities, questions. Weaving from the politics of 1 January 2021 journalists, world business leaders and modern-day whaling to the ecology of leading academics, serves to emphasise whale-endemic crustacean hitchhikers, 92 BBC Wildlife the all-encompassing nature of climate Giggs repeatedly turns the mirror on change. The colourful edit and friendly humanity, probing our capacity for tone of the presenters leaves you feeling change and considering ways to remain, empowered and informed. as she says, “compassionately engaged with distant, unmet things”. Sophie Pavelle Zoologist and author Helen Scales Marine biologist O NEW TO PODCASTS? Read our guide: bit.ly/wildlifepodcasts January 2021

OUR WILD WORLD GAME O bird’s song and a captivating illustration. You can hear the downy woodpecker The Lost Words Snow B r s drilling and feel the solitude of the card game snowy owl perched atop a dune. BY KIRSTEN HALL, ILLUSTRATED BYJENNI DESMOND, Curl up under a blanket with your little THAMES AND KOSMOS, £13.99,AGE 8+ ABRAMS BOOKS, £12.99 one and lose yourself in the elegant, descriptive poetry and striking artwork, Based on the bestselling book by Robert This book feels special from which exquisitely depict the most Macfarlane and Jackie Morris, this is a the moment you pick it up. dramatic season of the year. The perfect relatively straightforward card game – Set in North America, each gift for children aged five and upwards, the object of which is to be the first to poem describes a different it will open their imaginations to a new pair the cards in your hand with those species and the challenges world in winter. on the table. There’s an edge to they face in winter: the great proceedings, as certain cards allow you grey owl hunts for its next meal in three Lucy McRobert Nature writer to mess with your opponents – draw a lines; golden-crowned kinglets huddle magpie, for example, and you can steal together for warmth; and the northern O MORE CHILDREN’S NATURE BOOKS a completed pair. One hand took about cardinal is filled with rhythmic hope of a 30 minutes, and it was something of a coming spring. Each poem captures the ead our reviews: discoverwildlife.com/ delight to play with such beautiful behaviours of the bird, not just in words but hildrens-books illustrations of the natural world, and in construction, and is accompanied by the to hear 10- and 12-year-old boys talking Penguins: nature-in-focus.de/naturepl.com/teneues.com about brambles, wrens, otters and larks. BOOK RADIO Sarah McPherson The Disappearance Nature Table: of Butter ies Christmas Special ON OUR WEBSITE BYJOSEF H REICHHOFF,JOHN WILEY, £25 BBC RADIO 4, 25 DECEMBER, 5PM WINTER WOODLANDS If you’re willing to brave the The beauty, individuality Following the success of the first series cold, why not set yourself the and unique characteristics in early 2020, Nature Table returns challenge of spotting these of butterflies and moths are again to BBC Radio Four for a fungi, ferns and mosses while brought to life in the first Christmas Day special, presented by half of this authoritative comedian, broadcaster and writer Sue out for a woodland stroll: book. Reichholf calls the Perkins. Recorded in November at ZSL discoverwildlife.com/ butterfly’s life-cycle a “magical process” London Zoo (while adhering to social and the butterfly itself a “living miracle”. distancing rules), the series sees winter-woodland But it is the second half that really naturalists presenting unusual and captured my imagination. Addressing amusing objects from the natural world SURVIVAL OF THE SLUGS the devastating decline of Lepidoptera, in a ‘show and tell’ format. In this Ever wondered how slugs cope he outlines why this should matter to hour-long episode, the four guests are with freezing temperatures in us and what we can do about it. With conservationists and BBC Springwatch winter? We’ve got the answer: striking insight into why industrial presenters Chris Packham and Michaela agriculture and habitat degradation are Strachan, botanist and writer James discoverwildlife.com/slugs crippling for biodiversity, the author Wong, and actor and comedian Stephen offers hope through a range of solutions. Mangan. Watch out for series two of SNAP HAPPY Nature Table in the spring. MS From herons and coal tits Lindsey Chapman Presenter to deer and foxes, enjoy BBC Wildlife 93 fantastic images of British winter wildlife from Young Wildlife Photographers UK. discoverwildlife.com/bww January 2021

