Gloucestershire conservationists track migration of endangered geese – BBC News 20 Feb 2013
Gloucestershire conservationists track migration of endangered geese
A Gloucestershire-based conservation group is spearheading a project to solve the mystery of thousands of red-breasted geese lost in migration.
The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) is working with Bulgarian conservationists on the project.
The trust hopes to find out what happened to about 50,000 of the endangered birds which disappeared from the Bulgarian coast 10 years ago.
The trust thinks the birds may have found a new site in Asia.
It plans to tag their birds to chart their migration destination to see if this is the case.
Russian ArcticAnother theory is that the birds may have fallen victim to hunting, development or changes in farming along their 6,000km (3,600 mile) migration route to breeding grounds in the Russian Arctic.
The WWT’s Peter Cranswick said: “Almost overnight, we were unable to account for around half the world’s red-breasted geese.
“The reasons are still unclear and we are tracking these individual birds to find out more.
“It is also possible that, as the climate has changed, some birds have started to winter further east.
“We hope our tagged birds will reveal as yet unknown sites, so we can assess their importance and – if necessary – ensure their protection.”
Gift-Giving Birds May Think Much Like People – Wired Science 4 Feb 2013
Gift-Giving Birds May Think Much Like People
If the gift-giving habits of jays are anything to go by, we may be surrounded by birds whose minds are in some ways remarkably similar to our own.
Male Eurasian jays, a common member of a bird family that also includes blue jays, crows and ravens, passed a food-giving test of whether they knew what their mates wanted to eat.
That deceptively simple ability hints at what scientists call a “theory of mind,” or a nuanced awareness of other individuals’ thoughts and feelings.
“It was long thought that only humans could do this. What we’ve shown in a series of experiments is that doesn’t seem to be the case,” said comparative psychologist Nicola Clayton of England’s University of Cambridge.
Clayton’s findings, published Feb. 4 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are the latest to chip away at the notion of humans as singularly exceptional, possessing cognitive abilities unprecedented in the animal kingdom.
That notion didn’t always hold sway, and in some ways corrected the excessive anthropomorphism of the 19th century, when such august figures as Charles Darwin ruminated on the maternal affections of starfish and earwigs.
The pendulum swung back in the 20th century, to the point that now-famous primatologist Jane Goodall was originally mocked for thinking chimpanzees, humankind’s closest relative, had human-like feelings.
We now know that chimps do have such feelings, not to mention tools, another formerly human-singular capacity also seen indolphins, elephants and even fish. Indeed, the last decade of animal behavior research seems like a parade of findings that animals are quite complicated beings. Even honeybees seem to have emotions.
A theory of mind, however, is generally still considered uniquely human. Experiments have suggested its existence in great apes, but these remain open to alternative interpretations. That birds might have a theory of mind is a remarkable claim.
In the new study, researchers led by Clayton and fellow Cambridge psychologist Ljerka Ostojić decided to study whether Eurasian jays understand that other jays have their own desires and motivations, an ability known to cognitive scientists as “state attribution.” It’s not in itself a full-blown theory of mind, but it’s a key component.
Given that researchers can’t communicate directly with jays, their state attributions are difficult to discern, but Clayton’s team took advantage of male jays’ gift-giving habits. To win favor with mates, they give them food. “If you look at people, gift-giving is one of those great theory-of-mind tests,” said Clayton. “If you’re good at giving presents, it’s quite a good test of what you know.”
The researchers allowed male jays to watch as their mates, separated from them by a screen, ate their fill of either moth larvae or mealworm larvae. The males could then offer either a single mealworm or moth through the screen as a gift.
For jays as well as people, variety is valued: A jay that’s gorged on moths will generally prefer to eat mealworms afterwards, and vice versa, just a person satiated by chocolate will next take a slice of cake.
The male jays’ choices bore that awareness out. After watching their mates eat one type of food, the males consistently made gifts of the other. Based on what they’d observed, they knew what their mates would want. Importantly, females didn’t communicate a preference. When their meals were hidden from sight, males failed to give the desired gift.
A male Eurasian jay. Image: Ljerka Ostojić
The benefits of knowing a partner’s mind are obvious, wrote the researchers, who framed an analogy in Valentine’s Day-appropriate terms of a man who gives chocolates to his wife.
“The giving and receiving of chocolates is an important pair-bonding ritual, and as such the wife may be unlikely to reject the chocolates whether or not she currently wants them,” they wrote. “However, a man that makes sure that he gives his wife the chocolates she currently really wants will improve his bond with her much more effectively.”
