Disease tolerance alters host competence in a wild songbird

Individuals can express a range of disease phenotypes during infection, with important implications for epidemics. Tolerance, in particular, is a host response that minimizes the per-pathogen fitness costs of infection. Because tolerant hosts show milder clinical signs and higher survival, despite similar pathogen burdens, their potential for prolonged pathogen shedding may facilitate the spread of pathogens. To test this, we simulated outbreaks of mycoplasmal conjunctivitis in house finches, asking how the speed of transmission varied with tissue-specific and behavioural components of tolerance, milder conjunctivitis and anorexia for a given pathogen load, respectively. Because tissue-specific tolerance hinders pathogen deposition onto bird feeders, important transmission hubs, we predicted it would slow transmission. Because behavioural tolerance should increase interactions with bird feeders, we predicted it would speed transmission. Our findings supported these predictions, suggesting that variation in tolerance could help identify individuals most likely to transmit pathogens.

Lack of Evidence That Bird Feeders Are a Source of Salmonellosis during Winter in Poland

Bird feeders are known to be a transfer site for many important bird pathogens, such as zoonotic Salmonella spp., known to be widespread among wild birds in Poland. The aim of the study was to investigate (1) whether feeders can be a source of Salmonella spp., (2) whether the risk is the same for feeders located in cities and rural areas and (3) whether there is a different level of contamination with Salmonella spp. between old and new feeders. Data were collected in the period 12 January–28 February 2018 in four cities in Poland and nearby rural areas. In total, 204 feeders were sampled. The samples from feeders were taken after a 2-week period of feeding birds. Material for analysis consisted of the remains of food and feces. We did not find the presence of Salmonella spp. in any of the tested samples collected from bird feeders. Therefore, the estimated value of the 95% confidence interval for the binary data was 0.000–0.018. Reasons for the isolation of Salmonella spp. from feeders not being successful lie in the low intensity of bacterial shedding by infected wild birds and low survival of bacteria in the environment in bird feces—which are still not well studied.

Rainbow Lorikeets apparently harvesting orange fungal spores from the underside of willow leaves

The diet of Rainbow Lorikeets Trichoglossus moluccanus consists largely of nectar and pollen, with some fruit, leaf buds, bark and insects and, more recently, meat provided at bird-feeders. Here, I describe an instance of Rainbow Lorikeets apparently harvesting fungal spores from the underside of leaves of Weeping Willow Salix babylonica, a food item not previously recorded.

Effects of supplementary feed for game birds on activity of brown rats Rattus norvegicus on arable farms

Brown rats are widespread in agroecosystems, but our understanding of factors affecting their activity is incomplete due to cryptic, nocturnal behaviours. Indirect monitoring methods include tracking plates and camera traps. Supplementary feeding of game birds may provide resources for rats away from farm buildings, allowing them to persist in winter when there is little other food available. Developing reliable methods to monitor such populations will facilitate landscape-scale studies of rat populations in farm environments and aid ecologically based approaches for controlling rats on farms. We compared camera traps and tracking plates to monitor brown rat activity near game bird feeders at a mixed farm in Northumberland, UK. Generalized linear models (GLM) were used to compare rat incidence estimated from camera traps and tracking plates. A strong positive relationship was found between the two methods, although tracking plate estimates were less reliable when rat activity was very low. Factors that affected populations of brown rats near game bird feeders were assessed via linear mixed-effect models (LMM) of monthly tracking plate data (October 2017 to September 2018). Populations were highest at the feeders (0 m) compared with further away (10 m, 20 m) and were also higher in periods of cold, wet weather and when more food was available from the feeders. Rodenticide application near feeders did not significantly affect activity, nor did land cover 100 m around each feeder. A highly significant relationship was detected with food supply, suggesting that the use of game bird feeders could potentially have major impacts on rat population dynamics.

