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Many (many) years ago, I took a course in population dynamics. It was really interesting (even to a rather disassociated engineering student). For example, we studied population interaction of hunters with zebras, and with predating lions (in a specific vegetation zone). Of particular interest was the study of weavers interacting with brood parasitic Diederik Cuckoos, and predating boomslang.In all examples and cases such as these, the problem statement starts with stable populations, and entails injection of a perturbation, for example a widespread fire, or three years of severe drought etc., and tracks the effect on the animal populations. In all...

This morning I cut a single orange in half, and placed it on the fruit feeder. Within 30 seconds, several visitors had arrived and a pecking order had been established. It triggered a thought – what makes that orange so attractive (and we can observe that even more excitement is generated in winter). The immediate mental response was “energy”. And so I researched. Let us take the Black-fronted Bulbul as an example. At times the energy requirements are massive (e.g. breeding season). A typical number will be 3000kJ/kg/day. considering the mass at around 1/30 kg, it means that this little...

Hands up if you thought this hidden (or at least hiding) gem was a Pearl Spotted Owl? Wrong! This is the Cuban Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium siju). We found him(?) in a mountain forest with heavy subtropical vegetation. He didn’t mind us observing his position from quite close up, and kept his eyes fixed in our direction with his head following our movements. Sadly the vegetation did not allow us to get into a place where we could see him without the tree branch crossing, and considering the poor light, this was the best shot we could get. We did hear...

Recently I posted on the Cuban Tody and Cuban Nightjar. Well, today it is the turn of the Cuban Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus cubensis). We found this fellow in the fields in the foothills of Holguin Province. He hated having his daytime hideout disturbed, and refused to let us closer than 40 or 50 metres away. Eventually our attempts at a subtle approach were foiled by an aggressive bull that we attracted, and we beat a tactical retreat. We do not know a great deal about this beauty. Apparently they prefer to roost on the ground in fields, and that...

The pigeon is a pest. Right? When we think of pigeons we think of the feral pigeon. The ultimate survivor; an extremely efficient design able to fly with great efficiency, and able to optimise their interrelationship with humans by reuse of waste foodstuffs. Their ability to dominate areas is clearly exacerbated by their gregarious nature and typical “attack” in large swarms. However, apart from the effect of destroying your seed feeding zone, they do not seem to have that many harmful effects. In many parts they are regarded as vermin, but not the worst form of vermin out there. (That...