10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

Jennifer Ackerman points out in the introduction to What the Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds , that we don’t know much, but that very soon we may know a lot more. What the Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds is a joyous, fascinating read.

Owls 200

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 200

10,000 Birds

APRIL 29, 2011

Two recent non-marine examples both include Sandhill Cranes. Rather than risk the chick’s imprinting on humans, the team cleverly thought to pair their two charges. Rather than risk the chick’s imprinting on humans, the team cleverly thought to pair their two charges.

Rescue 166

Rescue Compassion Vet Science 166

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 17, 2014

But the tenets of the North American Model were developed in the 19th century, when wildlife ethics and science were a mere glimmer of what we understand today. He notes that “Beginning in the 1960s, for example, conservation was dominated by non-hunters whose legacy includes key legislation such as the U.S.

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Wildlife Coyotes Hunters Wolves 232

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2022

Where it is not – for example, in Japan – it will have difficulties finding a partner to mate. ” I can see how this line of thinking leads to all kinds of sci-fi types of thought (“would I mate with an alien if I was the last human on earth”, etc.), How efficient. How surprising.

Birds 162

Birds South Korea Japan Abandon 162

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2023

Supporting local conservation organizations and participating in citizen science initiatives allows us to contribute to the protection of Shanghai’s bird species and their habitats. Conclusion: Shanghai, with its juxtaposition of urban landscapes and thriving birdlife, is a testament to the harmonious coexistence of humanity and nature.

China 159

China Endangered Species Sanctuary Protection 159

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 29, 2022

The Sacred Ibis was seen as the incarnation of the god Thoth, who (with gods apparently better at multitasking than humans) was (or maybe still is, who knows?) was responsible for maintaining the universe, judging the dead, and for writing and science ( source ). Possibly also for doing the dishes. Two ways of life folded at once.

Birds 147

Birds Australia Sheep Zebras 147

Critter News

APRIL 4, 2009

The feud between animal rights activists and researchers is among the bitterest in science. But many researchers - although adamant that animal research remains critical to finding cures and expanding medical knowledge - have come to concede that using creatures as human stand-ins is unnecessary for many procedures.

Animal Research 100

Animal Research Research Medical Research Animal 100

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 3, 2021

Bird communication is a complex and evolving science. Signaling theory comes up frequently in bird literature (one example I can think of off-hand is Nick Davies’ Cuckoo: Cheating by Nature, Bloomsbury, 2015), but if you’re not familiar with its basic ideas you must read the Introduction. There is so much here!

North America 278

North America Research Birds Groups 278

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

Described in the “Territoriality and aggression” chapter, this is a sublime example of behaviour from the “Understanding Animal Behaviour” by Rory Putman, an Emeritus Chair in Behavioural and Environmental Biology at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. Those bears live in the wild and are not used to humans.

Animal 114

Animal Bears Stray Dog Blackbirds 114

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2019

Written in a friendly, inclusive style quietly grounded in science, How to Know the Birds is an excellent addition to the growing list of birding essay books by talented birder/writers like Pete Dunne and Kenn Kaufman.

Birds 114

Birds North America Breeding America 114

Critter News

MARCH 6, 2010

The laboratory will be used to study human diseases and treatments. It would be looking at biomedical or cellular mechanisms that are changed, for example in heart disease, and get insights into what might be a target for drug development.”.The From West Virginia Metro News.

West Virginia 100

West Virginia Virginia Animal Research Research 100

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2020

Not all habitat change is due to humans; there is Chestnut Blight destroying American Chestnuts in the early 1900s, and the more recent Dutch Elm disease. In addition, many of the numbers and examples given for NYC areas beyond the Bronx represent species observed in Central Park in Manhattan and Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

New York City 146

New York City New York Birds Breeding 146

Critter News

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

The author is Nick Cooney and he's the Director of The Humane League, an animal advocacy non-profit with offices in Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington DC. Change Of Heart provides science-based answers to many questions that are hotly debated among animal activists. In the author's words.

