Ecologist Joshua Tewksbury and his team from the University of Washington in Seattle were rumbling along a road in southern Bolivia one night last spring with a truck full of plant samples, when a pair of yellow eyes materialized in the middle of the track. It was a Nyctidromus albicollis, also known as a nightjar, a medium-sized nocturnal bird with long wings, short legs, and a squat head. In Tewksbury's experience, nightjars are wise enough to fly away from approaching vehicles. But this one refused to budge. The truck made no attempt to stop, and the bird vanished underneath. That was that. Like Schrödinger's cat, it was unclear whether the bird was alive or dead, but judging by the engine's giggles and gasps, the team assumed the worst.
According to one dubious extrapolation by Merritt Clifton, editor of the Animal People Newspaper, 41 million skunks, 26 million cats, and millions ...
