10,000 Birds

JULY 4, 2023

Ackerman’s new book is about owls and owl research–the knowledge recently and currently being discovered through DNA analysis, new-tech tracking and monitoring, and old-fashioned fieldwork under the auspices of organizations like the Global Owl Project and the Owl Research Institute.

Owls 200

Owls Science Barn Owls Penguins 200

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2014

Read what you want about the origin of domestic cats; the genetic evidence is not properly sampled. The majority of wildcats live today in Africa, and virtually none of them have provided the DNA from which supposed histories of domestication have been constructed by researchers. We estimate that free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.4–3.7

Feral Cats 252

Feral Cats North America Feral Cats 252

10,000 Birds

JULY 21, 2011

I was looking out a car window the other day and noticed that of all the wildlife most of it was bird. Here’s some data from the famous research project of Manu, Peru, giving biomass in kilograms per hectare. Note that there are a lot of mammals (about 40) that are bigger than any bird in this sample.

Mammals 172

Mammals Rodents Birds Reptiles 172