tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/birds-728/articlesBirds – The Conversation2024-03-21T12:25:24Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2251482024-03-21T12:25:24Z2024-03-21T12:25:24ZFor centuries, owls were considered to bring bad luck in many cultures as well as in the US, but the outpouring of grief in New York over Flaco shows how times have changed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582910/original/file-20240319-18-c403qf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=28%2C0%2C6332%2C3736&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tributes left at a memorial for Flaco the owl in Central Park in New York.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/EscapedOwlCentralPark/0e033d63fec14c708cde28f9250f19da/photo?Query=flaco%20owl&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=37&currentItemNo=20">AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There has been an <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/24/1233703492/flaco-new-york-owl-dies-building-collision">outpouring of grief in New York City</a> ever since the beloved Eurasian eagle-owl Flaco died on Feb. 23, 2024, after striking a building. In 2023, after escaping from Central Park Zoo, Flaco survived for over a year on his own, captivating New Yorkers.</p>
<p>Mourners <a href="https://abc7ny.com/videoClip/14465905/">are leaving notes and flowers</a> at the base of an old oak tree in Central Park, reportedly a favorite roost of his. <a href="https://www.artandobject.com/news/fans-call-statue-honor-beloved-owl-flaco#">Thousands have signed a petition for a statue in his honor</a>. Figure skaters honored him with a show called “<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/flaco-the-owl-remembered-with-fly-be-free-ice-show-at-central-parks-wollman-rink/">Fly. Be Free</a>.” </p>
<p>This reaction to Flaco’s death would be mystifying for many people around the world. I <a href="https://www.macalester.edu/anthropology/facultystaff/arjunguneratne/">have spent a decade studying</a> the history of ornithology in Sri Lanka, including local beliefs in the owl as a bird that foretells deaths. Meanwhile, in some societies, owls were (and are) seen as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/24750263.2023.2254823">a symbol of wisdom</a> or even a sign of good luck.</p>
<p>But, by far, the most widespread belief about owls is that they are associated with witchcraft and death. </p>
<p>In much of the world – in African societies, among <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jsh/shw089">African Americans in the U.S. South</a> and the <a href="https://ugapress.org/book/9780820328157/spirits-of-the-air/">Indigenous people</a> <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo34116501.html">of the Americas</a>, and throughout South and Southeast Asia as well as in Europe – owls are seen as harbingers of death. The Cajuns, French-speaking refugees who settled in Louisiana’s bayou country after being driven out of Nova Scotia by the British, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/534893">feared the screech of an owl</a>.</p>
<p>The American philosopher Henry David Thoreau <a href="https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/walden/chapter04.html">wrote in his book “Walden</a>” that owls “represent the stark twilight and unsatisfied thoughts which all have.” Nineteenth and early 20th century Americans <a href="https://www.carolinabirdclub.org/BOCC/Non-Passerines/25%20Owls/01%20Strigidae%20Family%20True%20Owls.pdf">were more likely to shoot an owl as an undesirable predator</a> than leave flowers at a memorial for one. But Flaco’s year of fame shows <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/9080/owls-united-states-and-canada">the sea change in the way Western cultures have come to regard owls</a> since Thoreau’s time. </p>
<h2>Birds of ill-omen</h2>
<p>During the Tang dynasty, which ruled China from the seventh to the 10th century, owls were thought to bring bad luck; they were despised for <a href="https://doi.org/10.3406/befeo.2016.6236">supposedly eating their mothers</a>. The Aztec god of death, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/00141801-8266452">Mictlantecuhtli, is accompanied by an owl</a>. Jahangir, one of the Mughal emperors of India, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417523000245">sought to control the sale of owl meat in his empire</a> because it was believed to be an ingredient for sorcery. </p>
<p>Such beliefs also prevailed in Europe. The Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder, who died in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, said the owl was a “<a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/9080/owls-united-states-and-canada">monster of the night … [and] a direful omen</a>.” In the European Middle Ages, owls were thought to accompany witches. No wonder, then, that J.K. Rowling has Harry Potter’s mail delivered by an owl. </p>
<p>The French call the barn owl “chouette effraie des clochers,” literally, “the scary owl of the bell towers.” Shakespeare made use of the idea that owls foretold death in many of his plays. For instance, Lady Macbeth says, “It was the owl that shrieked,” foretelling the murder of Duncan by her husband. </p>
<p>These beliefs lingered in England until World War II, when they began to disappear. </p>
<h2>The legend from Sri Lanka</h2>
<p>For centuries, people living in rural areas in Sri Lanka <a href="https://youtu.be/p46A3HMuoCo?feature=shared">have believed in a “devil bird,” or “ulama</a>” in the local Sinhala language, that foretold a death. </p>
<p>The basis of this belief was a legend that told of a man who, to punish his wife, gave her the flesh of her murdered child to cook. On discovering the truth, she fled screaming into the jungle. As the legend goes, she was turned into the ulama by the gods. In some versions of the tale, she was reborn as the devil bird. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p46A3HMuoCo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The sound of the ulama.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Ever since, she is believed to haunt the jungle, her terrible cries foretelling a death in the community of whoever happens to hear them. </p>
<p>Such beliefs made sense to British colonizers, including planters carving out coffee estates in remote, forested areas during the 19th century. They would have heard strange, blood-curdling cries from the forests that surrounded their houses. The local villagers’ explanations for these cries would have made sense to them. The British, after all, also came from a society where superstitions concerning owls – the definitive birds of the night – <a href="https://books.google.com.vc/books?id=66N7I_6M7WUC&printsec=copyright#v=onepage&q=owls&f=false">were a part of folk belief</a>. </p>
<p>The identity of the ulama was <a href="http://archives.sundayobserver.lk/2004/01/18/fea14.html">extensively debated</a> throughout the 19th and early 20th century by ornithologists, who attributed these night sounds to some species of owl. Colonial British ornithologists eventually determined that the <a href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/61724#page/215/mode/1up">ulama was a species of large owl</a>, probably the <a href="https://ebird.org/species/sbeowl1">spot-bellied eagle-owl</a>. The identification is said to have been clinched when an eagle-owl was shot one moonlit night by a planter while it was making the ulama’s cry. </p>
<h2>Celebration of owls today</h2>
<p>The development of both scientific knowledge of birds and the popular hobby of birding has given people who live in the U.S. and Britain a decidedly different take on owls. Urbanization may also have something to do with it. Sri Lankan beliefs in the ulama, for example, are much less prevalent in urban areas than in the countryside. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An illustration showing an owl sitting on top of a red polka dot couch with a honey pot resting on it, and a bear standing in front." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582912/original/file-20240319-16-8obym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582912/original/file-20240319-16-8obym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582912/original/file-20240319-16-8obym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582912/original/file-20240319-16-8obym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582912/original/file-20240319-16-8obym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582912/original/file-20240319-16-8obym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582912/original/file-20240319-16-8obym8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">An antique postcard showing Winnie-the-Pooh and Owl.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/reproduction-of-antique-postcard-shows-winnie-the-pooh-and-news-photo/1318727117?adppopup=true">Igor Golovniov/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>In popular literature and culture in North America and Britain, owls have had their reputations rehabilitated. In A.A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh,” Owl is a likable bird who does his best to be intelligent and erudite. The National Audubon Society, one of the oldest bird conservation organizations in the U.S., sells <a href="https://www.audubon.org/marketplace/plush-birds#!">cuddly owl toys</a> that will hoot when squeezed. There’s even an annual <a href="https://www.festivalofowls.com/">International Festival of Owls</a> in Houston, Minnesota, where owls are celebrated. </p>
<p>That New Yorkers want to erect a memorial to Flaco is a remarkable instance of the ongoing rehabilitation of a group of birds that are charismatic, fascinating and quite undeserving of the bad rap they’ve been given over thousands of years.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225148/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arjun Guneratne receives funding from American Council of Learned Societies and Council of American Overseas Research Centers for work on the history of ornithology.</span></em></p>Owls, once seen as harbingers of death, are now celebrated in popular literature and culture in North America and Britain.Arjun Guneratne, Professor of Anthropology, Macalester CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2252762024-03-14T05:29:04Z2024-03-14T05:29:04ZLarge old trees are vital for Australian birds. Their long branches and hollows can’t be replaced by saplings<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581848/original/file-20240314-16-eeqr5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C21%2C3596%2C2374&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When we make roads, houses or farmland, we often find large old trees in the way. Our response is often to lop off offending branches or even <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/western-australia/perth-council-axes-policy-to-protect-its-urban-forest-over-safety-concerns-20240226-p5f7zc.html">cut the tree down</a>. </p>
<p>This is a bad idea. The more we learn about large old trees, the more we realise their fundamental importance to birds, mammals, insects, plants and other inhabitants. <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Tree_Hollows_and_Wildlife_Conservation_i/hF2sMDVZztIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PR7&printsec=frontcover">More than 300 species</a> of Australian birds and mammals need large old trees to live.</p>
<p>Why focus on mature trees? It’s because they have <a href="https://theconversation.com/large-trees-are-essential-for-healthy-cities-183017">many features</a> that younger trees simply don’t have: cracks, hollows, dead branches, peeling bark and large quantities of nectar and seeds. The limbs and leaves that fall on the ground make excellent homes for many small creatures.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320724000685">new research</a> sheds light on the importance of such grand old trees for birds. We used lidar (scanning using lasers) to map small, medium and large tree crowns in unprecedented detail. On average, we found large old trees had 383 metres of the horizontal or dead branches preferred by birds, while medium trees had very little and young trees none. Some old trees had almost 2 kilometres of branches. </p>
<h2>Why are branches so important?</h2>
<p>If we think of long, overhanging branches, chances are we may think “threat”. Some large trees can drop limbs without warning, although some arborists have pointed out the <a href="https://www.rememberthewild.org.au/eucalypt-mythbusting-a-comprehensive-guide/#sub-head-2">threat is overstated</a>. To reduce the risk, councils and land managers may remove the limbs of large old trees.</p>
<p>But if you cut down a 300-year-old river red gum, you can’t simply replace it with a sapling of the same species. It <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/3010/">will take centuries</a> for the sapling to take up the same ecological role as its predecessor.</p>
<p>In our research, we mapped more than 100,000 branches from many millions of laser samples and recorded how birds use branches through years of field observations.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-illegal-killing-of-265-trees-on-sydneys-north-shore-is-not-just-vandalism-its-theft-on-a-grand-scale-212844">The illegal killing of 265 trees on Sydney's North Shore is not just vandalism. It's theft on a grand scale</a>
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<p>When we spot a bird using a branch, we can safely infer the bird has chosen it for a reason, whether resting, socialising, feeding, hunting or nesting.</p>
<p>What our data shows is that not all branches are equal. Birds find it easier to perch on horizontal or slightly inclined branches. Branches with few or no leaves offer clear vantage points for birds to land, hunt or see predators. You may have noticed crows and currawongs choosing dead branches for these reasons. </p>
<p>As trees mature, their branches begin to grow horizontally. Some branches may die due to lightning strikes, fire, wind damage, or attacks by insects or fungi, while the rest of the tree continues living. These long-term patterns of growth, decay and random events are necessary to produce the horizontal and dead branches prized by birds. For a large eucalypt, that process can take up to 200 years.</p>
<h2>Mapping the canopy with lasers</h2>
<p>Until recently, it’s been hard to map the tree canopy. Traditional methods rely on researchers visually assessing this vital habitat. But we know eye observations don’t do well at capturing parts of trees <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsfs.2017.0048">such as branches</a>. </p>
<p>That’s where lidar comes in. Lidar sends out laser pulses, which bounce back when they hit objects. By recording the time taken for the light to return, we can build very detailed three-dimensional models. It’s a little like echolocation, but using light rather than sound. </p>
<p>This laser-scanning technology has been used in the jungles of Central America to <a href="https://www.livescience.com/lidar-maya-civilization-guatemala">find the ruins</a> of lost Mayan cities. But it can do much more.</p>
<p>In forests, lidar is now increasingly used to estimate how dense the tree cover is, and how variable. This useful data feeds into how we assess a forest’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/urban-forests-can-store-almost-as-much-carbon-as-tropical-rainforests-98885">ability to store carbon</a>, how much timber is present, and the current fire risk. We can even use it to spot animal pathways. </p>
<p>To get the canopy detail we wanted, we used lidar on the ground rather than from the air, and processed the data with algorithms that can recognise and describe about 90% of branches in even the largest trees. </p>
<p>We mapped trees in an area near Canberra. We chose this area because it represents the plight of <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/65871/2/01_Rawlings_A_Guide_to_Managing_Box_Gum_2010.pdf">temperate eucalypt woodlands</a>, which have <a href="https://www.nespthreatenedspecies.edu.au/projects/conservation-of-box-gum-grassy-woodlands-and-the-threatened-species-within-them">shrunk by up to 99%</a> since European colonisation. </p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/an-act-of-god-or-just-bad-management-why-trees-fall-and-how-to-prevent-it-162754">An act of God, or just bad management? Why trees fall and how to prevent it</a>
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<h2>What should we do?</h2>
<p>The very things that make branches good real estate for birds can make them seem dangerous or aesthetically displeasing to us. We tend to cut dead or long, horizontal branches and leave the living or more upright ones. But for birds, this is a disaster as many <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320715300616">cannot live</a> without such branches. </p>
<p>Young trees are no substitutes for their older counterparts. Planting saplings or installing nest boxes cannot replicate the ecological value of large, mature trees.</p>
<p>We can live alongside large old trees. To reduce the chance of injury or worse from falling limbs, we could use <a href="https://www.foreground.com.au/agriculture-environment/what-good-is-a-dead-tree/">exclusion zones</a>, add artificial supports for branches, and install devices to catch or redirect falling limbs. We can also look at emergency solutions such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/urban-owls-are-losing-their-homes-so-were-3d-printing-them-new-ones-133626">prosthetic hollows</a> on younger trees or even <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su15097588">artificial replicas</a> of old trees. </p>
<p>We should <a href="https://theconversation.com/smart-city-planning-can-preserve-old-trees-and-the-wildlife-that-needs-them-98632">preserve these trees</a> wherever we can and aim to keep them intact with their complex crowns and dead branches. We should also make sure there is a pipeline of young and medium trees to make sure there will be old trees in the future. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/an-act-of-god-or-just-bad-management-why-trees-fall-and-how-to-prevent-it-162754">An act of God, or just bad management? Why trees fall and how to prevent it</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225276/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Holland has received relevant funding from the Australian Research Council and the ACT Parks and Conservation Service.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Thompson receives funding from The Australian Research Council and National Health and Medical Research Association. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Gibbons receives funding from the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate of the ACT Government, the Natural Resources Commission, NSW Government and Riverview Projects Pty Ltd.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stanislav Roudavski has received relevant funding from the Australian Research Council and the ACT Parks and Conservation. </span></em></p>We scanned the tree canopy with lasers and found birds much prefer the branches of big old trees.Alex Holland, Researcher at Deep Design Lab and PhD Candidate at Melbourne School of Design, The University of MelbourneJason Thompson, Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine and Melbourne School of Design, The University of MelbournePhilip Gibbons, Professor, Australian National UniversityStanislav Roudavski, Founder of Deep Design Lab and Senior Lecturer in Digital Architectural Design, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2256542024-03-13T04:10:22Z2024-03-13T04:10:22ZThe surprising key to magpie intelligence: it’s not genetic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581509/original/file-20240313-18-hcxhmo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3426%2C2001&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elizabeth Speechley</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you’ve ever had the pleasure of encountering Australia’s iconic magpies, you know these birds are intelligent creatures. With their striking black and white plumage, loud warbling voices and complex social behaviours, magpies possess a level of avian brilliance that fascinates birders and scientists alike. </p>
<p>But what enables these clever birds to thrive? Are their sharp cognitive abilities innate – something coded into their genetic makeup? Or are magpie smarts more a product of their environment and social experiences? </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.231399">new study</a>, we shed light on the “nature versus nurture” debate – at least when it comes to avian intelligence. </p>
<h2>Bigger social groups, smarter birds</h2>
<p>Our study focused on Western Australian magpies, which unlike their eastern counterparts live in large, cooperative social groups all year round. We put young fledglings – and their mothers – through a test of their learning abilities. </p>
<p>We made wooden “puzzle boards” with holes covered by different-coloured lids. For each bird, we hid a tasty food reward under the lid of one particular colour. We also tested each bird alone, so it couldn’t copy the answer from its friends.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581510/original/file-20240313-20-o5qszi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A mother magpie and a fledgling standing side by side." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581510/original/file-20240313-20-o5qszi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581510/original/file-20240313-20-o5qszi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581510/original/file-20240313-20-o5qszi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581510/original/file-20240313-20-o5qszi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581510/original/file-20240313-20-o5qszi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581510/original/file-20240313-20-o5qszi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581510/original/file-20240313-20-o5qszi.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Do fledgling magpies get their smarts from their mothers?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lizzie Speechley</span></span>
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<p>Through trial and error, the magpies had to figure out which colour was associated with the food prize. We knew the birds had mastered the puzzle when they picked the rewarded colour in 10 out of 12 consecutive attempts.</p>
<p>We tested fledglings at 100, 200 and 300 days after leaving the nest. While they improved at solving the puzzle as they developed, the cognitive performance of the young magpies showed little connection to the problem-solving prowess of their mothers. </p>
<p>Instead, the key factor influencing how quickly the fledglings learned to pick the correct colour was the size of their social group. Birds raised in larger groups solved the test significantly faster than those growing up in smaller social groups.</p>
<p>Fledglings living in groups of ten or more birds needed only about a dozen tries to consistently pick the rewarded colour. But a youngster growing up in a group of three took more than 30 attempts to learn the link between colour and food.</p>
<h2>How the social environment shapes cognition</h2>
<p>Why would living in a larger social group boost cognitive abilities? We think it probably comes down to the mental demands that social animals face on a daily basis, such as recognising and remembering group members, and keeping track of different relationships within a complex group.</p>
<p>Magpies can learn to recognise and remember humans, too. The bird populations we work with live in the wild, but they recognise us by our appearance and a specific whistle we make.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581512/original/file-20240313-22-4oq51f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A photo of Lizzie Speechley sitting on the grass next to a fledgling magpie." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581512/original/file-20240313-22-4oq51f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581512/original/file-20240313-22-4oq51f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581512/original/file-20240313-22-4oq51f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581512/original/file-20240313-22-4oq51f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=272&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581512/original/file-20240313-22-4oq51f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581512/original/file-20240313-22-4oq51f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581512/original/file-20240313-22-4oq51f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=342&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Magpies recognise researchers and come looking for food.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sarah Woodiss-Field</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A young magpie living in a group gets plenty of mental exercise recognising and remembering numerous individuals and relationships. Working to make sense of this stream of social information may boost their ability to learn and solve problems. </p>
<p>Our findings go against the idea that intelligence is something innately “set” within an animal at birth, based solely on genetic inheritance. Instead, we show how cognition can be shaped by the environment, especially in the first year after leaving the nest when young magpies’ minds are still developing.</p>
<p>While we focused specifically on Australian magpies, the implications of our research could extend to other highly social and intelligent species.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225654/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lizzie Speechley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Magpies are expert problem-solvers – but just how good they are seems to depend on the size of the social group they grow up in.Lizzie Speechley, Behavioural Ecologist, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2223062024-03-11T17:18:48Z2024-03-11T17:18:48ZThe next pandemic? It’s already here for Earth’s wildlife<p>I am a conservation biologist who studies emerging infectious diseases. When people ask me what I think the next pandemic will be I often say that we are in the midst of one – it’s just afflicting a great many species more than ours.</p>
<p>I am referring to the highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza H5N1 (HPAI H5N1), otherwise known as bird flu, which has killed millions of birds and unknown numbers of mammals, particularly during the past three years. </p>
<p>This is the strain that emerged in domestic geese in China in 1997 and quickly jumped to humans in south-east Asia with a mortality rate of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1634780/">around 40-50%</a>. My research group <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1634780/">encountered the virus</a> when it killed a mammal, an endangered <a href="https://svw.vn/owstons-civet/">Owston’s palm civet</a>, in a captive breeding programme in Cuc Phuong National Park Vietnam in 2005.</p>
<p>How these animals caught bird flu was never confirmed. Their diet is mainly earthworms, so they had not been infected by eating diseased poultry like many captive tigers in the region.</p>
<p>This discovery prompted us to collate all confirmed reports of fatal infection with bird flu to assess just how broad a threat to wildlife this virus might pose.</p>
<p>This is how a newly discovered virus in Chinese poultry came to threaten so much of the world’s biodiversity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person in white overalls operates a forklift carrying dead turkeys." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580987/original/file-20240311-22-gzginr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580987/original/file-20240311-22-gzginr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580987/original/file-20240311-22-gzginr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580987/original/file-20240311-22-gzginr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580987/original/file-20240311-22-gzginr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580987/original/file-20240311-22-gzginr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580987/original/file-20240311-22-gzginr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">H5N1 originated on a Chinese poultry farm in 1997.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/western-negev-israel-march-18-2006-111241157">ChameleonsEye/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The first signs</h2>
<p>Until December 2005, most confirmed infections had been found in a few zoos and rescue centres in Thailand and Cambodia. Our analysis in 2006 showed that nearly half (48%) of all the different groups of birds (known to taxonomists as “orders”) contained a species in which a fatal infection of bird flu had been reported. These 13 orders comprised 84% of all bird species. </p>
<p>We reasoned 20 years ago that the strains of H5N1 circulating were probably highly pathogenic to all bird orders. We also showed that the list of confirmed infected species included those that were globally threatened and that important habitats, such as Vietnam’s Mekong delta, lay close to reported poultry outbreaks.</p>
<p>Mammals known to be susceptible to bird flu during the early 2000s included primates, rodents, pigs and rabbits. Large carnivores such as Bengal tigers and clouded leopards were reported to have been killed, as well as domestic cats.</p>
<p>Our 2006 paper showed the ease with which this virus crossed species barriers and suggested it might one day produce a pandemic-scale threat to global biodiversity.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, our warnings were correct.</p>
<h2>A roving sickness</h2>
<p>Two decades on, bird flu is killing species from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/02/polar-bear-dies-from-bird-flu-age-of-extinction">the high Arctic</a> to <a href="https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influenza-bird-flu/avian-flu-reaches-antarcticas-mainland">mainland Antarctica</a>.</p>
<p>In the past couple of years, bird flu has spread rapidly across Europe and infiltrated North and South America, killing millions of poultry and a variety of bird and mammal species. <a href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/30/3/23-1098_article">A recent paper</a> found that 26 countries have reported at least 48 mammal species that have died from the virus since 2020, when the latest increase in reported infections started.</p>
