Farm animal conservation? Why I never...

In the December 9th show, we covered a random smattering of things, including the conservation of our farming heritage. We listened to a podcast from the Nature Conservancy series Nature Stories entitled "Philosophy of Pig". In this story, we heard from a woman who was laid off from her environmental policy job. Instead of finding a similar job, she decided to raise an endangered breed of swine called the Large Black Pig. She has found happiness in the more hands-on career switch and feels she is still working in the conservation field.

We also learned about the  Christmas Bird Count, organized by the Audubon Society each December. This event offers a chance for citizens to help with a bird survey effort that has been going on for over 100 years. Each year, recreational and professional ornithologists gather all over the Americas to count bird communities, compile the data, and share the information. To get involved, contact your local Audubon Society to find trip leaders. If you live in Northwest Arkansas, visit our regional Audubon's homepage.

Here are some news stories from the week:

• Male fruit flies' love for junk in the trunk might be selecting against fatter females
• Backyard bird feeding in the UK might drive speciation in European Blackcaps
  
• A way to count bird populations using only auditory footprints 

No sound quiz this week, but we did learn how to identify different wood warblers by their song. We also heard from musical artists such as: Elbow, Talking Heads, The Books, The Soft Machine, Feist, The Violent Femmes, Miles Davis, Reeltime Travelers, and Andrew Bird.