Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
THE JUNGLE ON YOUR DOORSTEP
Snails with a pigeon’s homing instinct, foxes that make EastEnders look tame – a new show reveals just how full of drama our gardens are
With our manicured lawns, our slug pellets and weedki l lers, British gardeners do their best to tame nature. But a fascinating new programme called
The British Garden – Life And Death On Your Lawn hosted by Chris Packham shows it’s still very much a jungle out there. ‘There’s a huge cast of wonderful creatures struggling to survive in our gardens,’ says Chris. ‘I think this show will open people’s eyes to the diversity in their gardens.’
The show looked at eight gardens in a street in Welwyn Garden City for a year. A team of 20 scientists used everything from hi-tech cameras to old-fashioned nets to examine what goes on. The results were surprising, not only in the breadth of species – 683 creatures were discovered – but also their behaviour.
The action starts in summer when the garden is most active. The show looks at the snail, which leaves a trail of slime wherever it goes and is closely related to the octopus. One garden had 48 snails living in it, and to show how strong their homing instincts are they were marked according to where they were found and then placed together in the middle of the garden. The snails slowly made their way back to where they were originally found.
The experiment stunned even snail experts. Professor Dave Hodgson, a biologist from the University of Exeter, admitted, ‘This shows some quite spectacular evidence of the homing instinct of the British snail and it’s so much better than I could have expected.’
The garden is abuzz with bees in summer too. Using a special infrared camera that shows up colours invisible to the naked eye, scientists demonstrate how flowers light up like helicopter landing pads for nectar- gathering creatures. And we see bumblebees boring holes in the backs of flowers because thei r tongues aren’t long enough to reach inside.
‘ It doesn’t mat ter how controlled your garden is, if you haven’t paved it over it will appeal to wildlife,’ says Chris. ‘Even decking can create a haven for creatures.’ Chris Packham on
the programme Indeed, a family of foxes uses the decking in one for a den. Chris is surprised to find it’s a father fox – the mother is usually in charge – and four cubs. ‘I love to watch foxes,’ he says. ‘They’re beautiful. It’s brilliant to think people can look out of their windows and get to know a family of foxes. They make EastEnders look tame. What a story! Mum’s disappeared and a few months later the daughter’s had cubs herself. And Dad could be one of four fathers. So many of us live close to them and with a bit of effort we could really get to know them.’ Moving into autumn we see ani- mals eating at a prodigious rate before winter. More than 100 types of spider live in Britain and as they reach maturity they start spinning webs, which is why they seem to be everywhere at this time of year. The show looks at the crab spider, which can change colour to camouflage itself, and doesn’t spin a web but a ‘trip wire’ to snare its prey before poisoning it and eating its insides.
The team see mice, voles, a hedgehog and a badger in autumn. ‘Hedgehogs are woodland creatures but gardens with trees and bushes replicate that for them,’ says Chris. ‘The countryside’s in a parlous state with intensive agriculture and overuse of pesticides. You don’t get that in gardens.’
Come winter many birds migrate from the countryside to urban areas for the bird feeders. The team tagged different birds to see how often they use them. For smaller birds who can’t fight off bigger birds, there might be ten or 15 visits in a day. ‘The tag experiment really interested me,’ says Chris. ‘We could see each bird replicate a pattern every day to maximise their foraging efficiency.’ Even in the compost heap you see life and death at its harshest. ‘You have the lowly creatures there like woodlice being eaten by predators such as beetles. Then a blackbird may eat the beetle. It’s the food chain in action; you see how everything is connected.’
The garden comes back to life in spring. In a pond frogs are trying to mate, while greenflies are giving birth five times a day, seven days a week. Thankfully creatures like the scary ladybird larvae are there to eat them. ‘Our gardens contain enormous riches,’ says Chris. ‘You just need to open your eyes.’ The British Garden: Life And Death On Your Lawn is on Tuesday 11 July at 9pm on BBC4.