In the water, penguins can swim with agility and ease – but this ability might have cost these creatures the power of flightThe puzzle of why the penguin is unable to fly may have finally been solved.
Researchers believe that the bird’s underwater prowess may have cost it its ability to fly.
By looking at seabirds closely related to the penguin, scientists confirmed that a wing that is good for flying cannot also be good for diving and swimming.
The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Professor John Speakman, from the University of Aberdeen and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: “Like many people, I’ve always been interested in penguins, and seeing them do these phenomenal marches across the ice, I’ve often thought: ‘Why don’t they just fly?’
“And it’s really great to be involved in the group of people that have solved it.”
Stubby wings
The first crane egg in southern Britain in more than 400 years has been laid by a nesting bird.
The Great Crane Project has been rearing cranes and reintroducing them to the West Country since 2010.
The egg is considered to be so precious, it even has a round-the-clock guard to protect it.
John Maguire reports from Slimbridge, Gloucestershire.
Does a new study offer a bird’s-eye view into evolution?
Fewer cliff swallows are being killed by moving vehicles because of evolution, suggests a study published online in the journal Current Biology.
”These birds have been exposed to vehicles and roads for 30-plus years,” said the study’s lead author Charles Brown, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Tulsa. ”During that time, they have evolved to avoid being killed by traffic. Evolution can happen very rapidly, and some animals can adapt to urban environments very rapidly.”
The decrease in road deaths is likely because these birds have shorter wingspans, making them more agile flyers, or they are learning to avoid vehicles, Professor Brown said.
In western US, cliff swallows, which live in colonies, have nests around highway bridges, overpasses and road culverts. They sit on roads to pick up gravel for their gizzards to help digest food.
The road kill index in Nebraska decreased from about 20 cliff swallows a year at the start of the study in 1983 to about two birds a year by the end of the study last year. The figures are an estimate because more died but were not found.
The drop cannot be explained by declines in the bird population or in traffic, the study suggests. The birds that continue to die on the roads have longer wingspans. Wing lengths vary between 104 millimetres and 114 millimetres, Professor Brown said.
”Longer-winged swallows sitting on a road probably can’t take off as quickly, or gain altitude as quickly as shorter-winged birds, and thus the former are more likely to collide with an oncoming vehicle,” Professor Brown said.
USA Today
By Jeremy ColesReporter, BBC Nature
The red crowned crane throws some spectacular shapes“Mesmerising and with a little bit of mystery about it.”
That is how aviculturist Amy King describes the graceful leaping, bowing, running, spinning and grass-tossing of dancing cranes.
This unique and spectacular behaviour has been imitated in various human cultures since the Stone Age and the purpose of such elaborate displays is widely understood to establish and reaffirm long-term pair bonds.
But on the occasion that young or single birds dance, for no clear social reasons, scientists become really intrigued.
Curiously, all species of crane dance throughout the year and at any age. The behaviour can appear random at times: sparked by a feather, stick or gust of wind.
Watch cranes reaffirm bonds through dance
Explanations for this peculiar propensity for dance have included socialisation and pair bonding in sub-adults, averting aggression and as a displacement activity when nervous.
But while these reasons could drive certain situations, they cannot explain everything.
Cranes dance most often when relaxed and at ease, often while not involved in any obvious social activity and when they are too young to form pairs; they will even dance alone.
According to a publication in The International Journal of Avian Science (IBIS) the answer could be that most crane dances, outside of courtship, are for play……
7:56PM BST 15 Apr 2013
It has been viewed more than 400,000 times since April 11.
Zoo staff say several Canada geese ended up in the gorilla’s enclosure.
The video shows the gorilla approaching one goose, but as it gets close the bird flaps its wings and charges, send the giant ape running away.
Sources: APTN and YouTube/Sedgwick County Zoo
By Tom Rowley
8:03PM BST 18 Apr 2013
When Ann Hudson stepped outside her Shropshire home on a cold night in February to fetch some coal for the open fire, she never expected to be attacked. But a pheasant swooped down on to the 77-year-old’s head, dug its claws in and clung to her scalp. Eventually, she managed to shake it off and retreated indoors to tell her stunned family.
