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The Effects of Wildfires on Wildlife

10,000 Birds

According to a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study, human-induced climate change has doubled the area affected by forest fires in the western U.S. While larger animals like deer and elk are usually able to escape the fire’s path, smaller animals like squirrels, foxes and snakes are not always so lucky.

Wildlife 102
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Honey, I Shrunk The Dinosaurs!

10,000 Birds

There is a fantastic paper just out in Science : “Sustained miniaturization and anatomoical innovation in the dinosaurian anceestors of birds” by Michael Lee, Andrea Cau, Darren Naishe and Gareth Dyke. Whales emerge from within the larger group of mammals that includes cattle, deer, pigs, camels, with camels being the most deeply rooted. (So

Camels 195
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Why is the Robin’s Breast Red?

10,000 Birds

But seriously, Science has a more interesting set of answers, and some recently published research on European Robins helps to examine this question in some detail. Caribou for instance; In this kind of deer, both sexes have antlers. Applied Animal Behaviour Science Volume 29, Issues 1-4, February 1991, Pages 403-451 a.

Research 200
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Licking Clay: the Macaws of Tambopata, Peru

10,000 Birds

UNLESS that is you get yourself down to the internationally-renowned Tambopata Research Centre in southern Peru where literally hundreds of macaws (and other parrots) congregate around a 50 meter high clay bank. The clay consumed at the colpa contains chemicals that bind with these ingested alkaloids thus neutralizing their toxicity.

Peru 254
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A Problem with Gulls

10,000 Birds

It was very touching to read a comment from Mayr to a more non-scientific article by Liebers & Helbig in a German birdwatching magazine about the Herring Gull not being a ring species, where Mayr applauded them and was happy not only over but beyond the moon about the research. Wicked, right?

2011 157
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ACTION ALERT! Tomorrow, MARCH 15, 2011, is the deadline for public.

10,000 Birds

For my new book, due out in 2012 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, I’ve been researching sandhill crane hunting. A Great Backyard Bird Count Miracle Best Bird of the Weekend (Last of January 2011) What is the International Bird Rescue Research Center Anyway? Or These Blasts From The Past What’s In A Name?

2011 238
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What happened with Archaeopteryx?

10,000 Birds

But it is utterly bewildering to me to see news reports about this recent science that read “… An icon knocked from its perch&# or “Archaeopteryx no longer first bird.&# And this is where the latest research related to Archaeopteryx comes in. Archaeopteryx went right back to being a bird again.

Mammals 239