The Meaning of Spines on Holly Leaves
Spines on holly leaves are a defensive tactic. The harder a plant is trying to defend itself, the more spines we find on its leaves.…
Tag: Animal Behaviour
How to Find Your Way Using Horse Dung
For thousands of years humans have been riding horses (possibly as much as 5,500 years). This of course means that horse tracks and dung can…
Why Do Animals Stop Moving and Freeze?
This morning I was walking into wind and surprised a deer. After a couple of quick hops away it then froze and stood motionless. This…
Predicting Animal Behaviour
It is much easier to predict animal behaviour when we learn certain simple patterns. Most animals see the world in terms of basic things like:…
Analysing Deer Behaviour: Flight, Refuge and Jink
I was looking over one of the local hills from the cover of some undergrowth, when I spooked a herd of fallow deer. They were…
Animal Weather Signs in Montana
My thanks to Dean for this very interesting pair of emails from dry cow country, Montana, USA: Tristan, I’m getting to the last fifty pages…
How to See Wildlife in Woodlands
The key to seeing wildlife anywhere isn’t magic, it’s understanding probabilities. There are so many techniques for improving your chances, many of them listed in…
Finding Direction through Bird Nests in Termite Mounds
A guest blog post from Brazil, by Pedro and Gersony C.Jovchelevich. Termites are insects belonging to the order Isoptera, also known here in Brazil as…
The Meaning of Missing Moss
Moss is important in natural navigation, but not the quick easy method that many seem to think. I’ve written about the challenge of using moss…