travel the country to work in communal houses, in what’s known as the Tour de France (a pursuit that preceded the unrelated Tour de France bicycle race). Many world cultures have developed traveling coming-of-age traditions, from Australian Aboriginal walkabouts to Native American vision quests and Amish Rumspringa, which could be compared to young snowy owls’ gadding about after leaving the nest. But the wandering instinct goes deeper with snowy owls. They seem to be deeply nomadic by nature—more nomadic than humans, with some notable exceptions.
In 1995, a cover article in New Internationalist magazine estimated that between 30 and 40 million people in the world are nomads, and most of them are shepherds or herders (virtually all traditional hunter-gatherers have succumbed to modern ways). Like Arabian Bedouin herders, Mongolian tribes, and African Tuaregs, they keep no permanent homes, preferring to stay on the move. The author noted that most nomadic people “live in marginal areas like deserts, steppes and tundra, where mobility becomes a logical and efficient strategy for harvesting scarce resources spread unevenly across wide territories.” He could easily have been talking about snowy owls. In the same environments, it seems that humans and Arctic owls have adopted the same survival strategy.
Some people seem to be more inclined to wander than others. This trait could be coded in our genes, and may date backto our distant ancestors. Genetic evidence indicates that modern humans left their African home to colonize the world, starting between 338,000 and 60,000 years ago. Why did those first people go? Were they more adventurous than the ones who stayed behind? Perhaps restlessness has a genetic component. If so, emigrants would be expected to establish populations with more wanderlust in their DNA than those back at home. Scientists have identified one particular allele, called 7R, of our DRD4 gene that may fit this description; it has been linked to attention deficit disorder and attraction to novelty, earning its nickname: the risk gene. Research has documented that people with the 7R allele take 25 percent more financial risk than those without it. Tellingly, the allele tends to be more concentrated in recently established populations (in terms of historic human expansion): Most people in the Americas have it, a few in Europe do, and it is rare in parts of Asia. People with this “wanderlust gene” may be literally hardwired to seek new experiences.
Do snowy owls have a wanderlust gene? They seem to feel the imperative to move as a powerful force, and it’s likely to be driven by instinct, honed by aeons of following fickle food supplies. Maybe someday we’ll know exactly what drives them on. In the meantime, whenever one of these ghosts of the white Arctic materializes someplace new, all we can do is appreciate the visit—because soon enough the owl will drift back over the horizon, leaving only fleeting memories behind.
hummingbird wars
IMPLICATIONS OF FLIGHT IN THE FAST LANE
L iz Jones, proprietor of the Bosque del Río Tigre Sanctuary and Lodge in Costa Rica, has given up on feeding hummingbirds near her house.
“We put up our first sugar-water feeders about ten years ago,” she explained as we sweated one morning in the tropical heat outside the lodge’s lush front entrance. “It took several months for the birds to discover the feeders, but when they did, they were quite active. We had nine different species of hummingbirds making regular visits, and many of them nested in our garden.”
I could imagine how awesome this must have been. Because the feeders were in plain sight of the outdoor dining area, guests could watch the action as they ate their meals. Birders delighted in seeing their first-ever bronzy hermits, charming hummingbirds, long-billed starthroats, violet-crowned woodnymphs, and white-necked jacobins as they sipped their wine each evening.
Things went well with the
In 1995, a cover article in New Internationalist magazine estimated that between 30 and 40 million people in the world are nomads, and most of them are shepherds or herders (virtually all traditional hunter-gatherers have succumbed to modern ways). Like Arabian Bedouin herders, Mongolian tribes, and African Tuaregs, they keep no permanent homes, preferring to stay on the move. The author noted that most nomadic people “live in marginal areas like deserts, steppes and tundra, where mobility becomes a logical and efficient strategy for harvesting scarce resources spread unevenly across wide territories.” He could easily have been talking about snowy owls. In the same environments, it seems that humans and Arctic owls have adopted the same survival strategy.
Some people seem to be more inclined to wander than others. This trait could be coded in our genes, and may date backto our distant ancestors. Genetic evidence indicates that modern humans left their African home to colonize the world, starting between 338,000 and 60,000 years ago. Why did those first people go? Were they more adventurous than the ones who stayed behind? Perhaps restlessness has a genetic component. If so, emigrants would be expected to establish populations with more wanderlust in their DNA than those back at home. Scientists have identified one particular allele, called 7R, of our DRD4 gene that may fit this description; it has been linked to attention deficit disorder and attraction to novelty, earning its nickname: the risk gene. Research has documented that people with the 7R allele take 25 percent more financial risk than those without it. Tellingly, the allele tends to be more concentrated in recently established populations (in terms of historic human expansion): Most people in the Americas have it, a few in Europe do, and it is rare in parts of Asia. People with this “wanderlust gene” may be literally hardwired to seek new experiences.
Do snowy owls have a wanderlust gene? They seem to feel the imperative to move as a powerful force, and it’s likely to be driven by instinct, honed by aeons of following fickle food supplies. Maybe someday we’ll know exactly what drives them on. In the meantime, whenever one of these ghosts of the white Arctic materializes someplace new, all we can do is appreciate the visit—because soon enough the owl will drift back over the horizon, leaving only fleeting memories behind.
hummingbird wars
IMPLICATIONS OF FLIGHT IN THE FAST LANE
L iz Jones, proprietor of the Bosque del Río Tigre Sanctuary and Lodge in Costa Rica, has given up on feeding hummingbirds near her house.
“We put up our first sugar-water feeders about ten years ago,” she explained as we sweated one morning in the tropical heat outside the lodge’s lush front entrance. “It took several months for the birds to discover the feeders, but when they did, they were quite active. We had nine different species of hummingbirds making regular visits, and many of them nested in our garden.”
I could imagine how awesome this must have been. Because the feeders were in plain sight of the outdoor dining area, guests could watch the action as they ate their meals. Birders delighted in seeing their first-ever bronzy hermits, charming hummingbirds, long-billed starthroats, violet-crowned woodnymphs, and white-necked jacobins as they sipped their wine each evening.
Things went well with the
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