Books – Page 6 – Hoopoe

Author Q&A with Robert Wolton: Hedges

In Hedges, Robert Wolton brings together decades of research and personal experiences from his farm in Devon to explore the ecology, biology, nature conservation and wider environmental values of the hedges in the British Isles. Containing over 300 photographs and figures, this latest addition to the British Wildlife Collection offers a detailed commentary on hedges and their importance in our landscape.

Robert is an ecological consultant and writer specialising in the management of farmland and associated habitats for wildlife. He is a former hedgerow specialist for Natural England, the founder, chair, editor and lead author of the Devon Hedge Group, has been involved in Hedgelink since it began, and has written a number of reports and articles specialising in hedges.

Firstly, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to be contributing to the British Wildlife Collection with a book on hedges?

I’ve had a life-long interest in natural history, even as a schoolboy I was a very keen birdwatcher. Later, at university, I trained as a zoologist with a strong interest in mammals, although subsequently I have been more involved with insects, especially moths and flies. It was perhaps inevitable that I should pursue a career in nature conservation. My passion for hedges was awakened when we bought a small farm in the heart of Devon, my wife, Paula, looking after the cattle and sheep while I went to the office. Initially it was the flower-filled meadows that drew me to the land, but I soon realised that the many thick hedges, full of different trees and shrubs, were glorious and just as special, particularly when I discovered that those small spherical nests I kept finding were made by Hazel Dormice. At that time, 30 years ago, hedges were very under-appreciated in the nature conservation world – there was a gap waiting to be filled and I was able to persuade my bosses in English Nature to allow me to become a part-time national hedge specialist, a role I continued to fill after the organisation morphed into Natural England. Partial retirement gave me the opportunity to write a book on my beloved hedges. I’d always dreamt of having a volume in the British Wildlife Collection, much admiring the series, so when Bloomsbury offered me the chance I jumped at it.

Robert Wolton, author of Hedges, photographed stood by a large pile of thin trees being used to construct a man-made hedge. — Robert Wolton making a hedge.

I tend to think of hedges as being man-made. But is there such a thing as a natural hedge? And if so, how do these come about?

Most hedges in Britain and Ireland are indeed man-made. Some, though, have grown up naturally along fence lines and ditches – these are termed spontaneous hedges and I think they are becoming more frequent, especially along the sides of roads and railway lines. Trees and shrubs, their seeds carried by wind, birds and mammals, can colonise strips of rough grassland remarkably quickly, often protected to begin with by brambles. It does not take many years before there’s at least a proto-hedge present, and after a decade or two it may be difficult to tell it was not planted. Another way hedges have come into being is through strips of woodland being left when land is cleared for agriculture. These are called ghost hedges. Their origin is often given away by the presence of unexpectedly high numbers of trees and herbs characteristic of ancient woodland because they have poor dispersal abilities.

I particularly enjoyed the chapter in your book on the origins and history of hedges. Do you think that the study of hedges can give us an insight into the natural and social history of our country?

Without a doubt. Throughout our countryside, away from the open moors and fens, the pattern of fields, as defined by hedges and sometimes drystone walls, allows the history of the landscape to be read, often going back centuries, even sometimes millennia. We are so fortunate in these islands still to have this landscape continuity – it has been lost over much of continental Europe. In places like Dartmoor, which I can see from our farm, layer upon layer of history can be unpicked through studying the networks of field boundaries, most of which are banked hedges. Some can be traced back to the Bronze Age, 3,500 years ago. This may be exceptional, but even so, most of the hedges in Britain, and many in Ireland, probably date back to Medieval times. They are a hugely important part of our cultural heritage. We love our hedges. This is evident not just in the countryside, but across our villages, towns and cities, in our gardens and parks. Hedge topiary is, after all, a national pastime!

Farmland hedge leading towards a forest at the end of a farm track along the right-hand side of a field. — Hedge, by Damien Walmsley via Flickr.

As you describe early on in the book, there are many different types of hedge, from those that consist of just a single species to very diverse multi-species ones, even ones that have been allowed to mature into lines of trees. Is there a type of hedge that is best for the surrounding wildlife and environment and that we should be trying to replicate or maintain as much as possible?

If you put me on the spot, I’ll answer this question by saying that thick, dense, bushy hedges are the best for wildlife, preferably with margins full of tussocky grasses and wildflowers. But really we should be thinking about what networks of hedges look like, because there’s no such thing as a perfect hedge. Different birds, mammals and insects like different conditions, and in any case you can’t keep a hedge in the same state for ever, however carefully you manage it. Basically, the trees and shrubs are always trying to reach maturity, and as they do so gaps develops beneath their canopies and between them. That’s when laying or coppicing are needed, to rejuvenate the hedge and make it more dense and bushy. A lot more research needs to be done on this, but probably, from a wildlife point of view, at least half of all the hedges in a network, say that covering a decent-sized farm, should be in this condition. On the other hand, from a climate perspective, where we need to capture as much carbon as quickly as possible, tall hedges with many mature trees are best. You can see there are tensions here, all part of the challenge of managing hedges well. Who said it was easy?

A dusty track running in a straight line with hedges on both sides and tall, narrow, straight trees behind the left hand hedge. — Into the Distance, by Dave S via Flickr.

As both a farmer and an ecologist, I’m sure you are more attuned than many to the conflicting needs of making a living from the land and managing hedges for the benefit of wildlife and conservation. Do you think financial incentives are the only way to encourage landowners and farmers to both plant more and maintain existing hedges?

Financial incentives like government grants will always be important to landowners and farmers because good hedges benefit society at large just as much as those who own and manage them. Things like plentiful wildlife, carbon capture, reduced risk of homes flooding and beautiful landscapes rarely bring in any income to offset costs, let alone profit – it is right that they are supported from the public purse.

Still, hedges can be of direct financial value to farmers through serving as living fences, preventing the loss of soil or providing logs and wood chips for heating. They can also increase crop yields through boosting numbers of pollinators and the predators of pests. To some extent, these direct benefits to farm businesses have been forgotten in recent decades in the drive for increased food production regardless of environmental cost, but they are now being appreciated much more as new ways of working the land, such as regenerative farming, catch on.

And we should not overlook the fact that more and more landowners and farmers are prepared to bear at least some of the costs of good hedge management simply because they gain huge satisfaction from healthy hedges and all the wildlife they contain. The pleasure of seeing a covey of Partridges or a charm of Goldfinches, or hearing the purring song of the Turtle Dove, cannot be priced.

A narrow, windy track going through a high sided hedge into the distance in a circle. — by Oli Haines.

Finally, how did you find the experience of writing this book, and will there be other publications from you on the horizon?

This is my first ‘big’ book, and I was apprehensive to say the least when I started writing it, in 2022. But with a lot of encouragement from my wife and friends I soon got into the swing of things. Challenging for sure but personally most rewarding – exploring new facets, checking information and trying to find the best way to pass on my enthusiasm for the subject. Above all, it felt good to share knowledge collected over many years. Bloomsbury’s support was invaluable, there’s no way I could have self-published. As to whether there are more books in me, I’m not sure. Perhaps one on hedges in gardens? There again, I have a passion for wet woodland, another habitat that’s been much neglected. It’s all too soon to say.

Hedges is available to order from our bookstore.

British Wildlife Collection: interview with series editor Katy Roper

The British Wildlife Collection is a series of beautifully presented books on all aspects of British natural history. Since the series began in 2012, it has covered such diverse topics as mushrooms, meadows and mountain flowers, and books have been written by some of Britain’s finest writers and experts in their field. Filled with beautiful images, these wide-ranging and well-researched titles are a joy for any naturalist who is passionate about British wildlife and landscapes.

