This week I kick off the show with some advice from one of the U.S.’s great nature writers and conservationists, Edward Abbey. I’ll also update you on plans for the Banff bison herd as Parks Canada prepares to release them into a much wider area, and finally a look at whether woodpeckers really are able to withstand repeated head trauma with no adverse side effects.
Edward Abbey Quote
I stumbled upon a quotation recently from the great ecological activist Edward Abbey. It was shared on Facebook by Kevin Van Tighem, a former Banff National Park Superintendent. He was talking about how tiring it can be to be a public advocate for nature and ecology.
Abbey was highly regarded as one of the great authors on conservation and was a militant protector of wild spaces. He also strongly opposed what he called: “industrial tourism”, something the mountain west is suffering at the moment.
One of Van Tighem’s Facebook followers offered this gem.
“One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast….a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; you will outlive the bastards.”
― Edward Abbey
I think we can all take heart in these words. Being an advocate is hard. Sometimes we need to say things that people don’t want to hear, but our wild places are at risk at the moment; risk of being loved to death by the very people that espouse their appreciation for the wilderness. We all need to be vigilant and continue to fight for the rights of wilderness, watersheds, and the importance of keeping the wild in wildlife…but as Abbey so eloquently states: “ramble out yonder and explore the forests” and “breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air.”
Bison Release Plans
Over the past year, I’ve spoken at length about the reintroduction of wild bison into Banff National Park. Back in Episode 27, I cheered when the first bison born in the park in 130 years first showed its face on Earth Day of 2017. I looked at the fascination of biologists when the first grizzly tracks were found circling the enclosure and in the same episode, investigated how the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone in 1995 changed the ecology of the regions wolf population. Once again, in Banff, we have a population of both grizzly bears and wolves that have never encountered a wild bison. This gives biologists an incredible opportunity to study the interactions between these massive ungulates and two apex predators as they interact and evolve over time.
The lives of the newly established bison population is set to change this June when their small pens are opened up to a much larger territory stretching over 1,200 sq km of Banff National Park. For the first time, they’ll find themselves on the menu. They’ll also have an opportunity to wander over a much larger landscape, and in doing so, make decisions that biologists cannot predict using the very best computer models.
The bison will no longer be wooed by daily deliveries of food and water by Parks Canada staff. They’ll explore a much larger landscape and make decisions based on their own whims. Will they like their new home? Parks Canada selected their release area very carefully. The Panther Valley is very different from many areas of Banff National Park. It is less steep and more rolling and has the potential to support much more grassland.
This is the moment where Parks Canada staff will begin to see whether the success or failure of their reintroduction will be one of smooth integration or one of the difficult challenges. Bison are animals of open landscapes and not artificial boundaries.
Their 1,200 sq km release zone would use both landscape and fences to try to keep them contentedly contained. But in the end, the bison will decide their fate. The landscape is much more challenging than it was when they ruled the plains and wandered the mountain valleys.
When Park staff first reintroduced the bison, the hope is that by bringing pregnant females, that they would bond with the Panther Valley region. They were kept in a smaller enclosure so, as the females give birth, they will bond to the landscape. In June, we’ll get the first indication of the success of that bonding. By that time, many of the females will have added a second calve to the mix.
When the gate is opened, what will they do? On the short term, it’s likely they’ll make the most of their new territory. Prior to the original release, Parks Canada did a prescribed burn, much like first nations did for generations, to promote the growth of grasses to sustain the herd once it is released.
Karsten Heuer, the Parks Canada biologist in charge of the reintroduction will be constantly re-evaluating his mental math. Will they stay faithful to the landscape, or will they eventually turn east towards the plains where their future is far more uncertain?
Not everybody was in favour of this reintroduction. People like Heuer are hoping that the bison take advantage of the ecological niche they are offering in Banff and avoid the temptation to wander eastward towards a landscape that is now strewn with hazards for bison.
Once they leave the park, even their status is uncertain. They aren’t even legally considered “wildlife” once they leave the park boundary. At this moment, the provincial government doesn’t consider them to be wildlife, but rather livestock.
