So at the end of this video, I'm going to make a 1-minute video about why partridges
are awesome.
But right right now, I don't know anything about them.
I know that they're a ground-dwelling bird, they're brown, I've seen a picture of them,
and that's it.
So let's go out and find why partridges are awesome!
Now, I've got a 1-hour timer to get this whole research done.
I usually research for much longer than that, and it's a skill I need to work on, to research
a bit faster, so I'll start the timer.
"Partridges are medium-sized non-migratory game birds with a wide native distribution
throughout the Old World, including Europe, Asia, and parts of Africa."
I live in North America; this is why I have never seen a partridge.
Because they don't live here.
"Native to grassy steppes...
Nowadays they are often found nesting on agricultural land...
They nest on the ground and have a diet consisting of seeds, grapes, and insects."
Now it does say that they nest on agricultural land but it also says they're native to grassy
steppes, so specifying that a large part of their diet is grapes- I'm sure they don't
always eat grapes.
There's the 12 Days of Christmas, a partridge in a pear tree.
"Partridges are unlikely to be seen in pear trees because they are ground-nesting birds,
but it has been suggested that the text 'a pear tree' is a corruption of the French [une
perdix]".
Which means what?
Okay, so this phrase means "a partridge", so the gift is a partridge in a partridge.
All right, that song is much more strange than I thought it is.
Oh, there's multiple types of partridge!
A Molecular Phylogeny of Peasants, heh, A Molecular Phylogeny of Peasants- Peasants- PHEASANTS!
And Partridges Suggests That These Lineages Are Not Monophyletic.
Monophyletic means that all the animals in a group are related to each other and this
is saying that it's NOT monophyletic which means that the group of pheasants and partridges
might not all be related, in which case they might have to fix that.
Which means that the names might change in the future.
This is why I don't bother learning taxonomy, because in my experience at least, as soon
as you learn it, it just changes.
I'll give you a funny example.
There is a bird called a Scarlet Tanager.
Originally they just assumed it was a tanager, named it as such.
It turned out that Scarlet Tanagers are actually in the cardinal family.
So Scarlet Tanagers are cardinals.
There's another bird called a Red-capped Cardinal, named as such.
In 2014 the Ornithological Congress decided that it is actually a tanager.
So Red-capped Cardinal, actually a tanager.
Scarlet Tanager, actually a cardinal.
This is just what happens with naming conventions.
I know people that like it, it's just not interesting to me.
While we're going back to Wikipedia, I want to show you a cool adaptation of the Wikipedia
formula, which is Wikiwand.
It is the same exact information, just presented in a more beautiful way.
So if I search Wikiwand for "partridge"...
Look how much more beautiful that page is!
It looks so nice!
This is the bird that I think of when I think of a partridge.
It's a little brown bird and it hangs out on the ground.
So let's find out why I am more familiar with this.
This is how I've heard of this particular species, is because it lives in North America.
I have 37 minutes to go, and that is not enough time to do this.
I was researching about where they live.
They lay about 7 to 14 eggs, which is kind of interesting, because species that have
high parental care tend to have fewer eggs.
Species that have high early mortality rates tend to lay lots of eggs.
The benefit to having lots of eggs, obviously, is that your numbers can increase quickly.
But then the parents don't have enough resources to invest a lot into each individual.
This is called an r-selected species, because they're selected by the number of offspring
they produce, and hopefully some of them make it to adulthood.
Partridges are r-selected species.
"As young chukars grow, and before flying for the first time, they utilize wing-assisted
incline running as a transition to adult flight.
This behavior is found in several bird species, but has been extensively studied in chukar
chicks, as a model to explain the evolution of avian flight."
Definitely have to look more into that, because wing-assisted incline running sounds great.
Let''s check out those references.
"Wing-assisted incline running is a form of locomotion in which a bird flaps its wings
to aid its hind limbs in climbing a slope."
The summary of this, of all these words is that even very young birds that aren't able
to fly, they can climb steeper slopes, because they nest in rocky areas, and they can climb
up a steep hill or jump up a rock by flapping their wings even though they can't lift their
entire body up in the air and "fly".
Oh wow, the Grey Partridge is all over the place.
Least Concern, oh well that makes a lot of sense because they have that broad range so
it's very unlikely that one event would affect the entire population.
So they would be Least Concern.
Oh good, rotate that way, clockwise.
Ahh, 24 minutes, this is going to take too long to read.
I got the species name for the Grey Partridge, which is Perdix perdix, and put it into Google
Scholar.
"Read Online...
Create an account."
Uhh...okay!
Okay, I got an account, and now I can read this article.
This is why research takes forever.
"Predation control significantly increased the proportion of partridges that bred successfully
and the average sizes of their broods, thus substantially improving the production of
young.
Excluding effects of site and year, predation control increased August number by 75%" Woo
Woo!
Well, I think we know for a fact that partridges are an r-selected species because if they
remove the predators, suddenly their nest success goes up by 75%.
So there's a lot of things eating partridges, that's what that tells me.
So they're helped by the presence of farms because it clears land into the "grassland"
type areas that they're naturally found in, but they're not helped by farms because of
pesticides, and it doesn't have cover they need to get away from predators.
This is probably a blind alley, but let's find out why they were called "The Partridge
Family".
Yep, that is definitely a blind alley.
7 minutes, I feel like I'm done.
Like, what else do I need to know.
I think I'm going to go with the research I have and make a 1-minute video about partridges,
and we'll find out why they're so cool!
Partridges!
What are they?
They're ground-nesting birds with incredibly cute babies.
You won't find them in a pear tree, but anywhere with grass and rocks is a fine home for partridges.
Partridges eat salad and seeds, with the occasional bug snack.
They lay up to 30 eggs in one nest with the hopes that one will make it to adulthood.
It's tough to be a partridge, but partridges are tough enough to run up an almost vertical
surface with their wings.
In fact, they're so tough that they're considered Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.
They're well-camouflaged with drab colors so keep your eyes peeled and you might see
the partridge invasion that's sweeping the globe!
I hope you appreciate how awesome partridges are now.
You've learned some cool facts and you've seen how that research process works, so I
hope that helps you when you are researching animals on your own.
I really want to thank you for stopping by to learn what makes Life awesome!