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Galls are caused by a variety of parasitic organisms, which can range from bacteria and fungi to insects and mites.  They look as if they are grown from the plant itself and are often structures with an extremely high level of organisation.  Such is the structure of many galls, the parasite can be quite easily identified.  These are the galls of the Silk-button Spangle Gall Wasp.  They take advantage of oak trees in two ways,  First of all they create galls on the underside of leaves which overwinter on the ground attached to fallen leaves.  This produces a single gender hatching – all female.  So far, so Alien!

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When the larvae pupate and emerge from the galls in March they lay their eggs in the buds of the oak tree and this will produce a second generation.  This generation of wasps will go on again to lay their eggs on the underside of leaves which will fall and overwinter – and so the cycle continues.  The galls form around the eggs.  Galls do not only have to be formed by insect or mite activity, however.  The example below is growing on a hemlock tree in Oregon.  It is an example of Phellinus punctatusa nasty looking fungus if ever there was one. These lumps on the side of the tree are the size of cats.

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The artichoke gall, (below) on the other hand is caused by an insect.  When an egg is laid the gall surrounds it – it is a chemically induced distortion of the buds on, in this case, the Pendunculate Oak.  A single eggs is laid within a leaf bud by the gall wasp.  The artichoke itself looks quite fragile – as if a squirell could destroy it if it wished.  Of course – it is not to be confused with the vegetable that bears the same name – they share the title simply because of the similarity in shape not because they are related in any way.

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However, there is a hard case inside the artichoke and this is where the larva lives until it is ready to emerge in the Autumn.  Strangely enough this generation of the wasp (Andricus fecundatrix) is asexual.  It lays its own eggs in oak catkins and it is this offspring that produce the sexual generation of wasps which will ensure the genetic diversity of the species.    This is one of the few insects in the world that will produce two generations in a year – one that is asexual and one that is sexual.  Are you ready to see what’s inside?

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This looks a little scary.  It is a knopper gall – so called because the word derives from German and was a type of helmet worn in the seventeenth century that had small protuberances, often studs or tassels.  This knopper gall contains several grubs of the gall wasp Adricus grossulariae. The nodules that appear on it are because the grubs inside are competing for space and pushing each other away to the extremities of the gall.  Altogether a little disturbing if you are of a delicate disposition.

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It is not only wasps who induce galls on plants.  Some species of aphids do this too.  Below you can see the offspring of the Poplar petiole gall aphid.  Each July they will drop green cottonwood leaves to the ground and emerge – a ravenous family looking for their first meal.

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Some galls can look quite pretty – they are not all the stuff of nightmares at all.  Or are they?  Below is a gall is known as the Rose gall or the Robin’s pincushion gall (quite a charming name).  It is caused by the Diplolepis rosae gall wasp and can contain up to sixty eggs. In medieval times it was dried out and then powdered – to be used as a toothache remedy.  It was even thought to cure baldness when rubbed on the scalp and was placed below pillows to help insomniacs get some sleep.

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However, as lovely as it looks you have to remember that inside it are up to sixty larvae, growing and maturing inside it.  It may have been used to send people to sleep but the sight one the interior may give some people nightmares.  Take a look.  You can see the fronds of the gall which give it its name at the edges of the picture – and the larvae within!

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The gall below is that induced by Disholcaspis coralline- the Coral Wasp and it is on a Blue Oak in North California.

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Some galls looks like eggs but they are not – that has hatched within it.  The gall is the protective layer around the egg which is forced by the parasite.  Although many look attractive, such as this striped pea gall of the wasp Cynips longiventris they generally reduce the fertility of the host plant quite greatly.

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Galls are sometimes even prickly, as can be seen above.  Back to fungus for a second here.  This is a sloe berry plant and the fungus is known as Taphrina pruni.  The common name is pocket plums – they are not to be eaten.

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The gall below is on the leaf of the Arroyo Willow.  There is a certain almost florescent beauty to it – remember though that the ‘spikes’ appearing on the gall is the action of the larva within – jostling for growing space.

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The gall that most people will recognize is known as the Oak Apple (again, not to be confused with the real thing).  The gall can be up to five centimeters in diameter and it can look like an apple, certainly in its early days.  They are common both in the US and the UK and share the same name – but are caused by different wasps.  They have their uses for us, however.  If you fish then you can use the larvae inside as excellent bait.  However unlikely, If you find yourself in an oak forest with nothing to eat then the larva are full of protein.  You do not need any further explanation there, perhaps.

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Sometimes, they can look like bits of human brain hanging from a tree – to be frank.

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The lime tree too has its own gall, caused by a mite.  Here, though the protuberance takes the form of an erect and curved pouch and will cover the upper surface of the leaf of the lime tree.  They are extremely visible because of their red color and can be spotted in the late spring.

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The mites, Eriophyes tiliae tiliae, spend the winter in crevices in the bark.  The gall inducer used is only about two millimeters in length but release chemicals powerful enough to have this dramatic effect on the leaf.  The grown mites will emerge in the autumn, pass the winter in the bark of the tree and then in the spring they will start the cycle all over again.

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Some galls really do look as if they are the eggs of an alien species, ready to hatch and wreak terror on an unsuspecting humanity.

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Although the gall has a detrimental effect on its host – we have something that we must thank it for.  When mixed with Iron Sulphate the oak gall creates a permanent ink of a purple black color.  It was the standard writing ink in Europe from the twelfth to the nineteenth century.  Without the ink created from the oak gall many of our precious medieval manuscripts would have faded centuries ago.

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Black Swan: The Theory and the Feathered Friend

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Australia, 1697.  Dutch Explorer Willem de Vlamingh was the first European to – incredulously – catch sight of a black swan.  Sailing along the coast of New Holland (which we now know as Australia) he sailed up a river and set a standard example of truth as Europeans saw it on its head.  All swans are white – that was taught at school as something both true and well known but here, up the (later named) Swan River de Vlamingh saw something thought to be impossible.  The news spread to Europe – to incredulous ears – but the proof of existence of this confounding avian was not verified until 1726 when a pair of the swans were taken to Jakarta and put on display.

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Fast forward almost three centuries and enter, stage left, one Nassim Nicholas Taleb.  In his book, The Black Swan (2007), Taleb wrote that virtually everything of importance in human history can be put down to a ‘black swan’.  That is that none of them were predicted – and neither were they directed.  He gives many examples, but some of the most notable are the PC, the attacks of September 11 2001 and the First World War.  It could be argued that some of these events were predicted but there is no extant record prior to their happening that adequately explains their consequences.

