Kea Bird Of Paradox

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Kea, Bird of Paradox

Author : Judy Diamond
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520920805
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (29 download)

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Book Synopsis Kea, Bird of Paradox by : Judy Diamond

Download or read book Kea, Bird of Paradox written by Judy Diamond and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1999-01-10 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The kea, a crow-sized parrot that lives in the rugged mountains of New Zealand, is considered by some a playful comic and by others a vicious killer. Its true character is a mystery that biologists have debated for more than a century. Judy Diamond and Alan Bond have written a comprehensive account of the kea's contradictory nature, and their conclusions cast new light on the origins of behavioral flexibility and the problem of species survival in human environments everywhere. New Zealand's geological remoteness has made the country home to a bizarre assemblage of plants and animals that are wholly unlike anything found elsewhere. Keas are native only to the South Island, breeding high in the rigorous, unforgiving environment of the Southern Alps. Bold, curious, and ingeniously destructive, keas have a complex social system that includes extensive play behavior. Like coyotes, crows, and humans, keas are "open-program" animals with an unusual ability to learn and to create new solutions to whatever problems they encounter. Diamond and Bond present the kea's story from historical and contemporary perspectives and include observations from their years of field work. A comparison of the kea's behavior and ecology with that of its closest relative, the kaka of New Zealand's lowland rain forests, yields insights into the origins of the kea's extraordinary adaptability. The authors conclude that the kea's high level of sociality is a key factor in the flexible lifestyle that probably evolved in response to the alpine habitat's unreliable food resources and has allowed the bird to survive the extermination of much of its original ecosystem. But adaptability has its limits, as the authors make clear when describing present-day interactions between keas and humans and the attempts to achieve a peaceful coexistence.

Birds of Paradox

Author : Jack Pollard
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (43 download)

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Book Synopsis Birds of Paradox by : Jack Pollard

Download or read book Birds of Paradox written by Jack Pollard and published by . This book was released on 1967 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

On the Nature of Ecological Paradox

Author : Michael Charles Tobias
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030645266
Total Pages : 894 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (36 download)

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Book Synopsis On the Nature of Ecological Paradox by : Michael Charles Tobias

Download or read book On the Nature of Ecological Paradox written by Michael Charles Tobias and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 894 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work is a large, powerfully illustrated interdisciplinary natural sciences volume, the first of its kind to examine the critically important nature of ecological paradox, through an abundance of lenses: the biological sciences, taxonomy, archaeology, geopolitical history, comparative ethics, literature, philosophy, the history of science, human geography, population ecology, epistemology, anthropology, demographics, and futurism. The ecological paradox suggests that the human biological–and from an insular perspective, successful–struggle to exist has come at the price of isolating H. sapiens from life-sustaining ecosystem services, and far too much of the biodiversity with which we find ourselves at crisis-level odds. It is a paradox dating back thousands of years, implicating millennia of human machinations that have been utterly ruinous to biological baselines. Those metrics are examined from numerous multidisciplinary approaches in this thoroughly original work, which aids readers, particularly natural history students, who aspire to grasp the far-reaching dimensions of the Anthropocene, as it affects every facet of human experience, past, present and future, and the rest of planetary sentience. With a Preface by Dr. Gerald Wayne Clough, former Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and President Emeritus of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Foreword by Robert Gillespie, President of the non-profit, Population Communication.

