Bernd Heinrich

"s are ecologically and economically important and, for a variety of reasons, have become ideal subjects for investigating many problems. These include problems of sensory perception during foraging (Spaethe and , 2001); recruitment communication among foragers (Dornhaus and Chittka, 2001; Domhaus and Cameron, 2003; Dornhaus et al., 2003), and the role of parasitism in the evolution of social behavior (Schmid-Hempel, 1998). Recent developments in artificial insemination of bumblebees (Baer and Schmid-Hempel, 2000) provide opportunities for understanding genetic influences on phenotypic traits."

"are attracted to the vigorously growing that follows s and operations, including . People who favor massive clear-cutting often claim that moose thrive in clear-cuts. But what they usually don't mention is that in some clear-cuts they get rid of the moose browse that would normally grow there. They use helicopters to spray s that kill the regenerating young hardwood trees to culture unpalatable and sterile and s."

"When I was a teenage boy in western Maine, I read the books of Jack London, books about a world of rugged people and hardy animals at home in the frozen woods of the north. Dreaming of that world, I ventured out into the forest on s, and if it was in the middle of a storm, all the better. Deep in the forest I would dig a shallow pit in the snow and using the papery bark peeled from a nearby and dead twigs broken from a , I'd start a crackling fire. The splendor of sparks shooting up into the dark sky, the acrid smoke rising through the falling s, and hare or porcupine meat roasting on a stick over the flames, all enhanced the winter romance."

"In my nostalgia for summers past and anticipation of summers to come, I think of swimming, basking in the sun while wiggling into warm sand at the beach, and reveling in the sights, sounds, and smells of flowers, bees, and birds. I think of the dances on balmy nights as we swung and ed our partners and sweated to fiddle at the town hall; and of on Bog Stream, where we d past floating lily pads and big white water lily blossoms. I think of the school year coming to a close. For me, summer used to begin on the first day of school vacation, the season of long days."

"There has been a shift in our attitude toward . Crows are becoming more suburban, and there are reports of crows leaving objects that seem to be thank-yous to people for feeding them. For example, an eight-year-old girl named Gabi Mann regularly received trinkets such as buttons, jewelry, and bits of colored glass. Her online story inspired readers to post details of their own experience with crows and to write comments such as "We love our crows," "I fell in love with this beautiful and intelligent creature," and "I treasure the connection.""

"I do not yet want to form a hypothesis to test, because as soon as you make a hypothesis, you become prejudiced. Your mind slides into a groove, and once it is in that groove, has difficulty noticing anything outside of it. During this time, my sense must be sharp; that is the main thing — to be sharp, yet open."

"Conditions are seldom ideal, and if one waits long enough for ideal conditions one is just making excuses."

"Birds are extraordinary creatures by almost any measure. But they are especially impressive when we are so brash as to compare them to ourselves in their astonishingly diverse ways of becoming parents and of parenting. We need three or four decades to accomplish what birds of many species routinely accomplish in less than a month—court, mate, build a nest, lay from one to about twenty eggs, incubate them, and then feed and protect them to adulthood. In some cases birds also provider their offspring's education. They may have to tens of thousands of miles just to start the nesting season."

"and are not tightly coupled in most birds. In so-called and species there is no apparent male-female bonding. There is instead relatively indiscriminate mating on the part of one sex coupled with often intense discriminating on the other. At the other extreme are apparently permanently bonded couples who mate only in a vary narrow time window (at or slightly before the time of egg laying), during which they may also mate with neighbors, depending on opportunity. In many birds who have successive broods through a season, such as s, for example, a female may be monogamous in the first brood but mate with several males (probably carefully chosen, that is not "promiscuous") in the second, even as she remains with the same original mate to rear their clutch."

"Ravens and magpies may be pure scavengers in the winter, but in the fall they are herbivores eating berries, and in the summer they are predators living on insects and mice and anything else they can kill."

"Cats may scrape leaves and grass over dead prey to conceal it, and some s drag drugged but living insects into previously constructed homes so the wasp larvae can safely feed on fresh meat. But to my knowledge, only one group of animals, beetles belonging to the group ', regularly moves carcasses to a suitable place and then deliberately buries them. Unlike humans, who generally bury only our own species and those pets who have become surrogate humans, these beetles bury a great diversity of birds and mammals but never their own kind. They bury dead animals as a food source for their larvae, and the burying is a central part of their mating and reproductive strategy."

"Heinrich fils, a professor emeritus of biology at the , is best known for his groundbreaking books on raven intelligence (“Ravens in Winter” and “Mind of the Raven”) and for his study of physiological stamina based on his exploits as an er (“Why We Run”). He first made his name, however, as a bug guy. “Bumblebee Economics,” a layman’s guide to insect sociobiology that grew out of his doctoral dissertation, was nominated for a 1979 , cementing his reputation as an uncommonly enlightening for popular audiences."