Richard Mabey – a long-time contributor to these pages – asks a most pertinent question in his feature this month (p60), about how he embraced his accidental garden. “Do we, even as conservationists with the best intentions, always have to be so pate

WHO HASN’T FELT SICK after eating something dodgy, then pledged to avoid it for life? This same strategy is now being used to teach animals not to eat cane toads. These non-native amphibians, introduced to Australia in the 1930s, produce a potent tox

FUNGI ARE FOUND EASILY IF YOU know where to look – from mushrooms in forests to mould on bread – but many are inconspicuous or invisible to the naked eye. This might explain why they’re so often overlooked and were once grouped together with plants,

Native to Central America’s rainforests, this frog has a transparent belly and chest, with internal organs and a blood-pumping heart visible through the skin. The glass frog can also strategically remove red blood cells – which give blood its vibrant

WHEN I FIRST SET EYES ON A MALE Australian horror moth, I had to do a double-take. What on Earth was I looking at? Was this a practical joke, or some sort of poorly constructed chimera? It looked as if it was made from bits of different insects stuck

WE ARE ONLY JUST BEGINNING TO understand the ways animals use sound. It plays a crucial role in their lives, evolution and everyday struggles. Now a groundbreaking new series, Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough, currently streaming on Netf

THE GREAT WHITE SHARK IS THE only extant species in the genus Carcharodon and the largest predatory fish in the world. It can grow to up to 6.4m in length and weigh as much as 2,041kg. This super-swimmer can cruise for long periods of time but is als

LIKE A NICHE MARVEL SUPERHERO, the naked mole rat defies the laws of ageing. While similar-sized mammals such as mice live to around four years of age, naked mole rats can reach 30 years, remaining fertile until the end. It’s the equivalent of a huma

9/10 Onager (7,4,3) 11 Arboreal snake of Central and South America (4,3) 12 Flowering plant in the family Iridaceae, native to Africa (7) 13 Large, long fish with strong teeth (6,3) 15 ___ layer, stratospheric shield depleted by CFCs (5) 16 Young har

Przewalski’s horse, once widespread across the steppes of Europe and Asia, is considered the last truly wild horse species. The 2,000 or so animals alive today are descended from just 12 wild-caught individuals. Scientists from the non-profit organis

IMAGINE IT’S THE HEIGHT OF SPRING ON the Inner Hebridean island of Tiree. There are flighty pairs of lapwings and oystercatchers rearing their precious broods of chicks in almost every field, and around the margins of the island, the short-cropped ma

Something is lurking amongst the dead and decaying leaves on this forest floor in Ecuador. It’s just a matter of spotting it. That’s easier said than done, because not being spotted is the Surinam horned frog’s modus operandi. This big-headed, wide-m

IT MAY BE LOATHED BY WALKERS, BUT the biting midge could hold the key to painless medical injections. The midge’s mouthparts are made up of an outer tube that houses two jagged, saw-like mandibles either side of a central needle. As the insect bites,

THE WHOOPING CRANE, a long-legged native of the vast Canadian wilderness, possesses a remarkable adaptation that allows it to stand in icy lakes without its feet freezing, and it’s likely the red-crowned crane of East Asia benefits from the same adap

WE OFTEN COME ACROSS DOR beetles on our morning walk through local woods. They are easy to spot, with iridescent purple undersides, and are frequently on their backs waving their legs around, seemingly unable to right themselves. The longer they stay

THE FEMALE PRAYING mantis is a serious candidate for nature’s most misunderstood animal. She is famous for being a femme fatale: a voracious sexual predator that consumes her lover headfirst during sex. But it turns out that sexual cannibalism is by

Many meat-eaters, including most species of dog and bear, also include vegetable matter in their diets. An obligate carnivore, though, eats only meat. Amongst the mammals, cats, polar bears, whales and dolphins are all obligate carnivores, as are sna

A SOUTH-WESTERLY GALE – pretty much our default weather now – ripped through the garden one summer night a few years back, and broke off the lowest branch of our big oak tree, a schooner’s boom nearly 15m long. It had snapped at its junction with the

THE WHITE-BLOODED FISH (or icefish) has icy white blood, a phenomenon that puzzled scientists for decades. Thriving in Antarctica’s frigid depths, it lacks the red blood cells essential for oxygen transport in humans. Instead, it carries blood protei

Email your questions to [email protected] LIKE CELLOPHANE FLOWERS AND girls with kaleidoscope eyes, pink lakes are the stuff of 1960s pop songs and hallucinogenic experiences. Except that you can visit one in real life while stone-cold

ON 30TH JULY 2003, A VERY SPECIAL GOAT was born in a Spanish research facility. She had wobbly legs, toffee-coloured fur and dark, doe eyes, and for a few, short moments, everyone was in awe. The newborn was a bucardo, a type of wild mountain goat th

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Hugging the northern banks of the Zambezi River, the park offers night drives, walking and boat safaris One of the largest parks in Africa. Despite being accessible by road from Lusaka, it has a remote feel and boasts immense biodiversity One of Zamb

AFTER KOALAS WERE introduced to Western Australia in 1938, they started losing weight as they were unable to digest the local eucalyptus plants. In normal circumstances, koala pups eat their mother’s faeces to acquire the necessary bacteria for proce

The chemicals that are the source of the sex pheromones in tiger moths are also why they display bright colours and bold patterns. They are advertising the distasteful nature of the alkaloids to predators. Incidentally, when a female mates with a ful

Tourism gives wildlife a value, helping to protect species across the globe, but is not without its downsides. In the next issue of BBC Wildlife, we delve into the debate. We’ll share examples of holidays that support conservation, look at sustainabl

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