<p>Not even the ocean is safe. Since 2020, 13 species of aquatic mammal have succumbed, including American sea lions, porpoises and dolphins, often dying in their thousands in South America. A wide range of scavenging and predatory mammals that live on land are now also confirmed to be susceptible, including mountain lions, lynx, brown, black and polar bears.</p>
<p>The UK alone has <a href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/seabird-surveys-project-report">lost over 75%</a> of its great skuas and seen a 25% decline in northern gannets. Recent declines in sandwich terns (35%) and common terns (42%) were also <a href="https://maryannsteggles.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Bird-flu-causing-%E2%80%98catastrophic-fall-in-UK-seabird-numbers-conservationists-warn-Bird-flu-The-G.pdf">largely driven by the virus</a>. </p>
<p>Scientists haven’t managed to <a href="https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/30/3/23-1098_article">completely sequence</a> the virus in all affected species. Research and continuous surveillance could tell us how adaptable it ultimately becomes, and whether it can jump to even more species. We know it can already infect humans – one or more genetic mutations may make it more infectious.</p>
<h2>At the crossroads</h2>
<p>Between January 1 2003 and December 21 2023, 882 cases of human infection with the H5N1 virus were reported from 23 countries, of which <a href="https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/influenza/human-animal-interface-risk-assessments/influenza-at-the-human-animal-interface-summary-and-assessment--from-4-october-to-1-november-2023.pdf?sfvrsn=6c67e7df_2&download=true">461 (52%) were fatal</a>.</p>
<p>Of these fatal cases, more than half were in Vietnam, China, Cambodia and Laos. Poultry-to-human infections were first recorded in Cambodia in December 2003. Intermittent cases were reported until 2014, followed by a gap until 2023, yielding 41 deaths from 64 cases. The subtype of H5N1 virus responsible has been detected in poultry in Cambodia since 2014. In the early 2000s, the H5N1 virus circulating had a high human mortality rate, so it is worrying that we are now starting to see people dying after contact with poultry again.</p>
<p>It’s not just H5 subtypes of bird flu that concern humans. The H10N1 virus was originally isolated from wild birds in South Korea, but has also been reported in samples from China and Mongolia. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1256090/full">Recent research</a> found that these particular virus subtypes may be able to jump to humans after they were found to be pathogenic in laboratory mice and ferrets. The first person who was confirmed to be infected with H10N5 <a href="https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2024-DON504">died</a> in China on January 27 2024, but this patient was also suffering from seasonal flu (H3N2). They had been exposed to live poultry which also tested positive for H10N5.</p>
<p>Species already threatened with extinction are among those which have died due to bird flu in the past three years. The first deaths from the virus in mainland Antarctica have just been <a href="https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influenza-bird-flu/avian-flu-reaches-antarcticas-mainland">confirmed in skuas</a>, highlighting a looming threat to penguin colonies whose eggs and chicks skuas prey on. Humboldt penguins have already been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/30/science/birds-flu-antarctica.html">killed by the virus</a> in Chile.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A colony of king penguins." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580982/original/file-20240311-26-mmf7j5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580982/original/file-20240311-26-mmf7j5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580982/original/file-20240311-26-mmf7j5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580982/original/file-20240311-26-mmf7j5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580982/original/file-20240311-26-mmf7j5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580982/original/file-20240311-26-mmf7j5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580982/original/file-20240311-26-mmf7j5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Remote penguin colonies are already threatened by climate change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/king-penguin-colony-103683413">AndreAnita/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>How can we stem this tsunami of H5N1 and other avian influenzas? Completely overhaul poultry production on a global scale. Make farms self-sufficient in rearing eggs and chicks instead of exporting them internationally. The trend towards megafarms containing over a million birds must be stopped in its tracks. </p>
<p>To prevent the worst outcomes for this virus, we must revisit its primary source: the incubator of intensive poultry farms.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diana Bell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Bird flu is decimating species already threatened by climate change and habitat loss.Diana Bell, Professor of Conservation Biology, University of East AngliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2252862024-03-11T13:10:38Z2024-03-11T13:10:38ZA brief guide to birdwatching in the age of dinosaurs<p>Have you ever wondered what it would be like travel back in time to the age of dinosaurs? If you stumble upon a time machine, remember to bring your binoculars. Birdwatching is a popular hobby today, with an around <a href="https://www.wwt.org.uk/news-and-stories/blog/get-into-birdwatching/#:%7E:text=Bird%20watching%20in%20the%20UK,that%20we%20look%20after%20them.">3 million participants</a> in the UK alone, and in our modern world there are a staggering <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/pc/pdf/PCv27_BR4">11,000 species</a> of birds to spot. </p>
<p>Despite the popularity of their modern-day descendants, we often forget about ancient birds because of their more famous dinosaur cousins.</p>
<p>Birds are actually <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-dinosaurs-evolved-into-birds.html">a type of dinosaur</a>. They are closely related to smaller, agile meat-eating dinosaurs such as the <em>Velociraptor</em>. Ancient birds came in a variety of forms, from ones with teeth and claws to species barely distinguishable from farmyard <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00766-2">chickens</a>. </p>
<p>So, if you were to point your binoculars over the heads of <em>Triceratops</em> and <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/five-things-you-probably-have-wrong-about-the-t-rex-220011">Tyrannosaurus rex</a></em>, what could you spot? Here is a quick introduction to six of the most interesting ancient bird species. </p>
<h2><em>Archaeopteryx</em></h2>
<p><em>Archaeopteryx</em> is <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dino-directory/archaeopteryx.html">the iconic “dino-bird”</a> from the Jurassic period. The discovery of <em>Archaeopteryx</em> fossils in Germany over 150 years ago provided scientists with the first clues about the link between dinosaurs and modern birds. </p>
<p>At first glance, the skeleton of <em>Archaeopteryx</em> is just like any other meat-eating dinosaur – sharp teeth, clawed hands and a long bony tail. Surrounding the skeleton of specimens such as the <a href="https://www.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/en/about/news/archaeopteryx-named-fossil-year">Berlin <em>Archaeopteryx</em></a> (discovered between <a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/story/archaeopteryx-lithographica-%E2%80%93-the-berlin-specimen-museum-fuer-naturkunde-berlin/1AVxj85ySOZ4JQ?hl=en">1874 and 1876</a>) however, are imprints of feathers which form a pair of distinctly bird-like wings.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="3D rendering of black bird-like dinosaur flying through the sky" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580391/original/file-20240307-21-8fm1ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580391/original/file-20240307-21-8fm1ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580391/original/file-20240307-21-8fm1ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580391/original/file-20240307-21-8fm1ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580391/original/file-20240307-21-8fm1ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580391/original/file-20240307-21-8fm1ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580391/original/file-20240307-21-8fm1ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"><em>Archaeopteryx</em> looked half way between a dinosaur and a modern bird.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/archaeopteryx-birdlike-dinosaur-flying-through-sky-1722734977">Dotted Yeti/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But for many years, palaeontologists debated whether <em>Archaeopteryx</em> could have used these wings to fly. Scientists now think it is likely that <em>Archaeopteryx</em> could have flown, but only <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03296-8">in short bursts </a>, like a pheasant. Recent technological advances have given us our first insights into dinosaur colour and studies of fossilised, pigmented cells have shown that <em>Archaeopteryx</em> had <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-65336-y">matt black</a> wing feathers.</p>
<h2><em>Confuciusornis</em></h2>
<p>This crow-sized bird had a beak like that of modern-day birds, but still had large, <a href="https://digitallibrary.amnh.org/items/fc74de43-ec0e-497f-a199-7f89b6b658b9">dinosaur-like claws</a> on its hands. It is thought that they lived in flocks, large numbers of which were killed by ash or gas in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms4151">volcanic eruptions</a> and preserved as fossils. Known from over <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326059155_A_taxonomical_revision_of_the_Confuciusornithiformes_Aves_Pygostylia">1,000 fossil specimens</a> from China, <em>Confuciusornis</em> is one of the most common fossil bird species.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580395/original/file-20240307-30-nefob5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Outline of dinosaur clearly preserved in rock" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580395/original/file-20240307-30-nefob5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580395/original/file-20240307-30-nefob5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580395/original/file-20240307-30-nefob5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580395/original/file-20240307-30-nefob5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580395/original/file-20240307-30-nefob5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580395/original/file-20240307-30-nefob5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580395/original/file-20240307-30-nefob5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"><em>Confuciusornis sanctus</em> fossil, encased in rock.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dinosaur-fossil-confuciusornis-sanctus-rock-1232355214">Chawalit Chankhantha/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of these birds had a <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsbl.2008.0409?casa_token=dLetzDz5OIUAAAAA%3AKUyu-cMBlflBhPXtC6xu-PxSc6wFebScqXzE3LBa33EmqsrzLISDWi08ToliVPfTfyuuDI_psxm7fBY">pair of tail feathers</a> longer than their body, while others lacked these long feathers and would have looked comparatively stumpy. Scientists think these long-tailed birds were the males of the species and those with <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2377">short tails were females</a>. Like modern peacocks and peahens, the males probably used their extravagant tail feathers to woo the females.</p>
<h2><em>Falcatakely</em></h2>
<p>Discovered in 2020, <em><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2945-x">Falcatakely</a></em>, from Madagascar, would have resembled a small, buck-toothed toucan. Its oversized, banana-shaped bill only had teeth <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03260-x">at the very tip</a>. Although we don’t know what this buck-toothed bird would have eaten, its close relatives ate a <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.18.549506v2.abstract">variety of food</a>, including fruit, fish and even larger prey. </p>
<p>Scientists think that birds such as <em>Falcatakely</em> could fly the same day they <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1100000">hatched from their egg</a>, unlike birds today which spend their first weeks or months helpless in the nest.</p>
<h2><em>Hesperornis</em></h2>
<p>One of the weirdest birds from the age of dinosaurs, <em>Hesperornis</em> would have looked something like a six-foot-tall penguin with a beak full of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12862-016-0753-6#Sec27">sharp teeth</a>. Its <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/14/4/267">tiny arms</a> would have made T rex look like a weightlifter, so it definitely couldn’t have used them to fly. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Illustration of bird with tiny wings perched on a rock" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580394/original/file-20240307-18-16mtuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580394/original/file-20240307-18-16mtuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580394/original/file-20240307-18-16mtuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580394/original/file-20240307-18-16mtuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580394/original/file-20240307-18-16mtuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580394/original/file-20240307-18-16mtuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580394/original/file-20240307-18-16mtuh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"><em>Hesperornis</em> was an aquatic bird that lived at the time of the dinosaurs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/hesperornis-aquatic-bird-that-lived-time-1118302547">Daniel Eskridge/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Instead, <em>Hesperornis</em> used its oversized <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018217307149">feet to propel</a> itself through the water like a modern cormorant. Out of the water, <em>Hesperornis</em> walked <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018217307149">awkwardly upright</a> and probably couldn’t travel far overland.</p>
<h2><em>Vegavis and Asteriornis</em></h2>
<p>Towards the end of the dinosaurs’ reign, the earliest groups of modern birds began to appear. The first of these birds to be discovered was <em><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature03150">Vegavis</a></em> from Antarctica, which in the time of dinosaurs would have been <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018201004527">covered in trees</a> rather than ice. </p>
<p>It was probably an ancestor of ducks and geese and one exceptional fossil of <em>Vegavis</em> even has a rare <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature19852">preserved vocal organ</a>. Analysis of this fossil suggested that <em>Vegavis</em> couldn’t make a songbird melody but could have made simple noises such as goose-like honks.</p>
<p>Sixty-six million years ago, not long before the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2006087117">asteroid impact</a>, which caused the extinction of the non-bird dinosaurs, lived <em><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2096-0">Asteriornis</a></em>. This quail-sized bird from Belgium was an ancestor of modern ducks and chickens. Although it would have looked unremarkable compared to the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/netherlands-journal-of-geosciences/article/stratigraphic-ranges-of-mosasaurs-in-belgium-and-the-netherlands-late-cretaceous-and-cephalopodbased-correlations-with-north-america/2601C3D2DD398B92DFEDA122E82F9991">giant swimming lizards</a> and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05445-y">huge, toothed seagulls</a> it lived alongside, this may have been to its advantage.</p>
<p>Scientists think that the small size of birds such as <em>Asteriornis</em> helped them to survive the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sysbio/article/67/1/1/3960267">mass extinction</a>. Because smaller animals need less food and take less time to reproduce, these humble birds were able to survive and evolve into the birds you can see through your binoculars today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225286/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Abi Crane does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If you love learning about dinosaurs don’t let crowdpleasers like the T Rex distract you from the fascinating birdlife that once roamed the Earth.Abi Crane, Postgraduate Researcher in Palaeontology, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2229422024-02-26T20:42:20Z2024-02-26T20:42:20ZTo collaborate or confront? New research provides key insights for environmental NGOs<p>Just after dawn, volunteers for a Toronto-based NGO called the <a href="https://flap.org/">Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP) Canada</a> make their way along the streets of the city’s downtown core. FLAP’s mission is to limit the number of migratory birds injured or killed due to collisions with windows. These volunteers are looking for dead or injured birds that fell to the ground after hitting windows during the spring and fall migrations.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://doi.org/10.5751/ACE-00568-080206">estimated 15-30 million birds</a> in Canada alone are killed each year after hitting a window. Migratory bird populations have <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaw1313">dropped significantly</a> in the last 50 years, with window collisions <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-112414-054133">identified as a main cause</a>. However collisions, can only be reduced if building owners agree, or are obliged, to make glassed surfaces less dangerous to birds.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/buildings-kill-millions-of-birds-heres-how-to-reduce-the-toll-130695">Buildings kill millions of birds. Here's how to reduce the toll</a>
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<p>To achieve change, NGOs have two choices: confront stakeholders, or collaborate with them. Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages. </p>
<p>Highlighting guilty parties, especially through the media, can raise awareness and make responses more likely. But aggressive approaches risk closing off opportunities to work together on solutions. Working with stakeholders may achieve mutually acceptable solutions and funding, but NGO priorities may be watered down as a result.</p>
<h2>Collaboration?</h2>
<p>How does an NGO choose between collaboration and confrontation to achieve its goals? <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2023.103885">My recent study used FLAP as a case study to help explore this critical question</a>.</p>
<p>Over three decades, FLAP has continued rescue and recovery operations to assist birds who have struck windows while also continuing advocacy work to push for meaningful change to reduce the risks posed by the windows themselves. Windows are often either <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224164">invisible to birds, or reflect nearby vegetation</a>.</p>
<p>FLAP, like many global NGOs, can often find itself in a delicate position of having to measure its calls for change with the reality of maintaining ongoing collaboration with stakeholders to carry out their core activities. For example, FLAP depends on access to the grounds around office towers to collect birds, so it was hesitant to publicly confront individual building owners. </p>
<p>Collaboration with stakeholders ensures both that FLAP volunteers are welcome to patrol and property managers also encouraged maintenance staff to store dead or injured birds they found. This collaboration had clear benefits.</p>
<p>Instead of targeting specific building owners or property companies, FLAP has largely focused on raising general awareness about the overall scale of bird injuries and deaths due to windows. Since 2001, FLAP has held an <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/pattern-made-2100-dead-birds-180958379/">annual public layout</a> of all of the dead birds collected by volunteers, <a href="https://flap.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Touching-Down-Spring-2023.pdf">with 4023</a> dead birds displayed in the 2023 layout. </p>
<p>Data about the location, time of collision and species of bird has also been recorded in a publicly available <a href="https://www.birdmapper.org/">database</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, FLAP has worked with municipal and commercial stakeholders, in developing <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/official-plan-guidelines/design-guidelines/bird-friendly-guidelines/">best practices</a> for limiting bird-window collisions. These guidelines eventually became part of the <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/official-plan-guidelines/toronto-green-standard/">Toronto Green Standard</a>, which included building specifications — voluntary at first, later mandatory — designed to limit bird collisions. </p>
<p>These requirements include making windows more visible to birds by applying markers, as well as reducing other hazards, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/cities-can-help-migrating-birds-on-their-way-by-planting-more-trees-and-turning-lights-off-at-night-152573">artificial lighting</a>.</p>
<h2>Or a more assertive approach?</h2>
<p>Despite advances in awareness and policy, bird safety advocates were still frustrated with the toll on birds by existing buildings, which were not bound by the <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/official-plan-guidelines/toronto-green-standard/toronto-green-standard-version-4/mid-to-high-rise-residential-non-residential-version-4/ecology-biodiversity/">new standards</a>. While FLAP still took a largely collaborative approach, other organizations took more assertive stances. </p>
<p>Ecojustice, an environmental law NGO, became aware of the issue in part because of FLAP’s annual bird layout. Using FLAP’s bird collision data, Ecojustice brought legal action against the owners of two buildings where particularly high collision numbers had been recorded.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/billions-of-birds-collide-with-glass-buildings-but-architecture-has-solutions-215419">Billions of birds collide with glass buildings – but architecture has solutions</a>
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<p>The first court case <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/building-owners-not-responsible-for-deaths-of-birds-that-fly-into-it-judge-rules/article_7b6bad05-57b0-54a2-861d-158a585b1ead.html#:%7E:text=GTA-,Building%20owners%20not%20responsible%20for%20deaths%20of%20birds%20that%20fly,birds%20before%20applying%20remedial%20measures.">was dismissed</a> in 2012. However, during deliberations, the property owners did make changes to the windows to reduce bird collisions by installing window markers. Confrontation, it seems, could also yield results. </p>
<p>However, the second case brought by Ecojustice in 2013 was against a property owner that had a history of collaboration with FLAP, contributing to guideline development, providing funding and even receiving a “Bird Friendly Building” Certificate from FLAP.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://canlii.ca/en/on/oncj/doc/2013/2013oncj65/2013oncj65.html">ruling</a> in 2013 had mixed results for both sides. The judge ruled in favour of Ecojustice’s <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/birds-vs-mirrored-buildings-environmental-group-loses-case-but-wins-important-precedent/article_fb9c447e-a67c-50ae-aebc-2918ac5499ac.html">novel argument</a> that light, in the form of reflected vegetation, was a form of pollution. However, the judge also concluded that the property owners had exercised reasonable care in trying to reduce bird collisions by installing window film in areas with the highest recorded collisions. Unfortunately the collaborative relationship was also affected. </p>
<p>Following the ruling, the property owner informed FLAP that its volunteers were no longer allowed on their properties unless FLAP agreed to keep bird collision data confidential, which they did not agree to do.</p>
<h2>Key lessons</h2>
<p>FLAP has taken a mostly collaborative approach, allowing them to rescue birds and create a rigorous collision dataset. This information has contributed to new building codes, as well as prompting changes in older buildings with high collision rates. Confrontation, while rare, occurred only after collaboration did not achieve desired results.</p>
<p>Visual messages, like FLAP’s bird layout, can communicate the scale of the problem and reach a broad audience. This message can be all the more effective when people see a role in the solution, rather than feeling like helpless spectators. Collision reduction options have become <a href="https://flap.org/stop-birds-from-hitting-windows">widely available</a>, giving people a sense of agency.</p>
<p>Strong data and visual images can also attract allies who may take more direct approaches. For example, the NGO <a href="https://www.nevercollide.com/">Never Collide</a> formed in 2019 to address bird collisions in older office buildings. It used FLAP’s data to single out buildings for direct confrontation, through letter writing and shareholder pressure. One of their early victories was in 2021, when the <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-countermeasures-being-installed-at-td-centre-to-reduce-bird-building/">largest bird safe retrofit in North America was installed in downtown Toronto</a>, on one of the buildings that FLAP volunteers had previously been barred from patrolling. </p>
<p>These are important lessons for building upon success in the long term.</p>
<p>In the meantime, volunteers in Toronto and other cities like <a href="https://safewings.ca/">Ottawa</a>, <a href="https://www.nycaudubon.org/our-work/conservation/project-safe-flight/collision-monitoring">New York</a> and <a href="https://www.birdmonitors.net/">Chicago</a> will be patrolling again this spring, as migrating birds return.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222942/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Abbott is affiliated with FLAP as a volunteer.</span></em></p>The experiences of bird safety NGOs show that when trying to achieve environmental goals, being on good terms with stakeholders is important, but direct action can also yield results.James Abbott, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Nipissing UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2233572024-02-26T03:17:26Z2024-02-26T03:17:26ZOur native animals are easy prey after a fire. Could artificial refuges save them?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577816/original/file-20240226-24-d5noma.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=80%2C187%2C1816%2C1348&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A tawny-crowned honeyeater in an artificial refuge</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia is home to some of the most spectacular and enigmatic wildlife on Earth. Much of it, however, is being eaten by two incredibly damaging invasive predators: the feral cat and the red fox. </p>
<p>Each year in Australia, cats and foxes kill an estimated 697 million reptiles, 510 million birds, and 1.4 billion mammals, totalling a staggering <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13497">2.6 billion</a> animals. Since the predators were introduced more than 150 years ago, they have contributed to the extinction of more than 25 species – and are pushing <a href="https://researchers.cdu.edu.au/en/publications/degrees-of-population-level-susceptibility-of-australian-terrestr">many more to the brink</a>.</p>
<p>Research suggests cats and foxes can be <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s42408-023-00183-6">more active in areas</a> recently burnt by fire. This is a real concern, especially as climate change increases the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-020-00065-8">frequency and severity of fire</a> in south-eastern Australia.</p>
<p>We urgently need new ways to protect wildlife after fires. Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110501">study</a> trialled one such tool: building artificial refuges across burnt landscapes. The results are promising, but researchers need to find out more.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Video showing a buttonquail using an artificial refuge built by the researchers.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Triple threat: cats, foxes and fire</h2>
<p>Many native animals are <a href="https://theconversation.com/surprisingly-few-animals-die-in-wildfires-and-that-means-we-can-help-more-in-the-aftermath-174392">well-adapted to fire</a>. But the changing frequency and intensity of fire is posing a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12905">considerable threat</a> to much of Australia’s wildlife.</p>
<p>Fire removes vegetation such as grass, leaf litter and shrubs. This leaves fewer places for native animals to shelter and hide, making it <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep22559">easier</a> for cats and foxes to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12853">catch them</a>. </p>
<p>We conducted <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110501">our experiment</a> in three Australian ecosystems: the forests of the Otway Ranges (Victoria), the sand dunes of the Simpson Desert (Queensland) and the woodlands of Kangaroo Island (South Australia). Each had recently been burnt by fire. </p>
<p>We built 76 refuges across these study areas. They were 90cm wide and up to 50m long – and backbreaking to install! They were made from wire mesh, mostly covered by shade cloth. Spacing in the mesh of 50mm allowed small animals to enter and exit from any point, while completely excluding cats, foxes and other larger animals. The shade cloth obstructed the vision of predators.</p>
<p>We then placed <a href="https://nesplandscapes.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/5.2.4_a_guide_to_use_of_remote_cameras_for_wildlife_surveys_final_web.pdf">remote-sensing camera traps</a> both inside and away from each refuge, and monitored them for periods ranging from four months to four years.</p>
<p>The placement of the cameras meant we could compare the effect of the refuges with what occurred outside them.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-season-in-hell-bushfires-push-at-least-20-threatened-species-closer-to-extinction-129533">A season in hell: bushfires push at least 20 threatened species closer to extinction</a>
