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American zoo apologises to disgruntled New Zealanders

An American zoo has issued an apology after admitting it made a “huge mistake” that outraged an entire country. Footage of Miami Zoo’s paid encounters with Paora the kiwi went viral online, showing the bird being handled and passed around for pictures in broad daylights and under bright lights despite being a shy, nocturnal animal. The handling of their national icon had New Zealanders fired up, with a petition to save the “mistreated” animal being launched amid the video, which received more than 10,000 signatures. “He has been tamed and is subjected to bright fluorescent lighting four days a week, being handled by dozens of strangers, petted on his sensitive whiskers, laughed at, and shown off like a toy,” the petition read. “Kiwi are nocturnal animals, who should be kept in suitable dark enclosures, and minimally handled. “The best practice manual for kiwi states that they shouldn’t be handled often or taken out of their burrow to be held by the public. He is kept awake during the day, with only a small box in a brightly lit enclosure to mimic his natural underground habitat.” The zoo’s communications director Ron Magill has confirmed the attraction has been cancelled and has issued his own apology in an interview with the New Zealand Herald. “We regret the unintentional stress caused by a video on social media depicting the handling of Paora, the kiwi bird currently housed within Zoo Miami,” Magill said. He also told RNZ he had informed the zoo’s director that “we have offended a nation”. “When I saw the video myself I said we have made a huge mistake here,” he said. “I am so sorry. I am so remorseful. Someone asked how would you feel if we did that to your bald eagle, and you’re 100 per cent right. “I never want to come across as making excuses, I am here to apologise … to everyone. I feel profoundly terrible about this.” However, Magill noted Paora was healthy and well despite the uproar. “He eats like he’s on a spa day every day and he’s doing well. It doesn’t excuse what he was subjected to. But I promise it will never happen again,” he said. After the video went viral, the zoo was bombarded with complaints, with New Zealand’s Department of Conservation confirming it would be “discussing the situation with the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums to address some of the housing and handling concerns raised”. New Zealand prime minister Chris Hipkins also weighed in, claiming the ordeal “shows a lot of Kiwis take pride in our national bird when they’re overseas”. “The New Zealanders who witnessed what was happening there caught it pretty quickly,” he said, adding that the zoo had “made public statements of regret on what’s happened, and I acknowledge that and thank them for taking it seriously”. The kiwi is considered to be a Taonga species - native birds, plants and animals of special cultural significance and importance to native New Zealanders. Image credit: Getty

Travel Trouble

James Cameron caught giving fans the bird after being booed

Legendary director James Cameron has been caught flipping off the fans who booed him for not signing autographs over the weekend. After the famed director attended a screening of his new film, Avatar: The Way of Water, in LA, he refused to stop for a crowd of autograph-seeking fans. Cameron, 68, powered past the group of people asking him to sign their items, which caused the crowd to turn on him and shout. “F**k Avatar,” one person yelled, as Cameron was escorted into a black car. As the cheering and jeering continued, the Titanic filmmaker slightly rolled down his tinted window to reveal his middle finger. Fans were divided over the interaction, with some calling him a “jerk” and “annoying.” Others dubbed him “a legend” and argued that the people booing him weren’t real fans. “They were fake fans ready to resell autographed stuff 100%. The embarrassing way they reacted to his refusal proves that. Jim was right for ignoring them let’s be serious,” one person wrote on Twitter. Check out the footage and see for yourself. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> James Cameron flips off crowd who boos him for not signing autographs <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AvatarTheWayOfWater?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AvatarTheWayOfWater</a> <a href="https://t.co/frDDoY4alM">pic.twitter.com/frDDoY4alM</a> — Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) <a href="https://twitter.com/CultureCrave/status/1604621184611471360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2022</a></blockquote> Images: Twitter

Movies

Sneezing with hay fever? Native plants aren’t usually the culprit

Hay fever is a downside of springtime around the world. As temperatures increase, plant growth resumes and flowers start appearing. But while native flowering plants such as wattle often get the blame when the seasonal sneezes strike, hay fever in Australia is typically caused by introduced plant species often pollinated by the wind. <h2>A closer look at pollen</h2> Pollen grains are the tiny reproductive structures that move genetic material between flower parts, individual flowers on the same plant or a nearby member of the same species. They are typically lightweight structures easily carried on wind currents or are sticky and picked up in clumps on the feathers of a honeyeater or the fur of a fruit bat or possum. Hay fever is when the human immune system overreacts to allergens in the air. It is not only caused by pollen grains but fungal spores, non-flowering plant spores, mites and even pet hair. The classic symptoms of hay fever are sneezing, runny noses, red, itchy, and watery eyes, swelling around the eyes and scratchy ears and throat. The problem with pollen grains is when they land on the skin around our eyes, in our nose and mouth, the proteins found in the wall of these tiny structures leak out and are recognised as foreign by the body and trigger a reaction from the immune system. <h2>So what plants are the worst culprits for causing hay fever?</h2> Grasses, trees, and herbaceous weeds such as plantain are the main problem species as their pollen is usually scattered by wind. In Australia, the main grass offenders are exotic species including rye grass and couch grass (a commonly used lawn species). Weed species that cause hay fever problems include introduced ragweed, Paterson’s curse, parthenium weed and plantain. The <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5102629/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">problematic tree species</a> are also exotic in origin and include liquid amber, Chinese elm, maple, cypress, ash, birch, poplar, and plane trees. Although there are some native plants that have wind-spread pollen such as she-oaks and white cypress pine, and which can induce hay fever, these species are exceptional in the Australian flora. Many Australian plants are not wind pollinated and <a href="https://blog.publish.csiro.au/austpollinatorweek/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">use animals</a> to move their clumped pollen around. For example, yellow-coloured flowers such as wattles and peas are pollinated by insect such as bees. Red- and orange-coloured flowers are usually visited by birds such as honeyeaters. Large, dull-coloured flowers with copious nectar (the reward for pollination) are visited by nocturnal mammals including bats and possums. Obviously Australian plant pollen can still potentially cause the immune system to overreact, but these structures are less likely to reach the mucous membranes of humans. <h2>What can we do to prevent hay fever attacks at this time of the year?</h2> With all of this in mind, here are some strategies to prevent the affects of hay fever: <ol> <li>stay inside and keep the house closed up on warm, windy days when more pollen is in the air</li> <li>if you must go outside, wear sunglasses and a face mask</li> <li>when you return indoors gently rinse (and don’t rub) your eyes with running water, change your clothes and shower to remove pollen grains from hair and skin</li> <li>try to avoid mowing the lawn in spring particularly when grasses are in flower (the multi-pronged spiked flowers of couch grass are distinctive)</li> <li>when working in the garden, wear gloves and facial coverings particularly when handling flowers consider converting your garden to a native one. Grevilleas are a great alternative to rose bushes. Coastal rosemary are a fabulous native replacement for lavender. Why not replace your liquid amber tree with a fast growing, evergreen and low-allergenic lilly pilly tree?</li> </ol> <h2>If you do suffer a hay fever attack</h2> Sometimes even with our best efforts, or if it’s not always possible to stay at home, hay fever can still creep up on us. If this happens: <ul> <li>antihistamines will reduce sneezing and itching symptoms</li> <li>corticosteroid nasal sprays are very effective at reducing inflammation and clearing blocked noses</li> <li>decongestants provide quick and temporary relief by drying runny noses but should not be used by those with high blood pressure</li> <li>salt water is a good way to remove excessive mucous from the nasal passages.</li> </ul> Behavioural changes on warm, windy spring days are a good way of avoiding a hay fever attack. An awareness of the plants around us and their basic reproductive biology is also useful in preventing our immune systems from overreacting to pollen proteins that they are not used to encountering. This article first appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/sneezing-with-hay-fever-native-plants-arent-usually-the-culprit-190336" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>. Image: Shutterstock

