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Osprey Cam

10,000 Birds

It’s always risky to say what separates humans from other animals — tool use, self-awareness, and the perception of morality no longer being as obvious a set of distinctions as they once were – but I will go out on a limb and say that narrative is at least as characteristic of humans as feathers are of birds.

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Birds and Us: A 12,000 Year History from Cave Art to Conservation–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

The book is chiefly about how people have conceptualized and studied birds, but there is an underlying theme, the changing ways in which our Western culture has viewed animals, nature and God. It’s a huge scope for a 338-page book.

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Moral Vegetarianism, Part 12 of 13

Animal Ethics

For an explanation of this feature, click on “Moral Vegetarianism” at the bottom of this post. I have argued that there is no incompatibility between being a nonvegetarian and advocating the painless and humane treatment of animals. As far as I know, no good evidence has ever been collected to support or refute (1).

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Aelian’s On The Nature Of Animals: The Classics Can Be Fun!

10,000 Birds

Thus opens the first entry in On the Nature of Animals , written by Claudius Aelianus in the days of imperial Rome, now freshly translated by Gregory McNamee and presented in an attractive, modern-looking edition by Trinity University Press. Despite the last group, this is not merely a collection of just-so stories.

Hedgehogs 120
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Birding Shanghai in June 2022

10,000 Birds

So, the birds start collecting mud and small sticks. One of the established ways to evaluate self-cognition in animals (including humans) is the mirror test. In the classic test, an animal is anesthetized and then marked on an area of the body the animal cannot normally see. Nest building: a good activity for a rainy day.

Birds 197
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The Dove Who Came In From the Cold

10,000 Birds

After checking with a docent to make sure that the bird wasn’t a hazard to the collection I watched it for some time – I even tried to take its picture, but the lighting was less than optimal and the camera in my phone somewhat potato-like. But in the end, being dead doesn’t protect an animal from mortality.

Elephants 158
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NYT Opens the Door to the Humane Myth

Animal Person

The most recent execution, of Kenneth Biros, involved 30 minutes to find a vein for the single-drug and "the execution only reinforced that any form of capital punishment is legally suspect and morally wrong.". Where's the moral objection on behalf of cows? That is the way to eliminate the inevitable problems with executions."

Humane 100