Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to the AAAS, Zebra Finches are helping their hatchlings respond to global warming, by singing to their eggs.
Video: Zebra finch call prepares their eggs for climate change
Scientists have long worried whether animals can respond to the planet’s changing climate. Now, a new study reports that at least one species of songbird—and likely many more—already knows how to prep its chicks for a warming world. They do so by emitting special calls to the embryos inside their eggs, which can hear and learn external sounds. This is the first time scientists have found animals using sound to affect the growth, development, behavior, and reproductive success of their offspring, and adds to a growing body of research revealing that birds can “doctor” their eggs.
“The study is novel, surprising, and fascinating, and is sure to lead to much more work on parent-embryo communication,” says Robert Magrath, a behavioral ecologist at the Australian National University in Canberra who was not involved in the study.
The idea that the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) parents were “talking to their eggs” occurred to Mylene Mariette, a behavioral ecologist at Deakin University in Waurn Ponds, Australia, while recording the birds’ sounds at an outdoor aviary. She noticed that sometimes when a parent was alone, it would make a rapid, high-pitched series of calls while sitting on the eggs. Mariette and her co-author, Katherine Buchanan, recorded the incubation calls of 61 female and 61 male finches inside the aviary. They found that parents of both sexes uttered these calls only during the end of the incubation period and when the maximum daily temperature rose above 26°C (78.8°F).
…
Read more: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/video-zebra-finch-call-prepares-their-eggs-climate-change
The following is the study referenced by the press release;
Prenatal acoustic communication programs offspring for high posthatching temperatures in a songbird
In many species, embryos can perceive and learn external sounds. Yet, the possibility that parents may use these embryonic capacities to alter their offspring’s developmental trajectories has not been considered. Here, we demonstrate that zebra finch parents acoustically signal high ambient temperatures (above 26°C) to their embryos. We show that exposure of embryos to these acoustic cues alone adaptively alters subsequent nestling begging and growth in response to nest temperature and influences individuals’ reproductive success and thermal preferences as adults. These findings have implications for our understanding of maternal effects, phenotypic plasticity, developmental programming, and the adaptation of endothermic species to a warming world.
Read more (Paywalled): http://science.sciencemag.org/content/353/6301/812
Bird calls influencing the growth and behaviour of hatchlings is a fascinating discovery, if the result is repeatable.
“Bird calls influencing the growth and behaviour of hatchlings is a fascinating discovery, if the result is repeatable.”
But why do they assume it a response to climate change?
Cash, I would think . .
+2
WWF told them.
If this effect were true, it would be an astounding discovoery, with far reaching implications in many areas.
The fact that the final word of abstract is to link this to “a warming world” makes me think it’s bullshit.
If it has any substance it would stand on its own and would be hailed as a major discovery.
Gavin Schmitt has been trying to warn future generations about global warming by tweeting too …. bird brain.
@Greg
If I had to guess, the “climate change” link was added to increase the likelihood of grant renewal.
ShrNfr
August 19, 2016 at 3:58 am
+22 for me.
Auto
I think I will get myself a PhD in Zebra Finch Psychiatry so I can listen in on their instructions to the embryos.
I wonder what the embryos would do, if you played some Mozart to them instead. Or how about some nice French Cesar Franck Organ music; that would wake them up to catch the early worm that gets the bird.
g
@ur momisugly Greg,
What the “she” researchers are claiming is NOT true.
Those two “she” researchers Mylene Mariette and Katherine Buchanan have determined that Zebra finch parents are capable of preparing their eggs (or is it the embryos therein) for climate change.
And said “parent preparing” was done so by, to wit:
So, when one of the parents was sitting all alone on a nest-full of eggs ….. it would noninfrequently “chirp-out” a rapid, high-pitched series of calls.
Well “DUH”, just why was the parent sitting on the nest atop of all the eggs iffen it was actually trying to “chirp-out” a climate changing message to all the embryos inside of the eggs underneath her/him?
And oh my oh my, …. this one is an even stranger/weirder claim, to wit:
Why would those two “she” researchers be citing “daily ambient temperatures”, which are a functional result of local weather conditions, ….. as being the “determiner” of future climate changes?
HA, most anyone with a little common sense about the natural world could tell those two “she” researchers that those …. rapid, high-pitched series of calls being uttered by the “nest-sitting” parent was to inform the other parent to get it’s arse “back to the nest” because the one sitting there was getting too hot and in need of a drink of water and a bite to eat.
Without good reason, nest-sitting birds in the wild, very seldom, if ever, make any noise, tweeting or otherwise, ….. simply because that would be a sure way of “attracting” a predator.
It’s more likely to be a reaction to a huge goanna ponderously making its way towards a smorgasbord of warm-ish fresh eggs (26C).
