Will the intrusion of cities into the natural environment cause birds to become brainier? That appears to be the case, say a passel of ecologists in the April 27 issue of Biology Letters. (This story has no implications for humans. Really. It just illustrates a principle that might possibly generalize to other animals. Including apes? Uh … move along, nothing to see here.) The ecologists studied passerines, i.e. songbirds, and discovered that those with the largest brains tended to colonize cities. We could think of some alternate hypotheses to explain the phenomenon, but they argue that their data fit with …

Robert Krulwich has a post up about the superb lyrebird (real name!), which is COMPLETELY RIDIC. What's so superb? How about the ability to mimic any noise it hears with astonishing faithfulness, that do anything for you? It's the auditory equivalent of that girl from Heroes who could copy anything she saw on TV and then completely disappeared off the show despite having the best power of anyone. If you watch a video of a lyrebird in action, I guarantee you will have a moment of thinking you're being punked. Here's where it gets depressing, though: Along with kookaburra calls and …

Photo: Reed LakefieldLast week, Todd Woody wrote a great piece in The New York Times about the growing crisis around the Endangered Species Act, as the Fish and Wildlife Service is overwhelmed with new applications for species in danger. NYT's Room for Debate asked me and some other folks to weigh in on the piece. You can read responses from: Jonathan H. Adler, Case Western Reserve law school: Overdue for Reform Holly Doremus, U.C. Berkeley law school: The Law's Great Strength Steven F. Hayward, American Enterprise Institute: Blame Partisan Environmentalists Lisa Heinzerling, law professor, Georgetown University: The Law of Big …

Well, Sarah Palin will like this one: Congress has quietly removed wolves from the endangered species list in almost every state, leading hunters in the Rocky Mountain states to gear up for an unprecedented wolf-slaughtering party. Wolf numbers have grown to 1,700 since 1994, and proponents of the delisting say the new healthier population of wolves has meant that the predators have knocked the elk population down 20 percent. Clearly, then, the answer is to start making your ironic T-shirts out of real wolves. At least, Congress thinks so.

Perfectly at home.Photo: Sarah GoodyearIf I asked you where the picture above was probably taken, I don't think your first answer would be Manhattan. But that's exactly where I found this fine-looking red-backed salamander: In a brushy, overgrown part of a park in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. This is the second time I've gone salamander-hunting in this spot. Here's how you do it: You get off the subway and walk a few blocks, along streets where merengue music is blaring from the storefronts, past the sidewalk food vendors and the cellphone stores and a group handing …

All cattle, no hats.Photo: Rob CrowA sea of cream-colored cowboy hats, the kind ranchers wear on their days off, fills a sterile conference room at the Fort Collins Marriott. Banners from groups like the Ranchers-Cattlemen Legal Action Fund and the Western Organization of Resource Councils add bright slashes of color, and warn that JBS, the world's largest meatpacker, now controls 24 percent of all cattle produced in the United States. It's August 2010, the night before a national workshop on competition in the livestock industry, and well over 500 ranchers, feedlot owners, and their allies are packed into this room …

It’s like the Oscars for the Patagonia set. Every April, just before Earth Day, San Francisco’s environmental community comes together at the city’s Opera House to laud six grassroots activists from around the globe, whose stories enrage and inspire. The prize offers recipients $150,000 to use as they see fit and international recognition that confers respect on their endeavors, pressures their local governments to act, and even bolsters their personal safety. This year's ceremony was particularly poignant as it was the first without prize founder Richard Goldman, who died last fall at age 90. Goldman and his wife Rhoda founded …

A fish hatchery in Decorah, Iowa is streaming a live feed of its bald eagle eggs. The first two hatched over the weekend, but number 3 is likely to go at any minute now (over the next couple of days, anyway). Keep an eye on the webcam for a rare chance to see an endangered bird get born. (Warning: The feed occasionally airs commercials about how BP has totally cleaned up the Gulf of Mexico, so watch out for eyeball sprain from rolling.) (Warning two: Baby bald eagles look ridiculous. Try not to let that influence your patriotism or your …

Please, extinction, you think you can beat tigers? Have you SEEN tigers? Okay, so we’ll pass lightly over what happened to their saber-toothed cousins. And tigers aren’t out of the woods yet. But India’s latest tiger census showed a population stronger than it has been in some time -- more than 1,700 tigers, about 300 more than there were in 2007. That’s good news, but tigers are still very endangered, and one tiger ecologist says the study’s methods are dubious and the actual numbers may not be nearly as rosy. Hmm ... perhaps we could work out a way to …

Alex Johnson exploring riotous, unpredictable Nature.Missoula-based writer Alex Johnson believes we need to queer the concept of ecology, and I'm inclined to agree. After enjoying his feature "How to Queer Ecology: One Goose at a Time" in the current issue of Orion magazine, I asked him to expand on some of his ideas. Q. You propose the queering of ecology. What does that mean to you? A. Queering ecology means hosing out the pigeonholes. The queer movement bravely claims that humans are inherently capable of a much wider range of behaviors than the powers-that-be give us credit for. Queer ecology …