Katy Roper is a Senior Commissioning Editor at Bloomsbury Publishing and is responsible for the British Wildlife Collection. She recently took some time to chat with us about this excellent series; how it began, what makes it stand out from others of its kind and what we can expect from the collection over the next year. Keep reading for the full conversation with Katy, and browse the full British Wildlife Collection at nhbs.com.

Firstly, could you tell us a little bit about yourself; what you do and what your involvement is with the British Wildlife Collection?

I’m a Senior Commissioning Editor in the wildlife team at Bloomsbury Publishing. The British Wildlife Collection is one of the lists I’m lucky enough to look after; I’m responsible for signing up new books with authors and then seeing them through to the point at which they go off to the printer. Being immersed in these books means that I’m always learning something new: from the surprising fact that saltmarsh occurs as far inland as Staffordshire, through to how to successfully use a pooter to collect ants (without inhaling live insects!).

Published in 2012, the first title in the series was Mushrooms by Peter Marren. Could you tell us more about how the British Wildlife Collection initially came about?

Yes, the series was conceived by Andrew Branson who founded and, for 25 years, ran the publication of the excellent British Wildlife magazine. I believe that Andrew’s intention was to produce a series of seminal books that would capture the essence of the magazine in terms of being informative, well-written and thought-provoking whilst providing the author the space to explore their chosen subject in detail and develop the overall narrative.

For anyone unfamiliar with the books from this collection, how would you describe them and who do you consider to be their intended audience?

The series covers all aspects of British natural history and we encourage our authors to cover elements of ecology, history, management, conservation and culture; in other words, to explore the human relationship with their particular subject. The books are written in a way that we hope appeals to a wide readership, from academics and conservation professionals through to enthusiastic amateur naturalists and people who simply want to know more about the British countryside and its inhabitants.

All the books in the series are incredibly well-researched and comprehensive. How long does it typically take to go from conception to publication for a single title?

It varies depending on the author and their other commitments, but I’d say it typically takes around three years from the date the contract is signed until the book hits the shelves. I think our record for the shortest time is 13 months (I won’t tell you the longest!).

The books are beautifully produced and printed and, without exception, are authored by the most well-respected experts in their field. It is no surprise that they have rapidly become collectors’ items for so many British naturalists. What do you think makes these monographs stand out from others of their type?

The series is relatively new and is still evolving, but our ultimate aim is to build an indispensable reference source on all aspects of our wildlife by commissioning some of our finest writers and leading experts to write accessible and engaging books that are then carefully designed to incorporate hundreds of carefully chosen photographs and illustrations to bring the text to life. We hope that our readers come away from them, as one reviewer put it, ‘better-informed than ever, but also hugely entertained’. Oh, and they each feature a beautiful specially commissioned cover artwork by the peerless Carry Akroyd.

Finally, are you able to give us any information as to what subjects we can expect to be covered in the next year or so, or is this a closely guarded secret?

Hedges by Robert Wolton is coming out in February this year, and beyond that we’re excited to be welcoming Peter Marren back to the series with a book entitled Rare Plants. He’ll be followed by Trevor Dines with Urban Plants and David Goode with Bogs.

All books in the British Wildlife Collection are available from nhbs.com. Please contact our customer services team if you would like to set up a standing order for this series – this will ensure that you automatically receive each new title as soon as it is published.

Author Q&A with Derek Gow: Hunt for the Shadow Wolf

Renowned rewilder Derek Gow has a dream: that one day we will see the return of the wolf to Britain. As Derek worked to reintroduce the beaver, he began to hear stories of the wolf. With increasing curiosity, Derek started to piece together fragments of information, stories and artefacts to reveal a shadowy creature that first walked proud through these lands and then was hunted to extinction as coexistence turned to fear, hatred and domination.

With bitingly funny but also tender stories, Hunt for the Shadow Wolf is Derek’s quest to uncover the true nature of this creature because, as we seek to heal our landscape, we must reconcile our relationship with it. Before we can even begin to bring the wolf back, we need to understand it.

Derek recently took time out of his busy schedule to talk to us about Hunt for the Shadow Wolf, including how his fascination with the wolf began, what role it could play in Britain’s landscape and more.

As well as being packed with personal stories and fascinating snippets of wolf biology and behaviour, Hunt for the Shadow Wolf is an incredibly well-researched history of the wolf, told through the myths and legends that abound throughout our lands. How and when did your fascination with the wolf and its history in Britain begin?

My personal interest in the wolf story began early. I remember quite clearly my grandmother, who was a slight, erect, sprightly soul, telling both myself and my bored brother on a long car journey to Dundee the story about a place called wolf clyde which was near to where we lived in the Scottish borders at that time where the last wolf in Scotland was killed. It was just nonsense about a woman with children being attacked by the wolf which she brained in response with a pancake griddle, but nevertheless it began a slow smoking interest in the old myths which given the opportunity I was keen to explore further.

Why do you think that an understanding of the historical culture, myths and legends surrounding a species has relevance to its conservation and role in our ecosystems today?

A factual understanding of the history of this much maligned species in Britain is very important as the lies we made up in the darkness of our ignorance to try to twist the cultural character of the wolf into one of loathing and repulsion still sway the responses of a phenomenal number of individuals and organisations to this day. Despite the very best of our advanced understandings of what wolves are and what they do, this toxic taint is still bubbling strongly.

Even in children’s tales, the wolf invariably represents a character of fear, violence and threat. Do you think these types of stories have a significant role to play in the development of our feelings towards wolves as adults?

Absolutely as they reflect only the darkness in the minds of the adults who wrote them and by so doing chose to corrupt a bad reputation without thinking into an even darker evil to infect the minds of the young. Nowadays it’s gratifying to see in so many good environmental centres throughout Europe, within the wolves expanding range, more understanding and compassionate explanations about both their history and the reality of living with them.

Britain is in a unique position compared to mainland Europe in that wolves will never be able to repopulate of their own accord. Do you think that a reintroduction project will ever occur, and what are the key challenges that stand in its way?

I think we should reintroduce the wolf and prepare the way for even more of our lost beasts. Farming has had it all its own way without balance of any sort. If a species gets in our way, we kill it. It’s what we are doing to badgers right now. In the past we inflicted so much heartbreakingly visible cruelty. Now, we destroy on a scale that’s colossal without thinking about the smallest of creatures and those tinier still that inhabit the soil. It’s a viciously unnecessary process.

Eurasischer Wolf sniffing a moss covered rock, taken by C Bruck. — Eurasischer Wolf (Canis Lupus) by C. Brück

What role do you think the wolf could have in healing the landscapes of our currently denuded Britain?

I think they would both move deer considerably and by doing so disrupt their grazing patterns for the betterment of forest understory regeneration. I think they would make those that keep sheep consider their worth and then, if these animals are of value, protect them better. I think their very presence, wild but unthreatening, would more than that of any other creature enable all of us now living on this island to establish, if we wished to do so, our relationship with the natural world.

As well as travelling widely to locations where wolves live in the wild, you have also had the incredible experience of hand-rearing wolves in a wildlife centre. What is your most memorable first-hand experience with a wolf or wolf pack?

Naida, one of my tame cubs, ate my car keys. I only had one set and had to wait for what seemed an eternity for them to pass through her before picking my way through her enormous turds to get them back.

