#Strange bird, sea turtle hatchlings released on protected Indonesian beachworking on a remote and protected beach in Indonesia conservationists from the Wildlife Conservation Society
and an extraordinary bird called the maleo. On February 23 on Sulawesiâ##s Binerean Cape conservation managers released two newly hatched maleo chicks
The most threatened of the beach nestersâ#he maleoâ#s a chicken-sized bird with a black helmet (or casque) yellow facial skin a red-orange beak
and a nesting strategy more reptilian than avian. After burying their eggs in sunbaked beaches
The maleoâ##s entire range is limited to the islands of Sulawesi and Buton and the estimated population numbers 8000-14000 mature individual birds (4000-7000 breeding pairs.
The bird is listed as Endangered on the IUCNÂ##s Red List and is threatened by egg harvesting and habitat loss.
Dr. Chris Seabury and research associates (Yvette Halley and Eric Bhattarai) along with members of the Schubot Exotic Bird Health Center (Drs.
One of the most prized American hunting birds and a cultural icon among outdoor enthusiasts the bobwhite quail has undergone a mysterious decline that has been documented for more than 50 years.
The bird was named recently the No. 1 bird in decline in North america by the Audubon Society.
Loss of natural habitat changes in land use pesticides the potential for bird diseases and even climate change have all been mentioned
or draw important inferences regarding bobwhite physiological interactions with their environmentâ#Seabury explains. â#oewe now have a formal resource for studying the bird and identifying new or perhaps even more specific reasons for its serious decline.
#Deer feeding puts birds at risk, research showsby comparing the fate of artificial nests close
When accounting for all feeding sites in the study region (ca 2000 km2) this would mean that in one fifth of the area ground-nesting birds will have little chance to see their eggs hatching.
Therefore this management practice widespread in Central europe comes into conflict with the conservation of ground-nesting birds such as grouse species
The study recommends to avoid ungulate feeding in the breeding areas of bird species of conservation concern such as capercaillie
or black grouse and to stop feeding before the bird nesting season starts. We urge for sensible feeding practices
#Birds of all feathers and global flu diversitya group of international scientists have completed the first global inventory of flu strains in birds by reviewing more than 50 published studies
and performed as part of the USAID PREDICT project identified over 116 avian flu strains in wild birds.
This is roughly twice the number that were found in domestic birds and more than ten times the number found in humans.
Additionally an analysis of studies that sampled more than 5000 birds suggested some regions may have more viral diversity than others.
Avian flu outbreaks come with no warning. In 2013 an H7n9 avian flu strain caused a deadly outbreak in people in China.
This year another strain known to infect birds H10n8 has caused human cases for the first time. As was the case in the H7n9 outbreak most direct bird-to-human spillover events
(when a virus jumps from one species to another) of avian flu can be traced back to human contact with domestic poultry.
Although avian flu strain diversity often originates in wild birds it is the mixing of viruses among poultry pigs
Completing the first global inventory of flu strains in birds is a key step in building that understanding.
This snapshot of the world of flu virus diversity in birds is the outcome of many years of ecology
The scientists also looked at patterns of flu diversity in different bird hosts. Mallards carry the highest number of strains at 89
and ruddy turnstones were second with 45. The more a strain was shared across wild bird types the more likely it was to be found in domestic birds a risk factor for spillover events.
They also noted that some strains could be specific to certain bird types. For example gulls and shorebirds (Charadriiformes) carried ten strains that have not been identified in any other bird order.
According to Dr. Olson This inventory isn't about blaming wild birds but it allows us to map
what we know and informs our understanding of what drives viral diversity and the emergence of rare viral strains that can infect people.
Given that flu viruses can jump from domestic poultry to people ongoing efforts at improving biosecurity at poultry farms
and markets remain key to outbreak prevention. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Wildlife Conservation Society.
and warding off predatory birds who might catch sight of the vulnerable female lizard. Story Source:
Many smaller animals birds elk and moose (which browse shrubs instead of grazing on grass) would have been in the shrub tundra he adds.
The researchers studied the light-sensitive cells known as cones that are in the eyes of chickens and most other birds active in daytime.
These birds have four types of cones for color--violet blue green and red--and one type for detecting light levels and each cone type is a different size.
Multi-hyperuniformity is crucial for the avian system to evenly sample incoming light Torquato said.
If I gave you the avian system with these cones and removed the red it's still hyperuniform.