Body

You’re less likely to die if you’re treated in your own language

<div> Hospital patients who speak the same language as their physicians end up healthier, according to new research. The study, which was <a href="https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.212155" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">published</a> in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that hospital patients had shorter stays and were less likely to die, fall, or catch infections during their treatment if they had a physician speaking their language. The researchers examined medical records for home-care care recipients in Ontario, Canada, between 2010 and 2018. In total, they looked at 189,690 records. A third of Ontario’s population doesn’t speak English as a first language. Among these home-care recipients, 84% were English speakers (Anglophones), 13% spoke French (Francophones) and 2.7% spoke other languages (Allophones). The researchers examined whether these patients were treated by a physician who spoke their first language (language concordant) or didn’t (language discordant). “We found that patients who received language-discordant care had more adverse events (such as falls and infections), longer hospital stays and were more likely die in hospital,” the researchers told Cosmos over email. Francophones treated by a French speaker were 24% less likely to die, while Allophones’ chances of death dropped by 54% when they had language-concordant care. The authors float a few reasons for this disparity. Previous studies have shown that better patient-physician communication leads to faster and more accurate diagnoses, and more patient cooperation – both of which have better health outcomes on average. Language discordance, on the other hand, correlates to cultural differences between patients and healthcare workers, which is typically bad for patients. “These are staggering findings that make a strong case for providing care in the same language for linguistic minorities in hospitals,” says co-author Dr Peter Tanuseputro, a physician scientist in the Department of Medicine of The Ottawa Hospital, Institut du Savoir Montfort and Bruyère Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario. “It’s clearly easier to convey important information about your health in your primary language. Regardless, the more than doubling in odds of serious harms, including death, for patients receiving care in a different language is eye-opening.” Just 44% of Francophones and under 2% of Allophones received care from physicians who spoke their language. For comparison, 58% of physicians in the study spoke English exclusively. “We expect these disparities to be more pronounced in linguistically diverse populations for the following reason: the odds of receiving care from a physician who speaks your primary language decreases if there are more linguistic groups in the population,” the researchers told Cosmos. “We believe that the results of our study highlight the importance of identifying patients who live in minority language communities so that appropriate strategies can be implemented to increase the provision of language-concordant care to these patients.” This means hospitals should ask patients what languages they speak, establish directories of their staff’s language proficiencies, refer patients to doctors who share their languages, and use professional interpreters. “Furthermore, a healthcare system’s ability to provide language-concordant care depends on the languages spoken by physicians, which should match that of the general population,” say the researchers. “This could be optimised by recruiting physicians with specific language proficiencies, and by dedicating resources to increase opportunities for medical education among minority language communities.” Image credits: Getty Images </div> <div id="contributors"> This article was originally published on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/language-hospitals-care/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cosmosmagazine.com </a>and was written by Ellen Phiddian. </div>

Mind

TikTok shows bird inside cabin on flight from Europe to US

A passenger on a flight from Europe to the US has shared a video of a bird that was trapped inside the cabin during her flight. Brooke Frazier uploaded a video to TikTok of a bird flying throughout the cabin of the plane she was on, writing, "Bird stuck on our eight hour flight from Europe lil guy about to be so confused.” In the caption, she wrote that the bird had “hopped on” the flight in Belgium and was “going crazy” during the flight to the US. <div class="embed"><iframe class="embedly-embed" src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tiktok.com%2Fembed%2Fv2%2F7051627241830403374&display_name=tiktok&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tiktok.com%2F%40totallychillfemale%2Fvideo%2F7051627241830403374&image=https%3A%2F%2Fp16-sign.tiktokcdn-us.com%2Ftos-useast5-p-0068-tx%2F7dd3104a4c624e7ebda67ae7affa603c_1641834912%7Etplv-tiktok-play.jpeg%3Fx-expires%3D1642078800%26x-signature%3D26FoJY0C1LvfiLhbFiJa3bTZQBc%253D&key=59e3ae3acaa649a5a98672932445e203&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=tiktok" width="340" height="700" scrolling="no" title="tiktok embed" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="true"></iframe></div> The video has received almost 12 million views, almost 2 million likes, and over 20,000 comments. Commenters were quick to see the humour in the situation, with one suggesting it was something out of a movie, writing, “Pixar movie. European bird runs away cuz all his family bullied him for being small. now he's raised by a bunch of pigeons from Jersey”. Brooke herself responded with her own movie synopsis, saying, “migrant bird opens a bakery in jersey to show his pursuit of the american dream while going back to his roots with family recipes”. Another commented “Omg I hope he speaks English,” while another said, “He’s gonna have to learn to fly on the right side.” Brooke posted a followup video once they’d touched down, asking, “Does anyone know if Pfizer protects against bird flu?” Many users wanted more information on the bird’s fate, with one person writing, “They should provide a free return trip for him”, while another said, “It’s gonna be so lonely without its friends”. Brooke herself commented, “I started tearing up bc it's whole family is in Belgium and it's gonna get off and have to make new friends." Image: TikTok

Travel Trouble

Garden birds are struggling: four ways to help

More than a quarter of Britain’s birds are now on the RSPB’s <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/uk-conservation-status-explained/" target="_blank">red list</a>, meaning that their numbers are in severe decline. Some of the recent additions to the red list are thought of as common garden birds, such as the greenfinch. Others, such as the swift and house martin, only spend spring and summer visiting the UK before migrating to warmer climes. But the environment they encounter in the UK, as well as along their migration routes, affects their survival significantly. Many of the species that we feed in our gardens and on balconies are under threat. Here are four ways to help them. 1. Clean your bird feeders and bird baths In the wild, with a few exceptions such as starlings, birds don’t come into close contact with each other much. This lack of contact makes it harder for diseases to spread. Bird feeders change this dynamic. The presence of a bird feeder means that many individual birds from many different species feed in the same area. This leads to the <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.bto.org/community/news/201803-feed-birds-scientists-highlight-risks-disease-garden-bird-feeders" target="_blank">spread of disease</a>, because birds often poo where they eat, leaving pathogens to infect the next visitor. <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438076/original/file-20211216-23-13tbwiw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="Two birds on a house shaped feeder" /> Greenfinches on a bird feeder. <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/greenfinches-perching-on-bird-feeder-spring-1667803654" target="_blank" class="source">Chamois huntress/Shutterstock</a> The greenfinch, a once common garden bird now added to the red list, has suffered because of this. The disease <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/gbw/gardens-wildlife/garden-birds/disease/trichomonosis" target="_blank">trichomonosis</a>, which used to just infect pigeons and doves, has spread to greenfinches with deadly consequences. Regular cleaning of your garden bird feeders and bird baths can reduce this risk. 2. Install bird nesting boxes Many people help birds by putting up nest boxes in their gardens. But these boxes are mostly made for robins and tits who nest in open boxes, or ones with small holes. These nest boxes mimic the crevices and holes that would be available in mature trees. Swifts and house martins are new entrants to the red list, and both of these will readily use man-made nesting places if we provide them – with a few modifications for their needs. House martins will nest in a pre-made or home-made <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/how-you-can-help-birds/nestboxes/how-to-attract-house-martins/" target="_blank">nest cup</a> which mimics the mud nests house martins make for themselves. Swifts will <a rel="noopener" href="http://www.saveourswifts.co.uk/attractswifts.htm" target="_blank">nest in boxes</a>, but they take a bit more work to attract. The best way to do this is to play their screeching call from a speaker placed close to the nest box, to get them to investigate and hopefully nest. You can make nest boxes attractive to these species by installing them in the eaves of your home, as they need them to be up high so they can take flight from them easily. 3. Add some insect-friendly plants Many of the species entering the red list, such as the house martin and house sparrow, feed on insects. Insects numbers have <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2019/february/the-world-s-insect-populations-are-plummeting-everywhere-we-look.html" target="_blank">declined rapidly</a>, so it is no surprise that these avian predators are finding it hard to feed themselves and their chicks. You may love a neat and tidy garden or balcony, but set aside an area to be a bit messier and weedier to attract insects. Adding <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.rhs.org.uk/science/conservation-biodiversity/wildlife/plants-for-pollinators" target="_blank">pollinator-friendly plants</a>, such as lavender, foxglove and sedum, could really boost insect numbers – natural bird food – in your garden. 4. Reduce dangers to birds <a rel="noopener" href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0049369" target="_blank">Pet cats are predators</a> and can target species like house sparrows, which remain on the red list. Even the presence of cats could be enough to <a rel="noopener" href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.12025" target="_blank">scare birds</a>, reducing the number of young they may be able to have. This may have a more damaging impact on bird populations than the number of birds killed by cats. <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438077/original/file-20211216-17-10dzdgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="Cat stalking along fence under roses" /> Cats are predators and their presence affects bird populations. <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cat-burglar-front-roses-on-prowl-1503499694" target="_blank" class="source">Lilly P. Green/Shutterstock</a> If you own a cat, there are ways for you to reduce its effect on bird numbers. A collar with a bell is an effective way to warn birds and other animals about a cat’s presence. In addition, you could consider restricting when cats are allowed outside to just the daytime, as birds can be more vulnerable in the very early morning when they wake and start to look for food. Alternatively, you could keep cats inside entirely. It is very common in Australia and the US for cats to remain indoors. These changes may seem small and your garden or outdoor space may not be big, but gardens in the UK <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/habitats/towns-and-gardens" target="_blank">cover more area</a> that all of our nature reserves put together. Encouraging wildlife in these garden habitats can make a big difference.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173025/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a rel="noopener" href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/becky-thomas-506528" target="_blank">Becky Thomas</a>, Senior Teaching Fellow in Ecology, <a rel="noopener" href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/royal-holloway-university-of-london-795" target="_blank">Royal Holloway University of London</a> This article is republished from <a rel="noopener" href="https://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a rel="noopener" href="https://theconversation.com/garden-birds-are-struggling-four-ways-to-help-173025" target="_blank">original article</a>. Image: Getty Images

Home & Garden

Why dingoes should be considered native to mainland Australia – even though humans introduced them

