h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Willem!



I love birds, and "rapaces" in particular impress me a lot.

We have in the Iberian Peninsula a similar one, the águila culebrera ( culebra is a kind of snake) Here is that beauty:
http://www.google.es/imgres?q=aguila+culebrera&hl=es&sa=X&biw=800&bih=430&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=Gx_1VG9ZtsA20M:&imgrefurl=http://www.monfraguerural.com/casa_rural_monfrague/es_galeria_turismo_ornitologico.php&docid=JFQZcuxM8GYgDM&imgurl=http://www.monfraguerural.com/casa_rural_monfrague/es_galeria_turismo_ornitologico/data/images/aguila_culebrera.jpg&w=640&h=432&ei=HtRUT6S_OIiQ0AWCu-3FCw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=94&sig=105666845753722855143&page=4&tbnh=113&tbnw=150&start=32&ndsp=12&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:32&tx=81&ty=62

Thank you for sharing

Hello Maria! Thanks for looking at my Águila!

Your one is a close relative of ours! Here are two articles showing their close relationship:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circaetus

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circaetus_gallicus

The article gives another name for that eagle, namely la culebrera europea. So, the Spanish name for our eagle, is la culebrera sombría.

Thanks - now I learnt a few new Spanish words, looking at those articles! Now I also know snakes are called 'las serpientes' or 'ofidios', and 'culebras' are snakes belonging to the family Colubridae, which here in South Africa includes the Boomslang, the Twig Snake, house snakes, sand snakes and many others. So all of them would be 'culebras' ... but our snake eagle also eats many that are in other families, such as the adders (las víboras), cobras and the mambas.

Thanks to both of you for sharing. The biggest birds in our area of North Carolina are turkey vultures. Big several foot wingspan and they manage to soar and float on the wind without flapping a muscle.

http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i3250id.html


Their scientific name is Cathartes aura

Wingspan is 72 inches. The light part of their wings is pariculary pretty toward sunset when it appears golden.

Hi Elektra! Thanks for dropping by. What I like about Turkey Vultures is that you can look straight through both its nostrils ... it has a fully perforated beak ... check here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mesquakie8/489290543/

Dear Willem,

Do you know the Egiptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus)?

Alimoche is the name in Spanish.

When I was a child there was a very popular tv programme "El hombre y la tierra". I loved it. The presenter, Felix Rodríguez de la Fuente ( died in Alaska while shooting another programme) it´s a national figure. He did a lot for conservationism and ecology in this country.

the picture of that vulture that you´ve linked has reminded me of the Alimoche. Its behaviour is amazing. He uses stones and other tools to break eggs and eat them.

That can be seen in this chapter. Ive thought you may like it. He speaks slowly, so it could help your Spanish.
In this chapter he´s doing an experiment. Another naturalist asked him to check if the alimoche behaves the same in the Iberian peninsula as it does in Africa, where it breaks ostrich eggs to feed from them. They wanted to know if it was a genetic or a learned action.

The music that introduces each chapter is fabulous.

Hope you like it.

http://youtu.be/jgpi7-FZ1Jg

Thanks for that video Maria. You guys have really excellent nature programs, the opening credits were even fascinating. Here is a more serious consideration of vultures in determining time of death in forensics:

http://news.yahoo.com/texas-vulture-study-upends-forensics-142318853.html


Scary- but important to law enforcement agents out west in the USA.

Hello Maria and Elektra! Maria, yes I know these vultures. They occur in North and East Africa, but are now extinct in South Africa. The population we had here, might have constituted a distinct subspecies. We still don't know why it went extinct.

Thank you very much for the video link! I watched the whole episode. I did not understand much, but I did get the gist of it! Did they name the young vulture after Kaspar Hauser? Anyways, it was very interesting to see how it worked out to smash the fake egg with the stone! It's a pity that Felix Rodriguez de la Fuente died like that ...

I will watch the other episodes that are on YouTube as well ... they don't load very fast, but I'll try and watch over the weekend when I have a bit of time. That way I hope my Spanish will improve!

Anyways I can now at least say 'el avestruz es un pájaro muy grande'. I find the word 'avestruz' very interesting! Because it's developed almost exactly like the Afrikaans word 'volstruis'. In Afrikaans it comes from 'vogelstruis' which consists of two terms: 'vogel' which means 'bird' and 'struis' which comes from the Latin 'struthio'. In Spanish 'ave' of course also means 'bird' and 'struz' also comes from the Latin 'struthio'. And now for the funny bit: the Latin 'struthio' comes from the Greek 'strouthion' which is the DIMINUTIVE of the word 'strouthon' which is Greek for 'sparrow or small bird'. So actually it means 'little little bird'. So ... 'avestruz' as well as 'volstruis' actually mean 'bird little little bird'!

I find languages very fascinating and fun! I wish I could learn more ... here in South Africa there was very little opportunity to learn languages in school. I had the option of only ONE extra language (apart from Afrikaans and English) and the only choices were Northern Sotho and German. I chose German. If I could I'd have studied Northern Sotho as well and also French and Spanish ... and I'd even enjoy learning Russian and Japanese ... and then even more! But like I say over here there are few opportunities. And now they're even starting to close down language departments in universities. They want students to study something 'practical' ... as if learning other languages isn't. In my view: understanding PEOPLE is one of the most important things for any person in the world. And how can we understand people if we don't understand at least a little bit about the rich variety of languages all the people in the world speak? I mean how can we understand people if we can't UNDERSTAND people?

Spain is also very interesting to me because in a way it has been a meeting point for Africa and Europe. In terms of animals and plants and also people there are some strong connections!

Anyways. Elektra, can you understand some Spanish? After all it is now the 'second language' in effect for the USA!

And that article about vultures disposing of human remains was very interesting! They ought to find some Zoroastrians who would be more than willing to help them with a study like that ...

But of course the knowledge for law enforcement is also very useful!