Finally, what is occupying your time this winter? Do you have plans for more books?

Lots of things. The last of bits of farming – feeding my cows. Dog walks and avoiding the rain. Trying to develop a foundation to help us breed even more threatened British species for reintroductions. And books? Well, on long dark evenings I have been researching the intriguing history of the European Bison. not the bits of sadness that brought the species to its knees in the early 20th century, but the complicated individuals who for a time held its future in the palms of their hands. Great characters like the 11th Duke of Bedford, who assembled breeding herds of threatened species on his Woburn estate, and tyrants like Hermann Goering, who used slave labour to create vast parks within which he hunted. It’s an intriguing slant that’s little known but it saved the species for a time when the world for them has become a better place where they can roam in peace, a range that is vast. There might be a book in that!!

Explore other titles by Derek Gow here.

Author Q&A with Michelle Sole: Antarctica: A Bird’s-eye View

This stunning photographic book, written in collaboration with penguinologist Dr Tom Hart, offers a unique view of Antarctica from above and captures the wonders of this magical place, from vast icebergs to penguin colonies in their thousands. Each chapter includes an array of incredible captioned images, taken from both land and air, and describes the resident wildlife and conservation efforts in this remote area.

Michelle Sole grew up living between the rolling hills of England and the alpine wilds of Andorra. In 2011 she moved to South Africa, spending the following six years working as a Safari Guide and nurturing her passion for photography, before becoming a photography guide on expedition ships in Antarctica and the Arctic where she continues to challenge her photography in extreme conditions today. Michelle’s thrill for adventure, nature and the outdoors is evident throughout her photography and writing, and since her career began her work has been published worldwide in papers including Africa Geographic and The Daily Mail.

Michelle recently took the time out of her Antarctica expedition to Snow Hill Island to talk to us about the inspiration behind the book, the challenges she faced photographing such a challenging environment and more.

You began getting into photography when you moved to South Africa in
2011. What encouraged you to take the leap from the sunny African
plains to Antarctica, and how does photography compare from one
environment to another?

I worked as safari guide in South Africa and one of my guests just so
happened to be the president of a polar expedition company and he offered
me a job! The opportunity was too good to pass up and in 2017 I started
working as a photography guide in Antarctica and the Arctic regions.

The photography varies drastically between Africa and Antarctica. In Africa
you are often hiding from the sun and in Antarctica the elements are against
you. The light in Antarctica is a lot harsher than in Africa and photographing black and white penguins on bright white snow takes some practice.

What was it that inspired you to create this book and capture Antarctica
from the sky rather than focusing solely on more conventional, land-
based photography?

I was approached by Dr Tom Hart from Oxford University to collaborate and
make this book. Tom had over 40,000 drone images from penguin and seal
surveys. These are used to try and gather population trends across different
locations in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. I had a similar number of
images from the ground and a collection from helicopters. The aerial shots really add a different dimension and together with the images from the ground tell a grander and more unique story of the landscapes and wildlife of this remarkable place.

Did you face any significant challenges that you had to overcome while
taking photographs in such a remote, harsh and often unpredictable
environment?

Yes! The weather in Antarctica can be brutal. Some days you are battered by
the winds and you can’t feel your finger tips, or you could be in a snow storm with snow collecting on the top of your camera as you shoot. I always carry a towel in my bag to protect my gear. Salt water takes a major toll on photographic equipment and throughout the years I’ve tried to salvage numerous cameras, sadly they didn’t all survive. On top of that, I am often photographing from an unsteady platform – a zodiac (a type of rigid inflatable boat) that I am driving on the ocean.

Were you concerned over any possible impacts on the wildlife
that you photographed even though you used drones to capture some images?

Special permission was given to the researchers from the Penguin Watch
team to fly drones for scientific purposes to conduct penguin and seal surveys. The drones were flown at a non disturbance height. This is evident in the aerial wildlife photographs by the behaviour of the animals – the seals continue to sleep and the penguins continue to walk on their highways without so much as looking at the drone.

I was really surprised to see such a wide variety of habitats and species
in your photographs as I, like many, often think of Antarctica and the
surrounding areas as enormous ice-shelves rather than steaming
volcanoes and vibrant pumice rocks. Was there anything that took you
by surprise while you were out taking photographs for this book?

At the time of putting together this book I had six years of experience in Antarctica, so I was familiar with many of the different landscapes. However, on my first trip to Antarctica, like many others visiting for the first time, I was taken aback by the variety of landscapes on the seventh continent. As a guide in this environment, this initial wonder and surprise is something that I see in other people experiencing this for the first time on nearly every trip.

Are you currently planning to undertake any other photography projects
next year that we can hear a sneak-preview about?

As I write this I am currently onboard an expedition ship south bound to the most northerly Emperor Penguin colony in the world –Snow Hill Island,
Antarctica. I also work in the Arctic each summer and spend a significant
amount of time out in Africa. Although I have no current plans to produce
books on these areas, my photography portfolio continues to grow.

Antarctica: A Bird’s-Eye View has been privately published by author Michelle Sole and is available at www.nhbs.com/Antarctica: A Bird’s-Eye View.

25% of profits from the sale of this book is donated to Penguin Watch.

You can also visit Michelle’s website and follow her adventures on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Our year in books

As 2023 draws to a close, what could be more pleasant than a look back at some of the books that we have read, enjoyed and recommended to our friends, family and customers over the past twelve months.

January

At the very beginning of the year, Richard Lewington treated us to a beautiful new Pocket Guide to the Bumblebees of Great Britain and Ireland. Lewington’s illustrations never disappoint and this guide was a fantastic addition to our field guide bookshelves. We were also inspired by Britain’s Living Seas. Written in collaboration with The Wildlife Trusts, this user-friendly book provides a guide to the coasts around the British Isles, as well as ideas for the alternative and sustainable management of our seas.

February

February saw the publication of Darren Naish’s Ancient Sea Reptiles in which he introduces us to these strange, sometimes monstrous, marine beasts. Edited by cave scientist and conservation ecologist Dr J. Judson Wynne, Cave Biodiversity provided us with a fascinating look at both the evolution and the conservation of subterrestrial-dwelling fauna, while Planktonium, from Dutch photographer Jan van IJken, offered us a glimpse into the unseen world of microscopic plankton via his stunningly beautiful images.

March

March offered us some truly inspiring reads, including James T. Costa’s Radical by Nature which chronicles the life, adventures and achievements of Alfred Russell Wallace, including his role in the formation of the theory of natural selection. James Nardi guided us through the innermost unseen world that trees share with a range of creatures in The Hidden Company That Trees Keep and we discovered more about the wild spaces of Britain and Ireland in Patrick Barkham and Alastair Fothergill’s Wild Isles, which accompanies the popular BBC series.

April/May

In April we were treated to more marine photography with Lisa-ann Gershwin’s Shapeshifters, which is a visually breathtaking look at 100 species of jellyfish. May saw the publication of the practical and inspiring The Book of Wilding which offers rewilding advice on a range of scales. (Read our Q&A with Isabella here). In the wake of Covid-19, we also delved into Fatal Jump from Leslie Reperant, which looks at the origins of global pandemics.

June/July

June provided us with another wonderful marine title from physicist Helen Czerski. In Blue Machine she offers a timely and elegant explanation of the ocean engine and the extent to which it impacts life on our planet. It would be remiss of us to pass by July without mentioning the publication of All the Mammals of the World. This popular and sizeable volume, as the title suggests, covers all of the mammals of the world and has something to appeal to everyone, from wildlife enthusiasts to researchers and conservationists. Following on from her critically acclaimed The Genius of Birds, July also saw the arrival of Jennifer Ackerman’s What an Owl Knows which brings to life the natural history of these incredible birds. (You can read our Q&A with Jennifer here).

