The researchers hypothesized that the squirrels were paying attention, and over the course of a couple of years Dr. Their question was not what one sparrow might be saying to another, but whether squirrels took note of the birds’ conversations when they weren’t shouting about hawks. “Even some lizards that don’t make their own vocal sounds eavesdrop on some other animals like birds,” he said.Īs he and his students discussed the soundscape squirrels live in, he said, “that led us into chatter,” the general background noise of nature - in particular the calls that birds make when nothing big is going on. This kind of eavesdropping is widespread in nature. In a recent scientific paper, for instance, he reported that gray squirrels pay special attention to the alarm calls of robins. “I’ve been interested in alarm calls for a while,” he said. But a parrot that walks on three limbs defies the expectations. Confounding Creature: Nature seems to have a strong preference for bilateral bodies.A Beloved Bird Call: The corncrake’s loud cry was once a common sound of summer in Ireland, but these days it can seldom be heard.Hammering Away: A study shows that woodpeckers do not absorb shocks during pecking and they likely aren’t being concussed either.Instead, the most distinctive birds are likely to vanish first. An Uneven Crisis: The risk of extinction, a study suggests, is not randomly or equally spread across the avian family.Those price increases will not affect international products, Frum said. 26, the Postal Service will temporarily increase prices on all commercial and retail domestic packages because of the holiday season and its increase in mail volume. With this change, we will improve service reliability and predictability for customers while also driving efficiencies across the Postal Service network.”Īdditionally, starting Oct. This is unattainable and forces us to rely on air transportation, yielding unreliable service. with a drive time greater than six hours. The Postal Service has been riddled by financial problems for years, and the coronavirus pandemic has only worsened the situation.īy making this change, Frum said, “the Postal Service can entrust its ground network to deliver more First-Class Mail, which will lead to great consistency, reliability and efficiency that benefits its customers … whether it’s 300 miles or 3,000 miles, the current standard for (first-class packages) require 3-day service for any destination within the contiguous U.S. Opinion: Joe Biden can deliver USPS from Donald Trump by firing his joke of a board Currently, first-class mail and first-class packages have the same delivery standards, but that will change beginning Friday. That’s different from first-class packages, which are typically used for shipping smaller, lightweight packages. The Postal Service defines first-class mail as “standard sized letters and flats,” Frum said.
Single-piece first-class mail traveling within the same region will still have a delivery time of two days. Frum said that “most first class mail (61%) and periodicals (93%) will be unaffected” by the changes. The changes mean an increased time-in-transit for mail traveling long distances, such as from New York to California. Starting Friday, the Postal Service will “implement new service standards for First Class Mail and Periodicals,” spokeswoman Kim Frum said in an email to USA TODAY.
Postal Service since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic probably won’t be thrilled to hear this: Americans who have been frustrated with the slow service of the U.S.