I too liked that doco and all the raptor bits as well. But no need for me to at
this late stage add to what others have mentioned. The one thing that I didn't
like though was the statement made that the Eclectus Parrot "breaks all the
rules of evolution". That is a nonsense. There are an infinite number of "rules
of evolution" that relate to every feature of every organism: genetics,
physiology, biogeography, structure, behaviour, all the rest. The Eclectus
Parrot adheres to them as much as everything else. The point they were making
is that the bird appears to contradict only one "rule", which is only a general
trend, as there are many other species that outwardly show the same aspect,
albeit for different reasons. That relates to the reversed sexual dimorphism
(brighter coloured females). Having made that wrong remark, they then proceeded
to outline why it is not true, the particular nesting behaviour of the bird
allows that difference. The bird is indeed not breaking that "rule of
evolution". It is just that it has adopted a particular and unusual strategy
that allows it to adhere to the rule in a different way from most birds. It is
damaging to suggest in such loose manner that any organism "breaks any of the
rules of evolution" because the comment can easily be taken out of context. It
is simply that we should not take the unusual adaptation as somehow being
inconsistent with the well documented trend without properly seeing the
evidence.
Philip
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