Saturday, August 20, 2005
Misanthropic Nature Reporting
Reuters has this story about the decline this century in numbers and range of the Aquatic Warbler. I posted before about avian pair bonding and why the male's help is needed to protect the eggs and helpless chicks who hatch. It appears that the male Aquatic Warbler is not holding up his end of the bargain:
The male bird plays no part in nest-building or raising chicks and spends most of its time hunting for willing females and mating at length.
In contrast to most birds, which get the business over in a mere one to two seconds' sexual contact, aquatic warbler spend up to 35 minutes copulating...
In other words, the male may be a great lay but is utterly useless helping with the babies. Could this be part of the reason for the birds' decline--a sex obsessed mate who's inattention to the home front causes higher chick mortality? Not according to Reuters. We're, apparently, to blame:
However, numbers have slumped to less than 20,000 in the past century -- a decline of 95 percent -- and its range has shrunk from continent-wide to isolated strongholds in eastern Europe as humans have ravaged its habitat.
Scientists [want] to save the randy songbird, whose habitat is disappearing as marshlands are drained and farmland is expanded. (Emphasis added).
The Reuters story has a photo of a bird with it, but it doesn't look like an Aquatic Warbler whose real picture is here.
The male bird plays no part in nest-building or raising chicks and spends most of its time hunting for willing females and mating at length.
In contrast to most birds, which get the business over in a mere one to two seconds' sexual contact, aquatic warbler spend up to 35 minutes copulating...
In other words, the male may be a great lay but is utterly useless helping with the babies. Could this be part of the reason for the birds' decline--a sex obsessed mate who's inattention to the home front causes higher chick mortality? Not according to Reuters. We're, apparently, to blame:
However, numbers have slumped to less than 20,000 in the past century -- a decline of 95 percent -- and its range has shrunk from continent-wide to isolated strongholds in eastern Europe as humans have ravaged its habitat.
Scientists [want] to save the randy songbird, whose habitat is disappearing as marshlands are drained and farmland is expanded. (Emphasis added).
The Reuters story has a photo of a bird with it, but it doesn't look like an Aquatic Warbler whose real picture is here.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 11:00 AM 
