Jul 2, 2026 · 35 min · 13 segments
E29. Standing at 11,000 feet, lungs burning, Scott watched birds go about their afternoon in the exact thin air that had nearly taken him out. This week he sits down with…
Chris WittGuestScott TaylorHostSo most people think of the challenge that altitude poses when... to humans, right? So altitude sickness is something we might experience if we go up in elevation too quickly.
Oftentimes, athletes train at high elevation in order to be more competitive at low elevation, or people might think about the fact that they want to pack supplemental oxygen when they come to Denver.
So what does it actually mean to be a bird living its entire life above, like 11, 12,000 feet?
Like we, our experience changing elevations is a perfect analogy for what birds experience when they change elevations.
With the caveat that the mammalian respiratory system is fundamentally different in its design from the avian one.
Yeah, it's super exciting, and you guys have done a lot of work in places like the Andes, which are, um, home to this extraordinary number of bird species that are all stacked on top of one another by elevations.
And I thought maybe before we get into, like, the actual adaptations to elevations, we could talk a little bit about what's driving that kind of diversity and how this elevational piece plays into the generation of, of some of this diversity in places like the Andes.
Yeah, I would say there's no question that I was inspired to study birds and elevation because of going to the Andes, because it's so dramatic how the bird community changes from elevation to elevation.
If you go up the mountain or down the mountain, you see complete turnover, and that's really exciting.
Temperate zone mountains that are seasonal are fundamentally different from tropical zone mountains that are not seasonal, and where the birds are staying at more or less in the same place all year round.
So most people think of the challenge that altitude poses when... to humans, right? So altitude sickness is something we might experience if we go up in elevation too quickly.
Oftentimes, athletes train at high elevation in order to be more competitive at low elevation, or people might think about the fact that they want to pack supplemental oxygen when they come to Denver.
So what does it actually mean to be a bird living its entire life above, like 11, 12,000 feet?
Like we, our experience changing elevations is a perfect analogy for what birds experience when they change elevations.
With the caveat that the mammalian respiratory system is fundamentally different in its design from the avian one.
Yeah, it's super exciting, and you guys have done a lot of work in places like the Andes, which are, um, home to this extraordinary number of bird species that are all stacked on top of one another by elevations.
And I thought maybe before we get into, like, the actual adaptations to elevations, we could talk a little bit about what's driving that kind of diversity and how this elevational piece plays into the generation of, of some of this diversity in places like the Andes.
Yeah, I would say there's no question that I was inspired to study birds and elevation because of going to the Andes, because it's so dramatic how the bird community changes from elevation to elevation.
If you go up the mountain or down the mountain, you see complete turnover, and that's really exciting.
Temperate zone mountains that are seasonal are fundamentally different from tropical zone mountains that are not seasonal, and where the birds are staying at more or less in the same place all year round.
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