OUR WILD WORLD Wild quiz PUZZLES Win a prize with our crossword, and test your wildlife knowledge. Answers in our March 2021 issue NOVEMBER ANSWERS Damian Kuzdak/Getty ACROSS: 1 wader, 4 1) What are antlers made of? Jacaranda, 9 sunbeam, 10 tree rat, 11 scaup, 13 eagle, A Keratin 15 oar, 16 elk, 17 larva, 19 B Chitin ackee, 21 tusks, 23 beard, C Bone 24 cep, 25 auk, 26 canid, 28 river, 29 palmate, 31 mole 2) Which plant was traditionally rat, 33 enamelled, 34 oasis. known as furze? DOWN: 1 wasps’ nest, 2 A Bracken Denmark, 3 roe, 4 Jamie, B Gorse 5 cat, 6 reeve, 7 Norfolk, 8 C Heather aster, 12 palms, 14 guava, 18 robin, 19 adder, 20 3) What is Britain’s most Euphrates, 22 St Kilda, 24 common seabird? coverts, 25 apple, 26 crane, 27 domed, 30 eel, 32 leo. A Herring gull B Gannet NOVEMBER WINNER C Guillemot N Reeve, Surrey 4) How do scientists tell whale sharks apart? ACROSS 26 Heron-like reedbed bird with 14 Fox-like Asian mammal, a booming call (7) Nyctereutes procyonoides (7, 3) A Patterns of white spots 9 Slime-producing marine creature 28 Another name for a rootstalk (7) 16 The world’s largest rodent B Shape of dorsal fin of the class Myxini (7) 29 Urban settlement designed to be species (8) C Unique vocalisations 10 Tick or mite, for example (7) environmentally friendly (3-4) 17 Scaly anteater (8) 11 Marine vegetation (7) 18 Upland plover, Charadrius 5) Which of these are related 12 Large seabirds known for their DOWN morinellus (8) to barnacles? noisy colonies and spectacular 22 ___ tree, latex-producing plummets (7) 1 ___ macaque, widespread Asian Amazon tree (6) A Snails 13 Spiny marine echinoderm (3, 6) monkey (6) 23 Wild cat found in Central B Crabs 15 Hoofed mammal such as the 2 Genus of herbivorous New World and South America (6) C Mussels mustang or the extinct tarpan (5) lizards (6) 24 Pacific climate phenomenon 16 United States promontory 3 Bird of prey that might be red, (2, 4) 6) Who drew the rst WWF named for its shoals of fish in black, whistling or square-tailed (4) 27 ___ use, phenomenon in logo in 1961? the genus Gadus (4, 3) 4 African brood parasite belonging to animal behaviour (4) 19 William ___, naturalist, known for the same family as the indigobird (6) A David Attenborough A History of British Birds (1843) (7) 5 Migratory dabbling duck (8) B Peter Scott 20 Orangutan genus (5) 6 Daybreak birdsong (4, 6) C Bridget Riley 21 Short-billed seashore bird, 7 Member of the genus Pinus that Arenaria interpres (9) might be stone or Scots (4, 4) Find out 25 Drab-coloured butterfly in the 8 Protective carapace of a marine the answers genus Miletus (7) creature (8) on p99 Crossword compiled by RICHARD SMYTH, quiz set by BEN HOARE nter for the General terms and conditions WIN SOPHIE ALLPORT GOODIES chance 1. Visit www.discoverwildlife.com/general- to win a terms and conditions 2021 to read the full HOW TO ENTER This competition is only open to residents of the UK Sophie terms and conditions. 2. Competitions are (including the Channel Islands). Post entries to BBC Wildlife Magazine, Allport oven open to all residents of the UK, including the January 2021 Crossword, PO Box 501, Leicester, LE94 0AA or glove, apron Channel Islands, aged 18 years or older, except email the answers to [email protected] by 5pm on and tea towel employees or contractors of Immediate Media 15 January 2021. Entrants must supply name, address and telephone from her and anyone connected with the promotion or number. The winner will be the first correct entry drawn at random new Ducks their direct family members. 3. Entries received after the closing time. The name of the winner will appear in the collection. after the specified closing date and time will March 2021 issue. By entering, participants agree to be bound by sophieallport. not be considered, and cannot be returned. the general competition terms and conditions shown on this page. com 4. Only one entry will be permitted per person, regardless of method of entry. Bulk entries BBC Wildlife Magazine (published by Immediate Media Company Limited) would like to made by third parties will not be permitted. send you updates, special o ers and promotions by email. You can unsubscribe at any time. 5. The winning entrant will be the first correct Please tick here if you would like to receive these m entry drawn at random after the closing time, For more information about how to change the way we contact you, and how we hold or, in creative competitions, the one that in your personal information, please see our privacy policy, which can be viewed online the judges’ opinion is the best. 6. Promoter: at www.immediate.co.uk/privacy-policy. Immediate Media Co Bristol Ltd. 94 BBC Wildlife January 2021

