The purpose of this project is to present interesting information about animals that are often brought to Wildlife Images. While a major concern of Wildlife Images is the rehabilitation and release of injured and orphaned animals, we nevertheless find ourselves with individuals that would die if released. For example, we have many birds that have wing injuries severe enough to keep them from flying (and thus hunting and eating), but if fed regularly they can live to be twice their expected lifespan in the wild. Having a resident population of animals like this provides a unique opportunity to give people a close-up of animals they usually only see in pictures.
Dave Siddon has assumed the responsibility of educating people about wildlife by providing tours of the rehabilitation center and utilizing disabled animals in educational programs. It is Dave's belief that informed people will be less likely to harm animals and that, once informed about their place on the planet, they will encourage others to respect wildlife. It is Dave's conviction that the world would be two-dimensional without wildlife, animals provide the third dimension. My sharing of this conviction, and my love of animals, is why this project was undertaken.
Animals chosen for inclusion in this project were based on what people were likely to see on a Wildlife Images tour or program. While the list is not complete, it highlights the animals that people seem to be interested in the most. All of the works cited in the following paragraphs are listed in the "Cited References" section with complete bibliographic descriptions.
Research Strategy
My research strategy consisted of using several "all-encompassing" bird or mammal books as indexes and going directly to the literature cited in them. The bibliography created from going through these sources was supplemented with computerized literature searches of Biological and Agricultural Index produced by the H.W. Wilson Company and BIOSIS, a computerized version of Biological Abstracts. The major works consulted were John K. Terres' The Audubon Encyclopedia of North American Birds, a source that not only inspired me but which listed over 4000 references to journal articles, books, and technical reports; The Birder's Handbook by Paul R. Ehrlich, David S. Dobkin, and Darryl Wheye, a book filled with interesting tidbits of bird facts and listing over 1500 references to ornithological and science journals and books; and Melanie Ann Miller's Birds: A Guide to the Literature which was useful in pointing out books on ornithological nomenclature and standard references for specific families and species of birds.
The major mammal sources consulted were Walker's Mammals of the World; Chapman and Feldhamer's Wild Mammals of North America; and Maser, Mate, Franklin, and Dyrness' Natural History of Oregon Coast Mammals. All of these sources provided numerous citations to original papers as well as acting as sources themselves.
Names and Nomenclature
All spelling, punctuation, and capitalization of common and scientific bird names were taken from the American Ornithologists Union Checklist of North American Birds, Sixth Edition. The order of listing for the birds is also taken from this publication. The source for mammal names and nomenclature was the Revised Checklist of North American Mammals North of Mexico, 1991 written by J.K. Jones, R.S. Hoffmann, D.W. Rice, C. Jones, R.J. Baker, and M.D. Engstrom. Mammalogists do not have such an agreed upon standard as ornithologists, but this work was suggested to me as being one of the best and most accepted by Dr. Steven Cross of the Biology Department, Southern Oregon State College.
Pronunciations of scientific bird names were taken from John Terres Audubon's Encyclopedia of North American Birds. Pronunciations of most scientific mammal names are from Daniel Mathews Cascade-Olympic Natural History. What I could not find in Mathews book (or when I did not agree with his pronunciation) I used the pronunciation I have commonly heard.
Meanings for the scientific names came from several different, and sometimes conflicting, sources: Edmund Jaeger's A Source-Book of Biological Names and Terms; Coble and Life's Introduction to Ornithological Nomenclature; and A.F. Gotch's Mammals-Their Latin Names Explained (whose title is a misnomer since it also explains Greek scientific names); and Choates Dictionary of American Bird Names. Latin and Greek dictionaries, such as Lewis' and Short's New Latin Dictionary, were consulted when explanations from some of these books seemed ambiguous. The Oxford English Dictionary was also consulted which has a fairly detailed etymology of English words and often puts words in their proper historical context. The 1882 publication of Coues check list of North American birds was an extremely valuable source in defining some of the scientific names.
The miscellaneous common names listed for each animal came almost exclusively from Terres Audubon Encyclopedia of North American Birds and Chapman and Feldhamer's (eds.) Wild Mammals of North America. Explanations for some of the common names of birds came from P. Limburg's What's-in-the-Name of Birds. Other sources used are cited in the text.
