They observed that birds that hatched during the pandemic, when the campuses became empty and there was less food waste to feed on, had beaks with higher bill length and slimmer structure, similar to the wildland birds. However, after the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted and people started trickling back to campus and food waste became ample. Birds born during this period reflected this shift, exhibiting shorter, thicker beaks typical of urban juncos.
Could be that, or the lack of humans lead to food scarcity for the urban birdies and the wild type were better adapted and thrived more and had more living babies for those couple of generations.
9 Comments
RegularJoe@lemmy.world · 46 pts · 247d
The Study: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2520996122
scytale@piefed.zip · 22 pts · 247d
Wow that is extremely fast. I wonder how many generations was it between changes.
vatlark@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 247d
These where the types of studies I was hoping to see after COVID
simplejack@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 247d
This is because the government redesigned the bird robots during the pandemic.
ikidd@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 246d
BirdsArentReal
MantisToboggon@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 247d
They just got healthier when they weren't eating ourshitty food. Hard to believe.
atomicorange@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 246d
Could be that, or the lack of humans lead to food scarcity for the urban birdies and the wild type were better adapted and thrived more and had more living babies for those couple of generations.
MantisToboggon@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 246d
Fucking weak dick birds! Amiright
otp@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 247d
Did they actually become healthier? It sounds like their beak shapes just changed to adapt to what they needed to eat
TheBat@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 247d