It’s a political earthquake! The common earthworm, the soil-maker, food provider and grand recycler, is the landslide winner of the inaugural UK invertebrate of the year competition.

Lumbricus terrestris, also known as the lob worm, dew worm and nightcrawler, took a mighty 38% of the popular vote after readers nominated it to be added to the shortlist for the Guardian contest.

The rare and endangered shrill carder bee demonstrated the popular affection for bumblebees by coming second with 15% of the vote while the romantics’ choice, the glowworm, narrowly beat the unexpectedly popular distinguished jumping spider into bronze medal position with 9% of the vote.

Chris Packham, whose plea for the disrupter of the shortlist, the Asian or yellow-legged hornet made the front page of the Daily Star, said: “Through constant wriggling and extraordinary ecological commitment it’s great to see the earthworm take top spot. Although I suspect vote rigging by blackbirds, badgers and moles.”

The nature writer and campaigner Dr Amy-Jane Beer said: “Stop the press, here’s an award that really means something! In a media obsessed with the rare and beautiful, for the overwhelming importance of a cold, slimy, mostly unseen creature long associated with a kind of mute, spineless, humility to receive public recognition is a big deal.”

The invertebrate charity Buglife also welcomed the earthworm’s triumph. “It’s great news,” said David Smith, Buglife’s advocacy and social change officer. “These ecosystem engineers go about their lives often unnoticed yet are vital for producing the food we eat and easing the impacts of flooding. Unfortunately, earthworms are under threat from multiple sources including chemical use, invasive species, and intensive land use, hopefully with its new title, the public will support these vital invertebrates and take action to help them thrive.”

“A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm,” declared Hamlet, baffling Claudius the King in Shakespeare’s play but hailing the recycling prowess of the earthworm.

Earthworms can bring 40 tonnes of soil to the surface per hectare a year in Britain. Their usefulness is increasingly hailed in an era where regenerative farmers and many others are paying new attention to soil health.

Worms make soils less prone to flooding in winter and less baking hard in summer, they boost microbial activity and, of course, are vital in supporting plant growth, including the crops that feed us.

As well as being important, earthworms lead long (up to six years in captivity) and wondrous lives, and their charisma is well appreciated by those great connoisseurs of the living world, children. One of many readers who nominated the earthworm was Lily, four, who appreciated their “soft” feel in the hand and their general wiggly appeal.

The common earthworm appears on the surface – especially during damp and wet times, hence its other names, dew worm and rain worm – and is one of those precious invertebrates who we can see almost daily, and help too. I always feel better about myself if I stop mid-stride and rescue a stranded worm from the pavement or road.

Unfortunately, like so many other common invertebrates, earthworms are disappearing: the UK’s first national assessment, in 2023, found that populations are estimated to have declined by a third over the past 25 years.

It is not just on farmland where declines are occurring, probably due to pesticides and intensive ploughing, but in broadleaved woodlands – suggesting that wider factors such as climate change and pollution from animal worming including treatments for pets are driving losses.

Surprisingly the most traditionally beautiful animals on the shortlist, the swallowtail butterfly and the Clifden nonpareil moth, polled modestly, finishing in sixth and 10th place respectively.

The naturalist and author Dominic Couzens said: “There’s no doubt that the earthworm is a worthy winner, but perhaps that reflects the grey sky of our troubled times? Perhaps one day we will go with a feelgood selection, such as the sumptuously glamorous Clifton nonpareil or swallowtail?”

Bringing up the rear on the shortlist with just 0.8% of the vote was the Asian or yellow-legged hornet, an invasive species known for attacking honeybee colonies which was nevertheless championed by Packham, who made the case for tackling the biodiversity crisis rather than scapegoating one species, which humans are to blame for spreading.

Europe removed a record number of dams and other barriers from its rivers in 2023, a report has found, helping to restore its disturbed waterways to their natural states.

Nearly 500 barriers were taken out of European rivers last year, according to figures compiled by Dam Removal Europe, an increase of 50% from the year before.

France led the way in helping rivers recover, with 156 removals, the report found, followed by Spain, Sweden and Denmark. The UK removed 36 barriers.

“It is amazing to witness another record-breaking year for dam removals in European rivers,” said Herman Wanningen, the director of the World Fish Migration Foundation and co-founder of Dam Removal Europe.

Europe’s rivers have been fragmented by dams, weirs, culverts and fords – many of which are no longer needed. An estimated 150,000 of the 1.2m barriers in European waterways are obsolete and possibly dangerous, according to the report, which documented 113 deaths involving river barriers in Europe since 2000.

