BBC Wildlife Magazine

When the first issue of this magazine was published, Harold Macmillan was Prime Minister, The Beatles had yet to release their first LP, and Zoo Quest was coming to the end of its run as David Attenborough’s first major series for the BBC. Sixty year

We want to discover the nation’s favourite UK wildlife hotspot! Read our special 60th anniversary round-up on page 42, then head to discoverwildlife.com/60faves to vote. You can search all the places by region, then have your say with an easy click o

Make time for what you love with a subscription to BBC Wildlife Slide on over to page 40 and get your paws on a great deal ■

Botswana’s Okavango Delta consists of floodplains, forested islands and waterways: a haven in the Kalahari Desert that attracts thousands of animals, including red lechwe. The antelope retreat to remote islands in the evening for safety and return to

The arrival of winter and hostile weather conditions is a challenge if your natural home is on rocky tundra or an alpine summit. But when temperatures plummet, rock ptarmigan know how to cope. These small, Arctic grouse excavate caves to make the mos

Most freshwater fish spawn in late spring, as the water temperature in rivers, lakes and ponds begins to rise. Brown trout, instead, breed in winter, with reports of spawning from November through to February and March. The rivers they favour are oft

A new species of non-native mammal has been confirmed for mainland Britain after a social media post led to the chance discovery of a greater white-toothed shrew in North East England. The unusual-looking, long-snouted mammal caught the eye of ecolog

Some birds lay 20 eggs per clutch; others lay just one. Most fall somewhere in between. And yet there’s a little-known species of penguin that lays one and a half. Erect-crested penguins are, according to Lloyd Davis of New Zealand’s University of Ot

Gillian Clarke presents the grey heron on Tweet of the Day The grey heron breeding season is but weeks away – from early February, these birds start to pair up and construct their messy stick nests. In the meantime, short midwinter days can be excell

12 episodes of Trees cover the history, art, science and politics of trees Britain’s deciduous trees may be leafless, but that doesn’t mean they are lifeless. In January, the subtle and not-so-subtle differences in their twigs and buds come to the fo

AN ANATOMICAL MISCELLANY Should you ever find yourself close enough to a scorpion to examine its underside, you won’t fail to spot a pair of large comb-like structures, which, were they to be found on any less fearsome animal, might be likened to an

“I could feel blunt claws grip my arm through my thick winter wetsuit, as the view from my mask was taken up with muzzle, whiskers, and the occasional flash of some rather large canines. Were it not for my mask’s rubber covering over my nose, no doub

Bruce Winney presents the red kite on Tweet of the Day The red kite is always a sociable raptor, but especially so in winter. January sees dozens wheeling in the air together, and at feeding stations in Wales and south-west Scotland numbers often rea

As few as 10 berries can kill an adult Responsible for the deaths of 8 million people a year due to smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke Known as ‘the world’s most dangerous tree’ – every part of it is highly toxic Its cardiac glycosides make it

Mark Wright finds it hard to imagine why anyone wouldn’t be interested in the natural world: “Nature allows us to simply ‘be’,” he says. Having spent 15 years overseas on development and conservation projects, in his current role as WWF’s director of

Jane Goodall on living with chimps on The Life Scientific Great apes of different species can make great friends. New research shows that wild chimpanzees and gorillas can form lasting relationships that persist for years. An analysis of data collect

WHAT IS IT? A new owl species (Otus bikegila) belonging to the scops owl genus. One of the main clues leading to this species’ discovery was its distinctive call – a short “tuu” note, which is rapidly repeated and sounds a bit like insect calls. Pair

Living World presents harbour seals pupping in Scotland LEARNING SPEECH BY LISTENING, imitating and making new vocal sounds is something humans do from infancy. A sense of rhythm is also linked to both our speech and to how we create and enjoy music.

