Trojan Trout

Trojan Trout A story on removing brook trout genetically in favor of  New Mexico’s state fish, the Rio Grande cutthroat trout. Other restorations will be done elsewhere. Like the screw-worm fly approach.

The Dark Triad of Hunting

Psychology-of-trophy-hunting It has been suggested that narcissism, machiavellianism and (non-clinical) psychopathy are all involved, the so-called “dark triad” of personality characteristics. Understanding hunter motivation is important, not least because it can lead to improved wildlife management policy and practice, and can tell us, ultimately, what can be done to combat trophy hunting. No bias in …

Read more

Old Age, Time, and Beauty

Two of Bejan’s insights that have sparked the imagination of the public involve beauty and time. In 2010, he posited that the golden ratio, leveraged in works ranging from the Parthenon in Athens to the Mona Lisa, is so pleasing to people because it allows for the most efficient scan of a composition by the human …

Read more

Blackbird Downburst

An article on it. Other scientists agreed with McGowan. Richard Broughton, an ecologist at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, told the Guardian that the flock looked “like a wave at the beginning, as if they are being flushed from above.” Ronald L. Mumme, an ornithologist and biology professor at Allegheny College, said the birds “dove, became …

Read more

The North- of- the- Waste- White

Accipiter  gentilis albidus  in  all her grim glory, courtesy of Pluvialis. These birds, who nest in tundra willow in eastern Siberia,where there are FAR too few trees for a Gos, are the largest subspecies of Accipiter gentilis. But they are not heavy and bulky like their nearest rivals in sjze, the Siberian forest Goshawks; they …

Read more

Potential Re-wilding Tech?

Potential Re-wilding Tech? The technology means the forest’s cattle can spend their time in carefully selected spots without the need for barbed wire or electric fences to keep them from wandering across the roads surrounding the former royal forest at the northern tip of London. This is interesting. I can see it allowing rewilding of species without …

Read more

I wonder what the holes mean?

An image of GPS tracking of multiple wolves in six different packs around Voyageurs National Park shows how much the wolf packs avoid each other’s range. Image courtesy of Thomas Gable Source