The bigger the goanna, the higher pitched the cheeps.
(I once witnessed a Pommy tourist do the same thing as a goanna took a fancy to her sandwiches)
What is wrong with them? Don’t they know that we have reached the Tipping Point, and the End is near, very near?
Ahhh… the End is near – but the question remains: WHICH END?
It sounds like a standard link-everything-to-climate-change that we’ve seen for years now. Connect it to the current fad to draw dollars from it.
However, pre-natal responses to sound are quite interesting on their own.
Lack of perspective. Birds are the descendants of dinosaurs, their linage has been through hothouse to ice ages and back again. Of course they have adaptions to climate change already in place. As do human beings, forty some environmental markers in our genome identified so far, arctic, desert, high-altitude, et al.
Unless you figure brand new life began rather recently, it makes little sense to speak of this or that particular creature line having “been through” anything any other creature line has not, it seems to me, Larry.
It’s so easy to get your research funded if you can utter the magic words!
A little bird brain told them!
But what song do the finches use in cold weather? Does that song change the behavior of the nestlings?
it’s not a sound you’ll ever hear (as oddly, they do not nest when it’s cold)
Such are the mysteries of the world (casts wide eyes around, sweeping hand dramatically across the landscape for effect).
I believe the intent of the comment was if it is colder than normal during mating season. They do mate during mating season, regardless of the temperatures, I believe.
That question is a real “Song of a finch” as they say in circles where they say such things.
If the parents don’t sing, does the hatchling just stay in the egg?
Maybe they are singing songs of divestment. Lol.
Recording of the birdsong in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS_YAKZH3lw
+1
Holy smoke!
Thanks for that video, TjW.
Dan
That’s great, so we now understand their speech! What else are they talking about, apart from Global Warming?
LOL…
Kim Kardishan’s outfits?
I read the full article. I’ll wait for someone like Jim Steele to weigh in. But for the moment, let’s take it at face value.
The researchers are postulating that warmer temps cause the birds to modify their off spring to cope with warmer temps. Presuming that this is an evolutionary trait, and given that evolution cannot respond to future conditions, only past conditions, we have to also presume that the birds’ evolutionary history includes times when the earth was as warm or warmer than it is now. In other words, current conditions are not unprecedented.
The alternative to that would be to consider that the birds are capable of predicting the future and deciding what to do about it. I’m skeptical, they are after all, blessed with bird brains. Could be worse. They could have super computers.
davidmhoffer —
“I’m skeptical, they are after all, blessed with bird brains. Could be worse. They could have super computers.”
You win funniest post hands down.
Eugene WR Gallun
David, singing is normal
The birds stop singing when it gets cold….below 80F
The opposite of what they are spinning
David, isn’t what you described quite a bit like Lysenko’s take on genetics?
Thats all we need, an automatic flying temperature sensor letting us all know that its 26c or above.
Isnt nature wonderful.
Yes but it is not a fast enough temperature response to alert them to avoid the Ivanpah chicken cooker.
g
“The zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata [formerly Poephila guttata]),[2] is the most common estrildid finch of Central Australia and ranges over most of the continent, avoiding only the cool moist south and some areas of the tropical far north.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_finch
That’s a wide range of temperature conditions. Warrum Ponds is listed as being in or near Geelong, Victoria. It would seem to be towards the southern extremity of range.
I read this on phys.org awhile ago. As near as I can tell this is the most outstanding example of grant pandering I’ve seen yet.
Which is sad since it seems fascinating. Not only did they identify the meaning of a specific bird call, but they bird’s growth actively responds to it. There’s no need for the transparent climate connection.
Another BS meter blown up. “Climate” and “change” together mean absolutely nothing without a qualifying pronoun. You do have to wonder how they know that the birds are singing about “climate change.” Perhaps they are singing about what a pack of fools humans are to believe such utter garbage.
Birds don’t live long enough to experience climate change, even if the climate is changing.
Uh, if not a one of us can change our height, I doubt bird embryos can control their development by hearing Ma and Pa talking to them.
How do they know its Ma and Pa and not Grandma or Aunt Goldfinch with her crackpot ideas?
How do they know they are Zebra finches in the first place?
Also to them, whats a zebra or even a finch?
Attempts to humanise the animal kingdom produces some strange efforts from humans.
Yes, that’s what I was thinking – anthropomorphism, lol.
That’s why if it does work, it’s so interesting. This indicates that they can willfully change their growth pattern (if such a word can be used for finches), similar to pulling or pushing a muscle.
If I understand the non-paywalled section correctly, the response was to the birdcall alone. That’s not Lamarkism, that’s an unknown mechanism they haven’t seen before.