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OUR WILD WORLD Amazing images taken by our readers Your photos Enter our Your Photos competition at discoverwildlife. com/submit-your-photos Star photo Gorging gecko photographing when we came across this Prasad’s gecko with I visited Amboli in Maharashtra, its kill. We took shots of it before India, for a herping trip during it disappeared into the tree. the monsoons. The place was Soumya Ranjan Bhattacharyya, teeming with critters. This shot West Bengal, India was taken one rain-soaked and chilly evening. We were ENTER TO WIN 3 4 A MILLICAN 25L January 2021 ROLL PACK BAG This month, our star photo wins a Smith The Roll Pack 25L rucksack from Millican, worth £140. Sustainable, weatherproof and hard-working, Millican bags are designed with life on the move in mind – from the mountain trail to the daily city commute. homeof millican.com 96 BBC Wildlife

1 OUR WILD WORLD 2 1 Three’s a crowd January 2021 Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary is known for its high density of Indian rhinos. My friends and I managed to photograph this mating pair, until a third rhino came along and started a duel. Samrat Ghosh, Assam, India 2 Baby baboon When on safari in Tanzania in 2019, we visited Lake Manyara National Park. Spotting a female yellow baboon with her baby, our guide stopped the vehicle. By crouching down on the floor, I was at eye level with the youngster. Graham Woolmer, Hertfordshire 3 School’s out I encountered these yellow-banded sweetlips in the tropical waters of Indonesia – above a beautiful hard coral garden, surrounded by glass fish. They seemed to be as curious about me as I was about them. Kevin De Vree, Erpe-Mere, Belgium 4 Treetop cat The icing on the cake during our safari in India's Nagarhole National Park was spending about an hour watching this beautiful leopard. We filled our memory cards before calling it a day. Pavan ML, Bangalore, Karnataka, India 5 Just the job I’d seen photos of the bearded reedling on social media and thought to myself that it was a bird I’d love to see in the flesh. So, I drove the 50- minute journey down to Farlington Marshes and, to my surprise, this male landed no more than 5m in front of me. 5 Daniel Lowth, Andover BBC Wildlife 97

OUR WILD WORLD Feedback Want to get something o your chest? This is EMAIL US FOLLOW US facebook.com/wildlifemagazine; the ideal place [email protected] twitter.com/WildlifeMag; instagram.com/bbcwildlifemagazine By contacting us, you consent to let us print your letter in BBC Wildlife Magazine. Letters may be edited. E WRITE TO US BBC Wildlife, Eagle House, Colston Avenue, Bristol, BS1 4ST Star Bringing back bison given the attention they deserve letter and I’m so grateful for being spoiled by such fantastic images Having watched several programmes on according to some sources, it has from Shane Gross in this bringing back the mammoth, I think we a major bottleneck gene problem. issue. I hope you – and other are missing a golden opportunity. The Wouldn’t it be prudent to harvest viable readers – like my own rendition latest offering on Discovery showed DNA from long-dead bison and recreate of the tiny cephalopod. an area of Siberia, where there are a far wider gene pool? It may be easier to Lorna Williamson, Scotland apparently hundreds of mammoth repopulate Siberia with 50,000 Ice Age bodies in the frozen permafrost. It also bison than a few hundred mammoths. Wildlife photographer Shane showed the amount of bison skeletons Vince Ferguson, Leeds Gross replies: Thank you so much! and carcasses found in the ice. Reading your kind words and Paleontologist and mammoth researcher seeing your beautiful painting The European bison nearly became Dr Tori Herridge, who led the Siberia brought joy to my heart and extinct once, and it has since been expedition described above, replies: have inspired me to keep chasing brought back from the edge, but Sooam in South Korea has an Ice Age bison images like this when so much cloning project, but it is unclear how this is of the world seems to be in European progressing. And why bother, when – unlike disarray. Octopus and all the bison are mammoths – there are extant populations other wonderful creatures of in demand. that could perform the same role? Ancient the deep deserve the respect and genomes could help with back-engineering admiration you have shown here. genetic diversity, if inbreeding seems to be a problem, but Pleistocene Park in Russia Shark attacked wasn’t willing to wait, and welcomed its first herd of European bison in 2019. The It is sad to see Mark Carwardine ecological experiment has already begun! disturbed again, this time over the US Coast Guard cutter Biodiverse covers equally bright and vibrant, and it had been one of many. Keep Kimball video showing a shark Bison: Yves Adams/Getty; blackbird: John Hopkins/Alamy the September issue is very up the good work! being shot at (My way of I wrote to you in December different, in a positive way, Edward Gill, via email thinking, November 2020). It about the fact that in 2019 with the strange transparent was certainly a new one to me. there had only been one octopus. The recent variety of Editor Paul McGuinness replies: non-mammalian species as cover images also meant that Great to hear you’re enjoying the When people come into the front cover image on the the one mammal, the fantastic fun we’ve been having with our contact with wildlife – either magazine. I was pleased covers, Edward! We love to hear by accident or design, scientific that you printed part and characterful what our readers think more or pleasure – and the meeting of the letter and the portrait of than anything else, so if there’s suddently turns nasty, the end editor revealed that it Scarface the anything anyone would like to see result is always the same: it is is a subject that has lion, had more (or less!) of in the magazine, the wildlife that pays. Brutality been discussed. much more do write in and let us know. is never far away. mpact than if I would like to say well I felt so inspired by September’s Yes, we all can make an done on featuring some Lorna's version cover star, the wonderpus honest mistake, but the Kimball different animal groups of our octopus octopus, that I decided incident demonstrates that a lot on the cover of four of cover star. t paint it. This was, in of people simply cannot respect the recent issues. The my opinion, perhaps the the natural world, even when jewel-like perfection of best BBC Wildlife front the players are clearly out of the kingfisher (May 2020) cover since I started their element. In our troubled was surely about as perfect a reading the magazine 12 world, surely if wildlife is to cover picture as there could years ago! I love to see more flourish, it has to have space possibly be. The close-ups unusual creatures being and respect. In some sensitive of the butterfly (June 2020) areas, intrusion should only be and bee (July 2020) were on a scientific basis – the open sea is one example. Norman Marshall, Llandudno Junction, North Wales 98 BBC Wildlife January 2021

