Our Moral Responsibility to our Evolutionary Cousins; Birds

Humans have been on this Earth for an estimated 200,000 years. That sounds like a long time but compared to our avian cousins, it’s only a blink of an eye. The modern birds had an origin date close to around 60 million years ago (Goudarzi). It is interesting that for such an extended period of time that these birds have prospered but recently within the past century, their numbers have been compromised. The more humans industrialize and urbanize, the more that they struggle to survive. It’s important that we examine how our actions affect the ecosystem and other species. Why should we pay so much attention to birds in our world? A misconception that many use to separate themselves from their actions is that these animals aren’t aware of their environments anyways and therefore no energy should be spent making their lives better. Another view is that humans are always a priority and any other species is just in the way. We as humans are the only species that can change the landscape and use up resources on a large scale. This does give us a lot of power. Shouldn’t this amount of power also be attached to a proportionate amount of responsibility? (Franzen). We live so leisurely that we should be able to sacrifice just a little for the sake of our neighboring species on this Earth. The view that we are vastly more intelligent than these animals, or more specifically birds is actually a misconception as well as the view that they are unaware of their environment. The literature around the community of researchers aims to dispel these views and to show that these animals are actually very comparable to humans and that we are responsible to minimize our effect on these species. 

 

Review of Literature

First, I will begin by reviewing the research to dispel the misconception that birds are unintelligent and unaware of their environment. Some of this misconception comes from the fact that birds have very small brains in comparison to ours. Size is generally used to assume intelligence but if it was always true that bigger brains mean more intelligence, then the blue whale would be the most intelligent animal on Earth. While these birds have small brains in comparison to ours, their brain is large in proportion to their body and this could be a factor to their intelligence. On the subject of animal intelligence, it should be known that there is a lot of push back from the scientific community as it won’t allow a researcher to declare animals feel emotion without accusing them of being “overly anthropomorphic” (McCoy). This next article has used a technique from human psychology to try to “measure” emotion.

Graduate student at Harvard, Dakota McCoy found some evidence that New Caledonian Crows showing a positive affective state, or optimism, after having used tools to acquire food.  The test used is called a cognitive bias test. Cognitive bias is a term used to describe a mental phenomenon in which people will approach the same situation differently based on past experience (Cherry). An example is if someone refuses to eat certain foods because they got food poisoning the first time they tried it or they refuse to pet dogs because they were attacked by a chihuahua as a child. A cognitive bias test is just to simply expose the subject to a stimulus, good or bad, and measure their response to a situation afterwards. In this specific test, McCoy and others found that after using tools, crows would act more optimistically. The crows were presented with a box in one of three different spots on a table. When the box was in one of two positions, the researchers would put more or less meat inside. The third position was an ambiguous box and the researcher would measure the birds latency to this final box and a quicker approach time would imply a positive affective state. Researchers put the subjects through four conditions and measured their approach time to the ambiguous box. The first two conditions are: using a tool to acquire the food (tool), and simply using their beaks to get the food (no tool). The researchers believed that the increased effort of tool use might affect the results, so they created two other conditions to measure the latency between high and low effort. The second two conditions are: subjects grabbing four pieces of meat right off the table in front of them (easy), and flying around to four corners of the room to grab four identical pieces of meat (effort). The following box plots show the subjects’ latencies to approach the ambiguous box after each of the conditions (McCoy 3).

The most impactful conclusion of this study is, “a complex, species-specific activity performed by the animals themselves - can improve the affective state of animals.

A signal of intelligence as a species is its ability to cooperate by socializing and solving problems together. Amanda Seed, Nathan J. Emery, and Nicola S. Clayton found evidence that rooks, a bird species in the corvid family, are able to do this. The test involves an unreachable platform with a reward on top and in order to reach the reward, two rooks would need to pull on a string together at the same time to drop the platform and retrieve the food. If only one pulled, then the string would unthread itself and they wouldn’t be able to reach the reward. The rooks were able to reach the reward most of the time and even more impressive, they did it without any training. It’s amazing that somehow the birds were able to communicate to reach a common goal. These rooks were also not unfamiliar with sharing their rewards. It was said that, “Unlike chimpanzees, and similar to bonobos… a single rook rarely monopolized all of the food in the food-sharing tests; instead, all of the rook pairs were able to feed within at least two of the three trials,” (Seed 1424). These birds are able to share and cooperate to solve problems which is also seen among chimpanzees, which are already recognized as intelligent creatures and they are protected. So why not birds?
 