Since then the pheasant has become a constant presence outside the house she shares in the small village of Wentnor with her husband Ben, 79, and daughter Sally-Ann, 44. The “tyrant” stares at them through the French window and runs alongside their car, headbutting the wheels. When they venture into the garden to tend the flower beds or trim the hedge, it pounces, putting its wings forward, fanning its tail feathers and dropping its head. Three months later, they have even given it a name – Phil.
Pictures in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph of Sally-Ann trying to evade the bird or tackling it with a badminton racquet may have raised a chuckle but she says the stalking can be serious, bringing to mind a Hitchcock classic, The Birds.
“Sometimes he is fine and just pecks around, but other times he can be quite aggressive,” says Ms Hudson, a medical secretary. “It just depends how he is feeling. This morning my dad was up a ladder and the pheasant was pecking around his ankles.
“But we are wise to him now. If we see him approaching and it looks like he is going to attack, we put a stick out to defend ourselves. We never hit him but we have to put something down to stop us being pecked.”
The species remains vulnerable with only hundreds of breeding pairs in ScotlandBird watchers and hillwalkers are being asked to keep an eye out for hen harriers in an attempt to conserve their numbers.
The birds of prey are struggling to breed in some areas, partly due to persecution and disappearing moorland.
In 2010 there were 500 pairs in Scotland, the bulk of the UK population.
The sighting initiative is being launched by the Partnership for Action against Wildlife Crime (Paw) Scotland.
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Satyandra Gupta apparently loves birds so much he decided to build one. His skills as a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland probably didn’t hurt in his quest, and this week he announced the Robo Raven is now a reality. The robotic avian can dive and roll and looks so realistic that other birds have attacked it in flight.
Britain’s biggest bird of prey was nearly knocked out of our skies for good almost a century ago.
The sight of the white-tailed eagle‘s impressive two-metre wingspan in our skies was eventually saved by a reintroduction scheme in Scotland.
But, even as its recovery is being hailed as a conservation success, the mighty bird may be under threat once again.
The population remains small, vulnerable and limited to just one area of the country. Will the eagles ever spread their giant wings beyond Scotland?
Denis rides on the back of his 100-year-old turtle mate Speedie. His life was saved by Gail Daniell, who performed CPR on him. Picture: Mark Brake Source: adelaidenow
Denis, the wild-crested pigeon, was saved by Gail Daniell, who gave CPR when he stopped breathing. Picture: Mark Brake Source: adelaidenow
DENIS the pigeon owes his life to Gail Daniell.
The Adelaide resident and Fauna Rescue SA volunteer helped nurse the frail, ant-covered bird back to health – and she also performed CPR on him.
Ms Daniell, of Salisbury North, had been caring for the crested pigeon for about four days when, during an attempt to feed him, he started to choke and stopped breathing.
“Denis just stopped breathing and I didn’t even think twice, I just started with the CPR,” Ms Daniell said.
“I gave him probably three or four little breaths and pumped his little chest a few times and he started to come back to life.
“He came to me very sick, covered in ants and in a lot of pain. He was with his little brother, but unfortunately he didn’t make it past the first day or so.”
Ms Daniell learnt the life-saving skill in a first aid course for humans a decade ago.
In the past six years, she has helped care for 50 animals, including Speedie, a 100-year-old turtle who arrived at Ms Daniell’s home a year ago.
Fauna Rescue SA chairwoman Liz MacGuinness said it was the first time in her 19 years with the organisation she had heard of CPR being administered to a bird.
“I know it can very occasionally happen with puppies, but it’s very unusual, not something I’ve ever heard of with a bird or any other type of animal really,” Ms MacGuinness said.
“Birds especially are difficult because they’re just so tiny and fragile,” she said.
Ms Daniell hopes Denis, who is named after comic and film characterDennis the Menace, will be strong enough to release into a nearby park in coming weeks.
“But it is hard to say when he’ll want to leave,” she said. “He’s being a bit of a sook, he doesn’t like to be too far away from me.”
indian runner duck 