OUR WILD WORLD Blackbirds are TALES FROM THE BUSH regular visitors to our gardens. You’d better be bear aware Blackbird vanishing Keen to see kokanee salmon in Canada, Josh Pysanczyn Have a wild in the dead of night encountered more wildlife than he’d bargained for. tale to tell? Email a brief synopsis to Earlier this year, a female catherine.smalley@ blackbird started hanging immediate.co.uk around near me when I was putting out the washing, and After the initial would accompany me, at a shock, Josh distance, to the back door. managed to Initially, I gave her some photograph breadcrumbs and then I the black bear. bought some mealworms, which she really enjoyed. I t was late autumn in SAs I turned Unbeknown to me, I had British Columbia and the rudely interrupted the bear as She started coming to salmon had begun their my head, my he was patiently fishing from the door frequently and this went on during the summer. annual run. My partner eyes locked the water’s edge. He turned Presumably, she was keeping and I decided we’d wander with those towards the fish and then back her strength up, so that she down to the nearby creek to me, holding a bewildered could keep feeding her young. and get a glimpse of the fish of a male expression similar to that of However, in autumn, she making their treacherous my own. His curious brown stopped coming. It was so nice journey upstream to spawn. black bear.T eyes held my gaze just long feeding her and she often came when we were sitting outside We knew, as with any enough for me to forget that with visitors. We have a largish bay tree in the garden, and it ramble in the Canadian bush, I was merely an arm’s length has now become a roosting place for sparrows. I don’t that bears of the black and grizzly variety from this apex predator. Any attempt to put know how many there are but they make a hell of a row! frequented the area – even more so when into words exactly what I and that bear shared Harvey Charter, via email kokanee salmon were on the menu. So, we would be an insult to the moment. Kate Risely, Garden Birdwatch Organiser at the BTO, replies: decided to become ‘bear aware’ and visited My brain quickly scrambled together its This is really normal – blackbirds use our gardens for nesting in the local Parks Canada office for a ‘short’ training and I reached for my bear spray, only spring–summer, and for food in winter. But in autumn, birds informational video. to find it wasn’t there. Had the Parks Canada disperse into the wider countryside to eat fruits and berries, and they Three hours later, we were confidently video taught me nothing? The motto ‘do not migrate too. There’s always a big dip in garden use by blackbirds prepared. With our bear spray in hand, we forget your bear spray’ echoed in my ears. in September. The female might be back in a few months, she’ll set off to the forest’s edge. Soon, I thought Suddenly, a leaping salmon broke our hopefully be back to breed in spring! O Visit our website to read I spotted the scarlet glimmer of spawning trance and the bear lunged into the water. the BTO’s guide to blackbirds: salmon in the creek below. Unsure as to I seized the opportunity to flee, clambering discoverwildlife.com/blackbirds whether my eyes had deceived me, I scurried up the riverbank to safety. QUIZ ANSWERS (see p94) down the riverbank for a closer inspection. As I grabbed the camera from my partner, 1C, 2B, 3C, 4A, 5B, 6B Noticing their elongated jaw, humped to capture what was left of our moment, I January 2021 back and bright red scales, I yelped in a fit wondered what the salmon thought of all this of excitement – we’d hit the jackpot. – preparing for the run of their lives, only to No sooner had the excitement passed that witness me run for my own. I realised I was not the only large mammal interested in the salmon. As I turned my head, JOSH PYSANCZYN is a freelance my eyes locked with those of a sizeable male writer. He is currently studying coral reef black bear just metres from where I stood. ecosystems at the University of Exeter. BBC Wildlife 99

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