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Aporia_filia

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #300 on: July 28, 2020, 11:13:16 AM »
Quote
" It is obvious to those who regularly work with animals that there is no sharp difference between how human minds and other minds work. Even second order thinking (thinking about thinking) which is horribly difficult to rule in or out in animals occurs on a spectrum, as we regularly observe in people."

Agree! And that gives us, people who work/live with animals enough perspective to look at those actually rejecting the fact of an animal mind, like those "scientists" at the end of the  XIX Century rejecting a mind and a soul in those
living in tribes in lost forests.

Reginald

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #301 on: July 29, 2020, 04:15:22 AM »
Two good books on the subject:

Divorce Among The Gulls https://www.amazon.com/Divorce-Among-Gulls-Uncommon-Nature/dp/0865474265

and

The Biological Basis of Human Behavior: Forging Links between Evolution and Behavior https://www.amazon.com/Biological-Roots-Human-Nature-Evolution/dp/0195062884


Reginald

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #302 on: July 29, 2020, 04:24:56 AM »
I also ran across this article about consciousness (finally one I can largely get behind!) that talks about how it may have arisen gradually over deep time, rather than only inhering in humanity and closely-related species.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/a-new-theory-explains-how-consciousness-evolved

Reginald

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #303 on: July 29, 2020, 04:39:39 AM »
If AST is correct, 300 million years of reptilian, avian, and mammalian evolution have allowed the self-model and the social model to evolve in tandem, each influencing the other. We understand other people by projecting ourselves onto them. But we also understand ourselves by considering the way other people might see us. Data from my own lab suggests that the cortical networks in the human brain that allow us to attribute consciousness to others overlap extensively with the networks that construct our own sense of consciousness.

Alexander555

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #304 on: August 05, 2020, 10:21:19 PM »
The first little pack of wolves in the country, after a very very very long time. The Forestland Daltons. https://www.hln.be/in-de-buurt/houthalen-helchteren/nieuwe-beelden-opgedoken-van-vier-wolvenwelpjes~ac8d0967/

kassy

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #305 on: September 04, 2020, 02:32:01 PM »
Secrets of male elephant society revealed in the wild

Older male elephants have an important role to play in the survival of the species by passing on their skills and knowledge to younger males, a study of African elephants suggests.

Matriarchs lead groups of daughters and their calves, while males grow up and leave the herd.

Mature bull elephants play an important role in leading these younger males, researchers have found.

And their loss by poaching or hunting could have "disastrous impacts".

The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports suggests older bulls are likely to occupy a similar role in male society as matriarchs in female breeding herds.

"It has long been known that older females make more effective leaders of breeding herds due to their enhanced experience - we provide compelling support for a similar role of older males in the male society," said Connie Allen of the University of Exeter and charity Elephants for Africa.

The researchers investigated the behaviour of more than 1,250 male African savannah elephants travelling to and from the Boteti River in the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, Botswana.

Lone male elephants accounted for a fifth of sightings on elephant pathways using camera traps, with adolescent males travelling along these routes less often than expected, suggesting lone travel is riskier for younger and less experienced males.

Mature adult bulls were more likely to travel at the front of groups of males, suggesting they may be important leaders with valuable ecological knowledge.

and more on:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-54018133
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

Tor Bejnar

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #306 on: September 11, 2020, 04:10:42 PM »
cross-post:
Discovery of new colonies by Sentinel2 reveals good and bad news for emperor penguins
https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/rse2.176

Lots of information on how to find Emperor Penguin colonies using Sentinel 2 imaging with a complete list of known and recently discovered colonies.  I stumbled across this while searching for info on when we can expect to find new Sentinel 2 images for this upcoming season.
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vox_mundi

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #307 on: September 13, 2020, 03:16:24 PM »
Scientists Baffled by Orcas Ramming Sailing Boats Near Spain and Portugal
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/13/killer-whales-launch-orchestrated-attacks-on-sailing-boats
https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/13/the-tale-of-the-killer-whales



In the last two months, from the Strait of Gibraltar to Galicia, orcas have been harassing yachts, damaging vessels and injuring crew; and sailors have sent distress calls after worrying encounters.

... On 29 July, off Cape Trafalgar, Victoria Morris was crewing a 46ft delivery boat that was surrounded by nine orcas. The cetaceans rammed the hull for over an hour, spinning the boat 180 degrees, disabling the engine and breaking the rudder, as they communicated with loud whistling.

It felt, she said, “totally orchestrated”. Earlier that week, another boat in the area reported a 50-minute encounter; the skipper said the force of the ramming “nearly dislocated the helmsman’s shoulder”.

At 11.30 the previous night, British couple Beverly Harris and Kevin Large’s 40ft yacht was brought to a sudden halt, then spun several times; Harris felt the boat “raise a little”.

Earlier that evening, Nick Giles was motorsailing alone when he heard a horrific bang “like a sledgehammer”, saw his wheel “turning with incredible force”, disabling the steering as his 34ft Moody yacht spun 180 degrees. He felt the boat lift and said he was pushed around without steering for 15 minutes.

