When the prey gets too big: an uncommon road accident involving a motorcyclist, a car and a bird

We present the postmortem findings of a fatal road accident involving a motorcyclist, a car, and a common buzzard. Both the motorcyclist and the bird died on the scene of the accident and were examined by postmortem full-body CT and autopsy. In addition, a facial injury of the motorcyclist was compared with the dimensions of the buzzard’s beak and claws by 3D scan technologies. Blood splatters collected on the bird’s beak, feet, and tail were examined by DNA analysis. The overall findings suggested a collision of a common buzzard with a motorcyclist in full speed, causing the motorcyclist to lose control of his vehicle and crash with an approaching car on the oncoming lane.

Psychotherapieforschung - Ist «Dodo Bird» en vogue?

Das «Dodo-Bird-Verdikt», Ende der achtziger Jahre Resultat einer Metaanalyse, stellte fest, dass sich die etablierten Psychotherapieschulen in ihrer Wirksamkeit statistisch nicht bedeutsam unterscheiden. Der Begriff hat seinen Ursprung in «Alice im Wunderland», wo ein Dodo den Vorschlag macht, ein Rennen zu veranstalten, bei dem am Ende alle gewinnen, weil es kein Ziel gibt und auch die Zeit nicht gemessen wird. – Ist die These unter Akteuren der Psychotherapie en vogue? Ein Kommentar.

Lady-Bird : (Marienkäfer) ; eine Erzählung

von Georgina Fullerton. - Aus dem Engl. von H. Brinckmann

Fine Bird Books

The Department of Special Collections is fortunate to have a number of 19th Century illustrated bird books. These books, filled with hand-colored plates, were produced at a time when there was tremendous interest in the descriptions of new species of birds. At the same time, a new printing technique, lithography, made illustration of new species a simpler process. This combination of art and science resulted in lovely volumes like those on display.

Aphids in Corn Research

Corn, Zea mays L., is the most abundant field crop in Iowa, and there are many insect pests associated with this field crop. Although aphids are not typically economically important in corn, recent observations have indicated several aphid species developing heavy populations in northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota. Historically, the corn leaf aphid, Rhopalosiphum maidis (Hemiptera: Aphididae), has been the most abundant aphid species in corn; however, the bird cherry oat aphid, R. padi (Hemiptera: Aphididae), and several other species have also been detected. Recent observations show a shift to populations peaking later in the summer. Damage potential and management guidelines for aphids in corn are not well defined and this research is aimed at developing economic threshold and sampling protocols.

Concentrations of metals and POPs in liver tissue of wild sea bird chicks from the Norwegian arctic region

Lysosomal membrane stability, lipofuscin (LF), malondialdehyde (MDA), neutral lipid (NL) levels, as well as halogenated organic compounds (HOCs), Cr, Cd, Pb and Fe concentrations were analyzed in liver of black-legged kittiwake (BK), herring gull (HG), and northern fulmar (NF) chicks. There were significant species differences in the levels of NL, LF and lysosomal membrane stability. These parameters were not associated with the respective HOC concentrations. LF accumulation was associated with increasing Cr, Cd and Pb concentrations. HG presented the lowest lysosomal membrane stability and the highest. LF and NL levels, which indicated impaired lysosomes in HG compared to NF and BK. Lipid peroxidation was associated with HOC and Fe2+ levels. Specific HOCs showed positive and significant correlations with MDA levels in HG. The study indicates that contaminant exposure can affect lysosomal and lipid associated parameters in seabird chicks even at low exposure levels. These parameters may be suitable markers of contaminant induced stress in arctic seabirds.

Bird observations in the Weddell Sea

Pelagic distribution of birds at the Weddell Sea. The essay contains the notes taken of the observation of birds at the Weddell Sea (24 species). The observations were made on two expeditions in the southern summer of 1955/56 and 1959/60 on board the Argentine icebreaker "General San Martin". After an introduction dealing with the Weddell Sea and the methods of research the species are represented together with the territory of observation and supplementary annotations. Two tables give a survey of the birds seen on each day of the expedition and in the territories they sailed through.

Detection histories for eight species of Amazona parrots in Venezuela during the NeoMaps bird surveys in 2010

Documenting changes in distribution is necessary for understanding species' response to environmental changes, but data on species distributions are heterogeneous in accuracy and resolution. Combining different data sources and methodological approaches can fill gaps in knowledge about the dynamic processes driving changes in species-rich, but data-poor regions. We combined recent bird survey data from the Neotropical Biodiversity Mapping Initiative (NeoMaps) with historical distribution records to estimate potential changes in the distribution of eight species of Amazon parrots in Venezuela. Using environmental covariates and presence-only data from museum collections and the literature, we first used maximum likelihood to fit a species distribution model (SDM) estimating a historical maximum probability of occurrence for each species. We then used recent, NeoMaps survey data to build single-season occupancy models (OM) with the same environmental covariates, as well as with time- and effort-dependent detectability, resulting in estimates of the current probability of occurrence. We finally calculated the disagreement between predictions as a matrix of probability of change in the state of occurrence. Our results suggested negative changes for the only restricted, threatened species, Amazona barbadensis, which has been independently confirmed with field studies. Two of the three remaining widespread species that were detected, Amazona amazonica, Amazona ochrocephala, also had a high probability of negative changes in northern Venezuela, but results were not conclusive for Amazona farinosa. The four remaining species were undetected in recent field surveys; three of these were most probably absent from the survey locations (Amazona autumnalis, Amazona mercenaria and Amazona festiva), while a fourth (Amazona dufresniana) requires more intensive targeted sampling to estimate its current status. Our approach is unique in taking full advantage of available, but limited data, and in detecting a high probability of change even for rare and patchily-distributed species. However, it is presently limited to species meeting the strong assumptions required for maximum-likelihood estimation with presence-only data, including very high detectability and representative sampling of its historical distribution.