Dam Removal Europe, a coalition of seven environmental groups including WWF and The Nature Conservancy, which aims to restore the free-flowing state of rivers and streams, said the pace of removals was rising.

It highlighted the removal of a quarry weir in Scotland, where a steep gorge blocked heavy machinery and meant the weir had to be removed by hand, along with the removal of a series of dams on the Hiitolanjoki River in Finland, where 34 miles (54km) of river has been opened up to salmon after being blocked for more than a century.

The EU’s proposed nature restoration law – the fate of which hangs in the balance after last-minute lobbying from member states – aims to reconnect 25,000km of fragmented river by 2030. But achieving this “will require a paradigm shift in river restoration”, according to a study in Nature that highlighted the “widespread impacts” caused by small barriers. Although large dams get the most attention, the researchers found that nine in 10 European river barriers are less than 5 metres high.

Connecting rivers helps wildlife travel and allows migratory fish to reach breeding grounds. Removing dams also allows water levels to vary over the year, which can cause habitat changes that increase the diversity of plants and animals, said Pol Huguet, a city councillor in the Spanish town of Manresa, whichremoved a dam as part of a rewilding project. He said: “Thanks to this change, for the first time, we have seen some fish going upstream to this part of the river.”

Dam removals are not always popular. When Poland removed its first big dam in 2021, most people in the area objected despite risks to their safety due to poor construction, a study found in February.

As carbon pollution heats the planet, allowing air to hold more moisture, the risks of extreme rainfall collapsing ageing river barriers is rising. At least three river barriers collapsed last year due to heavy rain in Norway, Northern Ireland, and Slovenia, the report found. Last week, a dam burst in the Orsk region of Russia as heavy rains flooded the area and forced more than 100,000 people across Russia and Kazakhstan to flee.

Obsolete barriers that were built to cope with different climates harmed the river and increased nature loss, said Wanningen. “It’s time to rethink the way we manage our rivers by removing all obsolete barriers and letting as many rivers as possible flow freely. A river that does not flow freely is slowly dying.”

There’s a hissing noise, then a peal of nervous laughter. The grey gander is on the rampage again, chasing anyone who comes within a few metres of him and his goose. Usually the pair are sedate, waddling around together, orange beaks grazing the grass. They’re just another couple of farmyard characters among an assorted bunch of dogs, horses and a tailless cat. But spring is here, and aggression levels have risen with the sap.

This pair of geese have been here for a quarter of a century. Back in his youth, the male was even more assertive, he’d block the little lane, then as the cars tentatively tried to edge past, he’d attack the moving tyres. Like swans, these heavy geese, weighing in at up to 10kg, can cause injury to people. For this old boy, it is all bluster.

The female is a likely descendant of Embden geese, one of the largest goose breeds and a domesticated version of the wild greylag. Geese were commonly kept on farms, for meat, eggs and grass mowing. They also loudly and shrilly honk if there is a nighttime intruder, so they can be useful burglar alarms.

There’s a comedy to the way they waddle around the place together, occasionally terrorising innocent people. But, of course, behind many comedies, there is often tragedy.

The female has just laid her clutch of eggs. Every spring now for nearly 20 years, her nest has failed. It’s not for want of trying: the nest spot is perfectly selected, out of sight and avoiding the strongest sun; she plucks her chest bare to cushion her nest with the softest feathers; and she sits diligently for 28 days, the usual incubation period.

But at a certain point, after the eggs should have hatched, she will have to decide that it is no longer worth sitting and the nest will be abandoned. Goose fertility declines rapidly after only five or so peak breeding years. My dad is wondering about buying a couple of goslings or fertilised eggs and trying to infiltrate them into her nest when she is away feeding. For now, though, we wait with her for the inevitable, somehow also wondering if some miracle late goslings will arrive this year.

NORTHUMBERLAND and DURHAM: The viper or adder is a common enough reptile of these two northern counties. They seem to put in an appearance as the weather turns warmer. Adders love to lie coiled on some rock in the rays of the sun. You often see them lying on the unpaved forest tracks which run through heatherland and the vast conifer forests. The southern flanks of the Rothbury Hills are a favourite place for adders. Early this year I was up on Simonside, which on a clear day can be seen from the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. There on the forest road lay what I at first took to be a length of abandoned rope. As I approached I saw the coil move. It was a big adder and it was sunning itself on the unmetalled road. I estimated its length at over two feet and its sex as female for the she-adder is nearly always larger than the male. It was certainly the biggest adder I have ever seen and I have seen many. When I touched it with the tip of my stick it raised its head and shot out a flickering black Y-shaped tongue.

