Oil Spill Clean-up: Lots More Information" Oil Spill Experiment. Triage unit helps clean Gulf birds.
Deepwater Horizon. The Largest Oil Spills in History, 1901 to Present. Photography. Graphics. Environment Activities. Dispersant & other chemicals - Oil Spill Solutions. Feathers. Feathers Birds have them, and so did some species of extinct dinosaurs. They’re feathers. They come in different shapes and sizes, all colors, and enable birds to fly.
In much the same way hair protects and warms mammals, feathers work for birds. Adult birds spend most of their time looking for food. ©M.Wilhelm/GLOBIO.org How Feathers Evolved You have to go back more than 150 million years to find the beginnings of feather evolution. Some dinosaurs had what scientists believe were very early feathers. ©J.Tucciarone (illustration) Early feathers seem to have been used for protection and warmth. How’s a Feather Put Together? Feathers are made of keratin. Different Jobs for Different Feathers Baby birds have feathers that are soft and warm. ©K.Campbell/GLOBIO.org Contour feathers are vaned feathers that you see covering a bird’s body. Many birds have special, stiff feathers that help them perform specific jobs.
©S.Gettle/GLOBIO.org Underneath the contour feathers are down feathers. ©scol22. How You Can Help Wildlife Impacted by the BP Oil Spill. On April 20, 2010, BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers, and pumping more than 200 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 straight days—making it America’s largest environmental catastrophe in history. How Wildlife is Faring Thousands of birds, sea turtles, dolphins and other wildlife were found dead or injured in the disaster zone immediately after the spill.
How are they faring now? Holding BP Accountable BP violated both the Clean Water Act and Oil Pollution Act, and faces upwards of $50 billion in fines. Make sure BP is forced to pay >> NWF's Oil Spill Response Recognizing the disaster’s threat to wildlife, NWF staff—already on the ground in Louisiana—quickly swung into action.