Rare species of bird spotted in Rara park

RASTRIYA SAMACHAR SAMITI

The number of cheers is around 33 in the park...

JUMLA: A bird belonging to the most rare species in the world has been identified inside the Rara National Park in Karnali zone. 

A bird of Cheer species (pheasant) which is found only in Nepal, India and Pakistan has been found in the Rara National Park. 

The number of cheers is around 33 in the park, Park's Acting Conservation Officer Bhogendra Raymajhi said. 

Annapurna Conservation Area, Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve and Api-Nampa Conservation Area are the home to Cheer birds. Nepal is a home to 272 species of birds, 51 species of mammals and 1,024 varieties of plants. 

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Prosthetic foot for duckling

There once was a limping duckling, with one foot all shrivelled and curved.

Now Buttercup will be able to waddle and dive for the first time – thanks to a prosthetic created by a 3D printer.

He was born with his left foot facing the wrong way, making it difficult to get around or swim properly.

But soon he’ll be fitting in with the other ducks at the pond after owner Mike Garey came up with a high-tech solution to his lameness. As the foot needs to be flexible, the usual plastics in 3D printing were not viable, so Mr Garey enlisted NovaCopy to create a mould for a silicone replacement.

‘Buttercup was in pain and had constant cuts and infections walking on the side of his foot,’ said Mr Garey, who runs Feathered Angels waterfowl sanctuary in Tennessee, USA.

‘After it was amputated, NovaCopy donated its services to aid in Buttercup’s recovery. Using photos of the left foot of Buttercup’s sister Minnie they designed a brand new left foot.

‘This version will have a stretchy silicone sock instead of the finger trap, which will roll up on his leg and have a fastener in the bottom.’

Mr Garey said the material is similar to the gel-like product used in the 2011 film Dolphin Tale about a dolphin which was given a prosthetic tail. He is now waiting for the final parts to arrive in the next two weeks to complete Buttercup’s transformation.

http://metro.co.uk/2013/06/30/lame-duck-set-to-waddle-for-first-time-after-being-given-foot-from-3d-printer-3863115/

Birds indicate a planet in peril, but investing in conservation makes economic sense

Sidamo lark, edging towards extinction. Photo credit IUCN/Greg Davies.

State of the World's Birds

July 2013. Declines in birds across the globe are providing evidence of a rapid deterioration in the global environment that is affecting all life on earth - including people. However, birds also tell us that saving the planet comes at a relatively small price - an investment that's vital to secure our own future.

These are some of the messages in a new report State of the World's Birds: indicators for our changing world by BirdLife International, an IUCN Red List partner, who gathered last week in Ottawa, Canada to launch the report and unveil their vision for a world rich in biodiversity, where people and nature live in harmony.

Many species slipping towards extinction

The status of the world's birds continues to get worse with many species slipping towards extinction and others in steep decline. Birds are facing threats on many fronts but habitat destruction and degradation, owing to changes in agriculture, as well as direct impacts from invasive species are the major causes. However, birds also provide a lens through which we can view all nature.

"Birds provide an accurate and easy to read environmental barometer that allows us to see clearly the pressures our current way of life are putting on the world's biodiversity", said Dr Leon Bennun, BirdLife's Director of Science, Information and Policy.

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Surviving Fasting in the Cold

July 2, 2013 — King penguin chicks survive harsh winters with almost no food by minimising the cost of energy production. A new study, to be presented at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting in Valencia on the 3rd July, shows that the efficiency of the mitochondria, the power house of the cell, is increased in fasted king penguin chicks.

King penguin chicks are socially and morphologically well adapted to harsh environmental conditions, however, they experience a severe energy challenge during the cold sub-Antarctic winter, when food is not readily available. Research headed by Pierre-Axel Monternier and Prof Damien Roussel at the Ecology of Natural and Man-impacted Hydrosystems laboratory in France looked, for the first time, at how the king penguin chicks' mitochondria in skeletal muscle, the main heat producing tissue in birds, function during fasting in the winter.

Pierre-Axel Monternier said: "We found that the efficiency of mitochondrial functioning increased in fasted winter-acclimatized king penguin chicks. This indicates that less substrate/oxygen was consumed to produce the same amount of energy in the form of ATP, showing that mitochondria from fasted chicks adjust its functioning to minimize the cost of energy production."

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Nightingales' tags reveal habitat change on migratory routes

The decline of the nightingale in the UK could be due to changes in its habitat along its migratory route to Africa, a study has shown.

Last year Anglian Water and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) fitted 10 birds at Grafham Water in Cambridgeshire with tracking devices.

Seven birds have come back with data about their 3,000 mile (4,828 km) journey to Senegal and The Gambia.

The tracker information will be fully analysed by the autumn.

A BTO spokesman said nightingale numbers had dropped by more than half since 1995, with only 6,000 singing male nightingales remaining in the UK.

Initial findings from the geolocators show the birds, which weigh about the same as a £2 coin, make the six-week journey to Africa via northern France and Spain to Gibraltar.

They then fly along the African coast to avoid the long flight across the wide, dry Sahara Desert.

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PETA launches campaign against caging of birds

PUNE: Global animal rights organisation People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India, has launched a new ad campaign to spread awareness about not caging birds. The campaign, which is being used online and on social networking sites and is expected to bepopularised at college festivals, concerts and other youth-related events, is targeted at increasing awareness about the need to free birds from confinement and prevent their physical abuse.

"Birds are born to fly free. For them, flying is as natural and important as walking is to us. Stealing their freedom by capturing them and putting them in cages to spend their entire lives in a tiny prison is as unacceptable as it would be to lock a human being in one tiny room for life," said Benazir Suraiya, lead media and celebrity projects coordinator, PETA India.

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Out of danger and free again

Over two months ago, an endangered White-backed Vulture was spotted in a bamboo bush in Siriyur near Masinagudi in the Nilgiris. It appeared dehydrated and the possibility of its survival looked bleak. But, on Saturday, the bird happily flew away into the sky.

Thanks to the efforts of the Forest Department and Arulagam, a Coimbatore-based vulture conservation organisation, which created an aviary for the bird and ensured its survival.

S. Bharathidasan of Arulagam said the first alert came from the Forest Department on April 5 that a 90-day-old vulture nestling was found in a bamboo bush in Siriyur . Immediately, a team went to the spot and rescued the nestling. It was kept in a temporary shed with a bamboo platform. The team then collected twigs of various trees and created a nest. Lantana and grasses were placed as inner materials in the nest.

Initially the bird was unable to feed on its own. So, volunteers from Arulagam fed the bird with tiny pieces of mutton dipped in normal saline water for a week. From the second week, the bird started feeding on its own.

A fortnight later, a permanent aviary was created using bamboo and other material.

R. Venkitachalam of Bombay Natural History Society, who earlier worked in a vulture captivity programme at Pinjore in Haryana, helped Arulagam volunteers to build the permanent aviary.

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