Food crisis sets off killing spree in Guillemot colony

A shortage of fish is causing nesting guillemots to kill their neighbours' chicks. Scientists studying these hardy British birds in a colony in the Firth of Forth are anxious about an impending catastrophe.

Guillemots are highly social and huddle together in vast colonies to protect themselves against marauding gulls and jaegers that threaten their nests and chicks. However, depleting fish stocks in the North Sea are said to be the reason why the guillemots are turning on their neighbours' chicks when they are not looking. Usually, one parent stays behind at a nest when the other is out foraging. But food shortage has forced both parents to hunt, leaving the nest unattended.

How human!

More here

Technorati Tags: North Sea, Guillemot, fish shortage, catastrophe

Life, now in an encyclopedia

The second newsletter from the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is out. This fascinating and ambitious project compiles the work of several researchers in a very attractive and user-friendly format. A web of webs, it comprises several sites linked together in a daisy chain, sort of like life itself. Content partners include the Catalogue of Life Partnership, Tree of Life, Global Biodiversity Information Facility, IUCN, FishBase, AmphibiaWeb, BioLib, BioPix, etc. EOL's picture galleries are powered by Microsoft PhotoSynth and what's better is that it brings the best of Web 2.0 to the screen. You can contribute species pictures to the EOL Flickr group. EOL even invites users to become curators and donors. Everything is free as of now, and it will be wonderful if they can keep it that way.