August

In August we delighted in Amy-Jane Beer’s The Flow, an immersive and moving memoir which went on to win the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing in September. We enjoyed Chris Manias’ The Age of Mammals which examines how 19^th-Century palaeontology revolved largely around mammals rather than dinosaurs. We were also fans of Brian Johnson’s Honey Bee Biology which provides an incredibly comprehensive and up-to-date reference guide to these fascinating and essential pollinators.

September

The beginning of autumn brought with it the publication of Peter Eeles’ British & Irish Butterfly Rarities. Immensely popular among our Lepidopterist customers, this valuable book is the first to focus entirely on the species of butterfly regarded as extinct, rare migrant or introduced. Other highlights for us from September included Guillaume Pitron’s The Dark Cloud, a sobering investigation into the impacts of digital technology on the environment, and Michael Bright’s Masterpieces of the Earth, a dazzling photographic compendium of natural wonders around the world.

October

October provided us with a couple of titles of huge interest to ecologists, particularly those involved in bat surveys. The 4th edition of Bat Surveys for Professional Ecologists from the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT) provided updated and new content, including important information on the use of night vision equipment. (An interview about the book with Jan Collins from the BCT can be found here). Further practical advice on night vision survey was also found in Kayleigh Fawcett Williams’ excellent Thermal Imaging for Wildlife Applications. (Read our Q&A with Kayleigh here). Other highlights from October included Ben Goldfarb’s Crossings, which investigates the kinds of ecological devastation that roads and highways are inflicting upon our planet, as well as the photographic delights of Michelle Sole and Tom Hart’s Antarctica.

November

In November we received the first copies of Seabirds Count which provides an incredibly important insight into the seabird populations across Britain and Ireland. We also loved Neil Middleton and Stuart Newson’s Sound Identification of Terrestrial Mammals of Britain & Ireland which provides comprehensive coverage of a topic previously unexplored within the literature. (Enjoy our Q&A with the authors here). Other notable mentions this month include Andrew Simms and Leo Murray’s Badvertising, which examines the role of marketing on both the health of humans and that of the planet, plus Vincent Munier: The Monograph, which compiles 35 years of his stunning photography and expresses his unwavering admiration of the wild world.

December

We finish our yearly round-up with two fantastic books from December: the incredible second edition of the Field Guide to the Micro-moths of Great Britain and Ireland which is instrumental in making these fascinating group of moths accessible to the general naturalist. (Read our conversation with authors Phil Sterling and Mark Parsons here). Also in its second edition was Ian Newton’s The Migration Ecology of Birds, which covers all aspects of this fascinating subject in a clear and readable style.

All that remains is to wish everyone a wonderful end to the year. We look forward to sharing plenty more great reads with you in 2024.

Author interview with Phil Sterling and Mark Parsons: Field Guide to the Micro-moths of Great Britain and Ireland

Part of the popular Bloomsbury Wildlife Guides series, the first edition of the Field Guide to the Micro-moths of Great Britain and Ireland is credited with helping to demystify the formerly obscure and specialist world of micro-moths. Among a number of pioneering features, the book boasted artwork by acclaimed illustrator Richard Lewington showing the moths in their natural resting positions, rather than as pinned specimens, capturing the essence of each species and presenting them as they would appear in life when encountered in the field or settled within a moth trap. Coupled with accessible species accounts and the latest distribution maps, the guide helped to showcase the beauty and diversity of these miniature lepidopterans and provide a gentle introduction to their identification and habits for the general naturalist.

Eleven years on, the team behind the original guide have produced an extensively revised second edition, due to be published in December. Here the authors, Phil Sterling and Mark Parsons, kindly took the time to answer some of our questions about what we can expect from the new guide, and about micro-moth recording more generally.

Authors Mark Parsons (left) and Phil Sterling (right)

To begin with, could you give us a brief overview of what’s changed in the second edition?

There are three stand-out changes for recorders browsing this second edition. Firstly, we have included many more species, nearly 300 of them; the field guide now covers over 80% of native, naturalised or immigrant species recorded in Great Britain and Ireland. That’s 1,286 from a total of 1,576 species, and the book features over 1,000 of Richard Lewington’s illustrations.

This time we have included a full set of common (or vernacular) names for the micros which appear alongside the scientific names. We reviewed existing common names being used, made changes where we felt these were appropriate and helpful, and have done this for all 1,576 species.

The order in which the species are presented is now in line with the Agassiz, Beavan & Heckford (ABH) Checklist of the Lepidoptera of the British Isles. The ABH checklist was published in 2013, a year after our first edition, and it set out a radically different order based on our current understanding of the taxonomic relationship between species, genera and families. This should make it much easier for recorders to relate the order in the field guide to established recording systems and websites.

You mention that the species coverage has been greatly expanded since the first edition. Where have these ‘new’ species come from?

There are a variety of reasons why we include more species. Most obvious are those we see today but did not 11 or more years ago. In 2007 when we started writing the first edition, Box-tree Moth hadn’t been recorded in Britain, yet it is now an abundant species across much of southern England and set to spread fast. Our warming climate is also leading to rapid increases in micro-moth species establishing and spreading, and we have included several scarcer immigrant species which do seem to becoming more regularly recorded.

We will never be up-to-date though. No sooner had the second edition gone to print than Echium Stilt Dialectica scalariella made a spectacular appearance in Britain in autumn 2023. It now appears to be resident at various sites from Kent to Devon, and possibly Suffolk, and has been found in huge numbers as a leaf-miner on Viper’s-bugloss, disfiguring the leaves. This species is listed in the field guide as British but not covered in detail.

We have taken a more systematic approach to inclusion of those that can be identified to species from their early stages, in particular leaf-miners in the Nepticulidae and Gracillariidae, and cases of the Coleophoridae. We have chosen a wide selection of these, illustrated by good quality photographs, enabling identification to species based on the early stage.

We have responded to helpful criticism that we should have been more comprehensive in our coverage of some of the more difficult families, including Gelechiidae and Depressariidae. There is better knowledge ‘out there’ today of how to separate species in the field, and we have been able include this information for some of the more challenging species within these groups.

There will be recorders who would have wished we included yet more species, maybe even all of them? But we have kept faithful to the objective of this being a field guide, for recorders to take it whenever they are out, by day and night. Most of the remaining 20% of micros require detailed examination under a microscope, extended time to rear the species from larva to adult to confirm identity, or are very rarely encountered species.

The bottom line is that we requested to Bloomsbury and they allowed us to write a bigger book than the first edition. We have packed it to our limit with more species and more information.

Mine of the Echium Stilt on Viper’s Bugloss by Mark Parsons.

For me (and I suspect many other people), the first edition of this guide was the catalyst to start paying more attention to micro-moths, having previously written them off as ‘too difficult’. How do you feel interest in micro-moths has changed in the 11 years since the original was published?

The first edition certainly achieved its aim of bringing micro-moths within comfortable reach of many recorders who had perhaps previously not considered them. Many species are actually straightforward to identify, but we think recorders were put off by the need to acquire several expensive texts to gain comprehensive coverage.

