3/8: Ten Birds That Changed the World Hardcover – by Stephen Moss (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 28 October 2023
⏱️ 11 minutes
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Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Ten-Birds-That-Changed-World/dp/1541604466
For the whole of human history, we have lived alongside birds. We have hunted and domesticated them for food; venerated them in our mythologies, religions, and rituals; exploited them for their natural resources; and been inspired by them for our music, art, and poetry.
In Ten Birds That Changed the World, naturalist and author Stephen Moss tells the gripping story of this long and intimate relationship through key species from all seven of the world’s continents. From Odin’s faithful raven companions to Darwin’s finches, and from the wild turkey of the Americas to the emperor penguin as potent symbol of the climate crisis, this is a fascinating, eye-opening, and endlessly engaging work of natural history.
1841 Finches
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm talking about Stephen Moss, the author and producer. His new book is The Ten Birds |
| 0:08.1 | to Change the World. We come to a myth that I grew up with, everybody else grew up with, |
| 0:12.8 | and the BBC reinforced. In 1979, 1978, with some spectacular presentations I watched as a |
| 0:21.0 | younger person. I remember the 20th century. Stephen Moss is with me, the author of the new book. |
| 0:26.1 | Ten Birds to Change the World. This changed my life, and now he's changed it back again. |
| 0:31.7 | It has to do with the Galapagos Islands, where I've never been, but my daughter happily went there |
| 0:37.6 | and tells me the Finches are doing fine. However, those Finches and the myth of Darwin, |
| 0:44.4 | well, I'll tell it quickly because Stephen's going to correct the record. The story I had was that |
| 0:50.4 | Darwin, on the voyage of the Beagle, arrived at the Galapagos and observed taking notes of all |
| 0:57.3 | the different birds on the different Galapagos Islands and how they were different. The bills were |
| 1:03.1 | bigger or smaller. The colors were different and came up with the idea that the reason they're |
| 1:08.7 | different is because they evolved to fit the circumstances, the weather, the food patterns, |
| 1:15.6 | and they're isolated. They can't easily travel to the mainland. That was what I grew up with. |
| 1:21.4 | And now, Stephen, the facts are astonishing. I think Darwin mentioned Finches once, |
| 1:28.8 | curious Finches. That's about it, right? So how did we get the story? |
| 1:32.7 | That's right in the origin of species. Well, of course, as you say, it's absolutely true that |
| 1:38.9 | a bird from the mainland, probably from South America, we think, arrived on the Galapagos, |
| 1:44.0 | there were all these. There weren't very many other small birds. There were lots of different |
| 1:48.2 | micro habitats and niches, ecological niches, and that bird did evolve into these very different |
| 1:55.5 | looking birds. As you say, different size bills, different way they feed, and all that's true. |
| 2:01.2 | Darwin's Finches are a brilliant example of Darwin's theory. The only problem is Darwin didn't |
| 2:08.1 | realise it. So what happened was that he collected the birds, as you say. He forgot to label |
... |
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