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<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>Across the three study areas, the artificial refuges were used by 56 species or species groups. This included the critically endangered Kangaroo Island dunnart, the threatened white-footed dunnart and the threatened southern emu-wren. </p>
<p>For around half the species, we detected more individuals inside the refuges than outside. As we predicted, the activity of small birds and reptiles, in particular, was much higher inside the refuges. </p>
<p>But surprisingly, reptile activity was also generally higher inside the refuges, particularly among skinks. We had not predicted that, because the shade cloth likely made conditions inside the refuges cooler than outside, and reptiles require warmth to regulate their body temperature.</p>
<p>Over time, the number of animals detected inside the refuges generally increased. This was also a surprise. We expected detections inside the refuges to decline through time as the vegetation recovered and the risk of being seen by predators fell.</p>
<p>But there were also a few complicating factors. For example, in the Otway Ranges and Simpson Desert, similar numbers of the mammals were detected inside and away from the refuges. This suggests the species didn’t consider the refuges as particularly safe places, which means the structures may not reduce the risk of these animals becoming prey.</p>
<p>So what’s the upshot of all this? Our findings suggest that establishing artificial refuges after fire may help some small vertebrates, especially small birds and skinks, avoid predators across a range of ecosystems. However, more research is required before this strategy is adopted as a widespread management tool.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/this-critically-endangered-marsupial-survived-a-bushfire-then-along-came-the-feral-cats-185133">This critically endangered marsupial survived a bushfire – then along came the feral cats</a>
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<h2>Important next steps</h2>
<p>Almost all evidence for an increase in cat and fox activity after fire comes from <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s42408-023-00183-6">Australia</a>, particularly the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep22559">tropical north</a>. But cats are an invasive species in more than <a href="https://www.gbif.org/species/2435035">120 countries and islands</a>.</p>
<p>That means there’s real potential for post-fire damage to wildlife to worsen globally, especially as <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-020-0085-3">fire risk increases</a> with climate change. </p>
<p>Our results suggest artificial refuges may be a way to help animals survive after fire. But there are still important questions to answer, such as:</p>
<ul>
<li>can artificial refuges improve the overall abundance and survival of individuals and species?</li>
<li>if so, how many refuges would be required to achieve this?</li>
<li>in the presence of natural refuges – such as rocks, logs, burrows, and unburnt patches – are artificial refuges needed?</li>
<li>does their effectiveness vary between low-severity planned burns and high-severity bushfires?</li>
</ul>
<p>These questions must be answered. Conservation budgets are tight. After fires, funds must be directed towards actions that we know will work. That evidence is not yet there for artificial refuges.</p>
<p>Our team is busy trying to find out more. We urge other ecologists and conservationists to do so as well. We also encourage collaboration with designers and technologists to improve on our refuge design. For example, can such large refuges be made <a href="https://www.australianwildlife.org/biodegradable-flat-pack-homes-to-help-wildlife-survive-after-bushfires/">biodegradable and easier to deploy</a>?</p>
<p>Solving these problems is important. It’s almost impossible to rid the entire Australian continent of cats and foxes. So land managers need all the help they can get to stop these predators from decimating Australia’s incredible wildlife. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The impact of roaming pet cats on Australian wildlife.</span></figcaption>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Darcy Watchorn receives funding from the Hermon Slade Foundation, Parks Victoria, the Conservation and Wildlife Research Trust, the Ecological Society of Australia, the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council, and the Geelong Naturalists Field Club. He is a member of the Ecological Society of Australia and the Society for Conservation Biology Oceania.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Dickman receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Don Driscoll receives funding from the ARC, Melbourne Water and Parks Victoria. He is affiliated with the Ecological Society of Australia and the Society for Conservation Biology.</span></em></p>We need every tool at our disposal to stop feral cats and foxes from decimating Australia’s incredible wildlife after fires. Artificial refuges show promise.Darcy Watchorn, PhD Candidate, Deakin UniversityChris Dickman, Professor Emeritus in Terrestrial Ecology, University of SydneyDon Driscoll, Professor in Terrestrial Ecology, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2197152024-02-22T14:37:56Z2024-02-22T14:37:56ZKalahari weaver birds lay bigger eggs when they have female helpers to feed nestlings<p><a href="https://tswalu.com/">Tswalu Kalahari Reserve</a> is a protected nature reserve at the southern edge of the Kalahari desert in South Africa’s Northern Cape province. It’s an arid area with high daytime temperatures and <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abe8980">unpredictable rainfall</a>.</p>
<p>One of the species that lives in this harsh environment is the <a href="https://ebird.org/species/wbswea1?siteLanguage=en_ZA">white-browed sparrow-weaver</a> (<em>Plocepasser mahali</em>). They live here in social groups of up to 12 birds. Group members stay in the same group for many years at a time. </p>
<p>Within each social group, only one pair of birds breeds: the dominant male and female (which lays one to three eggs per breeding attempt). Other group members – usually offspring of the breeding pair – engage in a number of helping behaviours, from defending the territory to feeding the nestlings of the dominant pair.</p>
<p>This is not the only species in which the breeding pair has help raising the young. <a href="https://science.uct.ac.za/fitzpatrick/research-understanding-biodiversity-evolutionary-and-behavioural-ecology/pied-babblers-and-fork-tailed-drongos">Southern pied babblers</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/biggest-bird-nests-in-the-world-are-kept-together-by-family-ties-28932">sociable weavers</a> are other examples in the Kalahari. This type of behaviour, known as cooperative breeding, occurs globally and seems to be particularly associated with arid habitats. However, it’s still not clear what benefits it offers and how it aids species to adapt to the environment.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/birds-evolve-different-body-temperatures-in-different-climates-new-study-of-53-african-species-189174">Birds evolve different body temperatures in different climates – new study of 53 African species</a>
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<p>In a long-term <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002356#sec007">study</a> recently published in the journal PLOS Biology, covering 10 years of research (from 2007 to 2016) at the Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, my University of Exeter research colleagues and I added some evidence to help answer this question. Our study revealed that white-browed sparrow-weaver mothers lay larger eggs when they have help with nestling care. Egg size is an important trait which affects nestling survival. </p>
<p>This is the first formal evidence in birds that maternal investment in eggs changes with the availability of help. The results also counter the idea previously proposed that with more help, mothers would lay smaller eggs.</p>
<h2>Understanding correlations</h2>
<p><a href="https://peerj.com/articles/4028/">Previous studies</a> of cooperatively breeding birds have tended to find a correlation between having more helpers and laying smaller eggs. However, it was unclear whether this correlation arose from mothers changing their egg size according to the social conditions they experienced (known as “<a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2009.0267">plasticity</a>”), or if other confounding factors could be explaining the results.</p>
<p>By using a number of statistical tools, we could investigate whether individual white-browed sparrow-weaver mothers laid larger or smaller eggs depending on their social conditions. The number of helpers during the post-natal phase is strongly correlated with the number of helpers when mothers laid eggs. So mothers should have reliable information to adjust egg size based on the availability of help with post-natal care. We found that mothers laid larger eggs in the presence of (female) helpers and they also reduced their feeding rates to the offspring.</p>
<p>In white-browed sparrow-weavers, <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abe8980">female helpers provide significantly more post-natal care than male helpers</a>. The fact that the number of female helpers (and not male helpers) positively predicted egg size suggests the availability of cooperative care (and not simply the presence of helpers) as the causal mechanism of our results.</p>
<p>These findings indicate it is possible that having help allows mothers to invest more into pre-natal (egg) development of her offspring, to which helpers cannot contribute directly.</p>
<h2>Helpers and benefits to offspring</h2>
<p>It is possible that the lightening of maternal post-natal investment (feeding of nestlings) allows the mother bird to invest more resources into bigger eggs, which are then more likely to hatch into nestlings that survive into adulthood. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/female-warblers-live-longer-when-they-have-help-raising-offspring-115332">Female warblers live longer when they have help raising offspring</a>
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<p>Through positive helper effects on pre-natal maternal investment, helper assistance with the post-natal care of breeders’ young in cooperative species (including our own) may thus have hitherto unknown benefits to offspring.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219715/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pablo Capilla-Lasheras has received funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (UK) and currently works at the University of Glasgow.</span></em></p>The study shows that bird mothers can adjust egg size depending on their social conditions. This counters the idea that, with more help, mothers lay smaller eggs.Pablo Capilla-Lasheras, Research Associate in ecology, evolution and behaviour, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2227592024-02-12T03:40:47Z2024-02-12T03:40:47ZThe good news: 25 Australian birds are now at less risk of extinction. The bad news: 29 are gone and 4 more might be<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574559/original/file-20240209-20-jdrrpv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3982%2C2656&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/southern-cassowary-known-doublewattled-1845050383">mujiri/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What does it mean to save threatened species? How often do we achieve it? And how often do we fail? Our new research answers these questions for Australian birds.</p>
<p>One of the goals of conservation is to reduce the risk of a species becoming extinct. While this might be seen as a low bar for conservation managers, it is seldom achieved. A new set of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01584197.2024.2304903">research papers</a> on the conservation of Australian birds looks at cases of success over the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01584197.2023.2291140">past 30 years</a> and where we have failed over the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01584197.2023.2240345">past 200</a>.</p>
<p>We found extinction risks had reduced for 25 bird species and subspecies in at least one of the decades between 1990 and 2020. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01584197.2024.2304903">Nine of these</a> would have gone extinct if not for hard work and expertise to prevent it happening.</p>
<p>The most effective action has been eradicating invasive species from islands. This work benefited 13 birds. </p>
<p>Most Australians <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S000632072100375X">approve of killing invasive species</a> to save threatened species. They have good reason: it works.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ridding-macquarie-island-of-pests-pays-off-as-seabirds-come-back-from-the-brink-but-recovery-has-just-begun-221992">Ridding Macquarie Island of pests pays off as seabirds come back from the brink – but recovery has just begun</a>
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<h2>What were the successes?</h2>
<p>Nine of these successes are <a href="https://theconversation.com/ridding-macquarie-island-of-pests-pays-off-as-seabirds-come-back-from-the-brink-but-recovery-has-just-begun-221992">seabirds nesting on Macquarie Island</a>. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/10/rats-and-rabbits-invasive-species-macquarie-island-southern-ocean-aoe">program there</a> was so successful it had a significant positive impact on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01584197.2023.2289999">Australia’s Red List Index for birds</a>, a way of measuring overall progress on threatened species status. </p>
<p>This success also changed the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01584197.2023.2285821">average characteristics</a> of Australian threatened birds. Before the pest eradications on Macquarie Island, large seabirds dominated the profile of the threatened Australian birds. Now the average threatened bird is smaller and lives on land. </p>
<p>Further programs have the potential to have a similar impact. The likely huge benefits from <a href="https://lhirodenteradicationproject.org/">eradicating rodents</a> from Lord Howe Island, for example, are yet to show up in these figures.</p>
<p>Another four birds benefited simply from having their habitat protected. Protection of rainforest reduced extinction risk for the southern cassowary (<em><a href="https://ebird.org/species/soucas1">Casuarius casuarius</a></em>) and Albert’s lyrebird (<em><a href="https://ebird.org/species/alblyr1">Menura alberti</a></em>). One of the largest national parks in New South Wales <a href="https://npansw.org.au/2020/11/03/ambitious-expansion-of-national-parks-warmly-welcomed/">was acquired</a> for the Bulloo grey grasswren (<em><a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=67065">Amytornis barbatus barbatus</a></em>). The Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle (<a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=64435#:%7E:text=The%20Wedge%2Dtailed%20Eagle%20(Tasmanian)%20is%20a%20large%20bird,(Bell%20%26%20Mooney%201998).">Aquila audax fleayi</a>) also had more of its nesting habitat protected.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/prince-albert-had-nothing-to-do-with-the-lyrebird-bearing-his-name-should-our-birds-be-named-after-people-217792">Prince Albert had nothing to do with the lyrebird bearing his name. Should our birds be named after people?</a>
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<p>For another species, simply enforcing the law reduced the threat. In south-western Australia, culling of Muir’s corella (<em><a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=25981">Cacatua pastinator pastinator</a></em>) for agriculture threatened it with extinction. Now, with better protection, there are <a href="https://www.dbca.wa.gov.au/management/muirs-corella-management-western-australia">thousands</a>.</p>
<p>Some threatened birds have benefited from intensive interventions by dedicated conservation agencies, non-government organisations and individuals. </p>
<p>Translocations of <a href="https://ebird.org/species/goupet1/">Gould’s petrels</a> to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320705004416">new breeding islands</a> and of eastern bristlebirds (<em><a href="https://ebird.org/species/easbri1/">Dasyornis brachypterus</a></em>) to <a href="https://parksaustralia.gov.au/news/eastern-bristlebird-translocation-success/">heathlands</a> were exemplary. </p>
<p>Very few glossy black-cockatoos (<a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/biodiversity/threatened/recovery-plans/south-australian-subspecies-glossy-black-cockatoo-calyptorhynchus-lathami-halmaturinus"><em>Calyptorhynchus lathami halmaturinus</em></a>) on Kangaroo Island were nesting successfully before their <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339831737_From_the_brink_of_extinction_successful_recovery_of_the_glossy_black-cockatoo_on_Kangaroo_Island">nests were protected</a> from predatory possums. </p>
<p>Rats twice <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320411348_Back_from_the_brink_-_again_the_decline_and_recovery_of_the_Norfolk_Island_green_parrot">almost wiped out</a> Norfolk Island green parrots <a href="https://ebird.org/species/noipar1/"><em>Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae cookii</em></a>. Their population has <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01584197.2023.2267606">increased ten-fold</a> since nests have been better protected.</p>
<p>These examples show our society can make changes that help to prevent extinctions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A glossy black-cockatoo eats seeds from a casuarina tree on Kangaroo Island" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574560/original/file-20240209-29-9fdvn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574560/original/file-20240209-29-9fdvn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574560/original/file-20240209-29-9fdvn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574560/original/file-20240209-29-9fdvn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574560/original/file-20240209-29-9fdvn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574560/original/file-20240209-29-9fdvn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574560/original/file-20240209-29-9fdvn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protecting glossy black-cockatoo nests from possums on Kangaroo Island has boosted the population.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/glossy-black-cockatoo-picks-casuarina-seed-2120254118">Paleokastritsa/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-identified-the-63-animals-most-likely-to-go-extinct-by-2041-we-cant-give-up-on-them-yet-182155">We identified the 63 animals most likely to go extinct by 2041. We can't give up on them yet</a>
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<h2>There have also been setbacks</h2>
<p>Our stories contain salutary lessons too. The pathway to recovery can have reversals.</p>
<p>In the past decade, Gould’s petrel and the bristlebird have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01584197.2023.2291140">suffered setbacks</a> due to new or escalating threats. A <a href="https://afo.birdlife.org.au/afo/index.php/afo/article/view/2304">new report</a> suggests Tasmanian wind farms are killing and injuring significant numbers of eagles – and many more windfarms are planned.</p>
<p>Our analysis of improvements in the conservation outlook for Australian birds was complemented with an assessment of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01584197.2023.2240345">Australian bird extinctions</a>. Sadly, we found extinctions are continuing. </p>
<p>Even with the conservation effort of the past 30 years since Australia’s first endangered species legislation, three birds are gone forever. The Mount Lofty Ranges spotted quail-thrush (<em><a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/biodiversity/threatened/conservation-advices/cinclosoma-punctatum-anachoreta">Cinclosoma punctatum anachoreta</a></em>), white-chested white-eye (<a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=25899"><em>Zosterops albogularis</em></a>) and southern star finch (<em><a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=26027">Neochmia ruficauda ruficauda</a></em>) were still surviving in the 1990s, but were extinct by 2010. </p>
<p>The number of extinct birds has risen steadily since Australia was colonised in 1788. There was an initial burst of extinctions on islands, particularly big birds that were good to eat and probably had small populations. More recent losses have tended to be small birds whose mainland habitat has been cleared or modified.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-re-counted-australias-extinct-species-and-the-result-is-devastating-127611">Scientists re-counted Australia's extinct species, and the result is devastating</a>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574558/original/file-20240209-18-5jl1x3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A museum specimen of a white-breasted white-eye, now an extinct bird" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574558/original/file-20240209-18-5jl1x3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574558/original/file-20240209-18-5jl1x3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574558/original/file-20240209-18-5jl1x3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574558/original/file-20240209-18-5jl1x3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574558/original/file-20240209-18-5jl1x3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574558/original/file-20240209-18-5jl1x3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574558/original/file-20240209-18-5jl1x3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The white-breasted white-eye is now found only in museum collections, having gone extinct by 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Naturalis_Biodiversity_Center_-_RMNH.AVES.133455_1_-_Zosterops_albogularis_Gould,_1837_-_Zosteropidae_-_bird_skin_specimen.jpeg">Naturalis Biodiversity Center/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>29 birds are gone, but we can halt the losses</h2>
<p>At present, 29 Australian birds are known to have become extinct. It’s a <a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-re-counted-australias-extinct-species-and-the-result-is-devastating-127611">lower percentage than for mammals</a> but still far too high. </p>
<p>Grave fears are held for <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-identified-the-63-animals-most-likely-to-go-extinct-by-2041-we-cant-give-up-on-them-yet-182155">another four</a> – the Tiwi hooded robin (<em><a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=67092">Melanodryas cucullata melvillensis</a></em>), buff-breasted button-quail (<em><a href="https://ebird.org/species/bubbut1?siteLanguage=en_AU">Turnix olivii</a></em>), Coxen’s fig-parrot (<em><a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=59714">Cyclopsitta diophthalma coxeni</a></em>) and Cape Range rufous grasswren (<em><a href="https://bioone.org/journals/bulletin-of-the-british-ornithologists-club/volume-140/issue-2/bboc.v140i2.2020.a6/Two-new-but-threatened-subspecies-of-Rufous-Grasswren-Amytornis-whitei/10.25226/bboc.v140i2.2020.a6.full">Amytornis striatus parvus</a></em>). We don’t know whether they persist or not.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-buff-breasted-button-quail-still-alive-after-years-of-searching-this-century-old-bird-mystery-has-yet-to-be-solved-175647">Is the buff-breasted button-quail still alive? After years of searching, this century-old bird mystery has yet to be solved</a>
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<p>For the 29 extinct birds, we can do nothing. The important lesson is that this number of losses need grow no more. We have the resources and skills to prevent extinction.</p>
<p>A recent <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-31/bob-brown-judge-logging-suspension-tasmania-rare-swift-parrot/103411922">court order</a> halting forestry activity in swift parrot (<em><a href="https://ebird.org/species/swipar1/">Lathamus discolor</a></em>) habitat suggests at least some environmental laws are making a difference. </p>
<p>Other judgments expose legal shortcomings and show how much more needs to be done. The revisions of national environmental laws <a href="https://www.agriculture.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/pathway-reforming-national-environmental-law.pdf">now being negotiated</a> provide an opportunity to fill loopholes through which threatened species might fall.</p>
<p>Extinctions are neither accidental nor deliberate. They are a failure of policy and people. </p>
<p>However, the examples of birds whose risk of extinction has declined show what can be achieved. While some of these improvements were mostly a matter of good luck, many were the result of hard work, advocacy, investment and well-judged interventions. And they give the world hope.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222759/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Woinarski is affiliated with Charles Darwin University, the Australian Wildlife Conservancy and the Biodiversity Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Legge receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is a member of the Biodiversity Council; the Conservation and Science Committee for the Invasive Species Council; and the Threatened Species Committee for Birds Australia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Garnett receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is affiliated with BirdLife Australia. </span></em></p>It’s hard work saving birds from extinction, but we have the evidence of successful interventions to show we can avoid further losses.John Woinarski, Professor of Conservation Biology, Charles Darwin UniversitySarah Legge, Professor of Wildlife Ecology, Australian National UniversityStephen Garnett, Professor of Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods, Charles Darwin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2177922024-01-24T19:06:56Z2024-01-24T19:06:56ZPrince Albert had nothing to do with the lyrebird bearing his name. Should our birds be named after people?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568984/original/file-20240112-19-3u52z2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C0%2C5185%2C3446&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/prince-alberts-lyrebird-menura-alberti-timid-2258264815">Martin Pelanek/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Influential ornithologist John James Audubon’s historical ownership of slaves has spurred a debate about bird names in the United States. As a result, the American Ornithological Society will change not only birds’ common names referring to him, but all <a href="https://americanornithology.org/american-ornithological-society-will-change-the-english-names-of-bird-species-named-after-people/">152 eponymous bird names</a> in North America, regardless of good or bad perceptions of their namesakes. </p>
<p>The cultural conversation has arrived in Australia where <a href="https://ebird.org/printableList?regionCode=AU">dozens of species</a> are named after people. Some Australian scientists and birdwatchers (including one from the peak ornithological body Birdlife Australia) have <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01584197.2022.2096074">proposed a review</a>, particularly of names with colonial associations.</p>
<p>One Australian species has already been renamed. Birdlife Australia now <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2023/sep/16/pink-cockatoo-australian-bird-of-the-year-guardian-birdlife">prefers</a> <a href="https://birdlife.org.au/bird-profiles/pink-cockatoo/">Pink Cockatoo</a> to Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo as the common name. </p>
<p>Thomas Mitchell led a massacre of Aboriginal people in western New South Wales in 1836, condemned for its senselessness even <a href="https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=575">at the time</a>. Birdlife Australia provides a clear argument why the bird should not bear his name. The change has sparked a conversation in online birding communities.</p>
<p>The Albert’s Lyrebird, the topic of my PhD research, also bears a name with colonial overtones, though without the direct violent connotations of Mitchell. Should it, and other Australian species named after people, be renamed? I’m not sure, but I do know this reclusive rainforest bird has a fascinating and surprisingly complex etymology. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A flying Pink Cockatoo about to land on a tree stump" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568970/original/file-20240111-21-hglx30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568970/original/file-20240111-21-hglx30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568970/original/file-20240111-21-hglx30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568970/original/file-20240111-21-hglx30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568970/original/file-20240111-21-hglx30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568970/original/file-20240111-21-hglx30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568970/original/file-20240111-21-hglx30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The case for renaming Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo the Pink Cockatoo was clear, but what about other Australian birds named after people?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/major-mitchells-cockatoo-lophochroa-leadbeateri-flight-780187936">sompreaw/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-dozens-of-north-american-bird-species-are-getting-new-names-every-name-tells-a-story-217886">Why dozens of North American bird species are getting new names: Every name tells a story</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why is a lyrebird named after Prince Albert?</h2>