Moth recording generally continues to grow and it has wide public appeal. The National Moth Recording Scheme (NMRS), run by Butterfly Conservation, collates moth records across the four countries in Britain and Ireland and does not separate macro- and micro-moth species. We feel the distinction is fading, with recorders deciding which micro-moth families they’ll tackle in the coming year, rather than considering the prospect too daunting.

Leaf-mine of the Sorrel Dot Enteucha acetosae on Sheep’s Sorrel by Ben Smart.

Has that growth in interest in micro-moths helped you in your revisions to this guide, e.g. by helping to fill gaps in distribution maps and so on?

The first edition was primarily aimed at moth trappers, and we included lots of photographs of leaf-mines and larval cases to add interest. In the second edition we have deliberately chosen photographs of the early stages where identification to species level is possible based on a photograph and careful observation. We want to extend recorders’ interests beyond their moth traps to include searching for leaf-mines, cases and other signs in the field. Daytime pursuit of micro-moths can happen 365 days of the year, and there are plenty of species detectable in the middle of winter. The second edition benefits especially in this respect from photographs by Ben Smart, who has already published two small volumes on Micro-moth Field Tips, both giving month-by-month hints on how to find the early stages. Having said that, the second edition remains very much a book for moth trappers, and we have added illustrations of many more adult moths from a range of families.

Black-barred Fungus Moth Nemapogon clematella by Phil Sterling.

Could you tell us a little bit about the motivation and process behind your efforts to create the standardised list of common names in this guide?

Common names of micro-moths have never been adopted widely by recorders in Britain and Ireland. There is a long history to them, with a list first appearing in the early 17th century, and the most recent compilation was collated by Jim Wheeler in 2017. Despite the efforts, it is a ‘Marmite’ subject, with common names being used by some recorders yet remaining deeply unpopular with others. Much of the angst seems to centre on the inappropriateness of some names. All members of the Tineidae have been called ‘clothes moths’ yet this wonderfully diverse group contains only a very few species that will eat clothes, the majority are in fact detritivores and herbivores, with a range of specialists on fungi. Labelling them all as if they are clothes-munchers is just plain wrong at best, and gives moths a bad name at worst. Each fungal specialist is, not surprisingly, called a type of ‘fungus moth’, a simple revision based on its life history. There are other names that today appear to be meaningless, such as ‘tubic’, which gives recorders little to grasp when trying to remember them.

The introduction of a revised set of common names, in tandem with the increasing interest and our continued desire to promote micro-moth recording to all, seemed timely with the advent of the second edition. Very many common names remain as they are in the Wheeler list, or are slightly modified, and we have tried to make revisions that add relevance to the species, such as what it looks like, or where and how it lives. We hope that the names will make micros even more accessible by removing the perception that they somehow require more specialist knowledge to tackle.

Most recorders now use social media to communicate their finds, and it is undoubtedly easier to write an English common name than the scientific equivalent, and we have tried to keep the names as short as possible with this in mind. In summary, we hope that the revised list will be adopted in time and will encourage an inclusivity for new recorders put off by scientific names, and we trust we are putting micro-moths alongside almost all groups of British wildlife that now have common names.

Phil Sterling searching for larvae on Alderney by Peter Costen.

For any enthusiasts who have not yet looked beyond the more familiar macro-moths, what can you say about the rewards of taking the plunge into the world of micros?

Macro-moth recorders are delighted when they find something of great interest in their garden moth trap, it’s exciting, and it can happen to new and seasoned recorders. Imagine increasing your chances of this happening threefold! There are roughly twice as many micro-moth species as macros, plus their distribution is generally less well known, so the chances of finding ‘goodies’ is much enhanced. The advent of pocket-sized cameras and mobile phones with decent macro-photographic capability means that it is easier to share photos of micro-moths with others than it has ever been. Add to that the opportunity to record so many species from their early stages, and at any time of year, what are people waiting for?

Records of micro-moths are collated by the NMRS. By encouraging recording the amount of data collected will increase, along with our understanding of distributions and phenology. It won’t be long, we hope, until we can see national distribution maps for micros just like the macros.

Finally, are there any other projects you’re working on that you’d like to tell us about?

For us there is the continued quest to resolve undescribed life histories of micro-moths. Even some species seen regularly as an adult are not known as a larva, such as Dingy Knot-horn Hypochalcia ahenella. It probably feeds on herbs within its favoured habitats, sparsely vegetated stony or sandy ground. For what must be quite a large larva it is certainly secretive and has eluded us to date.

One mystery partly revealed in 2023 was the finding of a larva by Phil of Black-spotted Nest Moth Tenaga nigripunctella. The life history of this very rare tineid moth was completely unknown anywhere in the world and it was assumed that the larva might feed underground in rats’ nests. The adults have been appearing more regularly in west Dorset in the last few years, and a few were observed in a hole in a stone wall at Abbotsbury in 2023. In the wall was a dead Garden Snail Cornu aspersum, and guess what; deep within the shell a fully-fed larva of the moth that appeared to have been eating the blackened dead flesh of the snail. As far as we are aware this is the first example of a moth in western Europe found to be eating dead snails. There is so much to learn about the intriguing life histories of our more obscure micro-moths!

Field Guide to the Micro-moths of Great Britain and Ireland (Second Edition) is due to be published by Bloomsbury in December 2023 and is available from nhbs.com.

Author Q&A with Kayleigh Fawcett Williams: Thermal Imaging for Wildlife Applications

Thermal Imaging for Wildlife Applications offers readers an invaluable and practical guide to this exciting technology. Covering a wealth of basics, including the history of thermal imaging and its advantages and challenges, the book also provides readers with all the information they need to begin choosing and using the right equipment. A chapter on wildlife applications covers all of the main animal groups for which the technology is of use, and a final chapter discusses the future possibilities of thermal imaging.

Kayleigh Fawcett Williams is a Wildlife Technology Trainer and Consultant and has been using technology for wildlife applications for the past sixteen years. As the founder of Wildlifetek and KFW Scientific & Creative she helps wildlife students, professionals and enthusiasts use technology to improve their wildlife work via her online training and support services. Kayleigh is also the author of the Thermal Imaging Bat Survey Guidelines which were published in 2019 in association with the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT).

During your PhD, you spent some time training to be a thermographer. What did this training involve, and how valuable do you consider this type of ‘formal’ training to be for anyone wanting to use thermal imaging equipment for their work or studies?

My thermography journey really began when I took my Level 1 Thermography Certification. This was an in-depth technical training with the Infrared Training Centre (ITC) at FLIR’s UK Headquarters in West Malling. It was a fantastic grounding in thermal science and kick-started my use of this technology. I always recommend this training to students and researchers who need to know how to carry out temperature measurement. This is usually only for very specialist research applications where the body temperature of the animal that they are working with is needed.

However, it’s definitely not for everyone. In fact, very few wildlife applications require temperature measurement, but all of them require an understanding of how the technology works, its limitations and, of course, its benefits. That’s why I have since developed wildlife-specific training for those that want to use this technology effectively but don’t need temperature measurements.

Thermal imaging equipment has been around in one form or another since the 1960s/70s. Why do you think it has taken so long for it to become more widely adopted?

It’s a long story, which I cover in much more detail in the book, but I think there are two key elements that have affected our adoption of this technology for wildlife.

Firstly, a key factor is the nature of the equipment itself. Early thermal imaging devices were expensive and cumbersome, making them largely inaccessible and impractical for most wildlife professionals. Over the decades, we have seen huge improvements in both the affordability and practicality of models available on the market. This has accelerated in recent years, where we’ve seen a massive shift towards the use of thermal imaging by both professional wildlife ecologists and amateur recorders alike.

