Saturday, August 16, 2014

The first thing we do, let's kill all the humans

Not really, obvs, but cheese and rice, sometimes a blurb will make your knee jerk.

Salmon, once nearly extinct on part of the Columbia River, are recovering, to the delight of birds. As a result, those charged with protecting the fish have a new plan: shoot the birds.

(story link)

4 comments:

TC said...

You probably know that to stay alive a commorant has to eat a minimum of 14 times it's body weight every day.

bjkeefe said...

I did not know that.

I have to say that that number seems high. Here, for example, is a fairly authoritative-sounding article that concludes a vivid description of the cormorant's technique by saying, "An honest half-hour of fishing will likely yield his daily catch, which has been documented by autopsies revealing as many as eight fish totaling up to two pounds, some of them 16 inches long."

Since the bird is described as three feet tall, I find it hard to believe it only weighs a couple of ounces.

TC said...

I can't remember where I read that, but I did an internet search as you did and discovered that there are 40 species of cormorant. I've never seen one 3 feet tall. The ones around here are about a foot tall. I also thought they fish and eat all day rather just in the morning as the citation you quoted says. That may only apply to the double crested ones that the article was talking about. Who knows it may just be BS. BTW I like the new anti-robot test better than the squiggly letters.

bjkeefe said...

I have often read that some birds need to eat their body weight every day. Maybe hummingbirds was what you had in mind?

Glad the new CAPTCHA is less onerous. I think I've seen the one you're talking about on other blogs (I don't see one when I', logged into my own blog), and yes, I agree: it's easier. For humans, at least.

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