Hoopoe – A blog by nhbs – Page 16 – The NHBS Conservation Hub

Author interview with Neville Davies: The Eurasian Hoopoe

Once resident in the UK, the Eurasian Hoopoe is the most widespread of its genus and is much admired for its striking appearance and entertaining character. Containing a huge amount of astonishing and fascinating facts about these magnificent birds, this book is packed with everything you need to know about this species. It is a captivating read for beginner, intermediate or expert alike, and for anyone who has an interest in birds and the natural world.

Neville Davies is an author, wildlife columnist, book reviewer, leader of nature walks and courses, and private bird guide specialising in the birdlife of Mallorca. His previous book, Birds of Mallorca provides readers with an essential guide to the best birding sites and 340 bird species that can be found on the Balearic island of Mallorca.

The Eurasian Hoopoe, which is due for publication at the end of November, provides an in-depth look at one of the species that has fascinated Neville since childhood.

We recently chatted with him about his inspiration behind the book, his hopes for the future of this incredible species, and his plans for further writing.

What inspired you to write a book about the Eurasian Hoopoe?

As a child I would often look through the bird books I had at the time, and one species that stood out for me from the hundreds of others was the European Hoopoe (hereafter referred to as the Hoopoe). There was something magical about this strange looking bird, with its ‘punk rocker’ plume of head feathers and black and white wing markings. It looked like an iconic bird and when I read it was found on the continent and other far-away places (which I assumed I would probably never get to visit), this made it even more special – the Hoopoe would forever be out of my grasp, or so I thought. Every time I acquired a new bird book, I always found myself going straight to the page on the Hoopoe. By 1990 I had decided that I was going to visit Mallorca specifically to find them; an early guidebook I had bought listed the Hoopoe as a common resident breeder, so I felt I had a good chance of finding one.

But by the third day of my first visit to Mallorca, there was still no sign of a Hoopoe. I was beginning to think that I was never going to see one and disappointment and anxiety started to creep in. But later that third day, I saw my first ever one flying low across a field and out of sight behind a farm building. I punched the air in sheer delight, I had finally seen one for real and my excitement was overwhelming. I went in search of it and spotted it along with a second bird. And what I had thought when looking through the guidebooks as a child was right, the Hoopoe is truly a magical bird and they look as characteristic in real life as in the books – the plume of punk rocker head feathers did not disappoint.

I already owned several bird books by other authors specifically on a single bird species, and this got me thinking, why not write about the Hoopoe? Not only is the Hoopoe my favourite species in the bird world, but surely there must be enough information available to make an interesting book. I was pleased to find research papers written on the Hoopoe from all over the world – there was certainly enough information for a book. The more I looked the more I found, and I learned so much about the Hoopoe that I didn’t already know. There were also some great photographs in these papers, and I started to contact several of the authors to ask if I could use their images and some of their findings. Thankfully, they were very keen to support me, so along with my own images and information I was able to provide more in-depth information, especially around breeding and prey items, and excellent photographs.

Could you tell us about the status of the Hoopoe and the kinds of threats they face?

The European breeding population is large (890,000 pairs), and the Hoopoe is doing well across the rest of its range in Asia and Africa; it is regarded as a species of Least Concern due to its widespread population. This does not mean we should be complacent, however, as the Hoopoe still faces threats, especially from hunting. The Hoopoe is regarded as a trophy species, and their distinctive undulating flight makes it an easy target for hunters and poachers. In Lebanon, for example, they are kept in cages to be sold in local markets and are often in a dreadful condition and poorly fed. It is sickening and distressing to know that a bird as majestic as the Hoopoe (or any bird for that matter) lives out the rest of its life in a cage, unable to enjoy the freedom of flight. One organisation that is doing sterling work to protect not just the Hoopoe but all birds is the Committee Against Bird Slaughter. They conduct annual bird protection operations in Spain, Italy, Malta, Cyprus and Lebanon.

Hoopoes face other forms of predation in the wild too. Both the Eleanora’s Falcon and Sooty Falcon will target Hoopoes as they migrate across open areas of water, where they are tired and easy prey. At their nest sites they can fall prey to several predators, with the seven main culprits being the Western Whip Snake, European Asp, Eurasian Magpie, Little Owl, Red Fox, Black Rat and domestic Cats.

You mention that Hoopoes were once resident in the UK but are now passing migrants. Could the Hoopoe make a long-term return?

Hoopoes were once a resident species in the UK but are now confined to being a scarce but regular passage migrant to Britain, with most sightings occurring in the spring and autumn. On average, sightings range between 100 and 150 individuals with the bulk of UK records coming from the south coast counties, although there are records from every county in the UK. The Hoopoe has bred here sporadically since the early 19th century with at least 1–4 instances recorded in each decade since the 1830s (again mostly from the southern counties). More modern records have appeared in 1971, 1976, 1977 and 1996. In 1977, pairs fledged young in Avon, Somerset, Surrey and Sussex, which is quite remarkable. The 1996 occurrence came from the Montgomeryshire area. On average, singing males are recorded every five years or so (males sing to attract females). Could they make a long-term return to the UK? Why not. In fact, recent news from Leicestershire reports that a pair of Hoopoes have successfully bred and raised three young and been seen frequenting a private garden.

Favourable conditions can bring in arrivals in large numbers, in some years this can be as early as late February. Hoopoes can turn up anywhere, with Ireland having at least 15 records; although, the further north one goes the scarcer the records become. Visiting the south coast during spring does not guarantee a Hoopoe sighting but it is certainly when and where there is the best chance of finding one. In southern England, favoured localities include the Isles of Scilly; Porthgwarra; Land’s End and the Lizard, Cornwall; Start Point and Prawle Point, Devon; Portland, the Needles, Isle of Wight; Selsey Bill, West Sussex; Dungeness and Sandwich Bay, Kent. Favourable likely locations on the east coast include Blakeney Point in Norfolk and Spurn East in Yorkshire. In the autumn, east coast locations tend to fair better sightings wise, with a scatter of drift and reverse migrants.

What conditions would be necessary for such a return?

In spring, when high pressure leads to fine settled weather over Western Europe, some migrants returning to the Mediterranean region fly right over their intended target and end up in Britain. This is known as overshooting. Across their range, Hoopoes can be seen in a variety of habitats, including gardens, parks, towns, villages, marsh edges, open fields with vegetation and ploughed fields. They can also be found in groves of olives, almonds, grapes and other fruits where the lines of trees provide shade, allowing them to feed during the hottest parts of the day, and the diversity of vegetation and rich soil also support a good variety of insect prey, including the Mole Cricket, their favoured prey.

If Hoopoes were to return to the UK permanently, they would need suitable breeding habitats, such as open areas of short grass and soft soil where they can probe for insect prey coupled with areas of mature trees in which they can build their nests in natural holes (they do not excavate holes). Old buildings, stone walls, cavities, cliffs, among boulders, drainpipes, wells, roof spaces and nest boxes are also used as nest sites. Although they prefer Mole Crickets, in the UK other species of cricket, grasshoppers, millipedes, centipedes, spiders, woodlice, snails, slugs, ants, and occasionally even lizards and frogs would form a part of their diet.

What would you recommend to someone looking to watch Hoopoes in the wild?

To maximise your chances of seeing Hoopoes in good numbers and to hear their distinctive calls, I recommend visiting somewhere where they are a common resident, such as in Spain or the Balearic Islands. In Mallorca for example, one site I visit is called Son Real where it is possible to see up to a dozen in a single visit. Visit the type of habitat they like to frequent, especially olive groves and orchards and open fields with a good scattering of nearby trees. Scan the ground as this is where they will be feeding, but also look to the roof tops of derelict buildings or outbuildings or the lower branches of trees where they like to perch. If you are quiet and do not move too much, they will allow you to approach them without being disturbed. Also, listen out for their ‘oop-oop-oop’ call which sounds like their name. Be patient, you will see one. If you visit other locations there are sub-species too, such as the African Hoopoe and Madagascar Hoopoe.