Dingoes are <a href="https://academic.oup.com/cz/article-abstract/57/5/668/5004458">often demonised</a> as a danger to livestock, while many consider them a natural and essential part of the environment. But is our most controversial wild species actually native to Australia? Dingoes were brought to Australia by humans from Southeast Asia some 4,000 years ago. Technically, this means they are an introduced species, and an “alien” species by <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-abstract/68/7/496/5050532">classic ecological definitions </a>. By contrast, most legal definitions consider dingoes native, because they were here before Europeans arrived. Though it sounds academic, the controversy has real consequences for this ancient dog lineage. In 2018, the Western Australian government declared dingoes <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-wa-government-is-wrong-to-play-identity-politics-with-dingoes-102344">were not native fauna</a> due to crossbreeding with domestic dogs. This potentially makes it easier to control their numbers. In a <a href="https://meridian.allenpress.com/australian-zoologist/article-abstract/41/3/358/472935/An-eco-evolutionary-rationale-to-distinguish-alien">new research paper</a>, I find dingoes do indeed fit the bill as an Australian native species, using three new criteria I propose. These criteria can help us answer questions over whether alien species can ever be considered native, and if so, over what time frame. <h2>Why does alien or native status matter?</h2> Humans have been moving animal species around for millennia. Thousands of years ago, neolithic settlers <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2907.1992.tb00129.x">moved rabbits</a> to Mediterranean islands, traders unwittingly took black rats from India to Europe and Indigenous Southeast Asian people took pigs to Papua New Guinea. The rate of species introductions has ramped up with the movement and spread of people, with many recent arrivals posing a major threat to biodiversity. <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435486/original/file-20211203-25-eianud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435486/original/file-20211203-25-eianud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="" /></a> Pigs were introduced to Papua New Guinea by Indigenous people thousands of years ago. Does that make them native? Shutterstock Researchers often distinguish between alien and native using the year the species was introduced. There are obvious problems with this, given the dates used can be arbitrary and the fact perceptions of nativeness can be based on how much <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0309132507079499">humans like the species</a>, rather than its ecological impact. For example, there has been strong opposition to killing “friendly” hedgehogs in areas of Scotland where they are introduced, but less cute animals like American mink get no such consideration. For conservationists, alien status certainly matters. <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rspb.2006.0444">Alien species act differently</a> to native species in their new environments, which can give them an advantage over locals in terms of competition for food, predation and spreading new diseases. This can cause native population declines and extinctions. As a result, species considered alien in their ecosystems are often targets for control and eradication. But species considered native are usually protected even if they have extended their range significantly, like eastern water dragons or the Australian white ibis. Native status is, of course, a human construct. Past definitions of nativeness have not directly considered the ecological reasons for concern about alien species. This is what <a href="https://meridian.allenpress.com/australian-zoologist/article-abstract/41/3/358/472935/An-eco-evolutionary-rationale-to-distinguish-alien">my new research</a> seeks to address. <h2>An ecological definition of nativeness</h2> What I propose are three staged criteria to determine when an introduced species becomes native: <ol> <li> has the introduced species evolved in its new environment? </li> <li> do native species recognise and respond to the introduced species as they do other local species? </li> <li> are the interactions between introduced and established native species similar to interactions between native species (that is, their impacts on local species are not negative and exaggerated)? </li> </ol> For dingoes on mainland Australia, the answer is yes for all three criteria. We should consider them native. <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435474/original/file-20211203-23-1o19jql.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435474/original/file-20211203-23-1o19jql.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="" /></a> Dingoes on mainland Australia meet the criteria for native status. Peter Banks, Author provided Firstly, dingoes are not the same dogs first brought here. Dingoes are now <a href="https://www.mapress.com/j/zt/article/view/zootaxa.4564.1.6">quite different</a> to their close ancestors in Southeast Asia, in terms of behaviour, how they reproduce and how they look. These <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14515-6">differences have a genetic basis</a>, suggesting they have evolved since their arrival in Australia. Their heads are now shaped differently, they breed less often and have better problem solving skills than other close dog relatives. Second, it is well established that native prey species on mainland Australia <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rspb.2018.0857">recognise and respond to dingoes</a> as dangerous predators – which they are. Finally, dingo impacts on prey species <a href="https://meridian.allenpress.com/australian-zoologist/article-abstract/41/3/338/447847/Introgression-does-not-influence-the-positive?redirectedFrom=fulltext">are not devastating</a> like those of alien predators such as feral cats and foxes. While hunting by dingoes does suppress prey numbers, they don’t keep them as low (and at greater risk of extinction) as do foxes and cats. Of course, dingo impacts were unlikely to have always been so benign. Dingoes are <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1191/0959683603hl682fa">linked to the extinction</a> of Tasmanian tigers (Thylacines), Tasmanian devils and the Tasmanian flightless hen, which disappeared from mainland Australia soon after the dingo arrived. In my paper, I argue such impacts no longer occur because of evolutionary change in both dingoes and their prey. We can see this in Tasmania, which dingoes never reached. There, prey species like bandicoots still show <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0161447">naiveté towards dogs</a>. That means we should not consider dingoes to be native to Tasmania. <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435484/original/file-20211203-23-101r65w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435484/original/file-20211203-23-101r65w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="" /></a> Native prey species on the mainland recognise and respond to dingoes. Shutterstock <h2>Alien today, native tomorrow?</h2> This idea challenges the dogma alien species remain alien forever. This is an unsettling concept for ecologists dealing with the major and ongoing damage done by newer arrivals. <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-abstract/62/3/217/358332">Some argue</a> we should never embrace alien species into natural ecosystems. This makes no sense for long-established introduced species, which might now be playing a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-dingo-fence-from-space-satellite-images-show-how-these-top-predators-alter-the-desert-155642">positive role</a> in ecosystems. But it’s a different story for recently introduced species like cats, given not enough time has passed to get past the exaggerated impacts on local species. These ideas are not about considering all species present in an ecosystem to be native. Introduced species should still be considered alien until proven native. <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435482/original/file-20211203-27-1atm2p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435482/original/file-20211203-27-1atm2p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="Cat sitting in the outback" /></a> Cats are a bigger threat to Australian wildlife than dingoes. Shutterstock This approach suggests ways of classifying species which might be native to a country but have moved to new places within the country through mechanisms like climate change or re-wilding. For example, we can’t simply assume returning Tasmanian devils to <a href="https://theconversation.com/bringing-devils-back-to-the-mainland-could-help-wildlife-conservation-43121">mainland Australia</a> more than 3,000 years after dingoes drove them extinct there would count as reintroducing a native species. Defining nativeness in this ecological way will help resolve some of the heated and long-running debates over how to distinguish alien and native species. How? Because it targets the key reason conservationists were worried about alien species in the first place – the damage they can do.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172756/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/peter-banks-7272">Peter Banks</a>, Professor of Conservation Biology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-sydney-841">University of Sydney</a> This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-dingoes-should-be-considered-native-to-mainland-australia-even-though-humans-introduced-them-172756">original article</a>. Image: Shutterstock

Domestic Travel

More than 200 Australian birds are now threatened with extinction – and climate change is the biggest danger

