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The likes of woodpeckers, stag beetles, and dragonflies have made repeat appearances after he adopted a laissez-faire approach to his garden as a whole.

The immense war helmet he wore had the plumes of a blackbird and the horns of a stag beetle adorning it.

Patches of bare earth created by the bison dust bathing are good for lizards and rare arable weeds, while their bark stripping creates standing deadwood for fungi and insects such as stag beetles.

Similarly, leaving a little pile of chopped wood will attract stag beetles and solitary bees.

Biologists say that these fantastic shapes—from the giant curved tusks of woolly mammoths to the nightmarish jaws of stag beetles—evolved to ward off competition from rival males and to impress females.