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Year Of The Bat - Bats Are Our Allies

Year-of-the-bat-logoFlying Foxes and microbats are a much misunderstood animal and sadly much feared due to misinformation and negative stereotyping in legends and myths.

In reality, bats as they are commonly called (which refers flying foxes and microbats) are the world's only flying mammals and are allies of nature, being the the only pollinators of many species of trees and plants around the world.  Without them the these trees would cease to spread and many other species would also lose their habitat.!  Many species of bats are close to extinction due to loss of habitat and disease.

 

2011-2012 is the Year of The Bat.   This is an international campaign to help educate the world about the world's only flying mammals.  The campaign will also promote conservation and research efforts around the globe.  The campaign is supported by the United Nations Environment Programme, the Convention and Conservation of Migratory Species, EUROBATS and many partner organisations around the world. See http://www.yearofthebat.org/ for more details.

 Dr Merlin D. Tuttle is a leading conservationist who has studied bats for over 50 years. He is also an Dr Tuttle imageaward winning photographer and the founder of Bat Conservation International (BCI), which is an organisation dedicated to conservation, research and education of bats.  Merlin's Bats, Angel of Bats and The Secret World of Bats are some of his well known films that have been aired in over 100 countries.

In the article below first published on the Bank Of Natural Capital Dr Tuttle describes the unique role played by bats (please note: the copyright for all the photographs in this article belong to Dr Merlin Tuttle, Bat Conservation International, www.batcon.org).

Bat Pollinators: Tequila and The Tree of LIfe

Bats: Nature's Natural Pesticide

Bat Fertilizer

From Terror to Tourist Attraction

Year of the Bat 2011-2012

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 Bats as Invaluable Allies

 by Dr Merlin D. Tuttle

(Republished with kind permission of Bank of Natural Capital)

 

bat eating pollen

(Copyright for all the photographs in this article belong to Dr Merlin Tuttle, Bat Conservation International, www.batcon.org)

Were you aware that bats are key pollinators in many parts of the world? Pollination is a vital ecosystem service without which many of our key industries such as agriculture and pharmaceuticals would collapse or incur heavy costs for artificial substitution. TEEB has found that in some estimates, over 75% of the worlds crop plants, as well as many plants that are source species for pharmaceuticals, rely on pollination by animal vectors.1

 

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Mothers' Problems Affect Even Bird Kids

Baby magoue Wendy being fed mother magpie VickyA recent study has found that the social environment of mother quails has a direct influence on the growth and the behaviour of their young.

The research was performed by Floriane Guibert and Cecilia Houdelier at the CNRS-Universite de Rennes 1 in France, together with researchers at the INRA in Nouzilly, France and with Austrian scientists including Erich Mostl of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna.

Some people are surprised to hear that quails (see picture of a family of quails in our back yard below) are able to distinguish one another, let alone that they form close relationships with other quails. From our observations here at WingedHearts.org, we've found that birds as small as thornbills, pardalotes and wrens have no trouble recognising each other,
 
 
While many have known for a long while that disruption of the birds' social environment causes them stress. The researching team has shown that changing the composition of groups of quails housed together causes the birds to behave more aggressively towards one another. The level of steroid hormones (corticosterone) in their blood also increases when their group composition is disrupted.   When the mothers were subjected to social stress of this kind the eggs they lay were found to have significantly higher levels of testosterone. 
 
These results are consistent with previous findings from other groups, which showed that House sparrows, American quail familycoots and Common starlings lay eggs with more testosterone when they breed in dense colonies than when they nest in isolation.

But the new work has also shown that the eggs of females under social stress hatch later and the chicks grow more slowly after hatching, at least for the first three weeks.
 
We've noticed with magpie and butcherbird clutches that when our mother birds friends Vicky (see top picture where baby magpie Wendy is being fed by mother Vicky magpie), HarrieButchie have been going through a period stress they eggs hatched much later than their counterparts across the valley and their chicks were also slower in developing.  The stress can be caused through harsh climate, strained relations with neighbouring clans, death in the family of a child, or partner. Once when we were away for five weeks during their normal breeding period, even though we had organised carers to refresh their water bowls and feed them  once a day (so they would not go without in the winter drought), our bird so stressed by our absence that they delayed having their clutch till after we returned. Their joy and relief at seeing us return was unmistaken.
 
