10,000 Birds

JANUARY 2, 2024

And there is diversity in charisma–few people can resist an Emperor Penguin or a Secretary Bird, but common birds like Indian Myna and Black-crowned Night Heron also get their due respect. © 2023 Tony Angell; © 2023 Mark E. Mark Hauber is currently (just appointed!)

Chicago 173

Chicago Barn Owls Penguins New Zealand 173

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 20, 2015

Flight has evolved multiple times; it has emerged in lizards, snakes, fish, bats, maybe bats again, distant relatives of primates, regular primates, rodents, and a few other unlikely taxa, in a rather half baked fashion, not “true” flight. Science 12 December 2014: 346 (6215), 1253293 [DOI:10.1126/science.1253293].

Rodents 184

Rodents Primates Bats Science 184

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 29, 2014

Aficionados of natural history writing should recognise the author as that of the Song of the Dodo , the popular science book about biogeography and conservation that to me rates as one the finest popular science books ever written. The book is about zoonoses, diseases that jump from animals to people. This lake is close to the cave.

Humane 161

Humane Animal Africa Ukraine 161

10,000 Birds

JUNE 22, 2011

I stuffed it in my pocket and decided to take it to Richard Oehlenschlager at the Science Museum of Minnesota. But the jawbone…that was from a bat! Oehlenschlager apologized that he couldn’t say the exact species of bat. It was either a big brown bat or a hoary bat.

Bats 200

Bats Dissection Owls Minnesota 200