Came across this cool photo of a very spangled plover.
While I had a good idea what it all was, there was unfortunately a lot of ignorance calling it abuse and such. Thankfully there were some well informed responses,and I thought I’d share them with you.
From Mark Medved
Question. How many bands are needed for adequate research? This Piping plover seems to have at least five bands. And why is one not in the form of a ring? Photo by Linda Schwegman
And the most helpful answer from the comments:
“Former” Piping Plover biologist here!
The metal band on the upper portion of her left leg is the standard USGS band that every banded bird in the US receives.
The orange “flag” band on the upper portion of her right leg is an auxiliary band that indicates to the observer that she is part of the Great Lakes Population. This is very important because this particular population is federally endangered and there are only around 90 breeding pairs in the entire Great Lakes.
The three other bands on the lower portion of her legs indicate to the observer exactly which individual this is. Each Great Lakes Piping Plover [ideally] has a unique band combination to distinguish that individual to an observer. There are over 2.8 million possible adult combinations. When we know who is who, we get to know so much more about how they live and how we can help them
Here is a nice poster showing how those flags are used to get info to the correct researcher.
By this method, birds can be identified and tracked without the need for difficult and stressful recapture.
With so few of these birds remaining, there is no way anyone would be allowed to hurt these birds. Bird legs don’t grow like ours. There is not much beyond bone, tendons, and blood vessels in the part of the leg where the bands are attached, so they won’t outgrow them. Each species gets a specific size to ensure a safe fit. They are designed to not cause discomfort or to get snagged on things, and they are very lightweight and make us less than 1% of the bird’s body weight.
For a full writeup of band info for this population of Oliver’s in the Great Lakes region, check out the study’s official website, and you can also donate or even participate in helping save the plovers.
In 1990, the population was down to about 26 birds. Programs like this are the only reason we can tell if preservation methods are working or not, especially with birds like these that migrate great distances.
No, your perspective is how we get climate science denial and vaccine skepticism and removal of fluoride from drinking water.
People with no subject matter experience or practical knowledge of what “Science” actually is.
I said trust scientists. Not a scientist. Scientists. Plural. Trust the literature reviews and meta analyses of multiple studies. Trust the scientists that have amassed DECADES of knowledge of an incredibly small and specialized area of interest.
Instead, we get schmucks all up and down shitting on whatever study they want. The number of times I’ve seen papers dismissed simply on the population size alone for being “poor statistical power” without any discussion on effective and whether the study was actually appropriately powered or not.
I bet you don’t even really know what the drivers are for the reproducibility crisis and where real problems are.
Ad hominem. I am out.