If you read our previous article on the European mole, you’ll know that The Nature Nook is celebrating moles of all kinds throughout January. Today, we’ll be looking at a mole that happens to be a record holder. It’s the…

With an estimated population of over 40 million, the European mole is one of the most common mammals in the British Isles. Yet it is one that we hardly, if ever, see. The only clues that might give away its…

Welcome back to The Nature Nook for our first post of 2021! We hope everyone has had a great Christmas and New Year and is ready to delve into our next Freaky Frog article! So far in this series, we’ve…

During December, our British Wildlife of the Week articles have been looking at animals and plants with a strong connection to Christmas, such as mistletoe and the robin. But no creature is more readily associated with the festive period than…

With Christmas just a week away, we decided that for our final Freaky Frog article of the year, we would take a look at a frog that is certainly no stranger to the cold. Amphibians require heat from their surrounding…

The quintessential Christmas bird, especially if Christmas cards are anything to go by, must surely be the robin. Small, approachable and endearingly dumpy, the robin is one of Britain’s best-loved birds, regularly topping any opinion poll that is carried out…

Around Christmas time, the whole country comes together and there’s a universal appreciation for one of my all-time favourite animals – the robin. And I’m not the only one who loves this charismatic little bird. Here in the UK, our…

When we think of parasites, we tend to think of tapeworms within our bodies, or fleas on our pets, or perhaps even wasps that lay eggs inside caterpillars. We almost certainly wouldn’t think of plants engaging in such sinister behaviour…

December is well underway now. Christmas will soon be upon us. The days have shortened and the temperature has fallen. Many parts of the UK have already seen their first major snowfall of the season. But come spring, this cold,…

Barnacle goose. Goose barnacle. One is a migratory bird; the other a sedentary crustacean. Although differing in almost every single respect, these two animals, if their names are anything to go by, seem to have a hidden connection. And indeed…

Welcome to another fortnightly edition of Freaky Frog Friday! This time, we’ll be taking a brief look at the hairy frog from central and western Africa. As you can see from the taxidermied museum specimen above, this frog is named…

The earliest proto-birds, such as the famous Archaeopteryx, had heavy, tooth-filled jaws. But as birds continued to evolve and became increasingly aerial animals, they developed new ways of keeping their weight down. In addition to gaining hollow bones, their jaws…