Of giant vultures, elusive marsupials & ‘cute’ marmots

                California condor                                      NYT pic

California condors, a variety of vulture and the largest flying birds in North America, can now be asked “Who’s your daddy?” since scientists’ recent discovery that “virgin births” happen among these endangered birds.  

The discovery came about only because condors have been closely watched and their births carefully documented as their population grew from 23 birds in 1982 to 504 birds in 2020.  That increase resulted from a concerted effort to breed condors in captivity.

Two male chicks were found to lack any paternal contribution in their genetic information – think, chicks hatching from unfertilized eggs – leading to condor mothers being linked with virgin births.  It’s called “Parthenogenesis,” a rare phenomenon among birds that’s more common among species like fish or lizards.   https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/facts/california-condor  

Just whistle

Groundhog

Those of us familiar with groundhogs are usually satisfied to say something like “How cute!” (especially of their babies) and move on.  But these whistle-pigs or woodchucks, as they’re also known, have social structures and life styles that might surprise us.

They’re actually rodents belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots, and they’re lowland animals, unlike most other marmots, who live in mountainous terrain.   

A scientist who’s been studying groundhogs for years at a site in Falmouth, Maine, has observed, photographed, tagged and taken voluminous notes on groundhogs.  She has concluded they’re friendlier to relatives than unrelated others and they basically operate with a kinship-based loose community structure.

Baby groundhog

Groundhogs who opt to become outliers, living on their own, could miss the sentinel’s warning whistle to the community, signaling a nearby fox or some other predator.

Winter hibernators, groundhogs are often seen by homeowners as “varmints” and worse, although in justice to them, “Their digging helps aerate and enrich soil,” one scientist noted.   https://tinyurl.com/36jx8cx3

    Hide & seek

Koalas, one of Australia’s iconic animals, have always been elusive, but now they’re even harder to find – an estimated one-third of the country’s koalas have disappeared since the 2018 bush fires that “killed or displaced . . .3 billion animals, with thousands of koalas among the dead.” 

Drought, disease and deforestation – specifically, the paving over of their eucalyptus forest habitats -- have also contributed to the population drop.  Further, koalas’ small brains and slow movements make it

Koala with joey

easier to capture or kill them.

Now, scientists are trying to find out whether these marsupials – female mammals with pouches for their young – can survive after forests are charred, and at what elevation.  But koalas continue their elusive ways, making it still more difficult to find and count  them.  https://tinyurl.com/ypjb73fm

 

Elegy for the Giant Tortoises

by Margaret Atwood

Let others pray for the passenger pigeon
the dodo, the whooping crane, the eskimo:
everyone must specialize

I will confine myself to a meditation
upon the giant tortoises
withering finally on a remote island.

I concentrate in subway stations,
in parks, I can't quite see them,
they move to the peripheries of my eyes

but on the last day they will be there;
already the event
like a wave travelling shapes vision:

on the road where I stand they will materialize,
plodding past me in a straggling line
awkward without water

their small heads pondering
from side to side, their useless armour
sadder than tanks and history,

in their closed gaze ocean and sunlight paralysed,
lumbering up the steps, under the archways
toward the square glass altars

where the brittle gods are kept,
the relics of what we have destroyed,
our holy and obsolete symbols.

 

(from Selected Poems. © Houghton Mifflin, 1976. Reprinted with permission in The Writer’s Almanac.)

A time out

As February finally ends, it’s time to organize photo and text files.  AnimalBeat II will be back after the spring equinox  (Sunday, March 20, 11:33 am).

#

 

  

Apologies to lovebirds . . . & animal news briefs

Valentine’s day came and went here, with images of loving wild and domestic animals seemingly kissing each other (probably a case of sentimental anthropomorphism on my part), but no lovebirds!  True, I had thought of them and even wrote myself a note to include them . . . but memory and note both failed.

So: Both loving and lovely, tiny lovebirds are among the smallest parrots in the world, they rarely speak and all 9 species are native to Africa.  Many are green, often with other colors.  Lovebird pairs are mutually devoted, enjoying perching together, preening and snuggling.  

Keep up the good, loving work, lovebirds!

Wild-baby book

To think of a 250-pound baby seems incongruous at first, till you think of a baby elephant, who typically weighs in around that number.  After, all, her mom can weigh about 8,000 pounds.

Further surprise: unlike human offspring, that baby learns to walk in a few hours, and within a day she can keep up with her traveling family – always guarded by her mother.

