Palaeolithic art featuring birds and humans discovered

An exceptional milestone in European Palaeolithic rock art

Date:  March 11, 2019

Source:  University of Barcelona

It is not very common to find representations of scenes instead of individual figures in Palaeolithic art, but it is even harder for these figures to be birds instead of mammals such as goats, deer or horses. So far, historians have only found three scenes of Palaeolithic art featuring humans and birds in Europe.

Now, an article published in the journal L'Anthropologie tells how University of Barcelona researchers found -in the site of Hort de la Bequera (Margalef de Montsant, Priorat)-, an artistic piece from 12,500 years ago in which humans and birds try to interact in a pictorial scene with exceptional traits: figures seem to star a narration on hunting and motherhood. Regarding the Catalan context in particular, this is an important finding regarding the few pieces of Palaeolithic art in Catalonia and it places this territory within the stream of artistic production of the upper Palaeolithic in the Mediterranean.

The piece they found is a 30-centimeter long limestone which shows two human figures and two birds, which the researchers identified as cranes. Since they found the piece in 2011, they underwent all cleaning, restoration and 3D copying procedures to study it in detail. Those figures were engraved in the stone board with a flint tool so that they created an organized composition compared to the other pieces of the same period.

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Birds of a feather feed together as cranes pass food to wild heron

By NAOYUKI MORI/ Staff Writer

November 22, 2017 at 18:05 JST

HIMEJI, Hyogo Prefecture--A pair of cranes are causing amazement by feeding a wild gray heron through their enclosure by the beak, a rare sight even for experts.

The act of compassion between species at Himeji City Zoo here has drawn a crowd at weekends.

The young gray heron appears almost daily in front of the cranes’ pen around 11 a.m. when the captive birds are fed treats of mackerel.

“I have never heard of such a story,” said Hiroyuki Masatomi, an expert in Japanese crane biology.

“(Feeding) is supposed to be an act between parents and their offspring. The cranes probably treat the gray heron as a substitute.”

The female crane, Ku, and male Sho are both 30 years old, a very advanced age in human terms.

The pair previously started to pass food to another wild gray heron around summer 1993 until the bird stopped visiting them around 2011.

The gray heron that is being fed is thought to be a different individual. It started to visit the cranes in late October, and has continued to return ever since.

“We want visitors to witness this rare sight with warm eyes,” said a zookeeper.

Source  

Next generation of wild cranes fledge on Somerset Levels

4 September 2017

The first successful fledging of a second generation of cranes has taken place after three years of nesting attempts on a Somerset nature reserve.

Ninety-four hand-reared cranes were released at the RSPB site on West Sedgemoor between 2010 and 2014.

This year three pairs of those cranes nested and reared four chicks, conservationists have reported.

Volunteer John Crispin managed to take a photograph of the first crane to fledge, while was in flight.

Liz Antliff-Clark, volunteer project coordinator for the RSPB in Somerset, said: "The chick will continue to be reared by the parent birds through the winter.

"Its father Legend and mother Elle are both six-year-old birds.

"Two of this year's four chicks were caught, radio tagged, and colour ringed by a local volunteer team so that their fortunes can be monitored - but this one escaped the team's attempts."

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Age before youth: Older cranes lead the way to new migration patterns

Date: September 6, 2016

Source: Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum 

Whooping cranes are changing migration patterns in response to climate and land use change, and these new patterns are being determined by the older, more experienced, members of the population.

Researchers from Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, the Goethe University Frankfurt, the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Maryland, and the International Crane Foundation investigated a behavior known as "shortstopping," which is the shortening of a migration route by shifting wintering grounds toward the breeding grounds.

Shortstopping can benefit migrating birds by decreasing the amount of energy that they use on long distance flights. They also can arrive at the breeding grounds earlier, which can be beneficial. This requires that the birds find suitable overwintering sites closer to breeding grounds, and due to climate and land use change, suitable sites can now be found at higher latitudes.

"Our results show that when migratory groups winter closer to the breeding grounds, the first groups to use these new sites include older birds. For each additional year of age of the oldest bird in the group, the distance between breeding and wintering grounds was reduced by 40 km, or almost 25 miles," said Claire Teitelbaum, a Senckenberg & Goethe University Frankfurt researcher, and lead author of the study. "We also found that site familiarity may be an important factor in where migratory groups short-stop. Older birds often chose overwintering sites which they were familiar with from previous migrations."

The population studied is a reintroduced population, established by the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership. In 2001, the Partnership began releasing captive-reared birds and teaching them to migrate using ultralight aircraft. The research results show that the shortstopping behavior has been developed by older birds but has then been passed to younger birds: In 2006, no 1-year-old birds shortstopped, but by 2015, 75 percent of them did so.

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Live camera watches Slimbridge cranes' eggs

An attempt by a pair of cranes to raise the first wild-hatched crane in western Britain in 400 years is being filmed on a webcam.

The webcam has been installed by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at its Slimbridge reserve in Gloucestershire.

The 4ft (1.2m) tall cranes, Monty and Chris, first tried to nest at the centre last year but their chick died.

