Page 5 - Tim Birkhead News Today

The sly fox, the stubborn donkey... Many of our ideas about animal behaviour come from Aesops fables. But how many are really accurate?

Blue jays and mourning doves appear in unruly flocks as soon as the feeders are put up in late October. They may scarf down pitcherfuls of sunflower seeds for an hour or so and then disappear into the woods, only to show up shortly thereafter and repeat their earlier performance. Is this dining experience hardwired for jays and doves? In comparison chickadees and titmice daintily fly in and snag a seed, fly away for outdoor dining on a branch. Back and forth they go taking away a seed each time...

by David Crawford A discussion between two zoologists about the merits of long-term field studies could be as dry as the Kenyan savannah where Phyllis Lee has been observing elephants for decades (Tim Birkhead’s 45-year study of guillemots is distinctly wetter). But chair Rana Mitter injects just the right amount of levity. So we learn why you should never wee in front of an elephant; while guillemots are described as being like “...