Cooperative breeding, in which an animal assists in caring for offspring not its own, is often found in nature. But researchers in Hawaii have recently discovered a case involving long-term pairs of unrelated birds of the same sex.
Lindsay C. Young of the University of Hawaii and colleagues studied a colony of Laysan albatrosses on Oahu from 2004 to 2007. These birds are monogamous, and both parents participate in raising a single hatchling. The researchers reported in Biology Letters that nearly one-third of the 125 pairs consisted of two unrelated females, and half of these stayed together for the duration of the study.
The researchers note that for female-female pairing like this to occur, usually there has to be a surplus of females in the population. For same-sex pairing to persist, the researchers say, both females should have opportunities to reproduce. They found evidence for that: for some pairs that produced chicks in more than one year of the study, at least one was from each female.
Male and female He made them, but female and female raise the chicks.
I came across this interesting article about Rabbi Jami Korngold in yesterday’s Daily News.
As the founder of the Adventure Rabbi program in 2001, she has become nationally known for her pioneering work integrating spirituality and the outdoors. Rabbi Korngold lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and two daughters.
She was in New York last week to lead a group of 20 souls through the wilderness of Central Park. “For me, walking into Central Park is like walking into the Sabbath,” she said. “But you have to be aware of it and have to create a spiritual place.”
Rabbi Jami Korngold has always loved the outdoors, the place where humankind first met with God. Whether it’s mountaineering, running altramarathons or just sitting by a stream, she finds her spirituality and Judaism thrive most in the wilderness.
In her work leading individuals and groups toward spiritual fulfillment in the outdoors, Rabbi Korngold has uncovered the rich traditions and lessons God taught our ancestors in the wild. In her new book, God in the Wilderness, she shows people that despite the hectic pace of life today, it is vital for us to reclaim these lessons.
I think she is doing great work reminding people of the connection of God and nature in their lives, and awakening that whole part of them. I know her example would have appealed to me as a teenager, college student, and even now, as a person who feels the closest and most in awe of God in nature.
I hope she has a Catholic counterpart!
Some cheese-making French monks have come up with an innovative way to reduce their electricity bills.
A monastery in the Alpine region of Savoie uses by-products of milk to create methune–enough to save them 7,000 Euros a year.
Watch the video here.
