Category: Nature

Securing the future of our natural capital: a 25 year strategy

Written by Ben Connor, policy officer at the British Ecological Society. This piece was originally posted on the BES blog. A comprehensive 25-year strategy to protect and enhance England’s natural capital is required if the Government is to meet its commitment for this generation to be the first to leave the natural environment in a better state than it inherited. Business as usual is not an option, with long-term trends indicating that our natural capital is in decline, presenting a profound risk to our future wellbeing and prosperity. New legislation, backed by close collaboration between the public sector, business and civil society, will be required to ensure that this strategy is delivered. Those were the headline recommendations of the third and final report of the Natural Capital Committee, released yesterday and formally launched at the Royal Society last night. The report represents the culmination of three years’ work by the Committee –…

Gulls acting strangely on flying ant day?

Gulls and other birds are often seen behaving strangely during flying ant season. Rebecca Nesbit (co-ordinator of the flying ant survey) discusses whether this could have anything to do with formic acid. Following the latest article in the Telegraph on gulls getting drunk on flying ants, it seemed time to share some of my research which never made it into the article. There are many reasons why gulls behaviour can be noticeable and, as I explained last year, they range from formic acid to botulism. There seem to be conflicting reports of gulls being ‘dozy’ and gulls being ‘boisterous’, which is a flaw in the drunk analogy: alcohol can induce both these behaviours in people, but it’s very unlikely that formic acid would be inducing both in gulls. There are lots of possible explanations for both behaviours. Boisterous is a common mind-set for gulls, and the feast that flying ant…

How do we value our natural capital?

Daija Angeli, project officer for the Society of Biology’s special interest group the Natural Capital Initiative, attended a meeting of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee on the valuation of natural capital on 25th February 2014. Here is what she learned: How do we value our nature? The concept of natural capital is often used to describe the economic value of nature, and has been explored as a way to ensure that nature is protected and to assign priorities. This was the focus of discussion at a recent meeting of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, which tackles issues where science and politics meet. Three talks by experts on natural capital spoke about recent research and policy developments before chair Andrew Miller MP opened the debate to the audience. Environmental economist Julian Harlow (Defra) pondered not how, but why we value natural capital. We have failed to protect the environment based on…

Would you be fooled by a fly? Play a game to find out!

Christopher Taylor, a PhD student at the University of Nottingham, invites you to play an insect game to assist with his research. In the natural world, not everything is what it seems. Deception is rife, and it can be hard to know whether to trust your senses. What first looks like a dead leaf might turn out to be a katydid. Or a tasty-looking worm might actually be an angler fish’s lure. Telling the difference between a fake and the real thing can be a matter of life or death. One type of deception is known as Batesian mimicry, whereby a harmless animal – the mimic – resembles a more dangerous one – the model – so that a predator will leave it well alone. Examples are treehoppers that look like ants, moths that look like hornets, and even caterpillars that look like snakes. It is easy to see how natural selection…

The attack of an army ant

Student Samantha Hodgson studies at the University of Gloucestershire, and is writing about the swarm raiding technique of army ants ahead of our 24 hour lecture on ants and bees, hosted by Professor Adam Hart. Army ants are unparalleled in the animal world when it comes to raid strategy. They are capable of capturing tens of thousands of prey in a single day using a terrifying swarm tactic to cover the largest area possible. Eciton burchellii, found in the neotropical forests of central and South America, is a nomadic species with no fixed nest. Instead, the enormous colonies; often over 500,000 strong, travel to a different location every night. Raid parties are released from the colony to gather food. As many as 200,000 individuals are involved in the war-like ‘swarm raids’ used to capture their prey. The foraging troops branch out and spread to cover an area up…

Sometimes you need your own space – DIY for solitary bees

In advance of Professor Adam Hart’s 24 hour lecturethon, David Urry from the Society of Biology shares his experiences of building a bee hotel. I am not the most practically minded person in the world, but I do enjoy a bit of D.I.Y. After coming across an old picture frame and backing board in the garage, I did what any amateur naturalist (and even more amateur handy man) would do, and decided to convert it into a bee hotel for solitary bees and insect overwintering site. There are over 200 species of solitary bee in the UK, most of which go largely unnoticed to the untrained eye. Normally slightly smaller than their social cousins, they are no less active and ubiquitous and are common visitors to gardens and parks all over the UK. Within the 200 species found, a variety of life history strategies are represented as different species go…

Chewing off her wings – the queen ant’s rite of passage

By Rebecca Nesbit from the Society of Biology There has been a long, slow build up to flying ant day this year. The first sightings of winged black garden ants came early, with hundreds of records for the flying ant survey already in by the third week of July. The first major flying ant day, however, was Friday 26th July, though even this turned out to be a prelude to the mass emergence on Thursday 1st August. For me, this protracted spell of flying ant sightings has been an opportunity to witness some fascinating behaviour as part of one of the summer’s greatest spectacles. On 26th July, I was excited to find some flying ants on the outside of the Society of Biology office. The tiny males were in search of fat new queens to mate with – I even saw two males trying simultaneously to mate with one queen. The next stage of…

The meadows of Transylvania – a biodiversity hotspot

Dr Barbara Knowles FSB, Senior Science Policy Adviser at the Society of Biology, devotes much of her time to preserving Transylvania’s hay meadows. Dr Laura Bellingan FSB, Head of Policy at the Society of Biology, visited her recently and has written about her experience: If I’m asked to think of biodiversity hot-spots worthy of conservation, wilderness areas with sparse if any human populations tend to come to mind. Certainly, long-established farmland wouldn’t be my first guess. However, as surprisingly often is the case, the seemingly obvious answer is wide of the mark! It is indeed true that an island of biodiversity, with statistics that rival wilderness areas has been created by centuries of dairy farming in rural Transylvania. My colleague Barbara Knowles visited this area almost five years ago. She was so enchanted by its unique and complex ecology, natural beauty and friendly people that she has devoted…

Can gulls get drunk on ants?

Rebecca Nesbit from the Society of Biology has been working on the flying ant survey On Friday I received a phone call asking ‘are seagulls in Devon acting weirdly because of flying ants?’. The answer was very likely yes – flying ant day is a special day for gulls, and for many people the excited squawking of feasting gulls is the first sign of flying ant day. The next question, however, was ‘could seagulls be made delirious by formic acid from the ants?’. Gulls have apparently been hit by cars because they are ‘stupefied’ and wandering onto roads. The popular press are answering this second question in increasingly dramatic ways: gulls are made ‘yobbish’ by ants apparently! But the real answer has to be the scientist’s favourite of ‘maybe’. I haven’t found any studies confirming that formic acid is causing the gulls’ behaviour, but we do know that Lasius niger (the black…

Weird and wonderful species adapted to their hostile habitats

By Amy Whetstone, Qualifications and Skills Officer at the Society of Biology The yeti crab and axolotl are two bizarre but brilliant species that are rarely in the limelight, but I believe deserve to be. So broaden your animal lexicon and spread the word about these peculiar aquatic species, who have adapted to cope in the harsh and inhospitable conditions they inhabit. Yeti crab, Kiwa hirsuta. This pale eerie-looking crab is so named because of its long hairy arms. It has good reason, however, for its strange appearance, not least the inhospitable environment in which it lives. The yeti crab was first discovered in 2005 at a depth of over 2200 meters which explains it pale appearance; no sunlight penetrates this depth so there is no need for fancy colours. So deep in fact that it can only be reached by using an unmanned submersible. The next…