10,000 Birds

JANUARY 30, 2020

Birds, butterflies, flowers, reptiles – you name it, Gehan has covered it. Further chapters detail wildlife watching opportunities for primates, birds, reptiles, turtles, butterflies and dragonflies; a description of the parks and reserves by habitat type; and a wildlife watching calendar to help plan a trip.

Sri Lanka 213

Sri Lanka Whales Whaling Leopards 213

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 18, 2014

The vast majority of the 10,000+ living species of birds are passerines, and the vast majority of those have a similar system of breeding: Mom and dad bird make a nest and share parental responsibilities roughly equally, if not identically. There are variations on that theme, of course.

Breeders 210

Breeders Breeding Birds Groups 210

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 19, 2014

There is a fantastic paper just out in Science : “Sustained miniaturization and anatomoical innovation in the dinosaurian anceestors of birds” by Michael Lee, Andrea Cau, Darren Naishe and Gareth Dyke. But birds are dinosaurs. Birds have a number of features that distinguish them from, say, camels. Whales are cows.

Camels 204

Camels Whales Whaling Apes 204

10,000 Birds

APRIL 13, 2015

Ethiopia, a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa, has firmly established itself as one of Africa’s top birding destinations. Its great diversity of habitats hosts an incredible bird count of over 900 species, including Africa’s 2nd highest list of endemics and near-endemics (after South Africa).

Ethiopia 249

Ethiopia Sudan Leopards Birds 249

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2011

I was looking out a car window the other day and noticed that of all the wildlife most of it was bird. A squirrel skittered by … a squirrel is not a bird. So the thought occurred to me that there is a lot of bird on the landscape, in terms of numbers of individuals as well as sheer biomass. Peter and St.

Mammals 179

Mammals Rodents Birds Reptiles 179

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 6, 2018

Darwin Day is February 12th, and for an early celebration I thought I’d take a look at a book that rethinks the way Darwin, and we, think about evolution—a very specific part of evolution, the way beautiful features and behavior have developed amongst birds and, by extension, amongst humans.

Ducks 100

Ducks Research Animal Stud 100

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 25, 2011

A profound and deep understanding of birds is hard to complain about. Despite the vacant look in the eye of a Rock Pigeon , birds are not stupid…they cannot afford to be, or else they wouldn’t be here now. And the ultimate question, the one we may never know the answer to… what is a bird thinking ?

Emotional 216

Emotional Science Birds Mammals 216

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 21, 2014

As I was just starting to examine it, a famous paleontologist who happened to be passing by came over to look, and immediately determine that it was a fossil primate tooth, a very rare find indeed. So, the other day I was looking at my Twitter feed and noted a story about African Tigerfish eating birds. They can get to 100 pounds.

South Africa 216

South Africa Botswana Africa Fish 216

10,000 Birds

APRIL 15, 2015

I must admit that I was astonished as I had never considered Ghana a potential birding destination, nor knew of any birders who had ever been there. My clients insisted that they wanted to go to Ghana as they had heard that the birding was great. We also knew we had discovered Africa’s next hot birding destination.

Ghana 199

Ghana Hunters Guinea Gambia 199

10,000 Birds

JUNE 11, 2013

Geladas are the sole survivors of a once abundant branch of primates that historically foraged across the grasslands of Africa, the Mediterranean and India. they are the most terrestrial primate after humans. Geladas spend the fist few hours of the morning grooming and socializing at the edge of their cliffs. Photo by Adam Riley.

Ethiopia 161

Ethiopia Primates Mammals Fur 161

Critter News

DECEMBER 12, 2009

Another animal dies at the Calgary Zoo and more questions are being raised about their practices. The fatality is one in a string of animal deaths in recent years. They were a part of the zoo’s breeding program for the rare birds. Tags: zoos welfare violations animal welfare.

Zoos 100

Zoos Animal Welfare Welfare Elephants 100

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

We know that the human mind has capacities that are not common in other animals. A number of research projects have sought to determine if some of these human brain abilities are found in other animals. It turns out, for example, that “Theory of Mind” is very rare in the animal kingdom. But that’s another story.

Abandon 239

Abandon Abandoning Abandonment Research 239

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 14, 2012

Ethiopia , a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa, has firmly established itself as one of Africa’s top birding destinations. Not much was known about Ethiopia’s birds and there was no decent fieldguide. Addis Ababa is a good a site as any for this bird.

Ethiopia 273

Ethiopia Eritrea Africa Mammals 273

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 18, 2011

Recently, the news came out that beloved Archaeopteryx is not really a bird ancestor. This has happened before, Archaeopteryx and the bird family tree have had an often tenuous relationship. The second kind of trait are those held in common by different bird and non-bird lineages because of common ancestry.

Mammals 257

Mammals Europe Groups Family 257