While state attribution is just one piece of a theory of mind, research suggests jays possess the other pieces, too. Clayton’s earlier work showed that food-stealing jays hide food from jays who’ve watched them, but not from jays who haven’t. They seem to know that other birds can learn.
Jays also seem to plan for the future and consciously follow other jays’ gazes. In humans, these abilities don’t come together until around age four.
As for whether jays make state attributions about individuals other than mates, or about other species, it’s hard to say. Jays only give gifts to mates, so the tests haven’t been run. The same holds for whether other birds and other animals share the jays’ nascent theory of mind, a proposition that Clayton warned against assuming to be true.
At the same time, though, Clayton cautioned against assuming animals to be unintelligent. There’s an inevitable gap between what’s known and what’s been demonstrated experimentally. “Who knows? It’s not being tested,” she said. “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”
The ultimate importance of the work, Clayton said, is the richness it implies for the world around us. She referred to corvids as “the ape in your backyard.” Evolutionary anthropologist Brian Hare of Duke University echoed her words.
“This is another piece of evidence in support of the idea that corvid cognition converges with that of the great apes,” said Hare. “Just like fish, dolphins and penguins all evolved flippers independently to deal with ocean living, it seems corvids have evolved intelligence that rivals that of our own ape family.”
“We’re all blown away by what chimpanzees and bonobos can do,” Clayton said. “Most of us aren’t going to see a chimp in their natural habitat. But there are these other versions of intelligent life in your backyard, or just down the garden path.”
Video: Tests of whether male Eurasian jays know what their mates want. (Ostojić et al./PNAS)
Citation: “Evidence suggesting that desire-state attribution may govern food sharing in Eurasian jays.” By Ljerka Ostojić, Rachael C. Shaw, Lucy G. Cheke, and Nicola S. Clayton. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 110 No. 6, February 5, 2013.
No flight of fancy for these birds – Sooty Terns – Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) 4 Feb 2013
No flight of fancy for these birds
- February 4, 2013
- Zoe Ferguson
Injured sooty terns
A bunch of injured sooty terns have been brought to Taronga Zoo’s wildlife hospital after the recent rough weather.
THEY are not normally seen on land but the recent wild weather has played havoc with the routine of the sooty tern.
Taronga Zoo Wildlife Hospital has experienced a rare influx of the tropical oceans seabird.
The Wildlife Hospital manager, Libby Hall, said that seeing 14 of the birds had been unusual, but not unexpected.
Blown off course … a sooty tern at Taronga Zoo. Photo: Peter Rae”They’ve been blown in from Lord Howe Island on the strong winds from the big storm the other night. They’ve been found in areas such as Strathfield, Manly, Palm Beach, Watsons Bay and Dural. The birds’ long wings and light bodies made them easy to be carried by the storm,” Ms Hall said.
”They’re not waterproof seabirds, as they’re used to tropical conditions and plucking fish from the water. They came in very weak and we’d like to get them out of the hospital and back into the wild as soon as possible.
”Hopefully two weeks will be long enough to see these little ones strong enough to return to a healthy weight, eat fish, and fly again. They’re all resting right now, nestled together under a heat lamp – like any animal they need their rest, hydration, nutrition and warmth after this ordeal. I think they’ll all be fine, though. A few we got in a couple of days ago are already getting better,” Ms Hall said.
If a sooty tern is spotted, it’s important to not feed them, but put them in a cardboard box with a towel in a quiet place away from pets, and take it straight to the Wildlife Hospital at Taronga Zoo, or call WIRES – the NSW Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service.
British birdwatching holidays: four of the best – Telegraph Travel UK – 6 Feb 2013
British birdwatching holidays: four of the best (Follow Link)
Beginner’s birdwatching
South Devon
Naturetrek launches a series of Birdwatching for Beginners breaks this year. Next weekend’s three-day South Devon in Winter is aimed squarely at the amateur. Starting and finishing in Exeter, the weekend is based around the Exe estuary, with accommodation at the basic but comfortable Dolphin Hotel in Exmouth, and includes time on the Devon heaths and a three-hour river cruise to see its most famous winter visitor, the avocet, which often gathers in huge numbers along the water’s edge. Birds you can expect to see at the best sites along the estuary’s mudflats include little egrets, wigeons, oystercatchers, curlews and grebes; with buzzards and peregrines over the nearby marshes, and Dartford warblers and great grey shrikes on the Devon heaths. Led by expert guides chosen for their patience and willingness to answer even those downright silly questions, this is the perfect taster trip for those considering birdwatching as a hobby.
- South Devon in Winter for Beginners departs on February 8 and costs from £295 pp including transport, two nights’ accommodation, guides and most meals (01962-733051; naturetrek.co.uk).