Problems

Birds are an incredible species, one that has survived for longer than humans have ever existed and some species of birds are actually now dieing. Much of this is due to humans. Our progress is their demise. Our introduction of things like invasive species, introduction of wind turbines, and human manipulation of their environments are stressing the survivability of these graceful animals. Now as we’ve discussed in another section of this essay, these birds do have a high level of intelligence and it is very possible for these animals to be aware of their own environment. We’ve established that they are able to be in a biased state of mind, evidence to the claim that animals and birds, like humans, display emotion. While there is a level of deniability that they experience these emotions on a much smaller scale, Dr. Richard Ryder, a psychologist and philosopher, claims that it is irrelevant (McAnallen 57- 1:00). He argues that alleged difference between humans and animals (autonomy, religion, more intelligent) should not be considered in our evaluation of our moral responsibility. “The important thing is that we all suffer pain,” (McAnallen 0:57:40). They do share anatomical and physiological things in their bodies that we attribute our feelings of emotion in our own.

Human actions have affected the world and nature very negatively and in some areas like energy creation, we are making more and more ways to create power. One method that seemingly has no downsides is wind energy! It seems to have no downsides, as there are no emissions like coal burning so this seems perfect. Offshore wind farms have been growing in popularity worldwide and it has been found that there is a very grim side effect of the wind-mill. Some wind farms have been found to harm some avian populations. Collisions with the structure or the spinning fan blades are estimated to result in about 1.4 million deaths annually in the United States and this number is expected to rise in the future as more and more wind-mills are built (Wind Energy). Wind farms can also lead to displacement. Birds consistently avoiding these farms can lead to what is practically habitat loss (Goodale 1). There are several factors here in the siting of these wind-farms and there are a few factors that need to be considered and it is different for almost every location. Locations closer to land and those further in high-wind areas both affect different species in different ways, whether that be by collision or displacement. M. Wing Goodale, a senior deputy at the Biodiversity Research Institute, says “To date, there has been no research to assess if the cumulative effects of offshore wind farms on seabird guilds can be reduced through siting decisions,” and that their work is meant to learn about which sites affect which species in which way, in order to limit the cumulative adverse effects on the ecosystem (Goodale 2).   

Another human construction that affects the avian population is the simple window. Birds see the world slightly different than us and at the speed they move, mistaking a reflection in a window for open sky, it’s a death sentence. It’s estimated that each home in the U.S. kills at least two birds a year and overall collisions with glass result in up to one billion deaths annually (Sheppard Glass). It’s been found that hummingbirds and thrushes are most vulnerable to window crashes, who have already shown to be of concern in terms of survival (Gomez Martinez). With much of these birds dying from more windows, it is safe to say that urbanization is a danger to the endangerment of not only birds but of other wildlife. It is difficult as well for birds that live in cities because there are other urban threats like man-made structures and also invasive species, the most prominent being the domestic cat. Scott R. Loss in his article about the impact of free-ranging domestic cats in the U.S. mentions that they could likely be the ,”the single greatest source of anthropogenic mortality for US birds and mammals,” (Loss). He estimates that these free-ranging domestic cats murder anywhere form 1.3- 4.0 billion birds and 6.3 to 22.3 billion mammals every year in the U.S. (Loss 1). Cats have been blamed for about 14% of the modern bird, mammal, and reptile extinctions recorded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, (Loss 2). This is a huge threat to mammals and bird populations but the current proposed solutions are un-researched and are not scientifically backed. Policies like Trap-Neuter-Return could be doing more harm than good as it doesn’t take into consideration the effect it could have on the ecosystem (Loss 2). Humans recklessly grow and the established species in the areas pay the price for our apathy.

 

Solutions

Now, these problems raised are huge and must be solved and as it turns out, some of them have fairly simple solutions. Bird collisions with windows is a huge issue, but the American Bird Conservancy says that, “Bird-friendly design can be achieved without sacrificing aesthetics, functionality, or budget,” (Sheppard Bird). This organization has been doing amazing work to both advocate and educate designers and architects, government officials, and the average person to be more bird-friendly. On their website they push their own free guide on “Bird-Friendly Building Design” that provides the science behind solutions as well as instructions to add these to new and old buildings (Sheppard Bird). There are many award-winning examples that this organization praises for incorporating bird-friendly features. I believe this is incredibly important for advocacy because it shows that being bird-friendly can also be beautiful. These works of beauty can be put out into the world through social media to spread awareness to designers, property-owners, and government officials to inspire the movement to bird-friendly designs. For example, This U.S. Census building is both beautiful and bird friendly and should be an inspiration to other building designers. While it is obvious that it can be done, some city-builders just can’t be bothered, so that’s why it’s important that legislation must also be passed. An example of legislation is the “Standards for Bird-Safe Buildings” which in San Francisco, “...mandates bird-friendly design for facades of buildings in areas where the threat to birds is highest,” (Sheppard Bird). This image is an example of bird-friendly design that still looks beautiful. Images like these can be spread across twitter to advocate for more conscious planning (Sheppard Bird).