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The bird itself, elegant and beautiful can easily be seen as the antithesis of many of the events to which its name is often attached.  One tribe of Australian Aborigines, the Nyungar, believed that their ancestors were black swans who then became men.  They celebrated this in a ceremony known as woolberr until the 1920s until the last of that grouping died out.  Like the white swans of Europe it is a large water bird and it is found in the southeast and southwest of Australia.  Although it was first spotted in the seventeenth century it was not until 1790 that it was placed in to a genus – Chenopis – by the English naturalist John Latham.  We will return to the species later – for now we will concentrate on the theory and the event and how the term came to be.

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Before its discovery – and the species specific urban oral takeover by Taleb, the Black Swan featured – if not heavily then with a certain constancy – in the language and literature of Europe.  The oldest reference to be found is from Juvenal from the late First Century of the Christian Era – rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cycno.  With apologies to the women reading this, Juvenal railed that finding a perfect wife is akin to finding a black swan (a rare bird).   Shakespeare may well have used the term too – but by his day in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the black swan was used to describe something that was impossible.  Although the expression is not found in his works (perhaps he preferred to invent his own) the black swan represented that which was impossible (or nearly so) and therefore simply could not be.

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After the discovery of the real black swan in Australia then the expression – through sheer necessity – had to change with the times.  From being an impossibility, the term now changed its meaning to become something that was thought to be impossible but then discovered to exist after all.  The nineteenth century philosopher JS Mill used the term as an expression of a logical fallacy.  Its underuse pre 2007 may have meant that it was to be consigned to the dust closet where old expression are kept until they disappear altogether but Taleb came along and dusted it down and gave it meaning for our new century – to give things that almost defined meaning a label.

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A Black Swan Event, according to Taleb has three important characteristics.  It is not something that is expected on a normal day of the week.  Next, it carries an impact that is profoundly felt – either locally or globally.  Last of all it almost always relies on human nature to then try and make up reasons – however strange – for why it happened in the first place.  It can be argued that a very small number of Black Swans can explain virtually everything that has happened in human history – be they events, discoveries, religions or accomplishments.  These Black Swans may even, so Taleb asserts, be used to explain why some things happen in our own personal lives.  Not, perhaps, that they can be used as a panacea for blame but can make the inexplicable, well, interpretable or at the very least understandable.

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Why Black Swan?  Why Not?  A rose by any other name would smell as sweet (thanks, Bill) for sure, but the term has cachet and more than a little history – plus there is the added frisson of the association of black with cats and magic (and so on).  Taleb’s main thrust was not to predict these Black Swan Events – by definition their sheer improbability might confound the greatest mathematician.  What his intention was to build what he called robustness in to negative Black Swan Events (in other words, to get through them relatively intact) and to take as great advantage as possible of those considered positive.

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Millions of turkeys have Black Swan Events each year (one should hesitate before shortening the term and calling it a BS Event for reasons that should be self evident to any reader over the age of ten).  However, what is a surprise for a turkey is not for its butcher.  So, the main objective is not to be the turkey (or indeed the butcher).  Unfortunately, most people would feel that they end up at least feeling like the feathered gobbly beasts.  Perhaps it is the fate of those of who would necessarily append our gender with ‘in the street’.

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So much for the theory, what about the real thing – the bird itself?  In their native domain they can be found on their own but sometimes in groups of thousands.  Although they appear quite black, feather wise – they have their own surprise in store for us too as their flight feathers are as white as those of their European cousins.  Perhaps this goes with Taleb’s own theory that we must try to turn the Black Swan Event white (somewhat outdated terminology on certain lines, however, racial semantics are not the main thrust of this article).  What perhaps makes them stand out is the marvelous red bill that they have – perhaps if that had been brown or orange the bird would not look quite so remarkable.

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At full maturity the Black Swan can measure up to 142 centimeters and weigh as much as nine kilos.  It has a beautifully broad wing span of anything up to two meters and its neck is notable curved in to an ‘S’ shape – and is, relatively, the longest swan neck on the planet.  It has a surprisingly melodious call, which it emits while in flight or when it is on water but it can also whistle in quite a threatening manner.  If it is disturbed when it is nesting or looking after its cygnets, the noise it makes might well give you the fright of your life.

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It was thought as a species to be sedentary – that is it would stay in one place for its entire life.  However, Black Swans are now known to be highly nomadic.  There is, however, little pattern to their travels.  Their movements – often covering many hundreds of kilometers – are purely opportunistic.  If there is a wet year the population tends to immigrate in to the interior.  This reverses when years are drier.  In some ways the behavior of the bird could be seen to be dependent on one type of Black Swan Event all of its own.

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It is far from endangered – and is thought to number up to half a million individuals, so there is little chance of the Black Swan having its own Black Swan Event.

But then, that’s the whole thing about Black Swan Events.  We don’t know, do we?

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Sunflowers originate from North America but would travel to the Old World and back – and back again – in their centuries old journey to what we know today.  They were probably one of the first crops to be grown in the Americas.   Before this they were picked by hunter gatherers as a natural source of fat.  The seeds could be ground up and mixed with flour to make bread much like the pita variety we eat today.  Around five thousand years ago people began to farm them in the south-western parts of North America in what is now Mexico.  As they were cultivated over the generations the plants were encouraged to produce ever bigger seeds – and many more of them as well.  So, the sunflower we have now bears no resemblance to how it was discovered by our ancestors as the human race has interfered with its characteristics for all these thousands of years.

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It has been suggested that the sunflower was even domesticated before corn.  It was during this time that the Cherokee and other Native Americans also began to farm sunflowers.   They became an important part of the diet of these peoples as a good source of fat – which hunter gatherer societies needed to supplement the lean meat they would eat as part of their itinerant lifestyles.  Down south in Mexico the Aztecs were also cultivating the plant but also worshipped it.  In their temples to the sun, the priestesses would wear headdresses made of sunflowers to give themselves the air of the divine.  The past of the sunflower, then, already reveals some ‘secrets’. Yet no one would have guessed what the future of the sunflower held – and the travels it would endure.

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As today, the sunflower seed was cracked and eaten as something you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite – albeit a much healthier snack than many we eat today.   There are early records of the oil being squeezed and used to make bread too.  However, the sunflower was not only a food source.  It was used to create a dye of a purple color which was used then to enhance clothing, paint bodies and decorate objects.  Other parts of the plant were used to make medicinal remedies for snake bites and ointments.  The seed oil was used to lubricate hair and skin.  As ancient societies could not afford to waste anything the stalks were dried and then used as a building material.

