The earthworms eat away at the puffy duff layer blanketing the forest floor where species such as salamanders and ovenbirds live Resner reported Sunday (Oct 27) at the Geological Society of America's annual meeting.
#Invasive Mink Threatens South america's Largest Woodpecker Invasive American minks may threaten the largest woodpecker species in South america according to new research.
The Magellanic woodpecker a relative of the extinct ivory-billed woodpecker lives throughout the Andes of Chile and Argentina.
The large birds only produce one offspring per year and maintain broad territorial boundaries of about 1 square kilometer (0. 4 square miles) per male-female pair limiting the density and growth of their population.
Still the charismatic birds maintain stable populations by holing up in branchless dead trees that carnivores struggle to climb.
Until now there have been no records of predation on the birds. But researchers based at the University of North Texas in Denton
The Peskiest Alien Mammals Though the team did not make direct observations of a mink attacking a woodpecker they collected several pieces of evidence to argue their case which they detailed earlier this month in the journal Biological Invasions.
For instance the team found an adult Magellanic woodpecker which they had outfitted with a radio-tag for an unrelated study dead within a mink den.
While it's possible a mink had found the bird already dead and scavenged it in the den this type of behavior would be atypical of carnivores that tend to hunt live prey said Jaime Jimenez a researcher at the University of North Texas
On a separate occasion the team observed a mink creep up on a woodpecker looking ready to pounce at about 1 foot away (30 centimeters) until a student scared it off to prevent the attack.
and woodpeckers feeding in the same areas of the forest floor on separate occasions but sometimes within minutes of each other suggesting the animals share the same habitat.
This would make the woodpeckers vulnerable to predation if the minks had this intent. The team thinks the woodpeckers have adapted to feed on the forest floor rather than holing up more cautiously in trees
because they historically have had no natural predators on the island. Â They may have become naã ve by not having been exposed to terrestrial carnivores Jimenez told Livescience.
It's very easy for a carnivore to pounce on a woodpecker and kill it.
The team believes this predation could result in a significant decline in the bird population on the island
which could result in other indirect ecological consequences including a spike in insect populations that the birds would otherwise feed on.
Other birds including owls and parakeets also use the Magellanic's vacated holes as breeding grounds
and may lose this important habitat if the woodpecker populations decline Jimenez told Livescience. The team next plans to attach GPS units to the woodpeckers to better assess their distribution across the island
and understand the ecological consequences of their potential decline in an effort to develop management plans in response to the invasive mink population.
Editor's note: This article has been updated to correct Jaime Jimenez's affiliation. He is a researcher at the University of North Texas not the University of Texas. Follow Laura Poppick on Twitter.
Merlin Crossley works for the University of New south wales. He receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council.
because they reveal more than just bone show that hadrosaurs had pebbly skin not unlike that of today's crocodiles and birds.
In modern birds such combs are used typically for sexual display. They're found in both sexes in birds so the presence of the comb tells researchers nothing about their dinosaur specimen's sex.
The bones they do have belong to the neck and head and don't reveal sex either.
If the suspicions of human-to-human transmission potential is confirmed that alone makes the threat of a pandemic (as opposed to a series of local outbreaks that can be contained with efforts to close down poultry markets or the sale of infected birds) more likely.
Birds and bats can fly because their bodies are relatively lightweight; the reputed heavy muscles and thick limbs of the Jersey Devil would never work;
Due to its location Lake ontario is host to a number of migratory birds. Swans loons ducks geese grebes and other water fowl are among the wildlife that inhabit Lake ontario.
Birds of prey such as hawks and eagles are also common in the area n
#Land of Giants: Sequoia and Kings Canyon National parks Giants live in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National parks. Soaring mountains rocky foothills deep canyons more than 200 marble caverns and the world's largest trees call these side-by-side parks home.
The highest mountain in the contiguous 48 states Mount whitney (with a peak at 14491 feet or 4417 meters) stretches across the Sequoia border.
#Male Birds Like Nice Nests (ISNS)--One bird species may have advice on how to get its dads to take a more active role in parenting:
Female blue tits that construct bigger nests and decorate them with fragrant plants have male partners that are more willing to invest in raising chicks Spanish researchers report in the journal Behavioral Ecology.
