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POPSBirds - Indian Mynahs "From time to time I am asked (in what capacity I am never sure) how to humanely get rid of Indian mynahs. This alien species is slowly invading South Africa's eastern side. Town after town is falling to these raucous, aggressive birds that behave like Liverpool soccer fans. The first mynahs in South Africa were released in Durban in the 1890s from the top of a bus. A sailor had captured them in India and had tried in vain to sell them. They have since multiplied with biblical enthusiasm."
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POPSAttack of the killer ravens: Flocks are suddenly slaughtering lambs "Research published last year in the Scientific American also showed the raven to be one of the most intelligent species on the planet - up there with dolphins and apes and, unlike most other birds and animals, capable of learning from their own actions and from observing others' behaviour. They're thought to be one of the few birds that can count, and some have even learned to fashion leaves into special tools for extracting grubs from crevices in trees. In Japan, they were reportedly found dropping nuts onto a dual-carriageway, then darting down to eat them once the cars had cracked them open. Although older ravens (they live up to 25 years) mate for life and travel in pairs, young birds may form flocks of up to several hundred - collective nouns for ravens include an "unkindness", a "conspiracy", and a "murder" - which swoop on farm animals"
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POPS10 Amazing Things You Didn't Know about Animals After reading the comments at the source page, several people have suggested that some of this information is not quite accurate. There seems to be a lot of typos in the article, too. So I'm not sure what's going on at LiveScience. I'm not sure about parrot linguistic processing being near the level of a 4 to 6 year-old......hmmmm
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POPSThe Corn Palace ("corn-septual art" and "ear-chitecture") The original Palace was established in 1892. The third and present building was completed for its first festival at the present location in 1921. 604 North Main, Mitchell, South Dakota 57301 http://www.cornpalace.org/index.html more photos: http://flickriver.com/search/+Corn+Palace%2C+Mitchell%2C+South+Dakota+/interesting/ more corn-related clips: queerty's clip: http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/84D625B9-958C-4720-B2EF-EA740734AF3E/ aribeth's clip: http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/E6BAFF50-FE60-435E-AB21-199687768D80/ amgumen's clip: http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/898F8A3E-F14D-4BF7-A6D1-F2DE378A3DF1/ boozich's clip: http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/6A28772F-993A-4260-9C69-38C917C6C1C4/
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POPSGender-bending chemicals are putting the high notes in birdsong "They discovered that the region of the brain that controls songs in starlings - the "high vocal centre" - was much bigger in contaminated birds. Their study, reported in the journal Public Library of Science One, did not look at the effect of the oestrogen on the birds' fertility. Past studies have shown that oestrogen in sewage outlets is changing the sex of fish and causing males to produce eggs. "
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POPSLascaux Caves - Unusual Information about the art The charts, comparisons, comments, definitions, and delightfully different navigation processes make this site a real exploration. The quality of the photos is high and the information is unique. The navigation requires a bit of discovery which delighted my 6th grade students!
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POPSCedar Waxwing --Photo We have these beautiful birds in our area. They travel in flocks of about 20-40 birds. Last year, one hit our window. He was stunned for several minutes. The other birds didn't move on until they knew he was all right. The flocks kept filling up the trees. There were around 100-150 birds! Fascinating to watch. Notice the yellow at the tip of his tail. photo by KVAWARRE2P