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Birds Becoming Gay Because Of Mercury
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Birds are being turned gay because there is too much mercury in their diet, scientists have revealed.

Researchers in Florida and Sri Lanka studied the effect of the metal in white ibises' diets to find out why breeding was down.

They found the higher the dose of mercury in the wading birds' food pellets, the more likely a male bird was to pair with another male.

Dr Peter Frederick from the University of Florida, who led the study, said: "We knew mercury could depress their testosterone levels but we didn't expect this.

"We're seeing very large reproductive effects at very low concentrations of mercury so we really need to be paying more attention to this." >>> | Thursday, December 01, 2010

Gay Ducks! Nature or Nurture, Ducky?
THE TELEGRAPH: Attempts to breed a rare species of duck to avoid extinction in the UK have backfired after the only two remaining males fell for each other.

Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
Keepers at a bird sanctuary in West Sussex hoped that the last remaining female Blue Duck in the country - called Cherry - might mate with either of the drakes, Ben or Jerry.

But neither male duck appeared interested and are now inseparable at the Arundel Wetland Centre, leaving Cherry to her own devices.

Centre warden Paul Stevens said he was disappointed that efforts to produce new Blue Duck offspring had failed but said the two male birds made "a lovely couple".

"They stay together all the time, parading up and down their enclosure and whistling to each other as a male might do with a female he wants to mate with," he said. Blue Ducks Likely to Die Out in UK after Male Birds Get Together >>> By Caroline Gammell | Tuesday, March 10, 2009

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