natural history
Bats have suffered too long from the ‘Dracula effect’
The more we learn about the only mammals capable of true, sustained flight, the more we should admire them
Hell is other tourists in Antarctica
If you’ve longed to see every penguin species in the world, think about the company you’ll be keeping, warns Jamie Lafferty
Could the giant panda be real?
Even in the past century the animal was considered so exotic that many doubted its very existence
The wolf as symbol of European anxieties
This ‘amoral outcast’ and its thieving trickery is now widely equated with the economic migrant, slipping across borders unnoticed and threatening the status quo
The hedgehog and the fox poll highest as ‘the nation’s top animal’
Karen R. Jones’s surprising choice of ten creatures to represent Britain makes for a truly wonderful book – erudite and fun
The complexities of the dawn chorus
The habits of common or garden birds and their intricate songs prove even more fascinating than the puffins and guillemots of Adam Nicolson’s previous book
Time is running out for the world’s great rivers
Overfishing, industrial pollution and dams are squeezing life from once revered waterways that have sustained civilisations for centuries
Butchered for feather beds: the brutal end of the great auk
The large, flightless birds that once inhabited the North Atlantic cliffs in their millions were extinct by the 1840s, as the demand for down-filled mattresses increased
The power of mushrooms to kill or cure
Certain fungi poison not only to the animals but the trees that surround them, while others have valuable medicinal properties and can flag important changes to the ecosystem
The song of the bearded seal and other marvels
Amorina Kingdon explores the extraordinary range of sounds beneath the sea, from the fluting calls of the larger mammals to the hums and moans of fish
The good old ways: nature’s best chance of recovery
Traditional agricultural methods still operating in pockets of Europe maintain an enviable balance of ecology and economy and an extraordinary diversity of wildlife
Why must we be in constant battle with the ocean?
As we continue to fill the depths with plastic and radioactive waste, our coastlines are increasingly battered by tsunamis and erosion
The traditional British hedge is fast vanishing
The best hedges teem with the biodiversity that plays such a vital part in our future. Yet, since the 1950s, farmers and developers have been destroying them at an alarming rate
The rat as hero
After adopting two baby rats as pets, Joe Shute slowly overcomes his aversion and learns to appreciate the intelligence of creatures that are really quite like us
Down in the woods today
With rewilding projects multiplying worldwide, brown, black and grizzly bears are making a bold comeback. But how much bear can we bear?
The lure of red gold
The Atlantic Bluefin Tuna has the misfortune to taste so good that it has been hunted for millennia, and stocks are now dangerously depleted
Little dynamos of life
Over the course of one midsummer’s day, Mark Cocker presents a startling picture of the breeding, feeding, fledging and migrating habits of these little dynamos of life
It’s all go in Wormingford
Ronald Blythe, the celebrated author of Akenfield, is to turn 100 next month, and to mark his centenary a beguiling…
Animal magic
With the technologies at our disposal, we can in fact now know what it’s like to be a bat, says Caspar Henderson
From the mouse to the elephant
Humans are so comfortable with their self-declared dominance over the rest of life, appointing themselves titular head of an entire…
Change or decay
Climate change may be the central challenge of our century, but almost all attention has focused on its consequences for…
The trees are on the move
Covering 20 per cent of the Earth’s surface, the boreal forest is the largest living system, or ‘biome’, on land.…
Slippery stuff
As humans, we are supposed to have an aversion to slime. It should repel us. Objects and organisms that might…
Nature in the round
As the start date of COP26 draws closer, and just when we are assailed by daily proof of climate chaos,…
Into the woods
Anyone who spends time among trees senses how good that is for their physical and mental wellbeing, says Ursula Buchan
