Bird Feeders Have Caused a Dramatic Evolution of California Hummingbirds (science.org) 40
Science magazine reports that hummingbird feeders "have become a major evolutionary force," according to research published this week in Global Change Biology. (At least for the Anna's hummingbird, a common species in the western U.S.
Over just a few generations, their beaks have dramatically changed in size and shape.... [A]s feeders proliferated, Anna's hummingbird beaks got longer and larger, which may reflect an adaptation to slurp up far more nectar than flowers can naturally provide. Developing a bigger beak to access feeders "is like having a large spoon to eat with," says senior author Alejandro Rico-Guevara, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Washington. This change was more pronounced in areas where feeders were dense. But in birds that lived in colder regions north of the species' historical range, the researchers spotted the opposite trend: Their beaks became shorter and smaller. This finding also makes sense: The researchers used an infrared camera to show for the first time that hummingbirds use their beaks to thermoregulate, by dissipating heat while they are perched. A smaller beak has less surface area — and would therefore help conserve heat...
The most surprising finding, though, was how quickly these changes took place. By the 1950s, hummingbirds were noticeably different from those of the 1930s: a time span of only about 10 generations of birds, Alexandre says.
Carleton University animal behaviorist Roslyn Dakin (who wasn't involved with the study) says the new paper beautifully shows "evolution in action" — and adds nuance to our conception of humans as an evolutionary force. "I think we're going to find more and more examples of contemporary and subtle changes, that we're shaping, indirectly, in many more species."
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader sciencehabit for sharing the article.
The most surprising finding, though, was how quickly these changes took place. By the 1950s, hummingbirds were noticeably different from those of the 1930s: a time span of only about 10 generations of birds, Alexandre says.
Carleton University animal behaviorist Roslyn Dakin (who wasn't involved with the study) says the new paper beautifully shows "evolution in action" — and adds nuance to our conception of humans as an evolutionary force. "I think we're going to find more and more examples of contemporary and subtle changes, that we're shaping, indirectly, in many more species."
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader sciencehabit for sharing the article.
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Hummingbird feeders are caused by global warming?
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Hummingbird feeders are caused by global warming?
Non-sequitur of the month.
Deer wandering cities (Score:1)
It's not just the birds.
We have lots of deer wandering through our city, which sets next to a huge expanse of national forest.
Occasionally mountain lions will come in, but for the most part they are very cautious about entering the city. Same with bears. There are bobcats but the deer travel in herds and bobcats will only go after very small deer that are unprotected.
So the deer have learned the city is relatively safe for them. Our deer are smart when it comes to cars, and have learned not to run in fro
OT: Manual sig Re: Deer wandering cities (Score:1)
Can I do a manual sig: I am a nonviolent antinatalist seeking by words and example alone to persuade you all not to have kids?
If this was what you intended to write, your manual sig attempt succeeded. If not, then proceed to troubleshoot it.
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Humanity doesn't have to be a cancer, we simply choose to be.
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People who think life is a disease or a mi
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I don't understand the point you're trying to make.
Re: Deer wandering cities (Score:1)
Why was Dr. Kevorkian arrested? Why was I handcuffed and institutionalized against my will after a suicide attempt? Why not liberalize suicide markets, my hypocritical highbrow?
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A couple of things you didn't mention is that my yard is now a minefi
Re: Deer wandering cities (Score:2)
Here in the UK all the big predators have gone and so the feral deer stay in the countryside but like where you are they eat everything. No young trees are safe and they effectively Hoover the forest floors. Also some farmers crops are fair game too.
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Re: Deer wandering cities (Score:1)
Why do you want to control plants so much that you are willing to use climate change as an excuse?
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That isn't evolution, that is capitalism at work. There is money to be made from deer hunting. So the departments of natural resources explicitly manage deer herds to best sustain herd size for hunters. In many places, people purposely manage land to attract deer by planting food crops for them.
In Minnesota, deer collisions with cars do hundreds of millions of dollars of damage every year. But the sizes of the herds along major transportation routes are managed for hunting. If wolves take a cow, the DNR pa
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Ideal herd size is about 1/3 where it's at today in any of the Great Lakes states. And for revenue, the DNR ought to double the price for buck tags and halve the price for doe tags. Healthy bucks that survive because of their fitness instead of bad luck running into a hunter, fewer does means lower deer population, and less TB, etc. Hunters have not had problems finding deer for decades now, most people are able to use all the tags they get.
