10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Islands, for various reasons, experience more extinctions than continents (with Africa being the only continent not suffering a bird extinction!). 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 231

Madagascar Lemurs 2006 Owls 231

Animal Person

APRIL 26, 2009

Vamsee Juluri, Professor of Media Studies at the University of San Francisco, takes me back to graduate school when he writes of the importance of the stories we tell ourselves in " Use Free Speech to Celebrate Animal Life, Not to Enjoy Their Suffering." Isn't the mere existence of violence and suffering sufficient?

San Francisco 100

San Francisco Cruelty Vivisection Open Rescue 100

Animal Person

OCTOBER 22, 2010

Charles is looking down on me, Charles' soul is running, Charles is with Lars Axl Fokker (Emily's son, to whom she passed her Feline Infectious Peritonitis, which he suffered from before we euthanized him nearly a decade ago). Some speak of a collective consciousness, and others speak of reincarnation.

Greyhounds 100

Greyhounds Adoptable Suffering Collecting 100

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

It describes how, when a veterinary drug used in India killed the vast majority of Indian vultures, the human death rate in affected locations increased by about 4% as the vultures were no longer around to feed on animal carcasses and the sanitation thus worsened substantially.

Los Angeles 176

Los Angeles Birds Woodpeckers Owls 176

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 7, 2014

In fact, the Dodo belonged to a clade (sometimes called Raphini) of 15 remarkable, bizarre, intriguing island-adapted pigeons, some of which are still alive today, but eight of which have been hacked from the tree of life, driven to extinction by humans. The painting above is by 17th-century Flemish artist Roelant Savery.

Solomon Islands 272

Solomon Islands Guinea Mauritius Humane 272

Animal Person

DECEMBER 14, 2009

In this morning's New York Times editorial " There Is No 'Humane' Execution ," we have an imperfect yet nevertheless baby step toward acknowledgment of the HumaneMyth. Of course, less suffering is always better than more, but when you are taking someone's life, I'm pretty sure it's the life-taking that's most important to them.

Humane 100

Humane District of Columbia Cows Morals 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 16, 2013

The early threats of guano harvesting and egg collecting have been replaced by the more ominous threats of oil pollution and overfishing of their favorite food source – pilchards. Today, there are more than 3,000 birds at this accessible colony and they are protected by fences and stiff fines for human disturbance.

Penguins 207

Penguins South Africa Africa Sharks 207

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 25, 2011

For millenia, many of the world’s collective cultures have had an exceptionally strong anthropocentric bias when looking at the value of life. This has all sorts of implications on learning and being more resistant to the mental effects of aging that mammals suffer from. But I digress.

Emotional 198

Emotional Science Birds Mammals 198

10,000 Birds

MAY 1, 2023

The third in the Nanhui collection of gloriously colored flycatchers is the Blue-and-white Flycatcher. If you are suffering from depression, you just have found another reason to go birding. In Chinese, this bird is called White-browed Flycatcher, which introduces some (possibly undesirable) logic into the world of bird names.

Monkeys 147

Monkeys Birds South Korea Owls 147

Animal Ethics

DECEMBER 23, 2006

He clearly thinks that it is wrong to cause animals to suffer unnecessarily, but he appears to be somewhat ambivalent about killing animals (provided the killing is carried out humanely). I suspect that underlying his thinking here is a common rationalization that many of my students initially embrace.

Factory Farm 40

Factory Farm Factory Farming Morals Meat 40

10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2022

As with Chinese male humans, having your own building is still vital to raising young. 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. Humanity is not very human. You should try it too. Sometimes it works.

Birds 179

Birds Sparrows Protection Humane 179