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The bird population on the Berkeley campus has remained surprisingly diverse over the past 100 years, showing that it’s possible to create a green wildlife haven within a dense urban area, researchers say.
Tag: birds
Same-sex zebra finches just as faithful as their hetero counterparts
August 16, 2011:
A study of zebra finches shows that songbirds in same-sex relationships are just as faithful to one another as those paired with opposite-sex partners. The study’s findings, published in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, suggest that relationships between animals are not just limited to procreation, according to UC Berkeley psychologist Julie Elie.
Researchers evaluate safety of netting birds
July 12, 2011:
The first large-scale study evaluating the safety of a bird-capture technique widely used in wildlife research finds that mist netting is largely safe. The study, led by UC Berkeley researchers, found that injury and mortality occurred in only a fraction of one percent among 620,997 captures.
Mercury levels have risen in Pacific albatross over last century
April 19, 2011:
While at Harvard and now UC Berkeley, graduate student Anh-Thu Elaine Vo analyzed museum specimens of the black-footed albatross to see if she could track historical levels of methylmercury, a toxic chemical produced by humans. She showed that the bird’s feathers contain levels consistent with the global increase in mercury emissions since 1880.