... On 30 August, a French-flagged vessel radioed the coastguard to say it was “under attack” from killer whales. Later that day, a Spanish naval yacht, Mirfak, lost part of its rudder after an encounter with orcas under the stern.
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

gerontocrat

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #308 on: September 19, 2020, 08:17:13 AM »
Wildlife needs habitat - that's a problem, for wildlife.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/19/shocking-wilderness-the-size-of-mexico-lost-worldwide-in-just-13-years-study-finds
'Shocking': wilderness the size of Mexico lost worldwide in just 13 years, study finds

Researchers say loss of 1.9m square kilometres of intact ecosystems will have ‘profound implications’ for biodiversity

Quote
The loss of 1.9m square kilometres (735,000 sq miles) of intact ecosystems would have “profound implications” for the planet’s biodiversity, the study’s authors said.

Using mostly satellite imagery, 17 scientists across six countries examined the human footprint across the globe and how it had changed between 2000 and 2013. Almost 20% of the earth’s surface had deteriorated, the study found, while human pressure had eased on only six per cent of the planet. Russia, Canada, Brazil, and Australia held the largest intact areas, together responsible for 60% of the world’s most untouched places.

Some 1.1m sq km (425,000 sq miles) of wilderness identified from imagery in 2000 had some human impact 13 years later. Tropical savannahs and grasslands lost the most area to human pressure, the study, published in the journal One Earth, found.

Lead researcher Brooke Williams, of the University of Queensland, told the Guardian: “We were expecting there to be high levels of intact ecosystem and wilderness loss, but the results were shocking. “We found substantial area of intact ecosystems had been lost in just 13 years – nearly two million square kilometres – which is terrifying to think about. Our findings show that human pressure is extending ever further into the last ecologically intact and wilderness areas.”

Rainforests in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea that were both rich with species had lost large areas to human activities. Conversion of habitats to cash crops, including palm oil, was a big contributor to the losses.

The study did not try to identify the cause of the losses, but Williams said the direct clearing of landscapes for farming was a known major driver.

Co-author Prof James Watson, also of the University of Queensland and the global conservation group the Wildlife Conservation Society, said: ‘The data does not lie. Humanity keeps on shrinking the amount of land that other species need to survive.”

“In a time of rapid climate change, we need to proactively secure the last intact ecosystems on the planet, as these are critical in the fight to stop extinction and halt climate change,” Watson said. Looking across 221 nation states, only 26 had at least half of their land intact, the study found. In 2013, 41% of the world’s surface was either wilderness or was mostly intact.

Williams, who is also a conservationist at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said the losses undermined efforts to mitigate climate change because intact lands acted as storage spaces for carbon dioxide. She said: “Proactively protecting Earth’s intact ecosystems is humanity’s best mechanism for protecting against climate change, ensuring large-scale ecological and evolutionary processes persist, and safeguarding biological diversity into the future.”

The paper’s authors write: “Halting the loss of intact ecosystems cannot be achieved alongside current trajectories of development, population growth, and resource consumption.”

Prof Bill Laurance, the director of James Cook University’s centre for tropical environmental and sustainability science in Queensland, who was not involved in the study, said its findings were scary. “Humans are trashing much of the planet – no doubt about that,” he said. “The tropics are under particular pressure, and it’s not just forest destruction but also the loss of other habitat types, such as tropical savannahs and native grasslands, that are occurring apace.”

He said it was notable that tropical grasslands were heavily impacted because these were more easily converted to pasture or farmland. Declines in rainforests in south-east Asia were also “among the biologically richest ecosystems on Earth”. One example, he said, was the rainforests of Sumatra that were home to critically endangered species of orangutan, as well as tigers, elephants and rhinos. That country’s forests were either gone or being devastated.

He said: “If we don’t halt such changes, we’re going to see the continued rapid disruption and loss of Earth’s ecosystems, including the biologically richest habitats on the planet. And along with that will be continued declines in the quality of life for people.”

The study comes after research earlier this week found that protected areas around the world, such as national parks and world heritage areas, were becoming isolated. Only about 10% of the world’s protected areas were connected to similar habitats outside their borders. The research, in the journal Nature Climate Change, warned that as the globe warmed, species would look to move. But if protected areas were isolated, those species would have nowhere to go.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18457-x
Just ten percent of the global terrestrial protected area network is structurally connected via intact land
Quote
Abstract
Land free of direct anthropogenic disturbance is considered essential for achieving biodiversity conservation outcomes but is rapidly eroding. In response, many nations are increasing their protected area (PA) estates, but little consideration is given to the context of the surrounding landscape. This is despite the fact that structural connectivity between PAs is critical in a changing climate and mandated by international conservation targets. Using a high-resolution assessment of human pressure, we show that while ~40% of the terrestrial planet is intact, only 9.7% of Earth’s terrestrial protected network can be considered structurally connected. On average, 11% of each country or territory’s PA estate can be considered connected. As the global community commits to bolder action on abating biodiversity loss, placement of future PAs will be critical, as will an increased focus on landscape-scale habitat retention and restoration efforts to ensure those important areas set aside for conservation outcomes will remain (or become) connected.
« Last Edit: September 19, 2020, 08:27:56 AM by gerontocrat »
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #309 on: September 19, 2020, 12:43:36 PM »
Weasel mother (miscalled 'ferret') rescues her baby:

It ain't easy being a Mom.

