EVERY NOW AND THEN, WHEN THE WIND direction and ocean currents align, we get a late summer silly season - the press comes alive with sensational stories of giant killer jellyfish invading our shores. Physalia physalis is a killer of sorts but despite its appearance it isn't really a jellyfish. It is a fascinating and bizarre organism better known as the Portuguese man 'o war and it belongs to a strange group of animals called siphonophores - you are entering a realm where the singular and the plural become as tangled as their tentacles!
Siphonophores are related to the true jellyfish, corals and sea anemones but are more than one animal: they are a colony. Most of the world's species occur as deepwater pelagic ocean drifters - transparent, diaphanous and delicate, they go unnoticed by most folk other than divers.
This story is from the August 2023 edition of BBC Wildlife.
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This story is from the August 2023 edition of BBC Wildlife.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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Jump Around - Bagheera Kiplingi - The acrobatic spider with a predilection for veggie food
Spiders eat flies, right? everyone knows that the 45,000 or so spiders in the world are all obligate carnivores, more or less – eating other animals, mainly invertebrates. Nature, however, loves an exception, and one particular spider missed out on that ecological memo. It goes by the wonderful scientific name of Bagheera kiplingi, and its claim to fame is that its diet is – at least mostly – vegetarian.
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The sums of wildlife travel aren’t as simple as more tourists equals happier nature. How much did my visit really contribute to the conservation of Lady Liuwa and her habitat – and was that outweighed by carbon emissions from my flights? Did my presence disturb the animals’ natural behaviour more than it reduced the threat of poaching or benefited local communities?The question of whether wildlife travel is, on balance, good for wildlife is a complex one – and there’s no simple answer.
Can Your Really Offset Emissions? - Planning an overseas wildlife-watching trip entails facing some inconvenient truths
Imagine (or maybe you don't need to) that you hanker after the safari trip of a lifetime in sub-Saharan Africa. A 17-day tour beginning at the iconic Victoria Falls, passing through Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania, taking in some of the continent’s most wildlife-rich national parks, and ending on the lush island of Zanzibar.
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Settle in this autumn for a new natural-history extravaganza on BBC One and iPlayer: the longawaited Asia, presented by Sir David Attenborough.
Loss of Antarctic sea ice could impact seabird food supply
Albatrosses and petrels may be forced to fly further to feed
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Urgent action is needed to ensure survival of the Yoda-like primate
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The winners of the Wildlife Artist of the Year competition 2024, from David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation
