Level 4 Reading 2B

Reading 2B

FEATHERS OF LOVE Covered in soft, black feathers, the noble performer bows deeply to his audience. From the top of his head grow several long feathers that tap the ground as he begins his dance. This dancing bird is Carola's parotia, just one of the many birds of paradise that live on the island of New Guinea. This male bird is attempting to impress a row of females that are watching him from a branch above. Keeping the females attention isn't easy. He pauses for dramatic effect, then commences his dance again. His neck sinks and his head goes up and down, head feathers bouncing. He jumps and shakes his feathers until his performance finally attracts the attention of one of the females. An Amazing Performance In the dense jungle of New Guinea is nature's most absurd theater, the special mating game of the birds of paradise. To attract females, males' feathers resemble costumes worthy of the stage. The bright reds, yellows, and blues stand out sharply against the green of the forest. It seems that the more extreme the male's costume and colors, the better his chance of attracting a mate. In addition to having extremely beautiful feathers, each species has its own type of display behavior. Some dance on the ground, in areas that they have cleared and prepared like their own version of a dance floor. Others perform high in the trees. The male red bird of paradise shows off his red and yellow feathers in a display called a "butterfly dance." He spreads and moves his wings intensely, like a giant butterfly. The male Carola's parotia, however, is the dance king of the birds of paradise; he has serious dance moves! These include one in which he spreads out his feathers like a dress, in a move called the "ballerina dance." While some birds of paradise perform alone, others perform in groups, creating an eye-catching performance that female birds find impossible to resist. Hanging from nearby branches, male Goldie's birds prominently display the soft red feathers that rise from their backs as they flap their wings. Excited females soon choose the one that pleased them the most. The Evolution of Color These brilliantly colored birds of paradise have developed over millions of years from ancient birds whose feathers were dark and boring in comparison. Of today's 45 brightly colored birds of paradise species, most live only on New Guinea. These birds of paradise invite us to solve a mystery of nature. It seems to be a contradiction that such extreme feathers and colors could have been favored by the process of evolution. After all, these same brightly colored feathers that attract mates also make the birds much more noticeable to predators. The answer lies in the safe environment in which the birds live, and a process of evolution known as sexual selection. "Life here is pretty comfortable for birds of paradise. The island's unique environment has allowed them to go to extremes unheard of elsewhere," says biologist Ed Scholes. Under harsher conditions, he says, "evolution simply wouldn't have come up with these birds." Fruit and insects are abundant all year round, and predators are few. The result is a perfect environment for birds. Sexual selection has thus been the driving force in the evolution of birds of paradise. Freed of other pressures, birds of paradise began to specialize in attracting mates. Over millions of years, they have slowly undergone changes in their colors, feathers, and other talents. Characteristics that made one bird more attractive than another were passed on and enhanced over time. "The usual rules of survival aren't as important here as the rules of successful mating," Scholes adds. The diversity of New Guinea's birds also springs from its varied environments: from coastal plains to cloud forests, from swamps to mountains rising as high as 5,000 meters. The landscape has many physical barriers that isolate animal populations, allowing them to develop into distinct species.

Trouble in Paradise The people of New Guinea have been watching the displays of the birds of paradise for centuries. "Locals will tell you they went into the forest and copied their rituals and from the birds," says anthropologist Gillian Gillison. At local dance performances, the painted dancers still evoke the birds with their movements and beautiful costumes. "By wearing the feathers," Gillison says, " ... you capture the animal's life force." In the past, demand for the birds' feathers resulted in a huge amount of hunting. At the peak of the trade in the early 1900s, 80,000 skins a year were exported from New Guinea for European ladies' hats. Nowadays, few birds die for fashion or for traditional costumes: Ceremonial feathers are passed down from generation to generation. Although local people are still permitted to hunt the birds for traditional uses, they usually target older male birds, leaving younger males to continue breeding. There are more serious threats to the birds, however. An illegal market in feathers still exists. Large farms use up thousands of hectares of forest where birds of paradise once lived. Logging, oil prospecting, and mining also present dangers to New Guinea's forests. Meanwhile, human populations continue to grow. David Mitchell, a conservationist, is relying on the help of local villagers to record where the birds display and what they eat. He hopes to not only gather data, but also encourage protection of the birds' habitat. The strategy seems to be working. "I had come to cut down some trees and plant yaｍ vines," says Ambrose Joseph, one of Mitchell's farmers. "Then I saw the birds land there, so I left the trees alone." For millions of years, these impressive birds have danced to find their mates. They'll keep dancing for as long as the forest offers them a stage.

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