 A female blue tit which is about the size of an adult hand from beak to tail picks her partner based on his colorful blue and yellow plumage and the sweetness of his song.
It s an interaction between sexes. oe Different bird species divide the work of building nests in different ways.
 Female blue tits work alone to build nests although males may add feathers later on. That means the nest may provide a window to the female's health.
After spring mating female blue tits collect moss and grass to construct the base of their nests inside the hollows of trees
and rosemary to spruce up the homes for their future nestlings. But all of this construction takes energy and puts a female in danger of attack from predators.
 The researchers found that these features influence the care a male will put into the nestlings
As part of the study the team installed bird traps in blue tit nesting boxes a process that sometimes scared the birds away from home
s. Â The team is not certain how this difference in risk-taking actually helps the nestlings.
s is interested in exploring more features of nests built by female birds and the signals they may send to males. oepeople thought that its only function was to form a receptacle for the eggs he said.
But he believes the nests may reveal a lot of information about the bird that built it.
The region they lived in is defined by researchers at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. It encompassed almost 10000 square miles (26000 square km) of territory going across the states of Utah Colorado
but sometimes prolonged periods of drought writes a team of Crow Canyon researchers in a 2011 online article. oeliving off the land has always been
The Crow Canyon researchers note that after A d. 500 a people whom archaeologists refer to as the oebasketmakers (named from their finely woven baskets) moved from the peripheries of the Mesa verde archaeological area into the center.
or discussed issues important to the group the Crow Canyon researchers write. This way of life appears to have been quite successful at least for a time.
Crow Canyon archaeologists note that these room blocks were made of adobe stone and plant materials with stone masonry becoming more important as time went on.
The Crow Canyon Archaeological Center archaeologists note that oelike great kivas great houses were public structures probably used for community-wide ceremonies
Another thing the people appear to have brought from their time outside Mesa verde was connections to a vast trade network. oethe presence of Chaco-style pottery vessels macaw-feather sashes
but much more distant locations in Mexico as well write the Crow Canyon archaeologists. The researchers who wrote the American Antiquity article note that the population in their study area continued to grow almost continuously after A d. 930 spiking in the 13th century.
if the behavior exists in other animals such as birds and fish that have been shown to gather information by eavesdropping on others.
For example macaws visit clay licks to well lick clay which contains sodium and other minerals Torres said.
Although health officials still haven't confirmed the species of animal that is the source of the H7n9 bird flu outbreak in China most people who fell ill had contact with birds or pigs according to a new report.
while 20 percent reported exposure to ducks and 7 percent to swine the report said.
Aninvestigation of 82 people infected with the new bird flu virus shows most who fell ill had contact with birds or pigs.
At the other end of the country the Zumwalt Prairie is home to large populations of mammals birds and prey.
and used the movement of the bird's pupils to determine where the peahen was looking.
when a predator was introduced into their environment in this case how the birds'eyes followed a taxidermic raccoon as it rolled past the enclosure on a skateboard.
#Oldest Known Wild Bird Hatches Healthy Chick The oldest known wild bird in the United states has hatched a chick for the sixth year in a row.
The Laysan albatross named Wisdom thought to be at least 62 years old hatched a healthy-looking chick on Sunday (Feb 3) according to a statement from the U s. Department of the interior.
and Wildlife Service superintendent for the Papahä naumokuä kea Marine National monument which encompasses Midway Atoll NWR.
bands are attached to the legs of birds to help scientists track and study them. At the time she was estimated to be at least 5 years old.
This is the youngest these birds breed though they more typically mate at age 8 or 9 after an involved courtship lasting several years.
As Wisdom rewrites the record books she provides new insights into the remarkable biology of seabirds said Bruce Peterjohn head of the bird banding program at the U s. Geological Survey in the statement.
The bird has hatched likely 30 to 35 chicks in her long life although that number might be said higher Peterjohn in the release.
Laysan albatross have a wingspan of 6 feet (2 meters) and fly about 50000 miles a year as adults.