Reginald

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #310 on: September 27, 2020, 05:00:12 PM »
Brainiacs, not birdbrains: Crows possess higher intelligence long thought a primarily human attribute

STAT, By Sharon Begley, September 24, 2020

https://www.statnews.com/2020/09/24/crows-possess-higher-intelligence-long-thought-primarily-human/

Whether crows, ravens, and other “corvids” are making multipart tools like hooked sticks to reach grubs, solving geometry puzzles made famous by Aesop, or nudging a clueless hedgehog across a highway before it becomes roadkill, they have long impressed scientists with their intelligence and creativity.

Now the birds can add one more feather to their brainiac claims: Research unveiled on Thursday in Science finds that crows know what they know and can ponder the content of their own minds, a manifestation of higher intelligence and analytical thought long believed the sole province of humans and a few other higher mammals.

Lewis

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #311 on: September 27, 2020, 05:57:45 PM »
Weasel mother (miscalled 'ferret') rescues her baby:

It ain't easy being a Mom.

Hard to really tell, it could also be stoat, but its all from the same family anyways. Loved the video.

Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #312 on: October 04, 2020, 05:13:03 PM »
Another stoat:

and here are a couple foxes who like the same thing:

nanning

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #313 on: October 04, 2020, 06:20:05 PM »
Thanks for that Reginald.
My view on birds' intelligence, character and creativity is rather different than that of civilisation. Not just corvids.
I have a lot of personal special experiences (understatement). Ongoing. Now the birds around here have recognized me as a completely different human because I really 'see' them and exhibit no supremacy, and they have started singing during the day, even spring songs, which is completely new to me in Oktober. I have been outside for years and never experienced that. I can explain how I've done it. Not simple.
I live in the north of The Netherlands.

edit: I am elated for 3 weeks now. hard to fathom.
« Last Edit: October 04, 2020, 06:25:33 PM by nanning »
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

be cause

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #314 on: October 07, 2020, 12:08:14 PM »
Enjoyed the tailwind of Alex today as the ravens returned to the farm . They were demonstrating tumbling techniques again . After lunch the local crows and rooks were tumbling by the hundred . I saw triple 360' spins by rooks .. their joy was unbounded . b.c.
Conflict is the root of all evil , for being blind it does not see whom it attacks . Yet it always attacks the Son Of God , and the Son of God is you .

nanning

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #315 on: October 08, 2020, 06:00:35 AM »
Thanks for giving us that observation be cause. Wonderful.
Q- Do you also have birds singing when the day starts? I'm curious wether or not this happens in other high latitude places too.


And thanks again Reginald for that important article. Very interesting.
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #316 on: October 08, 2020, 11:24:06 AM »
nanning:
I believe birds do. It is called “the dawn chorus”.

nanning

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #317 on: October 08, 2020, 11:46:13 AM »
Tom, I meant in October, or after the equinox.
Did you hear it this morning?
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #318 on: October 08, 2020, 12:15:38 PM »
Don’t hear it as much as when I was a kid.
What I really hear is a kind of “dusk chorus”...insects making a loud chittering sound. Even heard it at the total eclipse a few years ago.

Tor Bejnar

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #319 on: October 08, 2020, 03:32:52 PM »
It is just before 9 am (local time), my office window is open (here in North Florida), and birds are chirping in the woods.  The only sad bit is my neighbor is having some work done and the contractors are running a generator out in the woods.  (It may be needed fence repair [re-installation] caused by Hurricane Michael 2 years ago - their 1/2 acre fenced yard had fences down in three places due to falling trees.) 

But I hear various song birds singing away.

Ah, they've cut down (and are cutting up) a couple (damaged) trees, too.  And too much noise - no more songbird singing reaches my ears.
[A meeting interrupted this message getting sent.  It is now half-nine.]
Arctic ice is healthy for children and other living things because "we cannot negotiate with the melting point of ice"

nanning

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #320 on: October 08, 2020, 04:15:14 PM »
Thanks for that Tor. I figured something like that. I mean that it's likely depending on the climiate. You're at 30° north but I'm at 53° north, I think that makes a significant difference.

Just now I've returned from my usual sitting outside for a couple of hours. It was pouring with rain. High winds. 15°C. And yes, the birds came singing. And I was whistling. Under an umbrella. This has been happening every day for 4 weeks now. Even buzzard(s) have come, sit in a tree and do their 'singing' three times now.  Corvids are very interested and part of the sounds. It are ALL the bird species that come by to sing. Some really beautiful. I hear this great tit's song which I only associate with spring: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parus_major.ogg

Some people around here have noticed but no-one has said anything about it to me. Just one person who said that it is nice to be part of nature, and I explained that that is impossible because without technology I can not survive at this latitude.