At waterholes, she learns to suck water into her trunk then blow it into her mouth.  With 40,000 trunk muscles to control, she learns the crucial skills for  grasping food, taking a dust bath and greeting family members.

And the story goes on. . . It’s all in a beautiful, photo-illustrated children’s book, A Baby Elephant in the Wild, written by scientist Caitlin O’Connell, with photographs by her and Timothy Rodwell.  (Alert: You will be captivated by the pictures and decide to give the book to a young person who then may determine to “Save the Elephants.”  Please give the book!) 

Protecting wolves -- again

            Gray wolves                          HSUS pic

Numerous federal anti-animal moves by the last administration have been modified or thrown out by the Biden administration, thank the power.  (There’s now even talk of how to fix the vast damage done along the southern border – including habitat loss and migration paths blocked -- by the infamous wall.)

The latest boon for animals was the decision earlier this month by a federal judge “to restore protections for gray wolves in much of the country.  It reversed a decision by the Trump administration that stripped Endangered Species Act protections and exposed the animals to aggressive hunting in areas where they were nearly killed off years ago.”

The decision immediately reimposed safeguards for wolf populations in the Lower 48, except for three northern Rocky Mountain states (Idaho, Montana and Wyoming) that weren’t part of the court case but still represent a huge threat to gray wolves.  https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/10/climate/wolves-endangered-species-list.html

Coyote neighbors? Yes!

They typically weigh just 35-40 pounds, and they’re often more afraid of us than we are of them.  And yet, “coyote” is a charged word despite their being our neighbors, whether we see much of them or not.

Peaceful co-existence with coyotes is possible if people observe basic guidelines.  (1) never feed coyotes; (2) don’t let pets out unattended, especially at night; (3) don’t approach coyote pups or a coyote den; (4) if approached by a coyote, be big and loud; don’t run; and (5) don’t even think of trapping and re-locating!

Here are details on living with wild coyote neighbors.  https://mercercountyparks.org/assets/Coyotes.pdf

Hip-hip . . . !

Now at 190 years, the “oldest living land animal in the world” lives on St. Helena island, has his own resident veterinarian and is regularly hand-fed fresh produce to keep his health up. 

A looooong time ago, Jonathan the tortoise was a diplomatic gift to the island’s governor.  Since then, he has outlived 30 more governors and countless historical people and events around the world.

Jonathan’s caretaker-vet is a boy of 64 --126 years younger than his charge.  

RIP, rat hero

Think only of the maiming and death caused by land mines, and you too will salute Magawa, the African giant pouched rat who in 5 years sniffed out more than 100 such mines in Cambodia.  

A native of Tanzania, Magawa was the most successful rat in his program, which trained rats to detect mines and signal handlers by scratching the surface above them, thus saving myriad lives.

Awarded a first-time ever gold medal for his great service in 2020, Magawa died in retirement.  (And the NYTimes story marking his death drew numerous comments.) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/11/world/europe/magawa-landmine-hero-rat-dead.html

 

# 

Loving animals loving animals!

                                                                                                                                                                 The Dodo image

Ahhh, Valentine’s day: love, chocolate, flowers, champagne, romantic dinners, lacey cards and ardent love letters!  For people, it’s a festive, demonstrative day.

Bonobos

What about love in the animal kingdom?  Without humans’ love reminders and features -- red hearts everywhere, pricey gifts and novelties -- animals nevertheless do their varied loving things all the time.

We may wonder about what "love" is to animals, although the answer's obvious in countless different ways.  And, the unending images of animals "kissing" one another at least suggests how meaningful "kisses" are to them. 

Think of bonobos, DNA "cousins" to us and chimpanzees, also our cousin.  "Make love, not war," is a motto often attributed to bonobos, who are sometimes said to love sex and fruit -- for them, a combo that represents the good life. 

Animals’ maternal love is found all over the world.  How many times have you seen or read about mother elephants rescuing their babies from predators, drowning or other hazards?  Merely glance at photos of traveling elephants to see how the babies are typically surrounded by adults in transit.

Then there are the stories about mother cats and dogs who go to great lengths to protect their young, sometimes seeking human help to save them from mishaps.  Animal mothers mourning their babies who died sometimes accept another mother’s young to nurse and protect, or even the young from another species.

Interspecies friendships – like all friendships, also a form of love – bring different kinds of animals together for mutual support and even play times.

