BBC Wildlife - UK 2020-07)

Cover:

Bee:

O

ver

Wr

ght;

bask

ng

shark:

Dan

Burton/naturepl.com; hare: Simon Litten/FLPA; tiger: The Hollywood Archive/Alamy; This page: George Karbus/Getty

July 2020 BBC Wildlife 3

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Paul McGuinness

Editor

A

friend and I were

enjoying a dram or

two of Highland

whisky on the Isle

of Eigg when we

spotted something sticking out

of the water. Reaching for the

binoculars, we soon picked out

something else a good few metres

behind it. This was my first

glimpse of a basking shark. But

reading Isla Hodgson’s feature

(p40), I was struck by how little

we actually know about these

gentle giants.

As we continue to produce this

magazine from our homes, such

wildlife encounters seem as far

away as that Hebridean island.

But distance being no distance

when it comes to nature, this

spring I found myself becoming

increasingly intrigued by the

variety of bees within

a mile of my front door. So, with

there being no time like the

present, now seemed the perfect

time to head back a few million

years to the Cretaceous and

uncover the evolutionary story of

what Thor Hanson so delightfully

calls ‘the hippy wasp’ (p52).

Sláinte mhath!

A drop in the ocean