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).
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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.
OK, so now it’s “the zebra finch in the coalmine”. Whatever.
Or “the zebra finch in the wind turbine factory.”
It has been alleged by credible sources that 1/2 of the scientific literature is false. I think that these experts are being far too generous. I would wager that almost all of the scientific literature is false in some way.
The “scientists” are completely blinded by a worldview and bend their results to match said bias.
This article highlights a perfect example. Birds singing modifies the eggs of offspring because of “global warming” when there has been no global warming. Do the damn birds read the alarmist newspapers? They sure don’t feel any warming as there has been none.
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At least the paper is behind a paywall. The fewer that read such codswallop the better.
Actually, 92.65% of all statistics are made up.
And that’s 86% of the time, too!
68% of the time. You got the numbers reversed.
Apparently if you put “climate change” or “global warming” in a grant proposal you can study anything you like, as long as the results support AGW. And of course, the results, even if they are bird-brained, ALWAYS support AGW.
What’s going on here?
Are academic papers being pinned to the wall and a squirt pistol loaded with concentrated Climate Change Solution used to spray them? Or is it more like skunk marking, where scientists are evolving a tumescent Climate Change Gland which causes great discomfort, then great relief when it is used to spray references to CC into their papers?
What ever the circumstances surrounding these odd gland secretions, I’m sure the natural cycle of climate change gland-spraying will itself be revealed to be affected by climate change.
BBC is doing this story in the US as I write this. They are calling it The Heat Song.
No wonder the people are so stupid on the subject. They live in a vortex of propaganda.
How do we separate propaganda from “education”. Can we?
Once, when I attended a high school graduation of a rather arrogant grandchild, I told him that half of what he had learned in school was wrong and he would not be really educated until he knew which half.
I realized I was grossly overestimating education.
Don’t forget that there are basics. The Alphabet and Arithmetic.
Plus, there are many things where they have to go through the human understanding era by era. You can’t divide by zero in elementary school. You can in upper algebra once you understand the concept of infinity and cancellations. Similarly, you can’t get to Einstein until you first learn Newton.
Finally, history is a wash of half-truths that you can understand more and more of over time. I’ve learned not that my education was wrong, but that it was far less complete than I had ever dreamed.
Now cicadas are a different story: They really can tell the temperature….
I haven’t read the whole thing, but apparently, all they’ve done is observe a simple correlation. Now, someone needs to conduct some actual science, and set up an experiment to test the hypothesis.
Not an experiment — we need a new MODEL, preferably on a very expensive computer! No need to validate the model though, we have already decided what the results will be.
Well I haven’t paid to read the full paper, but I would have thought that the parent bird chirping above 26c is an unnecessary extra postulation of a causal step than the egg itself simply expereincing ambient temperatures of 26c and above.
I would be heartened if they did a control study which looked at what happened if the egg were exposed to high temperature chirping but kept below 26c. Maybe they did? Can anyone tell me?
Richard
Doh! Of course, birds incubate their eggs. Next time think before typing Richard!!!
This is science?
Birds in general incubate eggs close to our body temps, although their body temps are higher. Incubating to keep temps close to 37C is ideal for many species, but it’s important to not let the sun overheat them as well, so shading the eggs is done too. From the article I post below the finches try to maintain 35C according to a study done in Victoria. Also, as per many species, they wait until the last egg is laid to begin true incubation.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249998707_Zebra_Finch_Incubation_Brood_Patch_Egg_Temperature_and_Thermal_Properties_of_the_Nest
Another “scientific” study.
Yep. They certainly are persistent.
CR, your link says it’s known that birds communicate – not with eggs but with partners :
‘Vocal negotiation over parental care? Acoustic communication at the nest predicts partners’ incubation share’
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There’s really something bad with peer review.
So birds apparently have body thermometers sensitive enough to detect global temperature changes on the order of tenths of a degree and then have the ability to react to those minute temperature changes?
Fascinating. Peer review at its finest.
