BBC Wildlife - UK (2020-04)

88 BBC Wildlife April 2020

If everybodyfollowedthe

adviceinthislittlebook,

we’dstanda goodchanceof

tacklingclimatechange.It is

fullofwisewaystochange

yourlifestyle– fromaltering

buying,eatingandevenplayinghabits

tojoininginwithcommunityprojects.

AsI readit withmy10-year-old,I

learneda lotandfeltguilty.Butthe

aimis toempowerratherthanfrighten;

todealwithdefeatistattitudessuch

as“nothingI dois goingtomakea

difference”.Positivechangecanleadto

heightenedself-worth,newhobbiesand

newfriendships,thoughtheadviceto

weeonyourcompostheapmightstretch

neighbourlyrelations.

FergusCollinsBBCCountryfileMagazine

This book travels through

rural and urban landscapes,

identifying and explaining

how past generations

interacted with many of the

plants that are still around

us today. It’s beautifully illustrated by

Louise Morgan, with helpful pictures that

show the reader leaf, nut, fruit and more.

Woolf uses a clever mix of scientific fact

and ethnography to describe how, for

centuries, people have used the trees that

cover Britain for assistance with ailments,

labour and spiritual practice. While the

spread of Christianity might have

suppressed the long-held traditional

status of Britain’s trees, many of the tales

of this time still remain. This book is a

brilliant record of old remedies, folklore

and history of wooded places in the UK.

Zakiya Mckenzie Nature writer

This Book Will (Help)

CoolthePlanet

YOUNGER READERS

BY ISABEL THOMAS, WREN AND ROOK, £6.99

WILD STREAM

DOCUMENTARY

Spy in the Wild: the Poles

Amid the ice and snow, get up

close and personal to some

of the hardiest creatures

on the planet.

BBC iPlayer, until January 2021

DOCUMENTARY

72 Cutest Animals

How being the most adorable of

them all can help some species

survive and thrive in the wild.

Netflix, available now

DOCUMENTARY

Seven Worlds, One Planet

If you haven’t seen it yet, there’s

still time to catch up on the

latest Attenborough programme

everyone’s been talking about.

BBC iPlayer, until December 2020

Britain’sTrees

BOOK

BY JO WOOLF, PAVILION BOOKS, £12.99

BirdLove

Wenfei Tong artfully
narrates the complex
world of avian
reproduction in his newest
work. Walking the reader
through the many layers of
bird family life, Tong describes the
intricacies of mating systems and
offspring-rearing strategies for bird

species around the world, and the suite of

social interactions that characterise them.

Her use of analogies to the human social

experience, such as infidelity and divorce,

parental roles, and economic

investments, allows us to personally relate

to the reproductive decisions made by

various species, while simultaneously

celebrating the distinctness of avian life.

Understanding that birds have often

been misinterpreted by the public as the

epitome of romantic commitment, Tong

gracefully guides us to the fact that bird

mating systems are both more beautiful

and more brutal than most people realise.

Bird Love will bring any reader to more

deeply appreciate the hidden complexity

of birds. Corina Newsome Biologist

BY WENFEI TONG, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, £25

BOOK

OUR WILD WORLD

Montezuma oropendolas
lay an extra egg as
insurance against
brood parasites.