Nature

Why are killer whales attacking boats?

26 June 2023 10:26 pm

Orcas – killer whales no less – are on the attack. They have declared war on humanity. They are systematically…

Has the pandemic made us appreciate nature more?

22 October 2022 9:00 am

Out to grass If Liz Truss is forced out of office (and doesn’t also resign her parliamentary seat as Tony…

In search of the peripatetic philosopher Theophrastus

20 August 2022 9:00 am

Publishers lately seem to have got the idea that otherwise uncommercial subjects might be rendered sexy if presented with a…

Farmers vs rewilders: can they find their common ground?

28 May 2022 9:00 am

Farmers and rewilders must discover their shared purpose

The scourge of urban gulls

2 April 2022 9:00 am

These ‘endangered’ birds are taking over

The problem with rewilding

6 January 2022 10:30 pm

The government has gone wild. Under new plans, just announced by Environment Secretary George Eustice, farmers and landowners in England could…

Letters: In defence of organic food

31 July 2021 9:00 am

A note about manure Sir: I am afraid Matt Ridley shows a lack of understanding about agriculture in general and…

The strange death of the English garden

24 July 2021 9:00 am

Real gardens are dying out

Why it’s boom time for bitterns

19 June 2021 9:00 am

Bitterns are booming, both literally and metaphorically. These handsome brown birds from the heron family make a noise quite unlike…

Virgil understood the great power of nature

15 May 2021 9:00 am

‘Georgics’ are an ancient form of poetry about agriculture and the land. The term derives from Greek gê ‘land’ +…

Is the adder slithering towards extinction?

3 April 2021 9:00 am

In early April, when the chiffchaff sings its drab little song in the leafless hawthorns, something is stirring in the…

Mother Nature is giving us her middle finger

27 March 2021 9:00 am

Gstaad I have never experienced such a long, continuous blizzard, and I’ve been coming here for 63 years. The ski…

What Pliny the Elder and David Attenborough have in common

13 February 2021 9:00 am

When it comes to natural history, Sir David Attenborough rules the airwaves. Pliny the Elder (d. ad 79) who, as…

The ethics of eating octopus

16 January 2021 9:00 am

The questionable ethics of eating octopus

The ancients knew the value of the natural world

7 November 2020 9:00 am

The ancients knew nothing about global warming, but they still reflected on the relationship between man and nature. In the…

The best wine since incarceration

11 July 2020 9:00 am

The woodpecker jinked across the lawn like an especially cunning partridge. Its goal was a skilfully constructed bird table with…

Is it too late to save Britain’s ash trees?

13 June 2020 9:00 am

Can Britain’s trees be saved?

There’s no point in bishops – Covid has shown us so

6 June 2020 9:00 am

It is a relief to parents that young children are allowed out a bit now as the length of the…

How John Constable got masterpiece after masterpiece out of a tiny corner of rural Suffolk

6 June 2020 9:00 am

John Constable’s paintings of a tiny corner of rural Suffolk teach us to see the beauty on our doorstep, says Martin Gayford

The intense pleasures of lockdown

6 June 2020 9:00 am

I used to live in Mogadishu for months at a time, cooped up in compounds behind fortified walls. Venturing on…

Why whales sing: it’s a question of culture

6 June 2020 9:00 am

Of course animals have culture

The importance of the Natural Health Service

9 May 2020 9:00 am

Spending time outside is vital for mental health

Now is the time for comfort reads

24 April 2020 11:00 pm

It all started on the day after the Brexit referendum. People who do not get the result they voted for…

Covid-19 is giving me hyper-focus on the beauty of spring

18 April 2020 9:00 am

We know, because of the lack of widespread testing, that incidences of Covid-19 are under-reported. What is less well known…

Mother nature is finally getting the art she deserves

14 March 2020 9:00 am

Exhibitions about fungi, bugs and trees illustrate the depth, range and vitality of a growing field of art, says Mark Cocker