Up to 216 Australian birds are now threatened – compared with 195 a decade ago – and climate change is now the main driver pushing threatened birds closer to extinction, landmark new research has found. The <a href="https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/-/media/OEH/Corporate-Site/Documents/Animals-and-plants/Scientific-Committee/Determinations/Preliminaries/conservation-assessment-mukarrthippi-grasswren.pdf">Mukarrthippi grasswren</a> is now Australia’s most threatened bird, down to as few as two or three pairs. But 23 Australian birds became less threatened over the past decade, showing conservation actions can work. The findings are contained in a new <a href="https://ebooks.publish.csiro.au/content/action-plan-australian-birds-2020">action plan</a> released today. Last released in 2011, the action plan examines the extinction risk facing the almost 1,300 birds in Australia and its territories. We edited the book, written by more than 300 ornithologists. Without changes, many birds will continue to decline or be lost altogether. But when conservation action is well resourced and implemented, we can avoid these outcomes. <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434641/original/file-20211130-21-1i8g2ou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="small bird perches on twig" /> Without change, threatened birds such as the southern emu wren, pictured, will be lost. Barry Baker <h2>The numbers tell the story</h2> The 216 Australian birds now at risk of extinction comprise: <ul> <li>23 critically endangered</li> <li>74 endangered</li> <li>87 vulnerable</li> <li>32 near-threatened.</li> </ul> This is up from 134 birds in 1990 and 195 a decade ago. We assessed the risk of extinction according to the <a href="https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/RL-2001-001-2nd.pdf">categories and criteria</a> set by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in its <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/assessment/red-list-index">Red List</a> of threatened species. As the below graph shows, the picture of bird decline in Australia is not pretty – especially when compared to the global trend. <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434586/original/file-20211129-22-xrs2e5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="" /> Authors supplied <h2>What went wrong?</h2> <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434618/original/file-20211130-24-11eplat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" alt="two black birds nuzzling" /> Birds are easily harmed by changes in their ecosystems. Dean Ingwersen/BIRDLIFE AUSTRALIA Birds are easily harmed by changes in their ecosystems, including introduced species, habitat loss, disturbance to breeding sites and bushfires. Often, birds face danger on many fronts. The southeastern glossy black cockatoo, for example, faces no less than 20 threats. Introduced cats and foxes kill millions of birds <a href="https://www.nespthreatenedspecies.edu.au/media/eeufmpqx/112-the-impact-of-cats-in-australia-findings-factsheetweb.pdf">each year</a> and are considered a substantial extinction threat to 37 birds. Land clearing and overgrazing are a serious cause of declines for 55 birds, including the swift parrot and diamond firetail. And there is now strong evidence climate change is driving declines in many bird species. A good example is the Wet Tropics of far north Queensland. Monitoring at 1,970 sites over 17 years has <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.23.453540v1">shown</a> the local populations of most mid- and high-elevation species has declined exactly as climate models predicted. Birds such as the fernwren and golden bowerbird are being eliminated from lower, cooler elevations as temperatures rise. As a result, 17 upland rainforest birds are now listed as threatened – all due to climate change. The Black Summer <a href="https://www.awe.gov.au/sites/default/files/env/pages/ef3f5ebd-faec-4c0c-9ea9-b7dfd9446cb1/files/assessments-species-vulnerability-fire-impacts-14032020.pdf">bushfires</a> of 2019-20 – which were <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-020-00065-8">exacerbated</a> by climate change – contributed to the listing of 27 birds as threatened. We estimate that in just one day alone – January 6, 2020 – about half the population of all 16 bird species endemic or largely confined to Kangaroo Island were incinerated, including the tiny Kangaroo Island southern emu-wren. Some 91 birds are threatened by droughts and heatwaves. They include what’s thought to be Australia’s rarest bird, the Mukarrthippi grasswren of central west New South Wales, where just two or three pairs survive. Climate change is also pushing migratory shorebirds towards extinction. Of the 43 shorebirds that come to Australia after breeding in the Northern Hemisphere, 25 are now threatened. Coastal development in East Asia is contributing to the decline, destroying and degrading <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14895">mudflat habitat</a> where the birds stop to rest and eat. But rising seas as a result of climate change are also <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2013.0325">consuming</a> mudflats on the birds’ migration route, and the climate in the birds’ Arctic breeding grounds is <a href="https://www.fullerlab.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Wauchope-et-al-2017.pdf">changing</a> faster than anywhere in the world. <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434625/original/file-20211130-17-1o8c7vz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="dead bird lies one charred ground" /> The Black Summer bushfires devastated some bird populations. James Ross/AAP <h2>The good news</h2> The research shows declines in extinction risk for 23 Australian bird species. The southern cassowary, for example, no longer meets the criteria for being threatened. Land clearing ceased after its rainforest habitat was placed on the World Heritage list in 1988 and the population is now stable. Other birds represent conservation success stories. For example, the prospects for the Norfolk Island green parrot, Albert’s lyrebird and bulloo grey grasswren improved after efforts to reduce threats and protect crucial habitat in conservation reserves. Intensive conservation efforts have also meant once-declining populations of several key species are now stabilising or increasing. They include the eastern hooded plover, Kangaroo Island glossy black-cockatoo and eastern bristlebird. And on Macquarie Island, efforts to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/26198759.pdf">eradicate</a> rabbits and rodents has led to a spectacular recovery in seabird numbers. The extinction risk of nine seabirds is now lower as a result. There’s also been progress in reducing the bycatch of seabirds from fishing boats, although there is <a href="https://www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets/documents/conservation/marine-and-coastal/marine-conservation-services/reports/final-reports/antipodean-albatross-fisheries-overlap-2020.pdf">much work</a> still to do. <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434639/original/file-20211130-13-1suwehz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="lyrebird under leaves" /> The Albert’s lyrebird has been a conservation success. Barry Baker <h2>Managing threats</h2> The research also examined the impact of each threat to birds – from which we can measure progress in conservation action. For 136 species, we are alarmingly ignorant about how to reduce the threats – especially climate change. Some 63% of important threats are being managed to a very limited extent or not at all. And management is high quality for just 10% of “high impact” threats. For most threats, the major impediments to progress is technical – we don’t yet know what to do. But a lack of money also constrains progress on about half the threats. What’s more, there’s no effective monitoring of 30% of the threatened birds, and high-quality monitoring for only 27%. Nevertheless, much has been achieved since the last action plan in 2010. We hope the new plan, and the actions it recommends, will mean the next report in 2030 paints a more positive picture for Australian birds.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172751/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/stephen-garnett-4565">Stephen Garnett</a>, Professor of Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/charles-darwin-university-1066">Charles Darwin University</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/barry-baker-1295242">Barry Baker</a>, University associate, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-tasmania-888">University of Tasmania</a> This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-200-australian-birds-are-now-threatened-with-extinction-and-climate-change-is-the-biggest-danger-172751">original article</a>. Image: Shuttershock

Family & Pets

How do birds make their nests?

The first thing to know is not all birds make nests. For example, emperor penguin fathers carry their precious egg on their feet (to keep it off the frozen ground). Some birds, such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckoo">cuckoos</a>, will lay their eggs in someone else’s nests. Others lay them on the ground among leaves or pebbles, or on cliffs with very little protection. <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433852/original/file-20211125-25-1be6ny0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433852/original/file-20211125-25-1be6ny0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" alt="Eggs among pebbles" /></a> Some birds will lay their eggs among pebbles on the ground, which doesn’t offer them much physical protection. Shutterstock For the birds that do build nests, there is one main goal: to keep their eggs and chicks safe. <h2>Many places to build a nest</h2> Many birds also make their nests in tree hollows, including parrots. That’s just one reason it’s important to not cut trees down! Meanwhile, kookaburras use their powerful beaks to burrow into termite nests and make a cosy nest inside. And the cute <a href="https://www.birdlife.org.au/bird-profile/spotted-pardalote">spotted pardelote</a> will dig little burrows in the side of earth banks – with a safe and cosy spot for its eggs at the end of the tunnel. <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433827/original/file-20211125-19-1en7ivf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433827/original/file-20211125-19-1en7ivf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="" /></a> The tiny spotted pardalote is one of the smallest Australian birds, and measures about 8 to 10 centimetres in length. Shutterstock Some birds, such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_brushturkey">brush turkeys</a>, spend months building huge mounds on the ground which can heat up from the inside. The male turkey makes sure the ground is exactly the right temperature inside the mound, and then lets the female lay the eggs inside. He’ll take big mouthfuls of dirt surrounding the eggs to check it’s not too hot or cold. <h2>What materials do they use?</h2> Birds construct many different types of nests. There are floating nests, cups, domes, pendulums and basket-shaped nests. They can be made out of sticks, twigs, leaves, grasses, mosses or even mud. <a href="https://www.birdlife.org.au/bird-profile/white-winged-chough">Magpie-larks</a> (also called “peewees”), <a href="https://birdlife.org.au/bird-profile/apostlebird">apostlebirds</a> and <a href="https://www.birdlife.org.au/bird-profile/white-winged-chough">choughs</a> make mud bowl nests that look like <a href="http://www.birdway.com.au/corcoracinae/apostlebird/source/apostlebird_100486.php">terracotta plant pots</a>. To do this, they gather mud and grasses in their beaks and shake it around to mix it with their saliva. They can then attach it to a branch and build upwards until the nest is complete. In fact, bird saliva is a really strong and sticky material to build nests with. Birds will often mix saliva and mud to make a type of glue. And some swiftlets make their nests entirely out of solidified saliva. People will even eat these nests in <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-12/birds-nest-soup-bird-blown-to-australia/11953830">bird’s nest soup</a>! <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433823/original/file-20211125-23-7mufq4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433823/original/file-20211125-23-7mufq4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="" /></a> Some swiftlets will make their nest entirely out of solidified saliva. Shutterstock Willie wagtails use another type of glue - sticky spiderwebs. They “sew” grasses together using spider webs and the webs help keep the nests strong against wind and water, too. They have to perfect the technique of gathering the spiderweb though, otherwise it can get tangled in their feathers. <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433824/original/file-20211125-19-3ejs71.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433824/original/file-20211125-19-3ejs71.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="" /></a> Willy wagtail’s nest is a neatly-woven cup of grasses, covered with spider’s web on the outside and is lined with soft grasses, hair or fur. Shutterstock Magpies and crows, both common visitors to our gardens, are also clever nest builders. Not only can they expertly layer their sticks into a bowl, but they also use many human-made materials in their nests. You might find them using fabric, string or a wire to hold a nest together. Some birds such as red kites have even been seen “decorating” their nests with human rubbish. And Australian babblers line the inside of their nests with a thick wall of kangaroo poo, followed by soft fluff, to keep their chicks warm. <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433851/original/file-20211125-23-ljn8ga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433851/original/file-20211125-23-ljn8ga.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="" /></a> The chestnut-crowned babbler lives in the desert and can have up to 23 birds roosting in one nest. Shutterstock <h2>The building process</h2> To actually weave the nests, birds will usually create a base by layering sticks or twigs in the place they want it. Then they use their beaks and feet to weave a chosen materials through, to hold the sticks in place. They can pull strips of material with their beaks over and under, just like weaving a rug. They can even tie knots! Nests can take a really long time to make, so they’re often reused year after year. Weaver birds are so good at weaving, they can build complex nests that <a href="https://www.wired.com/2014/08/absurd-creature-of-the-week-the-bird-that-builds-nests-so-huge-they-pull-down-trees/">cover entire trees</a> and have several chambers. <iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kVlyUNRtQmY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> Check out this baya weaver bird build an incredible hanging nest using the weaving method. These birds are found across the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. To summarise, birds are really intelligent animals. They use their intelligence, along with their beaks and feet, to find the most clever ways to make nests with whatever materials are available. And they get better at this by learning from others, such as their parents or peers.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172391/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kiara-lherpiniere-1276069">Kiara L'Herpiniere</a>, PhD Candidate, Wildlife Biologist, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/macquarie-university-1174">Macquarie University</a> This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-how-do-birds-make-their-nests-172391">original article</a>. Image: Shuttershock