To the naturalist the British snakes are fairly easily distinguished for there are but three species here: the grass or ringed snake, which is a greenish olive; the adder or viper, which is decidedly marked in black and grey; and the smooth snake, which is a rare reptile frequenting isolated localities in the far south of England.

It is of deep concern to see the core funding for national parks fall, and it is widely known that the UK has a considerable challenge to tackle nature depletion and the biodiversity crisis (National parks in England and Wales failing on biodiversity, say campaigners, 9 April).

There should be an overhaul of how parks are funded to emphasise these issues, and how actions by all interest groups, from landowners to tenant farmers, can be supported towards positive outcomes and maintaining livelihoods.

There is excellent work being carried out by some organisations within our national parks. Wild Ennerdale and Wild Haweswater represent excellent coordinated efforts among wider stakeholders to tackle historic biodiversity depletion and work towards sustainable agroecology.

Cairngorms Connect is working with many stakeholders towards a holistic ecological restoration in the Cairngorms national park, including large-scale peatland restoration. The North York Moors national park, via its woodland grant schemes, is embarking on woodland establishment on a large scale, bringing potential for many ecosystem benefits, including biodiversity gains.

As a researcher in this area, I am proud to work with some of these organisations to learn how to best implement these approaches for biodiversity gain and sustainable rural livelihoods, and we should be using these, and the many other projects as inspiration for much wider work across our national parks and beyond.
Dr Robert Mills
University of York

One of the most comprehensive biodiversity surveys ever carried out in a mangrove forest has revealed that an astonishing array of wildlife makes its home in these key, threatened habitats.

Hundreds of species – from bats to birds and fish to insects – were identified during the study of the Peam Krasop sanctuary and the adjacent Koh Kapik Ramsar reserve in Cambodia. Hairy-nosed otters, smooth-coated otters, large-spotted civets, long-tailed macaques and fishing cats, as well a wide range of bat species, were among the residents recorded by the survey, which was funded by the conservation group Fauna & Flora International. The variety of wildlife has staggered biologists.

“We found 700 different species in these mangrove forests but we suspect we have not even scratched the surface,” said Stefanie Rog, the leader the survey team, whose report is published on Sunday. “If we could look at the area in even greater depth we would find 10 times more, I am sure.”

Mangrove forests form narrow strips of tangled, wooded land on coasts in tropical and subtropical latitudes. They are important because they are made up of trees that have adapted to grow in salt or brackish water, which most other plants cannot tolerate. However, over the past few decades, the planet has lost about 40% of its mangroves, which have often been chopped down to make way for beach resorts or agriculture.

Yet mangroves play critically important roles in protecting the land and its inhabitants. Their waters provide nurseries for commercially important fish, for example. “We found young barracudas, snappers and groupers in the waters here,” said Rog. “They are clearly important breeding places for fish and provide local communities with food as well as providing stock for commercial fisheries.”

Mangroves also protect inland areas from tsunamis and storms, trap carbon far more efficiently than other types of woodland, and act as refuges for a stunning array of animals, as the new study revealed through its extensive use of camera traps, nets, fish and insect estimates, and “transect” surveys – studies conducted along a straight line drawn through the landscape.

A key example of the strange species found in the Cambodian mangroves is the fishing cat, Prionailurus viverrinus. Slightly larger than a domestic breed, it is powerfully built, with short limbs and a stocky body, and – unlike most other cats – is happy to swim. Its front toes are partially webbed and its claws protrude, aiding its ability to catch prey, mainly fish and rats, which it stalks while hidden in mangrove roots.

“It’s very rare to see a fishing cat and we have only found out that they are in the forest from the photo­graphs taken by our camera traps,” said Rog.

“Mangroves are places of roots and mud and they are difficult for humans to get into, which is why they provide precious sanctuaries for these vulnerable animals.”

An even rarer animal, the hairy-nosed otter, was also photographed by camera traps in some of the older parts of the mangrove forest. Lutra sumatrana uses hairs around its nose to detect its prey, which is made up of crustaceans, molluscs and other creatures.

It is the rarest otter in Asia and on the verge of extinction – and that is an issue of real concern, said Rog. “A mangrove forest relies on all the interconnected relationships between species and if you start taking away some of those species, then slowly you will lose the functioning of the forest.”

