{"id":23052,"date":"2022-12-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/?p=23052&preview=true&preview_id=23052"},"modified":"2022-12-15T10:45:39","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T09:45:39","slug":"news-in-brief-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/2022\/12\/15\/news-in-brief-4\/","title":{"rendered":"News in brief"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
News in brief<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n
Mystery solved?<\/h5>\n\n
\"\"
Fairy circles in the Namib Desert <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Fairy circles are circular gaps in grassland that form a distinctive pattern \u2013 but what causes them? The University of G\u00f6ttingen has shown that, after rainfall, grasses within the fairy circles in the Namib Desert, Southern Africa, died immediately. Soil-moisture data revealed that the grasses around the circles depleted the water within the circles, likely inducing the death of the grasses inside the circles. <\/p>\n\n

Delayed journey<\/h5>\n\n
\"\"
Narwhals are long-lived <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

PNAS <\/em>reports that narwhals are adapting to the climate crisis by delaying their seasonal migration, matching sea ice trends. By analysing data spanning 21 years, scientists found that these Arctic whales were remaining longer in their summer areas at a rate of 10 days per decade. <\/p>\n\n

Aussie rule<\/h5>\n\n

Australia is to set aside at least 30 per cent of its land mass for conservation in an ambitious bid to protect plants and animals found nowhere else in the world, such as the iconic koala. Australia\u2019s mammals are facing an extinction crisis and the country has one of the worst rates of species decline among the world\u2019s richest countries. <\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n
Shear audacity<\/h5>\n\n

Some seabirds would rather fly into the eye of a tropical cyclone than be pushed onto land. PNAS <\/em>reports that streaked shearwaters in the Sea of Japan are most likely to expose themselves to a cyclone if they find themselves sandwiched between the storm and the mainland. <\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n
<\/div>
\n
FACT.<\/span><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The broad black stripe on a male great tit’s chest is a sign of its status. The larger the stripe, the more attractive the bird is to females looking for a mate. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

PHOTOS: FAIRY RINGS: DR STEPHAN GETZIN; NARWHAL: ERIC BACCEGA\/NATUREPL.COM; KOALA: DAVID NORTHCOTT\/GETTY; SHEARWATER: YUSUKE GOTO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This months news in brief<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5673,"featured_media":23140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"","purple_seq_number":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"","purple_source_article":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"","purple_source_issue":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"January-2023","purple_external_id":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"January-2023-457b892a-85c2-4fe2-94cc-e01dac33522e","purple_issue_code":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000087239||","purple_android_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.499","purple_ios_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.499","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-12-06T16:55:59Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"8f47b74e-93c3-4efb-a018-91ccffd6157e","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-12-15T09:45:46Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/Aj0e3TpPDTvugGJHM_9YVfg","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[25],"tags":[14],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/pic_2a4505077420221020102202_cmyk_preview.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"ella.copping-howard@immediate.co.uk","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/ella-copping-howardimmediate-co-uk\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/pic_2a4505077420221020102202_cmyk_preview.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/pic_2a4505077420221020102202_cmyk_preview-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/pic_2a4505077420221020102202_cmyk_preview-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/pic_2a4505077420221020102202_cmyk_preview-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/pic_2a4505077420221020102202_cmyk_preview-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/pic_2a4505077420221020102202_cmyk_preview.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/12\/pic_2a4505077420221020102202_cmyk_preview.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"ella.copping-howard@immediate.co.uk","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/ella-copping-howardimmediate-co-uk\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"This months news in brief","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23052"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5673"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23052"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34970,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23052\/revisions\/34970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}