All but two of the 21 species of albatross are threatened with extinction according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The tsunami killed an estimated 2000 adult albatrosses and about 110000 chicks in the wildlife refuge.
The samples included drinking water and soil from the areas as well as swabs from birds'throats. Twenty samples tested positive for the H7n9 virus all from poultry markets in Shanghai.
Ten of the positive samples were from chickens three from pigeons and seven from the surrounding environment.
All three of the parent viruses are thought to have infected birds he said. Poultry markets may provide a sort of breeding ground for such reassortment to happen.
It provides a rather unnatural environment where a lot of these different bird species that may have different flu viruses get together
For instance pigeons have also been found to be infected with the virus Huang said. To control the outbreak Chinese health officials need a way to eliminate the infected bird population
and limit human exposure to the virus Pavia said. Currently the virus does not appear to make birds ill.
A diagnostic test for H7n9 would allow health officials to know where people are getting sick with the virus Pavia said.
Long before birds evolved tetrapods began laying eggs on land for the first time during this period allowing them to break away from an amphibious lifestyle.
which would give rise to crocodiles dinosaurs and birds. Most creepily this era is referred sometimes to as the Age of the Cockroaches
The virus does not cause symptoms in birds so it can spread undetected within poultry populations Rudge
Rare predator species such as spotted owls and fisher cats eat the poisoned mice and die. The marijuana cultivators make trail systems to go in
The UC Davis group is now testing barn owls which rely more heavily on rodents for food than fisher cats do.
Spotted owls have tested positive for rodenticides in Oregon and Gabriel said preliminary data indicates barn owls are snaring poison-laced mice.
Email Becky Oskin or follow her@beckyoskin. Follow us@livescience Facebookâ & Google+.+Original article on Livescience. com n
cave drawings showing armadillos birds and reptiles etched into stone thousands of years ago. Archaeologists who examined the rock art say hunter-gatherers likely created the drawings between 4000 and 10000 years ago.
In addition to human figures and geometric shapes many different kinds of animals were represented from big cats and armadillos to birds and reptiles but alas no peccaries.
Other than a few birds that were classified as dinosaurs most notably the Titanis there were no dinosaurs during the Pleistocene epoch.
Birds flourished during this period including members of the duck geese hawk and eagle families.
There were also some flightless birds such as ostriches rheas and moas. The flightless birds did not fare as well as they had to compete with mammals
and other creatures for limited supplies of food and water as a good portion of the water was frozen.
Elsewhere in the clearing known as the Dzanga Bai I was awed by bongo buffalo sitatunga and hundreds of birds.
Fractals Reveal Birds'Health For birds fractals are a turn on. A new study found that the complexity of fractal patterns on a bird's chest communicates the animal's fitness to potential mates.
Scientists studied male and female red-legged partridges (Alectoris rufa) which both display complicated black-and-white patterns of plumage on their chests.
and apparently the plumage of red-legged partridges. 5 Seriously Mind-boggling Math Facts In a new study scientists found that the healthier a bird is the more fractal-like its plumage becomes.
or how robust and healthy the birds'immune systems (the body system that fights off foreign invaders) were.
The scientists also studied the relationship between bird health and fractals by restricting the diets of 33 male
This resulted in the first set of birds weighing around 13 percent less than the control group.
and found the complexity of fractals was reduced significantly on the birds whose food had been restricted. After losing weight the same birds would grow in plumage with a lower fractal dimension than they had before while the birds
whose weight stayed steady didn't show any change in FD. Overall the study found that birds'fractals communicated a lot about the health of individuals
which could provide a valuable way for red-legged partridges to judge potential mates. Our work justifies further studies on fractal perception in animals depending on their visual processing abilities the researchers wrote.
The creamy blue-and-brown speckled eggs splashed like a toddler's art project vary among birds
In the wild there is some evidence that birds are often less successful with their first clutch of eggs.
Scientists think birds use patterning on eggs for camouflage but the darker colors may also help strengthen weak spots
Endangered Chicks Emerge from Nest This could be the first and last high-definition video of a Spoon-billed sandpiper chick emerging from its nest.
