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Grallards: New Zealand’s Next Extinction or Newest Species?

10,000 Birds

Unfortunately for the hunters these were already all extinct, and with the introduction of cats, rats, stoats and the like the only upland game bird, the New Zealand Quail , was fast on the way out too. With a boost like that the species was well and truly here to stay. By the 1970s the Mallards were beginning to rule the roost.

Species 165
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Cat Wars: The Devastating Consequences of a Cuddly Killer

10,000 Birds

Agonizing quandaries concerning invasive species are well-known to wildlife biologists. Arriving in North America around the time of Columbus, they have become “one of the most successful invasive species on earth.”. Infected rats, for example, no longer shun cat urine but find it an aphrodiasic.

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Can Nature Take Care of Itself?

10,000 Birds

A personal encounter with a wild species changes one’s perspective. Inserts in rodent poisons that assure the public they will not kill anything but the offending rats or mice pedal the same questionable claims as those of the snake oil salesmen of bygone days. Will the population of the species be affected?

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Evolution of the Multi-Media Bird

10,000 Birds

Among the gentry there seems not to have been much of a line between being a bird watcher and a bird hunter, and the home naturalist could certainly develop a nice private collection. Which keep eating rat poison. you’d get to see the much larger samples of prepared specimens in the drawers. Or get your own. But I digress.

Birds 168
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A winter miscellany

10,000 Birds

Lynford also boasts an arboretum, with 200 different species of trees. So though I visited Lynford, I didn’t see a Hawfinch on this occasion as I wasn’t there at the right time, though I did meet a number of hopeful Hawfinch hunters (HHHs), none of whom reported a sighting. They were bold, too, unworried by my presence.

Barn Owls 202
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When conservation and animal rights collide

10,000 Birds

Wildlife conservation is concerned with protecting wildlife at the level of species or perhaps population. With the exception of species that number in the hundreds, conservation biologists are not as concerned with the fates of individual animals, it is only when such fates of many individuals are added up do they begin to worry.

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A Field Guide to the Wildlife of South Georgia: A Book Review by a Penguin Groupie

10,000 Birds

The section South Georgia Wildlife describes 65 species of birds, 20 species of sea mammals, nearly 60 species of insects, and more than 40 species of flowering and nonflowering plants. Thirty-six Tubenose species are covered to varying degrees, depending on their status.

Georgia 172