Tor, do they do chainsawing that every day? How are you? ;)

edit: remember that they only sing around me. when I'm gone, the birdsong is gone. how to cope with that?
« Last Edit: October 08, 2020, 04:22:40 PM by nanning »
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

kassy

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #321 on: October 08, 2020, 04:43:12 PM »
So they come to learn some new tunes. :)

Just enjoy it.
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

nanning

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #322 on: October 08, 2020, 06:43:36 PM »
Thanks for responding kassy. That's all it is, you think? Nothing more? Then you should be able to reproduce my experience ;).
I've been whistling outside for years and suddenly this happened and goes on for every day for 4 weeks now, where ever I go. I have passed many tests before this started I expect. And I can give a list of my ideas about those possible tests.
And yes, I'm enjoying it with all of me.
Just struggling with the extreme importance of this and the whole experience in general. Almost overwhelming. But in a nice way :) :) :)

edit: :)
« Last Edit: October 08, 2020, 06:55:22 PM by nanning »
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #323 on: October 08, 2020, 07:57:16 PM »
Where do you live, nanning? I thought Holland but isn't 53 degrees too far north for there?

nanning

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #324 on: October 09, 2020, 06:52:34 AM »
Why not take your atlas from the bookshelf and see for yourself. Or go to Nasa worldview. Come on Tom, atlasses are great fun ;)
You won't find a country named "Holland" because it doesn't exist. It is an old made-up name that commerce went to use for global recognition. "Holland" isn't even a province. The original "Holland" people were the conquerors from the south who violently stole most land from the Frisians.
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

kassy

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #325 on: October 09, 2020, 10:50:27 AM »
Sadly i cannot even do the ´bouwvakker´ whistle.  :'(
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #326 on: October 09, 2020, 11:37:43 AM »
Wow, the Netherlands are in the Fifties North. That’s like Calgary or Edmonton in this hemisphere.
What are your winters like, nanning? Spring in June, summer in July and autumn in August and then enough winter to make a baby?  ;D

gerontocrat

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #327 on: October 09, 2020, 03:01:28 PM »
Wow, the Netherlands are in the Fifties North. That’s like Calgary or Edmonton in this hemisphere.
What are your winters like, nanning? Spring in June, summer in July and autumn in August and then enough winter to make a baby?  ;D
Northern Europe has  the Gulf Stream / North Atlantic drift that keeps our climate - especially winters, several degrees warmer than an equivalent latitude on e.g. the East coast of North America.

Spring in June - definitely not

The Canterbury Tales: General Prologue
BY GEOFFREY CHAUCER

Here bygynneth the Book of the tales of Caunterbury

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote,
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licóur
Of which vertú engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye,
So priketh hem Natúre in hir corages,
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially, from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #328 on: October 09, 2020, 03:39:35 PM »
For those who were not born in the 14th Century, here is what that means:

Quote
People want to go on religious pilgrimages to spiritual places in the springtime, when the April rains have soaked deep into the dry ground to water the flowers’ roots; and when Zephyrus, the god of the west wind, has helped new flowers to grow everywhere; and when you can see the constellation Aries in the sky; and when the birds sing all the time. Some people go to other countries, but many people in England choose to go to the city of Canterbury in southeastern England to visit the remains of Thomas Becket, the Christian martyr who had the power of healing people.

or if you want a literal line by line:

Quote
1         Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote
                  When April with its sweet-smelling showers
2         The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
                 Has pierced the drought of March to the root,
3         And bathed every veyne in swich licour
                 And bathed every vein (of the plants) in such liquid
4         Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
                 By which power the flower is created;
5         Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
                 When the West Wind also with its sweet breath,
6         Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
                 In every wood and field has breathed life into
7         The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
                 The tender new leaves, and the young sun
8         Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne,
                 Has run half its course in Aries,
9         And smale foweles maken melodye,
                 And small fowls make melody,
10         That slepen al the nyght with open ye
                 Those that sleep all the night with open eyes
11         (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages),
                 (So Nature incites them in their hearts),
12         Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
                 Then folk long to go on pilgrimages,
13         And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
                 And professional pilgrims to seek foreign shores,
14         To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
                 To distant shrines, known in various lands;
15         And specially from every shires ende
                 And specially from every shire's end
16         Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,
                 Of England to Canterbury they travel,
17         The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
                 To seek the holy blessed martyr,
18         That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke.
                 Who helped them when they were sick.

kassy

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #329 on: October 09, 2020, 05:49:21 PM »
LOL

Back in school i really really hated medieval dutch because well they only did phonetic spelling. But just read it out loud and it is easier.
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vox_mundi

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #330 on: October 10, 2020, 10:46:45 PM »


“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

vox_mundi

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #331 on: October 10, 2020, 11:04:22 PM »
... birds do it; bees do it ...

