Ben Hoare
Science writer and author, and editorial consultant, BBC Wildlife
Ben Hoare is a wildlife writer and editor, and proud to be an all-round ‘nature nerd’. He was features editor at BBC Wildlife magazine from 2008 to 2018, and after that its editorial consultant. Ben writes about seasonal natural-history highlights in every issue of the magazine, and also contributes longer conservation stories. His interviews of everyone’s hero Sir David Attenborough remain a career highlight. When not working for magazines, Ben writes illustrated natural-history books for children – the kind of books he adored looking at as a kid. Several have been international bestsellers, no doubt because his two daughters read and test everything first. Ben lives in rural Somerset, UK, with owls and dormice in the garden, and is a keen birder who spends as much time as possible exploring outdoors.
Recent articles by Ben Hoare
This river giant can grow over 1m long, weigh more than 5kg and lay an astonishing 500,000 eggs
Meet the mighty northern pike.
Mysterious red cups are appearing on woodland floors. But they're not fairy baths, as people once thought...
Look to the floor on your next forest walk and you may spot these vivid jewels among the leaf litter, says Ben Hoare.
Fiery eyes, fluffy 'horns' and a strange hoot – meet one of Britain's most mysterious predators
Long-eared owls are one of the most secretive birds in Britain.
Researchers in Oxford have been studying great tits for 75 years. They discovered something odd (and human-like) about their song
As part of the long-running Wytham Wood research project, great tits and blue tits are being studied
It has hairy legs and flies with its tongue poking out – and it could be in a garden near you
Meet the well-named hairy-footed flower bee.
It glows like a fire, looks like an autumn leaf and has just awoken from its winter slumber. Now it's on the hunt for food
Meet the eye-catching comma – one of the UK's first butterfly species to appear in spring.
It has a bizarre beak, is twice as heavy as a robin and uses animal hair to make its nest
Meet the common crossbill, the chunky finch with a taste for pine cones.
It has a bandit mask and punk-rocker crest – and can eat a whopping 1,000 berries a day
Meet the waxwing – the exotic-looking bird with a penchant for berries.
The adorable tree bumblebee is stirring from its winter slumber – and it's hungry
The tree bumblebee is one of the first bumblebee species to appear in spring.
It's made from 1,500 tiny white feathers, bound together with spider silk and takes up to 3 weeks to construct
When it comes to intricacy, few animal nests can compete with those constructed by long-tailed tits. This is how they make them
These giants were planted by the Victorians. Now little birds sleep inside them
It’s easy to see how the treecreeper got its name…
It's round and furry, has a huge tube-like mouth sticking out of its face – and it sucks the life out of bee grubs
Meet the extraordinary bee-fly – one of nature's greatest mimics.
Weirdest sea creatures - meet 15 strange ocean animals, including one that's part vegetable and one that resembles a toast rack
Have you heard of the Johnson's abyssal seadevil? Read about this strange ocean animal and more in our guide to the world's weirdest sea creatures
“It can make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up”
The call of a whooper swan is one of winter's most atmospheric sounds, says naturalist and author Ben Hoare.
Is it really safe to airlift rhinos by their ankles, dangling two-tonne giants in midair?
In Southern Africa, white and black rhinos are often translocated to avoid inbreeding or overpopulation of an area. Previously, rhinos were moved, fully awake, in crates or on pallets, but there were problems, including the possibility of injury to the huge herbivores. When lifted by helicopter, the crates also had a tendency to swing around dangerously. The preferred technique has often been to dart rhinos with anaesthetic from the air, then blindfold the immobilised pachyderms and airlift them in a giant sling, suspended by their ankles. After a short flight, the animals are transferred to a truck. A 2021 study
Why do badgers have stripes?
A badger's distinctive markings have long puzzled naturalists
11 best wildlife books of 2025 - Great reads that make perfect Christmas gifts for wildlife lovers
BBC Discover Wildlife Magazine expert Ben Hoare rounds up his best wildlife reads of 2025.
Are any snakes poisonous? The answer may surprise you - here's why...
there are only a few poisonous snakes in the world - although there's plenty of venomous
It has bizarre tentacles, oozes yucky black goo and stinks of death – and could be near you right now
The octopus stinkhorn, also known as devil's fingers, is a type of fungus that grows from egg-like spores
Why don’t woodpeckers get headaches and concussion when drumming?
Drumming is a springtime sound that's unrelated to feeding or nestbuilding.
Giant deep-sea beasts aren’t just the stuff of legend – here’s how they got so massive
Ever wondered why deep-sea animals are larger than those found nearer to the surface? Ben Hoare dives into theories of gigantism
From dancing dunnocks to swooping blue tits: 4 garden birds’ bizarre mating rituals revealed
In spring, male birds are busy courting females. Here are some of the signs that your garden visitors will show when trying to impress a mate.
It’s 3 metres long, shaped like a scythe and stuns prey – this is the longest tail on Earth
While you might think that the record holder for the world's largest tail could belong to a whale, that's not technically true
15 weirdest birds on the planet: meet the strangest wonders of the avian world – including one that asks humans for help and another that smells like a cow
There are plenty of contenders for the weirdest bird list from the 'stinky' hoatzin to the strange-looking secretary bird. Here are our favourite weirdest birds
