Literary Review

 

New Caledonian Crows Behave Optimistically after Using Tools

This article was written by Dakota E. McCoy, a harvard graduate student and others, measuring if Crows were able to experience optimism. This was determined by using a psychology test called the Cognitive Bias Test. Based on their latency to approach an ambiguous stimulus after one of four conditions, it was used to essentially measure if the crows were more optimistic after a favorable condition as opposed to a less favorable condition. This is useful because it measures emotion in a quantitative way and can dispel the “anthropomorphic” counterargument.

 

Cooperative Problem Solving in Rooks (Corvus frugilegus)

This article was written by Amanda Seed a professor at the University of St. Andrews, Nathan J. Emery a senior lecturer at the University of London, and Nicola S. Clayton a professor of comparative cognition at the University of Cambridge. This tested rooks ability to work together to solve a problem. This is a marker of intelligent species as some form of communication is required. It also can be a marker of sociability which is often seen as a human trait. 

 

Insightful Problem Solving and Creative Tool Modification by Captive Nontool-Using Rooks

This article was written by Christopher D. Bird a researcher at the University of Cambridge and Nathan J. Emery a senior lecturer at the University of London. This article did research on Rooks, a species that is often regarded as very intelligent but they don’t use tools in the wild like their Crow cousins. They are put in situations in which tools are necessary and they are able to make use of tools and also create tools, neither of which they are found to do in the wild. This is important because it shows that a species can still be intelligent even if they don’t show it in the wild.

 

Problems

 

Window Strikes: Bird Collisions in a Neotropical Green City

 This article was written by a Miguel A Gómez-Matínez and Daniel Klem Jr. Miguel a Mexican researcher and Daniel an American researcher. Both of them are interested and do research with avian and their conservation. In this article they got together to assess bird-window collision in a medium sized city, Xalapa in Southeast Mexico. They studied several buildings and recorded the number of collisions in buildings with windows. The purpose of this was to measure this large cause of avian deaths as well as the most vulnerable bird species.

 

The Impact of Free-Ranging Domestic Cats on Wildlife of the United States

The authors of this article were Scott R. Loss, a professor and researcher at Oklahoma State University and focuses on conservation biology and global change ecology, Pete Marra, a senior scientist at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, and Tom Will, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota in the department of fisheries, wildlife and conservation biology. This article was about the magnitude of the impact that cat’s have on their environments. They are an invasive species and are often unchecked. Experts estimate that cats kill anywhere from 1.3 to 4.0 billion birds annually and 6.2 to 22.3 mammals annually. While not the focus of the study, they did suggest for some policy intervention as well as conservation efforts.

 

Assessing the Cumulative Adverse effects of offshore wind energy development on seabird foraging guilds along the East Coast of the United States

The authors of this article are M Wing Goodale, Anita Milman, and Curtice R. Griffin. Wing Goodale is a senior deputy director at the Biodiversity Research Institute, Anita Milman is a professor at Umass Amherst and primarily conducts research on water resources and environmental policy concerns. Curtice Griffin is a department head of Environmental Conservation at Umass Amherst and has a primary role in teaching and research with wetland ecology and management. The purpose of the article was to determine the effects of building offshore wind farms on seabirds on the Eastern U.S. border. It evaluated possible effects on wildlife not only in collisions but also in displacement of the species that would avoid a new wind farm. The paper tries to explain all the factors that should be considered when searching for a new site for a wind farm.

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Solutions

Bird-Friendly Design

This article was written by Christine Sheppard, bird collisions campaign director at the American Bird Conservancy. This article talked about how bird collisions with glass can be avoided with some design choices. This page includes a bird design guide for architects/designers and also a guide for homeowners to “bird-proof” their homes. The most useful part is the example given that look absolutely gorgeous.

 

For the Birds (and the Bats): 8 Ways Wind Power Companies are Trying to Prevent Deadly Collisions

This article was written by Roger Drouin, a journalist who covers environmental issues. This article mentioned some truly creative ways that show the companies are actually trying to prevent these collisions. It does show that people in this industry are willing to invest in saving these other species as well.

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