How owls swivel their heads – BBC News 1 Feb 2013
How owls swivel their heads
By Jonathan AmosScience correspondent, BBC News
An owl demonstrates an 270-degree turn (Video by JHU)
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It’s the owl’s greatest trick – turning its head almost a full circle.
The puzzle has been how the bird doesn’t throttle itself in the process. If we did it, we’d cut the blood supply to our brains and pass out.
But according to two US-based scientists, the owl has some very smart bone and vascular structures running along its neck to the skull.
These features protect blood vessels from damage and maintain the flow even when the head is swivelled 270 degrees.
“They haven’t developed just one answer to the problem; they have several answers,” said Dr Philippe Gailloud from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
“And it’s because of this set of solutions that we don’t see lots of owls lying on the forest floor having suffered strokes,” the interventional neuroradiologist told BBC News.
Most birds have extremely flexible necks, but the owls are the avian species that have perhaps garnered the greatest attention for their neck-twisting exploits.
They must turn their heads in this extraordinary way because of their eyes’ narrow field of view and relative immobility.
It’s true they have double the number of bones in their neck compared with us – 14 versus seven cervical vertebrae. But it’s really the way the animal manages the flow of oxygenated blood to its brain that underpins the impressive feat.
Owl adaptations
See a barn owl show off its incredible hearing
Why are owls so adept at hunting?
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter:@BBCAmos
Pigeon DNA gives up fancy secrets – BBC News 1 Feb 2013
Pigeon DNA gives up fancy secrets
By Jonathan AmosScience correspondent, BBC News
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They may not be everybody’s favourite, but pigeons have now joined that elite club of animals to have had their DNA laid bare by researchers.
A team from the US, Denmark and China reports the sequencing of the genome of the rock pigeon (Columba livia) in this week’s Science magazine.
It has allowed the origins of some of the roughly 350 breeds to be traced.
The researchers have even managed to pinpoint the gene responsible for the head-crests seen in many fancy birds.
This gene, known as EphB2, controls whether the head and neck feathers on a bird turn upwards to create the ostentatious displays or downwards to maintain a line of smooth plumage.
It is a single mutation, or error, in EphB2 that turns the crest on.
By analysing the DNA around the gene, the scientists have been able to show this feather feature, much prized by pigeon “fanciers”, to have evolved just the once. It was then spread through the various bird populations by breeders who wanted to see it in their own animals.
Human insightsSome might question the relevance of delving into the DNA of pigeons. It is fair to say the feral birds that congregate in city centres have somewhat smeared the reputation of Columba livia in the eyes of many people.
But Dr Mike Shapiro says the pigeon may lead us to some very useful information about ourselves.
“Just about all animals use the same toolkit of genes to build their bodies and to control similar processes during development,” the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, researcher explained.
“By understanding how these processes work in other animals, we can in turn learn more about normal and abnormal variation in humans as well. If you take the gene we identified, this EphB2 gene – this is a gene that has also been implicated in particular types of cancers. It may also have a role in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease,” he told BBC News.
The attraction of pigeon genetics mirrors that of dogs.
In both cases, domestication and selective breeding have produced huge numbers of different breeds – each with a distinctive physique, colour and even behaviour.
These discrete populations give scientists the opportunity to compare and contrast the genetics of the different groups, making it easier to find the causes of specific traits.
To read the full DNA sequence of the pigeon, the researchers used a male bird from the Danish Tumbler breed.
This work, undertaken at the Beijing Genomics Institute and the University of Copenhagen, was then supplemented by the more limited sequencing of over 30 other breeds and even some feral birds – those unpopular city pigeons.
Great escapeFrom this endeavour, it was found that Columba livia‘s DNA holds about 17,300 genes – the codes used by cells to implement the biochemistry needed to build and maintain the animal’s body.
As well as the EphB2 phenomenon, the analysis threw up some important observations about the histories of the different breeds.
It confirms most of them come from the Middle East. It is clear also that there has been a big exchange of pigeons between the Middle East and South Asia, and India in particular – the likely consequence of historic trading connections between the two regions.
And, the researchers show unambiguously how escaped racing pigeons have bolstered the populations of feral birds.
Shapiro’s group compared the sequences of a pigeon taken from an overpass in Utah and another bird living by a lake in Virginia. Despite being separated by thousands of kilometres, these animals were genetically very similar to each other and to the classic racing homer breed.
“Breeders tell us that not all of their birds come back from every race, and so these are the birds with the greatest potential to escape and contribute to the free-living population,” Dr Shapiro said.
“And at least in the sites we sampled, here in Salt Lake City as well as a site in Virginia, this appears to be the case – that the feral pigeons bear a very strong genetic resemblance to racing homing pigeons.”