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Although many people would not know where the sunflower originated it is not a mistake they can be blamed for as it would not take long for Europeans, after the discovery of the New World as they called it, to see the benefits of transporting seeds across the Atlantic and beyond.   It is thought that the plant arrived in the Old World around the beginning of the sixteenth century but because of its wonderful size and beauty (it was considered very exotic) was first used mostly as an ornamental plant.  There is a record of a patent for squeezing the oil out of the sunflower much later – in England in 1716.  In to our story now steps boldly the figure of Peter The Great.

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It was not until the eighteenth century that the sunflower gained huge popularity as a cultivated plant and the person we have to thank for that is one you might not consider.  Peter the Great of Russia went on one of his many trips and landed up in Holland.  There, he became so enamored of the giant flower that he took seeds back to Russia where the people were no doubt nonplussed by it – at least to begin with.  During Lent, the Russian Orthodox Church forbade its adherents from consuming oil.  However, the oil of the sunflower was not on the prohibited list and the Russian people jumped on Peter’s bandwagon wholeheartedly.  By the third decade of the nineteenth century sunflower oil was manufactured in Russia on a large and highly lucrative commercial scale.

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Russia was awash with the giant flowers, growing over two million acres a year.  They identified two types, one for oil production and one for our own consumption.  The government even invested money in to what we now call research projects and one scientist, VS Pustovoit was the originator of the most successful breeding project.  Even today scientific awards for the study of the sunflower are awarded in his name.  So, by 1830 the time was ripe for the sunflower as it had become in Russia to make a triumphant return to the Americas.

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That’s right.  One of history’s ironies is that the native flower of the Americas returned, changed and its properties heightened by Russian intervention.  Perhaps if Stalin had known this he might have demanded their return to the motherland a century later when the two nations threatened to annihilate each other.  It is thought that Russian immigrants to the US and Canada took seeds with them and by the 1880s companies were offering the ‘Mammoth Russian’ in their catalogues – a variety that was sold until the nineteen seventies. 

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It took a while for the Americans to take advantage of the sunflower as a cash crop and it is first recorded as silage feed for chickens.  Then in 1926 the Missouri Sunflower Growers’ Association started processing sunflower seed in to oil.  The secret was finally out and nothing would be the same for the sunflower ever again.   The Canadians got the same idea about the same time and the government there started its breeding programme in 1930.  In both countries the breeding material (the seeds) came from members of the Russian Mennonite community.

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Now the race was on.  The amount of acres given over to sunflowers grew as demand for oil grew.  In 1946 a crushing plant was instituted in Canada and North Dakota and Minnesota started out on their journey to become major sunflower cultivators.  Again it was a Russian cultivar (Peredovik) that was used as it produced high yields with oil content second to no other variety.  A cultivar is a plant found naturally that is then taken by us and cultivated – often so it is indistinguishable from the original variety.  The Russian cultivar was bigger and produced more seeds and oil than ever before.  Then came the seventies, new technology and hybridization.

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By the early eighties the US was producing over five million acres.  Then – by a quirk of history – the sunflower that went from America to Russia and back would return once again to Europe.  Cholesterol had by this time become a household word and European demand for sunflower oil had increased to such an amount that Russian exporters could no longer cope with the amounts needed by their hungry but now health conscious  neighbours.  The seeds were imported in to Europe from the US and then crushed and refined there.  Today, however, things have balance out and US exports of the seeds or oil is relatively small.

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So in a strange and eventful full circle, the North American sunflower is back home for what seems like good this time.  Perhaps not.  Its travels have already been so great that who knows what event might incline it to pack its metaphorical bags yet again.  No doubt the ancient hunter gatherers might scratch their heads in bewilderment at its centuries of travails and travels but would – it is hoped – be proud of their first and earliest contribution to this strange but fascinating tale.

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You hear a humming sound- Is it a bird, is it a plane?  At the risk of sounding frivolous it is difficult not to get excited at the sight of one of these astounding creatures.  From a distance you would be forgiven – and this is no accident – if you thought that a host of hummingbirds had alighted in your garden.  However, closer inspection would reveal a surprising lack of avian characteristics and you would be forced to re-assess the situation. With no legs or claws – and certainly no beak what you have here is a moth.  No ordinary moth either – just take a look at that tongue, that isn’t actually a tongue.  You may well ask, if it isn’t a tongue then what on earth is it?

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There aren’t many – if any – tongues that can do that and it has a different function.  What that amazing body part is called is a proboscis.  That is the name given to an extended appendage from the head of an animal, even an insect such as this.  This elongated organ is for sucking (more about that later) and it is also known as a haustellum.  It is made up of two tubes that are held together by hooks.  Strangely (and even scarily) enough these tubes can be separated – unhooked – when the moth needs to clean it.  Each tube is concave on the inner side and this means that when they come together they form a central tube – and this is what the Hummingbird Hawk Moth (Latin name Macroglossum stellatarum) uses to suck up pollen as well as moisture. 

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How is the suction actually made, though?  This is where the physiology of the Hummingbird Hawk Moth gets a little more bizarre.  It has a sac in its head and it contacts and expands this sac.  When this happens the suction simply happens.  Most Lepidoptera (the order of animals in which both moths and butterflies belong) have this type of proboscis.  Some though, do not have mouth parts at all and so do not feed in the imago (the adult form).  There are some though that have mouth parts which are used to chew.  The Hummingbird Hawk Moth, though, uses its proboscis – and it is a hungry insect indeed.

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Don’t moths come out only at night though?  That is how we usually think of moths but many species are diurnal (which means they go out in daylight).  The Hummingbird Hawk Moth goes out at both dusk and at dawn but it is regularly seen flying around during the day, particularly when the sun is shining brightly.  What is a little different from other moths is that it will not avoid rain and is quite happy flying during a spell of aqueous precipitation, unless it is too heavy.  It has been studied a great deal and it seems that this species of moth has a pretty good ability when it comes to learning colors – important so it can get to its favoured food sources.

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Just when you think you have seen the photograph with the proboscis of the Hummingbird Hawk Moth as fully extended as possible, there comes another which shows it stretching out just that little bit further.

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So, where do you go to catch a glimpse of this wonderful moth?  It is to be found all over the Old World, from the coast of Portugal to the islands of Japan.  It doesn’t extend very far north as it likes a warm climate but during the summer months it can be found throughout the hemisphere.  As it is migratory it will leave the colder northern areas and retreat towards the south – it would not survive the Winter anywhere north of the Alps of Caucasus.  Another family of moths, which are locally called Hummingbird Moths can be found in the United States but these are referred to as bee moths in Europe.

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Many people think that imago moths will produce a single batch of eggs and then flit away somewhere to die quietly, their function performed.  Not so the Hummingbird Hawk Moth, which will produce at least two broods of eggs in a year – in fact it will lay up to four sets of eggs in a year.  It does not hibernate but it is much less active in the colder seasons.  It overwinters where it can find a nook or cranny – among rocks, trees and even buildings.  If there is a particularly warm day during the winter it will come out and feed.