Officially, the plains bison, known by its Latin moniker Bison bison bison, is considered to be extirpated, or locally extinct. It has been so long since bison have been “wild” in Alberta that the legislation hasn’t kept pace with the conservation.
Any bison wandering out of the park, at this point, are not considered to have any official legal status. It’s important that Banff National Park’s bison are given official recognition for what they are…a newly established, wild population of an animal that has been missing from the landscape since shortly after the first cow arrived n Alberta.
Cattle and the fences that contain them have only been a part of the Alberta landscape since 1882 while bison were the dominant prairie herbivore for more than 10,000 years. However, the politics of the situation are never that simple. If they were, the members of Alberta’s Treaty 7 would have a much better deal than they do today.
In the real world, the land dominated by wealthy special interests and glacial political landscapes, the bison remain a relict; an animal lost in time that by some magic, may reappear without status or recognition that would ensure its protection.
In order to formally protect the bison outside of Banff National Park, it would need an update on its status according to the Alberta Endangered Species Conservation Committee or ESCC.
Then there is also the political hot potato that once recognized, then the provincial government is legally mandated to provide a management and recovery plan. They would also have to extend the hand during these discussions to the many first nations of the plains for whom bison represented life for thousands of years.
We still don’t know whether bison were simply seasonal visitors or permanent residents of the foothills and eastern slopes of the Rockies. To try to answer this question, biologists turned to a technique called isotope analysis. Like many biological tests, it works on the assumption that we are what we eat. Bison that spend their entire lives feeding on prairie grasslands, would have a different isotope measurement in their bones than home-grown mountain bison.
Based on tests of 6 bison skeletons found in the Panther Valley area of Banff have led Parks biologists like Karsten Heuer to conclude that for some bison, the mountains were their year-round home.
The bison currently waiting for the gate to open in Banff are not those bison. They are a new population, a population that still has to find its connection with the landscape. Parks can steer them with fences and natural barriers, but in the end, it will be the bison who decide where they decide to call home, and up to the province to make sure they are protected when they wander outside of the park borders.
Huge scale reintroductions like this one are rare, simply because the implications are huge, the media attention is incessant, and the odds of success are not 100%. I’m not a bettin’ man but I’m sure rooting for the bison of Banff. Let’s wish them all a great deal of luck, but more importantly, fidelity to this carefully chosen mountain landscape.
In time, the area they are free to wander will continue to increase as their population hopefully swells. If you’re listening to this, keep the pressure on our provincial government to block any acts that would limit the ability of bison to continue to thrive in the Panther Valley and beyond.
Woodpecker Headaches
In the dead of winter, many of the iconic birds of the mountain west are basking in warmer climes either to the south or in the case of birds like harlequin ducks and some bald eagles, to the west coast where there are more winter options for food. Left behind to entertain us are the many members of the jay family like the gray, blue, and Steller’s jay, Black-billed Magpie, and Raven. Add to the jays, several species of chickadees, the red-breasted nuthatch, and most of our woodpeckers.
The loud tapping sound of woodpeckers makes them easy to find. In the Canadian Rockies, look for the Red-naped Sapsucker, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, American Three-toed Woodpecker, Black-backed Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, and my personal favourite, the Pileated Woodpecker.
The pileated is special for a number of reasons. First, it is by far, the largest woodpecker in the Rockies, and it has a fondness for the base of trees as opposed to places higher in the forest canopy. Perhaps my favourite aspect though is it’s connection to Woody the Woodpecker. That zany cartoon character was a favourite when I was a kid and Woody was largely based on the pileated woodpecker.
Woodpeckers are perfectly designed for pecking trees and catching insects hiding in the bark and wood. Every component of their physiology is focussed on the task of perching on the sides of trees, pecking through the bark and surface wood, and feeding on insects
Woodpeckers feet are called zygodactyl, with two toes facing forward and two back. It is a unique adaptation for birds that perch along the sides of trees, but also includes some owls and even osprey. The same claw pattern that makes it easy to clasp the sides of tree trunks, makes it easy for osprey to clasp slippery trout.
The next time you see a woodpecker take a look at their toes. Their two up and two down arrangement of toes is different from the vast majority of birds which are Ansiodactyl, with three toes facing forward and one back.
