Animal Rescue with Marion Garnett
Dedicated animal expert Marion Garnett, founder of the Ealing Animal Charities Fair, continues her column
SOMETHING was buzzing through the air, and it wasn’t a drone. That was the previous evening. This was five to six centimetres long and flying at the angle of Concord – nose up. You can be forgiven if you can’t guess what it was, as there aren’t many about. And, it was mesmerising. Not just for me but also the cats, who were transfixed.
Before I tell you what it is – don’t look at the picture (good luck with that), its life cycle is as mesmerising as watching it fly.
His journey will have begun up to six years ago when, in June, his mum burrowed into the ground, near some rotting wood, to lay her eggs. After three weeks, as a tiny larva, he nibbled his way out of the egg to begin his long journey to beetlehood (clue).
For around five years he remained underground, as larva, moving between the rotting wood and the soil until he eventually transformed into a pupa and emerged onto the soil surface around May this year as a magnificent male stag beetle. But his glory doesn’t last long. By the time you read this, he may have already died.
He spends his few weeks as a mature beetle, flying round his territory, mating and fighting off challengers.
Last night, I also saw a female. In contrast, although she can fly, she spends most of her time walking around and mating. Her final act is to make her way to the place from which she emerged where she buries herself into the ground to lay her eggs, starting the cycle all over again before she, also, dies.
These wonderful creatures are declining in the UK and are classed as a “priority species”.
Reasons for their decline include habitat loss caused by, for example, tidying gardens and removing decaying wood which is food for stag beetle larvae. They can also be attracted to warm surfaces such as pavements, where they are crushed.
If we find a stag beetle, we should leave it where it is, unless it’s in danger. If we need to move it for its own safety, we need to move it as short a distance as possible.
Other ways to help ensure their survival include gardening in a wildlife-friendly way by, for example, creating a log pyramid and avoiding polythene sheeting in our gardens as emerging beetles get trapped beneath it.
For more details, see stagbeetle.info and People’s Trust for Endangered Species (ptes.org) where stag beetle sightings should be recorded.