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It lays its eggs singly Its caterpillar – at first yellow – become a rather regal looking green as it heads towards it pupa stage. Pale and glossy, the green eggs have a diameter of only a single millimeter. They resemble the buds of the host plant Galium and take up to eight days to hatch, camouflaged as they are to look like part of the general greenery.  The female will lay anything up to two hundred eggs, each on a separate plant – a very tiring business no doubt.

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With two grey stripes, each with a creamy border and a purply red horn at the end to frighten off would be attackers the larva feeds itself at the top of the host.  This stage can last as little as only twenty days- depending on the warmth – and then the caterpillar will be ready to pupate.  When this happens they do not thread themselves on to the plant but drop to the soil and detritus at the base of the plant.  Hidden there, they will hopefully emerge safely as the imago.

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The adults love flowers with an abundance of nectar.  These will include Buddleia, Nicotiana and Phlox.  The adults do not feed aimlessly, either.  They have been seen to trap-line. That means that they return to the same plants at the same time each day.  Without the help of the Hummingbird Moth many of our popular garden flowers would not be pollinated.  The proboscis has developed over time to its current length as the flowers which attract it the most have long, tube-like organs containing their nectar.  Evolution loves necessity – it most certainly is the mother of invention.

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So why do these moths look – and act like real hummingbirds?  Scientists think that this may well be a case of convergent evolution.   This is when an identical biological trait is acquired in completely unrelated lineages.   This can happen when two species occupy a similar or the same ecological niche – one that demands a distinct way of life to facilitate survival.  Birds and bats would be a fine example.  However the flying action of the Hummingbird Hawk Moth came about, one thing is sure.  The sight of one as it goes about its business of feeding is one that is never forgotten.

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Resin is a chemical that oozes out of various trees.  It is known as a secretion rather than an excretion.  Excretions are purely waste products whereas, although the reasons behind resin are still a little obscure, most scientists believe that it has some sort of purpose or function.  It is probably not simply to trap insects, although there is something almost morbidly satisfying about the sight of an insect being ‘consumed’ by resin.  Perhaps it is the fact we have watched Jurassic Park too many times and take some satisfaction in imagining a scientist in the year ten thousand working out the DNA of an amber trapped insect.  Most probably is the wonder of seeing something trapped in time as perfectly preserved as it was on the day it died.

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Resin is a hydrocarbon – that is it is made up of two elements and two elements only – hydrogen and carbon.  So, it also qualifies as a compound, which is when something is made up of two or more elements.  What is more it can also be called an organic compound – which is when one of the elements has to be carbon.  Some hydrocarbons are impure as they contain traces or have bonded with other substance, and the same can be said of resin, so in this sense it is impure.  So, all in all resin is an impure organic compound hydrocarbon – which is quite a mouthful to say the least.  Try saying that with your mouth full.

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Resin has a multitude of uses and is highly valued the world over.  It is used in varnishes, which is a hard and transparent finish and it is pretty obvious why that idea first occurred to someone centuries ago.  It can also be used as an adhesive – perhaps the insects trapped inside it gave one of our ancestors that idea – and is one of the ingredients that can be used to glue or stick one thing to another.  More surprisingly, perhaps, it is also used in the manufacture of perfume and incense.  You may remember frankincense from a story about someone born round about two thousand years ago and given to him on his birthday – that started its life out as a resin although its manufacture does render it synthetic.

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Resin is something of a puzzle and why plants secrete it has been the subject of heated debate for many years.  Resins consist of compounds that do not seem to play any part in the main physiology (how something functions as a living organism) of the plants from which it comes.  So some scientists do see it as a waste product – an excretion rather than a secretion.  Others argue, however, that it is a secretion as it has many benefits to the plant.  The compounds inside resins seem to have an effect on a wide range of insects and herbivores – a deadly one at that.  Plus resin can also attract birds and insects that can stand its toxicity while at the same time snacking on the predators of the plant.

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Resin is usually a viscous liquid – in every day terms viscosity is thickness so, for example water is think and honey is thick.  You have already figured out which resin is.  This liquid is made up of a large and very varied class of hydrocarbons known as terpenes.  Strangely enough, plants are not the only living things that produce them – some termites and butterflies do as well.  The bit that makes the resin sticky are dissolved solids.  The constituents of resins can be separated by a lengthy process known as fractional distillation.  The different compounds in resin have different boiling points and so they can be separated at the temperature at which they become gaseous and they can be collected on their own.

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Some plants produce explosive resin.  The Jeffrey Pine of California produces resin which is highly volatile – that mean it has, under the right circumstances – a tendency to vaporize.  When people tried to distil it in nineteenth century America, they thought it was Ponderosa Pine resin.  A number of distilleries exploded as a result of this mis-classification and the mistake was put right in something of a hurry.  The reason behind the explosion was that the Jeffrey Pine resin was made up largely of pure heptanes – highly flammable.  Distillation of Jeffrey Pine resin continues to be very dangerous to this day but the denizens of California have managed to get it right since the great pine explosions of 1852.

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There are some resins which, when they are soft are called oleo-resins.  When they contain either cinnamic or benzoic acid they are known as balsams – and these have traditionally been used in optics.  They are also used in oil painting to produce a warm glow effect and have made their way in to at least one cough mixture as well.  Most people have heard of amber – which is resin in its fossilized form.  However, you can also get African Copal and again, as with amber there are often insects trapped inside, frozen in time.  Copal is distinct from amber as – comparatively – it is very young, under a million years old.

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Resin is first visible on the bark of a tree as a tiny bubble, much like when your skin is pricked and blood forms a perfect but minute sphere.  Many people have uncomfortable first contact with resin.  They will lean against a tree or sit upon  one and when they remove themselves they will find that they have resin sticking all over their clothes.  As is the case with chewing gum – rather than wash the clothing in order to remove the substance it is a much better idea to put them in a freezer and then chip off the pieces after a few hours. 

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There are some places in the world where fossilized resin – amber – can be found in great quantities.  Kämpinge in Sweden is one such place.  Located by the sea, when storms begin in the Fall the locals make a beeline for the beech as amber is washed up in large quantities, so much so that it is referred to as the ‘gold of the north’ (though some amber can be blue!).  Sometimes pieces weighing over one kilo can be found, although they are rare.  The reason that it washes up is because it is a little heavier than water and so floats like soap near the sea bed.  Eventually it comes up on the shore and – helped by the storms – the later months of the year are always the best to go amber hunting.