The Bird Way

Author : Jennifer Ackerman
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0735223033
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (352 download)

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Book Synopsis The Bird Way by : Jennifer Ackerman

Download or read book The Bird Way written by Jennifer Ackerman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Birds, a radical investigation into the bird way of being, and the recent scientific research that is dramatically shifting our understanding of birds -- how they live and how they think. “There is the mammal way and there is the bird way.” But the bird way is much more than a unique pattern of brain wiring, and lately, scientists have taken a new look at bird behaviors they have, for years, dismissed as anomalies or mysteries –– What they are finding is upending the traditional view of how birds conduct their lives, how they communicate, forage, court, breed, survive. They are also revealing the remarkable intelligence underlying these activities, abilities we once considered uniquely our own: deception, manipulation, cheating, kidnapping, infanticide, but also ingenious communication between species, cooperation, collaboration, altruism, culture, and play. Some of these extraordinary behaviors are biological conundrums that seem to push the edges of, well, birdness: a mother bird that kills her own infant sons, and another that selflessly tends to the young of other birds as if they were her own; a bird that collaborates in an extraordinary way with one species—ours—but parasitizes another in gruesome fashion; birds that give gifts and birds that steal; birds that dance or drum, that paint their creations or paint themselves; birds that build walls of sound to keep out intruders and birds that summon playmates with a special call—and may hold the secret to our own penchant for playfulness and the evolution of laughter. Drawing on personal observations, the latest science, and her bird-related travel around the world, from the tropical rainforests of eastern Australia and the remote woodlands of northern Japan, to the rolling hills of lower Austria and the islands of Alaska’s Kachemak Bay, Jennifer Ackerman shows there is clearly no single bird way of being. In every respect, in plumage, form, song, flight, lifestyle, niche, and behavior, birds vary. It is what we love about them. As E.O Wilson once said, when you have seen one bird, you have not seen them all.

Parrots

Author : Matt Cameron
Publisher : JHU Press
ISBN 13 : 1421405431
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (214 download)

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Book Synopsis Parrots by : Matt Cameron

Download or read book Parrots written by Matt Cameron and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2012-09 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The beautiful plumage of parrots and the ability to mimic sounds are both a blessing and a curse.

Parrots of the Wild

Author : Catherine A. Toft
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520239253
Total Pages : 366 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (22 download)

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Book Synopsis Parrots of the Wild by : Catherine A. Toft

Download or read book Parrots of the Wild written by Catherine A. Toft and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2015-11-16 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A synthetic account of the diversity and ecology of wild parrots, distilling knowledge from the author's own research and from her review of more than 2,400 published scientific studies. The text covers parrots' evolutionary history, foraging, mating, and social behavior, innate intelligence, and conservation status. The book is enhanced by an array of illustrations, including photos of parrots taken exclusively in their natural habitat"--Provided by publisher.

Thinking like a Parrot

Author : Alan B. Bond
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022624881X
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (262 download)

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Book Synopsis Thinking like a Parrot by : Alan B. Bond

Download or read book Thinking like a Parrot written by Alan B. Bond and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2019-07-02 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From two experts on wild parrot cognition, a close look at the intelligence, social behavior, and conservation of these widely threatened birds. People form enduring emotional bonds with other animal species, such as dogs, cats, and horses. For the most part, these are domesticated animals, with one notable exception: many people form close and supportive relationships with parrots, even though these amusing and curious birds remain thoroughly wild creatures. What enables this unique group of animals to form social bonds with people, and what does this mean for their survival? In Thinking like a Parrot, Alan B. Bond and Judy Diamond look beyond much of the standard work on captive parrots to the mischievous, inquisitive, and astonishingly vocal parrots of the wild. Focusing on the psychology and ecology of wild parrots, Bond and Diamond document their distinctive social behavior, sophisticated cognition, and extraordinary vocal abilities. Also included are short vignettes—field notes on the natural history and behavior of both rare and widely distributed species, from the neotropical crimson-fronted parakeet to New Zealand’s flightless, ground-dwelling kakapo. This composite approach makes clear that the behavior of captive parrots is grounded in the birds’ wild ecology and evolution, revealing that parrots’ ability to bond with people is an evolutionary accident, a by-product of the intense sociality and flexible behavior that characterize their lives. Despite their adaptability and intelligence, however, nearly all large parrot species are rare, threatened, or endangered. To successfully manage and restore these wild populations, Bond and Diamond argue, we must develop a fuller understanding of their biology and the complex set of ecological and behavioral traits that has led to their vulnerability. Spanning the global distribution of parrot species, Thinking like a Parrot is rich with surprising insights into parrot intelligence, flexibility, and—even in the face of threats—resilience.