Evolutionarily speaking the researchers'results show that nature found a unique workaround to the problem of cramming all those cones into the compact avian eye Corbo said.
Yet birds with the arrangement studied here--including chickens--have impeccable vision Corbo said. These findings are significant
because they suggest that the arrangement of photoreceptors in the bird although not perfectly regular are in fact as regular as they can be given the packing constraints in the epithelium Corbo said.
We still know nothing about the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie this beautiful and highly organized arrangement in birds.
The paper Avian photoreceptor patterns represent a disordered hyperuniform solution to a multiscale packing problem was published Feb 24 in Physical Review E. The work was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (grant no.
#Seed-filled buoys may help restore diverse sea meadows in San francisco Baya pearl net filled with seedpods tethered by a rope anchored in the coastal mud
and provide a huge nursery for a variety of algae fish shellfish and birds. But a variety of human influences from bridge building to runoff pollution to smothering loads of sediment have threatened these grass beds globally.
What their model revealed for this particular forest of hardy native Metrosideros polymorpha trees on the windward slope of Manua Kea is that an incumbent tree limb greening up a given square meter would still dominate its position two years
Observatory over 43 hectares on the windward flank of Manua Kea. In the vast majority of pixels (each representing about a square meter) the forest growth looked normal
In addition to dissecting how the virus evolves at different rates in different host species the study challenges several tenets of conventional wisdom--for example the notion that the virus moves largely unidirectionally from wild birds to domestic birds rather than with spillover
We now have a really clear family tree of theses viruses in all those hosts--including birds humans horses pigs
Just like branches on a real tree you can see that the branches on the evolutionary tree grow at different rates in humans versus horses versus birds.
These mix and match for example H1n1 H7n9 with the greatest diversity seen in birds. Using the new family tree of the flu virus as a map showed
What we're finding is that the avian virus has an extremely shallow history in most genes not much older than the invention of the telephone Worobey explained.
which the analyses also reveal to be the closest relative to the avian virus. Interestingly a previous research paper analyzing old newspaper records reported that in the days following the horse flu outbreak there were repeated outbreaks described at the time as influenza killing chickens
and other domestic birds Worobey said. That's another unexpected link in the history and the there is a possibility that the two might be connected given
whether the virus jumped from horses to birds or vice versa but a close relationship between the two virus species is clearly there.
It is now clear that most of its genome jumped from birds very close to 1918 in the Western hemisphere
The results also challenge the accepted wisdom of wild birds as the major reservoir harboring the flu virus from where it jumps to domestic birds
Instead the genetic diversity across the whole avian virus gene pool in domestic and wild birds often appears to trace back to earlier outbreaks of the virus in domestic birds Worobey explained.
People tend to think of wild birds as the source of everything but we see a very strong indication of spillover from domestic birds to wild birds he said.
It turns out the animals we keep for food and eggs may be substantially shaping the diversity of these viruses in the wild over time spans of decades.
You could make it like a kite with power supplied by our fibers. I wish Ben Franklin were here to see that!
Makira contains an estimated one percent of the world's biodiversity including 20 lemur species hundreds of species of birds
This isolated sanctuary is popular for its rich bird -and wildlife such as the Blue-banded Kingfisher and Whitehanded Gibbons as well for its rare and beautiful flora like Rafflesia's--known to hold some of the largest flowers on earth.
The wildlife sanctuary covers a region of low-lying forested mountains and is located in the middle of a fascinating transition zone that lies between the northern Indochinese and the southern Sundaland biogeographic regions.
and two woodpecker species. Also habitats for six groups of dead-wood dependent red-listed species groups were examined.
More biodiversity, better harvestbees birds and bats make a huge contribution to the high yields produced by coffee farmers around Mount kilimanjaro â#an example of how biodiversity can pay off.
Teamwork on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjarosteffan-Dewenter and his doctoral student Alice Classen therefore wanted to understand how bees birds bats and other animals contribute to pollination
Contribution of animals to coffee cultivationthe results revealed that where birds and bats had access to the plants there was almost a ten percent higher fruit set. â#oewe believe that this is due to the fact that the animals eliminate pests that would
Given that much of the landscape is divided into small parcels pollinators birds and bats still could find a suitable habitat with nesting places and from there spread into the plantations.
