Birds: the sordid truth

[moggie]

Scientically-minded readers will, of course, be familiar with the seminal paper by C. W. Moeliker of Natuurmuseum Rotterdam, "The first case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard Anas platyrhynchos (Aves: Anatidae)" (http://www.nmr.nl/deins815.htm). It won the 2003 Ig Nobel in the biology category. Well, it seems that it's not only ducks which get up to this sort of stuff. Read this heart-warming tale of two swallows:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/presentation.tcl?presentation_id=246277

Summary: a photographer witnesses a swallow apparently trying to "help" his dead "friend". He writes a cloying, mawkish commentary on the photos. A biology professor concisely describes, with the benefit of experience, what he believes is really going on. The posters who want to believe in the Disneyfied version react with outraged denial. It's all rather... well, just read the comments.

[DavidDvorkin]

1. Pretty funny reactions

Especially the one that dismisses the bird expert with, "I just say that art is different than science you can read a book or count the pages .. it is another approach"

Almost like saying that if you jump off a cliff and enjoy the experience as an artist, you won't go splat at the bottom.

[Meldread]

2. ...LOL...

I read the story and was some what moved, and thought 'How sad'... then I read what was actually happening in the pictures and laughed my ass off. I went back and looked at the pictures and laughed even harder.

I guess this goes to show how easily people can be manipulated into seeing something that isn't there in an image with a little narration. You see what you want to see, I suppose. :P

[Emperor_Norton_II]

3. Disney view of wildlife: 0 - Reality: 1

pwned! :rofl:

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. It's all a question of the swallow's load

Did they really think a swallow could carry another one? ...

SOLDIER #1:
    What? A swallow carrying a coconut?
ARTHUR:
    It could grip it by the husk!
SOLDIER #1:
    It's not a question of where he grips it! It's a simple
question of weight ratios! A five ounce bird could not carry a
one pound coconut.
ARTHUR:
    Well, it doesn't matter. Will you go and tell your master
that Arthur from the Court of Camelot is here?
SOLDIER #1:
    Listen. In order to maintain air-speed velocity, a swallow
needs to beat its wings forty-three times every second, right?
ARTHUR:
    Please!
SOLDIER #1:
    Am I right?
ARTHUR:
    I'm not interested!
SOLDIER #2:
    It could be carried by an African swallow!
SOLDIER #1:
    Oh, yeah, an African swallow maybe, but not a European
swallow. That's my point.
SOLDIER #2:
    Oh, yeah, I agree with that.
ARTHUR:
    Will you ask your master if he wants to join my court at
Camelot?!
SOLDIER #1:
    But then of course a-- African swallows are non-migratory.
SOLDIER #2:
    Oh, yeah.
SOLDIER #1:
    So, they couldn't bring a coconut back anyway.
    [clop clop clop]
SOLDIER #2:
    Wait a minute! Supposing two swallows carried it together?
SOLDIER #1:
    No, they'd have to have it on a line.
SOLDIER #2:
    Well, simple! They'd just use a strand of creeper!
SOLDIER #1:
    What, held under the dorsal guiding feathers?
SOLDIER #2:
    Well, why not?

[Meldread]

5. Actually, it's dead. So it can't swallow.

:P