Family & Pets

“It broke my heart”: Native Americans outbid to buy back their own sacred site

Over 290 prehistoric Native American glyphs that depict people, animals, and mythological figures adorn the walls of Picture Cave in eastern Missouri. The cave has been deemed an “ultimate sacred site” by the Osage Nation, who were pushed out of the land as a consequence of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Since the 1950s, the land has been owned by the extremely wealthy Busch family, who mostly used it as a hunting ground. When the Busch family announced last year that they would be selling the cave, and the 43 acres of land surrounding it, the Osage Nation began a campaign to procure their land back. They teamed up with the Conservation Fund, as well as Fish and Wildlife Services, on the account of endangered bats living in the cave. Despite their mammoth efforts, the Osage Nation could not gather enough money to buy their sacred land back. “[Picture Cave] is our ultimate sacred site,” says Andrea Hunter, a member of the Osage Nation and director of its Historic Preservation Office. “It was our land to begin with and we then had to resort to trying to buy it back. “And we’ve got landowners who don’t understand the history of the place they live in and whose significance doesn’t amount to more than monetary value [for them].” The Busch family sold the land to an anonymous buyer for $2,200,000USD, just $200,000 more than the Osage Nation offered. “Watching it get to $2 million stopped my heart,” said Hunter. “It broke my heart.” Hunter and her team are currently trying to contact the anonymous bidder from Nashville to explain the historical and cultural significance of the land. So far, they have not been successful in their communications. Image credit: Youtube - Selkirk Auctioneers & Appraisers

Art

Parrot alerts owner to fire tearing through his home

A parrot has saved the life of his owner after he alerted the sleeping man to a fire raging through his house in Queensland. Eric the parrot woke his owner in the middle of the night after his timber house caught on fire. "Eric, my parrot, he started to yell, so I woke up and I smelt a bit of smoke, I grabbed Eric, opened the door and looked to the back of the house and saw some flames," the man told <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/parrot-alerts-owner-to-house-fire-kanagroo-point-brisbane-queensland-news/166b45e0-a4b4-4746-b041-b49b4726bed3" target="_blank" class="editor-rtflink">9News</a>. <img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7838619/parrot-body.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/9a4a94c28db140aabb6978569ba28989" /> <div class="body_text redactor-styles redactor-in"> The house was destroyed in the blaze despite best efforts from firefighters to save the home. The man and his parrot are unharmed. </div>

Family & Pets

What Australian birds can teach us about choosing a partner and making it last

Love, sex and mate choice are topics that never go out of fashion among humans or, surprisingly, among some Australian birds. For these species, choosing the right partner is a driver of evolution and affects the survival and success of a bird and its offspring. There is no better place than Australia to observe and study strategies for bird mate choice. Modern parrots and songbirds are Gondwanan creations – they <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rspb.2000.1368">first evolved in Australia</a> and only much later populated the rest of the world. Here, we’ll examine the sophisticated way some native birds choose a good mate, and make the relationship last. Single mothers and seasonal flings For years, research has concentrated on studying birds in which sexual selection may be as simple as males courting females. Males might display extra bright feathers or patterns, perform a special song or dance or, like <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/109/51/20980">the bowerbird</a>, build a sophisticated display mound. In these species, females choose the best mate on the market. But the males do not stick around after mating to raise their brood. These reproductive strategies apply only to about tiny proportion of birds worldwide. Then there are “lovers for a season”, which account for another small percentage of songbirds. Males and females may raise a brood together for one season, then go their separate ways. These are not real partnerships at all – they’re simply markets for reproduction. Birds that stick together But what about the other birds – those that raise offspring in pairs, just as humans often do? Those that form partnerships for more than a season, and in some cases, a lifetime? More than 90% of birds worldwide fall into this “joint parenting” category – and in Australia, many of them stay together for a long time. Indeed, Australia is a hotspot for these <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2005.3458">cooperative</a> and long-term affairs. This staggering figure has no equal in the animal kingdom. Even among mammals, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1420-9101.1992.5040719.x">couples are rare</a>; only <a href="https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781760554200/">5% of all mammals</a>, including humans, pair up and raise kids together. So how do long-bonding Australian birds choose partners, and what’s their secret to relationship success? Lifelong attachment The concept of <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/social-mobility-memos/2014/02/10/opposites-dont-attract-assortative-mating-and-social-mobility/">assortative mating</a> is often used to explain how humans form lasting relationships. As the theory goes, we choose mates with similar traits, lifestyle and background to our own. In native birds that form long-lasting bonds, including butcherbirds, drongos and cockatoos, differences between the sexes are small or non-existent – that is, they are “monomorphic”. Males and females may look alike in size and plumage, or may both sing, build nests and provide equally for offspring. So, how do they choose each other, if not by colour, song, dance or plumage difference? There’s some research to suggest their choices are based on personality. Many bird owners and aviculturists would attest that birds have individual personalities. They may, for example, be gentle, tolerant, submissive, aggressive, confident, curious, fearful or sociable. Research has not conclusively established which bird personalities are mutually attractive. But so far it seems similarities or familiarity, rather than opposites, attract. Cockatiel breeders now even <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1439-0310.2009.01713.x">use personality assessments</a> similar to those used for show dogs. There is practical and scientific proof to support this approach. In breeding contexts, seemingly incompatible birds may be forced together. In such cases, they are unlikely to reproduce and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19922534">may not even</a> interact with each other. For example, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3145185/">research</a> on Gouldian finches has shown that in mismatched pairs, stress hormone levels were elevated over several weeks, which delayed egg laying. Conversely, well-matched zebra finch pairs have <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19922534">been shown</a> to have greater reproductive success. Well designed experiments have also <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4569426/">shown</a> these birds to change human-assigned partners once free to do so, suggesting firm partner preferences. More than just sex Now to some extraordinary, little-known facets of behaviour in some native birds. Bird bonds are not always or initially about reproduction. Most cockatoos take five to seven years to mature sexually. <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/7677/">Magpies</a>, apostlebirds and white winged choughs can’t seriously think about reproducing until they are five or six years old. In the interim, they form friendships. Some become childhood sweethearts long before they get “married” and reproduce. Socially monogamous birds, such as most Australian cockatoos and parrots, pay meticulous attention to each other. They reaffirm bonds by preening, roosting and flying together in search of food and water. Even not-so-cuddly native songbirds such as magpies or corvids have <a href="https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781760554200/">long term partnerships</a> and fly, feed and roost closely together. All in the mind Bird species that pair up for life, and devote the most time to raising offspring, are generally also the <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/7130/">most intelligent</a> (when measured by brain mass relative to body weight). Such species tend to live for a <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/7130/">long time</a> as well – sometimes four times longer than birds of similar weight range in the northern hemisphere. So why is this? The brain chews up lots of energy and needs the best nutrients. It also needs time to reach full growth. Parental care for a long period, as many Australian birds provide, is the best way to maximise brain development. It requires a strong bond between the parents, and a commitment to raising offspring over the long haul. Interestingly, bird and human brains have some similar architecture, and the same range of important neurotransmitters and hormones. Some of these may allow long-term attachments. Powerful hormones that regulate stress and induce positive emotions are well developed in both humans and birds. These include oxytocin (which plays a part in social recognition and sexual behaviour) and serotonin (which helps regulate and modulate mood, sleep, anxiety, sexuality, and appetite). The dopamine system also <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27757971">strongly influences</a> the way pair bonds are formed and maintained in primates – including humans – and in birds. Birds even <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26211371">produce the hormone prolactin</a>, once associated only with mammals. This <a href="https://academic.oup.com/auk/article/107/4/718/5191791">plays a role</a> in keeping parents sitting on their clutch of eggs, including male birds that share in the brooding. The power of love Given the above, one is led to the surprising conclusion that cooperation, and long-term bonds in couples, is as good for birds as it is for humans. The strategy has arguably led both species to becoming the most successful and widely distributed on Earth. With so many of Australia’s native birds declining in numbers, learning as much as possible about their behaviour, including how they form lasting relationships, is an urgent task. Much of the information referred to in this article is drawn from Gisela Kaplan’s books <a href="https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781760554200/">Bird Bonds</a>. See also <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/7130/">Bird Minds</a> and <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/7762/">Tawny Frogmouth</a><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125734/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gisela-kaplan-2401">Gisela Kaplan</a>, Emeritus Professor in Animal Behaviour, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-new-england-919">University of New England</a> This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-australian-birds-can-teach-us-about-choosing-a-partner-and-making-it-last-125734">original article</a>.