Secondly, another major influence is the expertise of those using the equipment. Without an appropriate understanding of the technology, many have failed in their attempts to use it effectively. Unfortunately, in some cases this has led to misuse and the spread of misinformation about the technology. This has undoubtedly slowed our adoption of this technology for wildlife purposes.

Among the 300+ documents I reviewed as part of the research for the book, I noticed time and time again that these factors, equipment and expertise, determine the success or failure of thermal imaging for a wide range of wildlife species.

What do you consider to be the main challenges in working with this type of equipment?

Again, it is usually those same two factors we just discussed: equipment and expertise.

The number one question I am asked by ecologists, researchers and amateur recorders is: “What thermal imaging equipment should I buy?”. With an ever increasing list of thermal imaging devices available for us to buy, we can experience a paradox of choice where we can become confused by the array of different options on offer. So choosing the appropriate equipment for a specific wildlife application can be challenging, yet it is absolutely vital to get this bit right.

Once we have chosen our kit, the next challenge is being able to use it effectively. This requires an appropriate level of knowledge and experience, but acquiring this kind of expertise can be difficult, as I found out when I first began my work in this area thirteen years ago. Back then there were very few training opportunities and hardly anyone was using the technique outside of academia. Thankfully, things have changed a lot since then and wildlife-specific training is now available, making it much less of a challenge to access the knowledge and develop the skills that are needed.

The recently published 4th edition of Bat Surveys for Professional Ecologists includes, for the first time, new content on night-vision aids. How much of an impact do you think these recommendations will have on routine bat surveys and their results?

I think the widespread use of night-vision aids for bat surveys will be transformative for the ecology sector. Personally, I have been using thermal imaging technology for this kind of survey for many years so I am well aware of what we can achieve using night-vision aids compared to traditional methods. As a trainer, I am lucky that I also get to see lots of my students experience this for themselves. Many ecologists have told me what a game-changer it has been for them and what a difference it can make to their survey results.

So what have they been missing? Well, in the past, without using night-vision aids, surveyors often battled with the painful but common uncertainty that can lead to writing the words “possible bat emergence” on a survey form. The knock-on effects of these three words can spiral out of control, leading to a raft of unnecessary effort and costs associated with a bat that may or may not have emerged from a tree, building or other man-made structure. On the other hand, we can also easily miss bats using traditional methods. This can of course be costly financially but, more importantly, can lead to harm to the bats themselves.

So it is undoubtedly going to have some massive benefits, but it is also important to consider that, to achieve them, many ecologists out there are now having to get to grips with some new technologies. Some have found this easy and have embraced this change with enthusiasm, while others have a steep learning curve to contend with. Either way, I think it is going to be worth it.

When considering the use of thermal imaging equipment, a lot of attention is given to choosing the right product and designing a suitable survey protocol. However, do you think that the post-processing stage is equally important? And are there widely available software packages that can help with data processing and analysis?

Post-processing and analysis can be just as important, depending on the target species. When used for bat surveys, for example, post-processing and analysis using specialist software packages can make a big difference to the level of accuracy we can achieve using thermal imaging technology. To get those levels of accuracy, however, requires another level of cost in terms of effort, time and investment in software packages. Some software packages for these tasks can be quite expensive, but there are open source options as well. Thankfully, advances in automation procedures are also paving the way to streamlining this process in the future.

Finally, what’s keeping you busy this winter? Do you have plans to write further books?

I do have plans for another book, but right now I am taking a break from writing to focus on something a little bit different. I am currently filming some exciting footage for an upcoming video series called “Wildlife Detectives” on my new YouTube Channel. As part of this I will be using some really cool technologies, including thermal imaging, to find some fascinating wildlife species out in the field. Keep an eye out for it in the New Year!

Thermal Imaging for Wildlife Applications by Kayleigh Fawcett Williams was published in October 2023 by Pelagic Publishing and is available from nhbs.com.

Book review: The Mind of a Bee

***** Fascinating and information dense
Leon Vlieger, NHBS Catalogue Editor

It is tough being a social insect. When people are not trying to exterminate you, they might marvel at the collectives you form, but does anybody think much of you, the individual? Leave it to Lars Chittka, a professor in sensory and behavioural ecology, to change your views. The Mind of a Bee is a richly illustrated, information-dense book that explores a large body of scientific research, both old and new.

Chittka is very focused in his approach and The Mind of a Bee effectively summarises a large number of experimental studies in narrative form, with very few diversions. He cleverly avoids overheating your brain by having chapters flow logically into each other, but especially by dividing each chapter into short, headed sections. Each of these takes a particular question and discusses a few relevant studies in anywhere from one-half to three pages. Some of these are his own work but he ranges far and wide and includes both classic and recent research. The book is furthermore illustrated with numerous diagrams and photos that helpfully clarify experimental protocols and results. Honey bees are unsurprisingly the most intensively studied but Chittka discusses informative studies across a range of bee species and sometimes other insects as well. The book roughly covers three biological disciplines: sensory and neurobiology, ethology, and psychology.

Justifiably, the book opens with sensory biology. Before we understand what is in the mind of any organism, Chittka argues, we first need to understand the gateways, the sense organs, through which information from the outside world is filtered. These are shaped by both evolutionary history and daily life (i.e. what information matters on a day-to-day basis and what can be safely ignored). Chapter 2 deals with the historical research that showed that bees do have colour vision and furthermore can perceive ultraviolet (UV) light. Chapter 3 bundles together research on numerous other senses, including ones familiar (smell, taste, and hearing) and unfamiliar to us (perception of polarised light, Earth’s magnetic field, and electric fields). The antennae of bees, in particular, are marvels; Chittka likens them to a biological Swiss army knife, packing numerous different sense organs into two small appendages. Tightly connected to sensory biology is how this incoming information is processed in the brain, though Chittka postpones discussing neurobiology to chapter 9. He describes the discovery and function of different brain areas and highlights the work of Frederick Kenyon who would inspire the better-remembered Santiago Ramón y Cajal. Thanks to them, we now understand that brains consist of numerous specialised nerve cells. Though the bee brain is small, Chittka argues that size is a poor predictor of cognitive skills; it is the wiring of neurons that matters. Rather than be surprised that small-brained insects such as bees can do so many clever things, Chittka instead tickles the reader with the opposite question: “Why does any animal need as large a brain as a bee’s?” (p. 153).

What clever things do bees do, you ask? That is the subject of the preceding five chapters where Chittka surveys a large body of behavioural research. Honey bees are famous for their waggle dance by which they communicate the location of flowers but also, this was news to me, the location of potential nest sites when the swarm relocates. But Chittka discusses more, much more: how bees navigate space using landmarks, show a rudimentary form of counting, solve the travelling salesman problem, learn to extract nectar from complex flowers, learn when to exploit certain flowers (and when to ignore them), and learn new tricks by observing other bees. But what about instinct, something most behaviours were traditionally ascribed to? He has some insightful comments on this: “even the most elemental behavior routines need to be refined by learning: instinct provides little more than a rough template” (p. 50). What really made me fall off my chair is that bees have long been outsmarting researchers in choice experiments. Many behavioural experiments take the form of choice tests, where bees need to pick between two locations or objects that differ in e.g. colour or shape with one option containing a sugary solution as a reward. Bumblebees would simply be lazy and check out both options in random order. Until, that is, protocols were modified by adding a bitter-tasting solution to the wrong choice as a penalty.

