Loon Fights

Steve Maxson's post to the Eagle Thread brought to mind something I found out from Ron Tozer who has in Algonquin Park for years.

He did a presentation about loons for our nature group. Many loons and other water birds have died around the Great Lakes over the last few years. Many of those carcasses have been examined for cause of death.

It was found that 50% of the loons had wounds in the neck and chest area.

Loons do fight and, although I have never seen it, draw blood and do kill each other.

How many other bird species fight to kill their own?

Eleanor- This is a good time to bring up the issue of why things evolve- what is the driving force? Behaviours, structures, physiologies etc evolve almost exclusively for the good of the individual, not the species or population. Animals fight for a variety of reasons but typically they are defending a resource or trying to get matings for themselves. The resource can be food, a mate, a territory etc. Fighting to the death is rare because this would be selected against for obvious reasons. Animals usually fight up to a point and then one often backs off. The point at which they back off is related to the value of the resource they are defending. An Elephant Seal could lose its harem of females and therefore future breeding success if it loses a fight to another male, so Elephant Seal battles are often intense. Occasionally fights lead to death but you can think of these as accidents in a way. Animals are not perfect and make mistakes- monkeys fall out of trees and kill themselves, birds fly into buildings. An extension to the idea that things evolve for the good of the individual is that you can add "individuals and their kin". When you see aid-giving-helping-altruistic behaviour from one individual to another it is almost always between two related individuals.

When you say "their own" I assume you mean their own species. There are no rules of evolution about killing your own species so long as they are not close relatives. Cannibalism occurs in the animal kingdom and there is no "rule of nature" against it, again so long as you don't eat close relatives.

I see what you are saying, John. The loon wasn't fighting to kill but to drive off an intruder. Certainly, the loon fights I have seen were for that reason and to protect the young loons.

I am more aware of mammals fighting among their own species. Fights among wolf pack members would be one case.

It was other bird species that I was thinking about.

Here in Maine, I have personally witnessed loons defending their pond or lake from invading loons and to protect the new born young. They did this by poking them and jabbing the offending loon. I watched 10 feet away once and about 50 feet away several times. I even have watched a loon dive and swim under water to a cormorant and come up under it and jab it in the belly to drive it off. I was 20 feet away that time. I have seen adult loon's fly in and kill the babies by breaking the neck with their beaks. Loons can be real vicious to each other when protecting their territory. On the other hand we have 5 ponds I have personally visited and have photographed 4-5 loons at a time swim together as a group and keep to within 100 feet of each other. They are amazing.