Yeah, it’s something the species evolved to give them a survival advantage. In case they need it…
Singing that GCM project they should not plan on roosting near the present-day coastline, as by 2100 it will be two meters underwater.
I don’t believe they found the Zebra Finch Rosetta Stone, so their interpretation is BS. However, sounds we hear entrain our brain waves. It is claimed that a 4hz tone causes a 4hz brain wave response. This has been used in meditation for a few decades now.
Actually the opposite – ‘they’ HAVE found the Zebra Finch Rosetta Stone, and it is hidden behind the paywall so no one will look there for it.
Oh, it is only taxpayers’ money.
Baby birds are susceptible to cold temperatures. Wouldn’t it make sense that they have evolved a way to tell the chick whether it is safe to hatch? I think most people will realize this has nothing to do with AGW and it will just serve to dilute their message.
Exactly, birds don’t like hatching in a cold wave except maybe emperor penguins.
I used to raise and sell zebra finches in Arizona years ago. I have raised many birds. ALL birds often ‘vocalize’ to the eggs as the babies are about to hatch! And the warmer it is, the more ‘talk’ there is. NOT because warm is evil or to ‘prepare them for heat’ but because the birds are HAPPY. Zebra finches like chickens, love hot weather.
Indeed the adult birds do a lot of vocalizing. With the many live nest cameras now placed near many species this parental vocalizing can be seen and heard and the soon to hatch and the pipping stage birds begin vocalizing as well which can sometimes be heard if the nest cam’s have good audio, with parents sort of encouraging them perhaps (anthropomorphic projection here, lol).
exactly, they stop singing when it gets cold
Has a study been done on why zebra finches only like chickens but love hot weather?
Birds can “doctor” their birds by singing. Well, how do you know what the effect is if you don’t know what it was before, or what the actual changes are due to the singing.
Basically, this is a “thought” paper parading as science that is trying to ride the coat tails of Climate Change because everything is “caused” by climate change without any actually effects of that cause observed.
Seems to me I’ve read about several of these novel and surprising finch studies before.
Back in the 1960s researchers were studying whether finch calls to their eggs determined nuclear radiation levels.
Back in the early 1970s researchers were studying whether finch calls to their eggs determined the existence of God or Hare Krishna supporters at airports.
Back in the late 1970s, early ’80s, researchers were studying whether finch calls to their eggs represented repressed memory syndrome or finchling abuse.
Back in the 1980s researchers were studying whether finch calls to their eggs demonstrated the potential for cocaine use.
Back in the 1990s researchers were studying whether finch calls to their eggs represented teenage finch oral s.e.x.
And now, in the new millenium researchers are studying whether finch calls to their eggs …
..Alas poor honorable science, I knew you well….before liberal Alarmists butchered you !!
“…high ambient temperatures (above 26°C)…”
So, anytime we record a temp above 26°C we can expect the climate to change?!
I trust they are also warning them of the coming invasion by space aliens. Because that would be irresponsible parenting if they didn’t.
Actually, knowing my finches, they are discussing how to escape their cages.
OK, so apparently the birds only sing the particular song when temps really have 26°C. I would like to know how often it reached that temp? Daily, most days? Maybe the song had more to do with time of day? Or maybe it is the finch’s way of saying ‘Dang! It’s hot!’
In Chile and California, birds are preparing for an earthquake. In the UK, they are preparing for brexit. In Syria, they are preparing for Russian bombs. In Japan and Thailand birds are preparing for tsunami.
Alarmists are only capable of seeing everything thru a lens of global warming, to them everything must relate to GW and grant money too. the claim of the paper is absurd.
..And here I thought mine were just reading the New York Times at the bottom of their cage !!
The most ridiculous sentence to me was ” Scientists have long worried whether animals can respond to the planet’s changing climate.”
It should continue “…but not near as long as animals have been adapting successfully to climate.”
Perhaps worry is not the indicated form of study here.