New York City Hawkwatchers report all is going well (and normally) at Pale Male and Octavia's Nest on 927 Fifth Avenue.
Photo courtesy of Kevin Vaughan
Photo courtesy of Kevin Vaughan
And over in Philadelphia, there is talk of Pale Male as well. According to some hawkwatchers, T3 the new male who has bonded with Franklin Mom, definitely has a resemblance to the Monarch of Central Park.
The distance between New York City and Philadelphia is only about 95 miles.
Next up, a thought concerning the Deer eating Deer innards issue.
My Eureka moment occurred in the shower and had nothing to do with water as opposed to Archimedes original Eureka moment in the bath when he realized that the volume of an object could be figured using the amount of water it displaced.
No I did not in the heat of the moment run down the street naked I was in such a rush to test my theory.
Instead I sat down at the computer to find out if what I was thinking, matched previous known White-tailed Deer behavior.
The question? Do White-tailed does eat the placenta after they give birth?
And YES, they do. But first the doe waits for the fawn or fawns to get up on their skinny little legs. Then she leads them into hiding. Fawns safely hidden, she then returns to the birthing site and eats the placenta.
Indeed it is nutritious, but it is thought to be a survival strategy to avoid attracting predators to the area.
Is it not possible that the eating of hunter's leavings is now triggered by the same survival strategy impulse?
Yes, this behavior appears to be new.
Is it possible that as hunters have gotten sloppier, a deer whose genetics triggered the urge to eat the leavings, reduced the appearance of predators in their territory due to the leavings and therefore lived longer to reproduce?
Whereas the deer that wasn't triggered to do so, was in an area to which predators were attracted and therefore did not tend to live as long and therefore reproduced less?
Let me know what you think!
And from Jackie of Tulsa, an Owl Cam trained on a window box of a house that has hosted an owl pair for three seasons.
(And has produced a tremendous amount of biophilia in the family daughter.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2eZTR2WPY0&feature=youtu.be
Tomorrow- Its WAR!! Crows vs Turkey Vultures
If the deer are eating guts piles (yuck, NOT the same as placenta to me) are they not also being exposed to the lead that is poisoning other animals like vulture, eagles and condors? :(
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteAs to deer and lead poisoning, it would seem so but I've not read anything covering that aspect as yet.
Good point Sally, placenta is not identical, certainly, but there is a blood smell to both and therefore could still be a predator avoidance strategy.
I was concerned about communicable diseases which might be passed on by this practice. As it turns out White-tailed Deer have a somewhat uncommon set of digestive beasties in their system which I have yet to fully investigate
ReplyDeleteAs to deer and lead poisoning, it would seem so but I've not read anything covering that aspect as yet.
Good point Sally, placenta is not identical, certainly, but there is a blood smell to both and therefore could still be a predator avoidance strategy.
I was concerned about communicable diseases which might be passed on by this practice. As it turns out White-tailed Deer have a somewhat uncommon set of digestive beasties in their system which I have yet to fully investigate