Farmers where I grew up used to take deer all the time, in some (mo
Re: Deer wandering cities (Score:1)
Don't we overproduce hay, corn, soy and ship it overseas? How much of the deer problem is really a you problem?
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It is what it is, supporting the world population means some regions produce and export significantly more than they locally consume.
Charging a farmers fine for every deer that eats their corn would be a start. They don't like the loss, but it's not so much that it's worth spending a lot of money on stopping. More fencing helps somewhat. Other measures like electrified wire and deterrent help too. And state funded culls before each winter would dramatically improve the health of herds.
Re: Deer wandering cities (Score:1)
Why not cull humans instead and throw them into furnaces to power AI?
Training Humans (Score:5, Interesting)
Each Spring when I'm outside a female will buzz up to me and dart around me for a bit until I go grab the feeder and fill it up.
Not aggressively but they'll remind me too if I'm busy and am outside another day.
Impressively they return to their same summer areas each year with amazing precision. Usually when the tulips bloom so I keep an eye out once the daffodils are done.
Re: Training Humans (Score:1)
Ever seen them year after year at a remote campsite, still curious but not asking you to feed them?
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Yes! I've been approached by hummingbirds in the wilderness on more than one occasion. I also feed them, and have experienced the "Hi! we're here!" buzz when they first arrive, even though I usually have the feeders out several days before they arrive by monitoring the hummingbird migration map, but they are curious and seemingly interested in us for reasons other than sugar water. I usually get a "See you next year!" buzz before they leave in September too. I've observed them observing me while gardeni
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Re: Training Humans (Score:1)
Does it seem like each bird has a unique personality? Why are they so much better personalities than most hu-mans?
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Re: Training Humans (Score:1)
Remember that great pillar of the scientific community, Descartes?
âoeDescartes and his followers performed experiments in which they nailed animals by their paws onto boards and cut them open to reveal their beating hearts. They burned, scalded, and mutilated animals in every conceivable manner. When the animals reacted as though they were suffering pain, Descartes dismissed the reaction as no different from the sound of a machine that was functioning improperly. A crying dog, Descartes maintained, is
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the late Dr. Pournelle, lived in Los Angeles, and had several Humming Bird feeders
The Dr. Jerry P. from Byte magazine?
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uh, yeah (Score:5, Interesting)
contemporary and subtle changes, that we're shaping, indirectly, in many more species
We are the sixth mass extinction event
Trickle down effect..? (Score:4, Interesting)
Wonder how this trickles down - okay, so we know hummingbirds are changing, but what does that mean for the plant/flower species that evolved along with them, and originally lead to their beaks being that way?
Curious what's going to happen to those plants (presumably the hummingbirds won't be able to feed and pollinate them as they had), and what's down the line from that?
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Curious what's going to happen to those plants (presumably the hummingbirds won't be able to feed and pollinate them as they had)
Why would their beak becoming longer prevent them from putting it into a flower?
10 generations (Score:5, Informative)
An evolutionary change from selective pressure becoming evident over 10 generations seems to be a recurring theme. The silver fox, for example, was domesticated in about 10 generations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re:10 generations (Score:4, Informative)
The silver fox, for example, was domesticated in about 10 generations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Belyayev's foxes. I have a book about that: How to Tame a Fox (And Build a Dog), by Lee Alan Dugatkin and Lyudmila Trut. Belyayev was interested in Darwinian natural selection but had to work in secret, because Lysenkoism was the official policy of Stalin. (Obviously, everybody now knows that governments can't dictate biology ... right? Right?)
Coincidentally, Belyayev worked at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Novosibirsk, recently identified as the home of the "ringleaders of the DanaBot conspiracy".
Reportedly some of these domesticated foxes are being sold to help pay the costs of the research station, at somewhere around $10,000 each, plus import duties, specialized veterinary care, etc.
That was human-assisted artificial selection. There are also examples of rapid evolution due to natural selection, like the Blue Moon butterflies on a South Pacific island ("Evolution Occurs in the Blink of an Eye [livescience.com]", July 12, 2007): "The proportion of male Blue Moon butterflies dropped to a precarious 1 percent as the parasite targeted males. ... Then, within the span of a mere 10 generations, the males evolved an immunity that allowed their population share to soar to nearly 40 percent—all in less than a year."
And natural selection [livescience.com] selected Burmese pythons resistant to cold. This is my favorite part: "the frozen iguanas that dropped out of trees".
The males can be extremely territorial too (Score:2)