Birds and Weather

As any beginning birder will soon discover, birding and weather tend to go hand in hand. This is especially true during migration when the presence or absence of a front can push birds into your area or keep them away. It's not to say that on a rainy day you can't see tons of birds or if you don't have northwest winds you won't see any hawks during fall migration. It's just that you can use the weather to increase your odds of seeing more birds by knowing when and where to go. I don't claim to be an expert on birds and weather and a lot of this is still gobbledygook to me. To help us out, reknowned birder, Paul Lehman, has created A Weather Primer for Birders. Some of this was published in Birding a few years ago so it may be familiar to some readers. It's a great start to learning about the weather that affects birds' lives. Enjoy and take some time to browse the Cape May Bird Observatory's new web site while you're there.

Do other animals go bald?

The Bald Eagle, although spectacular, is not really bald. The Northern Bald Ibis (pictured) is not really bald either. It's baldness is more an extension of its facial skin. I, on the other hand, am really bald. After having Beth give me my monthly buzzcut today, I pondered, "Do other animals go bald like humans do?"

Male pattern baldness is triggered by DHT, a powerful sex hormone (booyah!) and hair growth promoter that can adversely affect the hair and prostate. The mechanism by which DHT accomplishes this is not yet understood. In genetically-prone scalps, DHT initiates a process of follicular miniaturization. Through the process of follicular miniaturization, hair shaft width is progressively decreased until scalp hair resembles fragile vellus hair or "peach fuzz" or else becomes non-existent. Onset of hair loss sometimes begins as early as end of puberty, and is mostly genetically determined (NOT necessarily from the mother's side, I'm proof).

I did discover that a number of other primate species also experience hair loss following puberty, and some primate species clearly use an enlarged forehead, created both anatomically and through strategies such as frontal balding, to convey increased status and maturity. This made me recall seeing chimpanzees and gorillas with receding hairlines on TV documentaries. They are usually the older, more dominant males.

Alas, I could not find any information about other mammal species having any form of pattern baldness. Are there balding tigers running around the forests? Are there folicly-challenged shrews scurrying about? What about cueball whales swimming in our seas? If anyone has any info on this, please let me know.