article thumbnail

From Today's New York Times

Animal Ethics

But most important, they are beginning to starve, because the sea ice they depend on for hunting seals, their main food, is melting at a very rapid rate because of global warming. Though hunting still plays a role and led to a bilateral treaty with Russia, ratified last September, climate change is the major threat to polar bears today.

article thumbnail

A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

Great Frigatebirds engage in “unihemispheric sleep” on hunting trips of six to ten days, never landing, sleeping less than an hour in a 24-hour cycle, often keeping one-half of their brain awake while the other slept. It is early April as I write this, and migration is beginning to trickle through to New York City.

Cyprus 243
article thumbnail

A Connecticut Yankee Goes to Washington: Senator George P. McLean, Birdman of the Senate

10,000 Birds

Plume hunting raged supreme 150 years ago, when egret feathers were part of a worldwide trade in feathers and other bird parts, used for women’s hats and other articles of clothing (but mostly hats), delighting the upper classes and practically wiping out bird species. It has become the cornerstone of U.S.