The final two chapters explore bee psychology. One chapter shows how, in a hive full of bees, the members are not anonymous and interchangeable. Rather, they show individual differences in e.g. their preferred order in which to visit flowers during foraging or how fast they learn to solve problems. The final chapter makes the case that bees have a form of consciousness, though Chittka clarifies he is not arguing it is as rich and detailed as that of humans. That said, they show a slew of behaviours that scientists will label as evidence for consciousness when exhibited by bigger-brained vertebrates. Chittka is happy to play devil’s advocate: sure, theoretically, all the behaviours described in this book could be replicated by an unconscious algorithm. However, the required list of specific instructions is growing long and, increasingly, the more likely answer seems to be that bees possess “a consciousness-based general intelligence system” (p. 208).

As mentioned above, this book is focused. If you enjoy reading about the facts and the study system with minimal (autobiographical) diversions, Chittka has got you covered. The only digression he allows himself is to include biographical details of older generations of scientists. This includes inspiring tales such as Karl von Frisch who described the honey bee waggle dance and later barely escaped being dismissed from his post by the Nazis. And look out for repeat appearances of Charles Turner, a now largely forgotten African American scientist who published pioneering work despite having been denied a professorship based on his ethnicity. But there are also tragic stories such as Kenyon’s, who snapped under pressure of not securing a permanent job and was incarcerated in a lunatic asylum where he died more than 40 years later, alone and forgotten. Chittka includes occasional quotations from historical literature to show that “many seemingly contemporary ideas about the minds of bees had already been expressed, in some form, over a century ago” (p. 15).

The Mind of a Bee makes for fascinating reading, convincingly showing that bees are anything but little automatons. The tight structure and numerous illustrations make it accessible, though be prepared for an information-dense book.

NHBS staff picks 2023

Every year at NHBS we see a huge range of books and equipment travel through our offices and warehouse, via desks and bookshelves, finally leaving us in packages on their way to our valued customers. Invariably, we end up purchasing a number of these for ourselves, and others become gifts for our friends and families. This year, for our staff picks roundup, we have chosen the books and equipment items that we’re hoping to gift to our loved ones this Christmas.

Blue Machine: How the Ocean Shapes Our World

An engrossing odyssey into oceanography that reveals a fascinating planetary engine. Equal parts physical oceanography, marine biology, and science history, topped off with human-interest stories, Czerski has written a captivating book that oozes lyricism in places.
– Leon Vlieger, Catalogue Editor

NHBS Kent Bat Box

New for 2023, the NHBS Kent Bat box is based on the proven and popular design from the Kent Bat Group. Made from untreated rough-sawn Douglas Fir, the box is self-cleaning, easy to install and reasonably priced, making it an ideal gift for the bat enthusiast in your life.
– Johnny Mitchell, Senior Wildlife Equipment Specialist

The Book of Wilding: A Practical Guide to Rewilding Big and Small

An attractive, practical and inspiring guide that not only illuminates the greater need for wilding in the larger landscape, but also some really thoughtful ways people can engage on smaller scales. It’s hopeful too, which makes a good gift I always think!
– Oli Haines, Graphic Designer

Echo Meter Touch 2

A fantastic gift for someone with an interest in bats. To set it up, simply plug it into your phone and start recording. It converts the ultrasonic sounds from the bats into audible noises and auto-identifies the species you are listening to.
– Samuel Brook, Technical Advisor

Antarctica: A Birds-eye View

A beautiful coffee table book which I would like for myself or my photographer friends. A book that gives you an insight into a threatened world from a view you wouldn’t normally see. Both beautiful and barren, the images create a feeling of being there with the nature and environment that is threatened and disappearing fast.
– Simon Palmer, Technical Advisor

Dinosaur Monopoly

I bought this for my son as a present last year as he is obsessed with Monopoly and dinosaurs. It was such a hit, my youngest son asked for it this year. It is a great alternative to traditional Monopoly and we loved the dinosaur pieces .
– Mark Fisher, Product and Purchasing Manager

The Observant Walker: Wild Food, Nature and Hidden Treasures on the Pathways of Britain

It is always a pleasure to gift someone a book that you have previously delighted in reading yourself. The Observant Walker for me is one such book. Written in John Wright’s wonderfully conversational style, the book is both informative and witty; the perfect choice for anyone who loves nature and discovering its edible bounties.
– Luanne Wilkes, Senior Editor

Digi-Scope Smartphone Adapter

Really useful for anyone who wants to try taking pictures while they’re out exploring nature with their binoculars and want to quickly be able to take pictures of what they’re seeing through the binoculars. I use mine regularly and it’s helped me get some great images. It’s also really easy to use and a great addition to any hiking kit!
– Adam Hampton, Technical Advisor

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds (The Illustrated Edition)

This book includes an absolutely stunning collection of photographs that show the incredible detail, vibrant colours and sometimes strange features of many different types of fungi. I really love how the photographs zoom in on this often overlooked lifeform that is so difficult to appreciate fully with the naked eye.
– Jo Graeser, Marketing Assistant

Browning Recon Force Elite HP5

I installed the Browning Recon Force Elite HP5 wildlife camera on a tree in our orchard AND WE LOVE IT! It shoots both stills and video, but my absolute favourite setting is the moving image function, especially paired with the no-glow night vision LED light during the night.
– Sabine Lang, Customer Services Advisor

Author interview with Neil Middleton and Stuart Newson: Sound Identification of Terrestrial Mammals of Britain and Ireland

This groundbreaking book provides the reader with a unique and practical guide to collecting and using acoustic survey data to identify terrestrial mammals. Covering 42 species that can be found in Britain and Ireland, the text includes guidance on survey methods, analysis of sound recordings and details of appropriate software. As well as containing specific spectrogram examples for each species, the book allows the reader access to a downloadable sound library containing more than 250 recordings.

Neil Middleton is a licensed bat worker and trainer and is the owner of BatAbility Courses & Tuition, an organisation that delivers ecology-related skills development to customers throughout the UK and beyond. He has studied bats for over 25 years, with a particular focus on their acoustic behaviour (echolocation and social calls) and is the author of Social Calls of the Bats of Britain and Ireland, Is That a Bat?, and The Effective Ecologist.

Stuart Newson is a Senior Research Ecologist at the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), where he is involved in survey design and data analysis from national citizen-science surveys. Stuart’s work on bioacoustics has included creating tools to identify European bats, bush-crickets and small mammal species from their ‘calls’. This resulted in the BTO Acoustic Pipeline, which integrates online tools for coordinating fieldworkers, processing recordings, and returning feedback.

Neil and Stuart recently took some time out of their busy schedules to answer some of our questions about their most recent book. In this Q&A we discuss the challenges involved in acoustic monitoring of mammals, the author’s hopes for the future of this area of study, and much more.

You each have a passion for acoustic monitoring – how did you come to be working together on this project?

Before we first met, Stuart was becoming interested in what else is recorded as ‘by-catch’ when you leave out a static bat detector to record bats. He had previously become interested in the sound identification of bush-crickets which are commonly recorded during bat surveys in southern Britain, and thanks to work that Neil was involved with (e.g. the first edition of the book The Social Calls of the Bats of Britain & Ireland), Stuart was becoming increasingly interested in bat social calls. At this time, he realised that small mammals are also quite commonly recorded as ‘by-catch’ during bat surveys, and was starting to appreciate that unless you had a good understanding of bat echolocation and social calls, there was scope for mis-identifying small mammals calls as being produced by bats.

