BBC Wildlife Magazine

discoverwildlife.com Vote for your favourite place! To celebrate our 60th anniversary, we want to discover the nation’s favourite UK wildlife hotspot! Whether it’s Sherwood Forest or London Wetland Centre, you can read about all of our 60 specially chosen places and cast your vote at discoverwildlife.com/60faves. Keep in touch wildlifeletters@immediate.co.uk instagram.com/bbcwildlifemagazine twitter.com/WildlifeMag facebook.com/wildlifemagazine GOREDALE: ROB FEATHERSTONE/ALAMY; PEREGRINE: SAM HOBSON/NATUREPL.COM; OTTER: DAVID TIPLING/ALAMY…

LAST SUMMER, ON MORE THAN ONE OCCASION, I HEARD of friends or the children of friends being ill for days after swimming in a river that they and their families had been swimming in for years. My news feeds were reporting raw sewage being discharged into our waterways on a regular basis. Before going to a beach, I found myself looking up whether it was safe to splash around in the sea there with my family. Our waterways, it was becoming clear, were in big trouble. But while the headlines suggested that the cause and effect situation was black and white, the more I read about the state of our rivers, the less clear the situation looked. Otters being spotted more commonly in urban areas, for example, was surely a sign…

NICK BAKER Learn about the beetle larvae that dare to scavenge scraps from spider webs P.40 GILLIAN BURKE Our regular columnist on new research into the impact of humans on animal behaviour P.19 MARK CARWARDINE “The strain of bird flu running amok on four continents originated in intensive poultry farms in China” P.33 LUCY COOKE The working lemur mums sharing the parenting load with communal crèches for multiple litters P.29 MIKE DILGER Some butterflies and bumblebees overwinter in adult form, emerging in February P.36…

DOLPHINS ARE WELL KNOWN FOR THEIR playfulness, coming together in pods large and small to lark about among the waves. Such behaviour can be observed in many species of dolphin around the world, but if you want to see some truly daring surfing action, check out the bottlenose dolphins of Laguna Madre, off the coast of Texas, USA. The marine mammals seem to have no fear of the massive supertankers making their way into and out of the Port of Corpus Christi, some of which measure over 300m long and 60m wide. On the contrary, the dolphins appear to use the tankers as their playthings, taking advantage of the waves they create with their enormous bows to hitch a ride. Scientists can’t explain exactly why dolphins surf, but the general consensus is…

PUNK-CRESTED WAXWINGS ARE AMONG THE showiest birds of winter, with dusty pink plumage offset by a neat bandit mask. The name comes from the curious little red blobs on the tips of some of their secondary wing feathers, which resemble the sealing wax of old. No-one knows what function these might have, though they might play a part in courtship. Despite their exotic looks, however, waxwings are most likely to be confused with starlings, which are a similar size and likewise seen in flocks. The similarity is most striking in flight. Waxwings breed in Scandinavia and Siberia, only reaching the UK in significant numbers when the berry crop fails across their home range. In these so-called ‘invasion’ years, or irruptions, hungry flocks hundreds-strong arrive in northern and eastern counties. During the…

THE SEI WHALE IS THE THIRD-LARGEST marine mammal, but its calls are seldom heard. Protected since 1970 following decades of whaling, sei whale numbers are increasing, with waters around the Falkland Islands a uniquely large gathering area in spring and autumn. To learn more about their population recovery and why sei whales like these waters so much, Falklands Conservation and the African Aquatic Conservation Fund backed a long-term study, now reported in the journal Royal Society Open Science. For this, researchers Salvatore Cerchio and Caroline Weir analysed a huge dataset collected from continuous sound recordings made from the seabed. At first, the team was baffled by the ‘other-worldly’ noises they heard, but deeper analysis revealed organised and repeated sei whale phrases. The sounds are very different to the rich and resonant courtship…