VAGRANT SPECIES DIARY Some butterflies are prone to LONG-distance migration and therefore to vagrancy at a considerable distance beyond their normal range. The UK has its share of vagrant butterflies but proving natural unassisted vagrancy is general

Glowing under trees like out-of-season buttercups, the cheery yellow flowers of winter aconite never fail to lift the spirits in January. Native to southern Europe, their spectacular growth so early in the year, as with crocuses and snowdrops, is fue

WHAT’S IN A NAME? THE TERM ‘A CAST OF HAWKS’ DERIVES from sporting terminology in reference to birds cast from the fist in both falconry or hawking. Strictly speaking the term relates only to a pair of hawks being cast; if there were three it would b

Bill Oddie presents the treecreeper on Tweet of the Day THANKS TO ITS BEAUTIFULLY PATTERNED, bark-like plumage, the treecreeper is one of the easiest woodland birds to overlook. Things are not helped by its mousy demeanour. It hesitantly inches up tr

Researchers in Finland have found that spreading a prey-like scent without food rewards in an area reduced red fox predation on eggs of ground-nesting birds there, perhaps by affecting foxes’ nest-finding ability. Such non-lethal methods could have w

WINTER STORMS MAY BRING mysterious, jelly-like ocean drifters to our shores. Lacking bones, a brain, central nervous system, heart or blood, they are nearly all water and rely on simple nerves in their tentacles to detect light and odours. Though not

LAYSAN ALBATROSS THE LAYSAN ALBATROSS IS A GREAT example of how looks can be deceiving. Albatrosses are a famous symbol of monogamy – they typically mate with the same bird for life. When Republican First Lady Laura Bush visited Hawaii, she commended

Natural Histories features the aye-aye AYE-AYES ARE SURELY MOST FAMOUS FOR the extraordinary, elongated, bony middle fingers they use to winkle grubs from wood. But that’s not all these nocturnal lemurs use them for, according to new research – they

OPINION I WAS DANCING AROUND MY OFFICE WHEN I heard the news. Abhorrent enemy of the environment Jair Bolsonaro is no longer president of Brazil. A high-stakes election in the fiercely polarised country had gone down to the wire, resulting in a run-o

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The broadcaster, naturalist and tour guide shares the most breathtaking seasonal events in Britain FORAGING WILD BOAR AN ECOSYSTEM ENGINEER HELPING TO revitalise our woods and grasslands, or destructive and dangerous menace to the British countryside

The popular naturalist, author and TV presenter reveals a secret world of overlooked wildlife POND OLIVE IN STREAMS AND PONDS, DITCHES AND dykes, life beneath the surface goes on, even during the coldest of winters. These watery environments are nurs

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Available from BBC Wildlife magazine is full of breathtaking photos and fascinating features on the most interesting animals and habitats in the UK and around the world. With the latest news and conservation issues, practical expert advice and ideas

Norfolk WHERE LAND AND SEA collide, nature is wild and dynamic. Shifting shores are shaped by the tide each day, no two the same. Blakeney Point, on the North Norfolk coast, offers the remoteness and solitude I often crave. Sea breezes blow the cobwe

60 YEARS VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE SIXTY YEARS AGO, BBC WILDLIFE MADE its first appearance as the magazine Animals. To celebrate this special birthday, we’ve asked 60 people from our wonderful network of writers, presenters, photographers and conservat

Yorkshire Dales National Park THERE ARE PLACES YOU GO FOR grand spectacle, and others where the wonder is in microcosms. The Yorkshire Dales offers superlatives of both. Here, the land shows its bones – in this case they are made of limestone, shaped

Devon THERE ARE FEW MOMENTS IN life that can compete with a still, sunny day perched on a granite boulder while contemplating the delights of a Rhôs pasture. Rhôs means ‘moorland’ in Welsh, but is so much more than that. I tend to think of moor as an

Dumfriesshire THE SCAUR WATER RISES IN Polskeoch on the Southern Upland Way, bubbles through moorland, meanders through sheep pasture and then tumbles through wooded riverbanks to Penpont. As a PhD student I spent three summers in this glen; 35 years

