Absurd little birds across the world lay their eggs in the nests of other species, leaving the hapless parents to raise a changeling at the expense of their own offspring. The majority are cuckoos – o

The SAS (Special Air Service) make routine use of sleep-deprivation exercises in their selection process, and these often feature in later training. Hallucinations during such exercises are very commo

Somewhere in the amazonian understorey, beneath a great forest canopy, a cricket leaps on to the stem of a shrub. It’s the last leap it will ever make. It never gets to flex its legs again. It’s stuck

I’m in exeter cathedral and i’m looking up at Antarctica. This is Gaia by artist Luke Jerram: a 7m-diameter model of Earth suspended above the nave, created from detailed NASA satellite imagery of the

Wildlife gardening is hugely beneficial, both for biodiversity and for gardeners. By providing food, shelter and nest sites for a wide range of species, you get the opportunity to engage with the natu

Whether winter-faded ferns, the spindly harvestman or the tyrannical stare of an irate chicken, through-lines from the prehistoric to our modern age are all around us in November, says John Lewis-Stempel