Relationships

Be still, my beating wings: Hunters kill migrating birds on their 10,000km journey to Australia

It is low tide at the end of the wet season in Broome, Western Australia. Shorebirds feeding voraciously on worms and clams suddenly get restless. Chattering loudly they take flight, circling up over Roebuck Bay then heading off for their northern breeding grounds more than 10,000 km away. I marvel at the epic journey ahead, and wonder how these birds will fare. In my former role as an assistant warden at the Broome Bird Observatory, I had the privilege of watching shorebirds, such as the bar-tailed godwit, set off on their annual migration. I’m now a conservation researcher at the University of Queensland, focusing on birds. Populations of migratory shorebirds are in sharp decline, and some are threatened with extinction. We know the destruction of coastal habitats for infrastructure development has <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14895">taken a big toll on these amazing birds</a>. But a study I conducted with a large international team, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320719311036">which has just been published</a>, suggests hunting is also a likely key threat. What are migratory shorebirds? Worldwide, there are 139 migratory shorebird species. About 75 species breed at high latitudes across Asia, Europe, and North America then migrate south in a yearly cycle. Some 61 migratory shorebird species occur in the Asia-Pacific, within the so-called East Asian-Australasian Flyway. This corridor includes 22 countries – from breeding grounds as far north as Alaska and Siberia to non-breeding grounds as far south as Tasmania and New Zealand. In between are counties in Asia’s east and southeast, such as South Korea and Vietnam. The bar-tailed godwits I used to observe at Roebuck Bay breed in Russia’s Arctic circle. They’re among about 36 migratory shorebird species to visit Australia each year, <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/da31ad38-f874-4746-a971-5510527694a4/files/revision-east-asian-australasian-flyway-population-sept-2016.pdf">amounting to more than two million birds</a>. They primarily arrive towards the end of the year in all states and territories – visiting coastal areas such as Moreton Bay in Queensland, Eighty Mile Beach in Western Australia, and Corner Inlet in Victoria. Numbers of migratory shorebirds have been falling for many species in the flyway. The trends have been detected since the 1970s <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/MU/MU15056">using citizen science data sets</a>. Five of the 61 migratory shorebird species in this flyway are globally threatened. Two travel to Australia: the great knot and far eastern curlew. Threats to these birds are many. They include the <a href="http://decision-point.com.au/article/between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place/">loss of their critical habitats</a> along their migration path, <a href="https://theconversation.com/contested-spaces-saving-nature-when-our-beaches-have-gone-to-the-dogs-72078">off-leash dogs disturbing them on Australian beaches</a>, and climate change likely <a href="https://theconversation.com/arctic-birds-face-disappearing-breeding-grounds-as-climate-warms-62656">contracting their breeding grounds</a>. And what about hunting? During their migration, shorebirds stop to rest and feed along a network of wetlands and mudflats. They appear predictably and in large numbers at certain sites, making them relatively easy targets for hunters. Estimating the extent to which birds are hunted over large areas was like completing a giant jigsaw puzzle. We spent many months scouring the literature, obtaining data and reports from colleagues then carefully assembling the pieces. We discovered that since the 1970s, three-quarters of all migratory shorebird species in the flyway have been hunted at some point. This includes almost all those visiting Australia and four of the five globally threatened species. Some records relate to historical hunting that has since been banned. For example the Latham’s snipe, a shorebird that breeds in Japan, was legally hunted in Australia until the 1980s. All migratory shorebirds are now legally protected from hunting in Australia. We found evidence that hunting of migratory shorebirds has occurred in 14 countries, including New Zealand and Japan, with most recent records concentrated in southeast Asia, such as Indonesia, and the northern breeding grounds, such as the US. For a further eight, such as Mongolia and South Korea, we could not determine whether hunting has ever occurred. Our research suggests hunting has likely exceeded sustainable limits in some instances. Hunting has also been pervasive – spanning vast areas over many years and involving many species. Looking ahead The motivations of hunters vary across the flyway, according to needs, norms, and cultural traditions. For instance, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/condor/article-abstract/121/2/duz023/5523065?redirectedFrom=fulltext">Native Americans in Alaska</a> hunt shorebirds as a food source after winter, and <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c1a9e03f407b482a158da87/t/5c42eb8e8a922d3a72d42879/1547889551203/Chowdury-Sonadia.pdf">low-income people in Southeast Asia hunt and sell them</a>. National governments, supported by NGOs and researchers, must find the right balance between conservation and other needs, such as food security. Efforts to address hunting are already underway. This includes mechanisms such as the <a href="https://www.cms.int/en/taskforce/ittea">United Nations Convention</a> on Migratory Species and the East Asian-Australasian Flyway <a href="https://www.eaaflyway.net/task-force-on-illegal-hunting-taking-and-trade-of-migratory-waterbirds/">Partnership</a>. Other efforts involve helping hunters find <a href="https://www.birdlife.org/asia/news/targeting-hunters-save-spoon-billed-sandpiper">alternative livelihoods</a>. Our understanding of hunting as a potential threat is hindered by a lack of coordinated monitoring across the Asia-Pacific. Additional surveys by BirdLife International, as well as <a href="https://cpree.princeton.edu/research/biodiversity/saving-endangered-species">university researchers</a>, is underway in southeast Asia, China, and Russia. Improving hunting assessments, and coordination between them, is essential. Without it, we are acting in the dark. The author would like to acknowledge the contributions of Professor Richard A. Fuller (University of Queensland), Professor Tiffany H. Morrison (James Cook University), Dr Bradley Woodworth (University of Queensland), Dr Taej Mundkur (Wetlands International), Dr Ding Li Yong (BirdLife International-Asia), and Professor James E.M. Watson (University of Queensland). Written by Eduardo Gallo-Cajiao. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/be-still-my-beating-wings-hunters-kill-migrating-birds-on-their-10-000km-journey-to-australia-138382">The Conversation.</a>

Cruising

The bizarre bird Queen Elizabeth II owns thousands of

You’d think that being the longest reigning British monarch comes with enough perks, like celebrating your birthday twice a year and owning a vault of jewels. There’s also another perk that comes with being Queen Elizabeth II, which is that she is the technical owner of all “unmarked mute swans swimming in open waters” in the UK. The royal family’s website notes that the British crown has “held the right to claim ownership” of these animals since the 12th century. These rights were considered valuable and “were subsequently granted by the monarch to many people and organisations as swans were a prized food, served at banquets and feasts”. As things have changed over the last 800 years, swans are no longer considered a delicacy in Britain, but the Queen still owns all of them. All 22,000+ mute swans are counted every year by a group headed by the Queen’s official Swan Market in an event known as “Swan Upping”. "We will lift the whole family out of the water, we will take them ashore, we weigh them, measure them and check them for any injuries," <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-swans/all-up-queen-elizabeths-swans-checked-and-counted-idUSKCN1UA12P" target="_blank">David Barber, the Queen’s Swan Marker, told Reuters</a> in 2019. "You have a population of swans that hasn’t changed much since the mid 1800s." However, the mute swan population is facing threats from non-native species and dog attacks. "We've had a pretty rough time with...dog attacks, all sorts of things—like mink," <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-berkshire-48990711" target="_blank">Barber told the BBC</a>. "They're not indigenous to this country and they're breeding like mad on the river here, and they do take a lot of young cygnets," he said. Due to COVID-19, this year’s Swan Upping will not be taking place. “Although not unexpected, it is of course disappointing that members of the public and local schoolchildren will not be able to enjoy Swan Upping this year,” Barber said in a statement. “It is always a great opportunity for the young people who attend to learn about mute swans, and see first-hand the health checks we carry out on every single family of swans along the river.” If you’re worried about the welfare of the swans, they’re still being looked after as Swan Upping focuses on conservation and education. "The Queen’s Swan Marker is working with the Thames Swan Rescue Organisations to continue overseeing swan welfare as usual.

Family & Pets

MasterChef contestant kicked out after serving dead bird to the judges

Spanish MasterChef fans have been left in shock after one of their contestants served an unplucked and uncooked partridge to the less than impressed judges. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> Así ha sido la expulsión de Saray en el cuarto programa de <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MasterChef?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MasterChef</a> 8 <a href="https://t.co/5KB3O2GWnE">https://t.co/5KB3O2GWnE</a> <a href="https://t.co/PYvzC9D0oq">pic.twitter.com/PYvzC9D0oq</a> — MasterChef (@MasterChef_es) <a href="https://twitter.com/MasterChef_es/status/1257449800540336130?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 4, 2020</a></blockquote> 27-year-old social worker Saray was reportedly unhappy with having to pluck and cook the bird for that week’s elimination challenge and defiantly decided to serve the bird as is. She was already upset with previous harsh critiques she’d received from the judges and plated up the uncooked partridge with cherry tomatoes and dressing. The clip has since been watched more than 1.8 million times on Twitter and shows Saray calmly delivering the uncooked bird to the judges. Fans of the show were disgusted and thrilled by the drama and the incident spread quickly on Twitter. A viewer tweeted: “MasterChef Spain is more exciting than the British version! “Contestant serves up an uncooked, unplucked partridge because she's p***ed off that her effort in the previous round was rubbished by the judges.” Another Spanish national sarcastically said: "This is the society that we are creating children-adults, crying, conceited, badly educated ....... Let's continue like this."

