falconspace

PENEIREIRO VULGAR
KESTREL
Falco tinnunculus
Cabo Espichel / Portugal

A common turn-of-the-century fear: sexual abuse
at the hand of alien invaders from outer space.

Cornell to Launch 5-Year Study on Coyotes
by WILLIAM KATES, Associated Press 19 May 2005

For many people, their closest encounter with a coyote is hearing its howl curdle the night from afar. But coyote sightings are now on the increase across New York, meaning greater potential for attacks, say Cornell University researchers, who are launching a five-year study of why the once-wary creatures are becoming more aggressive toward humans.

"There is a progression of behavior, and what we are seeing right now is the last step before we start seeing attacks on people. Clearly, we are seeing coyotes grow more bold," said Paul Curtis, an associate professor of natural resources.

There have been no human attacks in New York. But while the state is only now beginning to track aggressive coyote sightings, there have been several reported attacks on small pets, said Gordon Batcheller, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which is assisting in the study.

New Yorkers are likely to see coyotes more frequently during the spring and early summer because they are raising their litters and are out often hunting for food for their pups.

However, increased sightings alone should not be construed as aggressive behavior. A coyote seen in overgrown fields, brushy areas or woodlands is normal, Batcheller said. It is the growing instances of coyotes appearing in daylight, chasing joggers and bicyclists or confronting people walking their dogs that concerns scientists.

With a $428,000 grant from the DEC, Curtis and his colleagues will study coyote ecology and behavior in both urban and suburban areas of New York. A second phase of the study will survey public attitudes and behaviors relating to coyotes.

"We have to instill fear of people back into coyotes," said Curtis, noting that humans, too, need to change their habits.

Coyotes once ranged primarily in the northwest United States, but they are quick learners, resourceful and have adapted readily to the changes caused by human occupation. Coyotes have the breeding habits, diet and social dynamics to survive in a wide variety of habitats — everywhere from deserts and mountain tops to golf courses and city parks.

As a result, coyotes have steadily spread throughout the United States and Canada, replacing exterminated wolf populations in many places. Coyotes first showed up in New England and the Northeast in the 1930s and 1940s.

State officials estimate there are between 20,000 and 30,000 coyotes in New York. Coyotes live everywhere in the state — including New York City's five boroughs — except for Long Island, Batcheller said.

Fearful of being hunted and trapped, coyotes have typically stayed in wooded areas and away from humans, rarely presenting a danger. But in recent decades, coyotes have started foraging in suburban areas throughout the country, and attacks on people have been on the increase.

In California, researchers documented 89 coyote attacks on people between 1978 and 2003. One study estimated that there are 5,000 coyotes living within the city limits of Los Angeles, an area of 469 square miles. That's an average of about 11 coyotes per square mile.

Suburban sprawl has pushed residential developments to the brink of many wildland areas, giving coyotes a convenient place to find an abundance of rodents and rabbits, as well as a place to find water sources, pet food, household refuse — and occasionally, cats and small dogs as prey, Curtis said.

He added the frequency of conflict has coincided with a decline in control and harassment programs, either because of a lack of funding or for protection of the animal. Meanwhile, sport hunting and target shooting activities have disappeared as regions become increasingly urbanized, he said.

The combination has allowed coyotes to lose their fear of people and come to associate people with safe resource-rich environments, Curtis said.

"It's a serious problem when animals become habituated to people. As they lose their fear of people, they will become bolder in approaching people and may put themselves in hazardous situations they would normally avoid," Curtis said.

___

On the Net:

New York Department of Environmental Conservation: http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dfwmr/wildlife/wildgame/coyconfl.htm

Lesser panda standing on two legs charms Japanese zoo
Agence France Press, 19 May 2005

A lesser panda is proving a hit at a zoo near Tokyo as it can stand on two legs like a human being for about 10 seconds, an unusual feat for the species, zoo officials said.

