No mobile for Southampton because Falcons
Kunden von Vodafone in Southampton dürften für mehrere Monate kein Mobilfunknetz haben, weil auf dem Mast seltene Falken brüten. Nature strikes back!
Thousands of mobile users in Southampton could be without a signal for months because a rare bird has made its nest on a phone mast. Vodafone engineers trying to track a fault that has left people across the north of the city frustrated found a peregrine falcon squatting on the transmitter at Faraday Tower on the University of Southampton’s Highfield campus.
They cannot repair it because strict wildlife laws ban them from disturbing the creature. Bird experts have warned that it could be at least June before the fledglings leave the nest.
Thousands could be without mobile phone signal for months due to nesting peregrine falcon
Slowmotion Duck Penis, GIF’d
Impressive, most impressive: Einmal Enten-Zeitlupen-Penis als GIF. Wer mehr über Genitalien von Federvieh wissen will, there you go:
Male ducks have elaborate corkscrew-shaped penises, the length of which correlates with the degree of forced copulation males impose on female ducks. Females are often unable to escape male coercion, but they have evolved vaginal morphology that makes it difficult for males to inseminate females close to the sites of fertilization and sperm storage. Males have counterclockwise spiraling penises, while females have clockwise spiraling vaginas and blind pockets that prevent full eversion of the male penis.
TED-Talk about gay Duck Necrophilia
Kein Aprilscherz, passt aber wunderbar: Kees Moeliker erklärt auf der TED-Konferenz den Dead Duck Day, den sie seit dem ersten Todestag 1996 zum Gedenken einer Ente feiern, die das erste dokumentierte Opfer schwuler Enten-Nekrophilie wurde. Darüber hat Moeliker dann eine Arbeit geschrieben und den Ig-Nobelpreis gewonnen. Der Talk hat wirklich alles, von Frosch-Goldfisch-Facefuck bis Kröten-Nekrophilie in Missionarsstellung. Hilarious!
On 5 June 1995 an adult male mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) collided with the glass façade of the Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam and died. An other drake mallard ‘raped’ the corpse almost continuously for 75 minutes. Then the author disturbed the scene and secured the dead duck. Dissection showed that the rape-victim indeed was of the male sex. It is concluded that the mallards were engaged in an ‘Attempted Rape Flight’ that resulted in the first described case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard.
TED: How a dead duck changed the TED audience’s life
Kees Moeliker: The Duck
Giant Scrap Metal Hummingbird
Vik Muniz legt riesige Tiere aus vergoldetem Altmetal auf den Boden, die Ausmaße der Viecher erkennt man an den rumliegenden Autotüren. Nice!
How To Make a Piranha-Bird
Ein gefederter Piranha von Julien Salaud. Und ja, das ist ein echter Piranha mit echten Vogelfedern. Die Fische in James Camerons erstem Film „Piranhas 2“ (hier der Trailer) aus dem Jahr 1981 hatte übrigens die Plotline „Fliegende Killer“ und es ging um Piranhas, die mit fliegenden Fischen gekreuzt wurden. Federn hatten die aber nicht, soweit ich mich erinnere.
Flesh-eating Beetles munching on a dead Parrot, timelaps’d
Youtube Direktparrot, via 3 Quarks Daily
Schickes Timelapse-Video vom Museum für Naturkunde in London mit fleischfressenden Käfern, die einen toten Papagei (und ‘ne Eule und einen Fasan) verspeisen. Die Viecher konnten natürlich nicht wissen, dass der Papagei nicht tot ist. Jedenfalls: Das Museum hat hier noch ein weiteres Papageien-Video und eine Webcam, mit der man den fleischfressenden Käfern beim Futtern zuschauen kann, leider nur als Windows Media Crap, ich kann daher nicht sagen, ob die grade irgendwas auseinandernehmen. Fuck yeah Science und guten Appetit!
Scientists sometimes use strong chemicals to strip the flesh off skeletons they want to study. But these can eat into the bones and change their structure. So instead, we use a special beetle species, Dermestes haemarrhoidalis, that strips off the flesh but leaves the bones and collagen untouched.
The beetles don’t eat feathers, so usually specimens are skinned first, to speed up the process. Here, the feathers were left on, to show how the skull of the scarlet macaw, Ara macao, sits underneath its skin. The impressive size of the lower jaw reflects the massive strength of the parrot’s beak.
