Julia Ponder

Management of Select Bacterial and Parasitic Conditions of Raptors

Raptors are susceptible to a broad array of established and emerging bacterial and parasitic diseases, including babesiosis, chlamydiosis, clostridiosis, coccidiosis, cryptosporidiosis, malaria, mycobacteriosis, pasteurellosis, salmonellosis, trichomoniasis, and pododermatitis. Many of these conditions are opportunistic and can be easily managed or averted with proper preventive measures related to captive management, husbandry and diet, and veterinary care. Once infected, treatment must be prompt, appropriate, and judicious. This article examines the significance, diagnosis, management, and prevention of select bacterial and parasitic pathogens of raptors.

Calls of the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)

Injury and mortality statistics suggest that bald eagles entering the air space of wind energy facilities face considerable risk. To mitigate the hazard, acoustic deterrent systems designed to discourage entry into such hazardous air spaces are under consideration. In this study, the acoustic properties of a collection of call types within the eagle vocal repertoire are reported as a first step in a larger program of study designed to assess the deterrent capacity of the bird’s natural vocal utterances. To that end, calls were recorded from bald eagles housed in the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota. Based on preliminary acoustic analyses, at least five calls were identified and are referred to here as peal/scream, chatter/cackle, snort, squeal and grunt. With the exception of the low frequency grunt, calls were uniformly high pitched, tonal in nature, exhibited harmonic spectral structure, and they were generally complex, exhibiting distinct nonlinear characteristics. In this presentation, the spectrotemporal properties of each call type will be described with the goal of generating an acoustic repository to enable the consistent classification of calls to be tested for their potential as deterrence signals. [This work was supported by Department of Energy grant #DE-EE0007881.]Injury and mortality statistics suggest that bald eagles entering the air space of wind energy facilities face considerable risk. To mitigate the hazard, acoustic deterrent systems designed to discourage entry into such hazardous air spaces are under consideration. In this study, the acoustic properties of a collection of call types within the eagle vocal repertoire are reported as a first step in a larger program of study designed to assess the deterrent capacity of the bird’s natural vocal utterances. To that end, calls were recorded from bald eagles housed in the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota. Based on preliminary acoustic analyses, at least five calls were identified and are referred to here as peal/scream, chatter/cackle, snort, squeal and grunt. With the exception of the low frequency grunt, calls were uniformly high pitched, tonal in nature, exhibited harmonic spectral structure, and they were generally complex, exhibiting distinct nonlinear characteristics. In this presentation, the...

The auditory attributes of Golden Eagles: Do Golden (Aquila chrysaetos) and Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) share the same auditory space?

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2018), fatalities associated with wind turbine collisions have been reported for more than 200 bird species. Furthermore, based on statistical models of industry growth it has been suggested that as many as 1.4 million bird fatalities/year could be realized if the Department of Energy (DOE) wind energy goals are achieved; i.e., wind energy supplying 20% of total U.S. energy needs by 2030. Although passerine bird fatalities are most commonly reported, raptors that hunt by day, including bald and golden eagles, are the second most frequent casualties of turbine collisions. To address this concern, deterrence protocols designed to discourage eagles from encroaching into wind energy facility air spaces and thereby constrain the degree of risk to which birds are exposed are under investigation. As part of an effort to guide development of acoustic deterrence protocols, we report that the responsive frequency range of golden eagles is similar to that reported for bald eagles; upper and lower frequency limits of hearing are approximately 6.0 and 0.3 kHz, respectively. Suprathreshold response profiles measured in golden eagles exhibit standard features that will be compared with those of bald eagles. [Work supported by DOE grant #DE-EE0007881.] According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2018), fatalities associated with wind turbine collisions have been reported for more than 200 bird species. Furthermore, based on statistical models of industry growth it has been suggested that as many as 1.4 million bird fatalities/year could be realized if the Department of Energy (DOE) wind energy goals are achieved; i.e., wind energy supplying 20% of total U.S. energy needs by 2030. Although passerine bird fatalities are most commonly reported, raptors that hunt by day, including bald and golden eagles, are the second most frequent casualties of turbine collisions. To address this concern, deterrence protocols designed to discourage eagles from encroaching into wind energy facility air spaces and thereby constrain the degree of risk to which birds are exposed are under investigation. As part of an effort to guide development of acoustic deterrence protocols, we report that the responsive frequency range of golden eagles is similar to that reported for...