Wonder Monkey

It's goodbye from the Wonder Monkey blog at BBC Nature. The blog is closing and will no longer be updated. Thank you to those that have read the blog, shared it and posted comments. There hav...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wondermonkey/2012/08/goodbye-from-wonder-monkey-2.shtml

Humans soon learnt how to catch ever greater numbers of prey Predators have roamed the planet for 500 million years. The earliest is thought to be some type of simple marine organism, a fla...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wondermonkey/2012/02/super-predatory-humans.shtml

An English family from days gone by Celebrating Christmas is often a family affair. Nan and Granddad, Mum, Dad and the kids, perhaps Uncle Charlie dropping by. It’s an ordinary scene....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wondermonkey/2011/12/the-origin-of-the-human-family.shtml

  Bred to race or be sold? (copyright: Slooby) “Just hours before the Kentucky Derby, trainer Larry Jones got up early with his filly Eight Belles and took her to the track for a ride b...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wondermonkey/2011/11/bred-to-destruction.shtml

Are badgers at the forefront of synurbization? (image: Andrew Parkinson / NPL) Some animals are synurbic, and some aren’t. Badgers are. As are wood pigeons. Tigers most definitely are...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wondermonkey/2011/08/welcome-to-synurbia.shtml

How did carnivorous dinosaurs get their meat? (image:Mark Hallet Paleoart / SPL) Tyrannosaurus rex’s name means “tyrant lizard”: its moniker reflecting the carnage supposedly wrecked ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wondermonkey/2011/07/when-dinosaurs-bite.shtml

An Emperor penguin leaps from the water (Image: Blue Planet, BBC) Penguins can’t fly. But they can get airborne. In fact, taking to the air, for even a brief instant, is actually a vita...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wondermonkey/2011/07/penguins-take-to-the-air.shtml

A male baboon tucks in (image: Andrew King/ZSL Tsaobis Baboon Project) We like to sit down and break bread with one another, share a platter and join around a table to tuck into a hearty me...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wondermonkey/2011/07/why-do-people-and-other-primat.shtml

Wonder Monkey likes to celebrate all things nature, and that includes celebrating some ground-breaking natural history film making. Last month I passed on news of a novel short film called L...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wondermonkey/2011/07/enjoy-the-show---the-new-seaso.shtml

Bird-hipped dinosaurs (image: Natural History Museum, London) It is one of the great questions of the past 150 years. Did God or evolution drive the emergence of life in all its resplende...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wondermonkey/2011/07/faith-versus-science-does-crea.shtml

Generations of coelacanths appear to be missing (Image: Peter Scoones / Getty images) An odd-looking ancient fleshy fish continues to serve as a reminder of just how little we know about th...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wondermonkey/2011/06/slow-reveal-of-the-coelacanths.shtml

The very peculiar platypus (image: Dave Watts) Life for the duck-billed platypus has never seemed easy. With its bizarre bird-like beak, mammalian fur and reptilian gait and egg-laying ha...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wondermonkey/2011/06/iconic-platypus-feels-the-heat.shtml

A Japanese macaque, possibly comtemplating (image: Yukihiro Fukuda) Do monkeys wonder? Given the title of this blog, it’s a question I have to ask. Luckily for me, some scientific resea...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wondermonkey/2011/06/do-monkeys-wonder-1.shtml

The hunting of brown bears is subtly changing their evolution (image: Eric Baccega / NPL) “The sins of the fathers may be visited upon the children.” However, sins visited upon father...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wondermonkey/2011/06/ghosts-of-persecution-past-and.shtml

A scene from the movie Loom, depicting a spider and moth (image: Polynoid) Talk about inspirational. I want to share a short film with you – one that has been inspired by nature. If you...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wondermonkey/2011/06/looming-spider-a-hunt-like-no.shtml