Nestcraft - Many Minds
- Rating
-
- Fav.
- Waveform
-
- Action
-
- Link
- Title
- Nestcraft
- Description
- <p class="MsoNormal" style= "margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: normal;"><span style= "font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">How do birds build their nests? By instinct, of course—at least that's what the conventional wisdom tells us. A swallow builds a swallow's nest; a robin builds a robin's nest. Every bird just follows the rigid template set down its genes. But over the course of the last couple decades, scientists have begun to take a closer look at nests—they've weighed and measured them, they've filmed the building process. And the conventional wisdom just doesn't hold up. These structures vary in all kinds of ways, even within a species. They're shaped by experience, by learning, by cultural tradition. When we look at a bird's nest, we're looking at the product of a flexible mind.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style= "margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: normal;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style= "margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: normal;"><span style= "font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">My guest today is <a href= "https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/biology/people/sdh11/">Dr. Susan Healy</a>. Sue is a Professor in the School of Biology at the University of St Andrews and an expert in birds—their behavior, their cognition, and their evolution. For more than a decade now, Sue has been pioneering a new chapter in the study of birds' nests. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style= "margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: normal;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style= "margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: normal;"><span style= "font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Here, Sue and I talk about some of the most impressive nests (as well as some of the least impressive). We do a bit of Birds' Nests 101—the different forms they take, the functions they serve, which sex does the building, how these structures evolved, and more. We dig into the mounting evidence that birds are in fact quite flexible in their building practices, that they learn from others and from their own experience. We discuss recent evidence from Sue's team that cultural traditions shape the weaver nests of the Kalahari. And we talk about what nests might have in common with songs and tools. Along the way, we touch on: pigeon nests and hummingbird nests, dinosaur nests and chimpanzee nests; Alfred Russel Wallace; commonalities in the techniques of human weavers and weaver birds; whether bird personality might be reflected in nest style; the brain basis of nest-building; and a whole lot else. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style= "margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: normal;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style= "margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: normal;"><span style= "font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Hope you enjoy this one, friends. On to my conversation with Dr. Sue Healy. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style= "margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: normal;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style= "margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: normal;"><span style= "font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">A transcript of this episode will be available soon.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style= "margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: normal;"><span style= "font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style= "margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: normal;"><em><u><span style= "font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Notes and links</span></u></em></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style= "margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: normal; tab-stops: 4.2in;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">2:30 – An example of a <a href= "https://www.instagram.com/liljupiterr/p/C7woNSFAQ92/?hl=en&img_index=9"> post</a> on the (seemingly inadequate) nests of pigeons. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style= "margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: normal; tab-stops: 4.2in;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">7:30 – An <a href= "https://www.gardendesign.com/trees/weaver-bird-nests.html">article</a> featuring a variety of weaverbird nests.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style= "margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: normal; tab-stops: 4.2in;"> <span style="font-family: 'Time
- Publication Date
- 2024-11-27T23:52:00+00:00
- Status
- completed
- Website
- https://manyminds.libsyn.com/nestcraft
- Length
- 80:00
- File
- /podcasts/Many Minds/1732751520-4939.mp3
- Size
- 109.88 MB
- Bitrate
- 187-CBR
- Channels
- 1
Queries: 25 | Cache Hits: 0 | Load Time: 0.0419 | 2 MB