A while ago, LabRat at Atomic Nerds started a series of posts on the evolution of sex among other things. The first was appropriately called “Shuffling Your Cards: Why Sex?” Since in science we are both mad nerds obsessed with evolutionarily odd strategies like parthenogenesis in local lizards (and the hybridization that may have started …
Tag: Conservation
Felony Duck Shooting
There is still ANOTHER House bill, HR 2188, which increase penalty for illegally taking a migratory bird (duck, dove etc.)to a felony with up to $50,000 and two years in prison. This seems draconian to say the least, and especially worrying to falconers who cannot always MAKE their hawk take the “correct” bird. (HT David …
Not Rediscovered!
The Carolina parakeet has been rediscovered in Honduras…. Ah, damn. Update– see Patrick’s comment below. As he said, “I’m crushed”. Actually I originally expected a hoax but told myself that it was May, not April first coming, and that Cornell would not be part of it. Something of an irony that my first post after …
Conserving distinct ecological units
I have an interest in diverse life forms, and when I become interested in a species, I sometimes become somewhat obsessed, trying to learn all that I can – I want to know more, and more. The result is that no matter how much I learn, I am always humbled by how little we as …
Survival of the Scrawny?
Annie H sent this Newsweek item about how hunters are trashing the evolution of prey species. I call agenda- driven cherry- picking bullshit. The thesis seems to be that trophy hunting removes all good males and big individuals from the gene pool. This might well be possible in some individual populations especially if it were …
Cat’s Yellowstone Wolves, and others
Our own Cat Urbigkit has just published a book on the Yellowstone wolves and their reintroduction (so to speak as you will see.) She brings a unique perspective as she is both a sheepherder and a naturalist- observer, one who can appreciate big carnivores but doesn’t want them killing her sheep or her livelihood. Her …
Couldn’t have said it better
From Peculiar: “I really don’t hope for much these days in terms of taxation, liberty, shrewd foreign policy, immigration, &c. About the acme of my fondest hopes for the next administration is a Forest Service with a reasonable budget and some BLM personnel with detectable humanity. I do think Palin has a certain amount of …
Kent Christopher RIP plus Sage Synchronicity
My old friend Kent Christopher died in a skiing accident at Targhee a couple of weeks ago. He was only 54, a great falconer and a vitally important voice for the sage grouse and the sage ecosystem. I had known him since he was a college kid in Maine. I last saw him when frequent …
A Few More Thoughts on Cranes
I have eaten crane (not mine) and it was wonderful. They are grain eaters and don’t taste fishy as most of those others that Julie mentions, such as herons, are alleged to– more like fine roast beef. They are also wary and difficult. Actually few hunt them, and those that do know they are good …
Phil Drabble
Richard, a commentor below, was kind enough to tell us of this obit for Phil Drabble Drabble was an old- fashioned naturalist, conservationist, and hunter of the kind we may not be breeding anymore. He kept lurchers and pigeons and hawks, and wrote books like A Weasel in my Meatsafe, Badgers at my Window, and …