Four white rhinos, each weighing over two tonnes and with a shoulder height of up to six feet, stood shoulder to shoulder, huffing, stomping their front feet and kicking up clouds of dust. They were close enough that, though they have notoriously bad eyesight, even they could have read the trainee name tags on our […]
Tag: lions
“We were literally running for our lives. If one of us had tripped, there was nothing we would have been able to do”
Axel Gomille is a photographer and filmmaker from Germany. His work has appeared in BBC Wildlife magazine and shortlisted for Wildlife Photographer of the Year. He has also published several books. How did your career start? I’ve been interested in wildlife since I was a child. For my 7th birthday, I asked for – and was […]
Why do cats purr? It’s not just a sign of happiness…
Do all cats purr? Purring is not only seen in domestic cats. Cats can be divided into those that can purr and the cats that roar. These sounds are mutually exclusive due to the structure of the larynx – often known as the voice box. In smaller cat species, such as cheetahs, cougars, domestic cats, […]
It’s covered in terrifying quills so, what could possibly eat a porcupine?
Can any animals eat porcupines? Surely not as porcupine quills present an impenetrable thicket to most predators. But these backward-pointing defences are only effective if the rodent can keep its assailant to its rear. What animals can eat porcupines? In North America, pumas and fishers (marten-like mammals) are skilled porcupine predators, outmanoeuvring their quarry to launch their attacks from the […]
Cougars cut deadly vehicle-deer collisions in the US by up to 76%, study shows
If you’re a black-tailed deer on the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington, you’re always surrounded by friends and family. You are free-range, with abundant food to forage in familiar woods and meadows. But you’re also vigilant because you’re a prey species and your ideal habitat is also home to your top predators: […]
Indonesia’s native hornbills are being hammered by online and offline trade
Among the many inhabitants of Southeast Asia’s dense rainforests are hornbills — a group of birds that stand out with their raucous call, large, ostentatious beak and colorful feathers. Indonesia harbors 13 species, the most of any country in Asia, three of which are found nowhere else. Hornbills are rapidly losing their homes as large swaths of […]
Big agriculture is killing our bees. We’ll all pay the price
Last winter, commercial beekeepers lost more than 60% of their colonies – their worst losses on record. We tend to blame bee losses on separate, singular threats: pests, pesticides, habitat loss or extreme weather. But we’ve been thinking about bee losses wrong. The real culprit is our industrial food system. Managed honeybees are in effect […]
A hippo is dying of thirst in Botswana. But a pride of lions guards the water hole
In Botswana’s Okavango delta, deep floodwater can dry to dust in months. Thirsty animals seek out water holes for a much-needed drink – but this brings them into dangerous proximity with others. And in one episode of the BBC TV series Natural World, the film crew follow a group of hippos as they deal with the […]