The Scientist-Emperor Who Cracked the Mystery of Bird Migration
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- čas přidán 8. 09. 2024
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Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II had accurately observed bird migration in the 1200s, but his findings were not widely accepted in Europe for centuries. An avid falconer and early ornithologist, Frederick compiled his extensive knowledge in "De Arte Venandi cum Avibus" (On The Art of Hunting with Birds), which included detailed observations on bird migration.
Frederick's work highlighted that birds migrate twice a year, moving from cold to warm climates and back. He explained that not all birds migrate, with some making shorter, local movements instead. Reasons for migration included escaping the cold, seeking food, avoiding frozen habitats, and predatory birds following their prey. Frederick drew on Arabic sources and Aristotle's work, correcting and expanding upon Aristotle's theories with his practical observations. For example, he noted that leadership in migrating bird formations is cyclical, unlike Aristotle's claim of a single leader. Despite the accuracy of his work, it took over 400 years for migration theory to be revisited by scientists.
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Sources:
archive.org/de...
archive.org/de...
engines.egr.uh...
Frederick C. Lincoln, 1935, The Fish and Wildlife Service's circular on bird migration p3-5
www.csu.edu/ce...
www.wired.com/...
If you want to learn more about the theories Frederick was up against you can find them in this playlist:
czcams.com/play/PLfp1VB3Lm4ImMWsxXFgtLyjIt4S8FZ96F.html&si=bNjjZo2N4RdZD404
thanks
"How do you know so much about swallows?"
"Well, you have to know these things when you're a kaiser, you know."
I was looking for this comment to like it 🙂
@@DalHrusk As Terry Jones, one of the Monty Pythons, was especially interested in Middle Age literature (inspired by his reading of Chaucer as part of his degree in English literature), he surely knew about Frederick II and his scientific interest in birds. Hence, he introduced the joke into "Holy Grail" about royalty knowing about migratory birds.
Frederick II spent a lot of his life in Italy where there is a major bird migration corridor. Hunting migratory birds was historically a big tradition in Italy so they probably had a better understanding of migration than NW europeans.
During the Crusade, he was in Egypt and Israël where lots of birds migrate during winter. The marches in Israël have been converted to agriculture land.
@@1964_AMU - There was no such place during the crusades.
Saw a nature special on an Italian gentleman domesticating some wild geese clipping a few of their wings, and then letting the rest free, planting certain grasses they would eat, made their livers look like they were had been force fed, but they weren’t. Fooled the French in competition free range Foie gras. I grew up at a farm. It was beautiful to see someone work with nature like that.
Yah I do falconry. I give my birds opium so they always come back. Me and my birds love opium.
@@JohnnyWednesday The places were there, whatever they were called. The map is not the territory.
The understanding that the lead bird gets exhausted is such a giant leap towards fluid dynamics/flight mechanics. Imagine if he had been taken seriously. Gliding could have shown up much sooner.
The earlier assessment was that the lead bird grew tired from vocalizing. From St. Isidore's Etymologiae regarding the crane: "The one leading the flock chides with its voice, but, when it begins to grow hoarse, another crane takes its place." He also makes reference to the migration habits of the stork, following the classical writing of Aristotle, Pliny, Aelianus, etc.. A rudimentary understanding of bird migration would have been available to the educated during late antiquity and the middle ages, but the species mentioned migrated within what was then the known world.
But wait a minute. Aren't all the birds flying at the same speed? How else do they stay in formation? Sure, the lead bird gets to slow down as it drops back, but only for a moment.
@@NuisanceMan Slipstream
@@NuisanceManit goes into the others slipstream
It's funny that you gave Frederick a german accent, when he basically spent all his life in Southern Italy and barely set foot in Germany.
Those gothic letters asked for it.
He had to travel to Frankfurt one time, went to Mayence another time. There is a letter of a Bishop expecting his visit in Augsburg but he did not show up. The war with Otto, a German Duke, in competition with him to be German Emperor exiled Frederick for the rest of his life.
He spoke Italian with a swabian accent, though
@@VolkerWendt-vq8pi Italian didn't exist back then, so he probably spoke Southern Italian Vulgar, Latin and Greek; he was raised by people who spoke Southern Italian Vulgar, Latin and Greek and likely didn't set foot in Swabia before 17 years of age. I have a hard time believing he had a Swabian accent...