Do you have any plans for any further books you can tell us about?

I am hoping this book is a success, as I have thought about writing another book about the European Bee-eater. I have already written a bird guide called Birds of Mallorca (available from NHBS) – it will be no surprise that the cover photo features a Hoopoe. I have another book which I have written called Not Quite Living the Dream, which is based on my attempts to reside in Mallorca and covers everything from wellbeing to birds, but I am hoping a sponsor comes on board to support me financially with that one.

The Eurasian Hoopoe: Everything You Could Want to Know About This Iconic Bird is privately published by Neville Davies and available from nhbs.com.

This week in biodiversity news – 13th November 2023

Extinction Risk

First images of a lost echidna species prove that it is not extinct. An expedition to the sacred Cyclops Mountains in Indonesia uncovered evidence of Attenborough’s Long-beaked Echidna. Echidnas are ancient egg-laying mammals thought to have emerged 200 million years ago when dinosaurs still roamed the earth. Until now, the only evidence for this particular species of echidna, named after Sir David Attenborough, was a museum specimen. Scientists hope that the discovery of living echidnas will help make the case for conservation efforts in the Cyclops Mountains. In addition to the echidna, new species of insects and frogs were discovered alongside healthy populations of birds of paradise and tree kangaroos.

Echidna by Rod Waddington via Flickr. (Species differs from that mentioned in the above text).

Fewer than half of Bornean Sun Bears survive after release due to habitat loss and poaching, according to a recent study. Sun Bears are a keystone species in the jungles of South-East Asia, helping to sustain healthy forest ecosystems; however, fewer than 10,000 Sun Bears are thought to remain in the wild due to pressures from deforestation, habitat degradation and poaching. The Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) looks after Sun Bears rescued from captivity and releases them back into the wild. A recent study has shown that many released Sun Bears die due to the dangers they encounter in the wild, including poaching, territorial disputes and starvation. A lack of familiarity with their new surroundings may also contribute to this high death toll despite the released bears being skilled climbers and foragers.

Malayan Sun Bear by cuatrok77 via Flickr.

Conservation

An ambitious project in the Fens seeks to reclaim thousands of acres for nature. The Great Fen Project, organised by Wildlife Trust conservationists, aims to purchase 9,000 acres of farmland around two Fenland nature reserves to allow water to return to the land. This will support the formation of water meadows, streams and pools which will encourage wetland species such as Bittern and Marsh Harrier. By rewetting fields, it also seeks to preserve peat and reduce carbon emissions. With a projected price tag of around £30 million, the project will be one of the most ambitious restoration projects in all of Europe.

Svalbard is letting nature take back one of its massive coal mines. The Svea mine in Svalbard, Norway, which produced 34 million metric tonnes of coal over its lifetime, is undergoing a significant natural restoration project. The restoration effort, costing approximately 1.6 billion Norwegian kroner (€1.35 million), aims to return the site to its natural state, allowing nature to reclaim the land. This move is part of Norway’s commitment to preserving the wilderness of Svalbard, as the region transitions away from the fossil fuel industry, closing coal mines and shifting towards tourism and scientific research.

Climate Crisis

Surges in jellyfish numbers in UK waters are an indication of warming oceans, according to the Marine Conservation Society. The number of jellyfish seen on UK beaches has increased by 32% in the past year. Warm water jellyfish such as the Crystal Jellyfish have been spotted following global ocean temperatures reaching a record high in August and marine heatwaves in June which caused UK sea temperatures to rise by 3–4°C. Experts have said that more research will be needed to determine the exact cause of the jellyfish blooms this year.

Jellyfish on Cefn Sidan Sands by Reading Tom via Flickr.

Global temperatures will reach the 1.5°C threshold this decade, according to a new report. In 2015, countries agreed to take measures to hold global temperatures to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels as part of the Paris Climate Agreement. New research by a team of scientists from Columbia University and NASA suggests that this goal is already out of reach, which may raise alarm bells at the coming COP28 climate talks. Other estimates suggest that the threshold will be breached in the 2030s.

Education and awareness

The RSPB is to give under 25s free access to its nature reserves in a bid to increase youth engagement with nature. The charity is set to roll out the two-year pilot program this month. The programme seeks to address what research has shown to be a dip in nature connectedness in teenage years. Similar worries prompted the government to introduce a new GCSE in natural history, and other nature charities are seeking to focus on outreach to the younger generations.

RSPB Fowlmere by Airwolfhound via Flickr.

Discoveries

Chimpanzees in Ivory Coast have been observed using military-like tactics to gain an advantage over rivals, a study has revealed. Chimps were observed seeking high ground for reconnaissance missions and making strategic decisions based on the size and proximity of rival groups. This behaviour, similar to the concept of “occupying the high ground” in warfare, may have deep evolutionary roots, according to researchers at the University of Cambridge. 20,000 hours of recordings revealed that chimps would climb hills at the edge of their territories, rest quietly at the top to listen for nearby rivals, and then decide whether to advance or retreat. While many animals take to higher ground to keep watch, chimp tactics are more sophisticated, anticipating where conflict may occur, assessing risk, and making collective decisions on how to proceed.

Diplomacy

An agreement has been reached for a loss and damage fund in the run-up to COP28. The fund, which aims to help countries cope with the irreversible effects of climate change, had been established last year at COP27, but negotiations had come to a standstill over which organisation would administer the fund. However, an agreement was reached in Abu Dhabi over the weekend with recommendations to be considered at COP28 which starts in late November in Dubai.

Book review: The Rise and Reign of the Mammals

***** Epic in scope and majestic in execution
Leon Vlieger, NHBS Catalogue Editor

Imagine being a successful dinosaur palaeontologist and landing a professorship before you are 40, authoring a leading dinosaur textbook and a New York Times bestseller on dinosaurs. Imagine achieving all that and then saying: “You know what really floats my boat? Mammals.” After the runaway success of his 2018 book The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, palaeontologist Stephen Brusatte shifted his attention and now presents you with the follow-up, The Rise and Reign of the Mammals. Taking in the full sweep of mammal evolution from the late Carboniferous to today, this book is as epic in scope as it is majestic in execution.

Mammals shared our planet with the dinosaurs throughout their long reign, from the initial split of our amniote common ancestor into synapsids (us) and diapsids (them), to their extinction at the end of the Cretaceous. Over the course of some 100 million years, a parade of lineages evolved—archaic mammals all—piecemeal developing the traits we recognise as mammalian today: pelycosaurs, therapsids, cynodonts, mammaliaformes, docodonts and gliding haramiyidans, multituberculates, and therians who gave rise to today’s placentals, marsupials, and monotremes. However, the above must not be mistaken for a linear march of progress. “[M]ammals were a still unrealised concept, which evolution had yet to assemble” (p. 20). Simultaneously, it does not behove us to call these now-extinct groups evolutionary dead ends. “In their time and place, these mammals were anything but obsolete” (p. 88).

With the extinction of the dinosaurs, the rise of mammals turned into a reign. Isolated on various land masses after the supercontinent Pangaea had fragmented, they were poised for a slow-motion taxonomic starburst that would play out over the next 66 million years. In the northern hemisphere, placental mammals replaced multituberculates and metatherians and rapidly evolved into primates and the odd- and even-toed ungulates. The latter two evolved giants: brontotheres, chalicotheres, and cetaceans.