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In ancient times up to the present it was believed that amber had healing properties and as such was often worn as a charm or a necklace or even carried in a small pouch.  It was believed that the presence of amber would help to relieve such maladies as rheumatism and sore throats.  Ironic then that it is in fact resin that has the medicinal properties and has long been used in herbal medicine.  This insect is not quite getting those benefits, however.

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Or these.

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So, there you have it – a short tour of the marvellous, mysterious substance that is resin.  Although its actual purpose is for now shrouded in some mystery there is no denying its innate – if sometimes dangerous or even deadly – beauty.

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First of all it has to be pointed out that the meerkat is no any form of cat, even though you could be forgiven for thinking it was some sort of distant relative.  In fact the word comes from Afrikaans (via Dutch) and the animal was given the name because of a misidentification.  Kat is indeed Dutch for cat and the word ‘meer’ means lake.  Misidentification is perhaps an understatement here.   As we have already established the meerkat is no cat – and furthermore it is not attracted to lakes in any way, shape or form.  That doesn’t mean to say, of course, that the odd mud spa is not welcome.

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So far and, well, not so good.  There is a further possibility of where the meerkat got its name.  It has been suggested that when meerkats were first encountered by the Dutch East India Company there may well have been an Indian sailor on board the ship.  Perhaps the Sanskrit word for monkey – markata – is where the meerkat got its name.  Just to complicate matters, there is an alternative name for the species – the Suricate.  This is from the Dutch ‘stockstaartje’ which means ‘little stick tail’.  Altogether a more appropriate name but one which is largely confined to Afrikaans speakers.

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Europeans – certainly in terms of Africa – are very recent visitors and a popular belief in the Zimbabwe and Zambian regions is that the meerkat is a sun angel.  These angels are sent to villages by the gods to protect them from the moon devil – or even werewolves.  When cattle stray or tribes people find them separated from the rest of the community then the meerkat will protect them.  It must be hard work – this little guy is tuckered out.

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The meerkat is in fact a mongoose.  The mongoose family consists of around thirty species spread over the mainland of Africa and southern Eurasia.  And – sigh – no, there is no connection whatsoever to geese!  The word mongoose comes from an Indian language called Marathi and their word ‘mangus’ is pronounced in the same way we spell it.  The meerkat is a diurnal species – and what that means is that it is active in the day time and sleeps at night – the opposite would of course be nocturnal.  It isn’t a very heavy animal.  The males are heavier at about 730 grams and the females generally weigh around ten grams less.

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It is, however, a long and slender beast which means that the body length can be up to fourteen inches in length.  When you add the ‘little stick tail’, which isn’t so little, that can be up to ten inches more.  The tail, though, is pretty stick like.  All the other mongoose species have bushy tails but the mongoose has a long thin one which tapers down to a tip, often of a reddish color.  Perhaps the lack of bushiness is due to the dry and dusty areas it inhabits but, whatever the cause, it uses the tail to help balance itself when standing up.  This is when the meerkat begins to look rather more human than it really is.  Even when seated and at rest we are likely to endow the animal with more human characteristics than it really has.

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It is the face which often attracts the onlooker.  Meerkats always have black patches around the eyes, which to the us makes the meerkat seem more human.  The patches are, in fact, to help deflect the strong glare of the African sun.  Likewise its ears are black and are crescent shaped.  When the meerkat digs – as is its wont – then the meerkat is able to close its ears to keep out the sand.  The meerkat – like the moggy in one respect at least – has binocular vision.  This means that it uses both eyes together.  Even together.

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Talking of digging, how does the meerkat go about that rather arduous task?  The secret to its amazing tunnelling abilities is a strong retractable claw that it has at the end of each finger.  These can be two centimetres in length and as well as helping the meerkat to dig they can be useful when shimmying up and down the odd tree.  Even if the animal were to be domesticated (impossible) these claws would be a major drawback to being kept in and around homes as pets.  A change may be as good as a rest – but perhaps not in this case.

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The fawn coat of the meerkat is marked with grey, brown and tan – and sometimes can appear silvery.  What makes them all the more attractive to us are the parallel stripes, short but dashed across their backs which extend from the tail all the way up to the shoulders.   These stripes are unique to each meerkat and helps in them identifying each other at a distance.  The belly of the beast (as it were) is altogether different.  There is a patch on the belly which has very little hair and the black skin underneath is visible.  All things have a purpose, however, and this area helps to absorb heat when it is standing up.  This is one reason the meerkats stand up in the morning – to warm up after the cold night of the desert in which they often live.

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So, what do meerkats eat?  Their diet is mostly one of insects but they will also eat plenty of other animals too.  The meerkat menu includes lizards, snakes (an enemy that can sometimes kill meerkats so makes a tidy if vengeful lunch), scorpions, eggs, and small mammals.  In the Kalahari Desert they are immune to the scorpion venom there – unlike us.  They do need to eat regularly as well.  One look at a meerkat and it is evident that they are very slim and slender.  In fact they have no excess fat stores and so have to forage for food every single day.  Even when they look fat, like this chap below, it is just the way he is sitting – honestly.

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They do this in a group – safety after all can be found in numbers.  While the rest of the group forage about there is always one sentry on guard, looking out for other animals with the same thing on their minds – food!  This duty is usually for only around an hour so the sentry does not get left out of the hunt for insects.   The sentry lets the others know that all is well by making a peep peep sound.  If danger approaches then it barks as loud as it can or whistles the others to be careful or retreat. The babies will start foraging when they are around four weeks old – and they learn how to do it by watching an older experienced meerkat.  The older ones may get a little grumpy at times, though.

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Meerkats are able to reproduce at around twelve months of age.  The amount of pups varies between one and five though mostly this averages out at three.  In the wild they can have up to four litters per year.  As such they are an iteroparous species – this means that they can reproduce at any time of the year.  When the pups are ready to leave the burrow the whole clan stands around to capture the moment.  This miffs the slightly older but not yet adult meerkats some of which then proceed to show off as much as they possibly can in order to regain the focus of attention.  There is no denying the cute factor, though.

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Not all meerkats in a clan are allowed to mate.  There is in meerkat society an alpha pair. These are the dominant male and female and they absolutely retain the right to mate and produce young.  Any females found to be pregnant may be evicted.  Even if this does not happen then once the pups are born the alpha female will usually kill them as soon as possible, even if the pups are related to them in some way.  This may seem cruel but often the expelled females will meet up with a roving lone male and a new clan can be established this way – keeping the gene pool varied for future generations.