The Genius of Birds

Author : Jennifer Ackerman
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0399563121
Total Pages : 354 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (995 download)

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Book Synopsis The Genius of Birds by : Jennifer Ackerman

Download or read book The Genius of Birds written by Jennifer Ackerman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-04-11 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Lovely, celebratory. For all the belittling of ‘bird brains,’ [Ackerman] shows them to be uniquely impressive machines . . .” —New York Times Book Review “A lyrical testimony to the wonders of avian intelligence.” —Scientific American An award-winning science writer tours the globe to reveal what makes birds capable of such extraordinary feats of mental prowess Birds are astonishingly intelligent creatures. According to revolutionary new research, some birds rival primates and even humans in their remarkable forms of intelligence. In The Genius of Birds, acclaimed author Jennifer Ackerman explores their newly discovered brilliance and how it came about. As she travels around the world to the most cutting-edge frontiers of research, Ackerman not only tells the story of the recently uncovered genius of birds but also delves deeply into the latest findings about the bird brain itself that are shifting our view of what it means to be intelligent. At once personal yet scientific, richly informative and beautifully written, The Genius of Birds celebrates the triumphs of these surprising and fiercely intelligent creatures. Ackerman is also the author of Birds by the Shore: Observing the Natural Life of the Atlantic Coast.

Kingdom of Play

Author : David Toomey
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1982154462
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (821 download)

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Book Synopsis Kingdom of Play by : David Toomey

Download or read book Kingdom of Play written by David Toomey and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2024-03-19 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For readers of Inside of a Dog and The Soul of an Octopus, a fascinating, charming, and revelatory look at the science behind why animals play that shows how life—at its most fundamental level—is playful. In Kingdom of Play, critically acclaimed science writer David Toomey takes us on a fast-paced and entertaining tour of playful animals and the scientists who study them. From octopuses on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to meerkats in the Kalahari Desert to brown bears on Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, we follow adventurous researchers as they design and conduct experiments seeking answers to new, intriguing questions: When did play first appear in animals? How does play develop the brain, and how did it evolve? Are the songs and aerial acrobatics of birds the beginning of avian culture? Is fairness in dog play the foundation of canine ethics? And does play direct and possibly accelerate evolution? Monkeys belly-flop, dolphins tail-walk, elephants mud-slide, crows dive-bomb, and octopuses bounce balls. These activities are various, but all are play, and as Toomey explains, animal play can be seen as a distinct behavior—one that is ongoing and open-ended, purposeless and provisional—rather like natural selection. Through a close examination of both natural selection and play, Toomey argues that life itself is fundamentally playful. A globe-spanning journey and a scientific detective story filled with lively animal anecdotes, Kingdom of Play is an illuminating—and yes, playful—look at a little-known aspect of the animal kingdom.

The Creative Lives of Animals

Author : Carol Gigliotti
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 1479815462
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (798 download)

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Book Synopsis The Creative Lives of Animals by : Carol Gigliotti

Download or read book The Creative Lives of Animals written by Carol Gigliotti and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2022-11-22 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2023 Nautilus Book Award in the category of Animals & Nature The surprising, fascinating, and remarkable ways that animals use creativity to thrive in their habitats Most of us view animals through a very narrow lens, seeing only bits and pieces of beings that seem mostly peripheral to our lives. However, whether animals are building a shelter, seducing a mate, or inventing a new game, animals’ creative choices affect their social, cultural, and environmental worlds. The Creative Lives of Animals offers readers intimate glimpses of creativity in the lives of animals, from elephants to alligators to ants. Drawing on a growing body of scientific research, Carol Gigliotti unpacks examples of creativity demonstrated by animals through the lens of the creative process, an important component of creative behavior, and offers new thinking on animal intelligence, emotion, and self-awareness. With examples of the elaborate dams built by beavers or the lavishly decorated bowers of bowerbirds, Gigliotti provides a new perspective on animals as agents in their own lives, as valuable contributors to their world and ours, and as guides in understanding how creativity may contribute to conserving the natural world. Presenting a powerful argument for the importance of recognizing animals as individuals and as creators of a healthy, biodiverse world, this book offers insights into both the established and emerging questions about the creativity of animals.

