10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

However, we now know that human ancestors became upright first, and were bipedal for millions of years before they started to use tools extensively, and then another million years went by before their brains started to evolve a significantly larger size. Salas-Gismondi, R., Altamirano, A., Shawkey, M., D’Alba, L., Vinther, J.,

Penguins 222

Penguins Seals Peru Leopards 222

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 9, 2021

Humans, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. I have to say that the pattern suits the buntings much better than humans, though, and hopefully, it is also more pleasant for them to wear. This species is listed as vulnerable – similar to the Yellow-breasted Buntings, it is trapped on a large scale.

Birds 264

Birds Japan Germany Ducks 264

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 22, 2019

It’s a matter of personal preference: neither does every reader like, say, science fiction, or the writing of Henry James, or romance novels. In A Dance of Cranes, dancing, both avian and human, is a leitmotif. (For There’s no accounting for taste.

2018 172

2018 Humane Laws Suffering 172

10,000 Birds

JULY 22, 2024

Given the men some women choose, it seems these results are directly transferable to humans as well. In contrast, the courtship behavior of the males did not make much of a difference ( source ). That may not be true for the results of another study looking at personality traits of Red Jungle Fowl over their life.

Vietnam 240

Vietnam Fowl Birds Iran 240

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2014

It’s very hard to organize the many ways in which human beings relate to avian beings into comprehensible text. Larks, for example. The 300 stories enhance the thousands, maybe millions of facts Cocker has compiled, creating a volume that speaks to a collective human experience that is rooted in both poetry and science.

Egypt 242

Egypt Birds Albania Eagles 242

10,000 Birds

MAY 27, 2024

But while humans mainly try to stay slim and fit for health reasons, Eurasian Siskins care more about the danger of being eaten. In science speak, this is named the optimal body mass hypothesis. People tend to eat more food when in company. The same was shown for Eurasian Siskins ( source ).

Iran 225

Iran Germany Research Humane 225

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 6, 2024

It’s all about the improbable intersection of human beings and Emperor Penguins, and if I can’t make it to an Emperor Penguin colony (highly unlikely), reading this book has been the next best thing. It’s part memoir, part travelogue, part scientific narrative, part prologue to making an argument for Antarctic conservation.

Penguins 199

Penguins Seals Leopards Mammals 199

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

They may be about bird eggs ( The Most Perfect Thing: The Inside (and Outside) of a Bird’s Egg , 2016), or a 17th-century ornithologist ( Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis Willughby, 2016), or How Bullfinches learn songs from humans ( The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology.

Dissection 261

Dissection Birds Europe Eggs 261

10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2014

And the last of the facts that I listed is rather an example why that support is, well, qualified. I’m not a fan of some of the cuts to science, but National came in in 2008. Regular readers of this site might be able to think of a much discussed example, that of birding on National Wildlife Refuges versus hunting.

Rhinos 185

Rhinos Hunting New Zealand Science 185

Critter News

APRIL 4, 2009

The feud between animal rights activists and researchers is among the bitterest in science. But many researchers - although adamant that animal research remains critical to finding cures and expanding medical knowledge - have come to concede that using creatures as human stand-ins is unnecessary for many procedures.

Animal Research 100

Animal Research Research Medical Research Animal 100

10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2011

You’d think, then, that applying science to philosophy by studying the evolutionary underpinnings of thought and behavior across species would be right up my alley. I would have liked to see far more examples of moral structures that would not look good or bad to the audience’s eyes but completely orthogonal to human morality.

Morals 130

Morals Animal Humane Litter 130

10,000 Birds

MAY 19, 2011

Way back when I started what turned out to be my thesis research (on humans), it became important for me to learn about bird migration. I was involved in the study of human movement and navigation on land, and there was a lot of research coming out about bird navigation. Itcher birds, migratory members of the tern family. Image source.

Compassion 229

Compassion Humane Research Egypt 229

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 20, 2023

As you can easily judge from the dullness of this information, it is not something I made up but rather an appalling example of nepotism in the naming of birds. If you have always wondered what the minimum anesthetic concentration for isoflurane and sevoflurane for the Crested Serpent-eagle is, science has an answer.