The survey – which was also supported by the Fishing Cat Ecological Enterprise, a conservation group –discovered 74 species of fish living in the forests’ waters, as well as 150 species of birds, of which 15 are listed as near-threatened or en­dangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list.

Scientists say that mangroves play a key role in preserving ecosystems because they act as two-way barriers between the land and the sea. They slow soil erosion into the ocean and protect coastal communities from flooding and storms.

“But it goes further than that,” added Rog. “Mangrove forests are beautiful, rich, mysterious, and harvest so much life.

“They are so much more than just an ecosystem that provides a carbon-saving service or coastal protection. They are actually beautiful in their own right. For me, there is no better feeling than to be in this unique, mythical forest, knowing there is still so much more to explore – that there is another world waiting for further discovery.”

Political leaders who present themselves as “grownups” while slowing the pace of climate action are pushing the world towards deeper catastrophe, a former US environment chief has warned.

“We are slowed down by those who think of themselves as grownups and believe decarbonisation at the speed the climate community calls for is unrealistic,” said Todd Stern, who served as a special envoy for climate change under Barack Obama, and helped negotiate the 2015 Paris agreement.

“They say that we need to slow down, that what is being proposed [in cuts to greenhouse gas emissions] is unrealistic,” he told the Observer. “You see it a lot in the business world too. It’s really hard [to push for more urgency] because those ‘grownups’ have a lot of influence.”

But Stern said the speed of take-up of renewable energy, its falling cost, and the wealth of low-carbon technology now available were evidence that the world could cut emissions to net zero by 2050. “Obviously it’s difficult – we’re talking about enormous change to the world economy – but we can do it,” he said.

Stern would not name any world leaders, but he said the UK was in “retrenchment” over climate issues. Rishi Sunak and Claire Coutinho, the energy secretary, made several U-turns on climate policy last year, and have repeatedly said climate policies imposed “unacceptable costs on hard-pressed British families” and that by slowing such action they were “being pragmatic and protecting family finances”.

Stern said that, in fact, delaying action to cut greenhouse gas emissions was leading to disaster, given the rapid acceleration of the climate crisis, which he said was happening faster than predicted when the Paris agreement was signed. “Look out your window – look at what’s happening,look at the preposterous heat. It’s ridiculous.”

Leaders who claimed to be grownups by saying the pace of action had to be slowed had to be honest about the alternatives, he said. Just as political leaders took swift action to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in 2020, so must they confront the consequences of slowing climate action now.

“All hard questions of this magnitude should be considered by way of a ‘compared to what’ analysis. The monumental dangers [the climate crisis] poses warrant the same kind of ‘compared to what’ argument when leaders in the political and corporate worlds balk at what needs to be done.”

He warned of the backlash against climate action by “rightwing populism” in Europe. “Hopefully, it doesn’t go very far,” he said. “If that kind of attitude gets some purchase among parts of the population, that’s not helpful.”

Stern praised Joe Biden for “an extraordinarily good first term”, including the Inflation Reduction Act, which he called “far and away the most significant climate legislation ever in the US, and it’s quite powerful”.

But he warned that if Donald Trump were to be elected this November, the US would exit the Paris agreement and frustrate climate action globally.

“He will try to reverse whatever he can in terms of domestic policy [on climate action],” he warned. “I don’t think anybody else is going to pull out of Paris because of Trump, but it’s highly disruptive to what can happen internationally, because the US is a very big, very important player. So [without the US] you don’t move as fast.”

Stern called for stronger demonstration from civil society of support for climate action. “What we need, broadly, is normative change, a shift in hearts and minds that demonstrates to political leaders that their political future depends on taking strong, unequivocal action to protect our world,” he said.

“Normative change may seem at first blush like a weak reed to carry into battle against the defenders of the status quo, but norms can move mountains. They are about a sense of what is right, what is acceptable, what is important, what we expect and what we demand.”

Stern first gave his warning in a lecture at the London School of Economics on Friday night, in honour of the British civil servant Pete Betts, who served as the EU’s chief climate negotiator for the Paris agreement. He died last year.

I never expected a later-life love affair. But a few years ago, I was commissioned to write a book on garden insects and the earth moved. All of a sudden, I realised that my garden wasn’t just full of six-legged aliens, but characters, all with stories to tell, some of which were often bizarre and others hilarious. A few metres from my backdoor a glittering new world of intrigue opened up.