#Bacterial fibers critical to human, avian infectionescherichia coli--a friendly and ubiquitous bacterial resident in the guts of humans and other animals--may occasionally colonize regions outside the intestines.
and her colleagues examine one such bacterial adversary Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC). The research conducted in collaboration with scientists at the University of Florida Gainesville appears in the current issue of the journal PLOS ONE.
These afflictions cause significant economic losses to the poultry industry due to the costs of treatment for infected birds lowered rates of egg production and mortality.
Avian Pathogenic E coli (APEC) belong to a broad group of extraintestinal pathogenic E coli (Expec) strains. Colibacillosis caused by APEC in birds leads to serious illness often attacking the avian respiratory system producing systemic
or localized infections depending on the age and gender of bird immunologic health and various environmental factors.
Because APEC and human Expec forms share important virulence characteristics possible zoonotic transmission is a serious health concern.
#Deaths attributed directly to climate change cast pall over penguinsclimate change is killing penguin chicks from the world's largest colony of Magellanic penguins not just indirectly--by depriving them of food as has been documented repeatedly for these
and other seabirds--but directly as a result of drenching rainstorms and at other times heat according to new findings from the University of Washington.
but still too young to have grown waterproof feathers downy penguin chicks exposed to drenching rain can struggle
's Chubut Province the Global Penguin Society and the La Regina family. Boersma is lead author of a paper on the findings in the Jan 29 issue of PLOS ONE.
since 1983 at the world's largest breeding area for Magellanic penguins about halfway up the Atlantic coast of Argentina at Punta Tombo where 200000 pairs reside from September through February to have their young.
but steps could be taken to make sure the Earth's largest colony of Magellanic penguins have enough to eat by creating a marine protected reserve with regulations on fishing where penguins forage
Magellanics are sized medium penguins standing about 15 inches tall and weighing about 10 pounds. Males of the species sound like braying donkeys
Of the Earth's 17 species of penguins 10--including Magellanics--breed where there is no snow it is relatively dry
The findings are based on weather information collected at the regional airport and by researchers in the field as well as from penguin counts.
or beaten by other penguins. Just back from two months in the field Boersma said heat this season took a greater toll on chicks than storms.
Also contributing to increasing deaths from climate change is the fact that over 27 years penguin parents have arrived to the breeding site later
Besides the coast of Argentina Magellanic penguins also breed on the Chile-side of South america
and in the Falkand (Malvinas) Islands breeding ranges they share with some 60 other seabird species. These species also are likely to suffer negative impacts from climate change losing whole generations as the penguins have in the study
not only for Magellanic penguins but for many other species they write. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Washington.
study showsscientists have known for more than 40 years that the synthetic pesticide DDT is harmful to bird habitats and a threat to the environment.
and birds that live in snowy areas Simonis says as it provides them with both warmth and camouflage against the white snow.
#One tree likes seabird poop, next prefers fresh airoff the west coast of Peru seabirds deposit thick layers of guano that accumulates on the ground because of the lack of rain.
Guano has played historically a key role in agriculture worldwide because it is rich in plant nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous.
#No-till soybean fields give (even some rare) birds foothold in Illinoisresearchers report in a new study that several bird species--some of them relatively rare--are making extensive use of soybean fields in Illinois. The team found significantly more birds
and a greater diversity of bird species nesting roosting and feeding in no-till soybean fields than in tilled fields.
The team found more bird nests and greater species diversity in the no-till fields than in the tilled soybeans.
or young birds were ready to fly. High mortality is fairly common in bird nests however and while the losses in no-till soybean fields were greater than those seen in pristine grasslands they were not much worse the researchers said.
A paper describing the research appears in the journal Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment. I was surprised to see all the different birds that are using these agricultural fields--especially during spring migration said Kelly Vanbeek a wildlife biologist at the Wisconsin Department of Natural resources who conducted the study while a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
I was shocked by the variety of sparrow species that we saw--white-crowned sparrows and white-throated sparrows for example.
Some of the birds using no-till fields are grassland species that have been in decline across the Midwest for decades said Michael Ward a professor of natural resources and environmental sciences at Illinois and an author of the study.
One species found nesting in a no-till soybean field the upland sandpiper was an exciting find.
The upland sandpiper is endangered a state species. It's doing badly throughout its range Ward said.
Historically it probably followed bison herds and liked really short grass but we don't have that anymore.
The study adds to the evidence that agricultural practices can have a broad influence on bird abundance
The team also found other grassland species that are in decline--Eastern meadowlarks ring-necked pheasants and field sparrows--nesting in no-till fields.