China 263

China Birds Pythons Eagles 263

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 3, 2021

Bird communication is a complex and evolving science. Signaling theory comes up frequently in bird literature (one example I can think of off-hand is Nick Davies’ Cuckoo: Cheating by Nature, Bloomsbury, 2015), but if you’re not familiar with its basic ideas you must read the Introduction. There is so much here!

North America 279

North America Birds Research America 279

10,000 Birds

APRIL 29, 2024

In what might nowadays be regarded as a slightly weird scientific practice, after meeting naturalist Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt, he married Messerschmidt’s widow after his death and got notes from Messerschmidt’s Siberia travels from her that had not been handed over to the Imperial Academy of Sciences.

Eagles 132

Eagles Sea Lions Bears Russia 132

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 22, 2013

For example, take the Mississippi Kite (above), photographed at the Dairy Mart Ponds in Tijuana River Valley, between San Diego and the Mexican border. Not only is it a very impressive citizen science project that manages to marshal the legions of birders around Canada and the U.S., Let’s get to it then.

San Diego 190

San Diego California Condor California Bald Eagle 190

Critter News

MARCH 6, 2010

The laboratory will be used to study human diseases and treatments. It would be looking at biomedical or cellular mechanisms that are changed, for example in heart disease, and get insights into what might be a target for drug development.”.The From West Virginia Metro News.

West Virginia 100

West Virginia Virginia Animal Research Biomedical Research 100

10,000 Birds

JULY 7, 2020

This is a delightful book, large (8-1/2 by 11 inches), filled with Sibley’s distinctive artwork and an organized potpourri of research-based stories about the science behind bird’s lives. A good example is the function of beauty in male birds. copyright @2020 by David A llen Sibley. I disagree.

2020 264

2020 Birds North America Sparrows 264

Critter News

MARCH 10, 2009

I responded to a post on animalblog that cited a recent article in the journal "Proceedings" of the National Academy of Sciences. This story on HIV research is one example. Here's my response on medical research in general. I recently had a discussion about medical research using animals. It’s just a question of WILL.

Medical Research 100

Medical Research Medical Research Monkeys 100

Critter News

NOVEMBER 16, 2010

The author is Nick Cooney and he's the Director of The Humane League, an animal advocacy non-profit with offices in Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington DC. Change Of Heart provides science-based answers to many questions that are hotly debated among animal activists. In the author's words.

Advocacy 100

Advocacy Factory Farm Factory Farming Farm Sanctuary 100

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2023

Supporting local conservation organizations and participating in citizen science initiatives allows us to contribute to the protection of Shanghai’s bird species and their habitats. Conclusion: Shanghai, with its juxtaposition of urban landscapes and thriving birdlife, is a testament to the harmonious coexistence of humanity and nature.

China 213

China Endangered Species Sanctuary Protection 213

10,000 Birds

JULY 3, 2012

What I didn’t know was how this relationship actually works: the mechanics of Red Knot migration, the reduced digestive systems necessary for their long flighta, the need to fatten up quickly so they can fly to the Arctic and breed, how they compete with other shorebirds and gulls and, it turns out, humans, for horseshoe crab eggs.

Delaware 202

Delaware New Jersey Eggs Medical Research 202

10,000 Birds

APRIL 1, 2024

A few changes happen in March – for example, many European countries and the USA switch to daylight savings time. I am sure some people will hate this photo of a Eurasian Hoopoe , framed as it is by human artifacts. But anyway, Shanghai in March. Of course, me being me, this is a good reason to show it.

Chicago 173

Chicago Birds Asia China 173

10,000 Birds

MAY 17, 2016

For example, if a highly competitive common bird species expands its range into a region where local, more rare species exist, they could get pushed out. In essence, the benefits to birds from climate change (global warming caused by human release of greenhouse gas pollution) is neutral, while the negative effects are serious and increasing.

North America 144

North America Europe America United States 144

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 7, 2020

Not all habitat change is due to humans; there is Chestnut Blight destroying American Chestnuts in the early 1900s, and the more recent Dutch Elm disease. In addition, many of the numbers and examples given for NYC areas beyond the Bronx represent species observed in Central Park in Manhattan and Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

New York City 185

New York City New York Birds Breeding 185

10,000 Birds

JUNE 21, 2016

In humans, adults (probably mainly mothers) do this thing called “motherese” which is talking in a way one would normally not talk to another adult, to a baby. Jon Sakata, a professor of neurobiology at McGill, says that songbirds learn vocalizations like humans learn speech. Salmón, J. Nilsson, A. Nord, and S. Here’s the problem.

