Environment

2,500-year-old Bird's Nest Found in Greenland

by alia_d | June 17, 2009 at 10:47 am

166 views | 16 Recommendations | 6 comments

Ornithologists from the University of Oxford discovered a 2,500 year old bird's nest on a cliff in Greenland. The nests belong to gyrfalcons - the largest species of falcon in the world - and is the oldest nest ever discovered.

They also found three other nests that are more than 1,000 years old and feathers from a bird that lived more approximately 670 years ago. The nest have been used by generations of gyrfalcons, who return on a regular basis.

To find out how old the nests were, Kurt Burnham of the University of Oxford carbon-dated guano and other debris in the nests. By analyzing the guano, scientists were also able to figure out what the gyrfalcons ate hundreds of years ago.

Those gyrfalcons living in central-west Greenland, which is farther from the ice sheet and nearer the ocean, fed from a diet much richer in marine animals, such as little auks and black guillemots.

However, due to climate change, gyrfalcons may not be able to survive much longer.

"As a result of a warming and ameliorating climate other bird species, such as peregrine falcons, are moving further north," Burnham said to the BBC. "As peregrine populations continue to increase in density they will likely use more and more of these traditional gyrfalcon nests, forcing gyrfalcons to find alternate locations to nest in which may not offer the same amount of protection from the harsh Arctic environment in Greenland."

Gyrfalcons are not the only birds who return to their nests year after year for thousands of years.

By carbon dating solidified stomach contents, peat moss deposits and bone and feather samples from various moulting sites, researchers have in the past shown that colonies of snow petrel have returned to the same sites for 34,000 years and adelie penguins for 44,000 years

3 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend This comment thread is now closed

Amy Judd

at 15:25 on June 17th, 2009

This is really amazing!

Paschen

at 18:13 on June 17th, 2009

30% of all species are now threaten to be extinct due to Man made climate changes and Pollution. I do not thing that most realize the impact this will have on us Human as well.

bettermakings (not verified)

at 10:23 on June 18th, 2009

not true. it was much warmer a thousand years ago, why didn't they die then? i agree that pollution is a problem, but not climate change. if you study the climate history of the earth (over thousands of years), and not believe what you hear from those who make money off the idea of "global warming", you'd know that there is absolutely no threat from global warming. on the contrary, the real threat today is global cooling.

but don't believe me!!!! go to the library!!! ... and study the natural climate-change history of earth over the past few hundred-thousand years ... and maybe get a degree in it, so you too can be one of the 41 thousand scientists declaring "man-made global warming" a hoax.

as far as i know, the few scientists who "believe" it are the ones who make money from the idea.

alia_d

at 11:41 on June 18th, 2009

On the contrary, the global scientific community has arrived at a general consensus that global warming is happening. No major scientific body worldwide denies this anymore.
Wikipedia summarizes it pretty well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change

Also, there are some studies showing that, while for the past decade or so there has been a general consensus among scientists that global warming is happeneing (more than 90% of them), the public has a perception that global warming may be a hoax because of the way in which the media has covered the issue to create the perception that more scientists doubt global warming than actually do.

Eva Moly (not verified)

at 06:35 on June 18th, 2009

How was the bird nest conserved for so long? It is too recent for any of its components, the bird skeleton or anything else, to have been fossilized, and it is unlikely that it was isolated with solidified mud... was it a bird nest that simply fell in mud and was then conserved for those 2,500 years?

alia_d

at 11:43 on June 18th, 2009

Interesting question, Eva. I am not entirely clear on this, but based on my understanding the nest has been used by gyrfalcons year after year for generations. The scientists carbon-dated debris and guano (bird droppings) that must have remained in the nest for many years since the gyrfalcons living in the nest today maintain the same nest as their ancestors.