BBC Wildlife - UK (2021-12)

92 BBC WILDLIFE December 2021

Which animal

sleeps the most?

The koala. This Australian marsupial

famously eats a balanced diet of

eucalyptus leaves, eucalyptus leaves

and more eucalyptus leaves. As the

plant is low in nutrition and high in

toxins and fibrous matter, it takes a lot

of energy to digest. So, koalas spend

most of the day – 18-22 hours – in the

land of nod. Eat, sleep, repeat.

FACT.

Atlantic salmon

can leap 3m

(almost the

height of an

official basketball

hoop) out of the

water. They rely

on this ability

when swimming

upstream to their

breeding grounds.

RECORD BREAKER!

STUART BLACKMAN ANSWERS

Not only are fisher cats not cats, but they

don’t fish. These denizens of Canada and

the northern US belong to the mustelid

family of carnivores, along with weasels,

martens, otters, badgers and the wolverine.

They’re about twice the weight of a pine

marten and are adept tree climbers.

Mustelids have a reputation for

punching above their weight (think of a

weasel taking down a rabbit, or a wolverine

tackling a reindeer) and fisher cats are no

exception, having been documented killing

lynx twice their size. They also routinely

hunt porcupines, overcoming them with

bites to the face to avoid their lethal quills.

Historically, fisher cats have been

hunted for their fur. Indeed, the ‘fisher’

part of the name is thought to derive from

various European words for the pelt of

another mustelid: the polecat.

Why are fisher cats so-

called if they’re weasels?

POLLY PULLAR ANSWERS

Britain’s smallest bird, the woodcock pilot

(aka goldcrest) is one of the tiniest in the

northern hemisphere and a much-loved

species. Despite its diminutive size, its

ability to cross the the North Sea on its

autumn migration from Scandinavia has

long been a talking point. This journey

coincided with the annual influx of winter

thrushes and woodcock, and earned the

goldcrest the nickname ‘woodcock pilot’.

Indeed, wildfowlers that gathered to hunt

woodcock believed that the goldcrest

appeared a few days earlier and thus

heralded their quarry’s arrival. Observers

claimed to have seen the goldcrest perched

on the woodcock’s back, but that’s

probably little more than a fanciful vision.

Incidentally, short-eared owls migrating

to Britain across the North Sea in autumn

were also given the same nickname.

How was the

woodcock

pilot named?

The woodcock pilot earned its nickname by

seemingly ‘leading’ woodcock migrations

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It’s exhausting ;^

work digesting

eucalyptus

leaves

Q A

Their size is about

the only thing fisher

cats share with

domestic cats