The one or two eggs are due to hatch mid-May and can be watched by internet users via the trust's website.

The cranes are part of a reintroduction programme to re-establish the once-common birds in the UK.

Under round-the-clock observation, the pair have nested in front of one of the centre's hides.

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Crane count: Michigan Audubon Society keeps track of protected birds

DELTON, MI -- The evening sky took on a surreal quality not unlike a scene by Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa. A dull gray ceiling had transformed in just a matter of minutes to an explosion of orange, yellow and purple, flooding the lakefront with a post-apocalyptic light.

To add even more drama, there were cranes flying in. Small flocks hung in the sky over the lake, calling in their unmistakable tongue, part trumpet, part purr, part rattle and croak, a language that has fascinated man for centuries.

Standing nearby, bundled up to ward off cold, Tom Funke was counting them on a clicker he held in his hand. A pair of binoculars hung around his neck.

Funke is the director of conservation for Michigan Audubon Society. He and I had come out for the annual state crane count, an event that provides the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with a snapshot of migrating crane numbers. The data help them determine the status of the cranes, which are protected under the federal migratory bird treaty act. 

Sandhills almost were extirpated in Michigan, having been sought by market hunters for food and by clothiers for fashionable plumage. They were common in Michigan until the 1880s. By 1905, they were nearly gone.

Read on:  

http://www.mlive.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2012/11/crane_count_michigan_audubon_s.html

Russia denies bird flight injured Putin

MOSCOW (AP) — Did Vladimir Putin's flight with a flock of cranes end up grounding him? The Russian president's spokesman says no.

In recent weeks, Putin has rarely left his official residence, sparking speculation that illness or injury had laid him low.

Yesterday, the respected newspaper Vedomosti cited unnamed Kremlin-connected sources saying Putin's September flight in a motorized hang glider accompany migrating cranes had aggravated an old injury. But his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told the state news agency RIA Novosti that Putin had an old injury, but it was not connected to the highly publicized flight.

Peskov was quoted as saying Putin was making only infrequent trips to the Kremlin because he didn't want his motorcade to disrupt Moscow's notoriously bad traffic. The presidential motorcade forces the shutdown of large stretches of highway, an inconvenience that many irritated drivers mark by blaring their horns angrily as the president's car races past.

Putin also has put off several expected trips abroad, including to India, Turkey and Bulgaria. The Interfax news agency cited Peskov as saying there was no single reason behind those changes.

The hang-glider flight with the cranes, which took place in September just before an international summit in Vladivostok, was one of Putin's trademark adventurous media events. The 60-year-old Russian leader has assiduously cultivated an image of vigor and daring, including being shown swimming in a Siberian river and petting a tranquilized polar bear in the Arctic.

Putin also is a skier and a judo aficionado.

"Indeed, he pulled a muscle. It happened before Vladivostok. He was suffering from some muscle pain then," Peskov said.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012/nov/02/russia-denies-bird-flight-injured-putin/

Exmoor Zoo uses riot shields against aggressive cranes

Riot shields and police officers have been drafted in by staff at a Devon zoo to help them develop defensive tactics against aggressive birds.

Donated by Devon and Cornwall Police, the two decommissioned shields have been sent to Exmoor Zoo near Barnstaple, so staff can fend off violent cranes.

Curator Danny Reynolds said police were training staff to use the shields.

Staff have been kicked, pecked and hit by wings, especially during the mating season, Mr Reynolds said.

'Very territorial'

"Anti-social behaviour" from the birds, which can grow up to 1.5m (4ft 10ins) tall, has "been on the increase year-on-year", he explained.

The shields were donated after discussions with local wildlife crime officer PC Martin Beck.

Read on:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-20067666

Coming Home To Roost: Putin's Cranes Don't Take To The Wild

Remember when Russian President Vladimir Putin donned a white jumpsuit and flew an ultralight aircraft to lead a small group of endangered cranes on their southward migration?

Early last month, the president took off from the Yamalo-Nenetsk Autonomous Region to show the orphaned chicks the route south. His stunt was widely covered -- and ridiculed -- both in Russia and abroad.

Almost immediately, though, there were reports that two of the rare birds had died during the preparations for Putin's flight. "Many" others were reportedly injured.

After Putin returned to Moscow, the plan was for researchers to lead them to Tyumen Oblast, where they would meet up with a flock of wild cranes and join them on their flight to their wintering ground in Central Asia.

If all went well, it would mean a significant boost for the rare species, as Russian scientists estimate there are fewer than two dozen of the birds in the wild.

But Russia's State Nature Inspectorate reported on October 10 that six of the seven cranes that made it to Tyumen Oblast failed to bond with their wild cousins. Who knows? Maybe they were acting all stuck up because they got to meet the president.

Whatever the reason, the wild birds took off without them. The young orphans and their handlers had to take a plane back to the nature reserve where they were born in Ryazan Oblast, about 200 kilometers away from Moscow. They'll spend the winter there. Maybe the president can visit them.

Continued:  http://www.rferl.org/content/coming-home-to-roost-putins-cranes/24735497.html