It’s that time of year again, the turkey supply has been exhausted, the sales have been ransacked and the festive celebrations are nearly over! But fear not, we are here to inspire some New Year cheer and get you in the mood to tackle 2012 head on, starting with planning those New Year’s resolutions!

In need of some help with your New Year's resolutions?

Work on that waistline

After all the overindulgence of the festive period, one of the most popular resolutions has got to be to lose a little weight. This can be hard to master on cold winter nights, so we suggest you look to the dedicated emperor penguin for a little guidance. Emperor penguins are the only bird species to brave the bitter Antarctic winter, with males enduring the constant darkness of the winter months in order to incubate their egg.

Emperor penguin males lose up to 50% of their body weight while incubating their egg

This often results in the males losing as much as half of their body weight – more through necessity than choice, but still a stunning example of how hard work and endurance pay off!

Get fighting fit

If dieting is not your thing, why not knock lethargy on its head this New Year and get fit. Take a leaf out of the spinner dolphin’s book, this acrobatic mammal can be seen leaping from the water and spinning through the air in tropical seas worldwide. If spinning isn’t your idea of a good time, why not try your hand at some of the other activities enjoyed by our animal assembly including sprinting, long distance running, diving or boxing?

Spinner dolphins are certainly not lacking in energy!

Break down your language barrier

¿Por qué no aprender un nuevo idioma? Or for those not familiar with Spanish – why not learn a new language? This is a resolution that I think would be endorsed by the Albert’s lyrebird, who has a spectacular array of sounds in its arsenal, developed due to the awesome ability to accurately mimic other species.

Why not learn a new language?

Looking for love?

If the festive spirit has left you feeling romantic then why not look for love in 2012, but do spare a thought for the animals that put their life on the line to do the same. Male ladybird spiders have to tread carefully when approaching the burrow of a prospective female in order to correctly pluck the trip wires surrounding the burrow entrance. One wrong move and the female may mistake him for her next meal!

The male ladybird spider (right) has to be careful not to end up as dinner!

Give a helping hand

As social beings we tend to gain satisfaction from helping others, whether by volunteering our time or donating our resources. In biological terms this is known as a mutualistic relationship and there are plenty of examples of this in nature. The fanged pitcher plant has a mutualistic relationship with a particular species of ant which forms nests in the hollow tendrils of the plant. The ant is able to traverse the inner walls of the pitcher plant without falling in and being digested by the plant and is even able to safely hunt in the pitcher fluid.

The fanged pitcher plant happily houses ants in return for a favour

In return the ant removes large prey items from the pitcher fluid. If left they would begin to decay before they were digested, which could be detrimental to the pitcher plant – win win I’d say!

Out with the old and in with the new!

What better time of year to embark on a spring clean; delve through those drawers and finally get to the back of that wardrobe. Everyone feels better after a good tidy up and it seems that this is not restricted to just us humans, the Vogelkop bowerbird also likes to maintain a tidy living space. The males pay meticulous attention to the position of each of the decorations within their conical bower, as after all, no self-respecting female bowerbird is going to choose a male with an unkempt bower.

The male Vogelkop bowerbird likes to keep his bower neat and tidy

Got itchy feet?

The world is a fascinating place with scores of spectacular sights to see, meaning travel is an increasingly popular aspiration. There are many epic journeys occurring in the animal kingdom annually, and it’s not only birds and mammals that migrate. The monarch butterfly makes one of the largest invertebrate migrations, covering distances as great as 3,000 miles to their wintering grounds.

Monarch butterflies undertake massive annual migrations - where will you go?

This doesn’t mean you have to travel hundreds of miles to discover something new of course. Why not uncover some hidden treasures closer to home, see what can be found near you using Search by Geography.

Good luck with any resolutions made, from all here at ARKive we wish you a very Happy New Year!

