Article Link: http://news.discovery.com/animals/zoo-animals/do-urban-birds-breed-faster-130213.htm
Similar Articles: http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/news/news/2057/
http://phys.org/news/2013-02-blackbirds-spotlight-city-birds-night.html
Scientist in Germany measured the light intensity at night for forest and city birds in the wild. They then used this data to test for the effect of light at night on timing of reproductive system. City and forest blackbirds were exposed to either dark nights or very low light , used to imitated a city. The birds exposed to light showed their reproductive system developed one month sooner than those exposed to no light at night. The data suggests that urbanization can alter songbirds physiologically. The scientist came up with a few hypotheses like more light confused the songbirds to believe more days have passed, the light helped the birds hunt more often which in time gave them more energy to reproduce, or the light could have even changed the songbird metabolism. Other scientist who conducted similar research found songbird who got light at night also sang earlier in the day. They also noticed the songbird getting light producing more offspring for example the females with light tended to lay their eggs an average of 1.5 days earlier. The males in the light environment were two times as likely to father more birds because the won over more females.
NOS Themes
- Science is collaborative: The article clearly states that more than one person conducted this experiment by the use of "we" and "scientist"
- Science is based on evidence: The experiment was conducted on data and time to come to the conclusion that when birds have light at night, they reproduce faster
- Importance of repeatability: In all three link I shared, the different scientist conducted similar experiments, and all came to the understanding that light helps songbirds' bodies speed up the process of reproduction
- Role of motive and curiosity: All of these scientist were interested in the effect of light oon songbirds; they were curious about how light effects their lives
I think it’s fascinating that such a seemingly random thing could have changed something so vital to the bird’s cycle. We’ve always been told that human actions have an effect on wildlife, but I haven’t seen one like this before. I think the reasons for these changes in relation to the light make sense. I hope that it doesn’t have a negative effect on the birds.
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