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The meerkats live in large networks of underground burrows that they only leave during daylight hours.  One set up like this is called a colony and on average there are between twenty and thirty animals in a colony.  This can go to more than fifty but can be unsustainable for a long period due to its sheer size and animals competing to be the alpha.  Most of the meerkats in a group will be related to the alpha pair in some way shape or form but occasionally adoptions of stray pups have been known to occur.

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Their extremely social behaviour – as well as appearances on TV adverts (albeit in puppet form) and nature documentaries – have endeared the species to us.  Their behaviour, which often incorporates games such as wrestling and racing, only serves to make a human audience fonder of them.  However, human they are not and much of their natural behaviour can seem shocking to us.  The meerkat remains, however, one of the more endearing African mammals.

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Size, of course, is not everything but let’s start with the largest ice cave on the planet.  Translated from the German, the name of the cave is the ‘Word of the Ice Giants’ and to be frank, it is not a piece of Germanic overstatement.  Forty kilometers south of Salzburg, Austria in the Hochkogel Mountain the cave stretches for more than forty kilometers.  However, the more than two hundred thousand visitors the cave receives each year are restricted to the first kilometer only.

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This huge ice cave was formed when the river Salzach drove – over millennia – passageways in to the mountain.  One can only imagine the tiny beginnings of the cave and marvel at the sheer tenacious power of water.  Why the ice remains throughout the year is fairly straightforward, during the winter, ice cold winds rush in to the cave and freeze the snow that has been blown inside.  Contrarily, in the winter, wind from the bowels of the cave blow up to the entrance and ensure that the frozen formations do not melt.

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The cave itself was ‘discovered’ in 1879 – locals were well aware of its existence but had never actually explored the interior.  There was a simple reason for this.  Despite the ice – they believed it to be the entrance to hell.  Ice caves are different from glacier caves (people sometimes confuse the two).  A glacier cave is a cave that is formed within ice itself rather than in an already existing natural structure.  

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Demanovska – Slovakia

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Demänovská ice cave is situated in the Low Tatra Valley in Slovakia and has been known in Europe since the Middle Ages, first being mentioned in 1299.  It is quite off the beaten track so if you like your destinations a little less traveled then it could be ideal for a visit.  It is a little known fact that Slovakia is full of caves and this ice cave is one of 44 cave systems in the small eastern European country. 

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Although the cave was well known it was not until the middle of the 1800s that the caves were first opened to the public.  The entrance to the cave was modified to make descent easier and there was even a hostel built to accommodate the tourists of the time.  Approximately seven hundred meters is opened to the public nowadays and the tour is quite spectacular – if a little frosty.

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Serendipity – Canada

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There are times when ice caves can look a great deal like glacier caves.  This amazing shot was taken by Ian McKenzie of the Alberta Speleological Society in the wonderfully named Serendipity.  Serendipity is a limestone ice cave situated in the Canadian Rockies.  Within it, water ponds as it freezes and creates enough space for a little reflection.  Ponded ice water is what happens when surface water collects in a cave and then freezes.  The resulting clear ice mass can be enormous – tens of meters thick – and it can also be hundreds of years old.

The Crystal Ice Cave, California USA

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Ice caves in California?  Not exactly what one might expect but the Lava Beds National Monument contains a true cave of wonders.  Although there are ice formations in many of the Lava Bed’s numerous caves the ones in the Crystal Ice Cave are the most spectacular – and the weirdest too.  The formations are delicate and as such there is a very limited amount of visitors allowed each year.

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For three months each year, between December and March, small tours of no more than six people are given each Saturday, which means that the cave is visited by only just over a hundred people each year.  It is not for the faint hearted either – visitors are expected to be in excellent physical condition as they well have to use their upper body strength to get down a sheer sloped ice floor on a rope.  They must also be able to crawl through small holes and have good coordination.  Do you consider it worth the exertions?

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Scărişoara, Romania

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In the midst of the Carpathian Mountains, this wonderful ice cave was discovered in the eighteenth century and is believed to be around three and a half thousand years old.  It is high up – almost twelve hundred meters above sea level and is over a hundred meters deep and seven hundred in length.    Despite the freezing temperatures, bats and small insects inhabit the cave.

Kunguruska, Russia

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One of the oldest towns in the Urals, Kungar is home to the Kunguruska ice cave.  There are over twenty grottos in the cave system, including the Diamond the Polar grottos.  Many of the grottos feature unbelievable formations of ice, from solid walls to ‘organ pipes’.  The cave itself was thought to have once sheltered an army during a winter invasion of Siberia.  There is also an onsite stonemason’s workshop where the history of selenite is explained to visitors.

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Fish Creek, Canada

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Fish Creek ice cave near Calgary in Canada is an example of how the configuration of the cave allows convection to bring extremely cold air from the surface in the winter but not in the summer.  In the winter the cold air settles in the cave and forces any warm air upwards and out of the cave.  In the summer the cold air stays exactly where it is as the warm air is lighter and so cannot enter.  This makes it what is known as a cold trap.

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Tignes, France

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Can an ice cave be man made?  Strictly speaking, no, but perhaps if a tunnel is deserted and left to its own devices?  In Tignes, in the Rhone-Alpes region of France, this disused tunnel soon became a wonderful ice cave.  Wherever they are found in the world there is no doubt of the strange allure and outstanding beauty of ice caves.

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Considering that they have been around for forty nine million years, it is surprising that the Trogons are such little known species.  Perhaps it is time they changed their agent.  Where did they get their strange name from?  Its roots, like so many other words, are in the Greek language.  Trogon is the Greek for ‘nibbling’ and this may well be something of an understatement.  These birds literally gnaw holes in trees in the forests in which they live in order to create an environment suitable for nesting.  The Sumatran variety, above, is found only on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, making its home in the tropical moist forest there.

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Being part of the same family of birds does not mean that the species within it stick to similar plumage.  The variety is amazing.  The wonderfully named Elegant Trogon can be found in Arizona down to Costa Rica.  When it gets lost it is sighted sometimes in Texas.  It loves semi-arid woodlands and, contrary to its name, doesn’t particularly go for nibbling itself, preferring to let woodpeckers do it for them – more often than not it will choose an abandoned woodpecker hole. The lovely orangey-red of the male’s belly makes it a striking addition to the environment which it inhabits.  Broad bills and rather spindly legs give away its arboreal predilections.  They can fly fast when necessary but are generally not too keen to fly too far.

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The Violacious species which occurs in the Amazon Basin (but can also be found on Trinidad) sometimes chooses to lay its eggs in a wasp or termite nest though it will also head for a hole in a tree if it can find one.  They lay two or three white eggs and to feed their chicks they will forage insects and small fruit.  Like other Trogons they live in forest and – typical of the family as a whole – when they perch they remain motionless.