Food & Wine

Birds of Prey renamed after flopping at the box office

Margot Robbie’s Birds of Prey has been renamed after a disappointing opening weekend in the cinemas. Warner Bros. has changed the film’s name from Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey, less than a week after its debut. A studio representative told <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/11/21132868/harley-quinn-birds-of-prey-name-change-seo-warner-bros-opening-weekend-trailers?utm_campaign=theverge&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter">The Verge</a> the name change is part of an effort to make it easier for moviegoers to find the flick. While the R-rated film opened at number one at the US box office, it only grossed US$33 million, coming short of the studio’s US$45 million projection. Industry expectations were around US$50 to US$55 million. The opening for Birds of Prey is the lowest so far for a DC Comics title, overtaking Shazam!’s record of US$53.5 million. In Australia, the film also earned <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/birds-of-prey-flies-straight-to-the-top-of-the-australian-box-office-taking-almost-4m-in-its-first-weekend-616648">the top spot at the box office</a>, taking in $3.85 million across 528 screens on its first weekend. Directed by Cathy Yan, Birds of Prey depicts the story of Harley Quinn (played by Margot Robbie) who finds herself becoming allies with Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) after her breakup with the Joker.

Movies

Stone tools reveal epic trek of nomadic Neanderthals

Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis) fossils were first discovered in western Europe in the mid nineteenth century. That was just the first in a long line of surprises thrown up by our closest evolutionary cousins. We reveal another in <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/01/21/1918047117">our new study</a> of the Neanderthals who lived in Chagyrskaya Cave in southern Siberia around 54,000 years ago. Their distinctive stone tools are dead ringers for those found thousands of kilometres away in eastern and central Europe. The intercontinental journey made by these intrepid Neanderthals is equivalent to walking from Sydney to Perth, or from New York to Los Angeles, and is a rare example of long-distance migration by Palaeolithic people. Knuckleheads no more For a long time Neanderthals were seen as intellectual lightweights. However, <a href="https://theconversation.com/neanderthals-were-no-brutes-research-reveals-they-may-have-been-precision-workers-103858">several recent finds</a> have forced a rethink of their cognitive and creative abilities. Neanderthals are now believed to have created 176,000 year-old enigmatic structures made from broken stalactites in a <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/05/neanderthals-caves-rings-building-france-archaeology/">cave in France</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-discovered-that-neanderthals-could-make-art-92127">cave art in Spain</a>that dates back more than 65,000 years. They also used <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0045927">bird feathers</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aar5255">pierced shells</a> bearing traces of red and yellow ochre, possibly as personal ornaments. It seems likely Neanderthals had cognitive capabilities and symbolic behaviours similar to those of modern humans (Homo sapiens). Our knowledge of their geographical range and the nature of their encounters with other groups of humans has also expanded greatly in recent years. We now know that Neanderthals ventured beyond Europe and western Asia, reaching at least as far east as the Altai Mountains. Here, they interbred with another group of archaic humans dubbed the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/scientists-recreate-face-denisovan-using-dna-180973177/">Denisovans</a>. Traces of Neanderthal interactions with our own ancestors also persist in the DNA of all living people of Eurasian descent. However, we can still only speculate why the Neanderthals vanished around 40,000 years ago. Banished to Siberia Other questions also remain unresolved. When did Neanderthals first arrive in the Altai? Were there later migration events? Where did these trailblazers begin their trek? And what routes did they take across Asia? <a href="https://www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/derevyanko345">Chagyrskaya Cave</a> is nestled in the foothills of the Altai Mountains. The cave deposits were first excavated in 2007 and have yielded almost 90,000 stone tools and numerous bone tools. The excavations have also found 74 Neanderthal fossils – the richest trove of any Altai site – and a range of animal and plant remains, including the abundant bones of bison hunted and butchered by the Neanderthals. We used <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/520438a">optical dating</a> to determine when the cave sediments, artefacts and fossils were deposited, and conducted a detailed study of more than 3,000 stone tools recovered from the deepest archaeological levels. Microscopy analysis revealed that these have remained intact and undisturbed since accumulating during a period of cold and dry climate about 54,000 years ago. Using a variety of statistical techniques, we show that these artefacts bear a striking similarity to so-called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micoquien">Micoquian</a> artefacts from central and eastern Europe. This type of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Paleolithic">Middle Palaeolithic</a> assemblage is readily identified by the distinctive appearance of the bifaces – tools made by removing flakes from both sides – which were used to cut meat. Micoquian-like tools have only been found at one other site in the Altai. All other archaeological assemblages in the Altai and central Asia lack these distinctive artefacts. Neanderthals carrying Micoquian tools may never have reached <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00353-0">Denisova Cave</a>, as there is no fossil or sedimentary DNA evidence of Neanderthals there after 100,000 years ago. Going the distance The presence of Micoquian artefacts at Chagyrskaya Cave suggests at least two separate dispersals of Neanderthals into southern Siberia. Sites such as Denisova Cave were occupied by Neanderthals who entered the region before 100,000 years ago, while the Chagyrskaya Neanderthals arrived later. The Chagyrskaya artefacts most closely resemble those found at sites located 3,000–4,000 km to the west, between the Crimea and northern Caucasus in eastern Europe. Comparison of genetic data supports these geographical links, with the <a href="https://www.eva.mpg.de/genetics/genome-projects/chagyrskaya-neandertal/home.html">Chagyrskaya Neanderthal</a> sharing closer affinities with several European Neanderthals than with a Neanderthal from Denisova Cave. When the Chagyrskaya toolmakers (or their ancestors) left their Neanderthal homeland in eastern Europe for central Asia around 60,000 years ago, they could have headed north and east around the land-locked <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Caspian-Sea">Caspian Sea</a>, which was much reduced in size under the prevailing cold and arid conditions. Their intercontinental odyssey over thousands of kilometres is a rarely observed case of long-distance dispersal in the Palaeolithic, and highlights the value of stone tools as culturally informative markers of ancient population movements. Environmental reconstructions from the animal and plant remains at Chagyrskaya Cave suggest that the Neanderthal inhabitants survived in the cold, dry and treeless environment by hunting bison and horses on the steppe or tundra-steppe landscape. Our discoveries reinforce the emerging view of Neanderthals as creative and intelligent people who were skilled survivors. If this was the case, it makes their extinction across Eurasia even more mysterious. Did modern humans deal the fatal blow? The enigma endures, for now. Written by Kseniya Kolobova, Maciej T. Krajcarz and Richard 'Bert' Roberts. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/stone-tools-reveal-epic-trek-of-nomadic-neanderthals-129886">The Conversation.</a>

Travel Tips

“Dangerous nuisance animal”: Man accused of ripping kookaburra's head off named and shamed

The lawyer for a Perth man who is alleged to have ripped the head off beloved Kevin the Kookaburra has called the bird a “dangerous nuisance animal” that should have been dealt with by the Parkerville Tavern much earlier. The Parkerville Tavern is where the man is alleged to have grabbed the local favourite known as Kevin, ripped his head off and thrown the bird under the table. Ross Williamson said that his client Daniel Welfare had left the country after a barrage of death threats and attacks over last week’s killing via social media. However, Williamson would not confirm whether or not his client was guilty of being responsible for the death of Kevin. He has also issued restraining orders to two women who he has accused of issuing an “online vigilante campaign” against his client. However, the women said that they will not stop until Welfare is brought to justice. Tania Scheulin, witness to the incident, has been outspoken about this. “I will never stop until the person that did this has some repercussions for it, charged by police or gets a fine.” <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> There's a new development in the case of a kookaburra that had its head ripped off at a Hills pub. <a href="https://twitter.com/kamingock?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KaminGock</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/9News?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#9News</a> <a href="https://t.co/TQe8N6qICt">pic.twitter.com/TQe8N6qICt</a> — Nine News Perth (@9NewsPerth) <a href="https://twitter.com/9NewsPerth/status/1189124300785123329?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 29, 2019</a></blockquote> However, Williamson has said that he has previous information relating to Kevin’s behaviour at the Tavern and that kookaburras are an invasive species in WA. "The kookaburra is an invasive species in WA," he said to <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/perth-kevin-the-kookaburra-beheaded-man-leaves-australia-death-threats-crime-news-wa-australia/e3c92ab2-5af5-4df1-bca7-c5b5f9089de2" target="_blank">9News</a>. "Until recently you could shoot them with impunity and people used to do that and get a community service award for doing that sort of thing. "This particular bird I have reports about. It has attacked children. It's injured the faces of children... this bird is - or was - a dangerous nuisance animal and the Parkerville Tavern should have done something to deal with it." He has also criticised the state government’s role in the case. "I noticed the Police Commissioner, with the Police Minister at his side, called a press conference saying they are going to prosecute my client over the demise of a pest - a harmful, nuisance bird," he said. "I hear nothing about the police investigating and prosecuting people for making threats to harm, kill and rape my clients. "I call on the police to do that - to investigate this criminal vigilante."

