Cane toad

AUSTRALIA HAS A REPUTATION for being full of deadly wildlife – and with good reason. The vast antipodean island is home to an impressive list of dangerous critters. Sharks, spiders and snakes get most

POND DIPPING IN SOUTH AMERICA IS surprising, mainly because it isn’t that different from pond dipping in a British ditch. There are familiar faces in the water: beetles, pond skaters, water boatmen, d

THERE WOULD BE LITTLE POINT IN having the ability to lethally poison a predator if you accidentally poisoned yourself and ended up just as dead. In the case of poison dart frogs, they dodge being pois

YOU’LL KNOW ALL ABOUT IT IF you get stung by a bullet ant (Paraponera clavata), a species named after the fact that the pain from its venom feels as if it has been inflicted by a gunshot. Some insect

I’M PROUD TO ADMIT TO BEING AN Australian and I loved your article on wallabies on the Isle of Man in the July issue. You presented the issues and dilemmas well. But coming from an amazing continent t

Structured, social and remarkably sophisticated, a bustling woodland ant community is home to engineers, farmers, nurses and warriors