Grieving Swallow

[Kirislin]

it's really sad.

My link

Edited August 17, 2013 by Kirislin

[persephone]

This photo series has been around for some time ... I found the page on which I originally saw it - and the comments which follow are very interesting .

LINK HERE.

I believed then , and still do, that one bird was trying to 'take advantage of' another less fortunate .

I have seen this in my bantams .. on occasion when I have had to catch /despatch a hen ..the rooster will pounce on the body if possible and display rough mating behaviour ....

'Chris' explains it well in his comments :

excerpt :

- in the pictures where the injured swallow is dead, the live swallow is unmistakably doing what male swallows try to do to any female swallow who is temporarily handicapped or otherwise available. As a swallow expert delicately put it, he seems to be making the best of a bad situation.

- in the picture where the injured but still alive bird is looking over its shoulder at the oncoming male, the injured bird does not look to me to be happy about the approach.

- the injured/dead bird appears to be a first year bird, still with a juvenile outer primary, and so not sexually mature, not likely mated to anyone (and not necessarily even a female – male swallows are not picky).

I use this same series of pictures in an animal behavior class I teach, including the emotion laden commentary I clipped off the net years ago, explaining how one bird was trying to help its injured mate. Students respond the way several commenters have here. I do it in the first class to teach some lessons about how birds aren’t little people in feathers, and how easy it is to misinterpret what’s really going if you don’t look carefully and come to your own conclusions. My only problem has been that if I break out the necrophiliac swallows on day one, how do I ever top that in the rest of the class?

[*kirty*]

Love that last line pers lol! I have to admit that my first thought was the same as yours.

[BlackJaq]

Kinda reminds me of the photo of the shark eating another shark that is caught on a hook.... And people commenting that the shark doing the eating is "just trying to help its baby"

They are animals, not people... :laugh:

[mixeduppup]

Oh NO! My happy place is ruined! IT'S RUINED!

[persephone]

Oh NO! My happy place is ruined! IT'S RUINED!

ohhhh... here

have a read , and believe :)

[mixeduppup]

Oh NO! My happy place is ruined! IT'S RUINED!

ohhhh... here

have a read , and believe :)

It's too long but I assume it's about elephants' magical emotional healing power or something. Now I want an elephant.

[persephone]

but I assume it's about elephants' magical emotional healing power or something.

wrong assumption ;)

no magic involved.

here's some of what it says ....

O

f course, Elephants share with us humans many traits - the same span of life, (three score years and ten, all being well) and they develop at a parallel pace so that at any given age a baby elephant duplicates its human counterpart, reaching adulthood at the age of twenty. Elephants also display many of the attributes of humans as well as some of the failings. They share with us a strong sense of family and death and they feel many of the same emotions. Each one is, of course, like us, a unique individual with its own unique personality. They can be happy or sad, volatile or placid. They display envy, jealousy, throw tantrums and are fiercely competitive, and they can develop hang-ups which are reflected in behaviour. They also have many additional attributes we humans lack; incredible long range infrasound, communicating in voices we never hear, such sophisticated hearing that even a footfall is heard far away, and, of course they have a memory that far surpasses ours and spans a lifetime. They grieve deeply for lost loved ones, even shedding tears and suffering depression. They have a sense of compassion that projects beyond their own kind and sometimes extends to others in distress. They help one another in adversity, miss an absent loved one, and when you know them really well, you can see that they even smile when having fun and are happy.

"We need another and wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals .... In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings, they are other Nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth"

Animals are indeed more ancient, more complex, and in many ways more sophisticated than man. In terms of Nature they are truly more perfect because they remain within the ordered scheme of Nature and live as Nature intended. They are different to us, honed by natural selection over millennia so they should not be patronised, but rather respected and revered. And of all the animals, perhaps the most respected and revered should be the Elephant, for not only is it the largest land mammal on earth, but also the most emotionally human.

sorry for the hijack, Kirislin ....

[mixeduppup]

I still want an elephant.

[Ronda]

I still want an elephant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlJJw3v_oKU

[trinabean]

1376727907[/url]' post='6279076']

'Chris' explains it well in his comments :

excerpt :

-

I use this same series of pictures in an animal behavior class I teach, including the emotion laden commentary I clipped off the net years ago, explaining how one bird was trying to help its injured mate. Students respond the way several commenters have here. I do it in the first class to teach some lessons about how birds aren't little people in feathers, and how easy it is to misinterpret what's really going if you don't look carefully and come to your own conclusions. My only problem has been that if I break out the necrophiliac swallows on day one, how do I ever top that in the rest of the class?

Edited August 17, 2013 by trinabean

[Kirislin]

actually it did cross my mind that the bird looked like he was trying to mate with the injured one. That explains it. Oh well, still an interesting pictorial.

[mixeduppup]

[raineth]

Far out! So every time I see a bird hanging around a dead bird on the side of the road and looking desperate, it's not because it's in a state of grief?

[mixeduppup]

Far out! So every time I see a bird hanging around a dead bird on the side of the road and looking desperate, it's not because it's in a state of grief?

I saw a rosella sitting beside its mate on the side of the road, just sitting there. On the way back it flew into my car and killed itself. It was very romeo and Juliette.

[raineth]

Far out! So every time I see a bird hanging around a dead bird on the side of the road and looking desperate, it's not because it's in a state of grief?

I saw a rosella sitting beside its mate on the side of the road, just sitting there. On the way back it flew into my car and killed itself. It was very romeo and Juliette.

Did the 'dead' one then sit up only to find its mate despatched by your car? 'Cause that would very, very Romeo and Juliette!

But quite seriously that is quite sad that that happened MUP

[persephone]

I saw a rosella sitting beside its mate on the side of the road, just sitting there. On the way back it flew into my car and killed itself. It was very romeo and Juliette.

'scuse me *pop*

that's another rainbow bubble burst , sorry ........

They were most likely both victims of impacting a vehicle. One may have been stunned and was just sitting , until the fright/flight poker set him flying again ..but in a dazed and weak state , where it could not find the strength to rise high enough ... poor thing .

[mixeduppup]

I saw a rosella sitting beside its mate on the side of the road, just sitting there. On the way back it flew into my car and killed itself. It was very romeo and Juliette.

'scuse me *pop*

that's another rainbow bubble burst , sorry ........

They were most likely both victims of impacting a vehicle. One may have been stunned and was just sitting , until the fright/flight poker set him flying again ..but in a dazed and weak state , where it could not find the strength to rise high enough ... poor thing .

I know, but I like my story better. real life sucks.

[mixeduppup]

Far out! So every time I see a bird hanging around a dead bird on the side of the road and looking desperate, it's not because it's in a state of grief?

I saw a rosella sitting beside its mate on the side of the road, just sitting there. On the way back it flew into my car and killed itself. It was very romeo and Juliette.

Did the 'dead' one then sit up only to find its mate despatched by your car? 'Cause that would very, very Romeo and Juliette!

But quite seriously that is quite sad that that happened MUP

yes. I gave it a little dagger to finish itself off.

[persephone]

Far out! So every time I see a bird hanging around a dead bird on the side of the road and looking desperate, it's not because it's in a state of grief?

I saw a rosella sitting beside its mate on the side of the road, just sitting there. On the way back it flew into my car and killed itself. It was very romeo and Juliette.

Did the 'dead' one then sit up only to find its mate despatched by your car? 'Cause that would very, very Romeo and Juliette!

But quite seriously that is quite sad that that happened MUP

yes. I gave it a little dagger to finish itself off.

Can anyone here draw comic strips?