Birds Share Food With Less Fortunate Conspecifics
https://phys.org/news/2020-10-birds-food-fortunate-conspecifics.html

People aren't the only ones who show sympathy. Birds also seem to care about the fate of conspecifics. They notice how much food the others already have and then share theirs with individuals that were not given any. "They seem to take the each other's perspective into account in their decision, and thus seem to show sympathy," said Utrecht-based biologist Jorg Massen in an experiment with azure-winged magpies. He published his findings together with colleagues from the University of Vienna and the Swedish Lund University on September 30 in Scientific Reports.

To investigate prosociality in birds, Massen subjected azure-winged magpies to an experiment. He gave one azure-winged magpie an abundance of mealworms—a popular delicacy for these birds—the other magpies also had access to mealworms or were given nothing at all. The magpie then had the opportunity to share the portion of mealworms with conspecifics through a wire mesh.

The researchers discovered that the magpies are inclined to share food with their peers. They differentiate, however, between whether others have food or do not have food, and subsequently cater to that lack. "Females mainly shared with the others if they had nothing. The males always shared. We think the latter has to do with 'advertisement': 'Look at me being generous.' With the females, it's mainly to help the other if they have nothing."

The azure-winged magpies are more inclined to share food as a response to begging, but it turns out that even without begging, the magpies share food with conspecifics that are less fortunate. This shows that azure-winged magpies might truly notice the need of others, even without begging behavior. "They seem to include the perspective of the other in their decision," says Massen. "They may even show what we call sympathy."

Massen's work not only shows that azure-winged magpies can exhibit prosocial behavior just like people, but also that they may well have the same motivation as people have to do so. "This could indicate that they may be able to empathize with the situation in which their peers find themselves and act accordingly, perhaps with sympathetic motivations. Further tests are however needed to truly investigate whether birds show empathy and sympathy."

The research also confirms what scientists previously found in other animal species: So-called cooperative breeders that raise their young together have a strong tendency to help each other. "This also applies to humans. Like they say: 'It takes a village to raise a child.' You see it in hunter-gatherers, but also in our contemporary society: We also take our children to daycare and schools. Because we let our children grow up in groups, we have become prosocial and can work well together. We now also see this in the azure-winged magpies."

Jorg J. M. Massen et al. Azure-winged magpies' decisions to share food are contingent on the presence or absence of food for the recipient, Scientific Reports (2020).
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73256-0
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

nanning

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #332 on: October 11, 2020, 09:23:17 AM »
Very interesting article vox. Thanks for posting.

Two points of critique about this (imo) non-scientific research. 1. It is possible that the birds recognise a common enemy, since they're captive, and change their behaviour. 2. Have they exaclty defined what they mean by "sympathy" and "empathy"? I think not. So how do they know what they are 'measuring' and how can they find a researched characteristic when it is not exactly defined.

Very interesting article nonetheless and to me not very surprising.
Accepting the outcome of perceived (unique) human characteristics in living nature as reality, is something that humans have a very hard time with because it clashes with our perceived superiority as a species, as I have observed in depth. The brain doesn't want internal 'sparks' and will do its best to maintain the stable world view, even if it is wrong and shows cognitive dissonance. One needs to be extremely honest, flexible and scientific to be able to accept it, and take the consequences to all other parts of ones belief systems/world view.

Once accepted, one then has to take all other lifeforms into account in all ones actions, especially higher intelligence lifeforms. And find a balance and better understanding. The level of intelligence is very weakly correlated with the size of the brain. One should hunt down ones' anthropomorphy to have a more realistic view.
From my observations I conclude that the birds have much free time and there's much more information in their seemingly simple songs and sounds than we think. We just don't have the ears & eyes interpretation and sensory range to see it. Have you never wondered how those seemingly identical birds can tell each other apart? It is extremely tempting but one should never project human behaviour onto other lifeforms (anthropomorhism, cultural projection).
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

vox_mundi

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #333 on: October 25, 2020, 03:12:13 PM »
Change in ocean currents, water temperature, overfishing, pollution? ...

Thousands of Seals Found Dead In Namibia
https://phys.org/news/2020-10-thousands-dead-namibia.html

An estimated 7,000 Cape fur seals have been discovered dead at a breeding colony in central Namibia, scientists said on Saturday.

Conservationist Naude Dreyer of the charity Ocean Conservation Namibia began noticing dead seals littering the sandy beaches of the Pelican Point colony near Walvis Bay city in September.

Then in the first two weeks of October he found large numbers of seal foetuses at the colony, Dr. Tess Gridley from the Namibian Dolphin Project told AFP by phone.

Fur seals normally give birth between mid-November and mid-December.

Gridley estimated that between 5,000 and 7,000 female seals had miscarried young with more still being found.

The cause of the mass die off is yet to be established but scientists suspect anything from pollutants or bacterial infection to malnutrition.

Some of the dead females found were "thin-looking, emaciated, with very little fat reserves", said Gridley.