One of the world's most critically endangered species the 6-inch-tall (15 centimeters) bird faces extinction within 10 years according to a statement from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology which released the video.
The Cornell Lab sent videographer Gerrit Vyn to Chukotka Russia to document the sandpipers'sounds
The Spoon-billed sandpiper is one of the most remarkable little birds On earth and it may go extinct before most people even realize it was here John Fitzpatrick executive director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology said in the statement.
and governments to these amazing birds and galvanize an international conservation effort. First moments of life One video captures the first moments of life as the tiny fluffy brown
Much of the little bird's decline is due to habitat loss from development and subsistence hunting along its migratory path
birds and a primary stopping site for Spoon-billed sandpipers. And shorebirds are a food source for people living along the coastal mudflats of Myanmar
and other nearby countries the Cornell Lab said in a statement Documenting a disappearing species Common foraging behaviors here on the breeding grounds are surprisingly different from the way they feed on the wintering grounds according to the Cornell lab. On the breeding grounds the birds feed on insects
especially midges mosquitoes flies beetles and spiders as well as grass seeds and berries. On the wintering grounds
Another video by Vyn shows a mated Spoon-billed sandpiper pair foraging along the edge of a snowmelt pond in Chukotka.
Vyn also captured rarely seen courtship behavior between adult Spoon-billed sandpipers. This video shot during the first few days of a pair's seasonal courtship includes an attempted copulation and a nest scrape display.
The Spoon-billed Sandpiper population in Russian has been tracked since 1977 when a survey estimated 2500 breeding pairs in Chukotka.
Since the pony had been dead for several days before its body was found there was plenty of time for birds maggots blowflies
Ten years later a group of researchers and conservationists gathered in Washington D c. today (March 15) for a forum called TEDXDEEXTINCTION hosted by the National geographic Society to talk about how to revive extinct animals from the Tasmanian tiger and the saber-toothed cat to the woolly mammoth and the North american passenger pigeon.
poll options 50 160=Passenger pigeon; poll options 50 161=Tasmanian tiger; poll options 50 162=Woolly mammoth; poll options 50 163=Gastric brooding frog;
For instance a team that includes Harvard genetics expert George Church is trying to bring back the passenger pigeon a bird that once filled eastern North america's skies.
They have been able to piece together roughly 1 billion letters (Each of four nucleotides that make up DNA has a letter designation) in the bird's genome based on DNA from a 100-year-old taxidermied museum specimen.
They hope to incorporate those genes responsible for certain traits into the genome of a common rock pigeon to bring back the passenger pigeon
Some people feel that watching scientists bring back the great auk and putting it back on a breeding colony would be very inspiring Zimmer told Livescience.
The great auk was the Northern hemisphere's version of the penguin. The large flightless birds went extinct in the mid-19th century.
Other species disappeared before scientists had a chance to study their remarkable biological abilities like the gastric brooding frog which vanished from Australia in the mid-1980s likely due to timber harvesting and the chytrid fungus.
That ruled out poop pellets or pelican regurgitation as a possible source he said. There were no hints of layers.
and bird die offs. A canal breach created the Salton Sea in 1905. With no outlet and no water source except for farming run off the lake has been shrinking
#San diego Zoo Welcomes Season's 1st Condor Chick The San diego Zoo welcomed its first California condor chick of the hatching season on Feb 24 the zoo announced yesterday (March 11) as part of their breeding program
to help save the endangered species. The two-week-old condor dubbed Wesa is doing well
Like other condors born at the zoo Wesa will eventually be released into the wild. Senior condor keeper Ron Webb has been caring for the baby bird with the help of a condor hand puppet.
The puppet is like a fancy glove Webb said in the statement. It covers our hands so the chick does not get any beneficial experiences from people.
Webb has also been monitoring the other condor eggs set to hatch this season to estimate how long before each chick pips
California condors are listed as critically endangered. When the zoo began its captive breeding program in the 1980s there were only 22 birds in the wild.
Since then the zoo has hatched 173 chicks and released 80 birds into the wild. There are now an estimated 400 wild birds.
