This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Breeding Humane Killing 
10,000 Birds
JUNE 3, 2024
The species is a cooperative breeder – chicks from previous breeding attempts help bringing up the next batch of chicks, like baby-sitting teenagers, though the latter are not related to the kids they babysit and also mainly do it for money, so I guess these two things are not really comparable at all. Siberian Rubythroat : ditto.
242 
10,000 Birds
AUGUST 4, 2013
It breeds in a broad and not quite coherent band from Iceland in the west through central Europe and southern Scandinavia all the way to eastern Russia, wintering in Africa, parts of India, and Southeast Asia to Australia. Aspect one is feeding when humans are not around.
232
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
10,000 Birds
JULY 16, 2013
Today, there are more than 3,000 birds at this accessible colony and they are protected by fences and stiff fines for human disturbance. The only other significant mainland breeding colony is based about an hour out of Cape Town on the east coast at a place called Betty’s Bay.
250 
10,000 Birds
JUNE 18, 2013
There are three things that will go wrong: 1) The inland zones that would become the new wetlands are already, in many cases, occupied by human-built things that will severely interfere with this process. Also, these human-occupied area are probably full of toxins and other impediments to normal use by wildlife.
271 
10,000 Birds
APRIL 15, 2024
They are ridiculously unafraid of people there – so the cynic in me suspects that swan meat is not regarded as tasty by the Japanese (another explanation, that the Japanese just like animals too much, can presumably be discarded given the country’s very principled approach in insisting on the right to kill whales).
246 
10,000 Birds
JANUARY 14, 2022
Shrikes were practicing their own form of butchery – that is, their particular practice of impaling their kills from thorns and barbed wire for later eating – long before we began domesticating and slaughtering livestock on our own.
264 
10,000 Birds
APRIL 18, 2012
But when the biological imperative to breed is on the brain, and springtime is peak time for thinking about breeding, they can become raving psychos, each bird desperate to lay claim to a nest box that would allow it to raise young and thereby pass on its DNA to the next generation and win the evolutionary sweepstakes.
230 
10,000 Birds
SEPTEMBER 12, 2014
Islands, with their high levels of endemism and specialization, are particularly fragile and vulnerable to human activity. This bird was in serious trouble by the mid-19th century due to the adults being killed for food and young being taken for pets. Nests were in hollows in palm trees.
259 
10,000 Birds
APRIL 6, 2021
192) from the timing of seasons to the ferocity of weather to the shape of breeding, wintering, and stopover habitat to even the size of birds themselves. 192) from the timing of seasons to the ferocity of weather to the shape of breeding, wintering, and stopover habitat to even the size of birds themselves.
264 
10,000 Birds
DECEMBER 22, 2019
But I insisted he try the blood and violence guy, and he humored me, only to send me, later, a longish email, pointing out the flaws in my judgment and in the book and the author, and closing with this: “Since I didn’t care for any of his characters, I really didn’t care who killed whom.”. Fair enough.
187 
10,000 Birds
MARCH 31, 2012
Now free flying in California, Arizona, Utah, and Baja, condors are slowly making a comeback thanks to those, like the Center, who’ve committed to captive breeding and releasing these amazing birds. Condors, like all New World vultures, can disturb the human psyche. Their hallmark: They don’t kill.
10,000 Birds
AUGUST 26, 2016
In her book, “ On a Wing and a Prayer, “ Sarah Woods describes the bird that captured her interest when she first visited Panama: “At more than one metre tall and able to kill a monkey with a single swipe of its powerful, knife-like talons, [H]arpy [E]agles are incredibly hard to find.”
113 
10,000 Birds
MAY 5, 2016
We are all watching intently as these two beautiful raptors attempt another successful breeding season without further disturbance. After all, we want to see this Osprey pair flying in every Spring to carry on their very successful display of breeding prowess without human interference.
124 
10,000 Birds
APRIL 23, 2015
However, the ducks’ behavior killed the festive mood for some and left others with a glimmer of hope. Later, it was brought up that the now famous ducks appear not to mind the presence of humans. Villa Marshes is an Ebird hot spot and popular site among Peru’s fast growing birding community.
157 
Animal Person
NOVEMBER 21, 2010
And managing means killing them, breeding them, and otherwise fiddling with their populations. In the majority of cases, it is humans who are to blame for the plunging numbers of animals, and Corwin is very clear about the extent to which we have destroyed the world around us.
100 
10,000 Birds
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
Both bushtit species occasionally are supported by helpers when breeding ( source ). For example, this paper points out that migrating Bramblings prefer to feed in a habitat in which they are less likely to get killed. What do the males do while their partners are incubating? As I frequently mention, science is quite wonderful.
