Page 100 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #04

Q&A

WHAT Q BIRDS
IS IT? The star of the Whydocapercaillie

Indone esian
s seas. hens become tame in
the breeding season?

A In recent years there have been reports of
unusually tame behaviour in female capercaillies
– the grey hens, which have been seen hanging
around woodland car parks and other human-
frequented areas bordering their breeding habitat.
This unnatural behaviour not only puts the
birds at grave risk, but also highlights a growing
trend of disturbance. Capercaillies still thrive
in many parts of Scandinavia, but there are
Fish don’t come much cuterthan this similar recorded incidences in areas where
e: tav photo/getty; mouse:Jack Perks/FLPA reaching well over a metre in length. As – areas that also have a continual human
little juvenile star puffer. But the adults
numbers have crashed due to habitat loss
are giants of the pufferfish world,
presence in the form of dog walkers and
they grow, those mesmerising, swirling
mountain bikers.
bands of colour break up into a swathe
Though little scientific research
of black polka dots. And being puffers,
appears to have been done, the
they can increase their apparent
females’ behaviour also relates
size spectacularly bygulping down
to a lack of cock birds in
seawater. Widespread and common
the vicinity. The hens are
Puffer fish: Georgette Douwma/naturep .com; caperca on Indo-Pacific coral reefs, this is one literally frustrated, driven on in some strongholds.
of the puffer species that are prized
by strong breeding
inJapan for their meat – known
urges and hormonal
collectively as fugu. It’s a potentially
surges, and highly confused as a
deadly delicacy, though, as the fish
The capercaillie
result. They thus behave akin
accumulate a potent neurotoxin in
population in Scotland
to domestic broody hens
is near to collapse,
their livers, skin and ovaries and must
– to their detriment.
though the birds cling
bepreparedby specially trained chefs.
Polly Pullar
Stuart Blackman
Q RODENTS
Why do mice gnaw
Despite their name,
things they can’t eat? known as long-tailed
wood mice – also
field mice – commonly
enter houses.
A I don’t consider the wood mice and the specialist nature of rodent teeth,
voles that invade my house as vermin which continue to grow from the
– they’re not smelly like house mice or root throughout life and thus need
noisy like rats, and our food is pretty to be worn at the tips at the same
secure and out of their reach. But one rate. Feeding provides some of this
habit is annoying, costly and potentially abrasion, but often not quite enough.
hazardous, and unfortunately it’s Regular gnawing does the rest and also
something all rodents do obsessively: maintains the razor-sharp edge of the
chewing. They’re even named for it – chisel-like front teeth (the incisors), by
rodere is Latin for the verb ‘to gnaw’. wearing the dentine on the back of the
There’s very limited nutritional teeth at a slightly faster rate than the
value in wood and zero in plastic. So harder orange enamel that covers
why do they do it? The answer is in the front. Amy-Jane Beer