There is no congruence in diversity of the three groups of organisms studied. It is inferred that their differences in biological and ecological characteristics as well as their ranges of dispersal are responsible for the distinct patterns of distribution in the landscape. It is proposed that the strategy for biodiversity conservation should consider landscape-level conservation in order to capture the range of biodiversity that exists outside the formal reserve network in Kodagu. While maintaining the integrity of the strictly protected forest reserve; of traditionally conserved sacred forests; and of privately owned coffee plantations is essential, conservation practice should emphasise the involvement of local communities in management of landscape rather than imposing biodiversity conservation by force.

This thesis is concerned with the relationships that develop between humans, birds of prey, prey animals and their environments in the practice of falconry. Falconry is a hunting practice in which humans and birds of prey develop a hunting companionship through which they learn to hunt in cooperation. Described by falconers as a way of life, falconry practice and the relationship to their birds take on a crucial role in their everyday lives. The research is based on fieldwork carried out over a period of three years largely in the UK, with shorter fieldtrips to Germany and Italy. Falconry practice raises many interesting questions about human-animal sociality and identity formation. Through the practice falconers learn how to 'lure' a bird into a relationship, as birds of prey cannot be forced to hunt and cooperate. When hunting the abilities of birds of prey are seen to be superior to those of the human being who becomes – if skilful enough – an assisting hunting companion. The careful attention necessary to establish a bonded relationship between falconer and falconry bird demands practices particular to falconry and involves a highly complex set of knowledge practices and methods. The establishment of this relationship depends on a fine balance between independence and dependence as well as wildness and tameness of the falconry bird that cannot be understood through conceptualising notions of 'the wild' and 'the tame' (or 'the domesticated') as opposites. Rather, the becoming of falcons and falconers through the practice allows moments of transformation of beings that resist familiar categories. This study of falconry challenges an anthropocentric mode of anthropological inquiry as it demands to open up the traditional focus of anthropology to also include nonhuman animals and to consider meaning making, sociality and knowledge production as co-constituted through the activities of humans and nonhuman animals. I focus on the practices involved in taming, training and hunting with birds of prey as well as in domestic breeding, arguing that it is important to see both humans and birds as well as predator and prey as active participants in mutually constitutive learning relationships. Focussing on processes of emergence in both becoming falconers and becoming falconry birds I develop the notion of beings-in-the-making, in order to emphasise that humans and birds grow in relation to each other through the co-responsive engagement in which they are involved. I further show how humans and nonhuman animals relate to the environment within which they engage, in which movements and forces of the weather play a central role. I use the term weathering to refer to the ways the weather influences the movements of human and nonhuman animals as well as being a medium of perception in which they are immersed. The landscape and the sky above are here not to be understood as two separate spheres divided by an interface but rather as caught up in a continuous process of transformation in which the lay of the land and the currents of the air are co-constituted. Finally, I suggest the perspective of creaturely ways to describe a mode of sociality that is constituted beyond the purely human sphere of interaction and to show that the sense of identity and belonging of both falconers and birds is not delineated by a fixed species identity but rather emerges out of the experiences and relationships that each living being develops throughout its life. Creaturely ways thus involves a focus on questions of ontogeny rather than ontology, which is crucial for understanding the mutually constitutive processes of meaning making, becoming and knowing in which falconers and falconry birds are involved. Through exploring the complex relationships involved in falconry practice and the consideration of humans and birds as active participants within them, this thesis makes an original contribution to anthropological studies of human-animal relationships. It further contributes to the development of a notion of more-thanhuman sociality that reaches beyond the idea of the social as confined to members of the same species. Moreover, the study contributes to the anthropology of learning and enskilment through analysing processes of knowledge making in their constitutive influence on the development of human and nonhuman ways of becoming. It further contributes to studies on the perception of the environment through considering the practitioner's perception and experience of the weather and currents of the air as they interplay with the ground below. Finally, this study makes a contribution to the as yet little studied field of 'modern' hunting practices and suggests a more nuanced approach of understanding the relationships of predator and prey they involve.