The two-year-old male panda named Futa stands up several times a day when "it sees something interesting", said Hiroyuki Asano, an official of Chiba Zoological Park, southeast of the capital.

"We have kept lesser pandas for nearly 20 years at this zoo, but I have not seen one like Futa, which can stand for such a long time," Asano said.

"Futa is like an idol to his fans. I hope Futa will draw more and more visitors."

The furry, seven-kilogramme (15 pound) animal, whose natural habitat are the mountains of China and the Himalayas, was born in another zoo in central Japan. Unlike the black-and-white giant panda, the lesser panda has brown fur with a stripe on its tail.

Futa, fed fruits and bamboo every day, has a female mate, and the zoo hopes they will have a baby panda in the near future.

Abu Dhabi: 28 years of protecting houbara
Zayed was the first to declare houbara birds as endangered species
by Abdul Nasser Hahhar, Middle East Online, Abu Dhabi

The late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan was the first to sound the alarm bell and declare houbara birds as endangered species three decades ago, Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs has said.

In an editorial note in Al Saqqar Magazine, a specialized publication featuring falconry and other related issues, Sheikh Hamdan who is also Chairman of the UAE Falconers' Club recalled that Sheikh Zayed painted a graphic picture as to what would happened if adequate measures were not taken to avert the tragic extinction of the houbara species.

"It was indeed a blessing from God that we had a forthright visionary like Sheikh Zayed- may God have mercy upon his soul- who foresaw the threats besetting houbara and the consequential disappearance of our heritage if the houbra were allowed to disappear into oblivion", said Sheikh Hamdan.

He noted that Sheikh Zayed did not sit back to watch and leave the houbara to their fate, but rather set out to launch conservation projects. As a bird that he had known so closely from his own traditional milieu, Sheikh Zayed knew the importance of conserving the houbara species, hence the launch of world-class conservation projects.

"Without these projects, our knowledge of the bird, its habitat, migration route, breeding season, food and other data would have been inadequate indeed. But thanks to Sheikh Zayed captive breeding schemes which are today, not only a source of knowledge to us but also a source of pride" said Sheikh Hamdan.

Recounting the success story of the Abu Dhabi emirate in the area of houbara conservation, Sheikh Hamdan said this story dates 28 years back, specifically to 1977 in Al Ain Zoo where the conservation efforts began with just 7 Asian houbara species, which constituted the nucleus for the UAE houbara captive-breeding programme. Efforts to make the programme a success continued unabated until the first captive-bred Asian houbara hatched in 1982.

"That was a terrific and memorable moment. I vividly remember the moment when the news was broken to Sheikh Zayed and how elated he was to see his efforts coming into fruition", recalled Sheikh Hamdan. He pointed out that the first hatch was a landmark event in the conservation efforts of the UAE, with Sheikh Zayed becoming more determined to see that the UAE ecology had turned into a sanctuary and permanent habitat of the houbara.

It was at this juncture that a comprehensive strategy was evolved. The hallmark of this strategy was the establishment of the National Avian Research Centre (NARC), which today stands out as a beacon for houbara studies and research. NARC stands today as world renowned authority in houbara studies and been able to successfully developed its progarmme. It suffices to say that the centre was able to produce nearly 400 houbara bustards this season alone.

Describing NARC as a source of pride, Sheikh Hamdan added that scientific expertise of the centre has developed significantly as evident in its ability to produce houbara bustards prematurely, well before the beginning of the breeding season.

Sheikh Hamdan concluded by saying that the UAE houbara breeding programme stems from its deep commitment to preserve its indigenous heritage, of which houbara is an integral part.

"The houbara is expressive of a two-millennia tradition which has been handed down from one generation to the next", Sheikh Hamdan concluded.

The Young Family by Patricia Piccinini

....what Founder sought to avoid with Doctrine against interspecies breeding, when genetic engineering became possible in the 20th century.

