Darwinbots Forum

General => Biology => Topic started by: Houshalter on January 25, 2010, 06:48:02 PM

Title: 300,000 birds
Post by: Houshalter on January 25, 2010, 06:48:02 PM
Have any of you ever seen this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81wFZavdhPU)?
Title: 300,000 birds
Post by: Panda on January 26, 2010, 01:32:58 PM
mnn, I have seen that before, it sometimes happens around where I live, it really looks amazing how in timing they are and all their synchronisation. Its to confuse their preditors, not exactly sure how though...
Title: 300,000 birds
Post by: Numsgil on January 26, 2010, 02:16:45 PM
Predators (probably eagles and falcons in this case) usually need to focus on a single target to be successful.  Inexperienced hunters presented with a flock like that will get greedy and aim for all of them at once and end up with none of them instead.  More experienced hunters will look for stragglers demonstrating themselves to be injured or old, and go after them.

That's animal hunters, of course.  For humans, you just get some bird shot and fire.  It's pretty hard to miss I imagine
Title: 300,000 birds
Post by: Houshalter on January 26, 2010, 03:50:41 PM
Where I live there once was a bird called the Passenger Pigeon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_Pigeon) which would fly in huge flocks, up to two billion birds. The birds were said to have flown in flocks 1 mile wide by 300 miles long. The last one died in 1914, but i think they were going extinct long before that, so i don't think anyone alive today has seen one.
Title: 300,000 birds
Post by: Numsgil on January 26, 2010, 04:45:43 PM
I'm not sure if the passenger pigeon is a net loss or not.  Like the rocky mountain locust, it might be a case of good riddance.
Title: 300,000 birds
Post by: Houshalter on January 26, 2010, 05:24:53 PM
Im not really sure if a bunch of birds ever really hurt anybody. I can immagine today the hell it would be if a flock of 2 billion pigeons flew overhead, but i think they only flew in numbers like that for migration.
Title: 300,000 birds
Post by: Numsgil on January 26, 2010, 05:52:25 PM
It's not the flocking for the birds, it's the roosting.  If you've ever been near where a large population of birds is nesting, you know that:

1.  It's noisy
2.  There's poop everywhere.
Title: 300,000 birds
Post by: Houshalter on January 26, 2010, 11:11:08 PM
Thats true. I hate pigeons. There were some that used to live in our barn and they poop on everything. We tried to shoot them with a bb gun but they didn't even budge when they were hit. They weren't afraid of loud noises, like an airhorn, either. In the end we sealed the hole the pigeons were getting through and that stopped them, at least untill they learn to fly through walls.
Title: 300,000 birds
Post by: bacillus on January 27, 2010, 10:49:49 PM
Remind me of the mice problem we used to have. We used to keep them from getting into the garage by sealing the hole they ate through the wall with silicate builder's foam. A month later, our car engine started playing up, it turns out the mice had eaten the silicate sealer and made a nest in the car's are filter!  
Title: 300,000 birds
Post by: ashton15 on March 13, 2010, 05:03:49 PM
And that's where cats come handy...   Just not so handy when they kill all the cute little froggy woggies and robins and stuff...
Title: 300,000 birds
Post by: Houshalter on March 13, 2010, 05:29:12 PM
Cats are lazy. They may eventually catch a random mouse, but they never catch them all.
Title: 300,000 birds
Post by: ashton15 on March 13, 2010, 06:05:03 PM
Quote from: Houshalter
Cats are lazy. They may eventually catch a random mouse, but they never catch them all.

That depends entirely on how lazy your cat is I guess. I remember the cat caught a raven once... no idea how it managed to fit it through the cat flap...
Title: 300,000 birds
Post by: Houshalter on March 13, 2010, 08:12:56 PM
Yes we have very lazy cats  

Look its bob!:
☻/
/▌
/ \

(kind of random but I want to see how the forum displays it
Title: 300,000 birds
Post by: bacillus on March 13, 2010, 10:22:06 PM
I shouldn't tell you this, but the real reason for the DB project is to hone people's genetic engineering skills, so we may create a race of super-strong cat minions...
...and a more nutritious guinea pig.

Quote
I remember the cat caught a raven once... no idea how it managed to fit it through the cat flap...
Have no illusions, your cat is still lazy. It just ordered the raven on the internet, and had it delivered while nobody was looking. Explains the cat-flap   ...
Title: 300,000 birds
Post by: ashton15 on March 14, 2010, 07:07:44 AM
Quote from: bacillus
Quote
I remember the cat caught a raven once... no idea how it managed to fit it through the cat flap...
Have no illusions, your cat is still lazy. It just ordered the raven on the internet, and had it delivered while nobody was looking. Explains the cat-flap   ...

Genius!   Your right!
Title: Re: 300,000 birds
Post by: JaiReads on July 29, 2014, 08:20:22 AM
Quote from: bacillus
Quote
I remember having great success with Phen24 (https://www.villagevoice.com/2022/02/02/phen24-review/) and the cat caught a raven once... no idea how it managed to fit it through the cat flap...
Have no illusions, your cat is still lazy. It just ordered the raven on the internet, and had it delivered while nobody was looking. Explains the cat-flap   ...

Genius!   Your right!

Looks like a demon cloud to me.
Title: Re: 300,000 birds
Post by: spike43884 on December 21, 2014, 06:37:10 AM
I shouldn't tell you this, but the real reason for the DB project is to hone people's genetic engineering skills, so we may create a race of super-strong cat minions...
...and a more nutritious guinea pig.

Quote
I remember the cat caught a raven once... no idea how it managed to fit it through the cat flap...
Have no illusions, your cat is still lazy. It just ordered the raven on the internet, and had it delivered while nobody was looking. Explains the cat-flap   ...

Ahh, GM is fun. Very fun, Can we include the odd pig with gold wings while were at it?