It is because the female birds judge quality of the males by their singing. When they encounter a male from a different flyway, he doesn't sound "right" and is rejected as defective. They can't tell the difference between a biological defect and cultural variation in musical taste.

In other words, RACIST BIRDS.

Or ethnic birds, if you will. How fascinating, I always thought species was a well-defined and static designation. Which explains where all the species keep coming from if they're all variants. I always wondered why Canis Familiaris came in so many flavors but were considered one species. The interbreeding comes with assistance, and the bird variants don't have humans going "One from column A and One from column B--I'd really like curly ears on this one."

It is because the female birds judge quality of the males by their singing. When they encounter a male from a different flyway, he doesn't sound "right" and is rejected as defective. They can't tell the difference between a biological defect and cultural variation in musical taste

You never asked if they think it's a defect or taste, did you? You only asked if they wanted to mate.

I dunno. It sounds like people.

On the flip side, I'm being told elsewhere that not only are the lions not a new species, there isn't even as much variation between them and the other east African lions to be deemed a different subspecies, among those kids who are insufficiently cool to have disregarded the concept.

I can't lie--I'm hella curious about the idea of lions that are a different species from the panthera leo lions.

I worked myself up so much over the off-hand remark thing that I was crying at work. I DO NOT CRY AT WORK. Fucker. ANyway, I think I got in front of it. I remembered that another boss, but not the big boss was also standing right there so I went to him with my concern that something I said as a ha ha comment was being talked about to people outside of our department as an inappropriate thing to say. ANd I asked his advice and we talked through various possibilities and he was kinda shocked that this might be a "thing" and then he apologized that I was having to even worry about it.

Then a vendor just brought me a Thank you gift for being a good customer (pumpkin spice cake) and I am feeling better.

The End!

Well, it seems the people that did the research don't think it's a new species, and haven't said it's a new subspecies either, so that's all analysis/discussion after the report: [link]

What are the other species of lion called (as opposed to leo krugeri or other subspecies)?

This reflects the way that an evolutionary perspective messes up the idea of species. There are American Lions and Eurasian Cave Lions, both now extinct. Some people say they were Leo and some not. But most no longer find the question very interesting. Species is a de facto placeholder of some value in communication. It's good for indexing articles in Web of Science. But its multiplicity of meanings leaves it suspect as a way of understanding biology. And its not where the fun parts of biology are right now.

You never asked if they think it's a defect or taste, did you? You only asked if they wanted to mate.

No. The only question of interest is what they can distinguish, not what they think it is. What we know is that they respond to the song of a bird from a different flyway in the same way that they respond to the song of a bird from their own flyway that is developmentally abnormal. If you play a song from a different species (!) you get a different reaction still.

I have heard nothing from the husband regarding his job interview. If he's still talking with them that's good. But I am bad at waiting.

Dana - I'd take no news as good news.

Just got off the phone with my manager. Today's performance review was basically a preliminary review to make sure he understands what I'm doing and where I'm excelling/lacking. He also shared with me the comments from a few of my project managers. Basically, for them, I walk on water. I was blushing for half of our discussion.

Bottom line from this call is that I need to fill out more "exceed expectation" examples on my self eval and get that back to him tomorrow. Dang it, I'm blushing again, just writing about the call.

A Brooklyn couple does a music video announcing their split.

[link]