1 Importance of birds Order of the day TinamiformesLittle Tinamou – Central America
2 Importance of birds Order of the day TinamiformesLittle Tinamou – Central America
3 Tinamiformes Central & South American distribution Ancient lineageShare paleognathus palate with ratites
4 3 toes forward & elevated hind toeTinamiformes 47 species 1 family Ground-dwellers 3 toes forward & elevated hind toe Slaty-breasted Tinamou
5 Atypical mating system male alone incubates eggs from several femalesFamily Tinamidae Atypical mating system male alone incubates eggs from several females Precocial young Elegant-crested Tinamou
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7 Importance of Birds Economic importance Disease vectorsPests & competitors with humans Birding, hunting & falconry Natural components of ecosystems Subjects for art, religion & science
8 Importance of Birds Economic importance Disease vectorsPests & competitors with humans Birding, hunting & falconry Natural components of ecosystems Subjects for art, religion & science
9 Economic Importance Meat, eggs, feathers, & leather Guano Hunting PetsBirding Pests and consumers of pests
10 Meat & eggs Red Jungle fowl domesticated in India around 3,200 B.C.E.Moses’s laws – clean v unclean fowl Magellan, penguins & dodos Eskimos, dovekies & Greenland Red Jungle Fowl
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12 Market Hunters Water fowler with 4-gauge shotgun
13 Punt gunner
14 19th Century America 1861 Passenger Pigeons 14.8 million from one Michigan roost site alone 1864 Prairie Chickens 20 tons Atwater’s in Texas only about 40 remain Atwater’s Prairie Chicken In Texas only about 40 left
15 20th Century America 1909 New Orleans’ markets 5,719,214 game birds sold 1913 American Robins, Eastern Meadowlarks, Bobolinks legally killed in southern states
16 Egging Farallons supplied SF with fresh eggs in 1800sIsla Raza, Mexico 400,000 eggs in 1 week in 1960s Lapwing egging permitted in Italy, Holland & Germany Farallon Island
17 Feathers Down from geese and Eider Ducks makes the finest clothingEider Ducks semi-domesticated in Iceland & Norway
18 60 tons of Rhea feathers bailed and ready for shipment to NYFeather dusters & rugs Buenos Aires 60 tons of Rhea feathers bailed and ready for shipment to NY (Chapman 1943)
19 Andean Condor
20 Ladies’ hats
21 55 million hummers shipped to U.S.Hummers into hats In 1922 55 million hummers shipped to U.S. 35 million to Europe Topaz Hummingbird
22 Hornbill “Ivory”
23 2nd in economic importance to food at one timeGuano 2nd in economic importance to food at one time
24 100 cormorants produce a ton of guano per year
25 Peruvian guano industry200 million tons exported to U.S. and Europe between By 1900, industry collapsed & Peru’s agriculture threatened By 1961 sustained yield of 5 millions tons/yr
26 33 billion pounds of meat/yearU.S. Poultry Industry 90 billion eggs/year 33 billion pounds of meat/year
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29 Bird-borne human diseases
30 Bird Flu: does a pandemic loom in our future?1918 pandemic flu was also a bird flu. Killed million people worldwide affected 20% of the population.
31 Salmonella Bacterial food poisoning fromimproperly cooked poultry & eggs Each year 1.4 million persons in U.S. are infected Approximately 600 die
32 In the 7 years since 9/11, about 4,200 Americans have died from salmonella poisoning
33 Chlamydiosis (psittacosis, ornithosis)Atypical pneumonia caused by rickettsia causes high fever, diarrhea, wasting Epidemics in lead to restrictions on imported parrots
34 Pulmonary disease caused by inhaling fungus spores from bird droppingsHistoplasmosis Pulmonary disease caused by inhaling fungus spores from bird droppings
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37 St. Louis Encephalitis is similarWest Nile Virus -- more than 9,800 cases and 264 deaths in U.S. in 2003 St. Louis Encephalitis is similar
38 237 human cases to date In California
39 What to do if you find a sick bird?
40 Run away!
41 Agricultural pests
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44 Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia & Ethiopiaca. 132 million birds
45 1 million birds est. to consume 10 tons of grain/day (= 10 grams/bird) Daily loss in the four countries is 1320 tons Caused famine in 1890
46 Hunting, birding & falconry