<p>When English ornithologist John Gould <a href="http://www.aviculturalsocietynsw.org/_inMemoriam/GouldJohn1804-1881.htm">suggested the lyrebird</a> as Australia’s bird emblem, he was recommending the Superb Lyrebird (<em>Menura novaehollandiae</em>) found throughout south-east Australia. Fewer people know of the Albert’s Lyrebird (<em>Menura alberti</em>), restricted to a tiny area on the Queensland-New South Wales border. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Portrait of Prince Albert" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568979/original/file-20240111-23-sn4hrx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568979/original/file-20240111-23-sn4hrx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568979/original/file-20240111-23-sn4hrx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568979/original/file-20240111-23-sn4hrx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568979/original/file-20240111-23-sn4hrx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568979/original/file-20240111-23-sn4hrx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568979/original/file-20240111-23-sn4hrx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Albert’s Lyrebird was named to honour the German-born prince.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_Baxter_-_Prince_Albert_-_B1977.14.10675_-_Yale_Center_for_British_Art.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fewer still know the story behind its naming. The Albert’s Lyrebird bears the moniker of Prince Albert, both in its scientific (Latin) name and current common (English) name, bestowed by Gould himself. </p>
<p>This species was still unknown to colonial scientists when Gould’s landmark <a href="https://australian.museum/learn/collections/museum-archives-library/john-gould/the-birds-of-australia/#:%7E:text=Year%20Published%3A%201848&text=John%20Gould's%20The%20Birds%20of,on%20Australian%20ornithology%20ever%20written.">Birds of Australia</a> was first published in 1848. This was in part due to its remote, humid forest habitat.</p>
<p>Under taxonomic convention – the rules for classifying species – the credit for describing the species and assigning its scientific name would normally have gone to Gould when his 1850 supplement introduced the new species. Every listing of a species provides a scientific name, the name of the person who first described it and the date they did so. So we might have expected to see the Albert’s Lyrebird listed as <em>Menura alberti</em>, Gould, 1850.</p>
<p>Instead, next to <em>Menura alberti</em> we see a different surname – Bonaparte. Not Napoleon, but his nephew Charles, a naturalist who referred to Gould’s description of the new species. However, Bonaparte’s reference predated Gould’s actual publication, a technicality that means Bonaparte is listed as the scientific describer. </p>
<p>This quirk of taxonomy has tied this bird to two names deeply associated with empires.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An Albert's Lyrebird walking through moss-covered rocks in a forest" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568982/original/file-20240112-15-4n0ryx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C202%2C2549%2C1711&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568982/original/file-20240112-15-4n0ryx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568982/original/file-20240112-15-4n0ryx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568982/original/file-20240112-15-4n0ryx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568982/original/file-20240112-15-4n0ryx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568982/original/file-20240112-15-4n0ryx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568982/original/file-20240112-15-4n0ryx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The scientific naming of Albert’s Lyrebird in 1850 links it with the British and French empires.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albert%27s_Lyrebird_(32218869072).jpg">Mike's Birds/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/listen-to-the-alberts-lyrebird-the-best-performer-youve-never-heard-of-177627">Listen to the Albert’s lyrebird: the best performer you’ve never heard of</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How do birds get their names?</h2>
<p>Scientific names change only when species are reclassified. The naming is more akin to record keeping – though honouring people can be a secondary purpose. In the lyrebird’s case, Gould cited the prince’s <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40347175">“liberal support” and “personal virtues”</a>. </p>
<p>Birdlife Australia has an English Names Committee, which deals with such changes. Prince Albert is not directly linked to historical violence in Australia, but he was Queen Victoria’s spouse during its colonisation. </p>
<p>If <em>Menura alberti</em> requires the Pink Cockatoo treatment, some other common names have been used in the past. </p>
<p>“Northern Lyrebird” is used in G. Matthews’ <a href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/53451682">Birds of Australia</a>. The volume is of the same name as Gould’s, by a self-funded author, who was <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mathews-gregory-macalister-7517">controversial for his own taxonomic renaming</a>. </p>
<p>More informally, “<a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/193057179">Small Lyrebird</a>” has been used in relation to A.A. Leycester, the naturalist who shot the first specimen in 1844. </p>
<p>These are both obscure, albeit more descriptive, alternatives. “Albert’s” is much more common. Leycester himself <a href="https://aquarian.lismore.nsw.gov.au/archive/BOX%20FNC%20NATIONAL%20PARK%2070-80s/CORRESPONDENCE%201979%20-1980.pdf">added an even more royal connotation</a> with “Prince Albert’s Lyrebird”, but sometimes also “Richmond River Lyrebird”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An Albert's Lyrebird digging through forest leaf litter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568981/original/file-20240112-21-t161sf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568981/original/file-20240112-21-t161sf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568981/original/file-20240112-21-t161sf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568981/original/file-20240112-21-t161sf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568981/original/file-20240112-21-t161sf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568981/original/file-20240112-21-t161sf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568981/original/file-20240112-21-t161sf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Albert’s Lyrebird has been known by several other names.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/alberts-lyre-bird-foraging-on-forest-1870811767">Ken Griffiths/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-over-7-000-english-names-for-birds-heres-what-they-teach-us-about-our-changing-relationship-with-nature-162471">There are over 7,000 English names for birds – here's what they teach us about our changing relationship with nature</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The bird had earlier names</h2>
<p>As for the bird being “discovered”, naturally earlier Indigenous names survive. </p>
<p>The bird has recently been described as a bird of the Bunjalung language area. This is true but it is also a Yugambeh and Githabul bird. Its habitat on the Great Dividing Range might include Jagera Country too. </p>
<p>Archibald Meston inexplicably recorded a Kabi Kabi language name from the “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1071/MU957025">head of the Mary River</a>” – no lyrebird is known to occur this far north.</p>
<p>The Yugambeh Museum has provided “kalbun” for national park signage in my home town, Tamborine Mountain. One <a href="https://bundjalung.dalang.com.au/language/view_word/1319">Bundjalung dictionary</a> provides “galbuny” or “galwuny” with an outlying possibility of “wonglepong”, “kalwun” or “kulwin” in the Tweed as meanings for “lyrebird” (with no clarification between the two species). Indigenous health service Kalwun uses the name in reference to the “<a href="https://www.kalwun.com.au/about">rainforest lyrebird</a>” but uses an image of a Superb Lyrebird as its logo. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An Albert's Lyrebird displaying with a raised tail in the rainforest" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571013/original/file-20240123-29-olrpe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571013/original/file-20240123-29-olrpe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571013/original/file-20240123-29-olrpe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571013/original/file-20240123-29-olrpe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571013/original/file-20240123-29-olrpe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571013/original/file-20240123-29-olrpe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571013/original/file-20240123-29-olrpe6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The male Albert’s Lyrebird (above) lacks the distinctive barring on the lyre-shaped feathers of the male Superb Lyrebird (below).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Felix Cehak</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A male Superb Lyrebird spreads its tail as it displays in a forest clearing" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568977/original/file-20240111-19-e9qlg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568977/original/file-20240111-19-e9qlg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568977/original/file-20240111-19-e9qlg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568977/original/file-20240111-19-e9qlg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568977/original/file-20240111-19-e9qlg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568977/original/file-20240111-19-e9qlg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568977/original/file-20240111-19-e9qlg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kimedoll/3762012430">KimEdoll/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Superb Lyrebird is also found within Bundjalung Country, such as in <a href="https://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/visit-a-park/parks/washpool-national-park/learn-more#F84A24F0AC0E401E8DABACEA4DD2254D">Washpool National Park</a>. This variance and confusion between lyrebird species and language groups is before we even consider the Githabul area to the west, a sometimes <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Far-North-Coast-of-NSW-Source-CartoGIS-College-of-Asia-and-the-Pacific-ANU_fig1_316272086">contested distinction</a>. </p>
<p>The Yugambeh Museum allows for the variance by providing a different language resource for each location. You will find, for example, a different Indigenous name on the national park sign at Tamborine to the one at Lamington. </p>
<p>As many language groups give the bird many names (only some of which are listed here), there isn’t one obvious Indigenous option if the bird were to be renamed. Beyond these names, the cultural significance of the bird, which lives in rarely visited wet and leech-infested places, seems to have been lost. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An Albert's Lyrebird singing in the forest" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571016/original/file-20240123-25-t6k3t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571016/original/file-20240123-25-t6k3t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571016/original/file-20240123-25-t6k3t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571016/original/file-20240123-25-t6k3t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571016/original/file-20240123-25-t6k3t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571016/original/file-20240123-25-t6k3t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571016/original/file-20240123-25-t6k3t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Albert’s Lyrebird can be hard to find in its dark and dense forest habitat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Felix Cehak</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-makes-a-good-bird-name-217211">What makes a good bird name?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>If a new name is needed, who decides it?</h2>
<p>Over many hours of conversation about this species, I have found the link to Prince Albert is always known. I have rarely heard anything more about why the lyrebird bears his name. Besides his irrelevance to Australian ornithology, I cannot gauge a specific reason the Prince Albert moniker is inappropriate, unlike Thomas Mitchell. </p>
<p>If a change is required to a bird’s name, the decision must be made with the relevant communities. If they wish to counter a history of imperial naming by renaming, the new name should not spring from a similar desire for ownership. </p>
<p>It would also be wise to maintain broadness in this conversation. In the Albert’s Lyrebird case, that includes the birdwatchers, ecologists and conservationists who have contributed to our understanding of this little-known species. </p>
<p>We are about to see what happens in the United States. It would be wise to watch carefully what happens next.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217792/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Felix Cehak receives funding from UNSW in the form of a current PhD student stipend. </span></em></p>Birds have one unchanging scientific name, but often many common names that are subject to change. Choosing a new name for a bird isn’t necessarily a simple decision.Felix Cehak, PhD Candidate, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2196712024-01-23T13:28:40Z2024-01-23T13:28:40ZAlbatrosses are threatened with extinction – and climate change could put their nesting sites at risk<p>The <a href="https://ebird.org/species/wanalb1?siteLanguage=en_ZA">wandering albatross</a> (<em>Diomedea exulans</em>) is the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/wandering-albatross">world’s largest flying bird</a>, with a wingspan reaching an incredible 3.5 metres. These birds are oceanic nomads: they spend most of their 60 years of life at sea and only come to land to breed approximately every two years once they have reached sexual maturity.</p>
<p>Their playground is the vast <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Southern-Ocean">Southern Ocean</a> – the region between the latitude of 60 degrees south and the continent of Antarctica – and the scattered islands within this ocean where they make their nests. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.marineprotectedareas.org.za/prince-edward-islands-mpa">Marion Island and Prince Edward Island</a>, about 2,300km south of South Africa, are some of the only land masses for thousands of kilometres in the Southern Ocean. </p>
<p>Together, these two islands support about half of the entire world’s wandering albatross breeding population, estimated at around <a href="https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/wandering-albatross-diomedea-exulans">20,000 mature individuals</a>. Every year scientists from South African universities survey Marion Island to locate and record each wandering albatross nest. </p>
<p>The species, <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22698305/132640680">listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature</a>, faces huge <a href="https://theconversation.com/plastic-in-the-ocean-kills-more-threatened-albatrosses-than-we-thought-154925">risks</a> while in the open ocean, in particular due to bycatch from longline <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-recruited-albatrosses-to-patrol-the-high-seas-for-illegal-fishers-130621">fishing</a> trawlers. This makes it important to understand their breeding ecology to ensure that the population remains stable. </p>
<p>I was part of a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ibi.13111">study</a> during 2021 to investigate which environmental variables affect the birds’ choice of nest site on Marion Island. The birds make their nests – a mound of soil and vegetation – on the ground. We looked at wind characteristics, vegetation and geological characteristics at nest locations from three breeding seasons.</p>
<p>Elevation turned out to be the most important variable – the albatrosses preferred a low (warmer) site and coastal vegetation. But these preferences also point to dangers for the birds from climate change. The greatest risk to the availability of nesting sites will be a much smaller suitable nesting range in future than at present. This could be devastating to the population. </p>
<h2>Variables influencing nest site selection</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.sanap.ac.za/about/gallery-marion-island">Marion Island</a> is of volcanic origin and has a rough terrain. Some areas are covered in sharp rock and others are boggy, with very wet vegetation. There is rain and strong wind on most days. Conducting research here requires walking long distances in all weathers – but the island is ideal for studying climate change, because the Southern Ocean is experiencing some of the largest global changes in climate and it is relatively undisturbed by humans. </p>
<p>Using GPS coordinate nest data from the entire breeding population on Marion Island, we aimed to determine which factors affected where the birds breed. With more than 1,900 nests, and 10,000 randomly generated points where nests are not present, we extracted:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>elevation (which on this island is also a proxy for temperature)</p></li>
<li><p>terrain ruggedness</p></li>
<li><p>slope</p></li>
<li><p>distance to the coast</p></li>
<li><p>vegetation type</p></li>
<li><p>wind speed</p></li>
<li><p>wind turbulence</p></li>
<li><p>underlying geology. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>The variables were ranked according to their influence on the statistical model predicting the likelihood of a nest being present under the conditions found at a certain point.</p>
<p>The most important variable was elevation. The majority of the nests were found close to the coast, where the elevation is lower. These areas are warmer, which means that the chicks would be less exposed to very cold temperatures on their open nests. </p>
<p>The probability of nests being present also declined with distance from the coast, probably because there are more suitable habitats closer to the coast.</p>
<p>Vegetation type was strongly determined by elevation and distance from the coast. This was an important factor, as the birds use vegetation to build their nests. In addition, dead vegetation contributes to the soil formation on the island, which is also used in nest construction. </p>
<p>The probability of encountering nests is lower as the terrain ruggedness increases since these birds need a runway of flat space to use for take-off and landing. During incubation, the adults take turns to remain on the nest. Later they will leave the chick on its own for up to 10 days at a time. They continue to feed the chick for up to 300 days.</p>
<p>Areas with intermediate wind speeds were those most likely to have a nest. At least some wind is needed for flight, but too much wind may cause chicks to blow off the nests or become too cold. </p>
<h2>Delicate balance</h2>
<p>Changing climates may upset this delicate balance. Human-driven changes will have impacts on temperature, rainfall and wind speeds, which in turn affect vegetation and other species <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2745.13625">distribution patterns</a>. </p>
<p>By 2003, Marion Island’s <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2008.01687.x">temperature had increased by 1.2°C</a> compared to 50 years before. Precipitation had decreased by 25% and cloud cover also decreased, leading to an <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2004JC002492">increase in sunshine hours</a>. The permanent snowline which was present in the 1950s <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257757594_Climate_change_melts_Marion_Island's_snow_and_ice">no longer exists</a>. These changes have continued in the 20 years since their initial documentation, and are likely to continue. </p>
<p>Strong vegetation shifts were already <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2008.01687.x">documented</a> in the sub-Antarctic years ago. Over 40 years, many species have shifted their ranges to higher elevations where the temperatures remain cooler. Wind speeds have also already increased in the Southern Ocean and are <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-03062-1">predicted</a> to continue doing so, which may have effects on the size of areas suitable for nesting. </p>
<p>If nesting sites move to higher elevations on Marion Island as temperatures warm, and some areas become unsuitable due to changes in vegetation or wind speeds, it is likely that the suitable nesting area on the island will shrink considerably. </p>
<p>Our study adds to what is known about the elements affecting nest-site selection in birds. Notably, we add knowledge of wind, an underexplored element, influencing nest-site selection in a large oceanic bird. The results could also provide insights that apply to other surface-nesting seabirds.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219671/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mia Momberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Climate change could reduce suitable nesting sites for the wandering albatross on Marion Island.Mia Momberg, Postdoctoral research fellow, Department of Plant and Soil Science, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2203182024-01-08T23:41:27Z2024-01-08T23:41:27ZWhen polar bears hunt snow geese, hunger justifies the means<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/567181/original/file-20231220-19-d2je5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C1%2C989%2C745&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The adaptations that polar bears will have to make to meet the challenges brought about by climate change are numerous and unpredictable.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Polar bears (<em>Ursus maritimus</em>) take advantage of the winter to build up their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/physzool.69.2.30164186">fat reserves</a>. Intensive hunting of seals, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/z75-117">a resource rich in fat</a>, allows bears to store up enough energy to get through the summer.</p>
<p>As the climate warms, hunting opportunities on the ice pack are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12685">diminishing</a>. Experts believe that as a result, there is not sufficient food resources on the land to allow bears to build up <a href="https://doi.org/10.1890/140202">the energy reserves they require</a>.</p>
<p>Faced with these changes, some polar bears are taking advantage of colonies <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.3128">of nesting birds and their eggs</a>, one of the few resources readily available on land, to compensate for their energy deficits. The adaptations that bears will have to make to meet the challenges brought about by climate change are numerous and unpredictable.</p>
<p>As a student researcher in ecology, I was going to take advantage of a short trip north of Baffin Island, in Nunavut, to do some work on the small fauna of Bylot Island. One afternoon, a polar bear decided otherwise. Here we report on his exploits, which led to observations of unprecedented behaviour.</p>
<h2>An unusual sighting – a polar bear in fresh water</h2>
<p>It was Aug. 8, 2021. Some 80 km from the Inuit community of Mittimatalik, the Bylot Island field station was bustling with activity.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2023-0029">Established 30 years ago</a>, the field station is located in the heart of the breeding grounds of the largest known colony of snow geese (<em>Anser caerulescens caerulescens</em>). Today, scientists from a variety of backgrounds scour the Quarliktuvik valley floor, which is generally flat, to study the soil, water, plants and wildlife.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566995/original/file-20231220-25-jybcic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Bylot Island main research station TimMoser x" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566995/original/file-20231220-25-jybcic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566995/original/file-20231220-25-jybcic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=246&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566995/original/file-20231220-25-jybcic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=246&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566995/original/file-20231220-25-jybcic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=246&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566995/original/file-20231220-25-jybcic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566995/original/file-20231220-25-jybcic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566995/original/file-20231220-25-jybcic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Bylot Island research camp.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Tim Moser)</span>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Coming out of a ravine, one of the few landforms in the area, I was scanning the valley with my binoculars when two pairs of legs in the distance caught my eye. The image was foggy, but what I initially thought were two colleagues walking side by side, turned out to be the distinctive shape of a polar bear. Everyone in our group had the necessary protective equipment — bear spray, anti-bear cartridges and sometimes even a rifle — but I alerted them by radio and immediately returned to the field station.</p>
<p>Several colleagues had gathered on a small hill to keep an eye on the newcomer. In fact, by the time I’d covered the kilometre distance to the camp, the bear had walked three kilometres and was moving around a pond where geese were gathered. At this time of year, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.00982">the geese are moulting</a> — and therefore unable to fly — so they congregate near ponds to avoid the <a href="https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic604">Arctic fox (<em>Vulpes lagopus</em>)</a>, which is reluctant to jump into the water. With a bear in the vicinity, we ceased our field activities and took advantage of the radiant afternoon to watch the king of the ice pack.</p>
<p>True to form, the geese took refuge in the nearest pond at the first sight of danger. They waded in quickly enough to keep the bear, who was swimming on the surface, at a safe distance.</p>
<p>But the bear was about to use a new hunting technique: he dove under the water, disappeared from the eyes of the geese who had stopped fleeing, and emerged from underneath one of them.</p>
<p>My colleague Mathilde Poirier recorded the behaviour in her notebook:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>1:45 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.: the bear swims in the lake […], makes 4 dives to try to catch a goose. Succeeds in its 4th attempt (catches the goose from below, during a dive).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>During the afternoon, the bear used this technique two more times, once failing and once with success.</p>
<h2>What are the benefits of this behaviour for bears?</h2>
<p>Two months later, back at Laval University, we were still fascinated by this observation. Nowhere in the scientific literature is there any mention of such behaviour. At best, there are reports of <a href="https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v41.8176">attacks on murres in the ocean</a> near the coasts, an environment very different from the calm, shallow ponds where we observed the bear’s attacks.</p>
<p>Being aware of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1890/140202">energy challenges</a> bears face during the summer, our research group — led by Matthieu Weiss-Blais — wanted to answer the following question: would this hunting technique allow polar bears to benefit from eating snow geese?</p>
<p>The information recorded in the field, i.e. the time the bear spent swimming and its success in hunting, allowed us to answer this question. By combining our observations with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-017-2209-x">estimates of the energy cost</a> of swimming in bears and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/conphys/cow045">the energy contained in a snow goose</a>, we were able to model the energy efficiency of the technique.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/AS-2023-0036">These calculations reveal</a> that this hunting technique could allow bears to acquire more energy than they expend, particularly for smaller bears, and if they manage to catch a goose quickly.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566994/original/file-20231220-25-lint0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="polar bear" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566994/original/file-20231220-25-lint0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566994/original/file-20231220-25-lint0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566994/original/file-20231220-25-lint0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566994/original/file-20231220-25-lint0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566994/original/file-20231220-25-lint0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566994/original/file-20231220-25-lint0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566994/original/file-20231220-25-lint0u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The bear was moving around near a pond occupied by geese.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Yannick Seyer)</span>, <span class="license">Fourni par l'auteur</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An energy boost, but far from sufficient</h2>
<p>However, this energy contribution would be very limited in scope.</p>
<p>First of all, a goose provides relatively little energy — around 200 times less than a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/z75-117">ringed seal weighing 45 kilograms</a>.</p>
<p>What’s more, the geese are rarely available as prey: they lose the ability to fly for only three or four weeks each summer and they only have colonies in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.879">a few places</a> in the Arctic.</p>
<p>Hunting geese could therefore be of benefit to certain bears from time to time, but on a population-wide scale, it will not alleviate the energy deficits caused by the melting ice pack.</p>
<p>Although our observation highlights the range of behaviours bears can adopt in order to exploit terrestrial resources, this type of interaction between snow geese and polar bears should have no impact on the populations of either species.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220318/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Bolduc received funding from the NSTP and the Canadian Association for Humane Trapping.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthieu Weiss-Blais received funding from NSERC, FRQNT and NSTP.