147 4 The Love Of Animals
NOVEMBER 24, 2009
No one in the room–neither dog nor human–can tell which cup hides the biscuit. Understanding a pointed finger may seem easy, but consider this: while humans and canines can do it naturally, no other known species in the animal kingdom can. “Humans are unique. Hare could run a very profitable shell game.
100 
10,000 Birds
JUNE 17, 2015
The Louisiana Black Bear (shown above) was listed as threatened within its historic range (defined as southern Mississippi, Louisiana, and east Texas) under the Endangered Species Act on January 7, 1992 (57 FR 588), due to extensive habitat loss and modification, as well as human-related mortality. The refuge is already open to sport fishing.
185 
10,000 Birds
SEPTEMBER 6, 2016
There is also a third element, only hinted at in the opening–the environmental and scientific necessity of gathering this data to document the importance of keeping the Pacific Northwest waters healthy and uncontaminated by human elements. Fox does an excellent job balancing these three elements, keeping the emphasis on the birds.
100 Animal Person
MAY 26, 2010
I understand the impulse to do " something " that alters the number of animals created to be used and killed and the suffering of the ones created. 3) They disagree with me, not about sentience, but about some god putting animals here for us, or some other reason why we can kill animals even though their sentient.
100 
Animal Ethics
APRIL 27, 2008
There is no happy ending for even the most humanely raised animal. And there is no good reason to breed, confine and kill animals for food unless we believe that economic benefit justifies killing. More and more people do not. We call ourselves vegetarians. Patti Breitman Fairfax, Calif.,
Animal Ethics
DECEMBER 30, 2009
Here are just a few facts drawn from the column: Drug-resistant infections killed more than 65,000 people in the U.S. last year—28 million pounds—went to pigs, chickens, and cows, which in turn creates a perfect breeding ground for antibiotic-resistant super germs. last year—more than prostate and breast cancer combined.
40 
Animal Ethics
FEBRUARY 6, 2007
Consider some of the victories: On November 5th, 2002, more than two and a half million Floridians voted "Yes" on Amendment 10 to amend the state constitution and prohibit the use of gestation crates , narrow metal cages where breeding pigs are kept for most of their lives. The full text of the amendment is available here.
40 
Animal Ethics
MARCH 8, 2009
Suppose further that such blood is obtained without killing the animal and without causing the animal pain. Suppose there was a breed of sheep that became very ill when the sheep’s fleece was removed; they did not function normally. Suppose someone enjoys drinking the blood of cattle and hogs.
40 
10,000 Birds
SEPTEMBER 15, 2015
Every now and the the loosing Loon would disappear like it had been killed and sunk. Because Loons’ coastal wintering habitats can be severely impacted by oil spills and other human activities, this information has important implications for wildlife managers. Then it would reappear way far away and they’d stay apart for a while.
261 
10,000 Birds
SEPTEMBER 16, 2014
However, in this post, I’d like to lay out the basic numbers as we pretend to know them about overall bird mortality, human related causes of mortality, and somewhere in there I’ll note that the number of birds that are killed by windmills is so small that it says “zero” on my pie chart. So keep that in mind.
274 
10,000 Birds
MAY 8, 2012
If there are human fishing activities then all the better – Marabous will gather in numbers around fishermen’s docks and fish markets, in fact anywhere where fish are cleaned and scraps disposed of, allowing these intelligent birds to obtain a free meal. The Saddle-billed Stork has a similar Africa-wide distribution as the Marabou.
250 10,000 Birds
JULY 10, 2012
Image by Adam Riley Of the 115 African species now listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered, nearly half occur on the islands surrounding Africa or are non-breeding migrants to Africa. An adult (left) and subadult (right) White-backed Vulture with full crops after feeding on the remains of a Lion kill, Ndutu, Tanzania by Adam Riley.
10,000 Birds
JULY 2, 2024
Shorebird identification takes time and is often stressful, there’s heat glare and bugs and drones and dogs and humans. In the 19th- and early 20th-centuries, shorebirds were killed outright for their meat, a trade that only ended with the passage of federal legislation (which still excepts game birds such as woodcock and snipe).
264 
10,000 Birds
MAY 3, 2022
I should have known that birding High Island meant I would be 20 minutes away from a place where hundreds of thousands of shorebirds and waterbirds rest, feed, breed, and generally have a good time. I love American Avocets and I rarely see them in such marvelous breeding plumage, so I was in heaven. American Avocets.
