Reciprocating Bill
Posts: 4265
Joined: Oct. 2006
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| Quote (Albatrossity2 @ April 29 2008,08:08) | | Quote (Reciprocating Bill @ April 29 2008,06:53) | The Cleveland Museum of Art has a beautiful lagoon on its property that is plagued by Canadian geese. The walkways around the lagoon are often slippery with goose shit.
One recent measure was the installation of several extremely lifelike (deathlike?) models of dead geese anchored in the lagoon, heads down and feet up.
I've always wondered if that worked. I would have thought that avian intraspecies recognition would depend upon much more than visual verisimilitude (e.g. behavioral, auditory and olfactory cues).
Ftk? (The bird is dead). |
Well, not olfactory. Most birds (with the exception of some vultures and seabirds) have very poor olfactory abilities. And visual cues must be important to a very large degree, or stationary duck decoys wouldn't be as effective as they seem to be.
I was working with a group of sandhill crane researchers once, and we were rocket-netting cranes in Nebraska. In order to lure cranes to the place where the rocket net would capture them, they used a decoy spread that was quite extensive and complicated. Some decoys were heads up, some head down as if feeding, most were arranged in the traditional groups of three (two parents, one young bird from last year's hatch). According to the researchers (who certainly knew a lot more about cranes than I did), the arrangement and number of the decoys was critical; cranes can spot an unrealistic spread and will never get close to it. No auditory or behavioral cues were involved; these decoys never moved and they didn't make noises. We were one for two that day, catching 16 cranes in one net and zero with the other one, because no cranes got close enough to the net.
So visual cues might be the most important ones with birds. I'd be interested to hear if that dead goose display worked!
Back on topic, FtK's latest comment is pure gold. When other commenters pointed out to her that her island/bridge setup is basically an invitation for predators to get the birds she has attracted there, she blames darwinists for reality again. | Quote | Um...wow...
...just kinda wanted to see some little ducklings and goslings on the pond this spring.
You Darwinists are mean, mean, mean to me!!
[damn these tears...*reaches for the whole freakin' box of Kleenexes*] |
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Very interesting. I'll inquire about the effectiveness of the strategy.
Ftk, take note:
There is no substitute for actually knowing what you are talking about.
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Myth: Something that never was true, and always will be.
"The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you."
- David Foster Wallace
"Here’s a clue. Snarky banalities are not a substitute for saying something intelligent. Write that down."
- Barry Arrington
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