Re: Hadrosaur nesting strategy...(was Re: The Life of Birds

[John Bois <jbois@umd5.umd.edu>]

On Thu, 29 Jul 1999 B.Dol@skn.sc.philips.com wrote:

> Maybe the surroundings allow for more and better hiding places and 
> camouflage  making it more difficult for predators to actually find the prey.
> Maybe some other listmembers have some ideas about this too. This is, 

Extant big birds such as ostriches, avoid highly vegetated areas.
Bertrand's book on Ostrich reprodyction claims this is due to higher
predator density, and better camouflage for ambush (an ostrich can outrun
just about anythiong if it knows it's being stalked.  Basically, in my
view, a goose's body plan is very unsuitable for laying in dense treed
areas. They must depend on not being found.  I really can't imagine a
colony of geese nesting in a dense forest.  And I am sure no such thing
exists (since Ron didn't bite on my last claim, I'm getting a bit bolder,
you see).