 

Collisions with birds are huge and birds are very prone to colliding with wind-mills. The estimated annual death toll of birds annually is expected to rise from the current estimate of 1.4 million. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act punishes companies that kill migrating bird species. This however might not be the best course of action as, “A new interpretation of the law by the Trump administration will no longer hold industries accountable for “incidental” bird deaths under the law,” (The Migratory). However, the U.S. government does understand that it should still do everything that it can to protect the birds which is why it requires an assessment of the effects that each individual site could have before a permit is granted (Goodale 1). While choosing a site will have the largest effect on the mortality rate, there are other solutions that are already being implemented that should be followed by others. One solution is to simply turn them off. When a huge flock of birds are entering the vicinity of a wind-mill, it can be turned off to limit the amount of deaths to migrating birds. One technique to detect birds is a radar that could automatically shut-off a turbine if necessary (Drouin). However, turning off a turbine will lose money for a company so it may not be the best solution. In this case, the most effective solution could be the most creative one. Many wind engineers are searching for completely new designs to harness the wind like vertical axis turbines, large kite-like systems, and a revolutionary jet-engine-inspired-design (Drouin). These new designs could be much less harmful to birds than the traditional 3-spoke structure. 

 

Conclusion

As the species with the greatest impact on the environment, we have a unique responsibility to other species, especially those endangered by extinction. We must recognize that these birds are more than just a nuisance and can be aware of their environments like we are. While perhaps they don’t share the same high level of intelligence as we do, they do have a level of intelligence that can not be ignored. Regardless, it is our moral responsibility to monitor our urbanization to ensure that our progress is not their demise. We should use policy and social media to raise awareness of our effect on birds and what we can do to help protect them. From government officials to the grassroots individual and the architects and designers, we must not forget about our neighbors on this Earth. 

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Works Cited

Cherry, Kendra. “How Cognitive Biases Influence How You Think and Act.” 

Verywell Mind, Verywell Mind, 7 May 2019, www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-cognitive-bias-2794963.

Drouin, Roger. “For the Birds (and the Bats): 8 Ways Wind Power Companies Are 

Trying to Prevent Deadly Collisions.” Grist, Grist, 3 Jan. 2014, grist.org/climate-energy/for-the-birds-and-the-bats-8-ways-wind-power-companies-are-trying-to-prevent-deadly-collisions/.

Franzen, Jonathan. “Why Birds Matter, and Are Worth Protecting.” National 

Geographic, 26 Dec. 2017, www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/01/why-birds-matter/.

Goodale, M Wing, et al. “Assessing the Cumulative Adverse Effects of Offshore 

Wind Energy Development on Seabird Foraging Guilds Along the East Coast of the United States.” Tethys, 12 July 2019, tethys.pnnl.gov/publications/assessing-cumulative-adverse-effects-offshore-wind-energy-development-seabird-foraging.

Goudarzi, Sara. “Modern Birds Existed Before Dinosaur Die-Off.” National 

Geographic, 2 Oct. 2018, www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2008/02/modern-birds-existed-before-dinosaur-die-off/.

Gómez-Martínez, Miguel A., et al. “Window Strikes: Bird Collisions in a Neotropical 

Green City.” SpringerLink, Springer US, 23 Apr. 2019, link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11252-019-00858-6.

Loss, Scott R., et al. “The Impact of Free-Ranging Domestic Cats on Wildlife of the 

United States.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 29 Jan. 2013, www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2380.

McAnallen, Samuel, director. The Superior Human? The Superior Human?, 2012, 

thesuperiorhuman.ultraventus.info/movie/.

McCoy, Dakota E., et al. “New Caledonian Crows Behave Optimistically after Using 

Tools.” Current Biology, Cell Press, 1 Aug. 2019, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960982219308401.

“The Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Explained.” Audubon, National Audubon Society, 3 

July 2019, www.audubon.org/news/the-migratory-bird-treaty-act-explained.

Seed, Amanda M., et al. “Cooperative Problem Solving in Rooks (Corvus 

Frugilegus).” Proceedings. Biological Sciences, The Royal Society, 22 June 2008, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2602707/.

Sheppard, Christine. “Bird-Friendly Design.” American Bird Conservancy, 2019, 

abcbirds.org/program/glass-collisions/bird-friendly-design/.

Sheppard, Christine. “Glass Collisions.” American Bird Conservancy, 2019, 

abcbirds.org/program/glass-collisions/.

“Wind Energy and Birds.” American Bird Conservancy, 2019, 

abcbirds.org/program/wind-energy-and-birds/.