In 1994 some 10,000 seals died and 15,000 foetuses were aborted in a mass die off that was linked to starvation suspected to have resulted from a shortage of fish as well as from a bacterial infection at another breeding colony, the Cape Cross, some 116 kilometres (72 miles) north of the central tourist town Swakopmund
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #334 on: October 31, 2020, 02:15:16 AM »
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

kassy

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #335 on: October 31, 2020, 10:04:43 AM »
Nice design, too bad about the material.
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #336 on: November 03, 2020, 12:55:13 PM »
As If the Platypus Couldn’t Get Any Weirder
https://gizmodo.com/as-if-the-platypus-couldn-t-get-any-weirder-1845529134
Quote
The platypus is nature’s crazy quilt, as this strange creature looks like about a half-dozen different animals all rolled into one. Turns out that platypuses were hiding yet another conspicuous feature: THEY CAN FREAKIN’ GLOW IN THE DARK.

I once saw a cartoon of God (long beard, halo etc.) and two angels, one majestic angel talking to God and the other, crosseyed and bucktoothed, holding a picture of a platypus.
Caption was "George here has an idea for a new animal for you to create. He calls it a platypus."

zufall

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #337 on: December 11, 2020, 07:24:21 AM »
Human-Made Materials Doubles Outweighing Total Life on Earth

https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/28598/20201210/human-made-objects-doubles-outweighing-total-life-earth.htm

According to research, human-made materials have already outweighed all life on Earth, which details the "crossover point" where humans' footprint on the planet is now heavier than that of the natural materials.

That means that for the first time, the massive greenery of Amazon, the fish in the oceans, the microbes, and every animal and plants living today no longer make up the majority of matter on Earth as human-made materials now outweigh it, ScienceAlert reported.

The estimates of human-made materials this 2020 suggests that it has already outweighed the mass of natural matter on Earth. History suggests that when people started learning to plow the fields and tending to livestock, the planet was still coated in a biosphere that weighed 2x10^2 tons.

But with the continuous habit of farming, mining, and building infrastructures, the biosphere has now halved. Besides, the doubling of these human-made materials has only just worsened the case.

A team of environmental scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel said that human-made materials had grown so much that biomass and mass production have already match up. Indeed, 2020 marks the moment when human-made mass tipped higher than the natural mass, Phys.org reported.

Not to mention that humans kept on rearranging 30 gigatons of nature into anything, making it into human-made materials like bookcases, luxury apartments at a rate that has been doubling every 20 years since the 1900s.

The researchers emphasize the growing dominance of humans over biomass and how depressing it is in the history of mankind.

"Beyond biomass, as the global effect of humanity accelerates, it is becoming ever more imperative to quantitatively assess and monitor the material flows of our socioeconomic system, also known as the socio-economic metabolism," the researchers wrote.

This new study draws a big picture of how the planet is during 2020, said Ron Milo, the co-author of the study from the Plant and Environmental Sciences Department at Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science. He added that they hope humans, as species, will awaken and take responsibility.

Aside from the infrastructures and other objects doubling in production, the expanding waistline of people is also a concern, but nothing new, the researchers said. It also includes overfishing, humans' insatiable hunger for T-bone steaks, convenient tins of tuna in the winter, and many more contribute to the increasing mass of human-made materials.

At the current growth rate of human-made materials production, the researchers estimate that it could reach up to three teratons by 2040—the continuous decrease of biomass due to deforestation and land use to make way for intensive agriculture.

kassy

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #338 on: January 24, 2021, 05:08:13 PM »
A cool story about birds:

The Bird That Builds Nests Right By Its Worst Enemy

...

You’d think the herons would want to build their nests as far away from bald eagles as possible. But you’d be dead wrong. Research on the southwest coast of British Columbia shows that herons are deliberately seeking out nesting pairs of eagles—and building right next to them.

...

A heron’s decision to build right next door to such a dangerous predator is a delicate trade-off. Bald eagles are territorial and will chase off other eagles. A heron colony with a neighboring eagle pair may lose some young to them, but the carnage would be greater without their protection.

...

This tactic may be helping great blue herons cope with the renewed threat from bald eagles. In British Columbia, coastal herons are a unique subspecies numbering an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 individuals; they’re classified as being of special concern by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.

Bald eagles, meanwhile, have been rebounding following a brush with extinction in the 1960s; their comeback is partly due to bans of the toxic DDT in both the U.S. and Canada and restrictions on hunting. But herons have paid the price for this renewal, in some cases abandoning nesting sites in the face of widespread predation.

“The eagles weren’t around for decades, and the herons pretty much had a free rein,” says ornithologist Rob Butler, author of The Great Blue Heron. “Then the eagle numbers started going up, and we’d see them going into the colonies. That’s when we got really concerned.”

The situation raised fears that the herons might themselves become a threatened species. But continued research suggests that the eagle population leveled off around 2005, and that heron survival has improved over the past decade. Some of that gain may be due to the herons’ unexpected nesting strategy.