Location and Subspecies
Most of the information on bird subspecies and ranges comes from the multi-volume work Handbook of North American Birds edited by Ralph S. Palmer. Mammalian subspecies and location comes almost exclusively from E. Raymond Hall's The Mammals of North America, an extremely useful book listing sample locations and maps of subspecies location. Other sources are cited when used.
Visual and Physical Descriptions
Sources used for visual descriptions were a compilation of three popular field guides and my own observations. Field guides used were National Geographic's Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Peterson's A Field Guide to Western Birds, John Farrand's Western Birds, and John Whitaker's The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals. Only distinguishing and interesting markings are given. It was not my intention to replicate what was already available in popular field guides.
Male and female differences in weight, length, and wingspread (for birds) are given for all species. To my surprise, accurate and detailed figures do not always exist. While one sex of a species may be larger, it was often referred to in terms of females being "10% smaller" or "slightly larger." I was also surprised that some printed measurements were based on relatively few individuals. The "all-encompassing" works cited above were used quite often in giving this information. I found them especially useful because they frequently listed several ranges of measurements from different studies. It was tempting to list these differences, but I felt the project might take on the look of a scientific report. I often combined the ranges to give a complete picture of the "highs" and "lows."
All lengths are given as measured from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail unless otherwise noted. When ranges of numbers were used, the lower range was often rounded down while the upper range was rounded up. For example, female raccoons weigh between 23½ and 35½ pounds. These numbers were rounded to 23 and 36, respectively. Half and quarter measurements were used when rounding would create a misleading figure. All numbers were written as numerals for this section.
Longevity
It is difficult to get accurate lifespans of animals (see the explanation under "How long do animals live?" in the "Guide to Animals" section). Both original and secondary sources were used.
Flight Speed, Habitat and Food
Speed is difficult to measure accurately in birds without a lot of equipment and many of the sources consulted were less than scientific about how the speed was measured. For example, matching car speed with bird speed was once a popular procedure. Nevertheless, I have cited original sources that often used these antiquated methods. While they may not be scientifically accurate, they at least give some indication of what a particular bird is capable of.
Sources used for habitats and foods of animals varied in their completeness. While one source would give a very complete picture with quantitative data and scientific names for everything eaten, another source would list only general information. I have listed some quantitative data when they were available.
Interesting notes
These are the only sections I originally wanted to write and wound up having to minimize for the rest of the project. A variety of sources were consulted, but my main attempt was to get at the scientific, and correct, explanations for certain animal characteristics and behaviors. I then tried to interpret them in an easily understood, "environmental education" manner. Do Sparrow hawks eat sparrows? Does the raccoon really wash its food? Do bears hibernate? While focusing on questions like these I came across other less controversial, but nevertheless interesting, information which I also included.
Another goal for this section was to present some basic biological concepts, for example the idea of color phases, and to give interesting anecdotal information. While the scientific facts are useful for creating a base of knowledge, it is peoples' personal experiences with animals that most people enjoy reading about.
Older scientific journals and documents often contain interesting stories about animals. What makes them so interesting are the writers' obvious fascination with wildlife behavior and their incongruous lack of respect for the animals' life. I was amazed to read these engrossing anecdotes and shocked at their all to often identical conclusions. The observed animal or animals are shot! I have included some of these stories in my project for their engaging prose and for their historical representation of peoples' opinions of wildlife.
Citations
For the purposes of this project I have used the "Harvard" system of referencing. This incorporates the author and year of publication, which can then be found in the bibliography. This is the system used most often in ornithology and mammalogy journals.
Most of the spacing, capitalization and punctuation for the references was based on rules outlined in the CBE Style Manual, Fifth edition published by the Council of Biology Editors. However, I did not abbreviate the journal titles as is often done. This is a convention adopted by publishers trying to minimize space and who have no recognition of the hardship it produces for people unfamiliar with the actual titles. I have also italicized the journal titles, which was not recommended by CBE but is usually done in research journals. As a librarian, I know what makes for an easy-to-figure out bibliographic citation.