Biologically oriented students of animal behavior have long been bedeviled by the sheer difficulty of doing what their discipline requires: watching free-living animals in their natural environments, as opposed to bringing them into the laboratory … where its easier to observe them, but at the cost of greatly deforming whatever we observe. (Kind of an ethological version of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle.)
Riding to the rescue—at least sometimes—is technology. One of my favorites, just established, is a camera recording at this very moment live from a bald eagle nest, complete with nestlings. Click here: Decorah, Iowa, and you’ll get real-time, 24/7 images from that nest. Super-cool! (Nocturnal viewing is possible because of infrared light, which the eagles can’t see; nonetheless, its way better in the daytime.)
I must confess to one worry, however. Among the recent findings of sociobiology has been this troublesome one: Many animals engage in the fraternal/sororal equivalent of homicide, namely siblicide, whereby siblings kill each other. And bald eagles are siblicidal. I kinda hope it doesn’t happen, if only because these little eaglets are awfully cute, and it wouldn’t be at all cute to witness one of them pecking another to death. But it would be instructional, especially for observers whose understanding of the natural world is more idealistic than realistic.
At first blush, siblicide appears wildly maladaptive, especially for those who labor under the misconception that evolution proceeds “for the good of the species.” It doesn’t. Rather, it works by conferring greater genetic representation to those genes that underlie behaviors (and structures, and physiologies, etc.) that are more adaptive than their alternatives. Among many bird species, adults lay “extra” eggs, that is, more than they can successfully rear, at least most of the time. Occasionally, however, when food is unusually abundant, the additional egg yields not only an additional nestling but also an additional offspring. Often, however, times are more harsh and the outcome is accordingly harsh, as well: Older, healthier nestlings dispatch their younger, less healthy brother or sister.
It’s a case of “selfish genes” looking out for themselves, even at the cost of eliminating some of “themselves” located in the body of their sibling. After all, a gene predisposing toward siblicide has a 50-percent chance of residing inside a full sibling, but a 100-percent chance of being inside its own body!
So if you’re interested, check out those eaglets and, more often than not, an attending parent. You may even get to see the other parent arrive with some food and watch it being consumed by the hungry nestlings. But only if you are prepared for the possibility that what you see might suddenly warrant an “R” rating: for Real.
(Image from http://www.northwestmagazines.com/nwt_raptor_rapture_bald_eagles.php)