Advocacy 100

Advocacy Factory Farm Factory Farming Companion Animal 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2014

And the last of the facts that I listed is rather an example why that support is, well, qualified. I’m not a fan of some of the cuts to science, but National came in in 2008. Regular readers of this site might be able to think of a much discussed example, that of birding on National Wildlife Refuges versus hunting.

Rhinos 166

Rhinos Hunting New Zealand Science 166

10,000 Birds

JUNE 21, 2016

In humans, adults (probably mainly mothers) do this thing called “motherese” which is talking in a way one would normally not talk to another adult, to a baby. Jon Sakata, a professor of neurobiology at McGill, says that songbirds learn vocalizations like humans learn speech. Salmón, J. Nilsson, A. Nord, and S. Here’s the problem.

Mammals 108

Mammals Zebras Birds Primates 108

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2011

You’d think, then, that applying science to philosophy by studying the evolutionary underpinnings of thought and behavior across species would be right up my alley. I would have liked to see far more examples of moral structures that would not look good or bad to the audience’s eyes but completely orthogonal to human morality.

Morals 108

Morals Animal Humane Research 108

10,000 Birds

MAY 17, 2016

For example, if a highly competitive common bird species expands its range into a region where local, more rare species exist, they could get pushed out. In essence, the benefits to birds from climate change (global warming caused by human release of greenhouse gas pollution) is neutral, while the negative effects are serious and increasing.

North America 113

North America Europe America United States 113

Critter News

MARCH 10, 2009

I responded to a post on animalblog that cited a recent article in the journal "Proceedings" of the National Academy of Sciences. This story on HIV research is one example. Here's my response on medical research in general. I recently had a discussion about medical research using animals. It’s just a question of WILL.

Medical Research 100

Medical Research Medical Research Monkeys 100

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2014

It’s very hard to organize the many ways in which human beings relate to avian beings into comprehensible text. Larks, for example. The 300 stories enhance the thousands, maybe millions of facts Cocker has compiled, creating a volume that speaks to a collective human experience that is rooted in both poetry and science.

Birds 205

Birds Egypt Family Eagles 205

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

However, we now know that human ancestors became upright first, and were bipedal for millions of years before they started to use tools extensively, and then another million years went by before their brains started to evolve a significantly larger size. Salas-Gismondi, R., Altamirano, A., Shawkey, M., D’Alba, L., Vinther, J.,

Penguins 188

Penguins Seals Peru Science 188

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Long ago I preached the idea that rapid climate change was more important (in a negaive way) than large climate change, and suggested that the Holocene was different from earlier time periods (and thus, for instance, humans invented agriculture and large areas of forest developed, etc.) because the Holocene had little rapid climate change.

Penguins 193

Penguins Birds Cooking Fish 193

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 22, 2013

For example, take the Mississippi Kite (above), photographed at the Dairy Mart Ponds in Tijuana River Valley, between San Diego and the Mexican border. Not only is it a very impressive citizen science project that manages to marshal the legions of birders around Canada and the U.S., Let’s get to it then.

San Diego 168

San Diego California Condor California Bald Eagle 168

Animal Ethics

JUNE 12, 2010

If there has been progress in ethics recently it has been through the realization of some ethicists that animal happiness and suffering has to be considered equally with that of human beings. Smart , "Ethics and Science," Philosophy 56 [October 1981]: 449-65, at 450 [footnotes omitted])

Ethics 40

Ethics Animal Liberation Suffering Science 40

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2023

Humans are not always bad for birds, only about 95% of the time. Sounds a bit like some weird Nazi eugenics experiment to me, but I guess it is just science. Biologists – or as Ze Frank would say, the Science Hippies – call this ecological segregation (e.g.,

Birds 161

Birds Science Humane Species 161

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2012

What I didn’t know was how this relationship actually works: the mechanics of Red Knot migration, the reduced digestive systems necessary for their long flighta, the need to fatten up quickly so they can fly to the Arctic and breed, how they compete with other shorebirds and gulls and, it turns out, humans, for horseshoe crab eggs.