Steve Vasconcellos & falcon Airiel [Gary Goldsmith/Daily Republic]

Keeping the skies gull free
by Barry Eberling, Daily Republic, 16 May 2005

FAIRFIELD - A 2-pound falcon named Airiel flew around Potrero Hills Landfill on a recent day to protect the 380-ton Travis Air Force Base C-5 Galaxy planes flying overhead.

This brown-and-white Saker falcon might seem a puny savior for a steel behemoth capable of transporting 345 soldiers. But Airiel scares away seagulls attracted by the dump's garbage. Bird strikes from a gull could damage even a C-5.

Trainer Steven Vasconcellos twirled a green tennis ball attached to a string as a signal and Airiel came in for a landing. The falcon perched on his gloved hand and gobbled down her reward: One of the many pheasant legs Vasconcellos keeps in a freezer.

"She's one of my sweethearts," Vasconcellos said. "She's just got a beautiful nature and I enjoy her."

The damage

A federal report records about 52,000 bird strikes on planes in the United States between 1990 and 2003. Photos in the report show the results: Crumpled plane noses and plane engines with mangled steel.

Solano County began taking a closer look last year at the threat posed to Travis planes by gulls. Base, county and landfill officials decided last fall to launch a falconry program.

Vasconcellos leads the team that scares away the seagulls. But he's quick to share the credit with his bird and animals partners.

There's Airiel, Raphael, Gabriel, Michaela and Barbara Jai, all falcons of Euro-Asian origin. They take periodic five- to 10-minutes flights over the dump, intimidating the gulls by their mere presence.

And there's Jessica and Tresbon, the dogs. These two energetic German wirehair pointers make certain the gulls don't find sanctuary on the ground.

"The basic philosophy is, don't allow the seagulls to rest or eat," said Vasconcellos, a Turlock resident who runs Wingmaster Falconry Services.

About 5,000 seagulls swarmed around the landfill when he started work in January, Vasconcellos said. Now, it's rare to see any. Despite all the potential snacks, seagulls have decided a day at the dump is no picnic.

"It's not rewarding," Vasconcellos said. "It takes too much energy."

A day at the dump

C-5s and other planes fly low over the dump. If the light is right, Vasconcellos can see the pilot in the cockpit, he said. Vasconcellos is glad to keep the seagulls out of the planes' air space.

Still, Vasconcellos doesn't view the gulls as the enemies. In fact, he praises them as intelligent, family orientated and great fliers. He just doesn't want to see them at Potrero Hills.

"I'm basically training the seagulls," he said.

He stood on a hill overlooking the landfill on a recent, warm spring day. The hills were green and purple wildflowers bloomed. A slight odor of garbage came from the garbage, very slight. This is as close to paradise as a day at the dump gets.

"I'm living the Life of Riley up here," Vasconcellos said. "But it hasn't always been so easy."

Not back in those cold, rainy, muddy days when the seagulls still had run of the dump. Vasconcellos and his team moved all over the landscape, making certain the seagulls never got a moment's rest. They worked from dawn to dusk.

Some days, Vasconcellos stood with his falcons on the face of the dump, the huge earthmovers making thunderous noise as they pushed piles of garbage a stone's throw away.

Where do the gulls go?

Suisun Resource Conservation District Executive Director Steve Chappell has a concern about the falcon program. He's afraid large numbers of seagulls attracted by the dump's garbage get scared by the falcons and go to Suisun Marsh.

"The big concern is they displace other resident populations that might be using those wetlands," Chappell said.

It's unclear where the gulls go. Chappell can't say for certain they're taking to the marsh. William Terry of Republic Services told the SRCD board that his company is willing to do a study.

Vasconcellos began training falcons in the 1970s, but started his Wingmaster business about four years ago. He also uses the falcons to do such things as keep fruit-eating birds away from crops.

He praised the falcons that have become part of his life.

"It's basically a privilege for me to work with such fine birds," Vasconcellos said. "They truly are part of my family."

He smiled and said, "Yada, yada, yada," realizing some people might think his words corny.