</span></em></p>Researchers have made a fascinating observation: a polar bear used a diving hunting technique, never before reported, to capture large moulting snow geese.David Bolduc, Étudiant au doctorat en écologie animale, Université LavalMatthieu Weiss-Blais, Étudiant la maîtrise en biologie, Université LavalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2172552024-01-04T13:48:42Z2024-01-04T13:48:42ZThe chickadee in the snowbank: A ‘canary in the coal mine’ for climate change in the Sierra Nevada mountains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564542/original/file-20231208-19-uw3l7c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C148%2C4139%2C2775&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mountain chickadees struggle with snow extremes.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Benjamin Sonnenberg</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Wet snow pelts my face and pulls against my skis as I climb above 8,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada of eastern California, tugging a sled loaded with batteries, bolts, wire and 40 pounds of sunflower seeds critical to our mountain chickadee research.</p>
<p>As we reach the remote research site, I duck under a tarp and open a laptop. A chorus of identification numbers are shouted back and forth as fellow behavioral ecologist <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KfEtp4gAAAAJ&hl=en">Vladimir Pravosudov</a> and I program <a href="https://youtu.be/a69lKv65mZk?feature=shared">“smart” bird feeders</a> for an upcoming experiment.</p>
<p>I have spent the past six years <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PBLRszkAAAAJ&hl=en">monitoring a population of mountain chickadees</a> here, tracking their life cycles and, importantly, their memory, working in a system <a href="https://chickadeecognition.com/">Pravosudov established in 2013</a>. The long, consistent record from this research site has allowed us to observe how chickadees survive in extreme winter snowfall and to identify ecological patterns and changes. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564534/original/file-20231208-19-4f18vw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A ring of tall, rectangular metal bird feeders mounded high with snow on top." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564534/original/file-20231208-19-4f18vw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564534/original/file-20231208-19-4f18vw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564534/original/file-20231208-19-4f18vw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564534/original/file-20231208-19-4f18vw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564534/original/file-20231208-19-4f18vw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564534/original/file-20231208-19-4f18vw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564534/original/file-20231208-19-4f18vw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Snow piles up on the experiment’s bird feeders. Each chickadee has a radio frequency identification tag that opens its assigned feeder, allowing scientists to track its movements and memory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vladimir Pravosudov</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In recent history, intense winters are often followed by drought years here in the Sierra Nevada and in much of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-95979-4">the U.S. West</a>. This teeter-totter pattern has been identified as one of the unexpected symptoms of climate change, and its impact on the chickadees is providing an early warning of the disruptions ahead for the dynamics within these coniferous forest ecosystems. </p>
<p>Our research shows that a mountain chickadee facing deep snow is, to borrow a cliche, like a canary in a coal mine – its survivability tells us about the challenges ahead.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A chickadee sits on a man's finger as the two look at each other." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564900/original/file-20231211-17-53wkl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564900/original/file-20231211-17-53wkl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564900/original/file-20231211-17-53wkl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564900/original/file-20231211-17-53wkl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564900/original/file-20231211-17-53wkl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564900/original/file-20231211-17-53wkl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564900/original/file-20231211-17-53wkl2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author, Benjamin Sonnenberg, and one of his research subjects − a young chickadee with a transponder tag on its leg.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Benjamin Sonnenberg</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The extraordinary memory of a chickadee</h2>
<p>As Pravosudov calls out the next identification number, and as my legs slowly get colder and wetter, a charming and chipper “<a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mountain_Chickadee/sounds#">DEE DEE DEE</a>” chimes down from a nearby tree. How is it that a bird weighing barely more than a few sheets of paper is more comfortable in this storm than I am?</p>
<p>The answer comes down to the chickadees’ incredible spatial cognitive abilities.</p>
<p>Cognition is the processes by which animals acquire, process, store and act on information from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.2000.1606">their environment</a>. It is critical to many species but is often subtle and difficult to measure in nonhuman animals.</p>
<p>Chickadees are food-storing specialists that hide tens of thousands of individual food items throughout the forest under edges of tree bark, or even between pine needles, each fall. Then, they use their specialized spatial memory to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110512-135904">retrieve those food caches</a> in the months to come.</p>
<p>Conditions in the high Sierras can be harsh, and if chickadees can’t remember where their food is, they die.</p>
<p>We measure the spatial memory of chickadees using a classic associative learning task but in a very atypical <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.10.015">location</a>. To do this, we hang a circular array of eight feeders equipped with radio-frequency identification and filled with seed in several locations across our <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2019.00257">field site</a>. Birds are tagged with “keys” – transponder tags in leg bands that contain individual identification numbers and allow them to open the doors of their assigned feeders to get a food reward.</p>
<p>The setup allows us to measure the spatial memory performance of individual chickadees, because they have to remember which feeder their key enables them to open. Over eight years, our findings demonstrate that chickadees with better spatial memory ability are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.01.006">more likely to survive</a> in the high mountains than those with worse memories. </p>
<p>However, chickadees may be facing increasing challenges that will shape their future in the high mountains. In 2017, a year with record-breaking snow levels, adult chickadees showed the lowest probability of survival <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-020-2817-2">ever measured at our site</a>. This exceptionally extreme winter came with recurrent storms containing cold weather and high winds, making it difficult for even the memory savvy chickadees to forage and survive. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, triumphant populations have persisted in high-elevation mountain environments, but their future is becoming uncertain.</p>
<h2>What’s the problem?</h2>
<p>“It’s weather whiplash,” says <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=iEEye1UAAAAJ&hl=en">Adrian Harpold</a>, a mountain ecohydrologist. Harpold works to understand variations in climate patterns within forest environments, and one of his field sites lies alongside our chickadee research site. </p>
<p>The Sierra Nevada and other mountain ranges in western North America have been experiencing more <a href="https://statesummaries.ncics.org/chapter/ca/">extreme snow years and drought years</a>, amplified by climate change. Extreme snow linked to global warming might seem counterintuitive, but it’s basic physics. Warmer air can hold more moisture – <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/explore/ask-nasa-climate/3143/steamy-relationships-how-atmospheric-water-vapor-amplifies-earths-greenhouse-effect/">about 7% more for every degree Celsius</a> (every 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) that temperatures rise. This can result in heavier snowfall when storms strike.</p>
<p><iframe id="VfiF9" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/VfiF9/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>In 2023’s record winter, over 17 feet (5 meters) of snow covered the landscape that our chickadees were using every day. In fact, these intense storms and cold temperatures not only made it difficult for birds to survive the winter but made it almost impossible for them to breed the next summer: 46% of chickadee nests at our higher elevation site failed to produce any offspring. This was likely due to the deep snow that prevented them from finding emerging insects to feed nestlings or even reaching nesting sites at all until July.</p>
<h2>The cascading harms from too much snow</h2>
<p>Even in years of tremendous snowfall, chickadees can still use their finely honed spatial memories to recover food. However, severe storms can shorten their survival odds. And if they do survive the winter, their nesting sites – tree cavities – may be buried under feet of snow in the spring. </p>
<p>It doesn’t matter how smart you are if you can’t reach your nest.</p>
<p>Extreme snow oscillations also affect insects that are critical for feeding chickadee chicks. Limited resources lead to smaller chickadee offspring that are less likely to survive high in the mountains. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A tiny baby chickadee sits in a man's hand. It's mouth below a still developing beak is bright yellow." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565552/original/file-20231213-15-r59z40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565552/original/file-20231213-15-r59z40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565552/original/file-20231213-15-r59z40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565552/original/file-20231213-15-r59z40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565552/original/file-20231213-15-r59z40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565552/original/file-20231213-15-r59z40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565552/original/file-20231213-15-r59z40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mountain chickadee chicks can struggle to survive during winters with extreme snow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Benjamin Sonnenberg</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Snow cover is good for overwintering insects in most cases, as it provides an insulating blanket that saves them from dying during those freezing months. However, if the snow persists too long into the summer, insects can run out of energy and die before they can emerge, or emerge after chickadees <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12105">really need them</a>. Drought years also can drive insect population decline. </p>
<p>Extremes at both ends of the spectrum are making it harder for chickadees to thrive, and more and more we are seeing oscillations between these extremes.</p>
<p>These compounded effects mean that in some years chickadees simply don’t successfully nest at all. This leads to a decline in chickadee populations in years with worse whiplash – drought followed by high snow on repeat – especially at high elevations. This is especially concerning, as many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16187">mountain-dwelling avian species are forecasted to move up in elevation</a> to escape warming temperatures, which may turn out to be hazardous. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Eight little chickadees in a circle in a wooden box, their tails all together in the center to keep their bodies warm." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564540/original/file-20231208-17-vwxtfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564540/original/file-20231208-17-vwxtfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564540/original/file-20231208-17-vwxtfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564540/original/file-20231208-17-vwxtfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564540/original/file-20231208-17-vwxtfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564540/original/file-20231208-17-vwxtfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564540/original/file-20231208-17-vwxtfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Baby chickadees stay warm inside a wooden box.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Benjamin Sonnenberg</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lessons for the future</h2>
<p>Chickadees may be portrayed as radiating tranquil beauty on holiday cards, but realistically, these loud, round ruffians are tough survivors of harsh winter environments in northern latitudes.</p>
<p>Our long-term research following these chickadees provides a unique window into the relationships between winter snow, chickadee populations and the biological community around them, such as <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-007-9358-9">coniferous forests</a> and <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2023989118">insect</a> populations. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a69lKv65mZk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Benjamin Sonnenberg and Vladimir Pravosudov show how the feeders work to test birds’ memories in a video about the early stages of their research.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These relationships illustrate that climate change is a more complicated story than just the temperature climb – and that its whiplash and cascading effects can destabilize ecosystems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217255/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin Sonnenberg receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>These tiny songbirds have extraordinary memories for the tens of thousands of spots where they hide food. But that doesn’t help when heavy snow blocks their access.Benjamin Sonnenberg, Ph.D. Candidate in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology, University of Nevada, RenoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2172112024-01-03T13:19:05Z2024-01-03T13:19:05ZWhat makes a good bird name?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565789/original/file-20231214-19-rc8tcn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5321%2C2818&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bird-watcher-silhouette-112279877">Erkki Alvenmod/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I remember my first close encounter with birds. I must have been about three years old and had discovered a <a href="https://ewatlas.net/animalia/turdus-merula">blackbird</a> nest unusually accessible in our garden hedge. Still naked and blind, the chicks had not long hatched and I discovered that if I poked the nest, four little heads shot up – gapes open wide for feeding. </p>
<p>Discovering a natural jack-in-the-box was a delight and gave me hours of fun – so much so that I may have caused the parents’ desertion, since I found the chicks dead the next day. I take some small consolation from the likelihood that this encounter helped forge a lifetime of fascination and involvement <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-over-7-000-english-names-for-birds-heres-what-they-teach-us-about-our-changing-relationship-with-nature-162471">with birds</a>. It may also have contributed to my sense of responsibility to birds and other creatures.</p>
<p>Birds point us to the existence of another world which, unlike the human one, makes no demands of us but to enjoy it and see that it has a future. It is a world that existed before us, into which humans evolved and on which we all <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/biodiversity-and-health">depend</a>.</p>
<p>While not common to all cultures or languages, the distinction between the human and “natural” worlds is deeply embedded in the Anglophone psyche. The importance of birds as a bridge between these worlds is reflected in the names we give them. In the hope of opening that bridge to all, the American Ornithological Society recently announced it would <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/11/01/bird-names-racism-audubon/">replace all bird species named after people</a> in North America. </p>
<p>The decision was spurred by a widely perceived need to distance ornithology from its history of colonial oppression. Several species names, including <a href="https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/results?thrlev1=&amp;thrlev2=&amp;kw=Thick-billed+Longspur&amp;fam=0&amp;gen=0&amp;spc=&amp;cmn=&amp;reg=0&amp;cty=0">McCown’s Longspur</a>, <a href="https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/townsends-solitaire-myadestes-townsendi">Townsend’s Solitaire</a> and <a href="https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/audubons-warbler-setophaga-auduboni">Audubon’s Warbler</a>, evoke men who were involved in slavery and the oppression of the native people of North America.</p>
<p>So, how should these birds be renamed? The history of bird naming in the British Isles offers some solutions.</p>
<h2>It takes a village to name a bird</h2>
<p>Few common names of British birds are eponymous. Only two breeding species, <a href="https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/montagus-harrier">Montague’s Harrier</a> and <a href="https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/cettis-warbler">Cetti’s Warbler</a>, are named for notable people – the first is rare and the latter a recent colonist to the British Isles. </p>
<p>This indicates that the process of naming was a more organic, “bottom-up” and even democratic process than elsewhere in the British empire. We know of more than 7,000 folk names in English for about 150 species of British bird. Mostly recorded during the 19th century, these names indicate a widespread local naming of birds, such that names might not only be regional but specific to particular villages. For example, the <a href="https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/grey-heron">grey heron</a> has 180 recorded English folk names, and the <a href="https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/wren">wren</a> 164. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A grey heron stood next to a stream." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565786/original/file-20231214-19-qfz743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The grey heron, a common sight at streams and ponds, has gone by many different names.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/grey-heron-ardea-cinerea-longlegged-predatory-2188499307">Monika Surzin/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nevertheless, a strong national connection to a species, such as might be created by a reference in Shakespeare, could override local perceptions. Hence, the <a href="https://ewatlas.net/digital-heritage/oxfordshires-lost-voices">nightingale</a> – a common presence in <a href="https://www.birdsofshakespeare.com/birds/common-nightingale">Shakespearean plays and poems</a> – has only two recorded names including nightingale itself, which derives from its Saxon roots meaning “night singer” (from the German <em>nachtigall</em>). </p>
<p>Bird names evoke strong emotional connections – potentially linking us not only with specific encounters with birds, but with the context and people who experienced them. These links can <a href="https://ewatlas.net/digital-heritage/ornithological-masterclass-25-ethno-ornithology">last a lifetime</a>, and English folk names reveal the depth of knowledge of those who coined them. </p>
<p>For example, the name “English mockingbird” for the <a href="https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/birdfacts/marsh-warbler">marsh warbler</a> refers to the fact that its song consists almost entirely of the <a href="https://ewatlas.net/digital-heritage/oxfordshires-lost-voices">mimicry of other species</a>. It indicates that whoever coined this name recognised that the bird was singing the songs of other, more familiar species – and the namer knew these songs.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/63p7YGnEPfM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The marsh warbler’s tendency to sing at night – referenced in another name, “fisherman’s nightingale” – may have focused the listener on its song in the stillness of a summer’s evening long ago.</p>
<h2>Passed down with care</h2>
<p>Many of the folk names given to other species were probably coined by or for children. A strong tendency to include a first name in such names as “<a href="https://ewatlas.net/desfayes/406.php#search:Wren">Katie wren</a>”, “<a href="https://ewatlas.net/desfayes/347.php#search:Redstart">Fanny redtail</a>” and “<a href="https://ewatlas.net/desfayes/313.php#search:Motacilla">Bessy-brantail</a>”, suggests an effort to teach a child the common birds around them. </p>
<p>Names like “<a href="https://ewatlas.net/desfayes/438.php#search:Emberiza">scribble-lark</a>” and “<a href="https://ewatlas.net/desfayes/445.php#search:Miliaria">scribbling schoolmaster</a>” for bunting species, whose eggs appear to have been written on, suggests (as do many more such names) a fascination with nests and eggs. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Five white eggs with black ink-like markings." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565780/original/file-20231214-15-rdouhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Inky markings on the ‘scribble-lark’s’ eggs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowhammer#/media/File:Emberiza_citrinella_MHNT.ZOO.2010.11.216_Le_Monetier05.jpg">Didier Descouens/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The preoccupation with collecting eggs (birdnesting) among country children led to a minor rural economy that stocked the mahogany cabinets of Victorian drawing rooms. We know, however, that despite the plethora of local names, they were handed down from generation to generation with great precision. </p>
<p>As ornithologist G.G. Little noted in an 1878 article entitled Provincial Names of British Birds in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zoologist">The Zoologist</a> magazine: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Has it struck any philologist that names of animals, particularly of birds, whose names are under the protection of the… birdnesting generation, are more likely to be handed down correctly than perhaps any other words…? </p>
</blockquote>
<p>These names were largely collected by ornithologists like Little, who wanted to know what birds were present throughout the British Isles. But the superfluity of names posed a problem. Their solution was to select from among the diverse regional names those which they would agree to hold in common for ornithological discourse.</p>
<p>These became the “common” names, now regarded as the standard names. But they were agreed through consent with no intention, as evidenced through numerous bird books of the time, of these superseding or replacing the local names. </p>
<p>That they generally have done reflects not the imposition of names by committee, but the success of ornithology as a democratised volunteer activity in the UK – a process in keeping with the spirit of recent developments in North America.</p>
<p>However subtly, naming has always reflected a cultural context – and renaming can make a positive contribution. It can only be hoped that renaming birds after their own qualities will help to open the wonder and love of birds to all people.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Gosler has received funding from the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>North American ornithologists are seeking to replace all bird species named after people - but what should they be called instead?Andrew Gosler, Professor of Ethno-ornithology, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2167382023-12-22T00:08:48Z2023-12-22T00:08:48ZAvian influenza has killed millions of seabirds around the world: Antarctica could be next<p>Antarctica is often imagined as the last untouched wilderness. Unfortunately, <a href="https://www.woah.org/en/disease/avian-influenza/">avian influenza</a> (“bird flu”) is encroaching on the icy continent. The virus has already reached the <a href="https://maps.app.goo.gl/QvLgto7pq8ggDALd6">sub-Antarctic islands</a> between the Antarctic Peninsula and South America. It’s only a matter of time before it reaches the Antarctic continent. </p>
<p>So far avian influenza has been detected in several seabird species on <a href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/first-confirmed-cases-of-avian-influenza-in-the-antarctic-region/">South Georgia Island</a> and the <a href="https://falklands.gov.fk/agriculture/avian-influenza">Falkland (Malvinas) Islands</a>. These birds are known to travel to Antarctica. Researchers also suspect avian influenza caused mass deaths of southern elephant seals. </p>
<p>The arrival of avian influenza in Antarctica could have potentially catastrophic consequences for the wildlife, decimating large populations. </p>
<p>Antarctic avian influenza outbreaks may also disrupt tourism and research activities during the busy summer season. So what can we do during this challenging time? </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/migrating-birds-could-bring-lethal-avian-flu-to-australias-vulnerable-birds-204793">Migrating birds could bring lethal avian flu to Australia's vulnerable birds</a>
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<h2>The bird flu pandemic</h2>
<p>We are in the midst of a “panzootic” – a large-scale pandemic of <a href="https://www.woah.org/en/disease/avian-influenza/">avian influenza</a>, which is occurring across the world and has affected more than 200 species of wild birds.</p>
<p>While this strain of avian influenza (H5N1) <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06631-2">is an old foe</a>, the genetics and epidemiology of the virus have shifted. Once mostly found in poultry, it is now infecting large numbers of wild birds. Migrating birds have <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-023-02182-x">spread the virus</a> with substantial outbreaks now occurring in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and South America. </p>
<p>Avian influenza has devastated seabird populations around the world, including a 70% reduction of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ibi.13275">northern gannets</a> on Bass Rock in the United Kingdom. Many birds are diseased, with signs including loss of coordination, watery eyes, head twisting, breathing distress or lethargy. </p>
<p>Beyond birds, this virus may have killed more than <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4611782">30,000 South American sea lions</a> and over <a href="https://www.lanacion.com.ar/sociedad/puerto-madryn-murieron-mas-de-200-crias-de-elefantes-marinos-en-las-ultimas-dos-semanas-nid27102023/">2,500 southern elephant seal</a> pups in South America. In South Georgia mass deaths have been observed in <a href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/additional-cases-of-avian-flu-hpai-confirmed-on-south-georgia/">elephant seal pups</a> but the virus was not detected in samples sent for laboratory tests.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/invasive-species-are-threatening-antarcticas-fragile-ecosystems-as-human-activity-grows-and-the-world-warms-172058">Invasive species are threatening Antarctica's fragile ecosystems as human activity grows and the world warms</a>
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<h2>Bird flu moving further south</h2>
<p>The first detection of avian influenza near Antarctica occurred in early October on Bird Island, <a href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/additional-cases-of-avian-flu-hpai-confirmed-on-south-georgia/">South Georgia</a>, in brown skuas (seabirds similar to large gulls). </p>
<p>A case on the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands was confirmed a few weeks later in another seabird species, the southern fulmar. </p>
<p>Genetic analysis revealed the virus entered these regions on <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.23.568045v1">two separate occasions</a>.</p>
<p>Skuas and kelp gulls were highlighted as species <a href="https://www.scar.org/library/science-4/life-sciences/antarctic-wildlife-health-network-awhn/5973-risk-assessment-avian-influenza/file/">most likely to spread the virus to the Antarctic continent</a> in a recent risk assessment, as they travel into the region from South America. They are also highly susceptible to avian influenza, with related species in the <a href="https://www.nature.scot/avian-flu-causes-another-challenging-summer-seabirds#:%7E:text=Pink%2Dfooted%20geese%2C%20herring%20gulls,breeding%20population%20of%20great%20skua">Northern Hemisphere suffering losses of more than 60%</a>. </p>
<h2>What does this mean for Antarctica?</h2>
<p>The Antarctic Peninsula, with its <a href="https://www.scar.org/research-features/climate-expansion-ice-free-habitat/">ice-free areas</a>, is an important breeding ground for many key Antarctic species. </p>
<p>Critically, those species – and others, including the iconic Emperor penguin – live in <a href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/about/antarctica/wildlife/penguins/">dense colonies</a> and are not found elsewhere in the world, making them particularly vulnerable to disease outbreaks.</p>
<p>Outbreaks on the Antarctic Peninsula will also be extremely disruptive to the tourism industry. More than <a href="https://iaato.org/information-resources/data-statistics/">104,000 people</a> visited as tourists in the 2022–23 season. People visit to see wildlife, make a continental landing, and enjoy the scenery.</p>
<p>Once avian influenza is confirmed at a particular location, sites will be <a href="https://iaato.org/iaato-2022-23-biosecurity-protocols-regarding-avian-influenza/">closed to tourists</a>. This will lead to a different experience for visitors, with land-based wildlife encounters pivoting to cruise-based activities. </p>
<h2>What are we doing?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.scar.org/science/awhn/">Antarctic Wildlife Health Network</a> of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research has developed recommendations for the research and tourism communities. </p>
<p>These recommendations include information around biosecurity, testing and reporting of cases. The network’s <a href="https://scar.org/library-data/avian-flu">database</a> collates information on suspected and confirmed cases of the H5N1 avian influenza strain in the Antarctic region. This is central to rapid data sharing.</p>
<p>During the 2022–23 season, a <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.24.563692v1.full.pdf">small number of researchers</a> tested suspected cases and conducted surveys, which excluded the presence of avian influenza. </p>
<p>This year, through the generosity of industry partners, we will dramatically expand this effort. The network will conduct surveys across the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic to monitor the presence and impact of the virus on wildlife. </p>
<p>Safety and biosecurity measures have been boosted across the <a href="https://www.comnap.aq/heightened-risk-of-hpai-in-antarctica">scientific community</a> and <a href="https://iaato.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IAATO_Don_t_Pack_a_Pest.EN_190070.pdf">tourism industry</a> to reduce the risk of people spreading the virus. This should ensure essential scientific research and tourism activities can continue safely. </p>
<p>New measures now in place include:</p>
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<li>disinfection of boots and outer clothing</li>
<li>wearing of N95 masks, protective glasses and gloves when working with wildlife</li>
<li>restrictions on access to infected sites.</li>
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<p>Tourism can play an important role in detecting and monitoring the spread of the virus, alerting authorities to new cases in locations not visited by scientists. </p>
<p>The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators is on high alert. Extra training for <a href="https://iaato.org/polar-stakeholders-response-to-avian-influenza-as-2023-24-antarctic-season-begins/">field staff</a> will help them identify wildlife illness quickly. </p>
<h2>Antarctica is connected</h2>
<p>Many threats to Antarctica – including climate change, pollution, and pathogens – originate elsewhere. Climate change is expected to <a href="https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/01-07-2022-new-report-highlights-the-impact-of-changes-in-environment-on-one-health#:%7E:text=Climate%20change%20and%20rising%20temperatures,of%20both%20pathogens%20and%20vectors.">increase the spread of infectious diseases in wildlife</a> and Antarctica is not immune.</p>
<p>Disease surveillance and information sharing between all those active in the far south are vital to help minimise the impacts of avian influenza and future disease threats. </p>
<p>The avian influenza example highlights the connectivity of our world, and why we need to care for the planet at home in order to protect the far south. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ancient-pathogens-released-from-melting-ice-could-wreak-havoc-on-the-world-new-analysis-reveals-209795">Ancient pathogens released from melting ice could wreak havoc on the world, new analysis reveals</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216738/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hanne E F Nielsen receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Linkage partner organisation Intrepid Travel, the Dutch Research Council, and the Australian Antarctic Division. Hurtigruten Australia provides in-kind support for fieldwork.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Wille has an honorary appointment with the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Meagan Dewar does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A deadly strain of bird flu is circulating in animals. So far the virus has been detected in seabirds on islands near Antarctica. What does this mean for wildlife, tourism and research?Hanne E F Nielsen, Senior lecturer, University of TasmaniaMeagan Dewar, Lecturer in the School of Science, Psychology and Sport, Federation University AustraliaMichelle Wille, Senior research fellow, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2192672023-12-18T16:17:09Z2023-12-18T16:17:09ZHow a Victorian trip to Palestine spurred modern ornithology – and left it with imperial baggage<p>Palestine’s natural splendour offered a landscape ripe for scientific “discovery”, description and expropriation by European imperial powers in the 19th century. And in the 1860s an English vicar named <a href="https://www.sacristy.co.uk/books/history/henry-baker-tristram-ornithology#">Henry Baker Tristram</a> claimed its birds. </p>
<p>Tristram was a co-founder of <a href="https://bou.org.uk/about-the-bou/">Ibis</a>, the ornithology journal published since 1859 by the British Ornithologists’ Union. His articles on Palestinian ornithology began with the first issue, when he contributed a list of birds he’d collected during a brief visit there the previous year. The list included a species previously unknown to western science, which was named in his honour as Tristram’s grackle (now more commonly known as Tristram’s <a href="https://ebird.org/species/trista1?siteLanguage=en_GB">starling</a>). </p>
<p>Tristram made a major contribution to the study of birds. At that time ornithology reflected imperial priorities and was concerned with collecting, describing and mapping. His observations of Palestine’s birds, in particular, laid the groundwork for the modern ornithology of the area. </p>
