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Can Nature Take Care of Itself?

10,000 Birds

My work as a wildlife rehabilitator over the past forty-five years has allowed me a unique perspective on a disturbing trend. Consider this: ninety percent of birds treated at wildlife centers are admitted as a result of human interactions that have nothing to do with “nature.” Gratefully, we now acknowledge that was wrong.

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The Medicine Bird

10,000 Birds

“I’ve seen her around, when I was setting my traps,” said the trapper himself, who brought her to Tamarack Wildlife Center , in Saegertown, PA. This is why certain wildlife rehabilitators end up misanthropic and homicidal. If all her other toes eventually function perfectly, she could still hunt without that one non-essential talon.

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Post Apocalyptic Steampunk Birding

10,000 Birds

Set in an abandoned oil refinery where wildlife is slowly regaining control save for the desperate attempts of golfers to retain all eighteen holes, industrial ghosts loom over rolling freshwater lakes bordered by fifty foot tall trees. Fortunately, throughout the tenure of the refinery many of the older, larger trees were preserved.

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Accessibility Matters

10,000 Birds

So armed with some knowledge from the “ Access Considerations for Birding Locations ” page on the Birdability website and some research, I twice visited the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge near Portland, Oregon with accessibility in mind. Pets are not allowed, nor are joggers, runners, or bicyclists.

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Birding Sukau, Sabah, Borneo

10,000 Birds

If you want to know what happened on August 31, 1984, I can name at least one event: In the Padang-Sugihan Wildlife Reserve in South Sumatra province, a Large Frogmouth was mobbed by a Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, as described here. of its hunts are successful. He was also nearly strangled by a pet python that he kept.

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Africa’s Big Five and Little Five

10,000 Birds

Originally a hunting term, the Big Five were the most dangerous and prized targets of the great white hunters on safari. As visitors’ and the public’s interests expanded from the Big Five, and an appreciation for lesser mammals, birds and smaller wildlife has became more widespread, the term Little Five was coined.

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Feral Cats in American Cities

10,000 Birds

Nonprofit pet protection groups would manage the program and be responsible for ensuring that cat caretakers take the required steps. The problem of free-roaming cats — and their predation on birds and other wildlife — is hotly contested in communities across the country, and it triggered a lively exchange in the hearing room.