Brusatte’s strength is to bring to life the above flurry of names. What kind of creatures were they? And how can we deduce this from fossil evidence? Somewhere between chapters 6 and 7, I became awestruck by his narrative as the enormity of the mammalian evolutionary trajectory started to come into full view: bats, elephants, South American native ungulates (origins: uncertain), metatherians migrating to Australia and spawning a spectacular marsupial radiation, grazers diversified as grasses went global, and somewhere at the end, hominins evolving and repeatedly spilling out of Africa, contributing significantly to recent megafauna extinction. What a wild ride!

The macroevolutionary story is fascinating in itself, yet Brusatte makes it even better with some interesting observations of his own. We usually think of the dinosaurs as dominating the mammals, but, he suggests, this went two ways: “While it is true that dinosaurs kept mammals from getting big, mammals did the opposite, which was equally impressive: they kept dinosaurs from becoming small” (p. 95). Furthermore, DNA studies suggest that many modern mammal lineages originated back in the Cretaceous. But where are the fossils? Could some of the poorly understood archaic placentals such as condylarchs, taeniodonts, and pantodonts be the missing fossils that we have not yet been able to link to modern groups because of the lack of signature anatomical features? Excitingly, Brusatte is part of a research consortium that is building a master family tree based on both anatomy and DNA.

As in his last book, Brusatte excels at explaining complex research methods and scientific concepts. One example is Tom Kemp’s concept of correlated progression. Several times during early mammal evolution, a whole suite of anatomical, behavioural, and functional traits were changing together, making it hard to unravel what was driving what. For instance when cynodonts shrunk in size and changed their growth, metabolism, diet, and feeding styles. Then there is the revision of the mammal family tree based on DNA sequencing. The classic tree, championed by zoologist George Gaylord Simpson in 1945, was based on anatomical features. By the early 2000s, DNA-based genealogies suggested that many supposed relationships were actually cases of convergent evolution, resulting in a new classification that reflected geographical patterns rather than anatomy. The new groupings came with some tongue-twisting names: Afrotheria, Xenarthra, Laurasiatheria, and Eurarchontoglires. A final example is tooth morphology, an important diagnostic trait in this story.

What helps with these explanations are some excellent illustrations. B/w photos show amazing fossils, Todd Marshall contributes both decorative chapter headings and explanatory artwork, and Brusatte’s former student Sarah Shelley adds b/w diagrams, illustrating for instance the remarkable changes in jaw bones and how some of these were repurposed to become our inner ear bones! Woven throughout are stories of the people behind the research. Brusatte introduces both young scientists and many past scientists that are not widely known.

In what is surely a hallmark of his love and enthusiasm for the field, Brusatte’s bibliography has again been written as a narrative. It is like a chatty literature review in which he recommends books and papers, indicates where literature has become outdated, adds more technical details or clarifications, discusses where there is active debate and disagreement, and shortly touches on topics that he had to omit from the main narrative. Yes, this takes up more space than a regular reference section, and I am sure it is more time-consuming to write, but it is ever so useful. You could not wish for a better starting point if you wanted to read deeper into the technical literature.

Finally, you might be left wondering how this book compares to Elsa Panciroli’s Beasts Before Us which covered early mammal evolution up to the K–Pg extinction. There is overlap here in more than one way; Brusatte co-supervised her PhD project describing the docodont Borealestes from a Scottish fossil. I was therefore mildly surprised that he does not mention her book. There is some inevitable overlap as both books walk through the same groups, though Brusatte provides a fuller picture by covering mammal evolution up to today. Panciroli’s book stands out for its fantastic writing, though, so you cannot go wrong by reading them both.

The Rise and Reign of the Mammals is a more-than-worthy successor to The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs. Brusatte convincingly shows that the evolutionary story of mammals is just as fascinating—if not more so—as that of the dinosaurs.

Book review: What an Owl Knows

***** A hoot of a book
Leon Vlieger, NHBS Catalogue Editor

Owls are one of the most enigmatic groups of raptors, in part because there is so much we still do not understand about them compared to other birds. Nature writer Jennifer Ackerman previously wrote the critically acclaimed The Genius of Birds. In What an Owl Knows, she reveals the creature that hides under that puffy exterior, peeling back the feathers layer by layer to show our current scientific understanding of owls. She has interviewed scores of scientists and owl aficionados as part of her background research, making this as much a book about owls as about the people who study and love them. A captivating and in places touching science narrative, this book is a hoot from beginning to end.

Owls are everywhere in the human imagination and, Ackerman argues, have always been: “We evolved in their presence; lived for tens of thousands of years elbow to wing in the same woods, open lands, caves, and rock shelters; came into our own self-awareness surrounded by them; and wove them into our stories and art” (p. 235). For all that, their nocturnal lifestyle makes them hard to study and they have long been—and in many places still are—wrapped in superstition. Ackerman dedicates a chapter to such beliefs and the harms that frequently flow from them. Fortunately, the tide is turning. Thanks to the tireless efforts of a dedicated cadre of scientists, conservationists, and numerous volunteers, a far more fascinating creature emerges from the contradictory tangle of ideas that humans have held about owls.

A red thread that has been subtly woven through this book is the importance of understanding animals on their terms. Ed Yong’s An Immense World is one recent example of this welcome trend amongst science writers and Ackerman appropriately starts with a chapter on owl sensory biology. What is it like to be an owl? Though this question can never be fully answered, that should not stop us from trying our hardest. Vision and hearing are obviously important to owls but the book has plenty of surprises up its sleeve once you start digging into the details: from the magnificent facial disk that acts somewhat like a parabolic reflector to gather sound, a hearing system that does not seem to age, to the fact that owls can see ultraviolet light. At night. With rod rather than cone cells (like pretty much every other bird).

The same question motivates research on owl vocalisations as “a hoot is not just a hoot” (p. 81). Owls utter a profusion of yaps, squawks and warbles and Ackerman paints a lively portrait in words. Barn owls have “a raspy hiss that sounds like a fan belt going out on your car” (p. 82), while the tiny Flammulated Owl breaks the link between body size and vocal pitch, sounding like “a big bird trapped in a small body” (p. 82, quoting ornithologist Brian Linkhart). These sounds can reveal an awful lot about the individual owl and its relationship with other owls in the landscape. Ackerman criticises some of the research on owl intelligence. They cannot pass the string-pulling test, a common test in ethological research in which an animal has to pull on a rope to reel in food that is out of reach. The idea is that it tests an animal’s understanding of cause and effect. But is this a fair test or does it “point to the limitations of our definitions and measures of intelligence” (p. 261)?

The most intimate insights have come from rescued owls that can no longer be returned to the wild. Many researchers have ended up caring for an individual and becoming intimately familiar with them. Gail Buhl, a leading authority on training rehabilitated captive owls, here explains five important things that she has learned. One particularly poignant observation is that owls might appear calm and stoic around humans, but having paid close attention to their body language, Buhl concludes that “they’re experiencing the same stress as other raptors, but they’re internalising it” (p. 228). This has major consequences for how even well-intended trainers and rehabbers ought to behave around owls. “We need to treat them not as mini-humans in feathers, but as their own entity” (p. 231), Ackerman writes, before throwing in a beautiful quote from naturalist Henry Beston. In his words, wild animals “are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time” (pp. 231–232).

Following on directly from her last book on bird behaviour, there are fascinating chapters here on the behaviour of owls: their courtship and breeding, their parental behaviour, their roosting, and their migration. Yes, many owls are migratory and some species can cover surprising distances. Ackerman makes a fantastic case for the value of long-term monitoring programmes to establish reliable population estimates. This is vital data for conservation efforts and is often missing. And sometimes what we think we know is wrong, as in the case of the Snowy Owl. Where initial estimates put the global population at some 200,000 birds, satellite tracking has revealed that they are actually a single population moving around the whole Arctic Circle, resulting in duplicate counts. Revised estimates now put the figure at a mere 30,000 birds.

