Wildlife filmmaker Hannah Stitfall and wildlife film researcher Dom Davies enjoy a close encounter with one of our most mysterious birds, the woodcock, when they review another selection from the LIVING WORLD archive. The woodcock is a wader which spends most of its life in woodland where its wonderful mottled plumage makes it very hard to see, especially as they are nocturnal so most active at night. The population swells in winter when over a million more migrate here from Scandinavia and Russ...
Mar 22, 2020•22 min
Where do flies go in winter and what happens to them? Wildlife filmmaker Hannah Stitfall and wildlife film researcher Billy Clark review another selection from the Living World archive to try and find out the answer. The original programme was recorded beside an icy pond in a woodland near Kidderminster where, with the help of pooters and ‘ghostbuster gear’, a surprising number of flies are discovered in winter including the stunning-looking dollies, best known for their metallic green sheen and...
Mar 10, 2020•22 min
Keen naturalist Hannah Stitfall is joined by wildlife film researcher Dom Davies to review another programme from the LIVING WORLD archive. The subject today is Spined Loach - a fish you might never heard of because, whilst locally they are abundant, they are classified as a rare protected species and are only found in a handful of places in the UK. Also known as the Spotted Weather Loach because of their ability to detect changes in atmospheric or barometric pressure brought about by changes in...
Dec 29, 2019•22 min
In this episode from 2011 Joanna Pinnock wonders what makes jackdaws roost together, and to find out more heads to the Cambridgeshire countryside with corvid scientist Dr Alex Thornton. Arriving in the dead of night they await one of nature’s spectacles, of thousands of jackdaws simultaneously leaving their night roost in a cacophony of sound. It is one of those winter spectacles often overlooked but rivalling any in the natural world. So what is actually going on here? For Hannah and Billy this...
Dec 15, 2019•22 min
Think sprite or hobgoblin and you are nearly there when it comes to the Aye-Aye, surely one of the weirdest looking creatures on earth? With its large saucer-like eyes, massive ears, and long skeletal middle finger which its uses to tap for grubs on logs, this lemur both fascinates and terrifies us. Endemic to the forests of Madagascar, some local people believe that if one looks at you, someone in your village will die. They even hang up an aye-aye on the edge of the village in some areas to wa...
Nov 29, 2019•28 min
The relationship between humans and pigeons is one of the oldest on the planet. They have been our co-workers; delivering messages, assisting during the war, providing a source of food, a sport and obsession for many, and a suitable religious sacrifice. They helped Darwin with his theory of Natural Selection, have become a powerful symbol of peace and helped us unravel some of the mysteries of navigation. Yet many of us still regard them as vermin, as “rats with wings”. Brett Westwood and Verity...
Nov 22, 2019•28 min
For a plant that we generally associate with shady, damp places, a plant that has no flowers or scent, the Fern has drawn us into her fronds and driven an obsession that is quite like any other. Pteridomania or Fern Madness swept through Victorian Britain in part thanks to the availability of plate glass from which manufacturers could build glass cases for growing ferns. The trade in ferns all but wiped out some species from parts of the UK and fern hawkers sold specimens on street corners in Lo...
Nov 15, 2019•28 min
Poppies are associated with many things but to most people they are a symbol of remembrance or associated with the opium trade. Natural Histories examines our fascination with the flower. Lia Leendertz visits the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew where James Wearn shows her a collection of poppy paraphernalia from around the world. Andrew Lack, of Oxford Brookes University and author of Poppy, explains how the flower made its way to the British Isles with the introduction of agriculture, and Joe Crawfor...
Nov 08, 2019•28 min
How did we get from the gorgeous red junglefowl scratching away in the jungles of south-east Asia to the chicken now eaten in its millions? Brett Westwood and Joanna Pinnock trace the trail. The story's told by Greger Larson, Director of the Palaeogenomics & Bio-Archaeology Research Network; Annie Potts, Director, New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies; Dr Joanne Edgar, University of Bristol School of Veterinary Sciences and by a visit to meet real red junglefowl, the original chicken, ...
Nov 01, 2019•28 min
Bees have been the subject of fascination and reverence since ancient times. Natural Histories explores the story of bees and why humans like to compare themselves to them, seeing ourselves as either virtuous workers or moral examples. The ancient Greek poets thought of themselves as bees who foraged and chose the sweetest words to produce great art, while the Victorians admired bees for their industry and selflessness. But with news of declining bee populations around the world, Natural Histori...
Oct 25, 2019•28 min
The dreamy smile of the sloth has made it wildly popular, but once its slowness was condemned and saw it named after one of the seven deadly sins. Brett Westwood and Joanna Pinnock talk to those who really know, understand and live with sloths and ask if we're still projecting our own feelings onto them. Our changing attitudes to sloths tell us more about ourselves than about this harmless animal. Dr Rebecca Cliffe, founder of the Sloth Conservation Foundation and a leading researcher, is in the...
Oct 18, 2019•28 min
Wildlife film maker Hannah Stitfall is joined by Dom Davies, a wildlife film researcher to discuss another pick from the Living World archive. Today their subject is Stone Curlews and a programme in which the presenter Joanna Pinnock travels to Wiltshire in search of these crepuscular waders whose haunting calls can be heard after dusk. She is joined by Nick Adams of the RSPB who has been working with local farmers on a conservation project to improve the habitat for these birds and restore the ...
