penguinpage.net :: Penguin research in New Zealand :: The Snares penguin project » Writing IUCN book chapter http://www.penguinpage.net/SCP Just another WordPress weblog Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:30:36 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 Snares Penguin Book Chapter – Day 2 http://www.penguinpage.net/SCP/2010/01/06/snares-penguin-book-chapter-day-2/ http://www.penguinpage.net/SCP/2010/01/06/snares-penguin-book-chapter-day-2/#comments Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:30:36 +0000 Tom http://www.penguinpage.net/SCP/?p=71 Hardly any work done today. Finished the first draft of the taxonomy section. Think I nailed Christidis and Boles (“Snares penguins are Fiordland penguins”) quite satisfactorlily. The old problem of theoreticians analysing sterile data without really thinking about the worl out there. I really wonder why taxonomists never consider life history traits when they re-categorize the animal kingdom. But I definitley gotta sleep over my argumentation a few nights. Started gathering popultion data. Quite nice to find that the report I bought online from theis antique bookshop actually had Snares penguin population assessments that neither Williams nor Marchant & Higgings have heard about. Hope Dave gets back to me with the latest census results.

Spent most of the afternoon messing around in the garden; quite warm outside.

]]> http://www.penguinpage.net/SCP/2010/01/06/snares-penguin-book-chapter-day-2/feed/ 0 Snares Penguin Book Chapter – Day 1 http://www.penguinpage.net/SCP/2010/01/05/snares-penguin-book-chapter-day-1/ http://www.penguinpage.net/SCP/2010/01/05/snares-penguin-book-chapter-day-1/#comments Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:51:13 +0000 Tom http://www.penguinpage.net/SCP/?p=56 Started work on the book chapter for the upcoming IUCN penguin book. It’s always difficult to get going, that blank page in my word processor always haunts me. But it kicked off okay. Spent most of the morning assembling biometric data from various sources by lunchtime I had about enough of flipper lengths, bill depths and egg weights. Finished the data assembly in the afternoon and started working on the species description. After about half and hour I had

The Snares penguin is a medium-sized crested penguin with a height of about 51-61cm.

on my screen. Rats.

So I decided to have a go at the taxonomy section in the evening. Made some good progress althougth I misunderstood a crucial bit which I was about to reproduce utterly wrong. Good that Ursula had a glance over my shoulder. Unfortunately it also threw a spanner in my argumentative works. Rats, again. Stopped a few minutes shy of midnight. Settled down to a glass of red and watching an episode of Californication.

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