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter:@BBCAmos
‘Sound Maps’ May Help Pigeons Navigate – Wired 31 Jan 2013
‘Sound Maps’ May Help Pigeons Navigate
- BY SCIENCENOW
- 01.31.13
Image: tecrekka/Flickr
By Elizabeth Devitt, ScienceNOW
Birds may not have big brains, but they know how to navigate. They wing around town and across continents with amazing accuracy, while we watch and wonder. Biologists believe that sight, smell, and an internal compass all contribute to avian orienteering. But none of these skills completely explains how birds fly long distances or return home from places they’ve never been. A new study proposes that the animals use infrasound—low-level background noise in our atmosphere—to fly by “images” they hear. These acoustical maps may also explain how other creatures steer.
Scientists have long considered infrasound as a navigational cue for birds. But until U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Jonathan Hagstrum in Menlo Park, California, became intrigued by the unexplained loss of almost 60,000 pigeons during a race from France to England in 1997, no one pinpointed how the process worked. The race went bust when the birds’ flight route crossed that of a Concorde jet, and Hagstrum wanted to know why. “When I realized the birds in that race were on the same flight path as the Concorde, I knew it had to be infrasound,” he says. The supersonic plane laid down a sonic boom when most of the animals were flying across the English Channel.
Normally, infrasound is generated when deep ocean waves send pressure waves reverberating into the land and atmosphere. Infrasound can come from other natural causes, such as earthquakes, or humanmade events, such as the acceleration of the Concorde. The long, slow waves move across vast distances. Although humans can’t hear them, birds and other animals are able to tune in.
When sound moves through the atmosphere, the waves get bounced upward by steep-sided terrain and bent downward by wind and cold air. The topography and prevailing weather conditions give places a sound signature. Hagstrum hypothesized that birds create maps with these unique acoustics, and he returned to homing pigeons to test the idea.
Hagstrum gathered information from release-site journals for pigeons from a Cornell University loft that were sent flying from three sites near their home in Ithaca, New York: Jersey Hill, Castor Hill, and Weedsport. Pigeons from this loft had a peculiar history of getting lost every time they flew away from the Jersey Hill fire tower, located 119 kilometers west of Ithaca. Inexplicably, the only day all the pigeons came home was 13 August 1969.
Release-site data from 1968 to 1987 also showed birds consistently left the Castor Hill tower at 50° off the bearing of their home loft, whereas they always left Weedsport 15° off course. Homing pigeons from other New York lofts didn’t have that problem. “But year after year, they lost Cornell Loft birds at Jersey Hill,” Hagstrum says. “It had to be missing sound.”
To make his case, Hagstrum modeled atmospheric infrasound around the three release sites on the days the pigeons flew astray. The program factored in the effects of terrain and atmospheric conditions to create three-dimensional diagrams of sound waves bouncing through the atmosphere and back to the ground.
In a paper published today in The Journal of Experimental Biology, Hagstrum correlates the trajectory of sound waves at release sites with the pigeons’ flight performance. He shows that the terrain at Jersey Hill interrupted sound transmission, which interfered with the birds’ ability to navigate.
“Jersey Hill was a bad spot for Cornell birds,” Hagstrum says. “The geometry of the area conspired to create a sound shadow.” On the single day in August 1969 that the birds returned home, there was a temperature inversion that bounced sound back to the release site, allowing the pigeons to navigate.
“I think it’s very convincing evidence that infrasound is a component of information birds use,” says Alfred Bedard, a physicist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences in Boulder, Colorado, who wasn’t involved in the study. “The open area is what infrasound they find most useful.” Still, “these results aren’t surprising,” he says. “If creatures have information in their environment that’s important to their survival, they would sense it.”
Birds aren’t the only animals attuned to infrasound. Whales and elephants sing at super-low frequencies to communicate across great distances. Tigers, giraffes, and okapi sense it, too. Perhaps the real question is why can’t we see what the animals hear?
This story provided by ScienceNOW, the daily online news service of the journal Science.
Join the Big Garden Birdwatch in your area – BBC Nature – 25 Jan 2013
Join the Big Garden Birdwatch in your area
Anyone with a garden or a park nearby is urged to take part in the survey
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Thousands of people around the UK are taking part in the world’s biggest wildlife survey on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 January – the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch.
The charity is asking you to help survey birds living in your local area, from the north of Scotland to the southwest of England; across Wales and Northern Ireland.
To coincide with the event, the BBC is bringing you live webcam actionof the UK’s garden birds, helpful identification guides and expert analysis of what you’re seeing.