Zebras 130

Zebras Mammals Primates Birds 130

10,000 Birds

JULY 18, 2022

Where it is not – for example, in Japan – it will have difficulties finding a partner to mate. ” I can see how this line of thinking leads to all kinds of sci-fi types of thought (“would I mate with an alien if I was the last human on earth”, etc.), How efficient. How surprising.

Birds 162

Birds South Korea Japan Abandoning 162

Sales and Marketing Management

APRIL 13, 2020

For example, if you need to walk through calculations and data projections that require significant context, you would be unlikely to dump everything into an email or text message. Be a human first. It doesn’t need a long, meandering discussion about world politics, science, or global markets. But it is impacting everyone.

Agenda 157

Agenda Emotional Adoptable Science 157

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

We immediately get a sense of the pigeons’ abundance, beauty, and danger to human activity. The chapter on Martha, for example, just shows a close-up of her stuff body–not the whole body, the torso and tail–against an almost-black background. It’s an effective introduction. Can I say that this is a beautiful book?

2014 167

2014 Killing Michigan Kentucky 167

10,000 Birds

MARCH 18, 2011

Geophagy, the intentional consumption of soil by vertebrates, has long been documented in a number of bird and mammal species – including wide-spread use by humans – which consume soil to increase absorption of certain minerals not naturally occurring in the local diet. That’s right – birds eating clay.

Peru 255

Peru Parrots 2011 Deer 255

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

Described in the “Territoriality and aggression” chapter, this is a sublime example of behaviour from the “Understanding Animal Behaviour” by Rory Putman, an Emeritus Chair in Behavioural and Environmental Biology at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. Those bears live in the wild and are not used to humans.

Animal 118

Animal Bears Stray Dog Blackbirds 118

10,000 Birds

MAY 7, 2019

Written in a friendly, inclusive style quietly grounded in science, How to Know the Birds is an excellent addition to the growing list of birding essay books by talented birder/writers like Pete Dunne and Kenn Kaufman.

North America 118

North America Birds Prairie Dogs Barn Owls 118

10,000 Birds

MARCH 13, 2012

After one 3 year stint, they left with 131,405 specimens including birds, mammals, reptiles, plants and even human remains (which were only recently repatriated for burial in Africa!) James Wakelin is prime example of modern ornithologist and conservator. They discovered Gurney’s Sugarbird during their time in South Africa.

Mozambique 223

Mozambique South Africa Africa Collecting 223

10,000 Birds

MARCH 20, 2011

My friend Vickie Henderson , who has some serious long-range vision, looked at the science behind Tennessee’s crane hunting proposal and found it badly wanting. Ask the proposing states to follow Nebraska’s example, to let them, and their big, desperately imperiled white cousins, alone. Here’s the petition. I think not!

2011 244

2011 Hunting Kentucky Hunters 244

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 29, 2022

The Sacred Ibis was seen as the incarnation of the god Thoth, who (with gods apparently better at multitasking than humans) was (or maybe still is, who knows?) was responsible for maintaining the universe, judging the dead, and for writing and science ( source ). Possibly also for doing the dishes. Two ways of life folded at once.

Australia 147

Australia Birds Sheep Zebras 147

Sales and Marketing Management

JUNE 12, 2017

That’s because the profession is part art, as it’s always been, and part science, thanks to the rise of Big Data, social media targeting and other technology for targeting and nurturing buyers. And it’s easy for over-reliance on data to distract a marketing organization from the human side of marketing. Don’t Drop Creativity.

Emotional 87

Emotional Campaign Science Laws 87

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 16, 2023

As I frequently mention, science is quite wonderful. For example, this paper points out that migrating Bramblings prefer to feed in a habitat in which they are less likely to get killed. Contrary to my usual habit, I will not try to transfer this finding into the human world as I am too afraid of being accused of fat-shaming.

China 147

China Birds Reptiles Killing 147