If you look at birds in general or wildlife in general the ones that did occupy grassland habitat are the ones
whose populations have tanked the most Brawn said. But birds are very resilient they're very resourceful
and they're very flexible and we can take advantage of that. Of the nests that failed 65.1 percent were raided by predators
The study points to a major opportunity for bird conservation Ward said. Rather than buying up modest tracts of land for wildlife preservation an approach that is minimally effective he said farmers
If farmers could be convinced to plant their soybeans a few days later in the spring for example it would increase the nesting success of several bird species that are out there now Ward said.
Instead management practices focused on maintaining the complex web of ecological interactions among coffee plantation organisms--including insects fungi plants birds
#Old bird, New world: Did the South american hoatzins originate in Europe? The oldest fossil discoveries from France show that hoatzins once existed in Europe.
These unusual birds only one species of which exists in South america today originated in the Old world.
Studies of the oldest known fossils of Hoatzin ancestors have shown now that these birds existed around 34 million years ago in Europe.
Its relationship among birds is as unclear as its evolutionary history. Until recently South america was considered to be the area of origin of these birds.
Then however fossils from Africa were described and new discoveries from Africa and Europe now prove conclusively that hoatzins reached South america from the Old world.
A study published in January 2014 in the ornithological journal The Auk provided the very first evidence of largely modern Hoatzins from the Miocene (15 million years ago) in Africa.
In the opinion of Dr Vanesa De Pietri of Flinders University in Australia it is a further impressive example that the South american avian fauna contains numerous relicts that were once much more widespread.
The disappearance of these birds might be connected to a period when numerous new animal species migrated from Asia to Europe during the so-called Grande Coupure around 34 million years ago.
These included tree-dwelling carnivorous mammals who may have posed a threat to hoatzin nestlings which are raised in open nests.
Because hoatzins can fly short distances only the adult birds are also easy prey. In Africa by contrast similar tree-dwelling carnivorous mammals are shown to have existed much later.
Similar to the rumen of a cow--a digestive knack that has not been mastered by any other bird.
and beneficial insects birds and microbes that consume methane a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.
Methane consumption pest suppression pollination and bird populations were higher in perennial grasslands. In addition the team found that the grass crops'ability to harbor such increased biodiversity is linked strongly to the fields'location relative to other habitats.
Ben Werling Timothy Dickson Rufus Isaacs Katherine Gross Carolyn Malmstrom Leilei Ruan Philip Robertson Thomas Schmidt Tracy Teal and Julianna Wilson.
and elsewhere in Massachusetts including flowering dates butterfly flight times and migratory bird arrivals. Founded in 1839 Boston University is recognized an internationally institution of higher education and research.
#Two million years ago, human relative Nutcracker Man lived on tiger nutsan Oxford university study has concluded that our ancient ancestors who lived in East Africa between 2. 4 million-1
Study author Dr Gabriele Macho examined the diet of Paranthropus boisei nicknamed Nutcracker Man because of his big flat molar teeth and powerful jaws through studying modern-day baboons
All this chewing put considerable strain on the jaws and teeth which explains why Nutcracker Man had such a distinctive cranial anatomy.
'I believe that the theory--that Nutcracker Man lived on large amounts of tiger nuts-helps settle the debate about what our early human ancestor ate.
#Drought and drowning equal vulture supermarketafrican vultures are famous for quickly finding carcasses; so much so that they are considered clairvoyants in parts of Africa.
But just how do vultures know where to find food across vast regions in the first place? In a paper appearing in the January 8th edition of the journal PLOS ONE Dr. Corinne Kendall of Columbia University
and African Vulture Technical Advisor with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and colleagues have discovered that vultures rather than aggregating where animals are most abundant as previously thought
For decades scientists have assumed that vultures would follow the largest food source available. In the case of the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem this would be the migratory wildebeest herds
Instead this study found that two of the three species of vultures studied preferentially selected areas of low rainfall
Data were collected from GSM-GPS telemetry devices attached to three species of vultures in Mara-Serengeti ecosystem of East Africa.
The devices send text messages back to the researcher detailing individual bird's location and altitude.
The data revealed that vultures focused on the immense wildebeest herds only during the dry season
Our study shows that vultures seek out areas not where wildlife are most abundant but where they are most likely to die said lead author Corinne Kendall.
This shows that for vultures prey mortality is more important than prey abundance. The researchers found that for the rest of the year vultures travel enormous distances in search of food.
