Critter News

DECEMBER 11, 2008

This news story slipped by in November. The Humane Society has another great investigation into the shady practices of a corporate giant. Not so, says the Humane Society. This time it's Petland, who I'm glad to say has no stores in my area (that I know of.) but that's another post.) but that's another post.)

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Puppy Mills Humane Broker Puppies 100

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 10, 2014

Let’s say you’re a bird wrapping up your breeding season in the north of Scotland—where do your thoughts turn when winter beckons? In either case, they’ve got a travel history that would leave most humans’ passports in the dust. News geotagging migration Red-necked Phalarope Scotland UK'

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Iceland South America Ecuador Stray 193

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2019

This is good news, and especially so for birders. In A Dance of Cranes, dancing, both avian and human, is a leitmotif. (For This is a marvelous series of books, plotted cleverly, with carefully drawn characters, each one having poignant human foibles and imperfections and clumsiness (all of which are missing from the avian world).

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Humane 2018 Laws Science 139

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 11, 2014

After all, what was thought as its habitat was heavily deteriorated and converted to agriculture as the human population grew. The amazing news went across the world. News anchor Walter Cronkite made an official announcement during prime time national news in the US. Photo: Fernando Angulo Pratolongo.

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Collecting Peru Neglecting Hunting 270

10,000 Birds

JUNE 16, 2022

From one side, the reserve is under the attack of spreading arable fields, from another by numerous wind generators and it is no easy task to support the surviving breeding birds within its borders. After my trip, I followed the news of this species closely. He asks if the wind generators can influence the bird numbers?

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Gazelles India 2012 Endangered Species 260

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 29, 2022

According to Tim Low (in “Where Song began”), “so easy were they to breed that by 1859 they cost less to buy in London than in Sydney.” ” Funny how the difficulty of breeding a species can be illustrated in simple monetary terms. Is it offensive to say that Australian Zebra Finches breed like rabbits?

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Birds Australia Sheep Zebras 147

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 19, 2013

The breeding season is longer, starts earlier. “Many long-distance migrants arrive so late on the breeding grounds that they have little opportunity to respond to warming conditions by nesting earlier.” The mechanism by which this is happening in at least some species of birds is very interesting. ” GannetCam.

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Taiwan Iceland United States Breeding 193

10,000 Birds

JULY 25, 2022

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. When these birds breed, this can lead to highly cringeworthy announcements, for example from Adelaide Zoo : “We have egg-citing news! ” ( source ).

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Birds Australia Ducks Mountain Goats 237

10,000 Birds

APRIL 6, 2021

Many of these stories will be known to avid readers of environmental news items and social media. 192) from the timing of seasons to the ferocity of weather to the shape of breeding, wintering, and stopover habitat to even the size of birds themselves. This is big, global-level stuff with amazing findings but worrisome data.

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Cyprus Slaughter Slaughtered Research 257

10,000 Birds

MAY 11, 2013

And they’re making the news, too. Speaking of birds in nests, five Chilean Flamingo chicks who were raised by a human “surrogate dad” at a British wildlife center have now graduated to joining the adults in the center’s colony. The hope is that their presence while inspire the grown-ups to breeding success.

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Michigan Chile Tennessee North America 148

10,000 Birds

MARCH 21, 2014

My Dark-eyed Juncos are trilling in preparation to retreat to quieter breeding grounds, the Black-Capped Chickadees sing their two notes, and the Song Sparrows absolutely will not shut up. Of course, in real life this cannot be so simple as good news. The Varied Thrushes came back. Then the Western Bluebirds and Meadowlarks.

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Geese Montana Breeding Pelicans 182

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 1, 2013

Nevertheless, the fact of the matter is that federal listing has been an unprecedented success in saving threatened species in a way that localized efforts and appeals to voluntary human restraint simply have not. Private efforts are inevitably, almost by definition, atomized. It means we have some time and space to turn things around.”

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Nevada Endangered Species Montana Humane 161

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2019

If they can spare a glance upward, the busy grape-pickers might also be treated to another portent of the changing seasons in the Iberian skies overhead: the sight of flocks of White Storks ( Ciconia ciconia ) heading south from their summer breeding grounds in Europe to Africa, where they spend the winter on the warm savannas.

