Where do we find Raven?..." the story begins. "... When you want to find Raven, you look for him at the top of the tree, where he often sits, his eyes always moving, always looking and looking, gazing out across his world, watching for some mischief to get into or something to eat..."
This female Pallid Cuckoo Cacomantis pallidus has been hanging around my front yard for the past week or so and I had the chance to grab a few pix of her this afternoon. She lacks the very distinctive, and often distinctly irritating, call of the male of this species. […]
The Bush Turkey Tjukurrpa is one of two major Tjukurrpa to pass through the country of the Spinifex People. It is a Tjukurrpa that is seen by other Western Desert people as belonging to the Spinifex people...The Wati Kipara...involves the travels of an old Bustard who attempts to steal the world's fire and drown it in the ocean at Madura. The Wati Kipara Tjukurrpa involves excruciating physical punishment, murder, betrayal, sex, deceit and intrigue, but the details of these events remain secret and privy only to senior men.
The penalties for the unauthorised possession of wildlife in the NT are high - for an individual the maximum penalties range from $65,000 to $130,000 and are of course much higher for corporate offenders.
Further to my previous post here on the 33rd Society of Ethnobiology meeting at the University of Victoria on Vancouver Island, the following week I traveled up to the small resort town of Tofino for the 12th International Congress of Ethnobiology conducted by the International Society of Ethnobiology. There I joined with my colleague from Nature Kenya, Fleur Ng'weno, to co-chair a larger symposium on Ethnoornithology than I had presented the week before in Victoria, BC.
With the recent claims that the elusive Night Parrot has (again) been seen this 2010 summary of past sightings and Aboriginal knowledge of Australian ornithology's own 'holy grail' bird might help those struggling with the significance of those claims.
The population of this beautiful mid-sized forest-dweller, Fischer’s Turaco (Tauraco fischeri) is of near to threatened status and is found in coastal and riverine forest and woodlands in Kenya, north-eastern Tanzania and southern Somalia along the east African coast. […]
The conference theme, "The Meeting Place" is well represented by the Grouse and the other Atla'gimma spirits who gather in the ceremonial "bighouse" to share in the song of sacred interactions that keep the forest ecosystem alive. Just as each Atla'gimma character has their own dance, every ethnobiologist has their own discipline and interests. But, the synergisms of shared knowledge, like the magic of each Atla'gimma spirit dancing to the same music, is far more powerful than the sum of the parts.
Here are just a few pix from the northern part of my trip though the USA and Canada over the past few weeks. I’m in Mississippi right now and will post some more pix from my trip down the Mississippi River over the next few days. […]
In recent years Ethnoornithology has emerged as a valuable sub-discipline of ethnobiological research, partly for its potential to be able to make a valuable contribution to bird conservation and also as a means of empowering people of all cultures preserve, re-examine and discover the connections between individuals, groups and cultures and the birds that people hunt, venerate and cherish.