Ackerman relies on the input of numerous scientists and volunteers. As such, this is as much a book about the people who study owls. I was delighted to hear more from Jonathan Slaght (his book Owls of the Eastern Ice is magnificent). Other stories tug on the heartstrings and none more so than that of Marjon Savelsberg. A Dutch musician trained in baroque music, her dreams came crashing down when she was diagnosed with a heart condition that consigned her to a mobility scooter. When she stumbled on the website of the Dutch Little Owl Working Group, she quickly became one of their most active volunteers, revealing a skilled ear for analysing owl calls. Suddenly, she had a new career and a new group of appreciative ecologist colleagues: “[I] realised I was still a musician. All the skills that I learned, all the talent I have, I can still use, just in a different way” (p. 105). It is a powerful story of redemption-by-owl.

Ackerman carefully balances these two facets: the scientific insights that she has carefully distilled from research papers and interviews, and the personal stories of those who study and love owls. As a result, What an Owl Knows is compulsively readable and readily accessible for those who lack a scientific background in ornithology.

You might also be interested in reading our Q&A with Jennifer Ackerman in which we discuss owls’ reputation for wisdom, the incredible research that is shedding more light on their lives, and the mysteries that still remain.

Book review: Otherlands

***** A spine-tingling debut
Leon Vlieger, NHBS Catalogue Editor

Our planet has been many different worlds over its 4.5-billion-year history. Imagining what they were like is hard – with our limited lifespan, deep time eludes us by its very nature. Otherlands, the debut of Scottish palaeontologist Thomas Halliday, presents you with a series of past worlds. Though this is a non-fiction book thoroughly grounded in fact, it is the quality of the narrative that stands out. Beyond imaginative metaphors to describe extinct lifeforms, some of his reflections on deep time, taxonomy, and evolution are simply spine-tingling.

The 16 chapters in Otherlands, each accompanied by a gorgeous illustration from Beth Zaiken, step back in time by millions or even tens of millions of years to visit a place on Earth and describe its ecosystems and organisms. Halliday includes well-known sites such as end-Cretaceous Hell Creek (66 million years ago, or mya) or Lagerstätten such as the Cambrian Chengjiang biota in China (520 mya). Far more interesting are the little-known eras and places such as the Italian promontory of Gargano during the Miocene Messinian Salinity Crisis (5.3 mya), the sweltering warmth of Seymour Island in Antarctica during the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (41 mya), or the underwater life around the Silurian Yaman-Kasy vent in Russia (435 mya).

Stylistically, Otherlands is a narrative non-fiction book. What that means is that, though everything is grounded in fact, Halliday does not get lost in the details. Where competing hypotheses exist he picks one and runs with it, rather than detailing the academic debates and different schools of thought. It is a stylistic choice that I can get behind given the quality of the writing that follows.

Because make no mistake, Halliday knows how to craft captivating prose. He won the Hugh Miller Writing Competition in 2018 and the John C. Marsden Medal from the Linnean Society for the best doctoral thesis in biology in 2016. Reading Otherlands, it is easy to see why. I do not know what they feed Scottish palaeontologists, but I was reminded of Elsa Panciroli’s Beasts Before Us. Let me back up my enthusiasm with some quotes that can only touch on a fraction of what is on offer.

There are the obvious imaginative metaphors to describe animals. The Triassic gliding reptile Sharovipteryx mirabilis (225 mya) is imagined looking rather inelegant once landed “with its membrane retracting and limbs thrown all directions like a collapsing deckchair” (p. 159), while the Ediacaran sedentary animal Dorothy’s Rope (550 mya) resembles upright towers “composed of bulges like knotted rope, as if Gaudi had designed an industrial town” (p. 277). Other descriptions are more poetic. Basilosaurids, the first fully aquatic whale ancestors in the Eocene (41 mya), have yet to evolve the melon organ. They “can listen to the music of the oceans, but they have not yet learned to sing” (p. 86).

Particularly powerful are his reflections on deep time. A recurrent theme in this book is that of impermanence: “gatherings of species in time and space may give the illusion of stability, but these communities can only last as long as the conditions that help to create them persist” (p. 18). Some ecosystems never return. The long-lived Jurassic crinoid colonies (155 mya) that made a home on floating logs blown into the sea during storms disappeared when the evolution of shipworms made “this way of life impossible, something that can and will never be replicated in quite the same way again; wood just doesn’t float for as long as it used to” (p. 151). And while the world feels old in our day, it is easy to forget the world was already old in the deep past. The mountains of the Triassic (225 mya) “are built from the deep sea”, within which can be seen “the coils and shapes of the long-extinct creatures of the Carboniferous seas, well over 100 million years old even now” (p. 158).

What made my hair stand on end were Halliday’s reflections on phylogenetics, the evolutionary relationships between animals. I love how he drowns scientific concepts in poetic language. Take the Paleocene Baioconodon (66 mya). Beyond one of the earliest placental mammals, we do not really know what it was. “Their anatomy is too non-committal, too similar to and yet too distinct from too many living orders to be placed with confidence. […] They are an unspecialised, Platonic placental, a lump of living clay from which all others are stretched, pinched and pulled into shape” (p. 105). We cannot even describe its young as kits or calves: “it does not yet make sense to talk of cattle or dogs, of monkeys or horses. None of these groups exist yet […] names lose tangibility in the depths of the past, and our language has no description for the young of common ancestors” (p. 104). You start to see why Halliday wrote his way backwards from the present. He makes a similar observation about the Ediacaran biota. Alien to us, “they are aberrant only from a modern perspective” (p. 282). Our confusion is partially because “we are trying to define them the only way we can: on the basis of those few survivors to have found paths to the present”, while the dead-end branches “by the simple fact of having not survived, forfeit a common name” (p. 283).

Similarly spine-tingling are his explanations of evolutionary processes. Species names are artificial designations for a continuous phenomenon. The way palaeontologists deal with this can be compared to rivers. Just as a river can split and its two branches be called by two names from that point in space forward, so can a species that spatially separates be called by two names from that point in time forward. And why did so many higher taxa appear during the Cambrian explosion? One idea is that, once in place, fundamentals cannot be changed easily: “evolution today can only be played within the constraints set by the past”. Another idea is that “there is nothing intrinsically impossible about a new body plan developing today, were it not for the existence of others”. Gould wrote of filling the ecological barrel and Halliday puts it thus: “establishing the basic roles within an ecosystem is like adding large rocks into a barrel […] evolutionary processes […] adding in finer and finer divisions of ecological processes, pebbles and sand falling into the barrel between the gaps left by the larger stones, structures built on other structures” (p. 258). Not only does this ring true, but it is also truly beautiful language.

Otherlands is an exceptional debut that can be savoured like a fine wine. I found myself reciting passages to anyone within earshot. Beyond a fascinating tour of extinct lifeforms, Halliday’s carefully crafted yet poetic descriptions of scientific concepts are a masterclass in spellbinding science communication.

You might also be interested in our Q&A with Otherlands author Thomas Halliday where we discuss the book and the process of writing it, our endless fascination with dinosaurs and the lessons we might learn from studies of deep time.

Thomas Halliday. Credit: Desiree Adams ,Penguin Random House

The Seal Project: Q&A with founder Sarah Greenslade

The Seal Project is an environmental conservation charity based in Brixham, Devon, which monitors, surveys and manages the welfare of seals on and around the South West coast, particularly Torbay and South Hams. Alongside seal conservation, the charity also focuses on engaging, involving and educating the community on the importance of protecting our ocean wildlife through presentations, talks, assemblies in educational settings, workshops and public events. Sarah Greenslade spent many years working as a key member of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue before establishing The Seal Project in January 2019.

