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Illustrator David Sibley and actor H. Jon Benjamin will face off in the bird illustration battle of the century during BirdNote's Year-end Celebration and Auction!
To protect the eggs of Marbled Murrelets, scientists needed to deter predatory Steller's Jays. Listen to the story -- or read it below.
Researcher Pia Gabriel came up with the concept of fake eggs that would make the jays sick, and she shared this photo of their production in progress.
Below, a Steller's Jay checks out two eggs. In back (greenish) is the fake murrelet egg, treated with carbachol; the red egg closer to the jay is an untreated control egg.
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Fake Marbled Murrelet Eggs Cause Jays to Vomit
Written by Ellen Blackstone
The Marbled Murrelet is a bird of the deep forest and of the ocean. Because it lays one and only one egg, its odds of raising a family are slim. And with the forest being thinned and the ocean warming, the murrelet's job is getting tougher and tougher. Then, in marches the Steller's Jay, to complicate things even more.
Steller's Jays love to hang out around campgrounds in the redwood forests of northern California, looking for human handouts. And while a jay cruises the area, it just happens to find that solitary Marbled Murrelet egg in a nearby tree. One more tasty morsel. And one less murrelet.
Well, scientists have turned the jay's extraordinary capacity to learn into a way to help those beleaguered murrelets. Researchers painted small chicken eggs to look like murrelets' eggs, and stashed them in plain sight around several campgrounds. But those wily scientists added a secret chemical ingredient: carbachol. Carbachol makes the jays vomit. And fast, too -- within five minutes after eating the egg, so the jay could link the foul experience with the egg it just ate. And the jays get the message, leaving the eggs alone after that. Amazing!