Bird Minds

Author : Gisela Kaplan
Publisher : CSIRO PUBLISHING
ISBN 13 : 1486300197
Total Pages : 279 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (863 download)

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Book Synopsis Bird Minds by : Gisela Kaplan

Download or read book Bird Minds written by Gisela Kaplan and published by CSIRO PUBLISHING. This book was released on 2015-08-03 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In her comprehensive and carefully crafted book, Gisela Kaplan demonstrates how intelligent and emotional Australian birds can be. She describes complex behaviours such as grieving, deception, problem solving and the use of tools. Many Australian birds cooperate and defend each other, and exceptional ones go fishing by throwing breadcrumbs in the water, extract poisonous parts from prey and use tools to crack open eggshells and mussels. The author brings together evidence of many such cognitive abilities, suggesting plausible reasons for their appearance in Australian birds. Bird Minds is the first attempt to shine a critical and scientific light on the cognitive behaviour of Australian land birds. In this fascinating volume, the author also presents recent changes in our understanding of the avian brain and links these to life histories and longevity. Following on from Gisela’s well-received books on the Australian Magpie and the Tawny Frogmouth, as well as two earlier titles on birds, Bird Minds contends that the unique and often difficult conditions of Australia's environment have been crucial for the evolution of unusual complexities in avian cognition and behaviour.

Animal Creativity and Innovation

Author :
Publisher : Academic Press
ISBN 13 : 0128007133
Total Pages : 539 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (28 download)

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Book Synopsis Animal Creativity and Innovation by :

Download or read book Animal Creativity and Innovation written by and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2015-10-29 with total page 539 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Animal Creativity and Innovation explores theories and research on animal innovation and creativity, comparing and contrasting it with theory and research on human creativity and innovation. In doing so, it encompasses findings from psychology, biology, neuroscience, engineering, business, ecology, and education. The book includes examples of animal innovation in parrots, dogs, marine mammals, insects, and primates, exploring parallels from creative play in children. The book defines creativity, differentiating it from play, and looks at evolutionary models and neurological constructs. The book further explores applied aspects of animal innovation and creativity including tool use and group dynamics, as well as barriers to creativity. The final chapters look into how creative behavior may be taught or trained. Each chapter is followed by a commentary for integration of thoughts and ideas between animal and human research, behavioral and cognitive research, and theory and observation in real life. - Compares theory and research on animal and human creativity - Defines and differentiates creativity from play - Reviews applied creativity in tool use and social dynamics - Includes examples of animal creativity in multiple species

Thinking like a Parrot

Author : Alan B. Bond
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022624878X
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (262 download)

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Book Synopsis Thinking like a Parrot by : Alan B. Bond