Sarah, founder of The Seal Project, took time out of her busy schedule to answer our questions on the amazing work of The Seal Project, the effects of climate change on the local seal population, the importance of raising awareness, and how the current pupping season is going.

What is the Seal Project and where are you based?

The Seal Project is a small conservation charity based in Brixham that monitors the Grey seals in South Devon – mostly around Brixham, but we now also monitor the coast between Dawlish and Prawle Point, including the River Dart. The charity was born out of a need to protect the seals seen locally, many of which are animals we know individually from all around our stretch of coastline.

How did you get into seal conservation?

The story began when I encountered a Common Seal Pup stuck in Brixham’s Shoalstone seawater pool – who do you call at 5.30 in the morning? Myself and my best friend had no idea. The RSPCA don’t wake up that early and we had no clue what to do, but we knew that leaving the pup where it was wasn’t an option as people were walking dogs and the seal was clearly in the wrong place. My partner Lee (now a trustee of The Seal Project) suggested wrapping it up in something and putting it back in the sea. We had no hoodies or coats, so my friends partner was called and he brought down their most luxurious fleecey blanket off their sofa (as you do!) The seal, who had been swimming in the pool, came out and literally stopped at my feet. I scooped up the pup in the blanket as if it was a sleeping child and it never struggled once. We never touched it as we carried it over the rocks to the sea and let it free. As soon as we released it, another seal appeared – knowing what I know now that was most likely its mum – and off they went. The pup had clearly come in on a high tide and got stranded and the mum couldn’t get through the railings. If that was a grey seal it would have been abandoned there and then but Common seals are more devoted mums, and I hope to see this seal as an adult at some point.

After this, I became a Marine Mammal Medic for the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), which sends medics to call outs for marine life in distress, mostly seals, dolphins and whales. My first call out was to a ‘speared’ seal which quite literally resembled a tv ariel in the sea. She was eventually sighted locally without the spear attached, however it seems that every seal has some kind of back wound. She, like all seals, has unique identifying marks including their individual fingerprints and fur patterns, in this case a specific ‘W’ shape to the right-hand side of her head. I knew I had a photo showing that she was alive and well, and that resighting along with later identification of an animal known by the Seal Research Trust (Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust), with whom we share all our data, are what first sparked my interest in using photos to identify individual seals. After providing the identification I spent two weeks getting called out to every seal sighting in search of the previously speared individual, and it’s all gone a bit mad since then!

We are at the end of October, which is around the time Seals finish pupping. What has it been like in the Torbay area for pups this year?

I’ll be honest, it has not at all been as expected. Three of our known mums have not been seen for ages, and a first-time mum has been identified as a seal we know which we didn’t expect to be pupping just yet. The strange summer/autumn weather also means people are now using the coastline with their watercraft year-round and paddleboards and kayaks are now easily affordable too, so people are everywhere. Pupping seals who once had the coastline to themselves once September kicked in are now finding they don’t have these spaces to themselves, and as such pups are born or washed up in busy locations. This often results in a call out to BDMLR (as has just happened on the day I’m writing this).

Being based in a tourist area, what challenges do the seals and The Seal Project face?

That’s a good question. Hand feeding is probably our biggest problem. When we first started, our mentor and amazing friend Sue Sayer MBE thought that us starting a Brixham-based project would have a negative response as this is a major fishing port and some believe that seals ‘eat all the fish.’ But bar the odd comment, and a tiny number of incidents involving fishing and tripper boats hand feeding seals, we have experienced very few problems with the commercial operators in Brixham.

As a tourist area another big problem is angling-line entanglements. Our Breakwater is a busy area for novice anglers and they tend to feed the seals in an attempt to make them go away – clearly that doesn’t work. Also, some seals are sadly too habituated and get caught in angling line regularly. With adult seals there is nothing that we can do about this, and they have to be left to themselves until the hooks rust or fall out. Stones are also often thrown at seals to make them go away, and the animals are uncommon at a couple of locations where more ‘commercial’ land angling takes place.

Our biggest challenge is lack of awareness. We spend so much of our time trying to raise awareness and get the message out there which requires help from the local authorities and the tourist boats, but this doesn’t seem to be happening and it’s frustrating for us. We should all be working together, and the amazing local wildlife – including seals – should be respected and appreciated. Without our incredible wildlife many tourist boats would just be ferry services.

What projects or research have you been carrying out or got planned for the future?

We monitor and record all seals, sightings, dates and locations to try to build up a big picture of the seal population around our coastline. We now know many seals well and have been gathering data since 2016/2017. Matching our seals to individuals from Cornwall is difficult as there are very few other locations on the south cost carrying out monitoring in this way. Therefore, unless an image of a seal happens to be shared on social media or passed onto us from a private group, our records are mostly limited to the confines of our study area.

We do however have sightings of seals which have been released in Cornwall or seen in north Cornwall. We would love to be able to find out where else our seals have been seen and to build a better picture of their travels. Given that we do have Cornish seals visiting our area, we’d like to know if they behave differently to the individuals normally resident in Devon; my Cornish surveys show that the seals there are much more skittish than the individuals we see in Brixham, which tend to be relaxed and show little concern around the noise and traffic of this major fishing port. We do also have a couple of students planning research, but as of yet nothing is confirmed. Our data is not in the best shape and every sighting of each seal takes time to document – identifying one seal can take seconds or hours, and as this is all done by eye the catalogue is a minefield to get involved in!

How has climate change impacted the local seal community?

At this time, I can’t say for sure. My biggest concern is the fact that seal pups, born with white fluffy coats to be camouflaged in snow, are increasingly being born in hot September sunshine, and therefore once abandoned they are at a greater risk of dehydration due to being on sunny warm beaches when it should be much cooler. This year, numbers of seals appear to have been increasing unusually slowly as we head towards the winter months, but we’re yet to reach peak winter season to be able to confirm whether numbers will remain low. Our only other concern at this time is for the three mums who we’ve not yet seen pup this year, as they’ve been so predictable for the past few years.

Do you have a success story you’d like to share with us?

‘Easter Bunny’ is one of my favourite seals and can still be seen today resting around the local area. We first encountered him in 2020 as a juvenile seal entangled in industrial strength plastic. He vanished and we feared the worst, however a week later, on Easter Sunday, he was back in the same haul out spot on a girder in the marina, freed from the plastic. At the time of our first sighting, he appeared to have a bunny shape on his right-hand side (alongside a letter ‘A’), but this time the bunny seems to have disappeared with the ‘A’ is clearly visible. He reappeared regularly over the coming years, often seen for a few days and until the last several months always in the same spot, before disappearing for a few days and coming back again. We have seen him elsewhere a number of times, and last winter he was seen socialising with two ‘tagged’ seals (former rescued seals with plastic rear flipper tags for identification), so we look forward to seeing if they return to the area soon too.

You can find out more about The Seal Project and the work they do via their website or by following them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

This week in biodiversity news – 30th October 2023

Conservation

Wildcats are thriving in a Scottish Highlands conservation project with only one death. Nineteen of the cats were released into the wild in the Cairngorms National Park in the summer. Thirteen new kittens that have been bred for the scheme will be released into the wild next summer. Wildcats are one of the rarest and most endangered mammals in the UK. They live in moorland and grassland where they feed on small mammals and ground-nesting birds. Interbreeding with the domestic cat has eroded the wildcat’s genetic diversity. They also face threats from feline disease, road collisions and fragmentation of their habitat. A concerted effort by the Saving Wildcats project which brings together the expertise and skills of a range of national and international organisations provides a glimmer of hope for the species in Scotland.

wildcat in foreground with mouth open — Wildcat by Charlie Marshall via Flickr.

