City Slicker Birds Shun Their Country Cousins

According to scientists, city Great Tits prefer other city Great Tits over country Great Tits. (Lets act like adults). The researchers found that the city dwellers responded more strongly to songs of fellow city dwellers and the same held true for the bumpkins. The average minimum pitch of male Great Tit songs in noisy urban areas was higher than in quieter, rural areas just a few miles away. Dr Rupert Marshall, of Aberystwyth University, Wales, and his team recorded bird song in 20 different cities in Britain. He says, "People speak louder and higher in noisy places like pubs and bars but still recognise their friends' voices once they go outside. Great tits seem to learn the high notes from their neighbours but don't respond as strongly to lower rural tones even when it's quiet."

New niches - Specialization - Sub Species

[Co0Ps]

It's interesting how human urbanization affects the behavior of animals, creating new niches and possibly new sub species as in this case. Once at a large parking lot I saw small birds jumping up and eating the insects that got stuck on the cars registration signs and windshields. Apparently, they had specialized in this, cleaning out new cars that got parked. In the future, we will probably have a set of animals that are completly dependant of the urban environment and human activities.

Re:Better Idea

[Rei]

I prefer to round-trip [bbs2.hk] them until they stabilize ;) Greek has fun with capitalization. Japanese goes off on a tangent about milk. Korean has a funny second cycle. The hebrew translation gets really excited.