CONTENTS

FEATURES

16 Stoats at home

COVER STORY

One man’s mission to gain a greater insight into the little-known world of stoats, through a garden-based study that’s lasted for five years

26 Does counting count? Can wildlife surveys really make a difference to conservation efforts or is it all just a waste of time?

COVER STORY

30 Little penguins We take a trip to Melbourne’s seaside suburb of St Kilda, which is home to a colony of over 1,000 little penguins

COVER STORY

38 Guardian angels Snow-white silky sifakas haunt Madagascar’s mountain forests and can be difficult to track down

4 BBC Wildlife

54 News: songbird decline

COVER STORY

The impact of cats, corvids and other predators on songbird numbers

COVER STORY

58 Booming bitterns Back from the brink, bitterns were once faced with extinction in the UK but now appear to be thriving in our wetlands

COVER STORY

64 What coral reefs need Discover the origins of colourful coral reefs and the conditions required to sustain them for the future

68 Photo story: axolotl

Sought for scientific study, food,

WIN Enjoy a two-night

getaway in the

Cotswolds. Page 78

traditional medicine and the pet

trade, Mexico’s otherworldly salamanders continue to face a plethora of threats

WILD NEWS

Keep up to date with the big nature stories and latest wildlife discoveries

45 News

Tony Juniper appointed as chair of Natural England

47 Conservation report

Is ash dieback likely to mark the end of this species or is there still hope?

49 Meet the scientist

Biologist Andrew Griffiths sheds light on the unwitting consumption of endangered shark species

51 Truth or ction?

Are insects going extinct?

53 Mark Carwardine

The effects of global warming

Spring 2019