Page 119 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #10
P. 119
OURWILD WORLD
hydroelectric dam could be TALES FROM THE BUSH
catastrophic for the grebes.
While this is no doubt true,
surely these dams are an Theteethinthejawof
attempt to reduce the burning
of fossil fuels and pollution
produced in this way? a beaked whale tell all
I think all this serves to Have a wild
tale to tell? If so,
underline that conservation is please email a brief
never easy or straightforward. Ater more than 50 ferry crossings, would John Horsfall synopsis to
We should look to take a holistic inally see the most elusive of beaked whales? jo.price@
view in every circumstance to immediate.co.uk
see how wildlife can benefit.
Paul Stamper, Liverpool
Editor Sheena Harvey replies:
You make some very valuable
points about the complexity
of conservation and land
management. We do try to give
the good news where we find
it and my primary aim is to
highlight what a world filled
with amazing creatures we live
in. However, we can’t deny that
a lot of nature is facing tough
times, and not to cover that in the
magazine would be to give a false To identify a beaked
impression that everything in the whale you have to be
garden is rosy. quick.They spend little John Horsfall
time at the surface.
Foot massage
I enjoyed Mike passion inspired by S minutes later and a whale-
Dilger on rockpool a sighting of baleen Andthenit watching group on the top
wildlife (Wildlife whales in the Bay of happened: deck reported two possible
Watching, August ABiscay 20 years ago withacolossal Sowerby’s beaked whales at
2018). I'd like to – cetacean photography – can a distance – even better.
share my recent often be the only chance to crashawhale And then it happened:
interactions with make a positive identification emergedinthe with a colossal crash a whale
rockpool prawn, of an animal that grants emerged in the ship’s wake
Palaemon elegans. This seconds of visibility. I have ship’s wake. T and hurled itself into the
is an inquisitive prawn A peckish since crossed the Bay 50 swell. You never get the
species commonly found prawn stops or so times, and there is a first breach on camera but
in British rockpools. They for a nibble. surprising diversity of whales and dolphins I was ready as a second whale emerged in
usually forage and scavenge recorded here, including a group that are are a graceful arc and smashed its two-tonne
for food, so it pays for them to very tricky to identify – the beaked whales. body back into the ocean. Surely it couldn’t
be curious about anything new These small-to-medium whales spend go on – beaked whales never give you
in their environment – even my little time on the surface, exhibit uncertain such an opportunity – but it did, for a full
feet. Much of their usual diet geographical distributions, and field minute; more than 50 photographic frames.
comes from detritus (organic guide illustrations of them are close to As they receded into the ocean haze and
matter produced by decomposing educated guesses. Along with location and my heart calmed down, my thoughts
organisms), and in this case they appearance, the position of the (usually) two accelerated – they hadn’t looked anything
were trying to eat the dead layer small teeth in the males provides the only like Cuvier’s, but would the photographs
of skin cells on my toes. Given known certainty of identification. take me any further into the taxonomic
their level of interest and the The most challenging species to see in nightmare or would I be left again with yet
fact that they were fighting one North Atlantic waters is the True’s beaked another grey, generic shape? The joy of
another, I suggest they found me whale. There have been just three possible digital: I scrolled down a few frames – heart
pretty tasty! Luckily, all I felt was live sightings in the North Atlantic up until in mouth – and there were two glistening
a slight tickle. 2004 – a total recently augmented with a white teeth at the tip of the protruding
Huw Griffiths, via Twitter handful of observations from the Canary lower jaw of a True’s beaked whale.
Islands and the Azores.
On this trip we were three hours from DR JOHN HORSFALL is a biologist
QUIZ ANSWERS (see p99)
Spain and a Cuvier’s beaked whale cruised and overall winner of Wildlife
The Wild Words are: 1B, 2B, 3C, 4A, 5C, 6A
quietly by – it was looking promising. Thirty Photographer of the Year in 1982.
October 2018 BBC Wildlife 119