The tactic, called the predator-protection hypothesis, is seen in other species. Arctic geese, for example, are known to nest close to raptors such as snowy owls and peregrine falcons, and in Italy, wood pigeons nest alongside hobby falcons. “It’s probably some sort of ancient behavior,” Vennesland says of the herons. “Or it could just be that they figured out quickly their best bet was nesting near eagles.”

...

One heron colony crossed an international border to seek out an active eagle nest, relocating from Point Roberts, Washington, to nearby Tsawwassen, British Columbia.

Vennesland says that, later on, those same eagles uprooted—and the herons followed. “They surrounded the eagle nest to the point there was a heron nest on the same tree right under the eagle nest. Maybe the eagles didn’t like that very much, so they moved just a couple hundred meters down the slope—and the whole heron colony moved with them.”

The Tsawwassen colony remains British Columbia’s largest, with more than 400 nests. But why have the resident eagles not wiped out the entire heron colony? To answer that, one must consider what else is nearby. The colony’s located in a prime foraging area next to the Fraser River delta, where the eagles’ favored prey—fish—does not come with agitated parents. Waterfowl in winter also provide the eagles a cleansing of the palate.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/01/great-blue-herons-bald-eagle-prey-predator/617806/
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vox_mundi

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #339 on: March 09, 2021, 11:18:48 PM »
Invasive Zebra Mussels Found In Pet Shops Nationwide
https://phys.org/news/2021-03-invasive-zebra-mussels-pet-nationwide.html

Zebra mussels, those invaders that have wreaked havoc on the Great Lakes, have found a new way to further their damaging spread: pet shops.

A citizen's report of an invasive zebra mussel found in an aquarium moss package from a Seattle pet store prompted a U.S. Geological Survey expert on invasive aquatic species to trigger nationwide alerts. That has led to the discovery of the destructive shellfish in pet stores in at least 21 states, from Alaska to Florida and including Michigan.

A Seattle pet shop employee on Feb. 25 reported finding an invasive zebra mussel in an ornamental aquarium moss ball. Moss balls are ornamental plants imported from the Ukraine that are often added to aquariums.

... Zebra mussels have since been found in moss balls in Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, Washington and Wyoming.

Almost three decades after being discovered in Lake St. Clair, likely arriving in the ballast water of freighters that traveled through eastern Europe, zebra and closely related quagga mussels can now be abundantly found in each of the Great Lakes and most major river systems in the eastern U.S. Though only about the size of a dime, the mussels reproduce quickly, eat voraciously and clump together, clinging to almost anything in the water.

They have all but crowded out native clam species and have disrupted the base of the aquatic food chain—vacuuming up the tiniest plants and animals upon which aquatic insects and small fish feed. Those, in turn, are eaten by the large game fish that create a multibillion-dollar fishing tourism industry in Michigan. Zebra and quagga mussels also cost industries, businesses and communities $5 billion between 1993 and 1999 by clogging water intake pipes, according to congressional research, with $3.1 billion of that cost coming from the power industry alone.

https://nas.er.usgs.gov/SightingReport.aspx
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

sidd

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #340 on: April 12, 2021, 09:20:23 PM »
We ate all the animals. Then we had to eat more vegetables.

"For a good 2 million years, Homo sapiens and their ancestors ditched the salad and dined heavily on meat"

" today's hunter gatherers do not have access to such bounty"

" the memory preserved in our own bodies, our metabolism, genetics and physical build"

"Human behavior changes rapidly, but evolution is slow. The body remembers."

https://www.sciencealert.com/real-paleo-diets-may-have-been-far-more-carnivorous-than-anything-we-d-eat-today

Paper (open access, read all about it at) doi: 10.1002/ajpa.24247

Earlier paper, different group and techniques: doi: 10.1073/pnas.1504020112

sidd

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #341 on: May 05, 2021, 07:34:44 PM »
Be afraid, be very afraid - the Cicadas are coming !!

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/05/brood-x-cicadas-2021-15-states-us-trillions
Trillions of cicadas about to emerge from underground in 15 US states

Within days to a couple weeks at most the cicadas of Brood X will emerge in mass numbers from Indiana to Georgia to New York

Quote
Trillions of the red-eyed black bugs are coming, scientists say.

Within days, a couple weeks at most, the cicadas of Brood X (the X is the Roman numeral for 10) will emerge after 17 years underground. There are many broods of periodic cicadas that appear on rigid schedules in different years, but this is one of the largest and most noticeable. They’ll be in 15 states from Indiana to Georgia to New York; they’re coming out now in mass numbers in Tennessee and North Carolina.
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

ivica

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #342 on: August 22, 2021, 10:53:21 AM »
Arctic Fox Marathon: 1 March to 1 July 2018

Erik Solheim @ErikSolheim: "Nature never stops to impress!
A young female Arctic Fox walked (!) from Norway Flag of Norway to Canada Flag of Canada in 2018. That's one marathon every day for 76 days. The journey was over 3500 kilometers."

