Cowbird Mafioso

zooillogix — Mon, 14 May 2007 13:37:00 +0000

Cowbird Mafioso

Brown-headed cowbirds cannot incubate their own eggs. Instead, they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, who incubate them and raise the cowbird chicks as their own. According to a new study by Jeff Hoover of the Florida Museum of Natural History published in Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences the cowbirds have an interesting way of ensuring their offspring will be treated well: extortion.

Feathers Bonmarito, a top earner amongst the cowbird capos...

After a cowbird lays her egg in another bird's nest, she returns frequently to check on the status of her chick. Hoover has found that if the cowbird returns to find her egg missing, she is highly likely to destroy the other bird's nest completely including the bird's eggs.

This is called "mafia behavior" by scientists and had been witnessed in cuckoos before, but never brown-headed cowbirds.

Victims of the "Arbor Day Massacre"

Such behavior has led to speculation that perhaps the surrogate bird raises the cowbird's chicks at least partially out of fear of the cowbird's wrath. Warblers, for example, have never been witnessed removing cowbird eggs from their nests. (In order to conduct the experiment, Hoover had to remove the cowbird eggs when the warblers were away).

Warblers questioned about the cowbirds' behavior claimed unanimously not to have seen anything, and that they had nothing but deep respect for cowbirds, the upstanding pillars of their community.

Add to: Slashdot del.icio.us
reddit
newsvine
Y! MyWeb

zooillogix Mon, 05/14/2007 - 09:37

Rampaging Squirrel Attacks Elementary School, Injures 3 [Zooillogix]

sb admin — Fri, 11 May 2007 12:43:00 +0000

Rampaging Squirrel Attacks Elementary School, Injures 3 [Zooillogix]

Friends say he was a good neighbor who mostly kept to himself...Gray Squirrel, Sciurus Carolinensis

A disgruntled squirrel stormed Evergreen Elementary School in San Jose, California and started biting anything in sight yesterday, injuring three people including two, 11-year old students and a teacher. The students who were preparing for a field trip made a costly error by leaving the outside-facing door to their classroom open, allowing the squirrel to infiltrate the unguarded facility.

The school does not have a high squirrel population nor a history of squirrel attacks, said Will Ector, a spokesman for the San Jose School District, but that did not stop School Principal Kathy Shepard from forming a new anti-squirrel task force. "Our custodian has a new job," said Shepard, "He's going to be the squirrel police."

Russ Parman, a Santa Clara County Vector Control District assistant manager, told MSNBC that squirrel attacks, though uncommon, often occur at particular times of the year and usually concern food.

Since America's invasion of Iraq in 2003, squirrel attacks have been on the rise. This particular incident is demonstrative of a new, unnerving trend involving squirrels born in the U.S. These "home grown" squirrel cells pose an added threat as they easily blend in with other American squirrels without raising suspicion.

Other notable squirrel violence include the vicious attack in Mountain View, California on Hayley Allard earlier this year and a November 2006 assault on a Pennsylvania postal carrier.

Hayley Allard is "lucky she still has a face" said a Mountain View Police Department spokesperson.

sb admin Fri, 05/11/2007 - 08:43