Hold your horses there! It’s no such thing. What it is, is about the stupidest research conclusion I’ve ever seen!
A)- The chicks are inside an egg and under a parent so they don’t know what the ambient temp is.
B)- It is hazardous to the chick to hatch when it is too cool
C)The parent tells the chick when hatching conditions are optimal
What an unbelievable pile of bovine excrement! Why do people think they can do science when they aren’t even capable of logical thought?
Pregnant women used to gaze at paintings of beautiful people so that their babies would be beautiful. That make as much sense as this birdsong theory.
My mother did that & it worked…..here’s the proof
http://cdn.ebaumsworld.com/mediaFiles/picture/634409/1056970.jpg
Wow, I didn’t realise you were female !
Perhaps the warmer conditions means the chick will hatch. The parents are making ‘happy’ noises because the chore of incubating will be over.
That or another thousand possible reasons.
Birds modifying their eggs by chirping is LYSENKOISM.– environment altering genetic inheritance.
The author of this probably talks to plants and believes in playing Bach to babies in the womb to produce a future musician.
The stupidity, it burns.
Eugene WR Gallun
Actually (no, seriously) talking to plants can help them, breathing gobs of nice, warm, humid CO2 at them and their little stoma or whatever those things are. Not at all stupid, then, that Barmy Prince Charlie talks to his plants. It’s a good idea.
Yeah but now Charles has the IQ of a geranium.
This is not necessarily Lysenkoism. It is not immediately apparent that sound cannot affect embryonic development.
Alligators use nesting temperature to determine the sex of their hatchlings. It is not outside the realm of possibility that sounds could also influence fetal development.
Mark proposes: “It is not outside the realm of possibility that sounds could also influence fetal development.”
In fact, there’s an entire lab at Princeton (called the PEAR Lab, fellow named Robert Jahn, I guess they have a large closet under the stairs) devoted to quantifying the Heisenberg principal central to quantum mechanics. Their hypothesis is that consciousness directly influences the physical world in measurable ways and they claim to have measured it.
So birds sing and it effects embryo development. Right up their alley.
Environment may not determine genetic inheritance – actually the jury is still out on that – but it can definitely effect embryonic development.
Query? — Was Prince Charles a co-author of this study?
Eugene WR Gallun
Thanks Eugene! I am glad key boards are cheap!
No, he was a Patron.
Are we to believe that Zebra Finches never made these types of calls before the era of global warming? That sure is some fast evolution at work there. But what do the embryos inside the eggs do in response to these calls, flip the air-conditioning switch to on?
The red beaked one looks totally embarrassed after “tweeting” the article.
Maybe it wasn’t his egg?
Maybe, at 26C, they are singing “Oh what a beautiful morning” and advising the embryo that the world is warming up (at last) and that their lives will be far better than their parents, who have had to suffer cooler temperatures until now.
A follow-up study could be on how they survived the Little Ice Age?
The only thing they really need tell them is “Watch out for the windmills”.
And how many generations of finches were observed, tracked and extensively documented?
Peer reviewed.
The whole lot should be paid in bird seed. Or maybe they already are paid in hemp seeds?
Brian Cox should have waved the intelligent finches graph around and demonstrated the nurturing finch call warning the chicks to pack shades, bikinis and thongs.
Here’s what puzzles me. How are these finches able to tell the difference between global warming and regional warming from inside their aviary home? That’s a neat trick if they can do it. Did past temperatures never get above 78.8°F in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada? Is 80°F really that unprecedented for that region?
I really doubt these song birds care if the globe is warming or just their surrounding neighborhood. They probably respond to warm temperatures just as they have for thousands of years. Is there any evidence this is a new behavior?
They have the grant papers to prove it. Give them enough money and they’ll present iron-clad evidence in the form of models proving that fairies have, indeed, been at the bottom of their garden.
Fairies at the bottom of the garden are as true as CAGW
for proof see this peer reviewed paper
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1077709/Sherlock-Holmes-curious-case-garden-fairies.html
This gives a whole new definition to the term “Bird Brain”…
Seriously!!!!!
Is there anything ‘global warming’ doesn’t cause?
Ingrowing toenails.
But if you send me grant money I’ll prove that is caused by GW as well.
Bird song varies with the temperature gets translated into birds can predict climate change.
Hmmmm maybe they can predict the stock market too.
Maybe we should use birds instead of climate models?
Back in the 1950’s my brother kept Zebra finches, outdoor aviary in Lancashire. They used to sing about brass monkeys.
Great!
Now that we have found a species which is able to effectively direct pre-natal environmentalist propaganda, I propose a Zebra Finch for next head of the IPCC,….
Now I understand….. The ‘S’ in AAAS stands for ‘ Stupidity’