TED Community » Dale T Steele

More About Me

I'm passionate about

wildlife and bicycle travel

An idea worth spreading

We need nature much more than it needs us.

Talk to me about

wildlife conservation and sustainability

People don't know that I'm good at

A living, breathing example of situs inversus...

Comments

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• A reply on Conversation: Save on energy or save a magpie - which is better?

  Feb 24 2011: Unfortunately, we do feed cockroaches unintentionally with bad results. I think better to keep the magpies lean and foraging on their own where they might help curb some of those urban adapted species. Magpies, like other corvid species, are attracted to human activities and take advantage of the waste we leave available. A classic example is the artificial water sources and landfills that have allowed ravens to follow us as we spread out across the SW desert area of California. Once they arrive, the find other species, such as young dispersing desert tortoises to be easy prey leading to population declines. Unintended results but predictable given our practices. Magpies can impact other bird species by robbing their nests, especially in urban environments where artificially high numbers may be supported.

• A comment on Conversation: Save on energy or save a magpie - which is better?

  Feb 23 2011: Feeding wildlife is a bad habit for both. At best, the animal learns to depend on and not fear humans. That will likely lead to harm for it. The things we often try to feed wildlife, are not a normal healthy part of their diet. Feeding wildlife also leads to undesired and unexpected results by attracting other animals that may not co-exist as well. Feeders often become disease vectors and have been traced to many wildlife problems. Magpies, like all corvids, are very smart birds and will "game" a situation for all it is worth in my experience.
  
  No question, throw the curtain open and let in that sunlight. You'll be saving the magpie too in a sense. The magpie will learn to fit in in the background and I dare say put on a more interesting show as it goes about its normal behavior and fares better in the long run. My two cents.

• A comment on Talk: Romulus Whitaker: The real danger lurking in the water

  Feb 21 2011: In spite of the bleak outlook, I am glad to have found this presentation here and am inspired by Rom Whitaker's passion and dedication to reptiles. He did an excellent job of presenting a little known crisis without focusing too heavily on blame or the low likelihood that these trends will be reversed anytime soon. The punch line of course is that what we are doing to these two amazing species we are in fact doing to ourselves.
  His story is one that has many parallels around the globe but in most cases the "stars" or victims have charismatic qualities that the public bonds with. Not so with our cold blooded neighbors. It is critical that public awareness and government action combine to reverse the pressures being put on these two top predators or soon be looking at them only in captivity, maintained by expensive and non-sustainable breeding programs.

• A comment on Conversation: How do you envision "Biomimicry" will change our future?

  Feb 18 2011: I'd like to see some examples that would be considered sustainable from an energy/carbon footprint standpoint as well as having environmental stewardship/ecosystem restoration value. I don't consider something like the following to fit those criteria but suspect this may be the type of application we can expect to see much more of. Moreover, let's make sure we aren't talking about something to take the place of day to day experiences in nature...
  
  A nano air vehicle/hummingbird? http://www.avinc.com/nano