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Laurent Ye
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Birds: A Climatic Instrument
June 16, 2009 - 11:51 AM
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Does bird migration tell you anything? Let me do a quick recap about that magical phenomenon. Migratory birds need to live at a certain temperature in order to survive and so they will fly from place to place and install themselves in locations which will provide them that certain degree of warmth. Generally, these creatures migrate in the South during winter, when the temperature decreases and return to the North when the tropical warmth increases. Recently the National Audubon Society, an environmental organization, noticed that the birds are staying close to the North even when the winter chill comes. That may be due to the effects of global warming. Indeed, they are relocating themselves further away from the South.
The National Audubon Society is a non-profit environmental organization from the United States. Their goal is to preserve nature. Having been incorporated in 1905 and based in New-York, it is without a doubt, one of the oldest ecological groups in the world. The name of the organization comes from an American naturalist and ornithologist, Jean-Jacques Audubon, who painted, classified and described all the bird species from America in his famous book “The Birds of America”.
The Audubon society manages several special events each year. The Christmas Bird Count, for example, is an annual event taking place in December where amateur ornithologists voluntarily class diverse types of birds. The scientists of the Audubon society will conduct their numerous projects based on this classification. They have been doing that for the past 40 years.
These scientists have observed that almost up to 60% of the 305 bird species migrates 50km (35 miles) less to the South. This discovery highlights the undeniable effects of global warming on nature. The scientists also noted the fact that most important north migrations occur in the American states where the temperature has increased the most. In America, the average temperature went up 3˚C in 40 years. If you want more details, make sure to check out the official Audubon society website (www.audubon.org).
I would furthermore like to quote Mr. Louis-Gilles Francœur. In his article from the Friday 20th edition of Le Devoir, he declares that “[b]irds are an excellent barometer which indicates our environment’s health. All the changes that affect the distribution of various species in nature, the health conditions of these species and their abundance informs us on their conditions, on our Earth’s health conditions, but ultimately, on our own health situation. All in all, birds are a very useful and can provide information on what disturbs our planet.” Let’s not forget that animals are much more sensitive then human beings to natural catastrophes. They react consequently sooner than us when, for example, there are earthquakes, tsunamis, or in this case, climatic warming.
When the weather forecast predicts a -20˚C, what will we do? When it predicts a 36 ˚C, what will we do? When we have before us such a good indicator, and I am talking about the birds here, we should take advantage of it. Let’s not just sit in front of the television and watch it predict future heat waves! Let’s act!
For more information, please visit weeklygreen.ca
This post was edited on: 2009-06-16 at 11:57 AM by: laurentye
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siddiqua
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Re: Birds: A Climatic Instrument
June 16, 2009 - 03:21 PM
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This is a very informative article. Humans can complain about the climatic changes but birds or animals - they don't. They either adapt or die out. Its not just climate change, but technology too that is creating havoc. Cell phone waves disrupt bird migration. I agree, -they are like bioindicators. We need to use them.
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Laurent Ye
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Re: Birds: A Climatic Instrument
June 16, 2009 - 08:52 PM
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Talking about bio indicators, birds are only one example out of thousands more. In fact, animals in general are more sensitive than us human. This is porved in events such as volcano eruptions, earthquakes and all sort of natural phenomena. The 2006 Indonesian tsunami is also a great example of how animal just fled before the tsunami touched the ground.
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siddiqua
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Re: Birds: A Climatic Instrument
June 17, 2009 - 06:14 AM
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I too have read about animals sensing earthquakes and their panic before the quake or any natural disaster. But if one were to really use animals as indicators of natural disasters, how could we go about it ?
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