10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

Not sure that I impressed them, I chose to bluff them and looked left and right for a suitable tree branch to pick. At some stage, a salmon-hunting bear at a shingle beach came too close, mere 9 steps. Those bears live in the wild and are not used to humans. From the behavioural point of view, what has happened?

Animal 115

Animal Bears Stray Dog Blackbirds 115

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 27, 2013

99% of the commentary I have seen has been angry bordering on outright hostile, the few exceptions mostly being the kind of right wing “news” sites that love nothing more than tweaking a tree-hugging liberal like myself. It may even have been mentioned in Google+, although it is unlikely anyone noticed.

Lions 188

Lions Killing Hunting Hunters 188

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2015

In the morning, still sleepy, we enter the jungle, where a sounder of Indian Boars (a long-maned subspecies Sus scrofa cristatus ) is watching us, standing among the first trees, right next to the road. These days, the species shares habitats with Tigers, Snow Leopard, Bears, etc. One White-eyed Buzzard has turned its back to us.

Tigers 245

Tigers Dogs India Snow Leopard 245

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 11, 2017

Now bear in mind, I have never seen a Wood Stork , nor was it ever on my radar, as they have never been in any of the areas that I have birded. And right smack dab in the middle of my little pond, stood the Wood Stork. I consider it an east coast/west coast sort of thing. I practically slammed on the brakes. It came back!

Costa Rica 100

Costa Rica Guatemala Bears Hunting 100

4 The Love Of Animals

JUNE 7, 2012

In a rarely filmed event, see newly awakened black bears go on the hunt for newborn elk calves. Then travel to the Rockies, for a ringside seat as male bighorn sheep go head-to-head in a bloody battle for breeding rights. Premieres Sunday, June 10, 9 p.m.

America 100

America Sheep Penguins South America 100

10,000 Birds

MARCH 15, 2016

Accordingly, FWS manages with conservation as its primary priority and compatible wildlife-dependent recreation (hunting, fishing, wildlife observation and photography, environmental education and interpretation) as a secondary priority. Other activities are only permitted if compatible and, in practice, most are prohibited.

Wildlife 189

Wildlife Grizzly Bear Puerto Rico United States 189

10,000 Birds

JUNE 23, 2022

Hongbenghe is a very small village in Yunnan, right next to the border with Myanmar. Instead, the entry asks us to “Please bear with us while this update takes place” A few months ago, I wrote an email to my bank asking them a specific question. One road simply ends here, giving the place a real end-of-the-world feeling.

Birds 147

Birds Myanmar China Chicago 147

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 24, 2012

The oft-told tale of its start in 1900 as an alternative to the “side-hunt” which was itself a long tradition in many families warms many a birder’s heart. Bear with me, keyboard commandos of the 101 Chairborn Patriot Squad. No real harm would come, right? You would at least think twice about it, right?

Saudi Arabia 147

Saudi Arabia Pakistan Abandon Abandoning 147

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 30, 2020

It bears an iconic name associated with insanity and betrayal, but also with time and seasonality. I also put it to a worthy first field test on December 29th during a successful twitch of an Arctic Diver that had turned up at a small lake right next to Heidleberg. I saw the Cuckoo the second day of its visit.

2020 245

2020 Birds Costa Rica Germany 245

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 23, 2011

As you read this, I am riding my trusty Grizzly Bear through the backcountry of Yellowstone National Park, helping my colleague Seagull Steve find some new birds. Birding by bear is by far the best way to view the park, although it seems to terrify the hoofed animals. Good day to you, my fine fellow birders. Here we go! 1) Be weird.

Grizzly Bear 171

Grizzly Bear North Dakota Downers Bears 171

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 22, 2015

There’s a Sloth Bear in tall, dry grass, barely 50 metres from us, but all we can see is a dark, shape-shifting shadow that eventually becomes all but invisible. Somewhere below that mysterious eagle, at the far shore of the lake, lies one Bengal Tiger … and further to the right – two more! The Telia Lake. He has earned his tip.

Tigers 252

Tigers India Killing 2012 252

Animal Ethics

MAY 25, 2008

"The Puritan," Macaulay once wrote with condemnatory intent, "hated bear-baiting , not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators." John Passmore , "The Treatment of Animals," Journal of the History of Ideas 36 [April-June 1975]: 195-218, at 195 [italics in original; footnotes omitted])

Morals 40

Morals 2004 Animal Suffering Vivisection 40

Animal Ethics

JANUARY 20, 2007

The sleight of hand that gave us the “selfish” gene gives us the rights of baboons. But this means that the apes appeal to animal-rights activists for precisely the wrong reason—namely, that they look like people and behave like people, while making no moral demands. And that explains, in part, the appeal of the animal-rights movement.

Animal 40

Animal Morals Apes Emotional 40