Bruce Bagemihl - Biological Exuberance

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The poorwill—along with a number of other birds such as the related common nighthawk and other goat-suckers, as well as some hummingbirds—also sometimes enters daily or nocturnal periods of torpor that typically last less than 24 hours. The poorwill, however, is the only species that exhibits extended periods of torpor. See Jaeger, E. C. (1949) “Further Observations on the Hibernation of the Poor-will,” Condor 51:105–9; Jaeger, E. C. (1948) “Does the Poor-will ‘Hibernate’?” Condor 50:45–46; Brigham, R. M. (1992) “Daily Torpor in a Free-Ranging Goatsucker, the Common Poorwill ( Phalaenoptilus nuttallii ),” Physiological Zoology 65:457–72; Kissner, K. J., and R. M. Brigham (1993) “Evidence for the Use of Torpor by Incubating and Brooding Common Poorwills Phalaenoptilus nuttallii,” Ornis Scandinivica 24:333–34; Csada, R. D., and R. M. Brigham (1994) “Reproduction Constrains the Use of Daily Torpor by Free-ranging Common Poorwills ( Phalaenoptilus nuttallii ),” Journal of Zoology, London 234:209-16; Brigham, R. M., K. H. Morgan, and P. C. James (1995) “Evidence That Free-Ranging Common Nighthawks May Enter Torpor,” Northwestern Naturalist 76:149-50.

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Russell, F. (1975) The Pima Indians, p. x (Tucson: University of Arizona Press); Grant, V., and K. A. Grant (1983) “Behavior of Hawkmoths on Flowers of Datura meteloides,” Botanical Gazette 144:280-84; Nabham, G. P., and S. St. Antoine (1993) “The Loss of Floral and Faunal Story: The Extinction of Experience,” in S. R. Kellert and E. O. Wilson, eds., The Biophilia Hypothesis, pp. 229-50 (Washington, D.C.: Island Press).

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Bulmer, R. (1968) “Worms That Croak and Other Mysteries of Karam [sic] Natural History,” Mankind 6:621-39. Among the worm species identified as particularly “vocal” is Pheretima musica of Indonesia. Bulmer points out, however, that frogs rather than earthworms are the more likely source of the actual sounds associated by the Kalam with worms.

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Bauer, A. M., and A. P. Russell (1987) “ Hoplodactylus delcourti (Reptilia: Gekkonidae) and the Kawekaweau of Maori Folklore,” Journal of Ethnobiology 7:83-91.

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The plant, identified as Ligusticum porteri, is widely used as an indigenous herbal medicine throughout the southwestern United States and Mexcio, where it is known by various names including oshá, chuchupa(s)te, and smelly root. Sigstedt, S. (1990) “Bear Medicine: ‘Self-Medication’ by Animals,” Journal of Ethnobiology 10:257; Clayton, D. H., and N. D. Wolfe (1993) “The Adaptive Significance of Self-Medication,” Trends in Ecology and Evolution 8:60-63; Rodriguez, E., and R. Wrangham (1993) “Zoopharmacognosy: The Use of Medicinal Plants by Animals,” in K. R. Downum, J. T. Romeo, and H. A. Stafford, eds, Phytochemical Potential of Tropical Plants, pp. 89-105, Recent Advances in Phytochemistry vol. 27 (New York: Plenum Press); Beck, J. J., and F. R. Stermitz (1995) “Addition of Methyl Thioglycolate and Benzylamine to (Z)-Ligustilide, a Bioactive Unsaturated Lactone Constituent of Several Herbal Medicines,” Journal of Natural Products 58:1047-55; Linares, E., and R. A. Bye Jr. (1987) “A Study of Four Medicinal Plant Complexes of Mexico and Adjacent United States,” Journal of Ethnopharmacology 19:153-83.

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Arima, E. Y. (1983) The West Coast People: The Nootka of Vancouver Island and Cape Flattery, British Columbia Provincial Museum Special Publication no. 6, pp. 2, 102 (Victoria: British Columbia Provincial Museum). This culture (like most other indigenous cultures) was “interrupted” relatively recently, of course, by the disease, genocide, and cultural suppression brought on by European immigrants—forces that have nevertheless failed to obliterate these people or their traditions.