 The Weight

     by Linda Gregg

Two horses were put together in the same paddock.
Night and day. In the night and in the day
wet from heat and the chill of the wind
on it. Muzzle to water, snorting, head swinging
and the taste of bay in the shadowed air.
The dignity of being. They slept that way,
knowing each other always.
Withers quivering for a moment,
fetlock and the proud rise at the base of the tail,
width of back. The volume of them, and each other's weight.
Fences were nothing compared to that.
People were nothing. They slept standing,
their throats curved against the other's rump.
They breathed against each other,
whinnied and stomped.
There are things they did that I do not know.
The privacy of them had a river in it.
Had our universe in it. And the way
its border looks back at us with its light.
This was finally their freedom.
The freedom an oak tree knows.
That is built at night by stars.

(From Chosen by the Lion, c. Graywolf Press, 1994, “The Weight” appeared in the Jan. 31, 2012 edition of The Writer’s Almanac.)

 

#

                       What do you think?  Please comment at 1moreonce.blogspot.com.        

 

Birds of all sizes -- & 1 very big cat

                                 Alaskan Eagle                             ADN pic             

Like many others during our recent snow storm, I kept watch for birds, wondering how they would get food and keep warm during that bad weather – bad for New Jersey, that is.

But how about birds in Alaska, our one Arctic state?  How in that frigid world do birds make it because “if they can make it there, they’ll make it anywhere.” 

A story in the Anchorage Daily News described Alaskan birds’ strategies to stay cozy.  They shiver, gorge on food and surround their bodies with down, and it works for birds as large as bald eagles and as small as black-capped chickadees.

Big birds like ravens head for cities, where dumps and dumpsters are dependable food sources.  Chickadees stuff themselves, gaining 10% of their body weight each day, then shiver all night, keeping warm.  Other species huddle together for warmth or bury themselves in snow, an insulation.

                         Alaskan raven                ADN pic

Snowy owls keep warm by fluffing up their very thick feathers from face to feet.  And invariably surprising some people, many birds spend time in the water  because it’s crucial to keep their feathers clean.  As for how they keep their feet warm, that’s detailed in the story. https://tinyurl.com/yckzj3hh

Meanwhile, back here with cold and hungry NJ birds: The best I could do was keep the bird feeder filled with seeds and assure a block of suet was available nearby.  And I often tossed seeds and nuts onto the deck table after shoveling off the deep snow.    

Avian pecking order

A Washington Post feature on “Which birds are the biggest jerks at the feeder?” reveals a secret pecking order among hungry birds.  Using a database with nearly 100,000 bird interactions, ornithologists have formulated a “hidden hierarchy” showing which ones are dominant at feeders and positing why – not always having to do with bird size.  

Hummingbird

For instance, to take advantage of every second of feeding time, hummingbirds “punch way above their weight,” but although the pileated woodpecker may look threatening with its fierce bill and strong build, it’s actually docile for its size. 

While goldfinches are squabblers, usually among themselves, beyond that, they’re limited by their half-ounce size, and chickadees must defer to just about every other bird.

Who’s king of the feeder in the Northeastern US?  The American crow, who beats out even the assertively noisy blue jay.  And crows’ power position is followed closely by the common grackle, red-bellied woodpecker and European starling.   

Most other bird species fall below blue jays in the avian hierarchy – they range from robins, mourning doves, cardinals and sparrows through wrens, nuthatches, finches and chickadees.

Song sparrow

At least one source on the subject (Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources) recommends feeding birds during cold winter months – providing a “nutritional bridge” they need for survival – when insects and other warm weather food supplies aren’t available.  

Because most other wildlife like deer, raccoons and squirrels, can work through heavy snow to find food sources, feeding them is discouraged.   

Great Backyard Bird Count – coming up!

Here’s a wonderful one minute-plus video about an annual event for the good of birds all over the world.  From Feb. 16-19, people everywhere are invited to count the birds they see in their backyards and communities.  The information they submit will help scientists help birds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RdXDGcqHTg

And this hour-plus video also includes specs about Merlin, an app anyone can use to help identify birds.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2FM_W8Vhmk

Year of the Tiger

February 1 marked the start of the Lunar New Year, based on a calendar that tells time partly by the cycles of the moon.  Every year is named for one of the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac.  People in China, Vietnam, Korea and other countries, including the US, celebrate this festive event.

The new USPS “forever” stamp celebrates the Year of the Tiger (at a time when wild tigers are more threatened than ever).  Buy some “tiger stamps” and (as you’ll see here) beautify your mail!

#

 

Please comment – maybe on your favorite bird or whether your bird feeder observations match the hierarchy here – at 1moreonce.blogspot.com