Search

Many species of game birds would become extinct in their natural habitat without periodical supplementation of wildlife populations with specimens bred on farms. Unfortunately either such birds do not exhibit any specific forms of behaviour which enable survival in natural environment or those forms are inappropriately developed. They include duration of tonic immobility (TI), which is often an anti-predator reaction. Pheasants, quails and partridges were subjected to assessment of the duration of TI and the number of inductions necessary to obtain TI on the 10th, 20th and 35th day of the birds' lives. In the pheasant and quail, both the frequency of inductions equal to 1 and the duration of TI increased with age. The quails were characterised by the shortest duration of TI and the highest frequency of number of inductions above 1. In the partridges, the average frequency of TI inductions equal to 1 was the highest (more than 70% in every analyzed day). Simultaneously, the average duration of TI was long. This may indicate that these birds may have a better defence mechanism when endangered by a predator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports the detection of a novel picornavirus in domesticated common quail ( Coturnix coturnix) in Hungary. The 8159-nucleotide (nt)-long RNA genome of this virus, named quail picornavirus (QPV1-HUN/2010; JN674502), shows only 43%, 39% and 47% amino acid (aa) identity in the P1 (857 aa), P2 (458 aa) and P3 (777 aa) coding regions respectively, to the closest reference, avian sapelovirus. The 5′UTR contains a variant type IV IRES with a 20-nt-long apical '8'-like structure that is conserved in avian-origin and seal picornaviruses. The 390-aa-long L protein is cysteine rich and encodes two copies of a 34-aa-long repeat motif. Quail picornavirus represents a novel picornavirus species and perhaps a novel genus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European starlings ( Sturnus vulgaris) are responsible for high rates of egg predation at one of the main colonies of the endangered roseate tern ( Sterna dougallii) in the Azores archipelago. Control taste aversion has been effective in controlling raven predation in a colony of California least tern ( Sterna antillarum browni), but there is little quantitative information about its efficacy on other species of predators taking eggs. We conducted a control taste aversion experiment on yellow-legged gulls ( Larus michahellis) and European starlings eating eggs of terns in a mixed colony of common ( Sterna hirundo) and roseate terns in the Azores. We treated quail ( Coturnix coturnix) eggs with methiocarb and deployed them in artificial nests in the tern colony. On the first experiment, conducted before the terns laid eggs, predation rates on quail eggs by yellow-legged gulls showed significant and rapid decrease after deployment of treated eggs. During the second experiment, after the terns had started laying, results were mixed. Although predation rates by European starlings on treated quail eggs decreased, predation rates on tern eggs did not. We conclude that control taste aversion using methiocarb-treated eggs is likely to reduce depredation by gulls but not starlings because of the need to pre-train the birds and the tendency of starlings to be attracted by the movement of adults, not the presence of nests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on objective of this study which was to assess the attractiveness of refuge areas to the avifauna of the mown prairies in the Val de Saone region, after the disappearance of all cover by mowing. Comparisons made between the densities of several species, notably the corncrake, Crex crex, and the common quail, Coturnix corturnix, in three categories of refuge areas of unmown grasslands.