What quails can teach us about the gait of dinosaurs

Date:

December 9, 2014

Source:

Friedrich Schiller University Jena

Summary:

Motion scientists and zoologists have completed the first detailed analysis of the bipedal gait of quails. The scientists analyzed the effect the birds posture has on the movement of their legs and on their stability when they walk.

Dinosaurs did it. Human beings and monkey do it. And even birds do it. They walk on two legs. And although humans occupy a special position amongst mammals as they have two legs, the upright gait is not reserved only for humans. In the course of evolution many animals have developed the bipedal gait -- the ability to walk on two legs.

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Blood-sucking parasitic eyeworm a culprit to 2010 quail decline, researchers believe

Date:

August 14, 2014

Source:

Texas Tech University

Summary:

In the summer of 2010, the Rolling Plains of West Texas expected a bumper crop of quail. By October, they nearly had vanished. The find out why, researchers necropsied hundreds of birds throughout a 19-million-acre area of land and discovered large numbers of parasitic eyeworms in many of the birds they sampled.

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Conservationists and marksmen of Malta battle over annual bird hunt

Hunters try to block referendum on traditional spring shoot, while British volunteers help patrol countryside to protect birds

Patrick Barkham in Malta

The Guardian, Sunday 20 April 2014 17.41 BST

As dawn breaks over the sea and ancient stone churches turn pink, the morning's stillness is broken by volleys of gunfire. Tucked behind walls, sitting on armchairs in specially built turrets or else popping up from old stone sheds, Malta's marksmen open fire as migrating birds flap desperately for cover.

When it comes to bird hunts, this is one of Europe's more uneven contests. Birds flying over the islands of Malta on their annual migration to northern Europe must evade 31 licensed marksmen per square kilometre – 15 times more than in shooting-friendly France. On one day in 2013, more than 9,000 shots were logged by a conservation charity's observers.

Spring hunting is banned by the EU but the Maltese authorities obtain a exemption each year, enabling its 9,798 hunters to shoot 5,000 quail and 11,000 turtle doves, the latter a migratory bird whose British population has slumped by 95% since 1970.

But now a backlash is being felt. More than 44,000 Maltese citizens have signed a petition calling for a referendum on the traditional spring shoot.

And a flock of celebrity naturalists including Brian May, Chris Packham and Bill Oddie have swooped in, joining mostly British and Dutch volunteers patrolling the countryside at 5am each morning to monitor illegal shooting for the charity BirdLife Malta.

Packham will broadcast his confrontations with hunters on YouTube every day this week.

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Study fingers chickens, quail in spread of H7N9 influenza virus

Date:

March 18, 2014

Source:

American Society for Microbiology

Summary:

Among the copious species of poultry in China, quail and chickens are the likely sources of infection of H7N9 influenza virus to humans, according to a paper. The H7N9 avian influenza virus was first reported in humans in March 2013 in China. Since then over 375 human cases have been confirmed and over 100 have died. Only 1 case has been reported outside of China: A woman from Guangdong Province who was traveling in Malaysia and is presumed to have contracted the virus in China. According to the World Health Organization, most known human infections have resulted from direct or indirect contact with poultry.

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No birds of peace, these quail fight for their masters

The birds look so fragile — tiny legs, chubby bodies, easily held in one hand. But in the fighting ring, face to face, and cheered on by gamblers, quail can release a fury of feathers, beaks and claws when two aggressive males are forced to do battle.

Many Pakistanis take part in animal fighting as a form of entertainment — pitting dogs, chickens, bears and even eagles. Among the most popular, at least in the northwestern borderlands, are quail fights.

Keeping quail is a tradition said to be a centuries-old, part of the ethnic Pashtun culture. And it goes back further still: nearly 2,000 years ago, even the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius partook.

Quail fighting was banned in Afghanistan under Taleban rule, but since 2001, the pastime has been revived in Pashtun enclaves such as Kabul and Kandahar.

Across the border in Pakistan, quail fighting is embraced by largely older men who are proud to be part of what they see as a vanishing part of rural life.

“I have been keeping birds since before I had a mustache and beard,” said Dost Mohammad, about 75. The grey-haired, long-bearded farmer balanced a bright red bag on his left hand. In the dark underneath the heavy fabric, he gently cupped his prize quail.

Mohammad, who also owns peacocks and fighting chickens, was among several men who discussed bird fighting — some called it “wrestling” — in a small village near Mardan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. They showed how they handle and feed the birds, defending a practice seen as cruel by outsiders and animal rights activists. 

It is legal to hunt and keep quails in Pakistan, although those who do so are required to get a license from wildlife officials. But gambling on the bouts is illegal, and raids by police are routine. Last month police busted nine gamblers and confiscated $ 80,000 in cash, a newspaper reported. 

Continued: http://www.arabnews.com/news/449657

Quail Really Know Their Camouflage

Jan. 17, 2013 — When it comes to camouflage, ground-nesting Japanese quail are experts. That's based on new evidence published online on January 17 in Current Biology that mother quail "know" the patterning of their own eggs and choose laying spots to hide them best.

"Not only are the eggs camouflaged, but the birds choose to lay their eggs on a substrate that maximizes camouflage," said P. George Lovell of Abertay University and the University of St Andrews. "Furthermore, the maximization seems specific to individual birds."

Karen Spencer, also of University of St Andrews and a co-author, had earlier noticed that female quail lay eggs that vary a lot in appearance, and that those differences are repeatable. Some birds consistently lay eggs covered in dark spots; others have many fewer spots or, in some cases, almost none at all.

That pattern led the researchers to an intriguing idea: that birds might make optimal egg-laying choices based on the special characteristics of their own eggs. To find out, they gave female quail in the lab a choice between four different backgrounds on which to lay their eggs.

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130117133122.htm

Outdoors: Not good news for upland birds

Two hot, dry summers in a row don’t do much good for wildlife of any species. Upland birds like pheasants, quail and prairie chickens are at the whim of Mother Nature and two years of dismal conditions don’t make for promising prospects.

The peak of wheat harvest, even delayed a week or two, can play an important factor in overall pheasant numbers. The earliest wheat harvest on record may have thrown pheasants strike three in some parts of their historical range destroying nests and young broods.

Another dagger for pheasants as a result of drought may have come in the form of emergency haying and grazing of Conservation Reserve Program acreage. All counties were opened to this practice and 50 percent of a field’s acreage could be hayed or all or a portion of it could be grazed at various rates.

This practice is detrimental in the short term, but many of these older stands of CRP can actually benefit from disturbance and provide better habitat conditions in the future, provided there are cooperative weather patterns.

Continued: http://cjonline.com/sports/2012-09-22/outdoors-not-good-news-upland-birds