"But that's how I feel and that's the way it's got to be," Vasconcellos said.

[photo: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/Rothamsted Research]

Decoding Bees' Wild Waggle Dances
By Wendy M. Grossman, Wired News
Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,67494,00.html
02:00 AM May. 13, 2005 PT

A team of British scientists tracked honeybees by radar to solve an enduring controversy in zoology: whether bees communicate the source of food to each other by performing a waggle dance.

In the 1960s, Nobel Prize-winning Austrian zoologist Karl von Frisch proposed that bees use a coded dance to indicate the direction, distance and type of food to hive mates.

But although indirect evidence has supported von Frisch's theory, it has never been tested directly.

Bees certainly dance, but there is typically a time lag between performance of the dance and other bees' arrival at the food source. The time lag led scientists to suggest that the bees were actually finding the food on their own, possibly by following a scent or the original bee when it returned to the food source.

But now a team at Rothamsted Research, an agricultural research center, has tracked bees by radar as they flew to a food source.

"We've solved it for once and for all," said professor Joe Riley, the team leader.

After finding food, scout bees returning to the hive dance on the vertical walls of the honeycomb. A round dance indicates the food is very close, within 35 yards or less. A figure-eight pattern indicates that the food is farther away. The bee indicates the distance to the food by how long it dances; it indicates the food's richness by how vigorously it dances; and it indicates the food's direction by the angle the dance deviates from an imaginary line drawn from the current position of the sun to the dance floor. The code is complex and detailed.

The controversy, said Riley, was created by von Frisch himself when he said that recruits read the dance and flew directly to the food source.

But "they take five to 10 minutes, not one minute," said Riley.

Because of this discrepancy, opponents like Adrian Wenner have suggested that while the bees dance, it's not to convey information. Instead, he said bees are guided to the food source by odor conveyed by the scout bee.

Riley's team members have worked with radar tracking since 1996, when they were trying to help a British aid program in Zimbabwe control tsetse flies.

The team's results show that bees do read the dance and fly off immediately in the direction indicated. In addition, the bees correct for wind drift by looking at the ground and the angle of the sun and correcting any lateral shift.

But "they very rarely get it absolutely right," said Riley. "The mean error is about 5 to 6 meters."

Once the bees get to the end of the flight, they change their flight pattern and start circling, looking for the food they've been instructed to find. That takes time, Riley said, and bees can loop back and forth for up to 20 minutes.

"This is where the missing time went," said Riley.

When they near their destination, bees use odor to help find the food source. To make sure bees weren't following a scent, a control group of bees was transported 250 meters after seeing a waggle dance. When released, the bees flew off in the direction indicated by the dance, the team found.

To track bees by radar, the researchers first had to create a transponder small and light enough that a bee could carry it. It took approximately two years, Riley said, to come up with a system that worked efficiently and was small enough for the insect to carry. It had to be omnidirectional, and robust enough to survive being attached to the insect and to stay on during grooming. The final version weighs approximately 10 to 12 milligrams, a fraction of the pollen load bees are accustomed to carrying.

The final product, he said, "looks like a whisker with a lump in the middle" and is essentially a nonlinear antenna made of steel wire with a small chip in the middle. To attach the transponders to the bees, handlers stick them to the insects' backs as they leave the hive.

Once the bees are airborne, they are tracked by radar just the way you see in old movies: dots on a screen that are recorded and later converted to graphs. Because there are no batteries small enough to power them, the transponders derive power from the 20-kilowatt signal the radar sends out, replying with a new signal that identifies each transponder uniquely.

The work was published May 12 in Nature.

"It's a wonderful paper because the results are so clear and they did some very nifty controls," said Thomas Seeley, a biology professor at Cornell who peer-reviewed the paper for Nature.

But questions remain, said Seeley. "We don't know yet how a bee standing next to a dancer in the darkness of a beehive is able to get all this information from the dancer," he said. "And we also don't know how it evolved."