@@lorenzodepaoli neither did German, that's why I said Swabian. But most likely you're right. Guess he didn't even know the language
Frederick II was probably the most brilliant person to ever wear a crown. A polymath, polyglot, statesman of genius, scientist, naturalist, musician, and a ruthless despot.
Truly a based man
In many towns around Southern Italy, Frederick the 2nd has still got a strong cult status and almost venerated like a saint.
He was responsible for building many of the best looking churches and castles in the area during his lifetime, his intellect and political acumen has made him a Renaissance man ahead of the time.
Frederick's assessment of Aristotle is spot on ! Aristotle was basically an "encyclopedia-ist". Aristotle only collected and compiled prior knowledge, as do most encyclopedias. As such, summation errors occur, as many complain about in Wikipedia. All encyclopedias contain errors, when trying to compress data, where subtleties of a topic get lost. This is not restricted to Wikipedia. I've found many errors in old "paper" encyclopedias before the Internet even existed.
Aristotle spent quite some time on an island studying the biology of all species he could describe so he also has a lot of empirical knowledge!
One hopes empirical knowledge, as known during the time it is/was written, appears in an encyclopedia, lol.
But Wikipedia makes it worse by insisting that contributors exclude first-hand knowledge.
@@goodmaro excluding first-hand knowledge or not sourced knowledge ?
@@hackarma2072 Both. They want you to cite *someone else's* publication.
The Hohenstaufen dynasty was simultaneously one the most brilliant and whackiest medieval great houses
this makes the first gag of MP and thr holy grail even more funnier
How do you know so much of swallows?
Well, you must know these things when you are king, you know...
love it!
what's interesting is that gamekeepers in Europe were puzzled by the occasional stork flying with embedded arrows (from attempted shots while flying in Africa). They had to come up with an explanation for that.
Im gonna need more information on this transmutation into barnacle geese theory, asap
You can find it in the series playlist here:
czcams.com/play/PLfp1VB3Lm4ImMWsxXFgtLyjIt4S8FZ96F.html&si=bNjjZo2N4RdZD404
The paintings are cute so I believe it.
Frederick II definitely counts among the most brilliant minds of all times! And definitely not only because of his "De arte venandi cum avibus".
Fredrick II: most birds are powerful flyers, maybe they fly somewhere warm in the winter?
The public: no it’s magic
🪄✨
As a sicilian, I am proud of Frederick II. Truly an excellent monarch.
What do you mean? African or European swallow?
You beat me to that one!
"I don't know."
*_*gets yeeted into a gorge*_*
Scientific finds were not generally spread before the occurrence of the printing press. Also: many "learned" men didn't subscribe to the empirical method, and instead relied on earlier "authoritative" sources, when explaining things, making their expertise less usable for common people than experts are required to be, from 1800 and on.
Among all emperors ever, Frederick II "Stupor Mundi" is my heroest hero. It would have been a honor to meet him, really.
„Ey bro, your observations were right.
Nobody will believe you for the next 400 years though because your education system sucks.”
@@molybdaen11 - Yeah, being Cassandra 2.0 sucks.
I like the way y'all put this together; a primer in creating videos. Easy to watch.
He’s the one that worked out the air speed velocity of the European and African swallows, which carry coconuts. 🥥
It could grip it by the husk
🤣
To be fair, people would have been familiar with animals that _did_ hibernate, so that one's not too unscientific: hedgehogs, bears, doormice, ladybirds, some frogs and toads
His Empire extended from the North Sea to Sicily. While he visited Germany only rarely, he was one of the few persons to experience both ends of the European migration himself. Add his interest for birds through his love to hunt with Falcons, and it's easy to see why he was the perfect person to understand these matters.
aahh a bird enthusiast, my kind of person
Man, he nailed it! Thanks for this. Great video!
❤❤
@ 0:28
Well, it wasn't whether they were willing to accept the idea itself, but rather whether they'd accept anything from Frederick II.
I mean, we're talking about the guy who was called in his own lifetime "antichrist"...
I heard that was not his fault since he was gravely ill the time the pope called for a crusade.
@@molybdaen11
I’m not faulting him for anything at all. But the fact is that he was so hated by many (especially the pope), that-for example-he was excommunicated for failing to go on crusade AND for going on crusade (while excommunicated).
