Birds with smaller brains more likely to be shot by hunters

Here we are - mid-November. And for some Canadians, that means one thing: hunting season! That's when hunters dig out their hunting duds and head into the woods.

And when it comes to hunting birds, new research shows that the birds hunters shoot tend to have smaller brains than the ones that get away.

• Decline in northern bird populations 'serious', say bird experts
• North America's migratory birds are in 'real trouble,' report finds
• Sask. launches online map for hunting, fishing, bird watching

Dr. Anders Møller from Université Paris-Sud hypothesized that birds that got away from hunters had larger brains and a superior escape ability. They used a large dataset of thousands of birds from a Danish taxidermist who had methodically measured the size of their brains and other organs, as well as their cause of death. While they statistically controlled for body weight, body condition, sex, and age, he found that birds that were shot consistently had smaller brains, relative to their body size than those that died of other causes.

External links: 

• Royal Society Biological Letters: Brain size and the risk of getting shot