When Neil started working on the book, Is That a Bat? A Guide to Non-Bat Sounds Encountered During Bat Surveys (ITAB), Stuart had already made available some online resources to help bat workers identify bush-crickets, which were able to feed into Neil’s book, and he also had some first recordings of some small mammal recordings that he was able to contribute to ITAB, which were very useful additions to the recordings that Neil had been gathering independently.

At about the same time, Stuart had met Huma Pearce, the third author on this book, and had started to work with her on an ‘edge-of-desk’ project to try and collect sound recordings for every species of small mammal in the UK. The aim was to try and collect many hundreds (ideally thousands) of sound recordings of every small mammal species in Britain and Ireland, which we wanted to build into bat classifiers to be able to assist with automatically identifying small mammals (as well as bush-crickets), when these are recorded as by-catch during bat surveys.

Working with Huma, and then Neil, to collect recordings for small mammals to feed into ITAB, and for Stuart to feed into his classifiers, we were now collecting a lot of recordings of small mammal species. After the publication of ITAB, we had learnt a lot more between us, so we wrote a more detailed guide to the sound identification of small mammals in Britain and Ireland, which was published in British Wildlife. After being approached by Pelagic Publishing, Neil was asked if he could author a book covering all terrestrial mammals in our part of the world. This was a much wider group than the one we had worked on up until that point. Neil agreed to the book idea, but only on the basis that Stuart and Huma would be involved as well. Thankfully both Stuart and Huma were ‘up for it’ and between us we managed to produce the book. I think we would all agree that if any one of us had not been involved, the job would’ve been considerably harder and taken much longer.

There currently exists a huge sound library of vocalisations of bats and cetaceans and their use in monitoring these species is now mainstream. Why do you think that this approach has not, so far, been used for other mammals such as those covered in your book?

We think that the main reason that so little has been done on the sound identification of terrestrial mammals (other than bats), is that for small mammals the call rate is quite low compared with other groups such as bats, and because the vocalisations can look like bat calls. I think until our various pieces of work, they have been largely overlooked. Until relatively recently, bat social calls had also been largely ignored by many bat workers, so there were few possibilities for noticing or identifying small mammal calls via that group. For audible mammal species, such as deer, there are alternative survey methods, such as visual surveys, and combined with this the call rate is again quite low, so without tools to help find these calls within large acoustic datasets it has been challenging to find and identify vocalisations by these species. In addition, before this book there was no resource or reference that people could use to help support the sound identification of audible mammals across the full range of species.

Added to this, we feel that the subject is difficult for many people in the non-bat mammal world to engage with and/or know where to start. Hopefully this book will open people’s eyes (and ears!) to the subject, thus meaning that more people will pay more attention to acoustic identification of these species, which will also mean that, overall, our rate of learning as a community will increase substantially as we begin to find out even more about the subject, including of course things that we didn’t appreciate at time of writing.

As well as providing the information and data required for species identification, do you think that acoustic data have the potential to tell us more about species behaviour, social interactions and population dynamics?

We think that there is huge potential for acoustic data to tell us much more about species behaviour, social interactions and population dynamics. As explored in the book, for some species we are able to relate particular call types to behaviour or status, but we still have a lot to learn for many of the species that are included in the book, in order to be able to understand in what situations particular calls are produced. By writing this book, we hope that this will inspire others to build on our work, and to accelerate an improvement in knowledge.

Which of the British terrestrial mammal species have you found the most challenging to study and why?

It is difficult to give a single answer to this one, but despite each of us having separate thoughts we would all agree on the following.

It was extremely difficult to collect or find existing sound recordings of rabbits and hares, because the call rate is extremely low. Huma (assisted by others) put lots of effort into rabbits, but sadly the results were zero. Separately Stuart tried to collect recordings of moles, by sinking microphones into the ground along mole tunnels, but he had no luck despite several weeks of effort.

Stuart would like to do more work on the sound identification of mustelids, which we feel we do not understand as much as we would like. We would all like to continue with more work on the small mammals, although we would each have different priorities in that respect. Shrews are of particular interest to us all, and Stuart in particular would definitely like to try and collect more sound recordings of Water Shrews.

Researchers have previously observed regional differences in the vocalisations of small birds recorded in various locations around Britain. Did you notice any geographic variations in the sounds produced by the mammal species you studied?

Personally, we haven’t seen much, if any, evidence of geographic variation in the recordings that we have looked at, but there could very well be regional differences. For some species it can be shown that differences occur at the individual level. This being the case, you could perhaps expect to see differences between social groups and, as such, regional and national differences too. At this point in time the amount of data we have is too small and hasn’t been collected with this in mind, and therefore we haven’t gone looking for an answer to this question ourselves.

There are currently several citizen science projects around the UK that the public can submit sightings to (such as those organised by the Mammal Society or apps such as iRecord). Is there currently anywhere that people can submit records resulting from acoustic data? Or somewhere they can submit their recordings in the hopes of building a library of sound files for each species as there is for bats?

Not that we are aware of, in the style that you have suggested by your question. However, if someone has heard (not seen) a species and they are happy that it is a diagnostic record for that species in a particular area, we would see no reason why a citizen science project would not accept the ‘sound’ as a valid record of the species being present at that location at that point in time. The key to this, however, is being confident that what was heard couldn’t be a similar noise made by something completely different – so we urge caution. It should also be remembered that in some cases sound identification may actually be more reliable than a visual record of a distant mammal, or a small mammal irrespective of how close it may be to the observer.

In a slightly different direction to your question, Stuart is best placed to talk about the use of such calls in building classifiers. His main interest in mammals has been to build a large sound library of known species recordings that can be used to build classifiers that can help identify the calls of different species automatically within recordings, with the book being secondary or a by-product of this. He believes that having such tools is essential for helping to find the calls of terrestrial mammals in large acoustic datasets, particularly for species where the call rate is low. The sound identification of all species of small mammals included in the book has been built into the ‘bat’ classifiers that comprise the BTO Acoustic Pipeline. The Acoustic Pipeline also includes specific classifiers for some audible species, including the Edible Dormouse. To the best of Stuart’s knowledge this is the first attempt from anywhere in the world to build classifiers for the sound identification of a complete assemblage of small mammals.

What are the next steps required to progress this research and what are your hopes for the future of this field of study?

There is still a lot to learn about the sound identification of mammals in Britain and Ireland, but there are some species groups on which we know we have done much less work and have less understanding than others. In particular, we think that acoustics could be useful for detecting the presence of mustelids (as we have already demonstrated for mice, rats, voles, shrews and dormice), but we would need to try and collect many hundreds (ideally thousands) of known species recordings, to be able to understand the full range of calls that a species can produce. This information could then also be used to create automated classifiers, thus enabling the possibility of efficient detection of species in this group from within large datasets.

As a longer-term ambition, Stuart is keen to work further on the wider sound identification of European mammals, and to extend the geographic and taxonomic scope of the BTO Acoustic Pipeline. Currently, he is able to identify small mammals in bat recordings from elsewhere in Europe at least to genus, by including similar closely related species from the UK in regional classifiers for other parts of Europe. However, he needs more targeted recording of known species to be carried out in order to be able to assign these identifications to species, and to be able to build classifiers that support the sound identification of mammals more widely across Europe.

Our hopes are that this book inspires others in Europe (and further afield) to work on the sound identification of mammals, and more widely to see the opportunities that understanding acoustics can offer.

Sound Identification of Terrestrial Mammals of Britain & Ireland is published by Pelagic Publishing and is available at nhbs.com.