He was called the Wonder of the World because, well, he WAS.
"Stupor Mundi"....
This is a fascinating video. Something we now take so much for granted must of course have had an origin, a first person person to put forward the idea. That it was an Emperor and not a scientist surprised me. Thanks
Many before him might have suspected it but had neither the time or ressources to inform many others.
This is probably true but then as now, the first to publish gets the credit.
I'm trying to learn how to watercolor and I find inspiration in the most serendipitous ways. I was watching this episode and got the impulse to try and paint birds during migration😂😂
Love the channel and videos.very nice! Greetings from the U.S.
Human nature: Why accept the obvious when an absurd explanation will do?
A brilliant definition of conspiracy theories. Thank you.
@@helenamcginty4920 - A brilliant definition of some mainstream official theories, such as the impossible collapse of certain buildings in NYC in 2001.
@@LuisAldamiz Exactly, governments and their media outlets can tell people anything and the masses believe it.
@@helenamcginty4920 Did we watch the same video? the official theory at the time was that birds hibernated... which is absurd... the supposed conspiracy theory at the time was the correct one, which was the research carried out by Frederick... same way that Galileo was prosecuted for claiming that the Earth orbited around the Sun rather than the Sun orbiting around the Earth... same way the first person to claim the Earth was not flat was also treated like a mad man and a conspiracy theorist... etc etc...
@@tiranito2834 it's absurd to believe that birds turn into other animals or sleep at the bottom of rivers... At least it's more absurd than to think they fly somewhere.
Nice video! I love Frederick.
Having grown up on the Mississippi river in Tennessee, it never occurred to me that bird migration could be a mystery. I grew up under thousands upon thousands of doves, ducks, and geese heading south every winter and filtering back north every spring.
Sadly the native Americans were to lazy to invent the printing press and inform the Europeans 😅.
@@molybdaen11 if only the Anglo Saxons establish New England in America instead of Crimea
Really fascinating, thanks!
I enjoyed very much this video, thank you!
Not surprised he learned about bird migration from the Crusades AND was a falconer... Just because i happened to read that falconry is (or was) a hugely popular competition sport in the Middle-East.
I think it'fascinating that roses were also first introduced to Europe because of the Crusades, and went on to become the very symbol of medicine there for a time-right up until WWII, practically, considering the reccomendation vastly publicized to make syrup out of rose-hips in order to spare children from Scurvey, which is from exteme Vitamin C defficiency. 🤔 I haven't proven the connection (through documentation) yet, but I have a strong hunch that that historical usage and horticultural migration both play a part in the significance of roses in Catholicism, as shown by the "rosary" and other repeated associations with the mother of Christ. 🤔
Fascinating.
If you think, that even in the 19th century people believed swallows hibernating in the mud of swamps. The Arabs believed the swallows living during the great heat in Paradise!
Before watching this, I guessed that Alfonso 10th ('el Sabio') of Castile was the ruler in question. I'd forgotten about Frederick - another European monarch deeply influenced by Islamic (particularly Sufic) ideas.
Emperor Frederick II was so intelligent and ahead of his times that he was called “stupor mundi” (wonder of the world) by that part of the population who was educated , in those uncultured times in which he lived as King of Sicily and south Italy , and Emperor of the Holy German Empire , in the 1200s .
Great video
good vid
There's a podcast called the constant, a history of getting things wrong that does an episode on this
It's why do birds suddenly (dis)appear
12 dec 17 I think was the air date
Frederick II was many centuries ahead of his time.
It’s a shame more people don’t know about him
So you are trying to tell me there were people that thought this was less reasonable than them actually transforming into other animals. Wild shit.
That was one detail I don't recall from my friend John Chodes's play, _Frederick 2_ .
Me: I'm guessing he saw something on crusade? being am emperor and all. nah it's probably something else.
3:33 🤯wai wut? I was right?
He spent much of his life in Sicily, which is a major stopover area for migrating birds.
@@eljanrimsa5843 I see, that makes sense. Right didn't the HR emperor have titles in Sicily from the Norman Hauteville line? I remember now.
This is what happens when you science when you oughtta emperor
Oh, he emperor’d too. And crusaded, taking Jerusalem. (By paying for it, but hey, whatever works.) And was the target of a crusade. And scared the pope to death. And was declared the predecessor to the antichrist by the next pope. But he clearly would have been happier with his falcons, so he probably died happy.
