Apologies for delay - been crook. Thanks for this info - I was being
kind in giving benefit of doubt to "Sir D" since I have never shared
the universal love and respect he seems to inspire (having heard a
not-so-nice story that is possibly apocryphal). Anyway I guess given
the difficulty of getting close enough to wild Lyrebirds to
photograph them, it is impossible to conceive of how a wild bird
would hear enough similar shutter noises to imitate them. The two
Lyrebirds I've tried to photograph would only have learned
twig-snapping and curses and no shutter noises.
But in Glenbrook, lower Blue Mtns, we did have in the 60's a wild
bird out the back (that we only saw once) that would sing a whistled
version of a Craven-A cigarette advertisement. Not surprising since
it was catchy and whistled by quite a few people including us
kids. This is a non-bird sound, although not a mechanical noise.
Julian
At 10:41 AM 10/06/2007, Ian Fraser wrote:
Thanks for that Julian; it was certainly an amazing performance as I
recall it. Unfortunately it was also one of the few occasions when
my admiration for Sir D and his organisation dipped a bit. They had
asked for help before coming here to film that segment (and others
in the 'Life of Birds' series) and a ranger at Kinglake NP had spent
many hours habituating a star wild lyrebird mimic to make the film
crew's life easier. However when they arrived they decided that a
captive bird at Healesville Sanctuary was easier still, with the
bonus of 'sexy' mechanical calls, particularly the famous shutter
drive. Fair enough, but in the voice-over, while not actually lying,
they did nothing to suggest that it wasn't a wild bird. I am still
unaware of any FIRST-HAND accounts of wild lyrebirds mimicking
mechanical sounds, though there are plenty of higher order accounts.
This segment only muddied those particular waters further.
And if this doesn't open some sort of floodgate I'll be very
surprised indeed....
cheers all
Ian
---
Ian Fraser,
Environment Tours; Vertego Environmental Wordsmithing
GPO Box 3268, Canberra, ACT 2601
ph: 61 2 6249 1560 fax: 61 2 6247 3227
---
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