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2017 Spain California Condor California 114

10,000 Birds

JUNE 18, 2013

There are three things that will go wrong: 1) The inland zones that would become the new wetlands are already, in many cases, occupied by human-built things that will severely interfere with this process. Also, these human-occupied area are probably full of toxins and other impediments to normal use by wildlife.

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Maryland Birds Penguins Wildlife 228

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2022

These two islands are about halfway between the tip of South Africa and Antarctica in the Subantarctic Indian Ocean, have had relatively few human visitors, and are primarily inhabited with some of the rarest seabirds in the world and a smaller number of mammals. Which makes it a haven for seabirds….and and seabirders.

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South Africa Mice Albatross Africa 264

10,000 Birds

JUNE 29, 2016

But this breeding and social arrangement has its risks. For humans, you have the drama of sister wives. Having a harem sounds like a pretty sweet deal. After all, variety is the spice of life, no? And for wild pheasants ( Common , in Europe; or Ring-necked , stateside), a bigger group may actually present an existential danger.

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Game Europe Groups Breeding 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. The authors’ detailed delineation of problems with the accuracy of NYC breeding bird surveys or with the limits of historical writings may test a reader’s patience.

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New York City New York Birds Breeding 154

10,000 Birds

JULY 6, 2016

A breeding program in Turkey has been successful, but civil war in neighboring Syria seems to have posed a significant hazard. Hopefully, while the human conflict rages on, the Ibises in Turkey can cope with their unexpected captivity and look forward to someday once again following their zugunruhe.

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Syria Turkey Hunting Breeding 100

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 17, 2015

From National Geographic News : Cassin’s auklets are tiny diving seabirds that look like puffballs. From Science Daily : Crows have the brain power to solve higher-order, relational-matching tasks, and they can do so spontaneously, according to new research. One of the birds most affected by this is Cassin’s Auklets.

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Science Iraq Research Birds 151

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 20, 2014

A lot of Asia’s storks are threatened by human activities. I saw one other species of stork on the river, the Lesser Adjutant , a species that can be seen in Borneo but one people aren’t sure even breeds in Borneo anymore. Greater Adjutants are even rarer.

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2013 Birds Rhinoceros Thailand 177

10,000 Birds

JULY 10, 2012

Image by Adam Riley Of the 115 African species now listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered, nearly half occur on the islands surrounding Africa or are non-breeding migrants to Africa. There has been growth in the breeding population at the colonies in Morocco (now estimated at 106 breeding pairs and approximately 500 birds in total).

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Endangered Species Species South Africa Morocco 196

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Previously common at its only known site, Lake Aloatra, into the 1930’s, the introduction of numerous exotic fish species and human disturbance led to massive population declines. Madagascar, however, has had more than its fair share of extinct or lost species and Madagascar Pochard was firmly on this list.

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Madagascar Lemurs 2006 Owls 244

10,000 Birds

JUNE 7, 2012

A lovely looking and distinctive sounding bird (so they say, I sadly have not seen one…yet), the Kirtland’s Warbler can only be found during its breeding season in Jack Pine forests 5 to 20 years old in the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The good news is, the fight to save the warbler has been successful.

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Michigan Bahamas Endangered Species Research 236

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 24, 2016

A press release about the study likened the contrast to “the differences between humans with and without freckles.”) Breeding range map by David Toews/Cornell Lab). The moral of the story: As our knowledge of genetics grows, and this tool becomes more accessible to more researchers, things we think we know about birds may change.

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Guatemala Research Morals Science 106

Animal Person

NOVEMBER 21, 2010

And managing means killing them, breeding them, and otherwise fiddling with their populations. Here's the good news: This is a very readable explanation of how animals in the Hundred Heartbeat Club (there are 100 or fewer individuals in the wild today) got to be in the club. This is all very unveganly, but I went for it nevertheless.