Now good feet are only the first of many adaptations that woodpeckers boast. Their tails are also stiffened in order to provide a third point of contact with the tree. It helps to stabilize the bird so that it can have maximum leverage for pecking the tree.
Next, we have a chisel-shaped beak. Just like a carpenter will choose the perfect chisel for the piece of wood they are working, the beaks of woodpeckers are uniquely designed for the type of feeding that they do. The beaks are extremely strong and the cells at the tip are constantly replaced so the beaks don’t get worn down as the bird ages.
Once we look at the beaks, we also have to examine the tongues. Woodpeckers eat insects that have bored into trees. Once their beak has given them access, it’s the work of the tongue to reach in and lap up these tasty morsels. There are two main adaptations that help them accomplish this. They have a lengthened hyoid apparatus. I know…a lengthened what? They have a collection of muscle, cartilage and bones that help to extend the length of their tongue so they can reach into the crevices of the tree and, with its sticky and barbed tip, slurp out the insects.
In the case of the Pileated Woodpecker, its main food is carpenter ants, and it will make large rectangular holes near the bases of trees that have already been infested or killed by these ants. In between feasting on ants, they also munch on berries, other insects and larvae.
Now any carpenter will tell you that before you plug in your circular or table saw, you need reliable eye protection. It’s important to avoid the risk of a sliver of wood-damaging your eyesight.
Woodpeckers have also evolved a similar type of eye protection – a nictitating membrane. This is essentially a second, transparent eyelid. It sweeps across the eye from one side to the other both cleansing the eye while at the same time protecting it.
Now we get to the final challenge woodpeckers need to contend with – brain damage. Their livelihood requires them to constantly bang their beaks against hard surfaces in order to excavate the insects they need to survive.
Clearly, constant head-banging would be something that any sports medicine doctor would be concerned with, in particular, the danger of concussions. Birds like Pileated Woodpeckers can strike a tree more than 10 times a second with a force of 1,200 g each time, and up to 12,000 times in a single day.
Like Sydney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, head traumas usually come with concussions, and eventually brain damage. How do Pileated Woodpeckers avoid similar maladies with their incessant headbanging?
Woodpeckers have evolved to withstand these constant impacts. Concussions result from shaking of the brain, usually from hard impacts. Woodpeckers have learned to cushion the brain by protecting it with thick, spongy bone. In addition, there are extensive networks of tiny bones that form a kind of woven mesh to give the brain added support.
The hyoid bones, which I mentioned earlier, add an extra layer of protection. They are a series of 5 bones that make up the bones of the tongue along with the connective tissue, cartilage, muscles, and skin of the tongue. It anchors the tongue and helps it extend out to collect insects.
In woodpeckers though, the hyoid bone also helps to cushion the brain. In many woodpeckers, the hyoid structure, and therefore the tongue, wraps around the skull towards the rear, and even around the eye socket. This allows the tongue to reach in and collect insects exposed by the tapping.
When the tongue extends out during tapping, the hyoid structure compresses around the brain and helps further protect the brain from jarring movements.
Even the beak plays a role in protecting it from the impact. The upper beak is longer and softer than the lower beak. This unevenness helps to divert stress towards the lower beak and away from the brain.
Earlier I mentioned the nictitating membrane that covers the woodpeckers eyes during tapping, but it also helps to keep the eyes inside the skull. The high impact of constant tapping could lead to a tearing of the retina, or in extreme cases, cause the eyes to pop right out of the skull.
The grand total of all these adaptations means that only about .3% of the impact is absorbed by the head and brain. That .3% can cause the brain to heat up though, but by tapping in short bursts, woodpeckers give their noggins time to cool down between tapping sessions.
There is some recent evidence that woodpeckers may not escape completely unscathed in terms of brain injury from their incessant headbanging.
A newly published study by George Farah, et al looked at the preserved brains of 10 woodpeckers to look for evidence of brain injury.
In order to examine the impacts of tapping on woodpecker brains, it’s important to understand what doctors look for in human brains when trying to diagnose traumatic brain injuries.
Until this recent study, there had only been a single investigation into woodpecker brains. The study looked at samples but didn’t describe their microscopic results, yet they determined that woodpeckers don’t experience any ill effects from tapping trees.