Devon WILDLIFE-WATCHING destinations don’t get much better than Lundy. Lying 18km off the North Devon coast, with the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Bristol Channel to the east, this little island hosts a variety of rarely seen Mediterranean-Atla

Norfolk THE FORMAL SET-PIECE nature we find in our reserves from hides and lookout points is incomparably great, but it’s also good to catch nature off its guard, not as a treat but as part of daily life. Whenever I can, I take my kayak out on the Ri

Somerset The magnificent somerset Levels has been my local patch for the past decade, and it’s stuffed to the gunnels with wildlife. The jewel in its crown is RSPB Ham Wall, whose expansive reedbeds, open water and wet woodland deliver year-round. In

Ross and Cromarty FANCY A CLOSE ENCOUNTER with a dolphin? Easy. All you have to do is go to Chanonry Point, on the Black Isle just north of Inverness, and stand on the shingle beach. Chances are you’ll see them chasing salmon just a few metres away.

East Lothian THERE ARE FEW PLACES IN THE UK that can make you feel like you’ve travelled back in time. Stepping foot in a habitat that’s truly wild and seemingly unimpacted by humans is rare, but Bass Rock is one of those special places for me. Situa

West London THIS DELIGHTFUL RESERVE IS one of my favourite places. A SSSI managed by the London Wildlife Trust, its wet grazing meadows are a hinterland of sorts, bound by the Grand Union Canal to the west and the roaring A40 to the south. Frays teem

Somerset I HAVE LIVED IN THE CHEW Valley all my life. My parents would often go birding at the lake and ended up moving to the area. The lake is a beautiful spot – I used to go past it every day on the bus to school, and I loved watching the birds as

Dorset THIS STUNNING STRETCH OF coast is a tourist honeypot, but away from the beaches, the chalk hills are one of my favourite UK haunts for butterflies and day-flying moths. There’s a particularly strong association with butterflies at Lulworth Cov

Cairngorms National Park CLOSE YOUR EYES AND imagine. An ethereal mist rolls over a mirror-calm peaty lochan, fringed with twisted Scots pines that have stood sentinel for centuries. The dawn silence is punctured by the frantic scurrying of a red squ

Pembrokeshire LYING 4KM OFF THE SOUTH Pembrokeshire coast and with more designations than you could shake a stick at, Skokholm is a wild Welsh gem. It is less known than its sister island of Skomer, but is nonetheless home to 15 per cent of the world

Bristol MY TOP SPOT IS MY HOME PATCH – immediately accessible and with a richness of biodiversity that matches anywhere in the UK. Partly within Bristol city boundaries, the Avon Gorge includes not only the magnificent limestone gorge itself and the

Northern Ireland THE CAUSEWAY COAST IS A wild place of outstanding natural beauty, with dunes, sheer cliffs and, of course, the amazing rock formations of the magnificent Giant’s Causeway. It is a coastline to meander along by land or by sea, keeping

Hampshire I REMEMBER BOUNDING ABOUT on these chalky slopes in 1966, peering down rabbit holes and hoping to spot a stoat, a superstar species in my Observers Book of British Mammals. One sunny afternoon in 1976, I caught a mazarine blue in my butterf

South London Once stretching across South London, the ancient Great North Wood today survives as a mosaic of habitats that provide oases for wildlife and green lungs for people. Stepping into its wildest corners, I feel the power of its history danci

Cornwall I HAVE THE BEST JOB IN THE world: talking about wildlife on the Isles of Scilly. From windswept winters to sunkissed summer days, life on the Atlantic edge is ever-changing. I’ve watched humpback whales on Christmas Eve. I’ve been at sea sur

Isle of Wight A FEW MILES SOUTH OF Fishbourne, bordering Wootton Creek and surrounded by farmland, is a wonderful, semi-natural ancient woodland that is at least 400 years old, though some claims date it back to the last Ice Age. With no resident dee