Oct 13, 2019•21 min
Zoologist and wildlife film maker Hannah Stitfall is joined by Billy Clark, a researcher with the BBC Natural History Unit to discuss another selection from the LIVING WORLD archive. Today the subject is over-wintering ladybirds and the challenges these most familiar of insects face during dormancy. They also discuss the origin of the name 'Ladybird', the diverse range of species we have, threats from an alien species and a ladybird survey that is looking for your help.
Sep 29, 2019•22 min
In the final episode, Becky Ripley and Emily Knight search for pufflings that have run into trouble on their journey from their burrows to the sea, guided by the light of the moon.
Jul 29, 2019•18 min
The season is ending. Becky Ripley and Emily Knight go in search of the last pufflings left in the burrows on the Isle of May to give them a quick check-up before the birds leave their family homes and head out to sea.
Jul 15, 2019•15 min
How do you draw puffins to an island they abandoned long ago? Emily Knight and Rebecca Ripley are on Ramsey Island off the west coast of Wales. Here they're trying a very loud solution - blasting out the sound of puffins, from boom bass speakers.
Jul 08, 2019•8 min
Emily Knight and Rebecca Ripley are taking a break from the island in this episode, If you think puffins are just small penguins, Warhorse author Sir Michael Morpurgo is here to tell you how wrong you are in this tale of how Puffin Books led him to love the birds.
Jul 07, 2019•6 min
Becky Ripley and Emily Knight find the Isle of May's beaches awash with plastic waste and discover its not just plastic we can see that is damaging, but tiny fragments shed from our clothes too.
Jul 01, 2019•18 min
This week Emily and Becky take a break from the Isle of May. In their absence, award-winning author Adam Nicolson presents a rich, visual piece of writing that celebrates the real puffin that's there to be seen when you look past the looks.
Jul 01, 2019•5 min
Becky Ripley and Emily Knight return to the Isle of May, where they string up a giant net to catch puffins as they fly past. When the fish in their beaks are sent flying, they go running to gather them up in the name of science.
Jul 01, 2019•11 min
New series in which Hannah Stitfall and a guest discuss one of her picks from the LIVING WORLD archive. Today they eavesdrop on an encounter at a secret location in Norfolk with the UK’s rarest frog, the pool frog. The frogs were introduced here from Sweden over a decade ago, after the last native East Anglian pool frogs died out in the wild and their progress has been carefully monitored. As well as the frogs there’s a very smelly encounter with a couple of grass snakes!
Jun 30, 2019•22 min
New series. Wildlife film maker Hannah Stitfall and guest discuss one of her selections from the LIVING WORLD archive. Today the subject is Skomer Island off the coast of Wales and its city of sea birds, as well as the ‘clowns of the air’, an endemic vole and strange cries at night.
Jun 16, 2019•22 min
High winds and choppy waters slow Emily Knight and Becky Ripley's return to the island, raising fears for some of the seabirds' chicks, and there's news of a mass puffin death in Alaska
Jun 06, 2019•11 min
Becky Ripley and Emily Knight invite you to sink deep in sound as they present an immersive wildlife experience from master recordist Chris Watson
Jun 06, 2019•15 min
Becky and Emily find themselves deep in a game of puffin roulette, all in the name of science. They go grovelling underground into puffin burrows to count how many chicks have been laid in this year's breeding season and the pufflings' protective parents don't shy away from an attack. Follow the story via #PlanetPuffin
May 23, 2019•17 min
Emily Knight & Becky Ripley, from Blue Planet II: The Podcast, explore the Scottish puffin paradise where they’ll be following breeding season in #planetpuffin. In episode 2 the duo stake out in a hide on the Isle of May to monitor how many puffins have survived the cold winter months. Spring is here, and the breeding season is about to kick off.
May 15, 2019•22 min
Emily Knight & Becky Ripley, from Blue Planet II: The Podcast, drop anchor at Scotland’s Ilse of May as the puffins return after a winter at sea and the year’s breeding season is getting under way. They meet reserve manager Steely for a tour around the island’s three famous lighthouses and hear the ghastly story that could have put its first burning beacon of flames to rest. And a husband and wife who dedicated decades to studying puffins on the Isle of May reveal how much there’s left to di...
May 15, 2019•18 min
Follow the fortunes of a Scottish puffin colony across this year’s breeding season with Emily Knight & Becky Ripley, from Blue Planet II: The Podcast, in #planetpuffin
May 15, 2019•2 min
The eider duck, known locally as "Cuddy's" duck, is regarded as the first bird in the world to have been given conservation protection, when St Cuthbert offered the eider duck sanctuary on the Farne Islands in the seventh century. Today, they breed in vast numbers off the Northumbrian coast, and Brett Westwood travels to Amble harbour to see the duck's colourful breeding plumage, and listen to the famous "crooning" calls of the males in the company of the RSPB's Paul Morrison and biologist Hilar...
Mar 31, 2019•22 min
We all know about the myth of the Mad March Hare, but what is the background to it? Is there any biological reason for the name? Lionel Kelleway meets Gill Turner, who has observed the behaviour of brown hares since the late 1990's to explore this question. Together, they marvel at the antics of the brown hare - one of the first signs of spring - on a very special farm in Hertfordshire. In the years since the programme was first broadcast, the situation of brown hares has changed considerably. W...
Mar 25, 2019•23 min
