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Birding the Kruger Park (2): Bateleur area

10,000 Birds

As the world’s largest living bird, the Ostrich is the topic of many weird and wonderful scientific papers. Here are a few examples: The Ostrich Communal Nesting System. Medicinal and commercial uses of ostrich products in Tanzania. Studies on improving ostrich egg hatchability. Ostriches originated in Asia.

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Is my Rhino Still Alive?

10,000 Birds

On average, over 100 rhinos were illegally killed each month. Molewa added that so far this year 49 rhino had been killed countrywide. The annual number of rhino poached in South Africa last year rose to 1,215, Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa told a media briefing in Pretoria two weeks ago.

Rhinos 173
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I Remember Elephants

10,000 Birds

In Africa, one elephant is being killed every 15 minutes. But the “illegal international trade” is already there, killing – among other places – in Kruger (S. Another ellie is being killed as you read this line. We are facing a plague of poaching that is again decimating the species. How much time did you need to read this blog?

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Avian influenza H5N2 in the Mississippi and Pacific Flyways

10,000 Birds

Ostriches are infected as well as, in one known case, Falcons. Will H5N2 Kill Wild Birds? There will be a Turkey for every table for the US Thanksgiving. H5N2 is a subtype of Influenza A, and infects many species of birds including those mentioned as well as ducks (domestic and wild). So, what about wild birds?

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Birding and Safari-ing South Africa with the ABA

10,000 Birds

The leopards place their kill in a tree, protecting it from poaching by other predators. So, the best way to find a leopard is to find the kill. It was a fresh kill, and though it might take hours, the observers knew that eventually the leopard was going to come back for his breakfast.

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Mrs Pankhurst’s Purple Feather–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

The purple feather of the title is an ostrich plume (now housed in the Museum of London), a symbol of Emmeline’s crusade and personal style (if you saw the 2015 film Suffragette , Meryl Streep, playing Pankhurst, is wearing a hat full purple feathers).

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Here’s the new bird family tree. It’s amazing.

10,000 Birds

The new 48-genome analysis included only ostrich and tinamou DNA, so it doesn’t shed further light on paleognath interrelationships, but it does reinforce their distinctiveness from all other living birds. Now it’s late 2014, six and a half years later, and here’s what we know today. Open Jarvis et al.’s Jarvis et al.

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