We’d like to hear from you too, to share your sightings and pictures and to compare how our garden birds differ around the nation.
The Big Garden Birdwatch is the world’s biggest wildlife survey.
Almost 600,000 people across the UK, including 90,000 pupils and teachers at schools, took part in 2012, counting more than nine million birds between them.
The survey takes just an hour of your time.
All you need to do is count the birds in your garden or a local park for one hour – then tell the RSPB what you see.
As well as bringing you closer to wildlife near you, the survey helps scientists discover which species of bird are doing well or are in decline and how different birds, such as finches, starlings and sparrows, are faring in different regions.
Disappearing starlingsFor example, data collated over the past 10 years shows that mistle thrushes are seen in fewer than half the number of gardens they were seen in a decade ago.
Now in its 34th year, the Big Garden Birdwatch survey has helped highlight some dramatic declines in UK garden birds.
In the first survey in 1979, an average of 15 starlings were seen per garden, but that fell to an average of just three starlings per garden in 2012 – the lowest ever level.
House sparrow numbers have fallen by two thirds over the lifetime of the survey too.
Bird populations also differ around the country, which is why it is so important to survey the birds in the gardens in your area.
The RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch survey runs from Saturday 26 to Sunday 27 January 2013. BBC Nature is streaming live webcams of UK garden bird action, helpful identification guides and expert analysis across the weekend.
Events across England, Scotland and Wales
Visit the RSPB website to discover Birdwatch events in your area including:
ENGLAND
Bedfordshire: Stockwood Discovery Centre, Luton
County Durham: Durham University Botanic Gardens
Essex: RSPB Rainham Marshes
Lancashire: Ribble Discovery Centre, Fairhaven Lake
Norfolk: The Forum and Millennium Library, Norwich
North Yorkshire: RHS Garden Harlow Carr
Suffolk: Lakenheath Fen nature reserve
West Midlands: RSPB Sandwell Valley nature reserve
West Sussex: Sidlesham Visitor Centre
SCOTLAND
Aberdeenshire: RSPB Loch of Strathbeg
Dumfries and Galloway: RSPB Mersehead, Southwick
Edinburgh: Gorgie City Farm
Perth and Kingross: Flatford Wildlife Garden, near East Bergholt
WALES
Ceredigion: RSPB Ynys-hir Reserve
If a site is not listed near you, then please visit the RSPB website where there are details of more locations hosting birdwatching events this weekend.
Join BBC Nature on Facebook and Twitter @BBCNature.
Can GPS trackers save pigeon racing? – BBC 23 Jan 2013
Can GPS trackers save pigeon racing?
23 January 2013 Last updated at 17:21 GMT
Pigeon fancying has been a staple of British culture for decades and even the Queen is known to send her royal pigeons into races.
But the sport has seen its popularity decline over the years with fewer young people showing an interest in breeding pigeons.
Technological advances could now reverse the trend and avid pigeon racers are already working with companies on introducing live GPS tracking to the sport, in the hope of attracting millions of pounds in online betting. The BBC’s Franz Strasser went to the largest pigeon fancier convention in Blackpool.
Route of Barcelona-UK pigeon race
GPS tracking video courtesy of J.Ledesma Batista / DERBYATLANTIC.com
Penguin head-cam captures bird’s eye view of hunt – ABC Australia 23/01/2013
Penguin head-cam captures bird’s eye view of hunt
Updated Wed Jan 23, 2013 8:00am AEDT
Miniature cameras attached to a penguin’s head have given Japanese scientists a bird’s eye view of the creature’s incredible underwater hunting skills, the lead researcher says.
Using video cameras weighing just 33 grams and equipped with accelerometers, depth gauges and thermometers, researchers were able to see exactly what the Adelie penguin sees when it goes out to catch krill and other prey in its native Antarctica.
Yuuki Watanabe, of the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo, said the team was amazed to discover that the bird adapts its hunting behaviour depending on what it is trying to snare.
Mr Watanabe says the accelerometer – a device used to measure acceleration – has allowed researchers to precisely measure the bird’s head movements and show how one penguin could catch two krill in under a second.
“Now we know what the Adelie penguin preys on and how much it eats, we can understand how the penguin survives and how it relates to its environment,” he said.
The penguin’s fragile Antarctic habitat is at risk from climate change, with scientists warning that as pack ice melts, their numbers could fall dramatically.
Mr Watanabe says the tiny cameras and micro equipment have given researchers a much better understanding of how the penguin lives.
“We now understand how much they rely on those fish that inhabit water just below the sea ice, which means that Adelie penguins can only survive in a sea ice environment,” he said.
AFP
indian runner duck 