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Polar Bears California Condor Bald Eagle Lions 100

10,000 Birds

MARCH 9, 2011

The little stiff-tails are almost year-round at Jamaica Bay though almost all leave to breed in the summer and in the depths of winter, when the ponds are almost completely frozen, they tend to head for open water. Leucism “is a condition characterized by reduced pigmentation in animals and humans.&#

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Ducks 2011 Jamaica Deer 153

10,000 Birds

JUNE 19, 2011

Beyond natural events, bird-life that requires fresh water takes advantage of the water that we provide due to human habitation. We have suddenly had a huge increase in the Plumed Whistling-Duck population as the ephemeral lakes dry out and no doubt they have had a good breeding season. Happy ducks in Broome in June!

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Feral Animals Australia Ducks Feral 175

Critter News

SEPTEMBER 18, 2008

Instead of banning the breed, why don't we we crack down on mistreatment of these animals and on unlicensed owners? It's the humans, not the animals. Tags: pit bull breed ban seattle. I am totally opposed to this. Stupid people.

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Pit Bulls Seattle Breeding Humane 100

10,000 Birds

MARCH 8, 2011

2 Responses to “Terrifying Truth about Crow Intelligence&# Jochen Mar 9th, 2011 at 6:09 am Their intelligence goes even further, and researchers have shown that Ravens master a feat that even 6 to 7 year old (human) children usually can’t accomplish: they can analyze what someone else knows / can know and act accordingly.

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2011 Deer New York Owls 151

10,000 Birds

APRIL 17, 2012

On April 20th 2010, the world received news that eleven men working on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig died in an explosion on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. As you read the below timeline and see the below images, don’t ever forget the perils that walk hand-in-hand with human greed.

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2010 Louisiana 2012 2011 241

Animal Person

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

There are few animal rights stories in the news. We are not people who are interested in discussing animal rights, as in, the right of sentient nonhumans to not be used by humans for potential profit, for sport or for lunch. The stories we humans create for ourselves to justify--or even glorify--our behavior are fictions.

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Chickens Slaughter Slaughtered Animal Rights 100

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2011

Brown Pelicans , and the northernmost Brown Booby breeding colony on this side of the Pacific. Other birds with webbed feet, including ducks and geese, have only three webbed toes; the hallux (which in birds is usually the “hind toe&# and in humans, the “big toe&# ) is free. Though it is certainly bad news that the U.S.

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2011 Pelicans Papua New Guinea Birds 154

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 30, 2018

So, while waiting for evolution to produce new birds for our life lists is inadvisable, we sometimes catch a break and every few years get a new species or two when some genetic research or study of breeding distribution presents enough evidence to split what was once considered a single species into a few new ones.

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Ohio India Hawaii United States 113

10,000 Birds

JUNE 6, 2017

Each Species Account includes one to three drawings of the bird, a range map, common and scientific names, and a one to three sentence description of the bird, which may or may not include its migratory and breeding habits, feeding behavior, plumage, habitat, and demographic status—whatever helps identify the bird quickly.

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North America America Birds New York 175

Critter News

AUGUST 22, 2010

The Spoon-billed Sandpiper, one of the world's most threatened birds, is rapidly heading towards extinction because young birds are being targeted for human consumption. In 2000, around 1,000 breeding pairs were known, but by 2009, the number had plummeted to just 120-220 pairs, a decline of 88%.

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Species Myanmar Endangered Species Russia 100

Animal Ethics

MARCH 31, 2011

To the Editor: Re “ Lost Cobra May Hide for Weeks, Zoo Says ” (news article, March 29): The sideshow atmosphere surrounding the lost cobra at the Bronx Zoo has yielded online hilarity and supplied material for late-night talk show hosts, but the zoo is never fun for the animals. SHARON FEDER Rego Park, Queens, March 29, 2011

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New York Times New York Zoos 2011 40

Critter News

DECEMBER 27, 2010

Scientific advances over the last three years have now made it feasible to easily tinker with rat genes, creating the possibility of far better models of certain human diseases, and potentially shortening the time it takes to develop medications. While both rats and mice have similarities to humans, rats win out in key areas.

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Mice Rats Boston Rodents 100