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Carrion Luggage  Native to the Americas, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) travels widely in search of sustenance. While usually foraging alone, it relies on other individuals of its species for companionship and mutual protection. Sometimes misunderstood, sometimes feared, sometimes shunned, it nevertheless performs an important role in the ecosystem. This scavenger bird is a marvel of efficiency. Rather than expend energy flapping its wings, it instead locates uplifting columns of air, and spirals within them in order to glide to greater heights. This behavior has been mistaken for opportunism, interpreted as if it is circling doomed terrestrial animals destined to be its next meal. In truth, the vulture takes advantage of these thermals to gain the altitude needed glide longer distances, flying not out of necessity, but for the joy of it. It also avoids the exertion necessary to capture live prey, preferring instead to feast upon that which is already dead. In this behavior, it resembles many humans. It is not what most of us would consider to be a pretty bird. While its habits are often off-putting, or even disgusting, to members of more fastidious species, the turkey vulture helps to keep the environment from being clogged with detritus. Hence its Latin binomial, which translates to English as "golden purifier." I rarely know where the winds will take me next, or what I might find there. The journey is the destination. |
| What with, you know, everything, I think we could use some funny right now. Here's Gizmodo, keeping us abreast of scientific developments. Great Tits Sometimes Break Up, Bird Researchers Find  New research finds that “tit divorce” is less arbitrary than biologists thought, revealing a complex social side to these common European songbirds. You'll have to click on the link to see a picture of a beautiful pair of great tits. We’re talking about the birds. Way to ruin the mood. Great tits are small, yellowish songbirds common to the woodlands of Europe. By way of contrast, boobies are larger seabirds, mostly tropical, with some species limited in range to the Americas. Tit pairs are known to be monogamous during breeding season, splitting up after fully raising their offspring. Yes, you're damn right I'm going to milk this one for all it's worth. But new research suggests that this “tit divorce” may be the product of complex social relationships formed during and after the breeding season. So, not due to age and gravity? Published July 30 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the paper reports that not all tit pairs separate in late summer when breeding season ends. A sizeable portion of tit couples remain together throughout the winter, hitting it off again when spring comes. I think the article's author is trying very, very hard to avoid doing what I'm doing right now. That, or their editor (do those still exist?) got their hands on it. In other words, tit dating status is complicated, and for reasons that aren’t yet entirely clear. Well, they are usually hidden from our sight. For the study, Abraham and her colleagues tracked individual great tits found in the woods near Oxford. I used to find them in the woods near a university, too. Okay, okay, a moment of seriousness: this is actually pretty cool, especially if you read the sciencey bits of the article at the link. I saved this one a while back, but with the passing of Jane Goodall almost dominating the news cycle today, it came up randomly at an appropriate time—because we're still learning stuff about other species. That doesn't stop my inner 12-year-old from giggling like a loon, though. |
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