Download or read book Thinking like a Parrot written by Alan B. Bond and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2019-07-02 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From two experts on wild parrot cognition, a close look at the intelligence, social behavior, and conservation of these widely threatened birds. People form enduring emotional bonds with other animal species, such as dogs, cats, and horses. For the most part, these are domesticated animals, with one notable exception: many people form close and supportive relationships with parrots, even though these amusing and curious birds remain thoroughly wild creatures. What enables this unique group of animals to form social bonds with people, and what does this mean for their survival? In Thinking like a Parrot, Alan B. Bond and Judy Diamond look beyond much of the standard work on captive parrots to the mischievous, inquisitive, and astonishingly vocal parrots of the wild. Focusing on the psychology and ecology of wild parrots, Bond and Diamond document their distinctive social behavior, sophisticated cognition, and extraordinary vocal abilities. Also included are short vignettes—field notes on the natural history and behavior of both rare and widely distributed species, from the neotropical crimson-fronted parakeet to New Zealand’s flightless, ground-dwelling kākāpō. This composite approach makes clear that the behavior of captive parrots is grounded in the birds’ wild ecology and evolution, revealing that parrots’ ability to bond with people is an evolutionary accident, a by-product of the intense sociality and flexible behavior that characterize their lives. Despite their adaptability and intelligence, however, nearly all large parrot species are rare, threatened, or endangered. To successfully manage and restore these wild populations, Bond and Diamond argue, we must develop a fuller understanding of their biology and the complex set of ecological and behavioral traits that has led to their vulnerability. Spanning the global distribution of parrot species, Thinking like a Parrot is rich with surprising insights into parrot intelligence, flexibility, and—even in the face of threats—resilience.

Islands Magazine

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 184 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Islands Magazine by :

Download or read book Islands Magazine written by and published by . This book was released on 1999-03 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Cognitive Ecology II

Author : Reuven Dukas
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226169375
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (261 download)

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Book Synopsis Cognitive Ecology II by : Reuven Dukas

Download or read book Cognitive Ecology II written by Reuven Dukas and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-11-15 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Merging evolutionary ecology and cognitive science, cognitive ecology investigates how animal interactions with natural habitats shape cognitive systems, and how constraints on nervous systems limit or bias animal behavior. Research in cognitive ecology has expanded rapidly in the past decade, and this second volume builds on the foundations laid out in the first, published in 1998. Cognitive Ecology II integrates numerous scientific disciplines to analyze the ecology and evolution of animal cognition. The contributors cover the mechanisms, ecology, and evolution of learning and memory, including detailed analyses of bee neurobiology, bird song, and spatial learning. They also explore decision making, with mechanistic analyses of reproductive behavior in voles, escape hatching by frog embryos, and predation in the auditory domain of bats and eared insects. Finally, they consider social cognition, focusing on alarm calls and the factors determining social learning strategies of corvids, fish, and mammals. With cognitive ecology ascending to its rightful place in behavioral and evolutionary research, this volume captures the promise that has been realized in the past decade and looks forward to new research prospects.

The Rational Animal

Author : Ludwig Huber
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3031608038
Total Pages : 373 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (316 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rational Animal by : Ludwig Huber

Download or read book The Rational Animal written by Ludwig Huber and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Raptors

Author : Keith L. Bildstein
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 150170785X
Total Pages : 302 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (17 download)

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Book Synopsis Raptors by : Keith L. Bildstein

Download or read book Raptors written by Keith L. Bildstein and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-02 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Raptors are formally classified into five families and include birds—such as eagles, ospreys, kites, true hawks, buzzards, harriers, vultures, and falcons—that are familiar and recognized by many observers. These diurnal birds of prey are found on every continent except Antarctica and can thrive in seemingly inhospitable spots such as deserts and the tundra. They have powerful talons and hooked beaks for cutting and tearing meat, and keen binocular vision to aid in their hunting prowess. Because of their large size, distinctive feeding habits, and long-distance flight patterns, raptors intrigue humans and have been the subject of much general interest as well as extensive scientific research. Keith L. Bildstein has watched and studied raptors on five continents and is well prepared to explain their critical importance, not only as ecological entities but also as inspirational tokens across natural and human-dominated landscapes. His book offers a comprehensive and accessible account of raptors, including their evolutionary history, their relationships to other groups of birds, their sensory abilities, their general natural history, their breeding ecology and feeding behavior, and threats to their survival in a human-dominated world. Biologically sound but readable, Raptors is a nontechnical overview of this captivating group. It will allow naturalists, birders, hawk-watchers, science educators, schoolchildren, and the general public, along with new students in the field of raptor biology, to understand and appreciate these birds, and in so doing better protect them.