<p>However, his exploits in Palestine, still honoured in the name “Tristram’s starling”, also show why honorific bird names like this have come under increasing <a href="https://americanornithology.org/about/english-bird-names-project/">scrutiny</a>. </p>
<p>Tristram returned to Palestine for a fuller investigation in 1864. He travelled south from Beirut with a group of fellow naturalists and a large baggage train. The account of his ten-month-long journey was published in 1865 as <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Land_of_Israel.html?id=Qd8TAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">The Land of Israel</a>. </p>
<p>This book, and the several <a href="https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Tristram%2C%20H.%20B.%20%28Henry%20Baker%29%2C%201822-1906">others</a> he wrote about Palestine, formed part of a growing wave of popular tourist accounts of the Holy Land. They fed the interest and shaped the perceptions of British readers fascinated by the area’s historical and Biblical remnants, its living inhabitants, and the missionary efforts to achieve conversions to Christianity. </p>
<p>Unusually, Tristram and his companions travelled far off the well-beaten tourist and Christian pilgrimage routes throughout Palestine. The Land of Israel includes detailed descriptions of Palestine’s diverse ethnic groups, their domestic, religious, military and economic traditions and practices, and their relationships with one another. </p>
<h2>Imperialism</h2>
<p>Tristram’s descriptions of Palestine’s people in many ways reflected typical British imperial views of “natives”, not least in his use of the terms “childlike” and “savage”, and his comparison of Bedouins to “red Indians”. His racialising and religious views were also shaped by his inclinations as a natural historian – he categorised those he observed according to type, and deviation from type. </p>
<p>At best, his characterisations are paternalistic; at worst, deeply offensive. The terms “debased” and “degraded” repeat often. Of one group near Jericho he writes: “I never saw such vacant, sensual, and debased features in any group of human beings of the type and form of whites”. </p>
<p>Of some Bedouin further south, he observes that “they were all decidedly of the Semitic type, and, excepting the colour and the smell, had nothing of the negro about them. They must, however, be far inferior to the races they have supplanted.”</p>
<p>Occasionally, he acknowledges Ottoman oppression and neglect as the cause of poverty, but in most cases links it to “Moslem fanaticism” and “Oriental indolence”. Although there are exceptions, Muslim settlements and their inhabitants are almost invariably “filthy”, “squalid” and “miserable”. </p>
<p>Of religious sites, he notes many instances of churches which have been “perverted” into mosques. One of his most offensive observations is of a Bedouin sheikh, Abu Dahuk: “like all his followers, he is very dark – not so black as the commonalty, but of a deep olive brown. This may partly arise from the habit of these people, who never wash. They occasionally take off their clothes, search them, slaughter their thousands, and air themselves, but never apply water to their persons”. The odour, he remarks, “is unendurable”.</p>
<p>Conversion to Christianity appeared to redeem this degradation. In the Galilee he notes: “Christianity had here, as elsewhere, stamped the place and its substantial houses with a neatness and cleanliness to which the best of Moslem villages are strangers”. </p>
<p>Conversion also seemed to him to transform racial attributes. Of two Protestant converts he observes that “so much had religion and education elevated them, that they seemed of a different race from those around them”. Among Bethlehem’s Christians, he particularly admires “the handsome faces of the men and women, and the wondrous beauty of the children, so fair and European-like”. </p>
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<img alt="An old brown book cover with the words The Land of Israel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cover of Land of Israel 1872 edition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jasmine Donahaye</span></span>
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<p>Tristram describes Jewish ethnicity in typical missionary terms. The Jews were a “decayed and scattered people”, with “musty and crumbling learning”. At a Protestant missionary tent in Tiberias he notes that “the Polish Jews, very numerous here, were willing to listen … but the native Jews, with whom were mingled a few Moslems, were occasionally very violent in their expressions”. The Jews, he concludes, “are a stiff-necked race”. </p>
<p>During his months in Palestine in 1864, Tristram shot hundreds of birds for his collection, and shot many more during subsequent visits. His surviving collection in the Liverpool World Museum includes, among others, the original 1858 <a href="https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/whats-type-guide-type-specimens">type specimens</a> of Tristram’s grackle, and 17 Palestine sunbird skins.</p>
<p>Tristram depended on many people – servants, dragomen, muleteers, cooks, collectors and guards – for their expertise, labour and protection, and sometimes even for <a href="https://newwelshreview.com/book/birdsplaining-a-natural-history-by-jasmine-donahaye">saving his life</a>. He also depended on them for help with obtaining specimens. But for that help with collecting he only names one person: “Gemil, with a little training,” he writes, “would soon have made a first-rate collector.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-dozens-of-north-american-bird-species-are-getting-new-names-every-name-tells-a-story-217886">Why dozens of North American bird species are getting new names: Every name tells a story</a>
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<p>Those British imperial values that coloured Tristram’s view of Palestine’s people enabled him to name and claim its natural resources for western science, and for personal glory. They also gave him licence to propose that the land itself should be claimed: “Either an European protectorate or union with Egypt seems requisite to save Palestine from gradual dissolution,” he remarked, “unless, which seems hopeless, the Arabs can be induced to cultivate the sod.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219267/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasmine Donahaye does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>H.B. Tristram was a Victorian clergyman and ornithologist who categorised a list of birds he’d found in Palestine.Jasmine Donahaye, Professor in English Literature and Creative Writing, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2194642023-12-14T13:12:30Z2023-12-14T13:12:30ZArtificial light lures migrating birds into cities, where they face a gauntlet of threats<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565500/original/file-20231213-21-30h0uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C33%2C7315%2C4869&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The New York City borough of Manhattan at night, viewed from the Rockefeller Center observation deck.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/manhattan-skyline-with-view-to-empire-state-building-from-news-photo/1749117051">Sergi Reboredo/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Light pollution has steadily intensified and expanded from urban areas, and with the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1582/LEUKOS.2010.06.04001">advent of LED lighting</a>, it is growing in North America by <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abq7781">up to 10% per year</a>, as measured by the visibility of stars in the night sky. In our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43046-z">recent study</a>, we found that the glow from cities and urban outskirts can powerfully attract migratory birds, drawing them into developed areas where food is scarcer and they face threats such as colliding with glass buildings.</p>
<p>Each spring and fall, migratory birds journey to or from their breeding grounds, <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Bobolink/maps-range">sometimes traveling thousands of miles</a>. En route, most birds need to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.13618">make stopovers</a> to rest and feed. Some species burn off half of their body mass during migration.</p>
<p>Migratory stopover sites are not random, and birds typically use the same locations from year to year. Because migration takes place on a continental scale, with <a href="https://abcbirds.org/blog/north-american-bird-flyways/">billions of birds crossing North America</a> each migratory season, it’s important for scientists to understand what attracts birds to these locations. </p>
<p>We found that light pollution was a top predictor of the density of migrating birds at stopover locations for both spring and fall migration across the continental U.S.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Artificial light at night is an expanding threat to migrating birds, drawing them into developed areas where they can die from collisions with buildings and are exposed to other threats.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Why it Matters</h2>
<p>Nearly all birds in North America – some 80% – migrate each spring and fall. And of those species that migrate, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2029">70% travel at night</a>. </p>
<p>Nocturnal migration has many adaptive benefits: For example, the weather conditions are better, and fewer predators are active. But it makes most migratory birds highly susceptible to light pollution. In North America alone, it is estimated that up to 1 billion migrating birds <a href="https://doi.org/10.1650/CONDOR-13-090.1">die each year from collisions with buildings</a>. </p>
<p>Scientists don’t yet know why nocturnally migrating birds are attracted to artificial light, but research has shown that light pollution <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2022.12.006">acts as an amplifying agent</a> that draws more songbirds into urbanized areas. It often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13466">co-occurs with other environmental threats</a>, such as water and air pollution and noise. All of these stressors disrupt birds’ behavioral and physiological processes during journeys that already are extremely taxing.</p>
<p>Lighting is part of the fabric of human structures, yet many people don’t think of it as a pollutant or perceive its harmful effects on nature – until events like the <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/10/6/23906778/birds-killed-migration-collision-mccormick-place-lakeside-center">mass bird loss in Chicago</a> on Oct. 4-5, 2023, when nearly 1,000 birds were killed after colliding with the McCormick Place Convention Center, make the problem impossible to ignore.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565502/original/file-20231213-15-ti0ti3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black bird with an orange underside perches on a branch next to half an orange placed there for feeding." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565502/original/file-20231213-15-ti0ti3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565502/original/file-20231213-15-ti0ti3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565502/original/file-20231213-15-ti0ti3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565502/original/file-20231213-15-ti0ti3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565502/original/file-20231213-15-ti0ti3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565502/original/file-20231213-15-ti0ti3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565502/original/file-20231213-15-ti0ti3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Baltimore orioles migrate twice yearly between their wintering grounds in Florida, the Caribbean and Latin America and their summer breeding zones, which stretch from Louisiana into central Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kyle Horton</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How we did our work</h2>
<p>With colleagues at Colorado State University, Michigan State University, the University of Delaware, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Princeton University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the National Park Service, we sought to understand the complex drivers and large-scale patterns of stopover density by combining remote sensing data with geospatial tools. Mapping stopover locations has been a bird conservation priority for many years; now, for the first time, we have a complete view of where these stopovers are across the United States.</p>
<p>We were able to make novel maps at a continental scale using <a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/radar/next-generation-weather-radar">U.S. NEXRAD weather surveillance data</a> – information from the same radars that meteorologists draw on to predict weather patterns on television and weather apps. We created 2,500 models using roughly 1 million locations across the U.S. and 49 predictor variables, including forest cover, precipitation, temperature, elevation and <a href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/ssl/text-alternative-version-what-sky-glow">skyglow</a> – diffuse brightness in the night sky from artificial light.</p>
<p>These maps capture fine-scale details that allow us to see increased densities of migrating birds following the winding banks of the Mississippi River, which provide an important refuge for depleted migrants to rest and refuel. We also created fall and spring hotspot maps highlighting regions where especially high numbers of birds made stopovers. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565636/original/file-20231213-21-au4a3l.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Radar imagery showing masses of light and dark blue above a map of St. Louis." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565636/original/file-20231213-21-au4a3l.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565636/original/file-20231213-21-au4a3l.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565636/original/file-20231213-21-au4a3l.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565636/original/file-20231213-21-au4a3l.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565636/original/file-20231213-21-au4a3l.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565636/original/file-20231213-21-au4a3l.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565636/original/file-20231213-21-au4a3l.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Radar detecting migrating birds lifting off from the St. Louis landscape on the night of May 10, 2023. Density of bird flocks increases from light blue to dark blue to green.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kyle Horton</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found that the presence of light pollution was a better predictor of bird densities than temperature, precipitation or tree canopy cover. These all were variables that we had expected to correlate with periods when birds would be on the ground, or with high-quality habitats where birds would be likely to stop over. </p>
<p>Other variables were associated with areas that birds were unlikely to use as stopovers. One example was the presence of agricultural crops, such as corn or soybeans. Fields planted with a single crop <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2203511120">don’t provide adequate food or shelter for many bird species</a>, so migrants are unlikely to rest there.</p>
<p>Light pollution is a human-induced change to the environment that may act as an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cois.2021.02.004">ecological trap</a>, drawing birds into substandard habitats and increasing their risk of collisions with buildings. Happily, its immediate effects can be quickly reversed with the flip of a switch. </p>
<p>Working to reduce artificial light through <a href="https://tx.audubon.org/urbanconservation/lights-out-texas">Lights Out campaigns</a> and <a href="https://aeroecolab.com/uslights">migration alerts</a>, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13740">understanding when birds will be in airspaces</a> and <a href="https://www.audubon.org/bird-friendly-buildings">using bird-friendly glass</a> that has patterns across its surface to make it more visible to birds, will reduce bird deaths from light pollution. Understanding the drivers and macro-scale patterns of stopover densities across the continental U.S. will better inform conservation actions like these. </p>
<p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take on interesting academic work.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219464/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kyle Horton receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carolyn S. Burt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Migrating birds need stopover locations en route where they can rest and feed. A new study shows that artificial light draws them away from sites they would normally use and into risky zones.Carolyn S. Burt, Convergence Research Coordinator, Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, Colorado State UniversityKyle Horton, Assistant Professor of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2191422023-12-07T17:40:51Z2023-12-07T17:40:51ZHow bird feeders help small species fight infection<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563607/original/file-20231205-27-lbvm0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C16%2C3660%2C2620&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Great tits are familiar visitors to gardens. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/parus-major-great-tit-male-351769433">allanw/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every day, throughout the world, people put huge quantities of food out at feeding stations for birds and other wild animals. </p>
<p>Although we know that connecting with nature benefits human health and wellbeing, scientists still know relatively little about the consequences of providing <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.0908-8857.2008.04271.x">food for wildlife</a>. My team’s <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.13914">most recent research</a>, however, has found that feeding garden birds in wintertime seems to make them more resilient to infection. </p>
<p>Winter can be tough for small birds. During cold winter nights, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/24263568_Patterns_and_dynamics_of_rest-phase_hypothermia_in_wild_and_captive_Blue_Tits_during_winter">small birds reduce their body temperature</a> by several degrees. While this would be lethal for a human, it saves lots of energy, helping birds to survive particularly cold nights. However, reducing body temperature is risky, and hypothermic birds are slow to wake and respond to a predator.</p>
<p>A reliable food supply at bird feeders can help small birds avoid starvation and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3544122?origin=crossref">survive the harsh winter</a>. <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0133">Our previous research</a> showed that birds with access to feeders do not need to reduce their night-time body temperature as much as birds that did not have access to feeders. The extra energy birds get from human-provided food means they don’t have to take the risk of becoming severely hypothermic.</p>
<p>Supplementary feeding is controversial since it can also negatively affect wildlife. Birds congregate at feeders, often in large numbers, coming into close contact with one another. Some studies suggest bird feeders have contributed to the spread of infectious diseases <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2017.0091">such as trichomonosis</a>, which caused huge greenfinch mortalities in the UK in the mid-2000s.</p>
<p>Some people are also concerned that bird feeders may discourage birds from learning to forage for themselves. However, research suggests that supplementary food makes up only a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/condor/article/113/3/475/5152664">small portion of birds’ diets</a>, and that birds do not become dependent on human-provided food. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two garden birds perch on the rim of a metal feeder." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563610/original/file-20231205-21-w59ui7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563610/original/file-20231205-21-w59ui7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563610/original/file-20231205-21-w59ui7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563610/original/file-20231205-21-w59ui7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563610/original/file-20231205-21-w59ui7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563610/original/file-20231205-21-w59ui7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563610/original/file-20231205-21-w59ui7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A great tit is joined by a robin at a bird feeder.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/garden-birds-european-robin-erithacus-rubecula-598158890">DJTaylor/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We were curious about whether the frequent use of feeders could boost birds’ immune systems, making them better equipped to fight an infection. </p>
<p>Vaccination readies our bodies to tackle a disease by delivering a small dose of a virus or bacterium. Similarly, regular exposure to low doses of pathogens at feeding stations – as a result of infected birds depositing pathogens on to feeders – could better prepare birds <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03079450701286277">to fight an infection</a>.</p>
<p>So, we investigated whether supplementary feeding could make <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.13914">great tits more tolerant</a> to an infection. In a forest in southern Sweden in October 2022, we set up bird feeders that were routinely visited by large numbers of great tits along with lower numbers of blue tits, chaffinches and crested tits. These bird feeders were refilled every few days to ensure a constant supply of peanuts and sunflower seeds throughout the winter.</p>
<p>In late winter, after birds had been visiting bird feeders for several months, we captured great tits at sunset and gave them a “fake infection” – injecting them with a small amount of material from the cell wall of a bacterium. This triggered the great tits’ immune system to think it was being attacked by an invading pathogen, without introducing any of the harmful components of the bacterium.</p>
<p>At the same time, we simulated infection in great tits from another part of the forest, where there had been no access to feeding stations during the winter.</p>
<h2>Supplementary-fed birds are more tolerant</h2>
<p>One of the first responses of the body to fight off an infection is to raise body temperature and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/endo/article/143/7/2527/2989398">develop a fever</a>. While the “infected” great tits slept, we measured their body temperature throughout the night. We compared the fever responses of great tits that had visited bird feeders throughout the winter with those of great tits that had not visited feeding stations.</p>
<p>We found the great tits that had been using feeders did not increase their body temperature as much as the great tits that didn’t have access to feeding stations. Although fever is important in helping the body fight infection, raising the body’s temperature requires a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306456510001439?via%3Dihub">large investment of energy</a>. Fever and associated inflammation also cause some <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228623768_Evolutionary_Causes_and_Consequences_of_Immunopathology">damage to the body</a>. The best immune response is a careful balance of mounting defences strong enough to tackle the invading pathogen while minimising damage to the body.</p>
<p>So, the supplementary-fed birds seemed to adequately fight the “infection” without using up their precious winter energy supply. </p>
<h2>The effects of bird feeding are complex</h2>
<p>While we found that the use of feeding stations made great tits more tolerant to an infection, this could also enable infected great tits to stay active, spreading infection between birds.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the greater risk of disease transmission at feeders may be countered by the stronger immune systems these birds could develop due to <a href="https://academic.oup.com/conphys/article/3/1/cov058/2571277">better nutrition</a> from the food provided by people in parks and gardens.</p>
<p>You can reduce the risk of disease by keeping <a href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/helping-birds-and-wildlife">feeding stations clean</a>. Follow wildlife charities’ guidelines of how to set up a feeding station and what food to put out – and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/rspb-roast-birds-people-winter-b2244072.html">what food to avoid</a>. Great tits are a common visitor to gardens in Europe, so there’s a good chance a bird feeder could attract these colourful birds to your home.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219142/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research was funded by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) and Stiftelsen Lunds Djurskyddsfond.</span></em></p>Research shows providing food for birds not only stops them going hungry, it may help them fight off infection too.Hannah Watson, Researcher in Evolutionary Ecology, Lund UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2178862023-12-07T13:28:32Z2023-12-07T13:28:32ZWhy dozens of North American bird species are getting new names: Every name tells a story<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563741/original/file-20231205-19-huatts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C0%2C2193%2C1462&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Birders participate in the Christmas Bird Count on Theodore Roosevelt Island in Washington, D.C., Dec. 16, 2017. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/diana-handy-looks-at-a-bird-during-the-christmas-bird-count-news-photo/893985384">Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This winter, tens of thousands of birders will survey winter bird populations for the National Audubon Society’s <a href="https://www.audubon.org/conservation/science/christmas-bird-count">Christmas Bird Count</a>, part of an international bird census, powered by volunteers, that has taken place every year since 1900.</p>
<p>For many birders, participating in the count is a much-anticipated annual tradition. Tallying birds and compiling results with others connects birders to local, regional and even national birding communities. Comparing this year’s results with previous tallies links birders to past generations. And scientists <a href="https://www.audubon.org/conservation/science/christmas-bird-count/christmas-bird-count-bibliography">use the data</a> to assess whether bird populations are thriving or declining.</p>
<p>But a change is coming. On Nov. 1, 2023, the American Ornithological Society <a href="https://americanornithology.org/american-ornithological-society-will-change-the-english-names-of-bird-species-named-after-people/">announced</a> that it will rename 152 bird species that have names honoring historical figures. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563952/original/file-20231206-15-8ztay4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A gray-blue bird with black markings perches on a branch, eating a berry." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563952/original/file-20231206-15-8ztay4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563952/original/file-20231206-15-8ztay4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563952/original/file-20231206-15-8ztay4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563952/original/file-20231206-15-8ztay4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563952/original/file-20231206-15-8ztay4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563952/original/file-20231206-15-8ztay4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563952/original/file-20231206-15-8ztay4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Townsend’s Solitaire, one of the species to be renamed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jared Del Rosso</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Soon, Christmas bird counters will no longer find Cooper’s hawks hunting songbirds. They won’t scan marshes for Wilson’s snipes. And here in Colorado’s Front Range, where I’ll participate in a local count, we’ll no longer encounter one of my favorite winter visitors, Townsend’s solitaires. </p>
<p>New names will take the place of these eponymous ones. With those new names will come new ways of understanding these birds and their histories.</p>
<h2>Names matter</h2>
<p>In my time birding over the past decade, learning birds’ names helped me recognize the species I encounter every day, as well as the ones that migrate past me. So I understand that it may not be easy to persuade people to accept new names for so many familiar North American species. </p>
<p>But as a <a href="https://jdelrosso.com/">scholar of politics, culture and denial</a>, I also know that language shapes our understanding of history and violence. This includes bird names, as I’ve learned through my ongoing research into <a href="https://lonesomewhippoorwill.com/the-book/">one iconic species’ place in American culture</a>: the Eastern whip-poor-will. </p>
<p>Eastern whip-poor-wills are nocturnal birds who nest in forests of the eastern U.S. and Canada. English colonialists named the species for their <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Whip-poor-will/sounds">distinct, repetitive call</a>, which sounds like a malicious command to inflict punishment: “Whip poor Will, whip poor Will, whip poor Will.” </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jIxfVSS_65o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An Eastern Whip-poor-will’s distinctive call.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This naming had consequences. Generations of <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Whip_Poor_Will_A_Series_of_Engraving/bByLdRHWi3UC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PP11&printsec=frontcover">poets</a> and naturalists, like <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Writings_of_John_Muir_The_story_of_m/VMtPacVUW6IC">John Muir</a> and <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Tommy_Anne_and_the_Three_Hearts/NzVAAAAAYAAJ">Mabel Osgood Wright</a>, associated the species with whippings. Their writings often tell us as much about 19th and early-20th century Americans’ views of morality and punishment than about this remarkable bird.</p>
<h2>What’s wrong with eponymous names</h2>
<p>The whip-poor-will’s name translates the species’ song, leaving room for interpretation. Eponymous names based on a specific person, like Audubon’s oriole or Townsend’s solitaire, are less descriptive. Even so, these names <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ibi.12984">shape how people relate</a> to birds and the history of ornithology.</p>
<p>Many of these names honor people, usually white men, who engaged in racist acts. For example, <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/the-myth-john-james-audubon">John James Audubon owned slaves</a>, and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5403/oregonhistq.115.3.0324">John Kirk Townsend robbed skulls from Native American graves</a>. Changing these names helps separate birds from this harmful, exclusionary history. </p>
<p>But for multiple reasons, the American Ornithological Society is <a href="https://americanornithology.org/about/english-bird-names-project/english-bird-names-committee-recommendations/#recommendation-1">changing all eponymous names</a>, not just those linked to problematic historical figures. First, the organization decided that it did not want to make judgments about which historical figures were honor-worthy. Second, it recognized that all eponymous names imply human ownership over birds. Third, it acknowledged that eponymous names do not describe the birds they name.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CQWTQTUghrr/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\u0026igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>Change as a constant</h2>
<p>While birders certainly will have learning to do once these changes become official, change is a constant in how people relate to birds. </p>
<p>Consider the technologies birders use. In the early 20th century, binoculars became more affordable and readily available. As <a href="https://liberalarts.tamu.edu/history/profile/thomas-r-dunlap/">Texas A&M historian Thomas Dunlap</a> <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/in-the-field-among-the-feathered-9780199734597">has shown</a>, this helps explains why birders now “collect” birds by spotting them, rather than by shooting them, as Audubon and others of his time did.</p>
<p>Field guides, too, have come a long way. Early guides often relied on dense written descriptions. Today, birders carry compact, smartly illustrated guides, or we use smartphones to check digital guides, share sightings and <a href="https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/merlin-sound-id-project-overview/">identify birds from audio recordings</a>. </p>
<p>Names, too, have long been open to revision. When the American Ornithological Union, the predecessor of today’s American Ornithological Society, created an <a href="https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/16484#page/6/mode/1up">official list of bird names in 1886</a>, it erased untold numbers of Indigenous names, as well as local folk names.</p>
<p>Since then, some names have come into use and others have fallen out of fashion, especially as ornithologists lump and split species. Consider the ongoing adventure of just one species: <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wilsons_Snipe/overview">Wilson’s snipe</a>, a round marsh bird whose name will be among those changed. </p>
<p>In the American Ornithological Union’s original checklist of North American birds, Wilson’s snipes were a distinct species from the Common snipes of Europe and Asia. Then, in the mid-1940s, the Union decided the two were one, and Wilson’s snipes became Common snipes. In 2000, the Common snipe was split back into two species, and Wilson’s snipes again became Wilson’s snipes. </p>
<p>Either way, many early accounts of the North American species simply call these birds “Snipes.” This is the name Alexander Wilson, for whom the bird is named, himself used in <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/American_Ornithology_Or_The_Natural_Hist/V1BHAAAAYAAJ">his account of them</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562836/original/file-20231130-25-ujzawe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Watercolor of three brown and white snipes, a type of shorebird, in a marsh." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562836/original/file-20231130-25-ujzawe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562836/original/file-20231130-25-ujzawe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562836/original/file-20231130-25-ujzawe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562836/original/file-20231130-25-ujzawe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562836/original/file-20231130-25-ujzawe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562836/original/file-20231130-25-ujzawe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562836/original/file-20231130-25-ujzawe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John James Audubon’s illustration of American snipes, from ‘Birds of America.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.audubon.org/birds-of-america/american-snipe">Courtesy of the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove, Montgomery County Audubon Collection, and Zebra Publishing</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Names reflect new knowledge and values</h2>
<p>Science has greatly expanded human understanding of birds in recent decades. We now recognize that birds are <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-crows-really-that-clever-212914">intelligent</a>, with rich <a href="https://theconversation.com/laughs-cries-and-deception-birds-emotional-lives-are-just-as-complicated-as-ours-69471">emotional lives</a>. Radar, lightweight transmitters and satellite telemetry have helped scientists map the <a href="https://theconversation.com/birds-migrate-along-ancient-routes-here-are-the-latest-high-tech-tools-scientists-are-using-to-study-their-amazing-journeys-187967">transcontinental migrations</a> that many bird species make each year.</p>