Media

David Attenborough’s Planet Earth III is both horrifying and awe-inspiring, critics have said. The opening episode of the third instalment of the highly acclaimed nature documentary series was viewed by 5.6 million people and has been described as “visually stunning” and “majestic”. The latest series of Planet Earth has a notably darker mood than its predecessors, focusing on animals fighting for survival in the face of constant environmental change.

Discoveries

The mysterious death of 385 elephants in Botswana and Zimbabwe in 2020 was caused by a little-known bacterium, scientists have revealed. Elephants were found walking in circles before suddenly dying by collapsing on their faces in Botswana’s Okavango Delta and north-western Zimbabwe. Tests on the elephants have now shown that the cause was a bacterium called Pasteurella. The bacterium can result in septicaemia under certain conditions and has been linked to the sudden death of around 200,000 saiga antelopes in Kazakhstan.

Elephant on one knee in savanna habitat — Elephant by Mario Micklisch via Flickr.

Climate crisis

Increased melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is unavoidable, according to new research. Scientists ran simulations and found that even under best-case emission scenarios, melting would increase three times faster than during the 20^th century. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet holds enough ice to increase global sea levels by up to five meters. Significant sea level rises will be catastrophic for the millions of people living in coastal and low-lying areas.

The Greenland Ice Sheet could experience runaway melting if climate targets are not met. A study in Nature has suggested that the ice sheet’s melting will accelerate significantly if average global temperatures surpass a threshold of 2.3 C above pre-industrial levels. However, the scientists stress that action in the future could reduce ice loss even if the threshold is crossed. They argue that it is cheaper and easier to take action now rather than clawing back towards lower global temperatures later.

ice flow in between two rocky hillsides — Ice flow in Greenland by NASA Earth Observatory via Flickr.

Atlantic hurricanes are more quickly strengthening from weak storms due to climate change. Scientists have said that human-caused climate change is creating the conditions that lead to a quick intensification of storms. Hurricanes are fueled by high ocean surface temperatures which have been increasing in recent years as the world’s oceans have absorbed over 90 percent of the excess warming from fossil fuel emissions. This presents a challenge for coastal communities as forecasting becomes more difficult the quicker a storm intensifies.

cyclone from space in the pacific ocean — Tropical cyclones in the Pacific Ocean by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr.

Policy

Countries are deadlocked over a “loss and damage” fund before COP28. The fund was agreed last year at COP27 in Egypt and is designed to help countries recover and rebuild from damage due to climate change. Developing and developed countries are at odds about which organisation should oversee the fund, which countries should pay and who will be eligible to receive funding. Developed countries back the World Bank as the host of the fund; however, developing countries argue that this would give donor countries too much influence over the fund. Talks stalled recently in Aswan, Egypt and the committee responsible for designing the fund will meet again on November 3^rd and 4^th before the COP28 summit begins later in the month.

£1 billion electric vehicle fund remains unallocated three years after it was first announced. The fund was first announced in March 2020 prior to the first Covid lockdown. The fund was intended to be used to support electrical capacity at service stations to allow for rapid charging of electric vehicles. While 96% of motorway services already have charging stations, increased use of electric vehicles means that there will be a demand for more charging capacity.

black electric car on the side of a street charging up its battery — Electric vehicle on charge by Paul Wilkinson via Flickr.

Author Interview with Andrea Hart and Ann Datta: Birds of the World, The Art of Elizabeth Gould

Throughout her life, Elizabeth Gould’s work was appreciated mostly through her husbands projects documenting the birds of the world, including John Gould’s Exotic Birds, and she was therefore often not recognised under her own name. Following her tragic death at the age of 37, her artistic talents were nearly forgotten, and her name was completely unfamiliar in the art world.

Birds of the World: The Art of Elizabeth Gould is an incredible, one of a kind volume brought to you by Andrea Hart and Ann Datta, offering a remarkable tribute to Elizabeth’s artwork, reputation and skill. Containing over 200 beautifully detailed and scientifically precise illustrations depicting birds from 19th-century Europe, South America, Central America, Africa, Asia, and Australia, as well as previously unpublished artworks and an introduction to Gould’s life and achievements, this book is a lasting legacy for one of the greatest bird painters in history.

The authors kindly took the time to answer our questions about the inspiration and research behind the book – read our Q&A below.

Could you tell us a little about how you first began studying Elizabeth Gould’s work and the drivers behind embarking on this book project?

The Natural History Museum was initially approached by the publisher, Prestel, early last year asking if we might consider working with them on a book on Elizabeth Gould. As Andrea had already published a book on the women artists represented in the Museum’s collections and Ann has published a significant work on the correspondence of John Gould, this felt like a wonderful opportunity to bring the spotlight to Elizabeth and highlight her story and the incredible artist she was.

How did you gather the work for this collection? Did you have access to some of Elizabeth’s original plates?

The Museum’s Library and Archives has an incredible collection of books, manuscripts and artworks and is particularly strong and comprehensive in taxonomic works on natural history. Our rare books collection therefore has sets of all the Gould’s published works, including those published following Elizabeth’s untimely death. While we held some examples of Elizabeth’s original works already, notably the ones she completed for William Jardine, we were incredibly fortunate to have been permanently allocated an album of her and John’s original works through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme of Arts Council England. This publication therefore gave us a wonderful opportunity to share some of these historically significant original drawings with a wider audience, and to further appreciate her artistic talent.

Do you have some favourite images among the plates Elizabeth made?

This is a really tricky question as most of the illustrations that we chose are most of our favourites! Ann specifically likes the bowerbirds, the Narina Trogon, the quetzal and the Australian wren and Andrea became quite fond of the toucans (but also had to include a magpie).

It’s clear from the biography of Elizabeth Gould in your book that she was incredibly industrious and hard-working, and that she experienced a great deal in her short life during a remarkable period in history. Do you get a sense that Elizabeth Gould paved the way for more women to work as artists in this field?

There is no evidence that Elizabeth Gould was influential in inspiring other women to become bird artists due, probably, to her short life. After her death in 1841, Gould’s folios were continued seamlessly by the draughtsmanship of Elizabeth’s successor, Henry Constantine Richter. Only those who knew the Goulds intimately would have been aware of her early contribution to the success of the folios. John Gould went on producing bird books for another 40 years, their contemporaries died and few questioned who was the ‘E’ in the ‘J & E Gould’ plate credits in the earlier books.

Also, although Elizabeth may have been a promising artist as a young woman, it was not an easy career path to succeed in, and she chose to become a governess with more security. Elizabeth probably would not have become a bird artist had she not married John. John had the scientific knowledge to identify the birds in the preserved, dried skins and provided sketches to guide Elizabeth’s meticulous watercolours. They were truly an equal partnership.

During Elizabeth’s lifetime, plants were a much more popular subject for women artists to take up than animal subjects, and a few women who were Elizabeth’s contemporaries were successful in this line. But in general, there were few opportunities for women to follow a successful career in art.

I found it fascinating that many of Elizabeth’s plates are made using a lithographic process. I wonder if you could elaborate a little on that process and the time it would have taken to produce an individual plate?

All Elizabeth Gould’s published plates for John Gould were made by the lithographic process. Lithography seems a very strange process but in the 19th century it was adopted by hundreds of aspiring artists of all subjects – history paintings, genre scenes, topography and natural history. The lithographic method dominated print and book plate production in the 19th century replacing the more expensive engraving process. By using lithography, artists could make monochrome prints of their original paintings which they could sell to the public – the rising middle classes who wanted affordable art to hang in their homes. Learning and doing the lithography themselves had two advantages for the artists: total control of the print-making process and avoiding the expense of hiring a lithographer. Those artists who mastered the technique, such as George Scharf, had no need to go to the extra expense of adding colour as they could create great delicacy of tones and lines in landscapes and street scenes etc, just by adding shading and stippling effects on the stone. Some of the most acclaimed natural history artists such as Edward Lear (contemporary of Elizabeth) and Joseph Wolf learned lithography. Lithography was especially well-suited to reproducing bird plumages, from soft down to large feathers.

