Common cranes are making a remarkable comeback in Britain

The common crane disappeared from Britain for about 300 years. But around 1979 it returned. Now, reports show that 2021 was the best breeding season since the 17th century, with about 40 chicks reared. Conservationists are happy that their efforts are succeeding.

Common cranes are the tallest birds in the UK. The first record of them reappearing was in the Norfolk Broads. Throughout the years, endless conservation efforts have been taken. From restoring wetlands to reintroducing cranes. Initially with limited success, but over time with ever more associations and trusts joining, the success rates improved, such as with the Great Crane Project.

The common crane population is now at its highest level since its return, with about 200 birds.

Hope for New Zealand’s kiwi population

The most rewarding moment for conservationists is when they notice that their conservation actions lead to success. Something that recently happened to all those working on the conservation of New Zealand’s kiwis. After years of decline the most recent numbers are showing a different, positive trend for the kiwis.

Out of the five kiwi species, the North Island brown kiwi is doing best. With a population of about 20.000, their status was reclassified as “no longer threatened”. A very hopeful sign.

A huge amount of conservation efforts were performed to save the kiwis. From hatching eggs in captivity and releasing them later in the wild, up to keeping dogs restrained, something that has asked a lot of community involvement. An extra positive feature is that the conservation efforts for the kiwis have had beneficial effects on other species as well, with a significant drop in the amount of “threatened-nationally critical” species.

Picture credits: Stewart Nimmo, CC License.

Why do ducklings swim in a row behind their mother?

We have all noticed how a group of ducklings swims in a straight row behind their mother. A recent science publication now explains why that is the case.

When the ducklings swim behind their mother, they are in the flow of the waves that were stirred up by the mother. As such, this position is the one where they can save most energy. The scientists made all kinds of computer models, and calculated that a duckling swimming just on its own has to use 158% more energy than the one using the right spot behind the mother, benefiting from the waves she creates.

By following the right order, each duckling than again creates the beneficial situation to the next one in the row. Basically ducklings are understanding quite complicated physics rules, without ever having attended a class.

African penguins can recognize voices and faces of other penguins

A recently published science article* comes with a surprising find. African penguins can recognize voices and faces of other penguins. Except for crows, this is a unique feature in the bird kingdom.

The scientists set up an experiment, where they would have 2 penguins in a room, and then let one leave. They would play previously recorded audios of penguin sounds, and then check if the reactions were any different if that sound came from the penguin that just left, or from another one.

They came to the conclusion that the African penguins did seem able to match faces and sounds together, something requiring the penguins to form an internal visualization of the other individuals, a sign of having a cognitive function of the higher order. As it requires the ability to join stimuli that enter their brain from different senses, into one joint information source.

*Source: Baciadonna, L, et al. (2021). Cross-modal individual recognition in the African penguin and the effect of partnership. Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Musk ducks might swear at you

Scientists were taken by surprise after the discovery of a 34 year old duck sound recording, which showed a musk duck swearing out loud. It aren’t only parrots that can imitate sounds from other species, some other birds can do so too.

The vocal capacities of ducks have been a bit overlooked in science. But thanks to the research article* recently published, a new interesting world opens up. On the 34y.o. recordings the musk duck swears out loud “you bloody fool”, something he clearly must imitate from a human. The duck also imitated the sound of a slamming door, and was capable of learning vocal expressions similar to songsbirds and parrots. The researchers also found other musk ducks imitating human sounds, such as two musk ducks copying coughing sounds.

Many scientists are surprised by the findings. So next time you hear someone swearing at you, check if it isn’t a musk duck.

*Source: ten Cate, C.; Fullagar, P.J. (2021). Vocal imitations and production learning by Australian musk ducks. Philosophical transactions of the royal society B.

Picture credits: John Harrison, unchanged, CC License.

Birds can change their cultural traditions when newcomes arrive

Culture, traditions and immigration are often a heated debate among humans. But we are not the only species facing these subjects. Cultural traditions, a set of how we do things that is shared among generations, is seen among various species. An experimental study* among great tits now confirmed that they can change their cultural traditions if these are less efficient than other behaviours.

Birds have several cultural traditions, such as the way to find food, that are spread among their groups, or even among the entire population. In this study the researchers experimented with a puzzle, which led to a food reward. In the group where some birds were replaced with newcomers, the puzzle was solved faster, as they were adopting the more efficient solution faster.

It shows how great tits are flexible in their behaviour, if a more efficient behaviour comes up. This might be one of the reasons why they perform good in a human-dominated environment, an environment that requires a lot of flexibility.

*Source: Chimento et al. (2021). Population turnover facilitates cultural selection for efficiency in birds. Current Biology.

Hope for the endangered African penguin

Many people travelling to Cape Town in South Africa visit the bays where African penguins can be spotted. But the species is endangered and the numbers are going down rapidly. From 300.000 pairs in the 50’ies, to only 13.000 nowadays. A major problem is the lack of food, as fish stocks shift away and penguins enter in competition with fisheries. For the African penguins it is hard to follow the “fish route”, as safe breeding sites are scarce.

But there is good news. A project from BirdLife South Africa, CapeNature and the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds identified an interesting spot for a new penguin colony: The Hoop nature reserve (quite a fitting name in this case). They built a fence for safety against predators and hand-reared several penguins. And in june 2021 the first 30 African penguins were released into the wild! The project hopes that this is just the start of many more African penguins being released in this reserve, an area where food for them is plenty.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

Ravens have similar cognitive skills as chimpanzees and orang-utans

It is well known that the intelligence of ravens is quite extraordinary, but a recently published article comes with evidence-based findings. The cognitive skills of four-months old ravens are very similar to those of chimpanzees and orang-utans.

The researchers tested these cognitive performances among a range of tasks. These included understading numbers, spatial memory, object permanence, communication with humans and others. The tasks were performed at the age of 4, 8, 12 and 16 months. The cognitive skills didn’t change much between the period of 4 to 16 months, which means the ravens develop their skills at an early age. For the spatial memory task they performed somewhat different than the great apes, but for social cognition (communication, social learning, theory of mind) and physical cognition (quantities and causality) they performed very alike to chimpanzees and orang-utans.

These findings show how ravens have highly developed intelligence skills, and this will hopefully lead to further research on the topic.

*Source: Pika et al. (2020). Ravens parallel great apes in physical and social cognitive skills. Scientific Reports 10.