News

How this New Zealand songbird provides insights into cognitive evolution

When we think about animals storing food, the image that usually comes to mind is a squirrel busily hiding nuts for the winter. We don’t usually think of a small songbird taking down an enormous invertebrate, tearing it into pieces and hiding these titbits in the branches of trees to snack on later in the day. But this is also a form of caching behaviour, where food is handled and stored for later consumption. For caching animals, the ability to recall where food is hidden is crucial for survival. My <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960982219303252">research</a> into the spatial memory performance of a caching songbird, the New Zealand robin (Petroica longipes), shows male birds with superior memory abilities also have better breeding success. <img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298439/original/file-20191024-119449-v1ha09.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="" /> Male toutouwai with better spacial memory also raise more chicks. Supplied, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/" class="license">CC BY-ND</a> Why memory matters There’s no argument that New Zealand is home to a host of unusual birds, including the nocturnal, flightless parrot kākāpō (Strigops habroptila), or the hihi (Notiomystis cincta), the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1474-919X.1996.tb08834.x">only bird in the world known to mate face to face</a>. By outward appearances, the small, grey toutouwai (Māori name for P. longipes) is not particularly remarkable. But its noteworthy behaviour includes <a href="https://www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets/documents/science-and-technical/docts13.pdf">feasting on some of the world’s largest invertebrates</a>. There is only so much of a 30cm earthworm a 30g bird can eat, and rather than waste the leftovers, toutouwai will cache any surplus prey they don’t want to eat immediately. <img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298440/original/file-20191024-119463-1bfg3en.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" alt="" /> Toutouwai are the only known caching species in New Zealand. An accurate <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110512-135904">spatial memory is therefore crucial</a> for recovering caches and it has long been assumed that spatial memory is under <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2919184">strong selection pressure in caching species</a>. For selection to act on a trait, there must be individual variation that is passed onto offspring and that influences survival and reproduction. While researchers had looked at how spatial memory influences <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960982219300077">winter survival in caching mountain chickadees</a>, no one had examined whether memory performance influences reproductive success in any caching species. Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960982219303252">research</a> tackles this issue. Measuring memory in the wild We measured the spatial memory performance of 63 wild toutouwai during winter. We gave the birds a circular puzzle that had a mealworm treat hidden inside one of eight compartments. For each bird, we put the puzzle at the same location in their territory several times in a single day, with the food always hidden in the same spot. <img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/765/spatial_test.gif?1571875385" alt="" width="100%" /> Wild toutouwai looking for a hidden mealworm treat. SOURCE Over time, toutouwai learned the location of the hidden treat and began opening fewer compartments to find the mealworm. We then followed these same birds through the next breeding season and looked at whether their spatial memory performance (measured as the number of compartments they had to open to find the mealworm) was linked to their ability to feed chicks, and whether it influenced the survival of their offspring. Our results suggested that spatial memory performance influences reproductive success in toutouwai. Males with more accurate memory performance successfully raised more offspring per nest and fed larger prey to chicks. By contrast, we did not find the same patterns for females. This is the first evidence that spatial memory is linked to reproductive fitness in a food caching species. Evolving intelligence If there is such a great benefit for males in having an accurate recall of locations, why aren’t all males the best they can possibly be in terms of spatial memory performance? In other words, why didn’t all the male toutouwai we tested ace our memory task? Intriguingly, our results suggest a role for conflict between the sexes in maintaining variation in cognitive ability. We found no effect of memory performance on female reproductive success, suggesting that the cognitive abilities that influence reproductive behaviour may well differ for females. Such a difference between the sexes would ultimately constrain the effect of selection on male spatial memory, preventing strong directional selection from giving rise to uniformly exceptional memory in our toutouwai population. Our work produced some tantalising evidence for both the causes and consequences of variation in cognitive ability, but it also raises several more questions. For example, while we’ve shown that memory performance matters for males, we still need to examine how it influences caching behaviour. Another mystery that remains is why spatial memory ability may have less of an influence on female toutouwai fitness. One possibility is that longer-term spatial memory for specific locations (rather than the short-term memory we measured) may matter more for female reproduction, because females do all of the nest building and incubation. So far, we’ve only provided one piece of the puzzle. To get the full picture of how cognition evolves, we have many more avenues left to explore.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125304/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/rachael-shaw-764893">Rachael Shaw</a>, Rutherford Discovery Fellow, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/victoria-university-of-wellington-1200">Victoria University of Wellington</a> This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-small-new-zealand-songbird-that-hides-food-for-later-use-provides-insights-into-cognitive-evolution-125304">original article</a>.

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Justice for Kevin: Man who tore kookaburra's head off could face prosecution

A man who tore the head off a kookaburra in a Perth pub in front of families with young children may still face prosecution. The man, allegedly in his 40s, was at the Parkerville Tavern, when the beloved but chip stealing resident kookaburra known as Kevin stole some chips off his plate. The man allegedly grabbed the kookaburra, pulled the bird's head off and threw it under the table. Kevin was beloved by locals who attended the pub. An RSPCA spokeswoman told AAP that the organisation had not given up on pursuing the man but said that the Animal Welfare Act was unclear. Agriculture and Food Minister Alannah MacTiernan has promised to search legal avenues surrounding native wildlife protection. “It is pretty disgusting I think everyone is rightly appalled. We are now checking with the department whether or not this can be characterised as an act of animal cruelty,” she said on Monday to <a rel="noopener" href="https://10daily.com.au/shows/10-news-first/a191028drqhz/shock-and-disbelief-as-man-who-allegedly-ripped-head-of-kookaburra-may-not-be-prosecuted-20191028" target="_blank">10daily</a>. “I think everyone in this community would say there should be some penalty for behaving in this way. And that’s what we are very determined that we will sort this out.” Environment Minister Stephen Dawson has said that a review of the Animal Welfare Act is underway. “If the allegations are true, this is a despicable act. The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) and WA Police are conducting a joint investigation into the incident,” he said. “The State Government currently has a review of the Animal Welfare Act underway, with an independent panel due to provide advice to the Agriculture Minister next year. “Cases like this will be examined as part of the review.”

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American zoo apologises to disgruntled New Zealanders

James Cameron caught giving fans the bird after being booed

Sneezing with hay fever? Native plants aren’t usually the culprit

You’re less likely to die if you’re treated in your own language

TikTok shows bird inside cabin on flight from Europe to US

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More than 200 Australian birds are now threatened with extinction – and climate change is the biggest danger

How do birds make their nests?

“It broke my heart”: Native Americans outbid to buy back their own sacred site

Parrot alerts owner to fire tearing through his home

What Australian birds can teach us about choosing a partner and making it last

Be still, my beating wings: Hunters kill migrating birds on their 10,000km journey to Australia

The bizarre bird Queen Elizabeth II owns thousands of

MasterChef contestant kicked out after serving dead bird to the judges

Birds of Prey renamed after flopping at the box office

Stone tools reveal epic trek of nomadic Neanderthals

“Dangerous nuisance animal”: Man accused of ripping kookaburra's head off named and shamed

How this New Zealand songbird provides insights into cognitive evolution

Justice for Kevin: Man who tore kookaburra's head off could face prosecution

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Catalogues

Travel

Health

Lifestyle

Finance

Entertainment

Property

Information

Keep up to date

Search

American zoo apologises to disgruntled New Zealanders

James Cameron caught giving fans the bird after being booed

Sneezing with hay fever? Native plants aren’t usually the culprit

You’re less likely to die if you’re treated in your own language

TikTok shows bird inside cabin on flight from Europe to US

Garden birds are struggling: four ways to help

Why dingoes should be considered native to mainland Australia – even though humans introduced them

More than 200 Australian birds are now threatened with extinction – and climate change is the biggest danger

How do birds make their nests?

“It broke my heart”: Native Americans outbid to buy back their own sacred site

Parrot alerts owner to fire tearing through his home

What Australian birds can teach us about choosing a partner and making it last

Be still, my beating wings: Hunters kill migrating birds on their 10,000km journey to Australia

The bizarre bird Queen Elizabeth II owns thousands of

MasterChef contestant kicked out after serving dead bird to the judges

Birds of Prey renamed after flopping at the box office

Stone tools reveal epic trek of nomadic Neanderthals

“Dangerous nuisance animal”: Man accused of ripping kookaburra's head off named and shamed

How this New Zealand songbird provides insights into cognitive evolution

Justice for Kevin: Man who tore kookaburra's head off could face prosecution

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