Feeding on birdbrained gossip in Israel
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Xinhua, July 15, 2011
A recent joint study by Israeli university and nature society researchers has shown that the old adage "Birds of a feather flock together," is really true, at least for one species of vulture. Not only that, the birds "share notes" on where their next meal's likely coming from.
Using GPS transmitter, accelerometers attached to the legs of 43 Griffon vultures, Prof. Ran Natan and colleagues Roee Harel and Or Spiegel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Movement Ecology Lab, together with Nature and National Parks Authority officials, carried out a study of the local avian population's feeding and flying habits.
Local Griffon flocks have suffered significant losses in Israel in recent years, whether due to hunters, poisoned feed or carcasses, or getting fried by alighting on power lines, making the quest to map out their behavior all the more important, according to a report appearing in the Makor Rishon Hebrew weekly.
"Most carcasses on which the vultures feed are being supplied by the Nature and National Parks Authority in special feeding stations," Harel said.
"That allows us to watch them, control the amount of food. However, the vultures also feed off the occasional animal carcass they find on their own," the researcher told the newspaper.
The researchers set the transmitters, which update their locations event few minutes, to exactly measure whether the bird is feeding or sitting still, flapping its wings while in flight or gliding via data gathered by the accelerometers.
The results showed that when the flocks gather for rest in night colonies, they apparently exchange information collectively used the next dawn to forage for carrion.
"If a vulture has eaten somewhere and comes at the end of the day to a colony with vultures who haven't eaten anything, we found that the next day they will all follow together to the spot with the food," Harel said.
Natan said the results tallied: "We found a correlation between the date of departure of individuals who did find food and the individuals who didn't find any food," Natan said.
The trio presented the results of their study at the 39th conference of the Israeli Society of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, the report said.
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