264 10,000 Birds
MARCH 14, 2011
March 14, 2011 Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Jon Gassett, Commissioner One Sportsman’s Lane Frankfort, Kentucky 40601 Dear Mr. Gassett, I am a writer, naturalist and artist with a special interest in human/bird interactions. Kills in Canada, Alaska and Mexico are not included in the count.
263 
10,000 Birds
JUNE 7, 2012
A lovely looking and distinctive sounding bird (so they say, I sadly have not seen one…yet), the Kirtland’s Warbler can only be found during its breeding season in Jack Pine forests 5 to 20 years old in the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Most of the chapters are in the first two sections; the future is a brief, open question.
258 
10,000 Birds
MARCH 31, 2022
The Blue-crowned Laughingthrush (Wuyuan) is listed as Critically Endangered, as there are only about 250-280 birds spending the breeding season in Northeastern Jiangxi (and according to the HBW, it is not clear where they spend the non-breeding period). The shame would kill them.
275 10,000 Birds
SEPTEMBER 19, 2016
We watched the bird for awhile as it foraged and though the injury was painful to contemplate for we humans the bird seemed to be getting by alright. After all, what good is getting a kill if in doing the killing the predator is injured? Of course, injured animals have a very difficult time making it in the wild.
157 
10,000 Birds
NOVEMBER 13, 2023
In the non-breeding season, male Baya Weavers sometimes enter the basket-making trade, often with considerable success. Meanwhile, the females seem to have a much more relaxing life, at least in this early stage of the breeding season. You can see why here. The dangers of being a geologist.
246 
10,000 Birds
APRIL 2, 2024
The tiercels (young Peregrines) must deal with Golden Eagles, Ravens, adult Peregrines, and foxes; they must also learn to navigate the skies and make their own kills, luckily these skills appear to be innately learned. Coyotes took carrion from young Condors and then killed the weakest ones. It’s not easy.
10,000 Birds
OCTOBER 17, 2012
When songbirds endeavor to head hundreds or thousands of miles south they are risking everything in order to find a place that they can winter and hopefully survive in order to head back north and breed. American Crow carrying a road-killed bird Some birds die anonymously on their long trek – unmourned, unloved, and unknown.
243 
10,000 Birds
OCTOBER 19, 2011
By weird things I don’t mean human weird things, like for example wasting their time in wild places looking for unusual feathered animals and ticking them off a list, but things that fall outside of their usual repertoire of normal behaviour. It is easy to forget sometimes that birds can do weird things. And the hole looks fairly fresh.
238 10,000 Birds
OCTOBER 16, 2012
In short, the answer is that in the United States there are 20 billion birds at the end of the breeding and fledging season, which gets winnowed down to 10 billion by the following early spring. Hardly any Sandhill Cranes are killed by domestic (including ferrel domestic) cats. Raptors either. But this is problematic.
241 10,000 Birds
AUGUST 14, 2015
We also try to re-nest uninjured baby birds so we don’t interfere with a bird’s breeding cycle. Predators and storms can wreak havoc and human intervention is sometimes needed for survival. Mites will eventually kill the bird. Wild bird rehabilitators want bird parents to feed their own babies. After all, “Mother knows best.”
257 10,000 Birds
OCTOBER 26, 2011
On the islands that make their home, they are rock stars compared to parakeets that dig up storm-petrels to eat ( Antipodes Parakeet ), parrots that kill sheep in order to eat (the incomparable Kea ) and parrots that chew my guttering in the hope that it has turned edible since the last time they tried ( Kaka ).
240 10,000 Birds
JUNE 27, 2017
Ka’ena Point is also a breeding ground for the Federally protected Laysan albatross, where 45 nests were being carefully monitored by the non-profit Pacific Rim Conservation. But no one who has ever cared for another creature – be it bird, animal, or human – can comprehend, much less cope with, this kind of brutal, pointless killing.
214 10,000 Birds
OCTOBER 9, 2023
The latter is even captured in a somewhat gruesome video , in which the hornbill plucks a caged bird out of its cage and kills and eats it. At 15h59, the female picked up the fourth chick and killed it by repeatedly crushing it with her beak. One paper describes them breeding in a human settlement in abandoned clay jars.
186 
10,000 Birds
AUGUST 18, 2022
Around this time of the year, the first few waders are back in Shanghai from their breeding grounds far further up north. Generally, being back here early is not a very good sign – it may indicate a failed breeding attempt, as suggested for Asian Dowitchers in a paper on their presence in Lianyungang somewhat further north of Shanghai.
147
Expert insights. Personalized for you.
We have resent the email to
Are you sure you want to cancel your subscriptions?
Let's personalize your content