This single study has been cited more than 100 times and has been used to model woodpeckers as the ideal template for the design of protective sports equipment and technology. The authors of this study felt that it was time to look more closely at this claim.
They examined the brains of 10 woodpeckers as well as several red-winged blackbirds. The blackbirds, being non-tapping birds, were considered the control. Any results that were consistent between the two birds, could not be related to the tapping which is unique to woodpeckers.
As they removed and sectioned the brains, they were looking at numerous characteristics. In human brains, the protein tau is often associated with other symptoms of brain injury, in particular, chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE. That’s a fancy term for people with progressive, degenerative brain disease associated with repeated brain trauma.
In a study undertaken by Boston University, researchers found CTE in the brains of 110 of 111 retired NFL football players. The same traumas can be found in hockey, soccer, rugby, and other athletes where repeated head impacts are a regular part of the sport.
The protein tau is usually associated with CTE and brain injuries, however, the exact relationship has not been fully explained. Unfortunately, CTE can only be diagnosed by examining microscopic sections of brain tissue in deceased individuals.
In this study, the brains of woodpeckers and red-winged blackbirds were sectioned in the same way scientists would look at the brain of a football player. Microscope slides were stained with a Gallyas stain. This is a stain used to identify damage to neurons and brain tissue.
In 8 of the 10 woodpecker brains, the Gallyas test showed positive results, while none of the blackbird brains showed any result. In addition, the staining appeared more prevalent in the front portion of the brains where the impact from tapping would be expected.
Identifying the actual tau protein takes another step and requires more detailed investigation of the brain samples. Several of the brains were not in great physical condition, so they were only able to complete the test on three of the samples, and two of them tested positive for tau in the same areas of the brain that was highlighted by the earlier Gallyas test.
None of the blackbird brains showed any signs of in either the Gallyas test or the test for tau.
The combination of these two tests showed consistent results that identify proteins often related to brain injury only in the woodpecker brains
Now, what does this mean? Are woodpeckers slowly cross-checking themselves into brain injuries? This study can’t offer any definitive answers. This was a tiny, tiny study. In addition, there are many types of tau proteins, and each may have a different impact on the bird’s welfare.
There is even a possibility that the proteins actually help the bird rather than harm it. Tau proteins can also show up as a normal part of the ageing process. In this study, one of the woodpeckers was a juvenile and it showed the same distribution of tau proteins. If a juvenile exhibits this protein, it helps to disprove the potential that tau proteins are solely the result of age.
Essentially what this study did was to support the idea that we really need to do more study. With only 10 birds in the sample, it’s difficult to claim definitive results. One of the things I love about science is the simple fact that each study is merely a doorway to focus the research into new directions. Few studies are a conclusion, but rather a crossroads tantalizing scientists to move further along the highway of knowledge.
As you wander the trails around the mountain west from now on, I want you to marvel at the at these truly unique birds. Every cell of their body is designed to help them focus on one thing, excavating insects from trees.
With all this armour, woodpeckers are heavy set birds. They’ll fly away, flapping their wings, and after a few strong beats, which helps them climb, they’ll coast for a bit and their heavy bodies will drop. This gives them an undulating, up-and-down movement that is easy to spot long before you’ve identified a particular type of woodpecker.
The mountain west contains a huge variety of woodpeckers so why not spend a bit of time with a field guide to help recognize a few of our local residents.
And with that, it’s time to wrap this episode up. Don’t’ forget to hit that subscribe button on whatever podcast program you use to listen to podcasts. For an easy way to subscribe, simply visit www.MountainNaturePodcast.com and click the subscribe button on whatever device you normally use. It will detect the device and get you subscribed right away – so you never miss another episode. While you’re there, check out the show notes for this episode at MountainNaturePodcast.com/ep055. Here you’ll find links to additional information as well as a comment section where you can share your thoughts or even your story ideas for future episodes.
Remember that Ward Cameron Enterprises is your source for all things Rocky Mountains. Visit us at www.WardCameron.com. And with that, the sun’s out and it’s time to go snowshoeing. I’ll talk to you next week.