The Three-Minute Outdoorsman

There are days when, if we hunt or fish or watch birds, we just want to be alone with our thoughts. Other times, however, contemplating the great outdoors that contains so many unknowns, we may wish to learn about moaning moose . . . or mumbling carp . . . or magnetic deer. And this is where Robert M. Zink enters the scene.

A writer who humorously bridges the gap between esoteric information and nature as we have come to know it, Zink distills the latest news from the world of science into three-minute bursts of irresistible lore for the layman. In these brief, engaging essays readers will discover, for instance, how deer use the earth’s magnetic field for orientation; a long-gone tradition of hunting loons in North Carolina; how porcupine quills are advancing new ideas about delivering inoculations; and why deer antlers can model bone regeneration for amputees.

How do predator–prey cycles get started? Should we worry about black bear attacks in the woods? Zink has the answers—often to questions we didn’t think to ask but wish we had. This is the outdoors at its mysterious best, as the experience of nature and the findings of science combine to educate our sense of wonder and tickle our fancy—to say nothing of our highly unscientific funny bone.

Robert M. Zink is Breckenridge chair in ornithology at the Bell Museum of Natural History at the University of Minnesota, where he also serves as the curator of birds and is professor of ecology, evolution, and behavior.

Contents

PrefaceAll Things Deer

1. A Short History of Deer in North America2. A Message From Our Native Birds: Deer Hunters Needed3. The Science of Chronic Wasting Disease and Its Relevance for Management of White-tailed Deer4. Urban Deer: Hunting vs. Birth Control5. It’s Taken Centuries, but We Now Know Why Deer Don’t Ask to Use Your Compass6. Why are Medical Researchers Interested in Antlers?7. Isn’t It Obvious Why Deer Have Antlers?8. A New Kind of (un)Natural Selection on Deer Antlers: Hunting9. My Deer Doctor: Take Two Acorns and Call Me in the Morning10. Trying to Out-fox Deer Ticks and Lyme Disease11. Deer and Their Subspecies: Fact or Fiction?12. Can Game Managers Control the Number of Deer?13. Mountain Lions, Prions, and Sick Deer14. The Rut: Maybe More Than You Wanted to KnowIn The Woods15. Hunting Spots for Wild Turkeys at the Last Glacial Maximum16. Wolves, Coyotes, and Deer17. Lead, Lead, Everywhere?18. Politics and the Lead Ammo Debate19. Getting the Lead Out (of Chukars)20. Sounding the Alarm, Mourning Dove Style21. Moaning Moose and Topi Lies22. Turkeys and Love: What’s Actually Happening Out There in Spring?23. Looking Back at the Turkey Season: What You Might Not Have Seen24. When Black Bears Attack!25. I Wouldn’t Have Seen It if I Hadn’t Believed It: A Look at the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker Controversy26. Recent Developments in the Climate Change News27. Night of the Dead Birds, or Too Much Hitchcock?28. Eagle Attacks Toddler! Then Again, Maybe NotIn The Water29. Recreational Fishing Alters Fish Evolution30. Duck Hunting in the Low Country, or How’s Your Kooikerhondje?31. Predators and Ducklings in the North Dakota Prairies32. Long-Term Sexual Tensions Between Male and Female Ducks33. Vigilance in Ducks: More Than Meets the Eye(lid)34. What Little We Knew About the Labrador Duck Just Got Littler35. Mumbling Along: Lessons From the Past About Stopping the Spread of Exotic Species36. What You Don’t See Under Your Boat37. Never Be a Baby Bird38. Oh No! Duck Hunting Videos Might Not Be Realistic!39. Snow Geese and Polar Bears: Collision Course?40. Species Conservation at the State Level: A Fish-Eye ViewAnimals And Us41. Reconsider Your Walk with Fido?42. Loon Hunting: A Bygone Tradition43. Market Hunting and the Demise of the Eskimo Curlew44. The Ethics of Baiting and High-Fence Ranch Hunting: A Perennial Debate45. Hunters and Conservationists at Odds Over Shooting Shorebirds46. A Conversation About Hunting in the Netherlands47. Back from the Dead: Mother Goose Goes to the Poor House, Cooked48. Cats Outdoors and Native Birds: An Unnatural Mix49. Five Million U.S. Residents Don’t See the Problem with Their Cat Killing Just One Bird a Day50. Cats on Birds: A More Insidious Side51. Some We Love, Others Not So Much52. RICO, the Circus, and Conflicts Between Hunters and Non-huntersAnimal Intelligence53. A New Respect for Porcupine Quills54. Outfoxed Again: Foxes Use Built-in Rangefinders!55. How do Ground Nesting Grouse Ever Breed Successfully? An Oily Subject56. Our Chickadees are Smarter than Theirs57. Neck Deep in Guano: A Recent History of Chimney Swifts58. Shake, Rattle, and Spray, Doggie Style59. Drahthaar Follies60. “Trash Birds”, the Law, and Some Amazing Biology61. The Dating Game, Antelope Style62. Camouflage: One of Life’s Universals63. One More Cup of Coffee

Postscript: Confessions of a Three-Minute OutdoorsmanIndex