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As some researchers have pointed out, this is largely because most Western scientists consider traditional aboriginal knowledge to be “unscientific” and difficult to separate from its cultural context (which often includes “fantastic” or “mythological” elements that are seemingly at odds with orthodox Western scientific principles). For further discussion of this view as well as the potential for collaboration between indigenous and Western scientists, see Pearson, D., and the Ngaanyatjarra Council (1997) “Aboriginal Involvement in the Survey and Management of Rock-Wallabies,” Australian Mammalogy 19:249-56.

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Dumbacher, J. P., B. M. Beeler, T. F. Spande, H. M. Garrafo, and J. W. Daly (1992) “Homobatrachotoxin in the Genus Pitohui: Chemical Defense in Birds?” Science 258:799-801; Dumbacher, J. P. (1994) “Chemical Defense in New Guinean Birds,” Journal für Ornithologie 135:407; Majnep, I. S., and R. Bulmer (1977) Birds of My Kalam Country (Mnmon Yad Kalam Yakt), p. 103 (Aukland: Aukland University Press); Dumbacher, J. P., and S. Pruett-Jones (1996) “Avian Chemical Defense,” in V. Nolan Jr., and E. D. Ketterson, eds., Current Ornithology, vol. 13, pp. 137-74 (New York: Plenum Press). See also the inclusion of indigenous New Guinean observations on the courtship behaviors of Birds of Paradise in Frith, C. B., and D. W. Frith (1997) “Courtship and Mating of the King of Saxony Bird of Paradise Pteridophora alberti in New Guinea with Comment on Their Taxonomic Significance,” pp. 186, 190-91, Emu 97:185-93.

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Stephenson, R. O., and R. T. Ahgook (1975) “The Eskimo Hunter’s View of Wolf Ecology and Behavior,” in M. W. Fox, ed., The Wild Canids: Their Systematics, Behavioral Ecology, and Evolution, pp. 286-91 (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold). See also the inclusion of Inuit observations on the behavior and distribution of Orcas in Reeves and Mitchell (1988).

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From a letter written to Dean Hamer and excerpted (anonymously) in his book The Science of Desire: The Search for the Gay Gene and the Biology of Behavior, p. 213 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994).

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Steward, “Coyote and Tehoma,” p. 160.

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Beston, H. (1928) The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod, p. 25 (New York: Rinehart); Bey, H. (1994) Immediatism, p. 1 (Edinburgh and San Francisco: AK Press).

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R. Pirsig, quoted in Carse, Finite and Infinite Games.

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Ibid., p. 127.

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Worster, D. (1990) “The Ecology of Chaos and Harmony,” Environmental History Review 14:1-18.

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Bunyard P., and E. Goldsmith, eds., (1989) “Towards a Post-Darwinian Concept of Evolution,” in P. Bunyard and E. Goldsmith, eds., Gaia and Evolution, Proceedings of the Second Annual Camelford Conference on the Implications of the Gaia Thesis, pp. 146-51 (Camelford: Wadebridge Ecological Centre). This school of thought is also sometimes called “post-neo-Darwinian” evolution, to emphasize its divergence from other, less recent, evolutionary theorizing that has occurred subsequent to Darwin (since the latter is generally characterized as “neo-Darwinian”).

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Ho, M.-W., and P. T. Saunders (1984) “Pluralism and Convergence in Evolutionary Theory” and preface, in M.-W. Ho and P. T. Saunders, eds., Beyond Neo-Darwinism: An Introduction to the New Evolutionary Paradigm, pp. ix-x, 3-12 (London: Academic Press).

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For further discussion and exemplification, see Ho, M.-W., P. Saunders, and S. Fox (1986) “A New Paradigm for Evolution,” New Scientist 109(1497):41-43; and the numerous articles in Ho and Saunders, Beyond Neo-Darwinism. For a more recent summary of some new ideas emerging in post-neo-Darwinian thought, see Wieser, W. (1997) “A Major Transition in Darwinism,” Trends in Ecology and Evolution 12:367-70.