 
 
Sources:

http://www.medindia.net/news/Even-Bird-Kids-Affected-By-Mothers-Social-L... by Tanya Thomas

Veterinärmedizinische Universität Wien (2010, December 28). Parents' social problems affect their children -- even in birds. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 6, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2010/12/101227083745.htm
 
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How Do Parakeets Communicate?

I recently found this very interesting article by Parrot Intelligence Researcher and Communicator Ryan B Reynolds.

In his paper Reynolds says that:

"If you have ever seen a flock of parakeets, you may have noticed how they all seem to be chirping and vocalizing at once. To most of us, this just seems like a whole lot of birds making a bunch of noise. Most people could not imagine how they could possibly be communicating with each other or understanding what each other is saying. Many people  usually regard birds as non-sentient and unable to communicate. Others have determined that they may be able communicate some, but only at very limited levels. However, this research has shown that they are more than likely communicating at extremely high levels and each and every one of them understands what the other is saying. It also suggests that their advanced communication abilities not only allow them to understand every bird in the flock, but they are able to send and receive information simultaneously. They even take this one step further and are able to communicate and understand more than one bird at the same time using different dialects. So this is a very complex form of communication, which allows them to learn the human language very quickly in a domesticated environment. My studies have also shown, under certain conditions, they can talk and understand what they are saying many times faster than humans are capable of learning. This was evident in at least four budgies in our group that learned to speak in sophisticated conversational language before they were six months old."

I think Reynolds research is of vital importance and corroborates what we know about the birds in our back yard.

Click here to read the rest of Reynolds article.

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Breaking Through The Communication Barrier With Birds

by Francesca Doria (British Columbia)
 
 
In spite of all our New Year’s wishes, 2008 hadn’t begun well for my sister and I. Our Mum was bone-marrow transplanted and had been through a hard time, and our cat Émile, that had shared half of our lives with his endless care and reassuring love, was about to die of kidney failure. He had held out to help our mother and the two of us, but now he was wearing out, silently fading away. At the time our mother’s house had been restored, my sister and I had lived in until the inner works had started, so we had to move to our own flat where our mum already dwelt.
 
While I was staying with our mother and Émile, my sister Paola got back to the big house to tidy up and put in order everything. She immediately called me, informing that there was a jay she was feeding every day on my window sill and a pair of magpies building their nest on the top of our secular magnolia tree.
 
At first I was thrilled: I had always loved those elegant, intelligent, funny and noisy birds, and that news had surpassed my wish. But being in anxious state of mind, I nearly forgot both magpies and the friendly jay, until I came back home along with our mum, Émile and our other four cats.
 
The magpies were still at work: the male brought branches and other items, the female observed/examined them carefully, tried them out, sometimes discharged them, and he flew back and forth trying to find the best things to fit.
 
 
magpie nest in tree
 
 
 
The jay was still coming, curiously watching the new incomers. There also was a couple of large hooded crows, that were the undisputed owners of that territory, from a bird’s point of view.
 
We came back home on 4th March 2008: Émile made a huge effort to visit once again all the rooms of the house; although many things had changed dramatically (my sister’s room had a different entrance, one of the bathrooms had been rebuilt and much more) he recognized his house, blessed it and stood with us quietly and warmly as he had always done.
 
On 16th March he was put to sleep: until that day the sky had been beautifully crystalline and blue, the sun had shone bright, the moon at night was big and white in a starry sky, the sea was stunningly navy blue and glittering with sun sparkling, there were breathtaking sunsets. But that day the sky grew dark, and heavy drops of rain began to fall. They got heavier and heavier, like a machine gun; although I was dazed with grief, I couldn’t help thinking of the poor birds outside, especially the pair of magpies, whose nest was under that torrential rain. The female sat on her eggs and never moved; the male brought her food.
 
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