Green-tech

Protecting Birds During the 1990s, there was just one Spix’s macaw left in the wild and that one disappeared in 2000. Luckily, there is a captive population that should reach 170 by next year and there are plans for a reintroduction programme. Spix’s macaw is only found in Brazil and is confined to the socalled ‘caatinga’ biome in the north-east. Caatinga is a dry area dominated by small trees, bushes and cacti and forests with larger trees that form alongside rivers. The parrots require the large trees, especially the caraibas that can grow 25m high, for nest cavities. Though habitat loss was a factor in its disappearance, the main reason the species went extinct in the wild was the illegal pet trade. And while there is still a problem with people trying to collect wild birds, the area around Curaçá, where the caatinga habitat is found, is very different to what it was 30 or 40 years ago and it is much harder to do things without being noticed. For instance, when a Spix’

Though we often refer to Tegenaria and Eratigena as house spiders, for most of the year nowadays we are actually far more likely to come across these species in our gardens, garages and outbuildings. These are areas where we tend to be far less scrupulous in our cleaning and tidying – and where there is therefore much more potential prey. If spiders are left undisturbed, females can live for several years and may stay in the same web complex throughout this time, repairing the sheet and enlarging the funnel as necessary. So, if house spiders are more commonly seen in locations other than our houses for most of the year, why do we see so many of them in our bedrooms, bathrooms and living rooms in autumn? The reason, as with so many activities involving animals, is sex. During spider season, male spiders are on the lookout for females and it is their romantic wanderings that bring them into our homes. In common with many different animals, it is male spiders that are the disper