Quite a fellow: see czcams.com/video/4BFsADb5_vY/video.htmlsi=KUDxapQLr6Des80u .
And here I thought it was going to be about a Korean emperor! Good video.
I really like the style of the presentation. Which software do you use?
I use Photoshop to create the assets and After Effects to do the animation.
Thanks for the information. You got some good editing skills then, I thought there were specialized apps with pre-created video templates that could do this.
Some people has the ability to observe and understand what they see. They are few and far between.
If only everyone had been as critical of Aristotle as this king, some of Aristotle's insane ideas about slavery and abortion might have been avoided. I never knew about this until know, so thank you!
You should understand that American politics isn’t all that matters in fact it’s pretty unimportant
@@avus-kw2f213 Indeed, I'm not American and have never voted. Philosophy has a huge impact on what average people believe to be right and wrong, whether they recognise it or not, and most of Aristotle's impact seems to have been firmly negative.
@@EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts people get their morals from religion not philosophers You are obviously Greek
Relying on earlier "authoritative" sources? Just what pseudo science does today.
Remember the idea that vaccines cause autism?
That was completely made up from a guy which degree was faked and revoked later.
While vaccines can cause problems, they are not the reason for autism.
Are we sure birds don’t turn into different animals ?
I do falconry. I give my birds opium so they always come back.
I get it that we have hindsight and everything BUT couldn't you just look at a bird and see how fast they travel without any obstacle in the air. Then from a thought that maybe they could just keep going for several days or weeks till they're in a different region?
Well let's just say I have seen humans run very fast for 100m, but they just can't keep up that pace for long. And while crossing e.g. the mediterranean sea, it's kinda difficult to take a rest mid-way, with no trees and shrubs or land to land on in the middle of the sea, so the indurance to continue for weeks and thousands of kilometers twice every year without a compass or other external orientation tools simply cannot be inferred just by casually watching a bird fly across your head.
Plus, distant lands with vastly different climates were nothing the common man would see much of, and when all you have (or most of it, anyway) are tales and legends of strange lands in a galaxy far, far away, it's easier to imagine local birds spending their winter more like other, locally known animals (fish, bears, boars, frogs, deer, non-migratory birds, etc.) than travelling around the globe into lands of legend where the mere concept of winter in the central European sense and timing isn't even a thing.
Last but not least: With some preparation/food/money a human can travel around the globe as well... but being well-adapted both to such long journeys and to living in completely different places and environments with different food sources, predators and other dangers... is quite impressive tbh. Migratory birds certainly spent some skill points on those things to allow them to do this successfully, because it's not a trivial feat.
The leading bird should have a title. How about we call him the Big Bird?
🤣
One of many reasons why the Greek guy is called Errorstotle.
If he had put chipper rings on a few thousand captured birds, he could have proved it.
Finally an explanation of how the african swallow could carry a coconut to europe
Coby is a good guy. He unbanned me
my problem with this is twofold: first, by "scientific mind" you mean he was on the spectrum. if i was a medieval peasant and the emperor was rambling about stuff of no consequence to me i'd probably think "that makes sense" but wouldn't really care because it makes no difference to me. the next time i hear a bard talks about birds turning into deer, i would just go along with it, i wouldn't go "akshually..." even if i didn't believe it to be true. my first point then is that it is not that nobody believe him, but instead, that nobody cared. My second point is, what was his hypothesis? how did he test it? where's the data? making wild guesses and getting it right by chance isn't "science", so you should make sure to include the data the emperor collected and how he analyzed it next time!
European birds or African birds ?
2:25 cannot not same as can not :)
Guy liked birbs
0:53
What it Whose????
Halfknowledge spam
It was not for nothing that he was called Stupor Mundi
So Arab scholar and Aristotle knowledge did not count - ethnocentric behavior.
Thats not at all what I said, on the contrary I said the people of the middle east were far more knowledgeable about this than Europeans. So where are you getting that from?
To this day we still don't know where male birds be hiding their weiner
Ducks and running birds can extend them out of they cloaka.
While the other birds just change the surface of the cloaka a bit to allow a easier flow of the seamen.
Birds are literally build different.
@@molybdaen11 they still hot AF
@@merikatools568 Thats completely true.