« January 2006 | Main | March 2006 »
February 10, 2006
Decline of UK House Sparrow Better Understood?
The Independent newspaper highlighted the plight of the British House Sparrow back in 2000 with the offer of a £5,000 prize for the first properly accepted scientific answer.
Many suggestions have been put forth. Magpies, cats, pesticides, peanuts, climate change and home improvements are among the myriad cited for the sparrow's startling disappearance from London and other towns and cities.
The prize has never been claimed.
Kate Vincent, a postgraduate researcher at De Montfort University, Leicester, has for the past five years been closely examining house sparrow breeding success for her PhD thesis.
Her research appears to point to one of the theories for the birds' decline - a similar decline in the numbers of the insects and other invertebrates that sparrow chicks need for the first few days of their lives. In their first week of life, the chicks need animal protein in the shape of small grubs, flies, aphids and spiders.
Over three years, Vincent put up more than 600 nestboxes on houses in Leicester and the city's suburbs and her finding was that, in the summer, considerable numbers of sparrow chicks were starving to death in the nest.
The chicks that were dying were largely in the sparrows' second brood of the year, providing an explanation for the population decline as a whole. As many young sparrows do not survive their first winter, every year the species needs two or three broods (of four chicks each) to keep the population at least level. If the second brood is failing, the population will start to fall.
Vincent found an 80 per cent success rate in the first brood, but only a 65 per cent success rate in the second.
The strong implication is that insects and other invertebrates are becoming much scarcer in Britain in summer - which, although Vincent's research does not specifically prove this, is suspected by wildlife researchers.
Posted by Surfbirds at 04:09 AM | Comments (0)
February 08, 2006
Many New Species Discovered in New Guinea
An international team of scientists, exploring the Foja Mountains in New Guinea have unearthed a new species of honeyeater and rediscovered a bird of paradise amongst many other startling avian, animal and insect discoveries.
The researchers also located of the home of Berlepsch's six-wired bird of paradise. On the second day of the team's expedition, the stunned scientists watched as a male Berlepsch's bird of paradise performed a mating dance for an attending female in the field camp. It was the first time a live male of the species had been observed by Western scientists, and proved that the Foja Mountains was the species' true home. "This bird had been filed away and forgotten; it had been lost. To rediscover it was, for me, in some ways, more exciting than finding the honeyeater. I spent 20 years working on birds of paradise; they're pretty darn sexy beasts," Dr Beehler enthused
The team also recorded a golden-mantled tree kangaroo, which was previously thought to have been hunted to near-extinction.
A summary of the team's main discoveries:
A new species of honeyeater, the first new bird species discovered on the island of New Guinea since 1939
The formerly unknown breeding grounds of a "lost" bird of paradise - the six-wired bird of paradise (Parotia berlepschi
First photographs of the golden-fronted bowerbird displaying at its bower.
A new large mammal for Indonesia, the golden-mantled tree kangaroo (Dendrolagus pulcherrimus.
More than 20 new species of frogs, including a tiny microhylid frog less than 14mm long
A series of previously undescribed plant species, including five new species of palms
A remarkable white-flowered rhododendron with flower about 15cm across
Four new butterfly species.
Posted by Surfbirds at 07:05 AM | Comments (0)
Prominent Bird Expert Casts Doubt On Ivory-billed Woodpecker
Writing in the ornithology journal The Auk (January 2006), Florida Gulf Coast University ornithologist Jerome A. Jackson criticized the “evidence” used to support the conclusion that the Woodpecker wasn’t extinct after all. This includes a four-second video of an alleged sighting which garnered widespread media attention; several other anecdotal sightings; and acoustic signals purported to be vocalization and raps from the Woodpecker.
News of the alleged Woodpecker sighting caught on video was first released in late-April 2005 and spread rapidly through the birding community and in to the mainstream media.
“While the world rejoiced, my elation turned to disbelief,” wrote Jackson. “I had seen the ‘confirming’ video in the news releases and recognized its poor quality, but I had believed [anyway],” he continued.
“Then I saw [a still image] and seriously doubted that this evidence was confirmation of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Even a cursory comparison of this figure with [photographs and illustrations of real Ivory-billed Woodpeckers] shows that the white on the wing of the bird… is too extensive to be that of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker,” Jackson wrote.
Jackson is also dismayed at the diversion of federal funds away from threatened species protection towards the Ivory-billed Woodpecker recovery effort.
Birders all over the world are still waiting for undisputable evidence for the Ivory-billed's existence to be put forth.
Posted by Surfbirds at 06:56 AM | Comments (0)
Wattled Crane Recovery Programme
With the backing of the Johannesburg Zoo, a Wattled Crane recovery programme is underway and set to expand dramatically over the next 5 years. The South African Wattled Crane may be genetically unique from all other Wattled Cranes in Africa, making the success of a captive breeding program ever more urgent to prevent local extinction of this species. This coupled with the fact that Wattled Cranes have the lowest reproductive success of all the crane species, makes the Wattled Crane Recovery Programme one of South Africa’s most crucial and challenging conservation projects.
Wattled Crane, Ethiopia, Bale Mountains November 2005 © János Oláh Jr. from the Surfbirds Galleries
The Wattled Crane (Bugeranus carunculatus) is one of only three crane species indigenous to South Africa and is the most critically endangered crane species on the African continent. Due to habitat loss and poor reproductive success there has been a 35% decline in the South African Wattled Crane population over the last two decades. The current in situ population in South Africa consists of approximately 235 (Crane census 2004) birds.
Concern over the continuing decline of the small in situ population and low fertility in situ and ex situ, led to a Population and Habitat Viability Assessment (PHVA) workshop held in July 2000. One outcome of the PHVA was to recognize the need for a captive propagation and release program to insure species survival by creating a viable genetic reservoir.
WATTLED CRANE RECOVERY PROGRAMME:
AIM:
To reverse the trend towards local extinction of the Wattled Crane in South Africa.
OBJECTIVE
To build up a viable captive flock of Wattled Cranes (40 individuals) as quickly as possible in order to:
1) Serve as a genetic reservoir in the case of catastrophic extinction of birds in the wild.
2) Supplement the wild population through the raising of chicks for reintroduction.
CURRENT CHALLENGES:
Currently, the program faces the following challenges:
o The Wattled Crane has the lowest reproductive rate (in situ and ex situ) of all the crane species.
o The sex ratio of the current breeding population is 1: 2.5 (males to females). Multiple pairing is not possible due to the monogamous nature of Wattled Cranes.
o The overall reproductive success of the breeding flock has not been sufficient enough to create a reservoir of birds for release.
o Worldwide, the fertility in captive Wattled Cranes is extremely low.
o Standard artificial insemination techniques have not proven to be as successful in Wattled Cranes as compared to other crane species.
o Dietary and breeding requirements for this species have not been fully established.
o The lack of a central facility for the breeding flock has resulted in inconsistent husbandry and reproductive practices.
o The lack of a dedicated chick rearing facility has resulted in sub optimal survival.
o The program relies heavily volunteer participation, as there is no full time staff.
Posted by Surfbirds at 06:39 AM | Comments (0)