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Mystery of the missing sparrow

For nearly a decade now the house sparrow has gone missing from the cities and towns of Britain, long enough for a British newspaper, The Independent, to offer a prize of 5000 Sterling Pounds to anyone offering an acceptable solution to the mystery.

The prize has now been won by a group of four scientists from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), De Mont fort University in Leicester and Natural England, the Government’s wildlife agency.

The theory they have put forward in a scientific paper to be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Animal Conservation, is based on intensive research in Leicester, showing that sparrow chicks were starving in their nests because their parents could not find enough insects to feed them. So many chicks were dying that the birds’ population level as a whole was declining.

Dr. Kate Vincent, one of the authors who carried out the research on which the theory is based, said: “If we were successful, given the statuses of the collaborating organisations, we feel that any prize money received should be spent on further research or conservation work on house sparrows.” The offer of the prize money was made in May 16, 2000 and was publicised, it has been reported, throughout the world.

A similar phenomenon was noticed in parts of the city of Colombo when it was noticed that the population of sparrows had either begun to diminish or gone missing in several parts of the city. Many had asked the question, ‘Where have the sparrows gone?’ and were totally unaware that the same question was being asked by Britons in the past eight years.

Turban remark costs job

A request made to a taxi company by a mother not to send a driver wearing a turban to fetch her 14 year old daughter home from school as this would ‘freak her out’ cost the mother her job at the BBC.

Forty year old Sam Mason, the mother, was employed by the BBC last September as a radio presenter. The call was made when she was presenting the radio’s afternoon programme but off air. She allegedly told the cab operator “not to send an Asian driver to pick up her daughter. A guy with a turban on is going to freak her out.”

“I know this sounds really racist, but I’m not being please. An English person would be great, a female would be better,” she further added. When her request was refused, she is alleged to have said: “You’ve managed it before.”

A BBC spokesman said: “Although Sam Mason’s remarks were not made on-air, her comments were completely unacceptable and for that reason, she has been informed that she will no longer be working for the BBC with immediate effect.”

Roving Eye