Laura Sutherland, ARKive Education Officer

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The exciting big butterfly count takes place in the UK this month from 16^th – 31^st July and invites novices and experts alike to help out in a nationwide survey of some of our spectacular butterflies. By doing this the organisers, Butterfly Conservation, are aiming to create important records of how healthy our butterfly populations, and therefore habitats, are. Last year a staggering 10,000 people took part counting an amazing 210,000 butterflies and day-flying moths.

Comma butterfly (Polygonia c-album) on flower

With over half of the UK’s 60 resident butterfly species currently threatened with extinction, the big butterfly count has the full backing of Wildscreen patron Sir David Attenborough, who had the following to say:

“Butterflies are one of the stars of the British countryside. Summer just wouldn’t be summer without them. But they continue to be in long-term decline. I urge everyone, young and old, to take part in the Big Butterfly Count to help us assess the fortunes of these bewitching creatures.”

Male common blue butterfly

Meadow brown butterfly

Get Involved

To take part, all you need is 15 minutes on a bright, preferably sunny, day and the free big butterfly count downloadable butterfly ID chart. You then simply count how many of each species you see and record you sightings online! Check out the big butterfly count ‘how to’ section for further details on how to carry out your survey. Some of the star participants of your survey might include the red admiral, small tortoiseshell, common blue or green hairstreak butterfly.

Green hairstreak butterfly

Fancy joining in? Let us know how you get on!

For more information on butterfly conservation, visit the butterfly conservation website.

Fancy finding out more about other marvellous mini-beasts? Take a look at our new education resource.

Becky Moran,  ARKive Media Researcher

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In their constant struggle against predators, animals adopt a fascinating variety of strategies to avoid being eaten. Some animals may attack their predators like these African buffalo chasing away a lion, others evolve unusual body parts so they cannot be swallowed, like this porcupine pufferfish, some blend into their habitat, such as this Arctic hare, while others may try to simply avoid capture by seeing, smelling or hearing their predator before they are detected.

Plain tiger (left) next to mimic butterfly (Hypolimnas missipus)

Some devious animals, however, try to avoid being eaten by tricking their predators into thinking they are either dangerous or distasteful. Such strategies commonly take the form of ‘mimicry’.

What is mimicry?

Mimicry is when one species benefits from evolving a feature displayed by another species. This feature could be anything from colour or body shape, through to scent or behaviour.

Mimicry can be loosely classified into four types: defensive, aggressive, reproductive and automimicry.

Let me explain….

Defensive mimicry

In defensive mimicry, a mimicking animal tricks a predator into treating it as a something different. The most well studied forms of defensive mimicry are Batesian mimicry and Müllerian mimicry.

In Batesian mimicry, an animal mimics a trait of another organism, such that predators think it is inedible or dangerous. Often totally harmless animals develop the shape or colouration of other animals that possess a dangerous or foul-tasting toxin.

The hooded malpolon showing cobra-like defensive behaviour

For example, the hooded malpolon, or false cobra, is only mildly venomous, but it mimics the hood and defensive displays of the extremely venomous and dangerous cobras so that predators avoid it.

Black and yellow warning colouration of the honey bee

In Müllerian mimicry, two or more species, which share anti-predator traits such as toxins, develop similar warning colourations. When a predator first eats one of these distasteful species, it soon learns to avoid eating others with the same colourations. This explains why so many bees and wasps have black and yellow stripes.

However, only female wasps and bees have stingers, and the males are harmless, which is actually an example of automimicry, leading us onto our next example.

Automimicry

African burrowing boa showing similarities between the head and tail

Automimicry occurs within a single species. Male wasps are protected from predators by appearing like the venomous females. Other examples include where one part of an animal’s body resembles another. The African burrowing boa, for example, has a similar looking head and tail which confuses predators and directs their attack away from the more vulnerable head.

Aggressive mimicry

It is not just prey species that have evolved cunning tactics to deceive their predators. Some equally clever predators over the course of time have developed fascinating ways of tricking their unwitting prey.

