Summary Common Myna Acridotheres tristis is considered to be among the world’s most damaging invasive species through disturbance, predation, competition pathogen introduction native birds and other taxa. Claimed impacts on have often been based anecdotal reports. More substantive evidence of interference with small-island endemic has reported, but rarely quantified or subjected experimental ma...

2 2 N D N O R T H A M E R IC A N P R A IR IE C O N F E R E N C E | P R A IR IE F L O R A A N D F A U N A Abstract: Native prairie and savanna habitats in southeastern Minnesota have been mostly eliminated by agriculture and urbanization. Resource management agencies and private landowners have idled former agricultural land and planted prairie vegetation or grassland cover on some sites to rest...

Feral birds degrade the environment andhave an adverse impact onhumanhealth,welfare and economy inmany parts of the world. In eastern Australia, commonmyna (Acridotheres tristis), common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) and house sparrow (Passer domesticus) have recently become targets of community groups seeking to control impacts by selective livetrapping. We sought a safe and practical euthanasia...

During the breeding period, pelagic birds such as petrels and penguins commute between their colony and distant foraging grounds. Like migrating birds, they are able to travel large distances to reach suitable environmental conditions and/or food supplies. To accomplish their astonishing foraging trips, they should dispose of similar navigation capacities. Pelagic birds present a particular int...

To fuel their migratory endurance flights, most birds accumulate large quantities of fat prior to departure. It therefore seems logical that the decision depart on a flight depends stores, at least some extent; very small stores prohibit flight. However, studies linking migrants' estimated (or sometimes actual stores) departure likelihood or restlessness measured in captive (an accurate proxy f...

Cause Chlamydiosis refers to an infection with organisms of the genus Chlamydia sp., which are bacteria that live within animal cells. Chlamydia psittaci is the species generally associated with this disease in birds. The severity of the disease differs by the strain of C. psittaci and the susceptibility of different species of birds. As a result, chlamydiosis may range from an inapparent infec...

We investigated the relationship between body size, Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase molecular activity, and membrane lipid composition in the kidney of five mammalian and eight avian species ranging from 30-g mice to 280-kg cattle and 13-g zebra finches to 35-kg emus, respectively. Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase activity was found to be higher in the smaller species of both groups. In small mammals, the higher Na(+)-K(+)...

Aerodynamically economical flight is steady and level. The high-amplitude flapping and bounding flight style of many small birds departs considerably from any aerodynamic or purely mechanical optimum. Further, many large birds adopt a flap-glide flight style in cruising flight which is not consistent with purely aerodynamic economy. Here, an account is made for such strategies by noting a well-...

15 We analyse the tracks of clock-shifted pigeons from six releases to determine how pigeons cope with the conflict between their sun compass and the other navigational cues. Time-lag embedding is used to calculate the short-term correlation dimension, a parameter that reflects the complexity of the navigational system and with it, the number of factors involved. In the beginning, while pigeons...

Consumer interest in free-range and organic poultry is growing. An experiment was conducted to assess the impact of alternative genotype and production systems on the sensory attributes of chicken meat. Specifically, a slow-growing genotype and a fast-growing genotype were raised for 91 and 63 d. The slow-growing birds were placed before the fast-growing birds to achieve a similar final BW at p...