The process of lithography consists of drawing or painting with greasy crayons and inks on fine-grained limestone blocks. At the lithographic printer, where the stone would be taken after the artist had finished, the stone would be moistened with water. The parts not covered by the crayon would become wet while the others where the greasy drawing was made would repel the water and remain dry. In a special lithographic press the printer would rub an oily ink with a roller over the stone. The oily ink would adhere only to the drawing but be repelled by the wet parts of the stone. After a sheet of paper was pressed against the inked drawing an exact copy of the original on the stone would be transferred to the paper but in reverse. The process would be repeated until the requisite number of prints was taken after which the stones would be cleaned for the next person, although the stone with its original drawing could be preserved for several years. The stones were very heavy. A Gould plate measured 22 × 16 inches. A stone measuring 18 × 22 inches would be about 3 inches thick and weigh 100 pounds.

The Art of Drawing on Stone, courtesy of archive.org

The lithographic printer Charles Hullmandel was responsible for all Elizabeth’s plates. His book, The art of drawing on stone (1824), has a vignette on the titlepage of a woman working on a stone. The first prints that came off his printing press – proof plates before lettering – were sent to Gould to approve. Then they went back to Hullmandel for him to add lettering to the stone according to Gould’s instruction (title = bird name, credits to the names of the artists, lithographer and printer). The proof plate after lettering, still a monochrome print, would go back to Gould again for her to colour to match her original watercolour. This artist’s colour proof would go to Gabriel Bayfield, the proprietor of a firm of colourists used for all Elizabeth’s plates, for his employees to copy the proof print on the requisite number of copies of each plate that Gould ordered.

Using this complicated and time-consuming process, each title took several years to complete. The books were sold by subscription (maximum number of subscribers often 250) who received parts, perhaps four times a year, and each part might contain 20 hand-coloured plates. The time taken to produce a lithograph would depend on the competence and confidence of the lithographer, and the complexity of the subject.

Elizabeth’s life contained many intense hardships. Aside from her incredible artworks, is there much record of her personal life and experience, such as in letters and diaries?

Very little extant information exists about Elizabeth with only about 15 letters dating between 1838 and 1840 surviving, all of which are now preserved in the Mitchell Library in Sydney, Australia. They were written by Elizabeth to her mother and cousin who had moved into her house in London to look after the children while Elizabeth and John were in Australia. The letters record some details of their visit including the people she met, especially Sir John and Lady Franklin, who accommodated them for nearly 12 months in Tasmania. Other topics include some of the problems faced by European settlers, e.g. acquiring servants, schooling, and the adverse climate, John’s collecting trips and his helpful Aboriginal guides, and making plant drawings. She writes proudly about her new son Franklin, born in Tasmania in Government House, and regularly enquires about the health of her mother and children. She does, however, reveal profound sadness at being away from her three young children in London.

In addition, there is one earlier letter written by Elizabeth in 1827 to her mother when she was working as a governess in London before her marriage. Only a fragment of a diary written by Elizabeth over the few days from 21st August to 30th September 1839 is known. It was written after she had left Tasmania and travelled to New South Wales to stay with her brother Stephen Coxen. In it she describes seeing several unusual birds.

From other sources it is possible to glean a few snippets about John and Elizabeth’s life in London. For example, she travelled with John to visit museums in Europe, and she probably accompanied him on some visits to Sir William Jardine’s estate. In a letter to Stephen, John Gould wrote in May 1841 that all the family had gone to stay in Egham for four months (Egham was then a village in the country).

In what ways does the industry of art for scientific publications differ today? Are there any similarities to the time in which Elizabeth was active?

Elizabeth Gould’s bird drawings served the scientific community. Accuracy of posture, colours and pattern of plumage and external anatomy were particularly important, alongside the impact of an attractive image, all of which are still required for taxonomic identification today. This could be achieved by painting the figure on a branch or on the ground according to its natural habits, often in a profile position. For Elizabeth, we believe, she would have started with a pencil outline, following the sketch that John would have made to assist her assemble a life-like figure from a dried bird skin. Elizabeth’s first meticulous drawings were rather conventional figures of very static birds – a style which persisted for many years until it was broken by John James Audubon in the early 19th century. Audubon spent many years in the field in North America and was the first to successfully paint the birds in their authentic natural habitat. Influenced by Lear and Audubon, Elizabeth would gradually develop her technique to produce more lively birds reaching a pinnacle in the Birds of Australia with the inclusion of appropriate flora and landscapes.

Today, an aspiring artist might attend art school before specialising in natural history art. Those who progress onto becoming wildlife artists would still observe their subjects in the wild and have additional equipment and technology to assist them, including binoculars and digital cameras to record and perfect their art. The detail required remains the same in terms of studying the subject’s internal and external anatomy and showing in their illustrations the required detail to be able to determine differences between species.

Bird art, however, includes many different styles and techniques which can change according to the artist’s preferences or the client’s requirements. There is, for example, a particular style used in field guides to compare large numbers of species on a page. Bird monographs, on the other hand, might just focus on a particular family and devote a whole page to an image of just one species showing male, female and juveniles, and so there is endless variety depending on the nature of the publication. Some bird artists, such as John Busby, also have a uniquely ‘casual’ style that is perfectly capable of depicting birds accurately and recognisably, but is very different from that of a more traditional modern bird artist such as the brilliant Robert Gillmor, who sadly passed last year. Those that illustrate for scientific purposes would also, just like Elizabeth, need recourse to examining bird skins or taxidermy in museum collections at some stage in their work.

Digital photography has certainly made images of birds and the natural world more widely available for guides and species identification, but there is still definitely a demand for artists to illustrate new species and produce illustrations and detail that is not possible to achieve with a camera.

Do you have plans for any future projects or publications that you’d like to tell us about?

There are so many other collections and artworks held by the Natural History Museum that would be amazing to research and publish on. For Ann, who did publish a significant volume on the correspondence of John Gould, she has some additional research papers to complete and, if time permits, would like to publish a biography of Thomas Hardwicke, who was an army officer and naturalist in India. Andrea would like to work on the botanical artist Worthington George Smith and the natural history artist Denys Ovenden in addition to developing a new temporary exhibition on artworks in the Richard Owen collection at the Museum, for display in the Museum’s Images of Nature Gallery in 2024.

Birds of the World: The Art of Elizabeth Gould was published by Prestel in September 2023 and is available from NHBS – Wildlife, Ecology & Conservation

Interview with Stephen Moss, author of The Owl: A Biography

The fifth and latest book in Stephen Moss’s captivating Bird Biographies series takes us on a nocturnal journal into the mysterious world of owls. Covering the seven species that can be found in the UK: the Tawny, Little, Barn, Long-eared, Short-eared, Snowy and Eagle Owl, this beautifully written and wide-ranging book effortlessly interweaves facts about their biology and ecology with snippets of folklore and tales from the author’s own experiences around the world.

Stephen Moss is a naturalist, author and broadcaster well known for his work with the BBC Natural History Unit working on landmark programmes such as Springwatch and The Nature of Britain. He currently holds the position of Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and is also President of the Somerset Wildlife Trust.

Stephen recently took time out of his busy schedule to answer some of our questions about the book. We also chatted about the precarious status of the Eagle Owl in Britain, the likely impacts of the climate crisis on owls and his plans for continuing the Bird Biographies series.

A huge amount of research must go into writing a monograph such as this one. Did you learn or discover anything particularly surprising about owls during the process?

