Wildlife Autumn 2007 (spring wildlife Down Under)

[Martin Baxendale]

Mark,
Never heared Phylloscopus collybita singing ' chiff, chiff, chiff chaff, chiff chaff '.
Our little beauties always shout ' zilp zalp ' according their German name Zilpzalp.
Gerd

My wife Ivi and I have a running disagreement about animal and bird sounds in different countries. She says the animals and birds in Slovakia actually sound different to in England. I say they just hear and anthropomorphise the sounds different. Whichever, in Slovakia cockrels don't go 'cock-a-doodle-doo' like in England, but (according to the Slovaks) 'kikareekee'. Dogs do 'how how', instead of 'woof woof', pigs go...no, I've forgotten what pigs do, but it's not 'oink oink' - and when people sneeze they go 'hapchee' instead of 'achoo'. Honest! Ivi actually says 'hapchee' when she sneezes, and so do most Slovaks apparently. So we end up having a row every time she has a cold and I spend all day telling her 'stop that! It's not hapchee! It's Achoo!' 

[mark smyth]

The Hungarians at work say dogs go half with the L pronounced. Ask Ivi how they call cats! It's not our wshing sound.

[Martin Baxendale]

Mark, Ivi calls cats by saying 'tsk, tsk, tsk'. I say 'puss, puss, puss' which is what I think most English people say. Pigs by the way (Ivi says) go 'crych, crych, crych' in Slovakia.

Another confusing language difference is, in Slovakia they say 'pssssst!' when they want you to be quiet, and 'sshh!' when they want to get your attention!!! I'm not even going to start on the misunderstandings that's caused!   

[mark smyth]

we have great chat at work most days over thing like this. To scare feral cats away from out back door they say "hash"

[Anthony Darby]

Females of most species are silent (certainly all female grasshoppers). Unusually, it's female ducks that quack. How does that translate? I seem to remember Donald Swan singing a song about animal noises here had learnt while in Greece (kokaraki kikirikiki etc).

[Maggi Young]

Females of most species are silent.

OOPS !

[Lesley Cox]

Lesley, that information about the NZ godwit migration is truly amazing.  Where can we read more?

I would guess there'd be something on the internet Ashley. Try googling NZ godwit and see what comes up.

[Lesley Cox]

Dogs do 'how how', instead of 'woof woof', pigs go...no, I've forgotten what pigs do, but it's not 'oink oink'

"....and cat goes fiddle-di-fee"

[Lesley Cox]

Martin, I quite believe Ivi about Slovenian animals sounding different from their UK relations. Just as humans do, animals and birds, especially birds, learn to "speak" from hearing those around them. Tuis and bellbirds, for instance, here in NZ have different songs and distress and social calls  in the North Island, from those in the South Island, and even in different parts of each island. Birds which mimic others are very good at language variation. We have a couple of bellbirds here who say "pretty boy" having learned it from the caged budgies who live across the road from us. And once when my family was farming, we had a worker who called out "get away back Lass," to one of his dogs. I was puzzled to hear this one day when I knew Ian was away in town. It was a magpie, using the same words and the same tone of voice and later, even had the poor dog puzzled. 

[Rogan]

Look what raided our camp in the Bain's Kloof (near Cape Town) last week and pinched our cheese!

Luckily it doesn't eat bulbs - the baboons take care of those!

[ashley]

Overview http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6646091.stm
Tracking maps http://www.werc.usgs.gov/sattrack/shorebirds/overall.html
Shorebird migration to NZ http://www.nzshorebirds.com/
Godwit migration paper (Gill et al., 2005; not sure if there's general access to this)
http://www.bioone.org/perlserv/?request=get-abstract&doi=10.1650%2F7613&ct=1

[Anthony Darby]

Rogan, I remember a Genet running along the rafters of the restaurant in Tsavo, Kenya on its way to the floodlit feeding station. Thank goodness the Leopard that was at a floodlit feeding tree at another restaurant we ate in didn't do the same!

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks for the links Ashley. They make really interesting reading.

What a lovely thing the genet is. His coat looks really thick and sumptuous. It would make a great jacket. (Only kidding )

[Anthony Darby]

I think you'd need more than one for a jacket Lesley. (I'm not casting nasturtiums, genets are not very big. )

[Lesley Cox]

Mmmm, I realized that which is why I said jacket rather than coat. But for me it would only make a back panel probably and I have to accept that it looks better on the genet's back than it would on mine.

Of course I hate fur and wild skins used for human clothing (I don't have a problem with sheepskins) and hate fake fur as much as the real thing because no matter how expensive and sumptuous and real-looking and fashionable the fake is, while fake is available, someone will always want the genuine thing. Better not to have ANY kind of fur for clothing, except, and where the climate demands, animals farmed and killed for the purpose. Humanely killed at that.