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The Cubans are so proud of their variety of Trogon that they have made it the national bird of the island state.  Although they prefer to live away from our species, this species has found that it must live on the periphery of our society and many in Cuba live in forest degraded by our own activities within.  This having been said, the species does not apparently seem to be in any immediate danger.

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Africa is not without its own Trogon species and perhaps the most beautiful is the Narina.  It seems that it was named after the mistress of the French ornithologist, Francois Le Vaillant and both sexes have the same green upper part plumage, with the tail feathers a metallic bluey green.  It can be found from Ethiopia to Sierra Leone and is widespread in its enormous range – and is in no danger whatsoever as a species (something which is always good to report).  This Trogon is a little more adventurous in its diet than some of the other species – as well as the usual insects it will make a meal of small rodents and reptiles too.  Like all other Trogons, they like nesting in tree hollows.  Both sexes of Trogons are involved in the rearing of the chicks – something found throughout the family.

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The news is not so good in Indonesia where the Scarlet-rumped Trogon is in danger.  Although it is found on a number of the Indonesian islands and Thailand it is threatened by – guess who – mankind.  We are quickly encroaching on its natural habitat and as our numbers grow the numbers of this amazing looking bird are dwindling.  This is a great shame as we do not know everything there is to know about this family of birds by a long way.  The positioning of the Trogon species within the Aves class is still a long standing mystery and although a variety of suggestions have been made it is still not clear.  Some argue that it is close to the kingfisher though the way that the toes on the foot are arranged – different to any other bird – makes many ornithologists believe that they have no close relatives.

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The White-tailed Trogon is found in Ecuador and Columbia.  It is one of the larger species in the family and can measure almost a foot in length.  Although among the most beautiful birds on the planet, trogons tend to be somewhat reclusive – and not seen very often at all.  There is not known about their biology but they are popular with birdwatchers.  There is a small ecotourism industry based around watching them.

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The Surucua is found in the humid forests of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina and has a gorgeous red belly.  They are sedentary and the Surucua – as well as the rest of the species in the family – has never been seen to undertake a long migration. 

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They will however, move to lower altitudes during different seasons of the year.  Trogons are extremely difficult to study as they have exceptionally thick feet bones which make tagging all but impossible.

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The White-Eyed Trogon is found mostly in Columbia.  The wings, short and strong are atypical of the family and make up just over twenty percent of the body weight.  Again, like most Trogons, it will not fly very often – or very far.  It is thought that most Trogons are reluctant to fly more than a few hundred meters at a time before alighting.  Most Trogons will fly quietly however, and the flight of the White-eyed is almost silent.

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Part of the Trogonidae family contains six species which are considered the most beautiful – if not the most unusual – in the family.  These are the Quetzals. The Resplendent Quetzal, seen in the two pictures here, is quite remarkable.  It is found from Southern Mexico to Panama and has played a large part in the mythologies of the indigenous people of the areas it inhabits.  It grows up to fourteen inches long but the male has an amazing twenty five inch tail streamer.  Their iridescent upper bodies work up to a crest which is helmet like in appearance and gives the Quetzal a somewhat thuggish face. 

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The bird was considered divine and associated with the god Quetzalcoatl.  Considered to be a symbol of goodness and light the Mesoamerican rulers wore headdresses made from the feathers.  As it was a crime to kill a Quetzal, the birds were caught, the tail feathers plucked and then they were freed.  It was thought for a long time that the Quetzal could not be kept in zoos as it usually kills itself soon after being captured.  However, at least one zoo in Mexico has managed to breed them.

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It was a few months ago that Scienceray took a preliminary look at the momentous construction project going on near the Hoover Dam – you can see it here.  Then we saw how the project began in 2005 and we left it in June of 2009.  At that point the arch was more than fifty percent complete and it was hoped that the two sides would meet in the fall.  That is in the here and now, so let’s take a look at how the project has progressed since then.  Have the hopes of the bridge builders come to fruition?

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All attention since June has been focused on the arch that will underpin the road that will connect the States of Arizona and Nevada.  Certainly, it seems to be painstaking work and the work literally seems to inch towards completion.  Not to worry, though.  The folks of the two neighboring States are patient people – after all the Dam itself is close to celebrating its seventy fifth birthday.  Those who remember its grand opening back in the Great Depression are now octogenarians.  Still, the near completion of the arch is cause enough to fly the flags, even though there is a painstaking six feet still to go. Look at this great shot from the completion day in August, however.

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If you look to the right of the flags – about ten meters or so, you will see a tiny figure with a safety hat and orange coat.  That’s one of the construction workers and gives an idea of the sheer scale of the project.  There is no doubt that those working on the project must not be afflicted by bouts of vertigo – however occasional.  Would you want to be up that high?  Just to put it in to context, it is over two hundred and fifty meters down from this height.  As Shaggy might say, yikes.

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Talking of things (rather than people) in their eighties, the bridge is now eighty five percent complete.  The arches have been connected.  Earlier in the year the contractors had finished work on the steel tub girders and the deck on the spans and the first segments of each arch were cast.  The very last sections of the arch were connected on 27 August 2009.  After this the supporting cable system had to be removed and this took a further two weeks.  The arch became free standing and self supporting on 27 August. 

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There is more work to be completed.  This includes setting the precast columns and erecting the steel girders.  What is most important, of course, for those who will use the bridge, is the casting of the roadway itself – both the deck and the barriers.  From road level, the archway is nearing completion in July.

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It is still July and the arch is nearing completion.  Although there is a month to go before their removal, the supporting cable system is still in place.  What a tragedy it would be if the cables were to give way at this point in time – the whole construction would plummet in to Lake Mohave like the denouement of some James Bond movie.  Fortunately, the brilliance of the engineers and the construction workers would pay off.  By August the arch would be free standing.

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So, when visitors are allowed on the bridge, what will the view of the Hoover Dam be like?  The picture above gives you an idea, taken from the bypass bridge itself.  Breath taking is quite the word.

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The next part of this piece contains photos from the actual bridge itself taken on the day that the arch became free standing – August 27 2009.   The bridge itself is huge – but it is close to the dam – around five hundred meters all told.  If you want the full name for the bridge then you must refer to it as the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge.  Could we not call it the M&P for short perhaps?  O’Callaghan was the Governor of Nevada back in the nineteen seventies and a Korean War veteran.  Tillman too was a veteran, but of the Afghanistan conflict where he was killed in action in 2004, his death surrounded by more than a few conspiracy theories.

