Date: March 13, 2018
Source: University of Georgia
Animal migration patterns are
changing as humans alter the landscape, according to new research from the
University of Georgia. Those changes can affect wildlife interactions with
parasites-with potential impacts on public health and on the phenomenon of
migration itself.
In a paper published
in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Leone Brown, a
recent postdoctoral researcher at the Odum School of Ecology, and Richard Hall,
a faculty member in the Odum School and the College of Veterinary Medicine's
Department of Infectious Diseases, used mathematical models to explore the impacts
of wildlife feeding on migration and disease.
"One familiar example for
that would be American robins, where widespread ornamental plantings of
berry-bearing bushes in city parks and backyards means there's food for them in
the winter, so an increasing fraction of them is staying north," said
Hall. "That's a species that we know is an important host for maintaining
West Nile virus in places such as New York City."
People provide food to wildlife
both unintentionally-think of raccoons rummaging in trash cans-or purposely, as
with bird feeders or butterfly gardens. Either way, access to new food
resources, especially if they're available all year long, can cause some
migratory animals to stay put.
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