Now that it is spring, this world is awakening and the stories are piling up and moving on fast. As I have become familiar with more insects, the joy of the encroaching season becomes richer still, and more entrancing. Already we have hummingbird tribute acts flying around the spring flowers, bee flies with their hovering flight and long beaks, as fluffy as a child’s toy. Soon their larvae will hatch and grow into child-killers, brutalising the nests of solitary bees.

We have spring butterflies, orange-tips that might have survived by cannibalising their peers, and brimstones, veterans of months of hibernation, now in a state of age-defying breeziness and friskiness.

The bees are out – not just the corporate honeybees, but the mid-sized bumblebee colonies and the sole-trading solitary bees. The latter are bastions of feminine power, powerhouses of pollination, founded and largely run by females. It being spring, the cuckoos are here, too. These are cuckoo bees, which like the birds mimic their hosts and lay eggs in their nests. And they make an unusually loud buzz.

The months ahead will become a blur, the insect news desk will pile up with drama. The race to survive takes strange and wonderful turns. The lacewing’s larvae tear into aphids and decorate their bodies with corpses sucked dry, as a form of camouflage. Moths get itchy feet and migrate, using the stars for navigation. Dung flies use the freshest, runniest dung as no less a romantic dancefloor than a human village hall.

Those big, glamorous dragonflies, especially the emperor, hatch out to become the world’s most dangerous apex predator, their success rate for snatching prey in midair topping 95%, the highest of any animal.

Aphids take reproduction to scarcely believable levels. By parthenogenesis, a female aphid can give birth to a youngster that is itself already pregnant; unchecked by predation, aphids would fill the earth in a few weeks.

At the same time, earwigs take time to look after their young, nurturing them in a burrow for many weeks and attending to their needs, keeping them warm and clean.

One of the great themes of insect life is parasitism. It is thought that 40% of all insect species are parasitic, many of which are parasitoids, eventually killing their hosts or their young. Some are impossibly glamorous. See a cuckoo wasp, with its lustrous iridescence, dazzling green and pink, and it will make you gasp. The glittering exoskeleton is specially thickened in case its attempt to lay eggs in a wasp’s breeding chamber is intercepted.

Another parasite, a fly, lays eggs inside snails and the larvae eat their way out while it is still alive. Another wasp turns ladybirds into the living dead. Some parasites are themselves plagued by parasites.

This is, of course, drama in miniature, but insects are also the indicators of immense problems. Many are declining, putting pollination in jeopardy and sending warning of dangers not yet known. A host of new species are making their way north and colonising Britain because of climate change, a danger only too well known. The insects’ world is our world, however peculiar these neighbours of ours can be.

In the end, the insects need be heard, and their stories need to be told. Loving them is optional.

Cast your vote for the UK invertebrate of the year here

A North Atlantic right whale has been spotted entangled in rope off New England, worsening an already devastating year for the vanishing animals, federal authorities said.

Right whales number less than 360 and are vulnerable to entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with ships. The entangled whale was seen on Wednesday about 50 miles (80km) south of Rhode Island’s Block Island, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said.

The mammal has rope coming out of both sides of its mouth but its distant location is making it difficult for rescuers to help, the NOAA said.

“Given the long distance from shore, experts were unable to safely travel to the last known location during daylight to attempt a rescue,” a statement said. “NOAA Fisheries and our partners will monitor this whale and attempt to respond … if possible, as weather and safety conditions allow.”

Several right whales have died this year off Georgia and Massachusetts, and environmental groups fear the species could be headed for extinction.

A whale found dead off Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, in January showed evidence of injury from entanglement in fishing gear. Environmental groups have called for stricter rules; however, a federal budget package passed in late 2022 included a six-year pause on new federal whale regulations.

“This is another example that entanglements are happening in US waters,” said Gib Brogan, campaign director with environmental group Oceana. “We need stronger protection[s].”

The whales were once numerous off the east coast, but they were decimated during the commercial whaling era and have been slow to recover, despite federal protection for decades.

They migrate every year from calving grounds off Florida and Georgia to feeding grounds off New England and Canada. The journey has become more perilous in recent years because their food sources appear to be moving as waters warm amid the climate crisis.

That change causes the whales to stray from protected areas of ocean and become vulnerable to entanglements and collisions, scientists have said.

A study published last year said that climate change-induced warming in the Gulf of Maine was acutely endangering the right whale.

The Associated Press contributed reporting