Victoria’s decision this week to reject a ban on duck hunting is a shot to the heart for proud Yuin man Jack Pascoe, son of Bruce Pascoe. The black duck Yumburra is a Yuin tribal totem.
The blue duck (Hymenolaimus malacorhynchos) is a species endemic to New Zealand.
Graham Martin
Parents provide the energy needed for their young to grow large brains. Climate change may negatively affect birds’ brain development as it impacts food supplies.
Wild birds like pelicans and ducks are getting infected with – and dying from – a new strain of avian influenza and have spread it to farm animals around the world.
Klebher Vasquez/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
A biologist who studies how viruses spread from animals to people explains the process of spillover and the risks posed by the new bird flu that has spread across the globe.
Healthy turkeys on a farm in West Newfield, Maine.
Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images
Hunters are warned to take precautions handling wild birds, and the virus can spill over to non-avian species, so no one should approach wild animals that appear ill.
A group of female eider ducks with one male.
(Simon Laroche)
The common eider nests in colonies on islands of the St. Lawrence estuary. The down that the female duck takes to fill her nest has exceptional insulating properties.
Bird flu is highly contagious in domestic flocks, and a major outbreak is underway in the US. A veterinary scientist explains what consumers need to know.
Avian cholera is a highly contagious disease that has produced rapid population loss in Northern common eiders.
(Shutterstock)
We can learn about the spread of diseases through populations by studying naturally occurring instances of herd immunity. Avian cholera in the Canadian Arctic provides a useful case study.
Paleontologists have discovered fossil remains belonging to an enormous ‘toothed’ bird that lived for a period of about 60 million years after dinosaurs.
Collecting data on invasive plants, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, California.
Connar L'Ecuyer/NPS
The COVID-19 pandemic is interrupting scientific field work across North America, leaving blank spots in important data sets and making it harder to track ecological change.
The South Georgia pintail duck scavenges on dead seals.
Joshua Powell
Much of the money for wildlife conservation in the United States comes from taxes and fees paid by sportsmen. But as fewer Americans take up hunting, wildlife managers need other funding sources.
The H5N8 virus is especially dangerous for migratory birds.
Meinzer Wyman/Flickr
Just before dawn on the third Saturday in March, the first shots will be fired, and the 2013 Victorian duck hunting session will commence. But 2013 will be unlike previous years. You are probably unaware…