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The bridge on the day the arch became single.  If you look between the two spans you will see another worker, crouching on a platform.  Again, this gives you a sense of sheer scale but, rather more interesting (to Science Fiction fans, at least) is the small blue box on the center right hand side of the picture.  Could it be that a certain Time Lord is thwarting another attempt by evil alien invaders to launch an attack on the earth from the Hoover Dam?  Or is that just what construction workers, taken short, refer to as a room called rest?

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This shot gives a really good feeling of how high the actual bridge will be when it is completed.  As you can see, the bridge will not be slim, exactly.  It is a new section of Highway 93 and as such will have two lanes each way over the complete span of five hundred and seventy meters.  A stagger inducing two hundred and fifty six meters above the river at its base, the bridge will not, however, afford drivers a view of the Hoover Dam as they cross.  It is way too high for that.  They will, however, be able to park and walk across the entire span should they wish, pretty much where the workers are on the left.

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Now the arch is complete there is almost another full year of work to be done to complete the bridge.  That will include the construction of columns on the arch itself that will eventually provide support for the roadway (see second to last picture – work has started).  Overall the statistics are very impressive.  About twelve hundred construction people have worked on the project with a further three hundred engineers.  The bridge is not the only feat of engineering – the four miles of four lane highway (which doesn’t in itself sound too impressive) was very difficult because of the rugged terrain that surrounds the area on all side.  The highway on its own cost over twenty million dollars.

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This picture of the Hoover Bypass Bridge was taken from Lake Mohave by boat in September 2009.  You can clearly see how the supporting cable system has now been removed and the arch is now free standing.  This marvelous image captures the sheer scale and grandeur of the project and proves that sometimes, when it comes to photography, looking up is just as effective as looking down.

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However, the view from the heavens is just as remarkable.  These shots were taken from a passing United Airlines flight to Las Vegas.  A breathtaking view from September 13 2009, the project can now be easily imagined complete.  Scienceray will return for the opening of this amazing bridge – hopefully in November 2010.  Watch this space.  For now, in October 2009, we say goodbye to the bridge.  As you can see, the pillars which will support the bridge road are now being built from the arch itself.  Amazing.

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Let us finish here, however, with a gorgeous high definition shot of the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge taken in October 2009.

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You may Also Like: The Incredible Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge Under Construction (this site)

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The first reaction to this bird is usually exclamatory.  What?  You mean that is actually a pigeon?  Put simply, this bird is a stunner – and if you are used to English vernacular you may well associate those words with scantily clad ladies on the third page of some of their tabloid newspapers.  This bird has made the news recently, however, in as much as several breeding programs throughout the world have met with success and have managed to breed these beauties.

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Depending on your taste, this picture will probably produce one of two responses – ‘ew’ or ‘aw’.  This baby Victoria Crowned Pigeon was born recently in Saitama Children’s Zoo in Japan.  This adds to the chick that was hatched in London Zoo in September 2009.  There has also been a birth in San Diego zoo.  A much lauded breeding program may very well save this massively endangered species from extinction – and who could possibly want it to go the way of its cousin, the Dodo?  However, one reaction, with apologies to the character Shug from the Color Purple movie is ‘you sure is ugly’.

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But look what this ugly ‘duckling’ will grow in to.  Resplendent in their gorgeous blueness, the Victoria Crowned Pigeon is – it must be said – a bird of significant beauty.  Where do they come from?  Which far flung corner of the globe do they call home?  They come from the lowland forests and swamps of New Guinea and a few of the islands of its coast.  They, like the Dodo, live on the ground and they mostly eat fruit such as figs and seeds that they forage for much as our town pigeons do, only with much more grace and aplomb.  They will also go for the odd invertebrate too but that is about as large as its animal food gets.  Unlike our own pigeons, though, they generally only lay one egg – which is one reason the species is in a spot of bother.

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It is difficult to get a proper idea about the size of these birds from photographs, but even though the Dodo was much, much bigger than them, their vital statistics are still pretty impressive.  The largest examples can grow up to seventy centimeters in height – which is the same height as a turkey. In fact, when asked which bird family the Victoria Crowned comes from, most people would probably hazard a guess at the turkey.  No relation, though.  Thousands of miles and several continents separate the two.

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It is named – as you probably suspect, after Victoria, the long lived monarch of the United Kingdom who died in 1901.  There are two sub-species which look similar, but the Victoria Crowned remains the largest.  However, the very crown on its head is that which has led to plummeting numbers in the wild.  These feathers – so it seems – make very fine decorations for the people of New Guinea and as such they have been extensively hunted so people can look good on a Saturday night.  Unfortunately for them too, they are quite tasty – and one of these birds will make a substantial dinner for a large family.

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Another reason for the loss of numbers in the wild is the fact that as our own species has grown and expanded it has forced its way in to the forest and swamps that previously the Victoria Crowned Pigeon called home.  A final nail in the coffin is the fact that the bird is pretty much tame – it will happily walk up to people (and even pose for photographs) without a glimmer of fear.  This naivety of our own species’ proclivities has meant that many a Victoria Crowned has ended up in the cooking pot – curiosity killing the pigeon rather than the cat in this instance.  So it may well be, as with so many other species, that captive breeding programs may be the only way to ensure its survival.  Shame.

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Have you ever blown over the top of a glass milk bottle?  If so you know the noise – deep, sonorous and reminiscent on occasion of accidental flatulence.  If you are familiar with this noise then you have a fair representation of what the call of this bird sounds like.  When they display – and this is where they lift up their wonderful crown in all its exquisite glory – they make a sound which corresponds to ‘boom-pa’ – with one or two exclamation marks at the end for good measure. 

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This immense call should, it is hoped, secure the male a mate and when he finds one, it’s a love story for life.  They lay once a year – and as we have already noted it is usually just a single egg.  When the chick is born it is helpless and requires around the clock attention from its parents.  When birds do this they are known as altricial but after around thirty days the chick will look like an adult but will only be one third of the size (and of course its crown will not be fully developed.  Yes, OK, let’s cue another one of those ‘aw’ moments – here you go.

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So, here is an odd fact.  Birds, it is generally known, do not produce milk for their young.  Well, pigeons – as well as flamingos – do.  The milk has a fairly similar composition to that which mammals produce to feed their own young.  They do not have mammary glands, however.  The milk is secreted from their crop – of both male and female.  In the first all important days after the chick has hatched it is this milk that will sustain it, meaning that the parents can remain close and does not have to go off foraging for food.

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It can only be hoped that this species will be able to survive and go on to thrive in the future.  The thought of a solitary example of the species, the last of its kind, surveying its dwindling habitat in the futile search for a partner, is not something most would like to imagine.  So, good luck to the Victoria Crested Pigeon, may you not go the way of your long since extinct cousin, the Dodo.

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You may also like: Endangered – The Most Dangerous Bird in the World (this site)