Mark Brazil - The Japan Times

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Mark Brazil

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Mark Brazil

Mark Brazil, a Briton based in Hokkaido, has written about the natural history of Japan in his Wild Watch column for over 30 years. After careers in conservation and natural history television, Mark taught for nine years at a university in Hokkaido before going freelance. He now travels the world as a lecturer and leader on wildlife-focused expeditions.

For Mark Brazil's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

May 17, 2001

Darwin's uncomfortable facts

As we wander the natural world, from mud flat to mountain top, from river bed to rocky outcrop, the life that we encounter falls into readily recognizable forms or, as we know them now, species. The similarities and differences between species help even the layman to recognize the extent of their relationship.

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

May 3, 2001

How dung beetles came to save Australia

For millions of years a whole host of landlubbers (mammals, reptiles, birds and insects) have been scouring the Earth for food and leaving behind the scraps of their meals and deposits of dung. Billions of creatures over thousands of millions of years, all dumping on the planet. Thank goodness for the natural processes of decay and for the swarms of recyclers that share our space.

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Apr 19, 2001

Up to your ears in, um, you know, uh...

About 18 months ago, someone who knew that I was a naturalist asked me, in all seriousness, why we humans shouldn't just eradicate all insects and similar creepy-crawlies.

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Apr 5, 2001

To dabble or dive: duck lifestyle choices

DNA analysis has enabled us to peer ever closer into the intricacies of what characterizes and distinguishes species, as well as the orders, genera and families they belong to.

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Mar 21, 2001

Detective work in snow country

Though farther south you are already reveling in springlike breezes, the steady accumulation of snow in the northern third of Japan continues to provide an opportunity for detective work.

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Mar 7, 2001

That strange creature is mammalian kin

Therians: They may sound as if they come from a far-off planet, but these are no alien creatures. Found in nearly every corner of the Earth, they count a surprising range of species among their ranks: the next-door neighbor's pet pooch, alpacas in the Andes, aardvarks in Africa, and even you and me.

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Feb 21, 2001

Crow problem or people problem?

I have traveled to many countries on all of the world's continents, and, always wearing my naturalist's cap, I tend to notice the wildlife, especially the birds. Some stick in one's memory, some don't, but the only country I have been where what sticks is the crows is Japan. Why is that?

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Feb 7, 2001

Asian biodiversity under threat

As we travel south through the broad swath of continental Asia, we move along two contrasting gradients. First, land area declines as we approach the tropics from the Arctic. Second, and in direct contrast, species diversity increases enormously, as do elements that are uniquely Asian.

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Jan 17, 2001

Asian environmental extremes

As if the greatest mountain range on earth were not monument enough to the scale of Asia, other ranges, such as the Tien Shan and the Altai, join ranks with the Himalayas to make Central Asia the roof of the world.

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Jan 3, 2001

Asian continent in league of its own

First of three parts As the third millennium dawned, the light of the rising sun swept westward across the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. It brought a gray half-light that crept slowly across the dark ice-locked wastes of northeast Asia. Farther south, the sun's fiery-orange disc rose majestically from the sea off the temperate coasts of East Asia; and along the tropical coast of Southeast Asia a swift transition conjured searing yellow sunlight from humid darkness.

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Dec 20, 2000

Glaciers prove ecological succession

That powerful forces have shaped the world we live in is somehow easier to grasp when one lives in a country wracked by earthquakes, dotted with calderas and pocked with active volcanoes.

COMMENTARY / World

Dec 19, 2000

Eco-terrorism threatens Galapagos natural treasures, eco-tourism

The Galapagos Islands, the world's second-largest marine reserve, are under attack from fishermen spurred by Asian markets for marine products. The Ecuadorean government has done nothing to halt the eco-terrorism in what only recently was a paradise for eco-tourism.

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Dec 6, 2000

Won't you come into my bower?

A string of minor thefts may have gone unnoticed in Mount Malloy.

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Nov 29, 2000

The coolest dudes of the Kalahari

Where the Auob River drains out of Namibia and runs in to South Africa, the land is dry, desertlike, the soil sandy and red. This is the Kalahari, or more precisely, the Kalahari-Gemsbok National Park, a finger of land between Namibia and Botswana, linked across the border with a park on the Botswanan side. One can follow a track that meanders back and forth across an international border marked only by a dotted line on the map and by a similarly dotted row of unobtrusive low posts.

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Nov 15, 2000

The secretive rabbits of Amami

Hunting rabbits is something I have only ever done on one island. When I say hunting, I don't mean with a gun; I mean armed with a spotlight, binoculars and notebook. The rabbits I hunt stay alive. That's rather crucial, because I am talking about the rabbits to be found marooned on an isolated island in the Nansei Islands. They have survived the millennia thus far in the absence of hunters of the more predatory kind.

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Nov 1, 2000

Japan's rich natural diversity

For a naturalist, traveling the length and breadth of Japan is an endless magical mystery tour. Living in any one part of the country one can easily forget the phenomenal diversity in this immensely varied archipelago.

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Oct 18, 2000

Seeing spots before your eyes

Rain brings changes to the African savanna. As storm clouds near, even the smells change. The temperature flutters, falls; the stuttering, buzzing and sawing of insects takes on a different pitch; then a hush, before the pittering of raindrops splashes dust from the baked ground. The pittering turns to a pattering, then to a deluge, soaking and streaming. It may stop almost as soon as it starts or continue for hours.

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Oct 4, 2000

Many life cycles under the moon

A fluttering of powdery wings, silent in the night, and the moon moth came, drawn to the proverbial candle flame. Its guidance system, fine-tuned over millions of years of evolution to a satellite system predating our GPS systems by billions of years, was overwhelmed and confused by a modern source of light mere hundreds of meters away. Captured in its beam it fluttered, misguided by the light.

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Sep 20, 2000

The mysterious power of the moon

Each northern autumn, the days shorten and the nights lengthen until they reach a point of balance at the autumnal equinox in late September. The full moon at this time of the year is known as the harvest moon. During these evenly matched days and nights of fall, as the sun sinks beneath the western horizon, the moon rises in the east to take its place and cast strong moonlight most of the night if the weather remains clear.

ENVIRONMENT / WILD WATCH

Sep 6, 2000

Individual strategies for survival

A pair of limpid brown eyes stares down from behind bare branches. Their owner's thick winter coat, covered with a mantle of snow, hides a female monkey as she huddles to avoid the wind. Snuggling into her body warmth is her youngster.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Things may look perfect to the outside world, but today's mom is fine with some imperfection at home.

How 'Reiwa moms' are reshaping motherhood in Japan

By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Live like a lord or lady for a night at Ozu Castle

Live like a lord or lady for a night at Ozu Castle

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