<p>Trading eponymous names, which treat birds as passive objects, for richer descriptive names reflects this sea change in our understanding of avian lives. </p>
<p>Our thinking about race and racism has evolved dramatically as well. For instance, we no longer use folk names for birds based on <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/453677">racial and ethnic slurs</a>, as Americans of the 19th and early 20th centuries did. The decision to change eponymous bird names reflects this shift. </p>
<p>It also reflects broader efforts to reckon with the legacies of racism and colonialism in our relationships with the natural world. There is increasing recognition that legacies of racism shape our natural landscapes. Just as public monuments can have “<a href="https://theconversation.com/monuments-expire-but-offensive-monuments-can-become-powerful-history-lessons-143318">expiration dates</a>,” so can names for species, <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-landmarks-bearing-racist-and-colonial-references-are-renamed-to-reflect-indigenous-values-157850">geographic features</a> and places that no longer reflect contemporary values.</p>
<p>Birders no longer live in Audubon’s world. We rarely consult his heavy, multi-volume folios. We celebrate that we list birds that we have seen in the wild and left unharmed, rather than collecting their bodies as specimens.</p>
<p>Soon, we’ll also stop using some of the names that this world gave to birds.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217886/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jared Del Rosso does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What’s in a name? A lot, if you’re an Audubon’s Oriole or a Townsend’s Solitaire.Jared Del Rosso, Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology, University of DenverLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2166452023-11-29T02:35:13Z2023-11-29T02:35:13ZWe analysed citizen science to find Australia’s top 10 most elusive birds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562126/original/file-20231128-19-uea8xs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=72%2C36%2C5934%2C3908&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-sun-hat-looks-view-through-2316061461">Jjay69, Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia is one of the greatest places to see birds. We are fortunate to have more than 800 different bird species across the nation. At least 370 species are found nowhere else on Earth. They range from the iconic <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-smarter-the-magpie-the-better-they-can-handle-our-noisy-cities-214387">Australian magpie</a> to the migratory <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-dead-and-dying-seabirds-washing-up-on-our-beaches-in-their-hundreds-217349">short-tailed shearwater</a>, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/100-years-ago-this-man-discovered-an-exquisite-parrot-thought-to-be-extinct-what-came-next-is-a-tragedy-we-must-not-repeat-171939">golden-shouldered parrot</a> and the delightful <a href="https://theconversation.com/fairy-wrens-are-more-likely-to-help-their-closest-friends-but-not-strangers-just-like-us-humans-198231">superb fairy-wren</a>. </p>
<p>Every day, thousands of birdwatchers are out spotting birds. Yet despite this enthusiasm, there’s a lot still to learn. <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-200-australian-birds-are-now-threatened-with-extinction-and-climate-change-is-the-biggest-danger-172751">More than 200 species are already listed as threatened with extinction</a> but others may also be struggling and we just don’t know it yet. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01584197.2023.2283443">our new research</a>, we used citizen science data to rank Australia’s birds in terms of how well they are known. We looked at how often birdwatchers spot each species and where they find birds, compared with how often they look, to determine rates of survey success. This quantifies how “well known” each species is.</p>
<p>We found a quarter of all Australian bird species can be considered well surveyed and adequately represented in our sightings databases. Many of these species have ranges that overlap with the densely populated regions of Australia. And some, like the southern cassowary and eastern rosella, are well known to most Australians. At the other end of the spectrum, some birds are very hard to find. Here’s Australia’s top 10 most elusive birds. </p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-998" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/998/7601ad3ea3922b23e926988a3918ffea7ec96b8b/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-more-native-bird-species-than-almost-anywhere-else-what-led-to-this-explosion-of-diversity-215809">Australia has more native bird species than almost anywhere else. What led to this explosion of diversity?</a>
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<h2>Taking advantage of citizen science</h2>
<p>Before smartphones took off, birders would take notes in their private notebooks. They might share details of interesting sightings on internet forums or birdwatching clubs, but otherwise most knowledge was locked away from scientists and conservationists.</p>
<p>Now birders are increasingly taking advantage of easy-to-use birding apps such as <a href="https://ebird.org/home">eBird</a> run by Cornell Lab of Ornithology in the United States, and <a href="https://birdata.birdlife.org.au">Birdata</a> from Birdlife Australia. </p>
<p>Collectively, these two platforms contain more than 40 million bird occurrence records spanning the entire country. That represents 3.8 million volunteer hours, or more than 430 years of effort.</p>
<p>Using these apps, birdwatchers and scientists alike can quickly collate bird records at a specific location. </p>
<p>As conservation scientists and ornithologists, we wanted to work out how to identify species we know very little about because poorly known species may be disappearing without us realising. While some researchers have already highlighted serious declines in poorly known species like the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-red-goshawk-is-disappearing-how-can-we-save-our-rarest-bird-of-prey-from-extinction-200339%5d">red goshawk</a>, <a href="https://www.difficultbirds.com/swift-parrot#:%7E:text=Swift%20Parrots%20are%20a%20critically,in%20south%2Deastern%20mainland%20Australia.">swift parrot</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-buff-breasted-button-quail-still-alive-after-years-of-searching-this-century-old-bird-mystery-has-yet-to-be-solved-175647">buff-breasted buttonquail</a>, we recognised citizen science databases as a vast untapped source of knowledge for all of our native birds. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560600/original/file-20231121-27-zkey1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Australia's red goshawk, flying with outstretched wings in a cloudless a blue sky" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560600/original/file-20231121-27-zkey1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560600/original/file-20231121-27-zkey1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560600/original/file-20231121-27-zkey1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560600/original/file-20231121-27-zkey1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560600/original/file-20231121-27-zkey1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560600/original/file-20231121-27-zkey1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560600/original/file-20231121-27-zkey1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Despite being highly sought after by birdwatchers, Australia’s red goshawk is one of the least reported bird species.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Watson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Australia’s most elusive birds</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01584197.2023.2283443">our new study</a>, published in the journal Emu (Austral Ornithology), we looked at millions of citizen science bird records. We focused on 581 terrestrial, native species. </p>
<p>We found a group of 56 “hide and seek” champions of Australia. These are the species which are seen least often by birdwatchers. Many of these species exhibit cryptic behaviour or are primarily nocturnal, which explains why they are not regularly seen by citizen scientists. However, we have serious concerns for a handful of these species. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=59714">Coxen’s fig parrot</a> emerges as a species of major concern. Birders recorded more than 300,000 surveys within this species’ range in the rainforests of south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales. Yet only four sightings of this tiny green parrot are documented in our combined citizen science database. None of these sightings were accompanied by photo or video evidence. In fact there has never been a photo of a live bird of this species. Our research suggests this species is well and truly “lost to science” and may already be extinct.</p>
<p>Another species of increasing concern is the buff-breasted buttonquail of far north Queensland. Only seven sightings of this bird are recorded in our combined dataset. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01584197.2022.2090962">Recent research</a> suggests many <a href="https://www.worldsciencefestival.com.au/news/the-birding-mystery-of-the-buff-breasted-button-quail">reported sightings of this species may be mistaken</a>. As with the Coxen’s fig parrot, no photo of a living buff-breasted buttonquail has ever been taken. Nevertheless, there is some hope for this elusive species, as its range has been less comprehensively surveyed by birdwatchers. There is now a <a href="https://conservationpartners.org.au/cape-york-button-quail-3/">concerted effort to find them</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1591872122946977792"}"></div></p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-200-australian-birds-are-now-threatened-with-extinction-and-climate-change-is-the-biggest-danger-172751">More than 200 Australian birds are now threatened with extinction – and climate change is the biggest danger</a>
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<hr>
<h2>We can all play a role</h2>
<p>Our analysis shows much of Australia is not frequented by birdwatchers, so birds in our least populated areas are still poorly known to contemporary science. Some of the most sparsely surveyed regions include Australia’s many deserts, and remote areas such as the Nullarbor Plain, Arnhem Land and western Cape York Peninsula. </p>
<p>Australians can help these elusive birds by heading outdoors with a smartphone and a pair of binoculars. Records of scarce birds will become increasingly important as species continue to decline. Even records of more common birds in backyards have value too. The more information we have, the more chance we can slow the rate of extinction and conserve our amazing birdlife.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-mysterious-night-parrot-has-terrible-vision-but-we-discovered-it-might-be-able-to-hear-like-an-owl-200058">Our mysterious night parrot has terrible vision – but we discovered it might be able to hear like an owl</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216645/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Watson has received funding from the Australian Research Council, National Environmental Science Program, South Australia's Department of Environment and Water as well as from Bush Heritage Australia, Queensland Conservation Council and Birdlife Australia. He serves on scientific committees for Bush Heritage Australia, climate start up Subak Australia, BirdLife Australia and has a long-term scientific relationship with the Wildlife Conservation Society. He serves on the Queensland Government's Land Restoration Fund's Investment Panel as the Deputy Chair. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louis Backstrom does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Researchers used ‘citizen science’ birdwatching data to rank Australian species. Among the most elusive birds were ‘hide and seek’ champions and a few possibly headed for extinction.Louis Backstrom, PhD Student, University of St AndrewsJames Watson, Professor, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2152222023-11-21T13:27:15Z2023-11-21T13:27:15ZClimate change is already forcing lizards, insects and other species to evolve – and most can’t keep up<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558259/original/file-20231108-29-upppm0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C2%2C1615%2C1069&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Temperature sensitivity makes western fence lizards vulnerable to climate change.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/blmoregon/47961427128">Greg Shine/BLM</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Climate change is threatening the survival of plants and animals around the globe as temperatures rise and habitats change.</p>
<p>Some species have been able to meet the challenge with rapid evolutionary adaptation and other changes in behavior or physiology. Dark-colored dragonflies are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101458118">getting paler</a> in order to reduce the amount of heat they absorb from the sun. Mustard plants are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.1051">flowering earlier</a> to take advantage of earlier snowmelt. Lizards are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0625">becoming more cold-tolerant</a> to handle the extreme variability of our new climate.</p>
<p>However, scientific studies show that climate change is occurring much faster than species are changing.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A tiny, royal blue fish with gold stripes looks into the camera. The downward slant of its mouth and shadow at the top of its eye give it an annoyed look." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558243/original/file-20231108-23-xs3oy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C8%2C5599%2C3724&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558243/original/file-20231108-23-xs3oy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558243/original/file-20231108-23-xs3oy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558243/original/file-20231108-23-xs3oy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558243/original/file-20231108-23-xs3oy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558243/original/file-20231108-23-xs3oy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558243/original/file-20231108-23-xs3oy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zebrafish have evolved to thrive in water a degree or so warmer than normal, but they struggle to survive at higher temperatures.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/brachydanio-rerio-royalty-free-image/154930602?adppopup=true">isoft/E+ Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What is evolutionary adaptation?</h2>
<p>The word “adaptation” is used in many ways by climate scientists, but it has a very specific meaning to biologists: It refers to genetic changes that are passed on from one generation to the next and improve a species’ ability to survive in its environment.</p>
<p>These genetic modifications make evolutionary adaptation different from “acclimation” or “acclimatization,” which involve advantages that are not passed on to offspring. For example, when people move to high-altitude cities, they <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2013-092840">start producing more red blood cells</a> as they acclimate to the low oxygen.</p>
<p>All over the world, plants and animals have adapted to many different warm and dry habitats, prompting scientists to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0176">question</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1520-9">whether</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14881">species</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1406314111">might</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.13862">also</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1063656">adapt</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0608379104">to</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14072">our</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba9287">rapidly</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abj7484">changing</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf3343">climate</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2628">too</a>.</p>
<p>Thus far, the answer <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.852">seems to be no</a> for most species.</p>
<h2>Evolving, fast and slow</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10924-4">recent study</a> of the populations of 19 bird and mammal species, including owls and deer, shows one potential barrier to adaptation. </p>
<p>In animals that take several years to reach breeding age, the climate has already shifted by the time their offspring are born. Genes that gave the parents an advantage – like hatching at exactly the right time or growing to the best size – are no longer as beneficial for the offspring.</p>
<p>Populations of these slow-maturing animals are adapting to climate change, but not enough during each generation to thrive in the changing conditions. In fact, the rate of evolution is so mismatched to the rate of global warming that the study’s authors estimate that nearly 70% of the local populations they studied are already vulnerable to climate-driven extinction over the coming decades.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A dragonfly with dark bands on its wings." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558246/original/file-20231108-27-yipcvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558246/original/file-20231108-27-yipcvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558246/original/file-20231108-27-yipcvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558246/original/file-20231108-27-yipcvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558246/original/file-20231108-27-yipcvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558246/original/file-20231108-27-yipcvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558246/original/file-20231108-27-yipcvj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black bands on dragonflies heat up their bodies. Research shows some dragonflies have evolved smaller black bands as the climate warms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael P. Moore</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558248/original/file-20231108-27-nr1728.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A heat map clearly shows that the dark bands on the wings absorb more heat." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558248/original/file-20231108-27-nr1728.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558248/original/file-20231108-27-nr1728.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558248/original/file-20231108-27-nr1728.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558248/original/file-20231108-27-nr1728.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558248/original/file-20231108-27-nr1728.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558248/original/file-20231108-27-nr1728.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558248/original/file-20231108-27-nr1728.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this heat map of the same dragonfly, white areas are the warmest and purple areas are cooler. The dark bands on the wings stand out.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael P. Moore</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Small-bodied animals, such as many fish, insects and plankton, typically mature quickly. Yet, recent research on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2011419117">small fish</a> and a type of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.0542">fast-maturing plankton called a copepod</a> revealed another hurdle for rapid genetic adaptation to climate change.</p>
<p>Many species possess genes that permit them to live in environments that are 1 to 2 degrees Celsius (about 2 to 4 Fahrenheit) warmer than today, but new genetic mutations must arise to enable survival if climates reach 4 to 5 C (about 7 to 9 F) warmer, as is possible in some regions, particularly if greenhouse gas emissions continue at a high rate.</p>
<p>To test species’ resilience, scientists warmed populations of these fast-maturing species over many generations to observe their genetic changes. They found that both the copepods and the small fish were able to adapt to the first couple degrees of warming, but populations soon went extinct above that. This was because genetic mutations that increased their ability to live in hotter conditions occurred at a slower rate than the temperatures rose.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558242/original/file-20231108-29-dkylc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A tiny nearly translucent oval creature with a tail and egg sacks trailing behind it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558242/original/file-20231108-29-dkylc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558242/original/file-20231108-29-dkylc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558242/original/file-20231108-29-dkylc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558242/original/file-20231108-29-dkylc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558242/original/file-20231108-29-dkylc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558242/original/file-20231108-29-dkylc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558242/original/file-20231108-29-dkylc9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A live copepod with egg sacs at 10 times magnification. These ocean creatures produce new generations quickly, allowing for speedier evolution.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/copepod-micrograph-royalty-free-image/170025374?adppopup=true">NNehring/E+ Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cold-blooded species, such as lizards, frogs and fish, are especially vulnerable to climate change because they have a limited capacity to regulate their own body temperatures. Their ability to evolve in response to climate change is expected to be critical for their survival.</p>
<p>However, rapid adaptation to climate change often comes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02984069">at a cost</a>: Populations get smaller due to the deaths of individuals that cannot tolerate new, hotter temperatures. Therefore, even if species do evolve to survive with climate change, their smaller populations may still go extinct due to problems such as inbreeding, harmful new mutations or plain old bad luck, such as a disease epidemic.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1184695">In a now-classic study</a>, researchers studying lizards in Mexico discovered that the high death rates of just the heat-sensitive individuals – representing only a subset of the entire population – caused 12% of all lizard populations in Mexico to go extinct between 1975 and 2009. Even with some heat-tolerant adult lizards surviving in each population under the warmer conditions, the researchers estimated climate change would kill so many heat-sensitive adults within each population that 54% of all populations would go extinct by 2080.</p>
<h2>Evolutionary adaptation isn’t species’ only option</h2>
<p>Another way species adjust to rising temperatures is acclimation, sometimes called “phenotypic plasticity.” For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1157174">great tits in the U.K.</a> – small birds that are common in yards and forests – lay their eggs earlier in warmer years so that their nestlings hatch right as the winter weather ends, no matter when that happens.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A small bird with a yellow body and black head with white cheeks sits on a branch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558258/original/file-20231108-21-3e6t6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558258/original/file-20231108-21-3e6t6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558258/original/file-20231108-21-3e6t6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558258/original/file-20231108-21-3e6t6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558258/original/file-20231108-21-3e6t6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558258/original/file-20231108-21-3e6t6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558258/original/file-20231108-21-3e6t6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A great tit – <em>Parus major</em>. In the U.K., these common birds have been laying their eggs earlier in warm years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hedera_baltica/49433487712/in">Hedera.Baltica via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32953-2">recent analysis</a> of more than 100 beetle, grasshopper and other insect species all over the world found that acclimation may not help those species enough. The study’s authors found that the species they reviewed gained an average of only 0.1 C (about 0.2 F) greater heat tolerance when acclimating to 1 C (about 2 F) warmer air temperatures during their development. Thus, the rate of global warming seems to be outstripping species’ abilities to acclimate, too.</p>
<p>Plants and animals could also escape the impacts of global warming by migrating to cooler habitats. A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1198-2">global analysis</a> of more than 12,000 different plants and animal species recently showed that many species are migrating toward the poles fast enough to keep pace with rising temperatures, and many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13762">tropical species are moving upslope</a> to higher elevations as well.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, migration has its limits. Research shows that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1804224115">tropical birds that already live high in the mountains could be doomed</a> because there is no room for them to migrate any farther upward. Tropical species, therefore, may be on what the authors call an “escalator to extinction.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A yellow-and-black moth sits on a yellow flower in an alpine field with snow-covered mountains in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558253/original/file-20231108-21-ad3ofx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558253/original/file-20231108-21-ad3ofx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558253/original/file-20231108-21-ad3ofx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558253/original/file-20231108-21-ad3ofx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=789&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558253/original/file-20231108-21-ad3ofx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558253/original/file-20231108-21-ad3ofx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558253/original/file-20231108-21-ad3ofx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=992&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Police car moths living at high elevations have little room to migrate to escape increasing heat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael P. Moore</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>High-latitude and high-elevation habitats also present numerous challenges for species to overcome besides temperature. Our own research across 800 species of insects all over the Earth shows that butterflies, bees and other flying insects are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01794-2">especially hindered from migrating to higher elevations</a> because there is not enough oxygen for them to survive. </p>
<h2>Many species lack obvious climate strategies</h2>
<p>Overall, evolutionary adaptation appears to help lessen the impacts of global warming, but the evidence thus far shows that it is insufficient to overcome current rates of climate change. Acclimation and migration provide faster solutions, but research shows that those may not be enough, either.</p>
<p>Of course, not all evolution is driven by warming temperatures. Plant and animal species appear to be also gradually adapting to other kinds of environments, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.14191">human-created ones like cities</a>. But the fast pace of global warming makes it <a href="https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/chapter/8#fig-8-2">one of the major threats</a> that species must respond to immediately.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://nca2023.globalchange.gov/chapter/8#fig-8-2">evidence indicates</a> that humanity cannot simply assume that plants and animals will be able to save themselves from climate change. To protect these species, humans will have to stop the activities that are fueling climate change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215222/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From dark dragonflies becoming paler to plants flowering earlier, some species are slowly evolving with the climate. Evolutionary biologists explain why few will evolve fast enough.Michael P. Moore, Assistant Professor of Biology, University of Colorado DenverJames T. Stroud, Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolution, Georgia Institute of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2158092023-11-12T19:15:42Z2023-11-12T19:15:42ZAustralia has more native bird species than almost anywhere else. What led to this explosion of diversity?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554661/original/file-20231019-17-zkff5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C62%2C3465%2C2727&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An Opalton grasswren.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Barry Baker</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When you went out today, did you see any birds? A galah perhaps, or a crow?</p>
<p>If you did, there’s a decent chance the bird you saw lives nowhere but Australia. Out of about <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/env/pages/2ee3f4a1-f130-465b-9c7a-79373680a067/files/nlsaw-2nd-complete.pdf">850 species</a> found in Australia, 45% are “endemic”, which means they’re unique to Australia. The only other country with <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/473/1/012064">more endemic species</a> is Indonesia.</p>
<p>Thanks to their wings, birds are the world’s greatest travellers. So why is it that such a high proportion of Australian birds aren’t found anywhere else?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554664/original/file-20231019-21-r60wx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554664/original/file-20231019-21-r60wx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554664/original/file-20231019-21-r60wx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554664/original/file-20231019-21-r60wx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554664/original/file-20231019-21-r60wx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=692&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554664/original/file-20231019-21-r60wx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554664/original/file-20231019-21-r60wx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554664/original/file-20231019-21-r60wx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=869&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A little raven (<em>Corvus mellori</em>) in the Nullarbor. These birds are native to South-East Australia and are related to Australia’s crows.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Barry Baker</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Climate rules</h2>
<p>The story starts <a href="https://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/geography-and-geology/geology/">more than 45 million</a> years ago, when Australia first split from Antarctica and started to head north. It was the events that occurred during this trip – particularly in relation to our climate – that led to the diversity in Australia’s birds today. </p>
<p>When it first set out, Australia was covered in lush rainforest. As it drifted, however, the climate became much drier. Our distinctive flora of grasslands and eucalypt woodlands started to spread across the continent. </p>
<p>But this drying trend wasn’t consistent. Particularly in the last million years, dry periods associated with the ice ages alternated with wetter times, such as the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-is-the-anthropocene-and-are-we-in-it-164801414/">Holocene epoch</a> – which is what we’ve had for the past 10,000 or so years.</p>
<p>But the climate didn’t just vary over thousands of years. It also varied, as we know too well, from year to year. Australia has long been the land of long droughts, sometimes lasting decades, interspersed with flooding rains.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554662/original/file-20231019-23-dlbl1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554662/original/file-20231019-23-dlbl1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554662/original/file-20231019-23-dlbl1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554662/original/file-20231019-23-dlbl1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554662/original/file-20231019-23-dlbl1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554662/original/file-20231019-23-dlbl1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554662/original/file-20231019-23-dlbl1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554662/original/file-20231019-23-dlbl1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Opalton grasswrens (<em>Amytornis rowleyi</em>) can be found in the Forsyth Range in Queensland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Barry Baker</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What’s climate got to do with birds?</h2>
<p>The diversity in Australia’s birds arose partly because of the list of passengers aboard the good ship of Australia. This included ancient parrots and the ancestors of what were to become the world’s first songbirds: the <a href="https://www.unediscoveryvoyager.org.au/2022/05/30/lyrebirds-really-are-superb/">lyrebirds and scrub-birds</a>. Both groups are highly adaptable and have <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1071/MU13034">bigger brains</a> than other birds relative to their size.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554673/original/file-20231019-17-pyeh6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554673/original/file-20231019-17-pyeh6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554673/original/file-20231019-17-pyeh6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554673/original/file-20231019-17-pyeh6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554673/original/file-20231019-17-pyeh6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=857&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554673/original/file-20231019-17-pyeh6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1076&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554673/original/file-20231019-17-pyeh6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1076&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554673/original/file-20231019-17-pyeh6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1076&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lyrebirds are known for their incredible mimicry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Barry Baker</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, it was ultimately the climate that gave us so many endemic species. Every time the climate dried, birds that preferred forests were pushed to the damper margins of the continent, where they evolved into separate species. In wetter times, some forests spread and reconnected – but now there were two or more species, not just one. </p>
<p>The same was true for the arid land birds, which got divided when it became extra dry. One ancient group called grasswrens <a href="https://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/grass-wrens">has different species</a> in almost all the isolated blocks of arid habitat across the country.</p>