WWII Crypto-Pigeon-Skeleton found in Chimney
In einem Schornstein hat man das Skelett einer Taube des britischen Geheimdienstes gefunden, komplett mit verschlüsselter Nachricht am Bein und die haben sie nun zu den Kryptographen in Bletchley Park geschickt (das ist die Institution, an der Alan Turing damals den Enigma-Code geknackt hat), wo sie nun entschlüsselt wird. Die Meldung kommt von der Daily Mail, ist aber trotzdem awesome.
Experts say the red capsule Mr Martin found is the type used by the Special Operations Executive. Their human agents undertook sabotage missions such as blowing up trains, bridges and factories in German-occupied territory. The message was written by a Sergeant W Stott and contains columns of groups of five letters. It is thought that its intended recipient, ‘X02’, is code for Bomber Command. […]
‘The message Mr Martin found must be highly top secret,’ Mr Hill said. ‘The aluminium ring found on the bird’s leg tells us it was born in 1940, and we know it’s an Allied Forces pigeon because of the red capsule it was carrying, but that’s all we know.’
Skeleton of hero World War II carrier pigeon found in chimney with a secret message still attached to its leg (and now Bletchley Park are trying to crack the code) (via MeFi)
Sheet Music from Bird Poo:
Oh, the humanity! Sheet Music from Bird Poo: „Birds poo on paper which has been laid out, and the droppings are then enterpreted as musical notes.“ (via MeFi)
Typographic Birdhouse-Alphabet
Nishant Jethi hat einen ganzen Zeichensatz inklusive Ziffern aus Nistkästen gebaut, die man sich als Namensschild oder Nummer ans Haus hängen kann. Super!
Study proves that there is a sharp decline in the number of house sparrows. The driving force is the lack of nesting and breeding spaces. With high-rises and malls coming up everywhere, the birds have been displaced. So, an idea called ‘Living Typography’ was developed. Hollow wooden 3D alphabets that could also act as a bird’s nest were created. Appropriate alphabets were sent to a friends and family. They could keep it outside their house as their nameplate or house number. This nameplate/House number also acted as nests for birds amidst concrete jungle of the city.
Living with Typeface und Living Typography (via Quipsologies)
Colored Pigeons
Julius von Bismarck und Julian Charriere haben während der Biennale in Venedig Tauben gefärbt. Schicke Arbeit!
To coincide with this year’s Venice Biennale, Berlin-based artists Julius von Bismarck and Julian Charriere decided to dye 35 of the local pigeons to give them a new life as beautiful tropical birds. To do this, a special (animal friendly) “Pigeon Apparatus” was assembled which featured a conveyor belt mechanism to take the bird inside where they were automatically sprayed with non-harmful dyes. Once dyed a randomly selected assortment of bright colours, the bird was released once again to mingle with the other (now rather dull looking) pigeons in the wild.
SOME PIGEONS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
Videoportrait: Julius von Bismarks Image Fulgurator
Perpetual Storytelling Apparatus – Online-Texte als Bildergeschichten aus Patent-Datenbanken
Image Fulgurator: Obama als Priester, Wowereit O2-gebrandet
Midway: Documentary about dying Albatrosses filled with Plastic
Vor drei Jahren postete ich Chris Jordans Fotoserie über tote Albatrosse auf den Midwayinseln, die von ihren Eltern mit im Meer treibenden Plastikmüll gefüttert werden, den diese nicht von ihrer natürlichen Nahrung unterscheiden können. Seit dem hat er weiterfotografiert und eine kickstarterfinanzierte Dokumentation namens „Midway“ auf die Beine gestellt. Und der Trailer dazu ist mehr als ungemütlich. Fieses, großartiges, unbequemes, wichtiges Projekt!
Von Wired:
For three years, Seattle photographer Chris Jordan and a small crew of cinematographers have been filming the albatross living and breeding on the island for an upcoming documentary called Midway. Jordan says the albatross has been around for millions of years and for the majority of that time they didn’t have to distinguish what they could and could not ingest. “Today, instead of coming home with a stomach full of squid these birds are coming home with a stomach full of lighters and other plastic objects,” he says.
John Klavitter, a wildlife biologist and the deputy refuge manager at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, says adult albatrosses have the ability to regurgitate objects in their stomachs but chicks don’t develop that reflex until they are about four and a half months old. As a result the chicks’ stomachs are filling up with more plastic than food. Often times, he says, the plastic punctures the bird’s stomachs, creating life-threatening injuries. Other times they die of dehydration, starvation or poisonous toxicity.