Close up of Nepenthes holdenii showing nectar-secreting lip

Aggressive mimicry describes predators, as well as parasites, which share the same characteristics as a harmless species, allowing them to avoid detection by their prey. Nepenthes pitcher plants, for example, secret nectar near the lip to attract feeding insects, which then slip into the pitcher and are slowly dissolved by digestive enzymes.

The cuckoo, a brood parasite that lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, which act as foster parents for the cuckoo chick, also displays aggressive mimicry. The eggs of the cuckoo bare a striking resemblance to those of the host parents. The unsuspecting host bird then incubates and feeds the impostor.   

Reproductive mimicry

Insect-imitating flowers of the fly orchid

Aside from predator-prey interactions, in reproductive mimicry, mimicking species improve their reproductive success by tricking other species. Some of the best examples of reproductive mimicry are found in orchids.

The fly orchid has flowers that mimic the insects that pollinate it. Male insects land on the flowers, thinking they are female insects, and make attempts to copulate. Inadvertently, the insect brushes the flower’s pollen sacs, which attach to the insect. When the insect lands on another flower, it pollinates this flower with the other’s pollen.

Give us your examples!

The examples I’ve described here are just some of the hundreds of thousands of curious species that have evolved devious and deceitful ways of tricking their predators or prey to increase their chance of survival. If you know of any other equally crafty species, then let us know, or simply look through the ARKive collection and see if you can spot any mimics.

Alex Royan, ARKive Species Text Author

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The wood white butterfly population increased six-fold in 2010.

The marsh fritillary, in serious decline since the 1950s, more than doubled its numbers between 2009 and 2010, and recent reports suggest that marsh fritillaries are also thriving so far in 2011.

Although Britain’s butterflies remain in long-term decline, the populations of three-quarters of threatened species increased in 2010. This change in fortunes has been put down to targeted conservation action, combined with better weather last year after a series of disastrously wet summers. Butterfly experts hope that if Britain experiences a similar summer this year, some of the country’s most threatened species could continue to make a significant recovery.

The marsh fritillary, another butterfly species which did well in 2010.

According to Dr Tom Brereton, Head of Monitoring at Butterfly Conservation, “Over the last decade, Butterfly Conservation has developed a large number of landscape scale projects… to improve and restore habitats for threatened butterflies. This has particularly helped the marsh fritillary and more recently the wood white and some other species too are beginning to recover. It shows these projects are working, given time. This is extremely welcome news and shows that we can reverse butterfly losses if the effort can be maintained.”

Many butterflies still under threat

Unfortunately, it was not good news for all species. One of the UK’s rarest butterflies, the Lulworth skipper, had its worst year on record in 2010, as did one of the most common species, the meadow brown. It was also a bad year for migrants, whose numbers were down by 90% from 2009.

The Lulworth skipper has declined by 93% over the last decade. Habitat management for other butterflies may actually be detrimental to this species.

Although climate change may be benefitting some species due to warmer summers, it could also be bad news for others which need cooler conditions or are unable to adapt to rapid change.

Monitoring long-term trends

More than three-quarters of British butterfly species have declined in recent decades, and nearly half are now seriously threatened. Although many species are still under threat, the results from 2010 come as welcome news for butterfly conservation, and show the importance of long-term monitoring and conservation work.

The painted lady arrived in the UK in large numbers in 2009, but there was no repeat of this massive immigration last year.

Dr Marc Botham, a butterfly ecologist at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, said, “The continued dedication of thousands of volunteers enables us to analyse both short and long-term trends in the abundance of butterflies. Butterflies are highly sensitive to how our countryside is changing and the UKBMS data has revealed how butterflies are already being impacted by climate change as well as whether our conservation measures are working.”

Find out more at the Butterfly Conservation website.

View photos and videos of butterflies and moths on ARKive.

Liz Shaw, ARKive Species Text Author

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