Page 59 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #10

WILDNEWS
FUNGI
Fungi report is
irst of its kind
eading mycologists from the
LRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew, have
collaborated with an international team
of experts to present a new report on
our knowledge of fungi, highlighting its
importance to life on Earth: the organisms
decompose dead material, cycle nutrients
and can even help prevent desertification.
“When looking for nature-based
solutions to some of our most critical
global challenges, fungi could provide
many of the answers,” says Prof Katherine
Willis, director of science at Kew.
The availability and efficiency of DNA-
based methods has enabled scientists to
detect thousands of new fungi species
per year – 2,189 were described in
2017, predominantly from the phylum
Ascomycota – but there are at least two
million species yet to be described.
The global market for edible
mushrooms is worth approximately
£32bn per year, while genera such as
Penicillium – which is used in cheese,
antibiotic and contraceptive-pill
production – underpin many everyday
products. Despite their value, only
56 species of fungi have had their
conservation status assessed compared
with 25,452 plants and 68,054 animals.
“Fungi should be viewed on a par with the
plant and animal kingdoms,” says Willis.
“We have only just started to scratch the
surface of knowledge of this incredible
group of organisms.” Niki Rust
FIND OUT MORE State of the World’s
Fungi report: stateoftheworldsfungi.org
The crinoline
stinkhorn is one
of 144,000 named
and classified
fungi species.
October 2018
TRUTH OR FICTION?
Doorcasmourn
their dead?
News of an orca apparently
grieving for her dead calf hit
the headlines this summer, but
can we say she was mourning?
IN LATE JULY, an orca known as When apparently
Is it right to
Tahlequah – part of the endangered ascribe animal grieving behaviour
Southern Community group that behaviour to is witnessed,
mainly lives in Puget Sound and off familiar human continues Hoyt, it
emotional
the south coast of Vancouver Island responses? demonstrates “that
– gave birth to a calf. Sadly, the calf an individual is in
died, but the mother nonetheless trouble and the mother wants to help,
carried it around with her for at least but it doesn’t prove actual grief.” The
17 days. News reports suggested that idea that whales and dolphins have
she was grieving for her dead baby, developed culture – orcas in their
but can we really understand what idiosyncratic feeding behaviours, for
was going on in her mind? example – is widely accepted, but
“We know that orcas have large “the question is have they developed
brains and are social, so this kind culture around death?” asks Hoyt.
As Bearzi points
S We know that orcas have out, some examples of
behaviour interpreted
large brains and are social, as mourning could be
so this kind of behaviour something entirely
different – a male
does not surprise me
T short-finned pilot whale
carrying a calf in its
mouth could have come
of behaviour does not surprise me,” after it killed the juvenile, possibly
says Erich Hoyt, a research fellow for as a way to mate with its mother.
the UK charity, Whale and Dolphin The real tragedy in this case,
Conservation, who once witnessed observes Hoyt, is that the Southern
similar behaviour in a female Pacific Community that Tahlequah belongs
white-sided dolphin. “Orcas are heavily to is declining, with an estimated
invested in their young, and they three-quarters of all newborns
remain with their mothers for life.” failing to survive during the past two
Hoyt points to a 2017 study by decades and its population dropping
another cetacean researcher, Giovanni from nearly 100 to 75 over the
Bearzi, which examined 45 cases of same time period. JF
cetaceans showing caring behaviour
towards dead or dying animals – in ERICH HOYT is the author of the
most cases individuals of their Encyclopedia of Whales, Dolphins
own species. The paper notes that, and Porpoises.
where a species invests a lot in its Orca: Robin W. Baird/Cascadia Research
relationships, then grief is the cost WANT TO COMMENT? Email
or trade-off of that commitment. wildlifeletters@immediate.co.uk
BBC Wildlife 59