http://www.news24.com/...-to-mercury-20101201 Homosexuality in Birds Connected to Mercury

Berlin - Exposure to mercury pollution is enough to turn some wild birds gay, researchers have concluded, according to a report in the science journal Nature on Wednesday.

Ecologists in Florida studied the mating behaviour of American white ibises, birds that are not known to engage in same-sex pairings, after exposing them to the hazardous heavy metal.

The researchers used 160 90-day-old nestlings for the study, in which three groups of 20 birds each were fed varying doses of mercury, while a fourth group was given none.


The mercury levels were kept within the range recorded in the wild.

According to Nature, the study found that mercury levels built up in the birds over several years and caused between 13%-15% of nests to produce no offspring - with high number found to be male- male pairings.

Researchers also noted that the ibises that had been exposed to mercury displayed less courtship behaviour.


Higher levels of mercury exposure resulted in an increase in the degree and persistence of homosexual pairing, according to Nature.


- SAPA

When I was in high school, our chemistry teacher used to break out a bottle of mercury and let us play with the small metal drops on our desktop. As fas as my use of the mercury goes, I cannot say that it made me homosexual, in fact I love both sexes of birds equally.

Avian bisexual? I love a good goose; guess that would explain my wood pecker. Or does my pintail position lead to woodcock? Also could be the reason I am loony and hard of heron. Or perhaps that is because i like puffin?

Better duck before someone gives me a swift shrike on the head, just for a lark.

Your tern.

I am convinced that my cockatiel, Apache, is leading an alternative lifestyle. I got him a girlfriend to keep him company. He beat her up and insisted on sitting on her eggs, which he would never let her anywhere near. Poor, poor Lilly bird!

I don't know about his mercury exposure. Although I did help draft and work on the passage of the first mercury thermometer ban in Massachusetts way back on 11/15/00, so Hg elimination has a special place in my heart.

Sounds like Lily has grounds for a divorce.

And the end result of this is that weather channels, websites, and meteorologists can never predict tomorrows temps with any degree of accuracy, ever. Thanks a lot!

When I was in high school, our chemistry teacher used to break out a bottle of mercury and let us play with the small metal drops on our desktop. As fas as my use of the mercury goes, I cannot say that it made me homosexual, in fact I love both sexes of birds equally.

Avian bisexual? I love a good goose; guess that would explain my wood pecker. Or does my pintail position lead to woodcock? Also could be the reason I am loony and hard of heron. Or perhaps that is because i like puffin?

Better duck before someone gives me a swift shrike on the head, just for a lark.

Your tern.