“The plastic often acts like a magnet for toxins and contaminants floating out in the ocean,” he says. To put it into perspective Klavitter says that in total, 20 tons of manmade debris ends up on Midway each year and five tons of that is the plastic fed to the chicks.
Plastic-Filled Albatrosses Are Pollution Canaries in New Doc
Gentle Head-Massage for a Baby-Owl
Youtube Direktowl, via MeFi
Aaaaaaaaaw! Pamela Tan hat eine Baby-Eule gefunden und aufgezogen und zuhause gibt’s Kopf-Massagen.
This owl was not bought from a pet store (i don’t think theres any pet store here that sales owl in Malaysia). I found it near my house street when i was about to go jogging. It (not surer male or female but my family decided to name it Caesar) was still very young and i think it fell off the nest when it was learning how to fly. Caesar could not fly yet ,alone and there were many cats around my neighborhood so my maid suggested that we should take care of it until Caesar is mature enough to fly by its own. So we kept and raised it for 3 months and now Caesar is out there somewhere around my neighborhood tree or something. So in a way, Caesar was once my pet and this vid was taken during the days i was raising it.
Crow Fight makes Squares from White Lines
Ein paar Krähen haben in Seattle um ‘ne Packung Mehl gekämpft und mit den Spuren, die sie dabei hinterlassen haben Gefahrstoff-Alarm ausgelöst, weshalb dort die Feuerwehr mit Schutzanzügen anrücken musste – das finde ich aber gar nicht wirklich interessant. Was mich nicht loslässt, ist, dass die Krähen ihre Mehlspuren in zwei für Vogelverhältnisse perfekten Quadraten hinterlassen haben und dabei mindestens fünfmal hintereinander in nahezu perfekten 90°-Winkeln abgebogen sind bei ihrem Rumgehacke.
Ich hab’ die Kreuzung mal auf Google Maps rausgesucht und man sieht ganz deutlich, dass diese Quadrate nicht Teil der Straßenmarkierungen sind (Bild rechts). Erstaunlich! Ich geh’ mir jetzt ‘nen Hut aus Alufolie basteln und lerne Hitchcocks „The Birds“ auswendig.
A witness told KIRO 7 news partner The Daily Herald in Everett she saw two crows fighting over a bag of flour shortly before hazmat crews were called to Edmonds to investigate a white powdery substance.
Video from Chopper 7 showed personnel from Fire District 1 in Edmonds, where large streaks of white powder lined an intersection at Edmonds Street and Sunset Avenue.
Officials confirmed that the substance was flour.
Witness: Crows fighting over bag of flour led to white powder hazmat scare (via Arbroath)
Bonustrack: Grandmaster Flash – White Lines
Octopus eating a Bird
Ich hatte keine Ahnung, dass Octopi sich auch mal ‘ne Möwe oder andere Vögel fangen: “In less than one minute the gull was drowned, fully submerged and appeared to partially ingested with only its wings still visible.” Auch toll der letzte Satz: “To commemorate witnessing and photographing this amazing event, Ginger, Ken and Lou went out for a calamari lunch.”
Und wo wir schon dabei sind: Hatte ich neulich gesehen, aber keine Lust auf Spinnen gehabt: Giant Spider eating a Snake.
How Vultures eat human Bodies
Forensiker haben eine Studie mit Geiern durchgeführt, um festzustellen, wie schnell die einen Leichnam entdecken und fressen. Die Viecher haben unglaubliche 37 Tage zum Aufspüren der Leiche gebraucht, aber immerhin nur 5 Stunden bis sie komplett skelettiert war. Lahmarschig am Anfang, aber dann ganz stark im Abgang, diese Geier.
With colleagues Alberto Giordano and Michelle Hamilton they placed a body from the Willed Body Donation Program in the grounds of the Texas State University’s Forensic Anthropology Research Facility – “an outdoor human decomposition laboratory” similar to the storied ‘body farm’ in Tennessee – and left it monitored by a motion-sensing video camera.
The video camera was triggered after 37 days when a 30-strong wake of American black vultures – Coragyps atratus – discovered the body and set to work consuming it. They reduced it to bones in just five hours. Both results surprised the researchers: pigs have been found and consumed by vultures within 24 hours of being left in the facility. And the skeletonisation was much quicker than the day they had expected it to take. This will feed into future time-of-death calculations.
The spatial pattern of discarded body parts was mapped by the team using GPS over the next 15 weeks – as vultures came back and distributed the remains still further – and the researchers hope this dispersal pattern will aid future forensics work, too.
Vultures skeletonise corpse for the sake of forensics (via Discover Mag)