I always learn a huge amount about the subjects of these bird biographies! No matter how much you think you know about a bird’s lifecycle and cultural and social history, they always surprise you. Even really common species such as the Robin and Wren lead lives that we don’t totally understand. Because this book is the first in the series to include more than one main species (plus some material about other owls around the world) I learned something about every species – from the exact details of how Little Owls were introduced into the UK, to the many folk names of the Barn Owl, to how Tawny Owls dominate popular culture about owls. All absolutely fascinating, and will hopefully delight the reader!

What do you think are the most commonly held misconceptions about owls?

I think the main misconception about owls is that they are very rare – in fact there are about 50,000 breeding pairs of Tawny Owls in the UK, which is far more than Kestrels! Of course the reason we assume they are rare is that we hardly ever see them, because they are so nocturnal. I have seen Tawnies during the day, but only a handful of times in my entire lifetime. Other owls, of course, are far more diurnal (Little and Short-eared) or what birders call ‘crepuscular’, which means they are usually seen at dawn or dusk (Barn Owl). Only the Long-eared is as nocturnal as the Tawny – perhaps even more so, which is why we hardly ever see them! We also think of owls as friendly – or at least friendlier than hawks and eagles, which always look so fierce – perhaps because their eyes face forward, just like ours. And yet owls are lethal predators as well.

The final chapter in the book looks at the future of owls. How much do we know about the likely impacts of the climate crisis on owl populations in Britain?

Like any birds, owls are especially vulnerable to the climate crisis, and especially the unpredictable weather patterns, extremes of temperature, rainfall and drought, and the effects these will have on habitats and food supply – especially at a time when all bird species are facing issues such as persecution, pollution and habitat loss – and in the case of owls, also light pollution. And of course the Snowy Owl, which once bred in the northern extremities of the UK (on Fetlar in Shetland, where I saw one more than forty years ago) has now disappeared as a British breeding bird, and is very unlikely ever to return, as I explain in the book. Snowy Owls globally are also uniquely vulnerable to climate change, as they are the most northerly of all the world’s owl species.

I found the chapter on the Eagle Owl to be particularly captivating. However, opinions on its right to reside in the UK appear to be divided, even amongst conservationists. Leaving aside the argument about whether the species can be considered native or not, do you think concerns about its impact on other wildlife are justified?

This is a tricky one; and I do outline the arguments for and against Eagle Owls in Britain in the book. In some ways their impact on other wildlife is a red herring: as a top predator, their numbers are unlikely to ever rise so high that they cause major impacts on native species; indeed, if we want to save Hen Harriers (the occasional prey of the Eagle Owl) we would be better off dealing with their illegal persecution, rather than blaming the Eagle Owl.

Is there a species of owl you would still love to see in your lifetime?

Of all the world’s owls, I would love to see the largest – Blakiston’s Fish Owl of eastern Asia – and of course the smallest, the Elf Owl of North America. My son James lives in Japan, so perhaps I can look for the Blakiston’s Fish Owl when I visit him next year. But I’ve still only seen about 40 species of owl – about one in six of the world’s species, so there are plenty more to go!

Finally – what is occupying your time at the moment? And do you have plans to continue this series of bird biographies?

I’m just coming to the end of my dream job – teaching the MA in Nature and Travel Writing at Bath Spa University. I’ve led the course for eight years now, and loved working with such talented students and colleagues, but now it’s time to hand over to someone else, and spend more time exploring other projects. And yes, I’m working on a new bird biography – of one of my favourite birds, yet one that many people dislike – I’ll leave people to try and guess what that might be! I’ve got several ideas for future volumes and other ideas for books for the future. But I also want to spend more time with my grandson Sammy, who has just turned one, and get him into birding – and also travel, to see birds of course, in the UK and around the world.

The Owl: A Biography was published by Square Peg in October 2023 and is available from nhbs.com

This week in biodiversity news – 16th October 2023

Extreme heat from climate change may make parts of the Earth uninhabitable. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Penn State College of Health and Human Development, Purdue Institute for a Sustainable Future and Purdue University College of Sciences modelled global temperature increases from 1.5°C to 4°C – a worst-case scenario. They found that a further increase of around 1°C would mean that 2.2 billion people would experience many hours of heat that surpass human tolerance thresholds. It would be particularly concerning for residents of high-humidity areas where heatwaves would be considerably more dangerous for human health.

Dry Cracked Warm Earth by Live Once Live Wild via Flickr

Whales and dolphins in the US are losing food and habitat to climate change, according to a new study. Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that over 70% of American marine mammal species stocks are vulnerable to threats associated with warming waters. This includes shrinking food and habitat availability, changes to ocean chemistry and reduced dissolved oxygen levels. Large whales such as North Atlantic Right Whales and Humpbacks are most at risk from the effects of climate change. This comes on top of new research published in Nature Climate Change that suggests that marine heatwaves are infiltrating deeper parts of the ocean, the consequences of which could have widespread impacts on marine ecosystems.

Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) Lunge Feeding by Gregory Smith via Flickr

Conservation

Beavers have been reintroduced to west London for the first time in 400 years. The release of a family of five Eurasian Beavers to wetlands in Ealing comes as part of a push to improve biodiversity and mitigate the impact of climate change. There had been plans to spend money on flood prevention measures in the area but beavers were considered to be a more cost-effective natural solution.

Canada rejects pleas from environmental groups to protect endangered owl habitat. One wild-born owl remains in British Columbia where logging has severely impacted the species’ old-growth forest habitat. The decision means that the future of the species is uncertain. The rejection of an emergency order for the protection of the owl comes after an eight-month delay since the environment ministry was required by law to recommend an emergency order under the Species at Risk Act. Environmental groups have responded with legal action following the delay. Biologists advise that the species could recover with adequate protection of old-growth forest habitat.

Extinction Risk

Almost half of flowering plants could be threatened by extinction, scientists have warned. Researchers analysed data from the World Checklist of Vascular Plants, the world’s most comprehensive database of plants available, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species and found that 45% may be at risk of extinction. Other key findings suggest that 77% of the 19,000 new plants and fungi species discovered since 2020 are endangered and that only 10% of an astounding 2.5 million species of fungi have been discovered.

Flowering Plant by Choo Yut Shing via Flickr

Similar numbers of male and female sea turtles give hope for the survival of the species. Papua New Guinea’s Conflict Group’s analysis of turtle hatchings between 1960 and 2019 showed that an average of 46.2% have been female. Sea turtles are susceptible to rising temperatures due to their sex determination being temperature dependent. Scientists suggest the results are “likely rare in the global context” with sand temperatures having risen by 0.6°C over the same period. Another study of Green Sea Turtles from the same latitude showed that more than 99% of hatchlings were female, spelling decimation for the population.

Sea Turtle by Daniel Chodusov via Flickr

Discoveries

A small West African crocodile can moo like a cow, audio recordings reveal. Scientists use audio recordings to monitor elusive crocodile species which are difficult to confirm via visual surveys. The tiny African Dwarf Crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis) inhabits the swampy forests of West Africa. Scientists believe that the crocodile is quite common given its common occurrence in the bushmeat trade. Consequently, they are using audio recordings to listen out for its calls and have discovered that the crocodile, surprisingly, moos like a cow.

West African Dwarf Crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis) by Heather Paul via Flickr

Animals fear the sound of a human voice more than that of a lion, according to researchers. A study in South Africa’s Kruger National Park found that, when playing recordings of human voices, 95% of animals were extremely frightened and ran away. Snarling and growling lion recordings provoked significantly less alarm among the wild mammals. The response to the recordings, which included human speech from local languages, suggests that animals have learnt that contact with humans is lethal. Researchers have noted that this may present a challenge for areas relying on wildlife tourism, as visitors can inadvertently scare away animals.