<p>The parrots and cockatoos also diversified into a huge range of species, from tiny budgerigars to <a href="https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2019/03/australias-five-black-cockatoos/">huge black cockatoos</a>.</p>
<h2>One-way traffic</h2>
<p>But that’s only part of the story. You might have heard of the original supercontinent, Pangaea, which <a href="http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/eoc/teachers/t_tectonics/p_pangaea2.html">split into Gondwana and Laurasia</a> about 200 million years ago. When <a href="https://nre.tas.gov.au/Documents/Gondwana.pdf">Gondwana eventually split</a>, some of the continents moved north and shared their faunas with the regions they ran into in the Northern Hemisphere.</p>
<p>As Africa and India collided with Asia and Europe, the species from the old supercontinents of Gondwana and Laurasia mixed. <a href="https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/when-did-the-isthmus-of-panama-form-between-north-and-south-america">North and South America</a> also exchanged plants and animals when their land masses joined. Australia was different. And once again, it came down to the climate. </p>
<p>As Australia pushed north, the shifting tectonic plates threw up islands that acted as stepping stones to Asia. These allowed Australian songbirds to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-songbirds-island-hopped-their-way-from-australia-to-colonise-the-world-64616">head out into</a> the wider world, where they did exceptionally well. In fact, <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1813206116">researchers think</a> all the world’s 5,000 or songbird species came from Australia.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OGdPqpzYD4o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This animation shows the continent of Pangaea breaking into the land masses we have today.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The question is, why was this traffic one way? Why didn’t Asian and American birds such as woodpeckers hop on over to Australia? One reason could be that by that time Australia was already full of tough birds that had evolved to cope with a pretty mean climate. </p>
<p>In contrast, the birds from Asia had evolved in fertile rainforests. Any that did disperse south along the chain of islands leading to Australia would have been ill-equipped to cope with its aridity. They would also have had to compete with parrots and songbirds that already knew how to take full advantage of the resources available.</p>
<p>A few did make it, including a lovely <a href="https://www.australiaswonderfulbirds.com.au/finches">set of finches</a>, but they are an exception proving the rule. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554688/original/file-20231019-17-sm97lb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554688/original/file-20231019-17-sm97lb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554688/original/file-20231019-17-sm97lb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554688/original/file-20231019-17-sm97lb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554688/original/file-20231019-17-sm97lb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554688/original/file-20231019-17-sm97lb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554688/original/file-20231019-17-sm97lb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554688/original/file-20231019-17-sm97lb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zebra finches (<em>Taeniopygia castanotis</em>) are the most common of Australia’s grassfinches, found across most of the mainland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Budgies are the best</h2>
<p>It’s probably no coincidence the world’s most popular cage birds come from Australia. Cage living isn’t for every bird; most birds are delicate creatures that need constant care if bred in captivity.</p>
<p>In contrast, budgerigars, cockatiels and zebra finches from Australia’s fickle arid zone know they must do what it takes while the going’s good, because the next El Niño may start next week. And it helps if you can cope with temperatures that vary from -10°C to more than 40°C. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554666/original/file-20231019-17-r60wx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554666/original/file-20231019-17-r60wx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554666/original/file-20231019-17-r60wx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554666/original/file-20231019-17-r60wx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554666/original/file-20231019-17-r60wx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554666/original/file-20231019-17-r60wx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554666/original/file-20231019-17-r60wx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554666/original/file-20231019-17-r60wx5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The budgerigar (<em>Melopsittacus undulatus</em>) is a colourful native parrot.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Australia also shares many bird species with New Guinea. This isn’t surprising, given we’re on the same continental plate. </p>
<p>The Torres Strait is so shallow that drops in sea levels during an ice age would form a land bridge that even a cassowary could walk across (which is why cassowaries are shared with New Guinea).</p>
<p>For most other Australian birds found elsewhere, such as shorebirds and seabirds, water is no barrier.</p>
<p>But most of our birds are ours alone. Ours to enjoy and ours to care for – because they have no other home.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554674/original/file-20231019-17-q5axer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554674/original/file-20231019-17-q5axer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554674/original/file-20231019-17-q5axer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554674/original/file-20231019-17-q5axer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554674/original/file-20231019-17-q5axer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554674/original/file-20231019-17-q5axer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554674/original/file-20231019-17-q5axer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554674/original/file-20231019-17-q5axer.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A superb lyrebird (<em>Menura novaehollandiae</em>) in the Dandenong Ranges.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Barry Baker</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/listen-to-the-alberts-lyrebird-the-best-performer-youve-never-heard-of-177627">Listen to the Albert’s lyrebird: the best performer you’ve never heard of</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215809/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Garnett receives funding from the Australian Research Council. I am an active member of BirdLife Australia. </span></em></p>Our birds are tough. They went through some mean climatic conditions to make Australia home.Stephen Garnett, Professor of Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods, Charles Darwin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2167992023-11-12T14:02:46Z2023-11-12T14:02:46ZBirds’ nests express their unique style and past experiences<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558442/original/file-20231108-23-ci8gl3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3303%2C2185&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Zebra finches learn from experience when it comes to building nests.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/birds-nests-express-their-unique-style-and-past-experiences" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Walking through a town or city, you will encounter buildings with diverse shapes and sizes. These unique styles exist in part because the buildings were constructed by different architects, engineers and builders. </p>
<p>Birds are also architects, engineers and builders. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.108194">Our research</a> finds that, similar to human architecture, individual birds build nests in their own unique style. Experienced birds build with more consistent style and use fewer material resources than inexperienced birds. </p>
<h2>Animal architecture</h2>
<p>Architecture impacts our everyday lives, allowing us to adapt to and thrive in various climates. Humans build different structures to achieve different goals: farms to grow and store food, castles and skyscrapers to display wealth, homes for shelter or as a place to raise a family. </p>
<p>The same is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.09.082">true for other species</a>. Bees build <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/946778/the-incredible-architecture-of-bees">hives and honey combs</a> to store and protect food. Spiders <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2021/considering-the-spiderweb-0810">spin webs</a> to catch prey. Beavers <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/buildabeaverdam.htm">build dams</a> to create a pool. Many species of birds <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2008.01.020">construct nests</a> for shelter or to raise their chicks.</p>
<p>Building architecture allows animals to shape their environments to better meet specific needs.</p>
<h2>Architectural styles</h2>
<p>Human structures look different, even when those structures share a similar purpose. This might reflect differences in culture and available resources.</p>
<p>In western societies, houses tend to be cuboids made from stone, wood and glass. Plains Indigenous Peoples make conical <a href="https://www.ualberta.ca/folio/2018/05/tipi-raised-to-recognize-relationship-between-first-nations-u-of-a.html">tipis from wood and bison hides</a>. Inuit peoples use <a href="https://www.avataq.qc.ca/en/Nunavimmiuts/Puurtaq-Project/Life-in-an-igloo">ice and snow to make spherical igloos</a>. East African Maasai peoples build cylindrical <a href="https://friendsofnamuncha.org/clearing-the-smoke-from-manyattas/">manyatta huts from earth, grass and cow dung</a>.</p>
<p>There are differences in architectural style among individuals within the same culture using the same materials. </p>
<p>Visualize your home: the size and shape of each room, position of doors and windows, arrangement of furniture. Now compare your visualized blueprint to the blueprint of a friend’s house. They likely look quite different, as humans have individual variation in architectural style.</p>
<p>Our research suggests the same is true for animal architects: animals also build structures with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.108194">individual variation in architectural style</a>. </p>
<h2>Avian architects</h2>
<p>Birds are among the most <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.06.078">well-known builders in the animal world</a>. Many avian species build nests to create safe, warm environments to incubate their eggs and raise chicks. Nest building is a key task that individuals must complete to successfully reproduce. </p>
<p>Our team, the <a href="https://sites.psych.ualberta.ca/animal-cognition-ualberta/">Animal Cognition Research Group</a> in the <a href="https://www.ualberta.ca/psychology/index.html">Department of Psychology</a> at the <a href="https://www.ualberta.ca/index.html">University of Alberta</a>, ran an experiment testing whether birds built nests in their own individual style. </p>
<p>We studied <a href="https://ebird.org/species/zebfin2">zebra finches</a>, small songbirds native to Australia. Zebra finches have been bred in captivity for years and are common in pet stores and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1071/MUv110n3_ED">scientific research</a>. These birds are ideal for our test, as males build many nests in short periods of time using a range of materials.</p>
<p>We measured the sizes and shapes of multiple nests built by the same zebra finches. Comparing nests built by the same male found similarities in style. Comparing nests built by different males found dissimilarities in style. This shows individuals do build nests in their own unique and repeatable style.</p>
<h2>Psychology of style</h2>
<p>The minds of human architects can be studied through analyzing the style in which they build. This gives insights on their understanding of technology and their cultural influences or social values.</p>
<p>Some ancient structures, like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/685/1/012001">the pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge and Mayan structures</a>, are aligned to the sun and stars. This demonstrates ancient architects had the ability to precisely plan and execute designs with great detail. It also suggests that celestial bodies held some significance to these cultures, perhaps for mapping landscapes or the passage of seasons. </p>
<p>An individual architect might specialize in building structures of a particular style, such as <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/983605/the-origins-and-evolution-of-gothic-architecture">Gothic</a>, <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/972018/what-is-art-deco-architecture">Art Deco</a>, <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/774100/should-victorian-era-architecture-be-saved-at-all-costs">Victorian</a> or <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/957201/brutalism-the-architecture-style-we-love-to-love">Brutalist</a>. Their style might change over time as the architect learns and refines their skills through experience. </p>
<p>These examples show how the psychology of style can be analyzed in human architects. We wanted to investigate the psychology of style, specifically learning from experience, in our zebra finches.</p>
<h2>Style and experience</h2>
<p>We gave one group of zebra finches practise building five nests, giving each male opportunities to learn from this nest-building experience. A second group of zebra finches had no practise building. These males had never built a nest before the start of the experiment. Both groups then built nests so that we could compare the nest style built by the two groups.</p>
<p>Experienced birds had more consistent nest style and used less material compared to inexperienced birds. This indicates that learning opportunities influence nest style. </p>
<p>Practice building nests allows birds to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2011.06.011">develop motor skills</a> and better manipulate materials. Birds also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2021.104336">remember past outcomes</a> of nests and will replicate successful design elements. </p>
<p>Individual style might develop from differences in learning opportunities. Maintaining a style might even be beneficial. Creating consistent nests while using fewer resources may be advantageous, especially if the style has been successful or resources are limited.</p>
<p>We can learn a lot about how both human and animal architects adapt and respond to their surroundings and culture by studying the structures they build. Our research also shows home isn’t just where the heart is … it’s also in the brain.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216799/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Birds’ nest-building skills are informed by their environment and experiences, and nests can reflect the individual styles of their builders.Ben Whittaker, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Psychology, University of AlbertaLauren Guillette, Assistant Professor & Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Ecology, Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, University of AlbertaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2160062023-10-30T19:10:53Z2023-10-30T19:10:53ZWe need a single list of all life on Earth – and most taxonomists now agree on how to start<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556256/original/file-20231027-21-nxmtp5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=151%2C53%2C4719%2C3316&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/common-kingfisher-alcedo-atthis-wetlands-birdss-2331210013">Sumruay Rattanataipob/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Species lists are one of the unseen pillars of science and society. Lists of species underpin our understanding of the natural world, threatened species management, quarantine, disease control and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13127-021-00518-8">much else besides</a>. </p>
<p>The people who describe new species and create lists of them are taxonomists. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/546025a">A few years ago</a>, a headline in the journal Nature accused the taxonomic community of anarchy for not coordinating a common view of species, leading to confusion about our knowledge of life on earth.</p>
<p>Many in the taxonomic community <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2005075">took umbrage</a> at this. Taxonomists were concerned that the ideas proposed would limit their freedom of expression and they would be tied to a bureaucracy before they could publish new species descriptions.</p>
<p>Taxonomists certainly argue – disputation is <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13127-021-00495-y">essential to the practice of taxonomy</a>, as it is to science in general. Ultimately, however, a taxonomist’s life is spent trying to discern order in the extraordinarily diverse tree of life.</p>
<p>The results of a new survey published today in the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2306899120">Proceedings of the National Academies of Science</a>, show just how much taxonomists really do like order.</p>
<h2>Hardly a group of anarchists</h2>
<p>The argument was about how to solve disagreements between taxonomists. Eventually, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-scientific-spat-over-how-to-name-species-turned-into-a-big-plus-for-nature-138887">two sides came together</a> to produce principles on the creation of a <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000736">single authoritative list of species</a>.</p>
<p>This group then went to the taxonomic community to survey their views on whether a global species list is needed and how it should be run.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-scientific-spat-over-how-to-name-species-turned-into-a-big-plus-for-nature-138887">How a scientific spat over how to name species turned into a big plus for nature</a>
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<p>The newly published results show that a large majority (77%) of respondents – which included over 1,100 taxonomists and users of taxonomy across 74 countries – have expressed support for having a single list of all life on Earth.</p>
<p>They also agreed there should be a governance system that supports the list’s creation and maintenance. Just what that governance system would entail is not yet specified. Deciding that will be the next step in the process.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556258/original/file-20231027-15-lpxxvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A small grey animal looking like a cross between a kangaroo and a rat" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556258/original/file-20231027-15-lpxxvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556258/original/file-20231027-15-lpxxvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556258/original/file-20231027-15-lpxxvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556258/original/file-20231027-15-lpxxvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556258/original/file-20231027-15-lpxxvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556258/original/file-20231027-15-lpxxvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556258/original/file-20231027-15-lpxxvk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Understanding species taxonomy is crucial for their management. Knowing the taxonomy of marsupials like this bettong helps identify what needs conserving and where.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bettong-australias-smallest-kangaroo-glances-curiously-1658557687">Tyrrannoid/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Taxonomists propose hypotheses, not facts</h2>
<p>Why is this important? Many may not realise that when a taxonomist names a new species description, they are proposing a scientific hypothesis, not presenting an <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-44966-1">objective scientific fact</a>.</p>
<p>Other taxonomists then look at the evidence provided in the description and decide whether they agree. If people making species lists judge that there is agreement about a hypothesis, the new species goes on their list. </p>
<p>Only after a species is listed can it be protected, studied, eradicated, ignored or whatever else governments decide is appropriate. Scientists and conservation advocates also need species to be listed before they can include them in their work. Until listed, the species remains, for all practical purposes, invisible. </p>
<p>However, not all lists are equally trusted. Very rarely taxonomists do go rogue. One notorious taxonomist has been blacklisted for “<a href="https://academic.oup.com/biolinnean/article/133/3/645/6240088?login=falsename">taxonomic vandalism</a>”. He published all sorts of new names – some even commemorated his dog – with little justification. If accepted, his field (herpetology) would have been thrown into chaos.</p>
<p>The work of rogue taxonomists wastes everyone’s time and money. In one instance, poor taxonomy has even killed people – an antivenom labelled with the wrong name for a snake was distributed in Africa and Papua New Guinea <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18359053/">with disastrous results</a>.</p>
<p>Even without rogue taxonomists, there is an enormous problem with so-called synonyms – different people giving different names for the same species. Some species have tens of scientific names, not to mention misspellings. </p>
<p>This leaves users uncertain what name to use. Sometimes they use different names but mean the same species; sometimes the same names but mean different species. The only way to clarify this confusion is by having a working master list of species names linked to the scientific literature.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556257/original/file-20231027-17-f2a7fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A colourful coral reef with schools of fish and a turtle swimming above it" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556257/original/file-20231027-17-f2a7fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556257/original/file-20231027-17-f2a7fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556257/original/file-20231027-17-f2a7fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556257/original/file-20231027-17-f2a7fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556257/original/file-20231027-17-f2a7fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556257/original/file-20231027-17-f2a7fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556257/original/file-20231027-17-f2a7fd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Biodiversity is an essential feature of our planet and its ecosystems – but to understand it, we also need to understand the individual species.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tropical-fish-turtle-red-sea-egypt-211006552">Vlad61/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Now what?</h2>
<p>The newly released survey shows taxonomists and users of taxonomy have achieved an agreement that good lists need good governance. Species lists need to reflect the best science, independent of outside influence. They need dispute resolution processes. And they need involvement and agreement from the taxonomic community on their contents.</p>
<p>Governance of science does not work unless a large majority of scientists agree with the rules, because participation is voluntary. There’s no such thing as science police. </p>
<p>Agreement and compliance is best achieved if scientists themselves are involved in the creation of the rules. This helps to increase buy-in among the community of peers to make sure rules are kept.</p>
<p>Based on the survey results, <a href="https://www.catalogueoflife.org/">the Catalogue of Life</a> – the group that has the most comprehensive global species list to date, and the one we’re involved in – is piloting ways of measuring the quality of the lists that make up their catalogue. </p>
<p>These are being trialled first with the creators of lists, everything from viruses to mammals. Then, they will be tested with the taxonomic community at large for further feedback.</p>
<p>Good taxonomy is far more valuable than people realise. One recent study in Australia found that, for every dollar spent on taxonomy, <a href="https://www.science.org.au/support/analysis/decadal-plans-science/discovering-biodiversity-decadal-plan-taxonomy#report2021">the economy gained A$35</a>. The value of taxonomy globally is likely to be colossal.</p>
<p>But the value will be higher still if everyone the world over is able to use the same list of species.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-re-counted-australias-extinct-species-and-the-result-is-devastating-127611">Scientists re-counted Australia's extinct species, and the result is devastating</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216006/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Garnett receives funding from the Australian Research Council for a project on taxonomic list governance and coordinates the Catalogue of Life Working Group on Taxonomic Lists. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron M. Lien is a member of the Catalogue of Life Working Group on Taxonomic Lists and the Global Species List Working Group. </span></em></p>Only after a species is identified and listed by taxonomists can it be protected. Yet we still don’t have one globally agreed-upon list of every species. A new 74-nation survey points to the solution.Stephen Garnett, Professor of Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods, Charles Darwin UniversityAaron M. Lien, Assistant Professor of Ecology, Management and Restoration of Rangelands, University of ArizonaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2161772023-10-30T03:31:01Z2023-10-30T03:31:01ZTwo questions, hundreds of scientists, no easy answers: how small differences in data analysis make huge differences in results<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556512/original/file-20231030-25-sz3v30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C3872%2C2567&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How do siblings affect the size of baby blue tits? It depends whom you ask.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/blue-tit-cyanisties-caeruleus-being-gaping-1700866117">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past 20 years or so, there has been growing concern that <a href="https://theconversation.com/science-is-in-a-reproducibility-crisis-how-do-we-resolve-it-16998">many results published in scientific journals can’t be reproduced</a>. </p>
<p>Depending on the field of research, studies have found efforts to redo published studies lead to different results in between <a href="https://news.virginia.edu/content/after-10-years-many-labs-comes-end-its-success-replicable">23%</a> and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/483531a">89%</a> of cases.</p>
<p>To understand how different researchers might arrive at different results, we asked hundreds of ecologists and evolutionary biologists to answer two questions by analysing given sets of data. They arrived at a huge range of answers.</p>
<p>Our study has been accepted by BMC Biology as a stage 1 <a href="https://www.cos.io/initiatives/registered-reports">registered report</a> and is <a href="https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/6000/">currently available as a preprint</a> ahead of peer review for stage 2.</p>
<h2>Why is reproducibility a problem?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/putting-psychological-research-to-the-test-with-the-reproducibility-project-7052">causes of problems with reproducibility</a> are common across science. They include an over-reliance on simplistic measures of
“statistical significance” rather than nuanced evaluations, the fact journals prefer to publish “exciting” findings, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-survey-found-questionable-research-practices-by-ecologists-and-biologists-heres-what-that-means-94421">questionable research practices</a> that make articles more exciting at the expense of transparency and increase the rate of false results in the literature.</p>
<p>Much of the research on reproducibility and ways it can be improved (such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-reproducibility-crisis-and-what-can-be-done-about-it-74198">“open science” initiatives</a>) has been slow to spread between different fields of science. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-survey-found-questionable-research-practices-by-ecologists-and-biologists-heres-what-that-means-94421">Our survey found 'questionable research practices' by ecologists and biologists – here's what that means</a>
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<p>Interest in these ideas has been <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/psychology-s-replication-crisis-inspires-ecologists-push-more-reliable-research">growing among ecologists</a>, but so far there has been little research evaluating replicability in ecology. One reason for this is the difficulty of disentangling environmental differences from the influence of researchers’ choices.</p>
<p>One way to get at the replicability of ecological research, separate from environmental effects, is to focus on what happens after the data is collected.</p>
<h2>Birds and siblings, grass and seedlings</h2>
<p>We were inspired by <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/526189a">work led by Raphael Silberzahn</a> which asked social scientists to analyse a dataset to determine whether soccer players’ skin tone predicted the number of red cards they received. The study found a wide range of results.</p>
<p>We emulated this approach in ecology and evolutionary biology with an open call to help us answer two research questions:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>“To what extent is the growth of nestling blue tits (<em>Cyanistes caeruleus</em>) influenced by competition with siblings?” </p></li>
<li><p>“How does grass cover influence <em>Eucalyptus</em> spp. seedling recruitment?” (“<em>Eucalyptus</em> spp. seedling recruitment” means how many seedlings of trees from the genus <em>Eucalyptus</em> there are.)</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A photo of eucalyptus seedlings outdoors" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556514/original/file-20231030-17-mh6uxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556514/original/file-20231030-17-mh6uxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556514/original/file-20231030-17-mh6uxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556514/original/file-20231030-17-mh6uxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556514/original/file-20231030-17-mh6uxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556514/original/file-20231030-17-mh6uxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556514/original/file-20231030-17-mh6uxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Researchers disagreed over whether grass cover encourages or discourages Eucalyptus seedlings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-growing-eucalyptus-seedling-650020558">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Two hundred and forty-six ecologists and evolutionary biologists answered our call. Some worked alone and some in teams, producing 137 written descriptions of their overall answer to the research questions (alongside numeric results). These answers varied substantially for both datasets.</p>
<p>Looking at the effect of grass cover on the number of <em>Eucalyptus</em> seedlings, we had 63 responses. Eighteen described a negative effect (more grass means fewer seedlings), 31 described no effect, six teams described a positive effect (more grass means more seedlings), and eight described a mixed effect (some analyses found positive effects and some found negative effects). </p>
<p>For the effect of sibling competition on blue tit growth, we had 74 responses. Sixty-four teams described a negative effect (more competition means slower growth, though only 37 of these teams thought this negative effect was conclusive), five described no effect, and five described a mixed effect.</p>
<h2>What the results mean</h2>
<p>Perhaps unsurprisingly, we and our coauthors had a range of views on how these results should be interpreted.</p>
<p>We have asked three of our coauthors to comment on what struck them most.</p>
<p>Peter Vesk, who was the source of the <em>Eucalyptus</em> data, said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Looking at the mean of all the analyses, it makes sense. Grass has essentially a negligible effect on [the number of] eucalypt tree seedlings, compared to the distance from the nearest mother tree. But the range of estimated effects is gobsmacking. It fits with my own experience that lots of small differences in the analysis workflow can add to large variation [in results].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Simon Griffith collected the blue tit data more than 20 years ago, and it was not previously analysed due to the complexity of decisions about the right analytical pathway. He said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This study demonstrates that there isn’t one answer from any set of data. There are a wide range of different outcomes and understanding the underlying biology needs to account for that diversity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Meta-researcher Fiona Fidler, who studies research itself, said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The point of these studies isn’t to scare people or to create a crisis. It is to help build our understanding of heterogeneity and what it means for the practice of science. Through metaresearch projects like this we can develop better intuitions about uncertainty and make better calibrated conclusions from our research.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What should we do about it?</h2>
<p>In our view, the results suggest three courses of action for researchers, publishers, funders and the broader science community.</p>
<p>First, we should avoid treating published research as fact. A single scientific article is just one piece of evidence, existing in a broader context of limitations and biases. </p>
<p>The push for “novel” science means studying something that has already been investigated is discouraged, and consequently we inflate the value of individual studies. We need to take a step back and consider each article in context, rather than treating them as the final word on the matter.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-science-reproducibility-crisis-and-what-can-be-done-about-it-74198">The science 'reproducibility crisis' – and what can be done about it</a>
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<p>Second, we should conduct more analyses per article and report all of them. If research depends on what analytic choices are made, it makes sense to present multiple analyses to build a fuller picture of the result.</p>
<p>And third, each study should include a description of how the results depend on data analysis decision. Research publications tend to focus on discussing the ecological implications of their findings, but they should also talk about how different analysis choices influenced the results, and what that means for interpreting the findings.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216177/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elliot Gould receives funding from an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannah Fraser and Timothy H. Parker do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>246 scientists looked at the same data sets and drew very different conclusions.Hannah Fraser, Postdoctoral Researcher , The University of MelbourneElliot Gould, PhD student, School of Biosciences, The University of MelbourneTimothy H. Parker, Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies, Whitman CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.