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Large-scale-movements-of-a-young-female-Arctic-fox-from-Svalbard-tracked-through-Argos_fig1_334026698

"The black dots represent the daily locations, and the colour of the segments linking successive locations indicates the daily movement rate."

<

Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #343 on: September 03, 2021, 09:59:24 PM »
Oceanographers found the real-life SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star hanging out together on a rock at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1421234947214520321
1 minute video at the link.
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

ivica

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #344 on: November 08, 2021, 07:04:14 PM »
Natural AstroAirnaut


source

<

Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #345 on: December 08, 2021, 03:48:47 PM »
Federal wildlife officials approve 'unprecedented' plan to feed Florida's starving manatees
Quote
Federal wildlife officials are taking "unprecedented" action to slow Florida's record manatee die-off: They're going to feed the threatened species in a limited trial to help them survive the winter months.

A record 1,017 manatees have died in Florida waters this year, according to data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, prompting the creation of a joint team of state and federal wildlife officials last month to streamline response and recovery efforts. …

"For manatees, it's absolutely unprecedented," said Pat Rose, an aquatic biologist and executive director of the Save the Manatee Club. "This has never been considered before." …

Biologists blame the die-off on decades of seagrass loss in the Indian River Lagoon, a result of human-caused pollution. Solutions, including restoring water quality and reducing algal blooms, are too far off to help the manatees now.

The lagoon has lost 58% of its seagrass coverage since 2009, or more than 46,000 acres. Most areas face 90% less grass than years past.

Adult manatees need 100-200 pounds of seagrass per day to survive. …


"We're gearing up for another bad winter, and this decision will not replace the food that they need," Rose said. "Rather, it's going to be monitored and treated more as an experiment."

One "serious concern" experts expressed was about how their decision to feed wildlife could influence the public, records show. It's illegal to feed manatees: A conviction could bring a $500 state fine and/or up to 60 days in prison. Violating federal species protection laws is punishable by fines up to $100,000 and/or a year in prison.

While quick to applaud the decision to feed manatees, Save the Manatee Club was equally expeditious in reminding the general public to avoid giving food to the animals.

"Please remember that it remains illegal for individuals without proper permits to feed wild manatees," the nonprofit posted on Twitter. …
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/12/07/florida-manatees-wildlife-feeding-plan/6425522001/
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ivica

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #346 on: December 16, 2021, 10:37:51 PM »
Reusable ;) Elegance | Landing <

Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #347 on: December 25, 2021, 08:02:18 PM »
Definitely deserves the right-of-way on the snow path.
Quote
Moose are fast, even in deep snow..
➡️ https://twitter.com/buitengebieden_/status/1474300171198545920
30 sec. video at the link.

Here’s a different one, slow and curious:
➡️ https://twitter.com/bmarlene_/status/1474444419193581574
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #348 on: January 16, 2022, 02:06:21 AM »
Kennedy Space Center, Florida, U.S.
Quote
The KSC Sandhill Crane is back, and he's brought a friend.

Last March [first pic]. Latest pic [second].

📸NASA/KSC.
1/14/22 https://twitter.com/nasaspaceflight/status/1482083156975042563
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #349 on: February 03, 2022, 09:06:56 PM »
Male penguin pair, New York zoo’s first same-sex foster parents, doing ‘great job’ raising baby chick
Quote
Two male Humboldt penguins who adopted an egg during breeding season are the proud new foster parents of a fuzzy-haired chick — and the New York zoo where it hatched says its first-ever same-sex couple to take on this role is doing a “great job.”
The Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse has for years worked to boost the dwindling population of Humboldt penguins in the wild. This species, which can be found off the coast of Chile and Peru in South America, is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

“We have some very exciting news!” the zoo wrote on Twitter, as it shared images of the fluffy brown chick, which weighed in at 226 grams (8 ounces) during its first health check earlier this month. The chick hatched on Jan. 1.

Elmer and Lima, two male penguins from the zoo’s colony of 28 birds, were given the egg to incubate and look after by officials who were concerned that breeding pairs at the zoo had “a history of inadvertently breaking their fertilized eggs,” according to a statement released Friday.

The zoo said staff gave the egg to the male penguins in a bid to boost the chances of the egg eventually hatching. The two were “exemplary in every aspect of egg care,” the zoo said, adding that the males took turns protecting the egg before it hatched.

Ted Fox, the zoo’s director, said not all penguin pairs are good at incubating eggs, noting that it “takes practice.”

The males have been tending to the chick by feeding it and keeping it warm — actions that the zoo said highlight that “non-traditional families do a wonderful job of child-rearing.”

“Elmer and Lima’s success is one more story that our zoo can share to help people of all ages and backgrounds relate to animals,” Fox said.

And while Elmer and Lima’s same-sex fostering journey is a first for the Rosamond Gifford Zoo, other institutions around the world have also reported positive results with same-sex pairs fostering eggs. …
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/01/30/same-sex-penguin-foster-rosamond-gifford-zoo/
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.