Kendall said: What has surprised really us is what the vultures do the rest of the year.
From November to June the vultures travel all over Kenya and Northern Tanzania with some individuals using an area of more than 200000 square kilometers (77000 square miles)--that's a region larger than New jersey
and New york state combined or roughly the size of the entire United kingdom. As one of the only obligate scavengers in the animal kingdom vultures are adapted specially to feed on dead animals or carcasses.
Keith Bildstein Director of Conservation Science at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary and a study co-author said:
We knew that vultures use efficient soaring flight keen eyesight and even used information from each other to find food
but we had a poor sense of how they decide where to search on a landscape scale.
In recent years these large movements have spelled disaster for the birds. White-backed vultures and Ruppell's vultures two of the species studied have been listed up to Endangered status by the IUCN due to dramatic declines seen throughout the African continent.
Munir Virani Director of Africa programs for the Peregrine Fund and co-author of the study said:
Because the vultures spend so much time outside of protected areas they are extremely susceptible to poisoning
which often occurs when ranchers put pesticides on the carcasses of cows and other animals killed by lions or hyenas.
and other diseases is now the focus of a new effort by the Wildlife Conservation Society the Peregrine Fund and Hawk Mountain Sanctuary.
Dr. Steve Zack Coordinator of Bird Conservation at WCS who is working with Dr. Kendall
and others in shaping a conservation effort to revive vulture populations while eliminating the poisoning said:
This information is critical to understanding the scale of effort needed to protect vulture species in East Africa.
This work was done in collaboration with Dr. Virani of The Peregrine Fund Dr. Hopcraft of Frankfurt Zoological Society Dr. Bildstein of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary and Dr. Rubenstein of Princeton university.
#Might more ravens--aided by humans--mean nevermore for sage-grouse? A new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society Idaho State university and the U s. Geological Survey suggests that habitat fragmentation
and the addition of makeshift perches such as transmission polls in sagebrush ecosystems are creating preferred habitat for common ravens that threaten sensitive native bird species including greater sage grouse.
The study appears in the January issue of the journal The Condor: Ornithological Applications. Authors include Kristy Howe of the Wildlife Conservation Society and Idaho State university Peter Coates of the U s. Geological Survey and David Delehanty of Idaho State university.
The authors looked at 82 raven nests on the U s. Department of energy's Idaho National Laboratory land in southeastern Idaho a sagebrush steppe ecosystem where ravens increased in numbers eleven-fold between 1985 and 2009.
Results showed that 58 percent of raven nests were located on transmission poles 19 percent were in trees
A 31 percent decrease in the likelihood of nesting by ravens was observed for every one kilometer increase in distance away from a transmission line
or near them may afford the raven myriad advantages including a wider range of vision greater attack speed
and food we are subsidizing ravens and providing them with the opportunities and advantages they need to excel in areas that they didn't before said lead author Kristy Howe.
which ravens prey. Common raven populations have increased more than 300 percent over the last 40 years in the western United states
. Along with the eggs and nestlings of greater sage grouse ravens also prey on the federally endangered Desert tortoise the endangered San Clemente Loggerhead shrike and the California Least Tern.
In addition to proximity to transmission lines ravens in the study area selected nest sites that were in close proximity to edges formed between sagebrush
and land cover types associated with direct human disturbance such as introduction of nonnative species or fire.
The scientists believe that in contrast to continuous sagebrush stands edges enable the ravens to more readily detect prey
and depredate nests of other bird species. The authors summarized that among all variables the distance to transmission lines distance to edge
and amount of edge had the greatest relative importance to ravens in selecting nesting locations.
However the findings in the study indicated that ravens also preferred nesting areas with nonnative vegetation
The results of these findings pointed to further increases in raven abundance in formerly natural sagebrush steppe following alterations made by people specifically those associated with energy development and an expanding electric grid.
The authors state Such an increase likely poses an increased threat to sagebrush steppe species subject to raven depredation including sage-grouse for
which eggs and young are consumed by ravens. WCS Northern Rockies Program Coordinator Jeff Burrell said Sagebrush steppe is one of the most important and most threatened habitats in the western U s. Healthy sagebrush steppe provides crucial cover
as a result of grid development and that protecting unaltered landscapes from fragmentation by transmission lines roads crested wheatgrass plantings and the invasion of other nonnative vegetation is integral to stemming range expansion by ravens.
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