BLACK AND WHITE; Colourful beaks; Known as ‘clowns of the air’; Fun to watch, comical; Birds with character and flair; I love this bird, can you guess what it is? Its name rhymes with ‘nuffin’! A summer visitor to UK shores; The wonderful, adorable…

Oxford WHEN I MOVED TO THIS AREA two years ago, Brasenose Wood – an ancient remnant of Shotover Forest and a 100ha SSSI – was one of the first places I stumbled upon and I’ve been going back ever since. Like many woodlands, it’s a window to the seaso

Leicestershire THE ASTONISHING THING ABOUT Rutland Water is that it’s human-made – a reservoir that didn’t exist 50 years ago. Today, its tapestry of lagoons and wetlands are a paradise for anyone who loves being out in nature and is a ‘bad’ birdwatc

South West London I live in green, leafy Wimbledon, a suburb far removed in spirit and landscape from the hurly-burly of central London. I’m spoilt for choice where wild spaces are concerned – rural dwellers would be agog at the riches on my doorstep

Norfolk FOXLEY WOOD IS NOT A FAMOUS place, and its low dome of trees is not particularly conspicuous in the flatlands of central Norfolk. But there’s magic within. I grew up 5km or so from Foxley. It was our local wood, and we visited in autumn for f

A SHORT HOP FROM LUTON, AT the northernmost tip of the Chilterns, lies the Barton Hills National Nature Reserve – a place I adore exploring. Walking in nature nourishes my mind and body, and this is the perfect spot. It teems with butterflies and cha

Inner Hebrides UNTIL THE AGE OF 17, my experience of the world’s wildlife was limited to whatever was local. However, I was raised on Mull, and this island’s wild offerings are nothing short of magnificent. I’ve spent 30 years in the wilds of the wor

West London I am in love with a place so innocuous that, when I first stumbled across it some 25 years ago and claimed it as my nirvana, my birdy friends thought I had lost my mind. That place is Wormwood Scrubs, a 77ha park that adjoins the prison o

Greater Manchester WHEN I CLIMB TO THE SUMMIT OF Winter Hill, which dominates the 688ha Smithills Estate, I feel like I’m on top of the world. I’m level with the clouds hanging in the blue sky, and looking into the horizon I can see the rooftops of m

Nottingham THIS HISTORIC FOREST, AN RSPB reserve, is just half an hour from where I live. With more than 1,000 ancient oak trees and beautiful lowland heath, it traces a direct line back to the royal hunting ‘forest’ it once was. At its heart sits th

Cairngorms National Park GLEN TANAR IS A PHENOMENAL part of Scotland. It’s a remnant of the ancient Caledonian pine forest, the green belt that once ran the breadth of the Arctic Circle, and it shelters some of the oldest, largest pine trees in the U

Ceredigion OF ALL THE PLACES I VISITED IN my 10 years co-presenting Springwatch, RSPB Ynys-hir is the most memorable. The scenery is spectacular, with gnarled green oakwoods and the yellow sands of the Dyfi Estuary against a majestic backdrop of curv

Devon and Somerset Growing up in North Devon, it was on the moors that my love of nature was born. Up the steep hills and cliffs from the sea, a rugged landscape as ancient as anything England has to offer unfolds across rolling hills, disappearing i

Essex LESS THAN TWO HOURS FROM our base in London, RSPB Wallasea is the perfect spot for walks with Flock Together, our birdwatching collective for people of colour. It was here that we saw our first owl – a barn owl, hunting like a ghost in the gold

We’ve heard from the experts, now it’s your turn. We want to find out which of these 60 places is the nation’s favourite – and we need your votes! Have your say at discoverwildlife.com/60faves and we’ll reveal the winner in a future issue. VOTE FOR Y

A rust-red flash on an otherwise grey wing and tail, a dusting of cinnamon beneath, a glint of curiosity in deep brown eyes – it can only be a Siberian jay. Nature photographer Florian Smit captured the autumnal activities of this small corvid, about

