Fighting obesity the all natural way

There has been much talk about how fat Americans are and what we should do about it. It seems obvious to me, stop eating so much. But, I realize that is a lot to ask. Nature has a way with dealing with animals that are too fat - predators.

ScienceDaily (Jan. 21, 2010) — Some Canadian shorebirds have had to get fit or die trying. Research published in the open access journal BMC Ecology has found that the average Pacific dunlin has lost weight and spends more time in flight as a response to the increased threat of predation from their arch-enemy, the peregrine falcon.

Fortunately for the falcon, the outlawing of the highly toxic chemical fertilizer DDT in the 1970s has led to an increase in their population. Bad luck though for Pacific dunlins, which once enjoyed lazy winter afternoons roosting in relative safety on the shore of the Fraser River estuary in British Columbia.

Drawing on a pool of data spanning four decades, a team of ecologists led by Ronald Ydenberg from Simon Fraser University has found that the dunlins have had to adapt their behavior -- and their diets -- in order to survive. Ydenberg says, "In the past, dunlins stored up fat reserves in the autumn months so that they could survive the harsh Canadian winters when food is short. What we're seeing now, however, with the increase in numbers of peregrine falcons, is that the dunlins have to consider the energy trade-off between preparing for starvation and being able to escape quickly."

So how does this relate to us, as Americans? Simple - outlaw guns and we need more top level predators to weed out the fat and lazy.

Frounce is an age old problem

Frounce, or Trichomoniasis, is a disease that is often transmitted to falcons through eating pigeon. It is defined on the Modern Apprentice website this way:

Frounce is a highly contagious yeast infection of the digestive tract. Frounce is caused by a protozoan called Trichomonas which is frequently present in the crops of pigeons. For this reason, pigeon heads and crops are generally not fed to raptors. The typical signs of frounce are white spots in the mouth or crop, often described as "cheesy" or "white plaques."

Picture from here

Frounce is very often deadly to falcons if it is not treated quickly. Transmission happens through bedding or beak to beak contact in dove species and falcons are infected when they eat pigeons. DNR tells it this way:

Transmission of T. gallinae occurs by discharge of bodily fluids in one of four ways. Adult doves and pigeons infect their offspring during feeding, infect other adult birds through contaminated food, water, and bedding and via courtship behavior. Raptors are infected through consumption of infected doves or pigeons.

This is a disease primarily of doves and pigeons and is transmitted from the adult to their offspring by the regurgitational method of feeding used by these birds.

But this disease is not only deadly to raptors today (I'm on a binge here). It has been theorized that Frounce has been around much longer than previously thought. Scientists believe that many parasites develop along with their hosts, so today's bird parasites, were yesterdays dinosaur parasites. An article for National Geographic News states:

After surviving countless battles, a giant T. rex was ultimately taken down by a microscopic parasite akin to one carried by modern pigeons, scientists say. The finding is a new interpretation of multiple holes in the jawbone of "Sue," the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossil yet found, which is on display at the Field Museum in Chicago.

And goes on to say....

In a new study, researchers instead propose that the holes are lesions made by an ancient version of trichomonosis, a single-celled parasite that infects the throats and beaks of modern birds.

So if you worry about your falcons - especially if they have ever (I mean ever) fed on doves or pigeons - treat them for this ancient disease that has preyed on them for millions of years.

2 out of 3 ain't bad

I have spent the last week (plus) mostly in a blind on the dunes of the North Carolina coast. The weather fluctuated mostly from bad to worse. Not because it was miserable, but more because the winds were not conducive to birds moving on their migratory routes. The main goal, of course, were peregrines. Secondary, we were after merlins.

As you already know, Andrew got his bird early in the week, and then he was in and out of the trap site for a few days, but soon he had to go out of town on business. That left Elizabeth from Pennsylvania, and Jim.

Jim had to leave early, and never got his falcon. We are hoping that he is not done. But then all that was left was Elizabeth, up on the dunes, watching the clouds scuttle across the sky, and the larks winging their way south.

But she caught nothing, all week long. She sat in the blind, working the pigeon bait, and waited.

Nothing

We had more trappers come in this last weekend to help. Arnaud came back, and my sponsor Chris. And we joined her on the dunes. We did see lots of birds. We trapped a sharp shin, and had falcons and merlins buzzing our nets, but nothing got caught.

I had to leave and do my education thing. Saturday was winding down, Elizabeth had to return to PA on Sunday. Time was running out.

Then a peregrine came into the pigeon, popped over top of the net, and slammed it from above. It worked its talons in the pigeons back, staring around balefully. What to do, what to do.

Arnaud snuck out from the blind, covering his movements behind a bush. Then he charged, crashing through the foliage, scaring the bejeepers out of the peregrine. It jumped off the pigeon and burst into the air, into the net.

And was caught.


and there were two.