The increasing exploitation of marine renewable energy resources will create novel and unprecedented levels of anthropogenic activities in many coastal locations across the UK. In particular, locations with extensive and exploitable tidal stream energy resources will see large and dense arrays of installations, driven by the aggregated and limited distribution of this resource. Whilst the number of installations exploiting tidal stream energy resources is increasing, the environment impacts of installations remain unknown. This uncertainty is linked to our poor knowledge of the ecological function and importance of the high-energy environments, characterised with mean current speeds exceeding 2 ms-1, which are required for commercially viable installations. This thesis aims to increase our understanding of deep-diving seabirds' (Alcidae, Phalacrocoridae) use of high-energy environments, helping provide the information needed to estimate whether, which and when species could interact with installations. Chapters 3, 5 and 6 highlight the influence of predictable physical conditions (hydrodynamics, seabed features) on the foraging distributions of deep-diving seabirds across several spatial and temporal scales, indicating that the probable times and locations of foraging events within these habitats can be predicted. Chapter 4 directly tackles the estimation of spatial overlap between the foraging distributions of deep-diving seabirds and the locations of tidal stream turbines within a high-energy environment, evaluating and implementing methods to assess potential impacts at local and regional levels. Collectively, this thesis provides rare and novel studies into deep-diving seabirds' use of high-energy environments outside North America, and the only studies within these habitats that have collected quantitative and concurrent measurements of physical conditions and the foraging distributions of seabirds at fine spatial and temporal scales. In doing so, this thesis provides the empirical evidence needed to start identifying potential impacts from tidal stream energy extraction with more precision and confidence. By revealing the influence of predictable physical conditions on foraging events over several spatial and temporal scales, and also quantifying differences in habitat and microhabitat selection amongst deep-diving seabird species, this thesis also provides a unique contribution to our knowledge of the processes driving the foraging distributions of seabirds within coastal environments.

The Connection is a story about a detective hired to find her client's one true connection in the world. We Learned It From The Birds, follows the workday of two men as the control the birds population at JFK.

published_or_final_version / Physiology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

No description available.

The group known as the new world nine-primaried oscines is a large and diverse group containing about 10% of the living species of birds. The group is poorly known karyologically and phylogenetic relationships of some species within the group remain uncertain. In this paper, karyological data relating to the relationships of three species are presented. The data is also useful for exploring the nature of chromosomal evolution in birds. Two species of Parulinae were studied, with other warblers for comparison. Karyological data strongly supported removal of the Olive Warbler, Peucedramus taeniatus, from Parulinae. The Yellow-breasted Chat, Icteria virens, was found to be aberrant but properly a member of Parulinae. The genus Dendroica was found karyotypically conservative, with no differences between four species. The genus Vermivora was distinguished from other genera by large blocks of heterochromatin at the centromeres of most macrochromosomes. It appears that the Five-striped Sparrow, Amphispiza quinquestriata, is properly placed in its genus according to analysis of a data set that combined karyological and morphological data. This work strongly suggests that Chromosomal evolution is decoupled from the speciation process in Emberizidae. More intrageneric karyotypic variation was found within Emberizinae than has been previously reported from any bird taxon. There was a great deal of karyotypic rearrangement between species in Thraupinae and Cardinalinae. The rearrangements appear to be due to pericentric inversion. The heteromorphisms in the karyotypes of A. quinquestriata and Pipilo erythrophthalmus when combined with reports of heteromorphisms in other nine-primaried oscine species suggest this group has mechanisms to avoid meiotic irregularities usually associated with pericentric inversion. Further karyological studies of the nine-primaried oscines are required to improve our understanding of chromosomal evolution in the group.

In this thesis I discuss (1) the importance of status-age variations in the foraging behavior of individuals within a flock and (2) cultural transmission of foraging information among Gray-breasted Jays (Aphelocoma ultramarina), a cooperative breeder. Results of the experiments suggest that (1) subordinates are less successful in certain foraging situations than dominants, (2) the foraging preferences of young birds are not as defined as those of adults, (3) subadults obtain foraging information from adult flock members, and (4) older subordinates may not change their established preferences as easily as dominants (or younger birds) even when a cost to that preference is introduced. I suggest that, at least in this cooperative breeder, the flock provides a valuable source of environmental information.

No description available.