To learn more about the world of plants catch up with The Green Planet WITHOUT DROPPING ANCHOR, THE DIVE BOAT DRIFTS SLOWLY TO A STOP IN SOME OF THE CLEAREST WATER IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. THE SECRET OF THIS PERFECT TURQUOISE SEA, OFF THE BALEARIC ISLAN

A HERD OF ELEPHANTS, MANY of them cows with calves, use their trunks to tear branches off trees in the Nyakweri Forest, on the western edge of the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. It should be bucolic, but the air is acrid from the smoke of bur

JOB INTERVIEWS SOMETIMES INVOLVE ODD OR AWKWARD QUESTIONS. ABIGAEL SIMALOI PERTET’S INTERVIEW WITH THE MARA ELEPHANT PROJECT (MEP) IN KENYA WAS NO EXCEPTION. “ARE YOU OKAY TO LIVE IN A TENT?” THE MEP ASKED PERTET. “I WAS A SCOUT – I CAN LIVE IN A TEN

Imagine walking across a muddy field in a pair of wellies, your feet squelching with each step you take. If the depressions left behind were quickly filled in with sand or small pebbles, your footprints could become ‘trace fossils’ (indirect evidence

WHY DO WE DIE? APART from extrinsic causes of mortality, such as accidents, infectious diseases or predators in our environment, there’s also what we call ‘death by natural causes’: intrinsic mortality from growing old, frail and eventually dying. Bu

Watch the new series live on BBC One, or catch up on BBC iPlayer TV HIGHLIGHT OF THE MONTH Best in show BBC One, from 28th December DOG LOVERS REJOICE! AT LAST, WE have a whole series devoted to the canids of our world from the BBC Studios’ Natural H

1 Predatory bird that might be red-backed or great grey (6) 4 Fast-growing plant in the grass family (6) 9 Small flying insect (4) 10 A ___ Almanac, 1949 non-fiction work by Aldo Leopold (4,6) 11 Tree in the rose family with edible fruit (6) 12 River

1 Natural History Museum x Joanie-Etoile arthropods print blouse £45, joanieclothing.com 2 Swallows cork clock £25, loveliga.co.uk 3 Whistler backpack 350 AW II £402.95, lowepro.com 4 Retro floral enamel mug £10.50, enamelhappy.org.uk 5 Meadow board

WITH BBC WILDLIFE PICTURE EDITOR TOM GILKS Why wildlife photography? I have been drawn to wild animals for as long as I can remember – photography was the best way for me to spend time with wildlife. What would you be if you weren’t a wildlife photog

Two male Somali ostriches fight over females in Samburu, Kenya. These flightless birds can reach a staggering 275cm and weigh up to about 150kg. Can you spot the five differences between the images? You can find the answers on page 121. Answers to Sp

I was seeking sunset images of hares when I encountered this stunning hare in a local field of barley stubble. The sun had set behind me and the field was bathed in soft muted light, which allowed the details of the beautiful fur to come out and work

Wildlife photographer Mike Hamblin offers top tips on ways to make the most of the special clarity and warmth of the light at this time of year. Visit discoverwildlife.com/winterlight for the full article. “For dramatic backlit shots, shoot towards t

AS AN AMATEUR WILDLIFE photographer, ocean activist, and a volunteer for Tynemouth Seal Hospital, I was much interested in what Mark Carwardine had to say about humans’ interaction with dangerous animals (November 2022). We, as a society, have comple

We join a special mission translocating two white rhinos 750km across Zimbabwe to an innovative new sanctuary where local communities will act as their custodians. It’s a nerve-wracking journey as an expert crew transports the pair safely under starl

FLORIDA KEYS, USA “ONE OF THE THINGS THEY TEACH you during night scuba-diving training is to direct your flashlight down, not directly in front of you. The aim is to avoid accidentally shining a spotlight on a prey animal, making it suddenly visible