Delaware 176

Delaware New Jersey Research Eggs 176

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

It’s all about the improbable intersection of human beings and Emperor Penguins, and if I can’t make it to an Emperor Penguin colony (highly unlikely), reading this book has been the next best thing. It’s part memoir, part travelogue, part scientific narrative, part prologue to making an argument for Antarctic conservation.

Penguins 151

Penguins Seals Leopards Research 151

10,000 Birds

JUNE 22, 2023

Red and yellow are the colors symbolizing several different things – for example, McDonald’s, the People’s Republic of China, Mastercard, and Kodac. Being a management consultant, I am well-versed in the science and art of b *g. ” Full iteration!

Birds 130

Birds China Science Research 130

10,000 Birds

JULY 25, 2022

For example , in one study, it was found that more than 80 percent of the fledgling Australian Magpies born in a territory one year were sired by males from outside its borders. Gisela Kaplan has written a book about the species, and how they seem unperturbed by humans: “It’s one of their most successful defense strategies.

Birds 217

Birds Australia Ducks Mountain Goats 217

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2012

After one 3 year stint, they left with 131,405 specimens including birds, mammals, reptiles, plants and even human remains (which were only recently repatriated for burial in Africa!) James Wakelin is prime example of modern ornithologist and conservator. They discovered Gurney’s Sugarbird during their time in South Africa.

Mozambique 182

Mozambique South Africa Africa Collecting 182

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2011

Geophagy, the intentional consumption of soil by vertebrates, has long been documented in a number of bird and mammal species – including wide-spread use by humans – which consume soil to increase absorption of certain minerals not naturally occurring in the local diet. That’s right – birds eating clay.

Peru 254

Peru Parrots 2011 Research Center 254

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

As you can easily judge from the dullness of this information, it is not something I made up but rather an appalling example of nepotism in the naming of birds. If you have always wondered what the minimum anesthetic concentration for isoflurane and sevoflurane for the Crested Serpent-eagle is, science has an answer.

China 217

China Birds Pythons Eagles 217

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 16, 2023

As I frequently mention, science is quite wonderful. For example, this paper points out that migrating Bramblings prefer to feed in a habitat in which they are less likely to get killed. Contrary to my usual habit, I will not try to transfer this finding into the human world as I am too afraid of being accused of fat-shaming.

Birds 147

Birds China Killing Reptiles 147

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2020

This is a delightful book, large (8-1/2 by 11 inches), filled with Sibley’s distinctive artwork and an organized potpourri of research-based stories about the science behind bird’s lives. A good example is the function of beauty in male birds. copyright @2020 by David A llen Sibley. I disagree.

2020 262

2020 Birds Groups North America 262

10,000 Birds

MAY 16, 2018

I am a human being, so I am entitled to, and I do, say that the starling is an ugly bird. Thomas acknowledges that the Anthropocene epoch, the age of humans, is bringing a sixth great extinction, but that, by itself, is not something he much mourns. Prum, Doubleday).

Humane 102

Humane Species North America Sparrows 102

10,000 Birds

MAY 15, 2023

I visited Tengchong in late 2020 and wrote about it – but I also went there earlier, in 2017, and this post shows some photos I took during that trip, along with the usual comments that seem to be much more about ridiculing my fellow humans (especially ornithologists and the like) than providing useful information on birds.

China 176

China 2017 Birds Indonesia 176

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 25, 2011

And if you look into it enough, it presents a classic case where science can fail us. I believe in science. Science is based on logic and evidence, which I think is a very respectable way to look at the world. But what many people fail to realize, and too often scientists themselves, is that science is elastic.

Emotional 198

Emotional Science Birds Mammals 198

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

We immediately get a sense of the pigeons’ abundance, beauty, and danger to human activity. The chapter on Martha, for example, just shows a close-up of her stuff body–not the whole body, the torso and tail–against an almost-black background. It’s an effective introduction. Can I say that this is a beautiful book?

2014 159

2014 Killing Michigan Kentucky 159