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#Satellites Spy Beetle Attacks on Forests A new computer program detected a slow-motion decline and subsequent revival of forests in the Pacific Northwest in recent years.
But what was behind this mysterious pattern? Â It was as it turns out bugs said Robert Kennedy a remote sensing specialist at Boston University who designed the computer program inâ a NASA statement.
</p><p>Birds can' t taste capsaicin the chemical that gives chili peppers their kick enabling birds to eat spicy peppers
and spread their seeds far and wide without being bothered by the irritant.</</p><p>American people didn'
For example October is a critical month for those that study birds as it's migration time.
(or band) migrating birds to monitor themand keep track of birds banded last season. Bird banding data is used to sleuth out reasons different bird species might be in peril.
Birds help reveal when there are problems in Earth's ecosystems from harmful toxins to the drivers of habitat loss for birds or their response to climate change.
Scientists rely on collective data from the past 50 years to paint a complete picture of birds On earth today.
Birds are migrating says Gwen Pearson an entomologist and science communicator. Crops are supposed to be harvested.
Biological (and geological and hydrological! life continues to happen all around us except now scientists are physically
and financially prohibited from studying it. We will have a big hole in our data this year.
me understand the importance of tracking birds during their yearly migration. She also wrote about the implications of the government shutdown for conservation and agricultural science in her column for Wired last Wednesday.
They were odd ducks strange dinosaurs said Persons who presented the study results at the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology's annual meeting in November
The only other kind of animal where you see that are modern-day birds where it's called a pygostyle
Modern-day birds use pygostyles to help them fly but oviraptors were not flying animals they had feathers
Flightless birds such as ostriches and emus don't have big tail-feather fans and birds that do have big tail-feather fans such as peacocks
and turkeys don't try to use them to run at all but just keep them tucked in except
Maybe they were larger in males as we see in modern-day birds Persons said.
and feet that each had one backward-pointing toe similar to those found on birds.
and bird they could import. Charles darwin dined on all the species he described including more than 40 tortoises.
and other designs such as two peacocks flanking an amphora a dove and a partridge and one amphora with a pomegranate and a lemonlike fruit inside.
or carried in by water birds he added. Diatoms particularly love volcanic lakes because they are the only creatures that build shells of glass.
Threatened owls and raptors can't navigate through increasingly dense thickets. And when the inevitable forest fires rage through over-forested lands they burn hotter and faster
1. Turkey troubles Nothing says Thanksgiving like cooking an obscenely large farm bird. Perhaps it's not surprising then that emergency rooms see a lot of fowl-related injuries on Turkey Day.
when it hits the oil the bird can catch fire or even explode. We've had singed fires that hair
so it's important to cook the bird thoroughly. Food allergies also rear their ugly heads at the holidays.
#The 10 Weirdest Spills in Naturefrom molasses to rubber ducks some strange substances have spilled into waterways and onto roadways.
but it evolved probably in a similar fashion as it did inâ birds of paradise or peacocks a result of sexual selection.
but how does one explain the Christmas cards that show a dead bird lying on its back with the words May yours be a joyful Christmas above?
There really isn't much more known about why dead birds are shown on several cards Grossman wrote in an email.
Still some animals such as sea lions have been known to adopt in the wild. 2. Cuckoo sneak When it comes to rearing young female cuckoo birds farm the task out to others.
Cuckoo moms lay their eggs in the nests of other birds which raise them unwittingly.
Often the other birds are a smaller species and the cuckoo chick hatches first grows faster
and kicks the other chicks out of the nest. The other chicks die and the cheeky cuckoo receives all of the adoptive mother's attention. 3. Bloodsucking ants Count Dracula isn't the only creature with a taste for bodily fluids:
The tiny endangered Adetomyrma ant from Madagascar drinks the fluids of its own young. After the queen ant gives birth to her larvae she
and the other worker ants gnaw holes in the larvae and suck out the circulatory system fluid known as haemolymph (the insect equivalent of blood).
some birds produce additional clutches of eggs; and many insects (including pests such as bark beetles in the West
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