ENLIGHTENER AND EDUCATOR I. I. GORBUNOV-POSADOV ABOUT DEVELOPMENT OF VALUABLE ATTITUDE TO LIVING BEINGS WORLD AMONG CHILDREN

This article raises the actual problem of relationship between human and nature, human beings and all other creatures. We see the solution of the problem in initiating of broad educational and pedagogical influences on philosophical values of the individual, starting from early childhood; emphasis is placed on the current unsatisfactory situation in this area. It is noted that the origins of solving the problem of educating children in a humane attitude to all life can be found in the educational, pedagogical and practical activities of organizations and individual figures who lived and worked in the late 19 — early 20 century. Among other prominent historical figures of the time, the figure of Ivan Ivanovych Horbunov-Posadov (1864–1940) was chosen as the most notable, with a significant but largely unstudied journalistic, artistic, educational and pedagogical heritage. This article is devoted to analysis of his humanistic ideas. The Russian educator’s diverse personal heritage is completely described — essays, stories, poems, that reveal the author’s kind, protective, caring attitude to nature, especially to animals, as well as his work as magazine editor and compiler of reading books showing children diverse and at the same time vulnerable world of all living beings. The article presents a circle of friends, like-minded persons and employees of I. I. Gorbunov-Posadov (L. Tolstoy, V. Chertkov, I. Perper, O. Horbunova- Posadova, V. Lukianska), who carried out this humane mission. Educator’s position and activity as a popularizer of vegetarianism, an activist of the vegetarian movement, one of the organizers of the 1st All-Russian Vegetarian Congress and the inspirer of the Moscow Vegetarian Society are highlighted. Particular attention is paid to pedagogical aspects of teacher’s creative heritage. The article in particular highlights and describes his specific advice on ways to form in children of different ages through school and family love, care and concern for all animals, even those that do not cause sympathy in children. Attention is paid to activity-based aspects of the educational process consisting in making bird feeders, constructing animal houses, and so on. The general conclusion to the above was a thought that the ideas and pedagogical approaches of I. I. Gorbunov-Posadov have not lost their significance, and in environmental crises become urgently relevant and can be used in modern multifaceted pedagogical interaction between adults, children and animals.

Environmental Explorations: Integrating Project-Based Learning and Civic Engagement Through an Afterschool Program

This study examined the Community Super Investigators Club, through which we aimed to apply mathematics and literacy skills by using project-based learning (PBL) to investigate elementary students’ interest in learning how to improve the environment for animals. PBL is a teaching method used to improve critical thinking skills around a project that is based on students’ questions. The study used a mixed-method design to examine the following research questions: How do students engage in PBL on topics relevant to their community in an afterschool club? How can critical math and literacy skills be integrated with community engagement? How did the experience in the club influence students’ beliefs about math and literacy? During Community Super Investigators Club, participating second- and third-grade students chose the topic of improving the environment for animals. Students learned about the following topics: reducing waste and recycling, the amount of trash produced around the world, using recyclable items to build bird feeders, and how trash in the oceans affects animals. Researchers interviewed and surveyed students. Students reported that they could make a positive impact in their community by not littering, reusing materials to minimize waste, and turning off the water while brushing their teeth. As a final project, students selected an outlet or person (e.g. newspaper, governor) to write a postcard to voice their concerns about the environment by including at least one fact and one proposed solution. Implications for practice are integrated into the findings and discussion.

Information use in foraging flocks of songbirds - no evidence for social transmission of patch quality

ABSTRACTAnimals use behavioural cues from others to make decisions in a variety of contexts. There is growing evidence, from a range of taxa, that information about the locations of food patches can spread through a population via social connections. However, it is not known whether information about the quality of potential food sources transmits similarly. We studied foraging behaviour in a population of wild songbirds with known social associations, and tested whether flock members use social information about the profitability of patches to inform their foraging decisions. We provided artificial patches (ephemeral bird feeders) that appeared identical but were either profitable (contained food) or unprofitable (contained no food). If information about patch profitability spreads via social associations, we predicted that empty feeders would only be sampled by individuals that are less connected to each other than expected by chance. In contrast, we found that individuals recorded at empty feeders were more closely associated with each other than predicted by a null model simulating random arrival of individuals, mirroring pattern of increased connectedness among individuals recorded at full feeders. We then simulated arrival under network-based diffusion of information, and demonstrate that the observed pattern at both full and empty feeders matches predictions derived from this post-hoc model. Our results suggest that foraging songbirds only use social cues about the location of potential food sources, but not their profitability. These findings agree with the hypothesis that individuals balance the relative economic costs of using different information, where the costs of personally sampling a patch upon arrival is low relative to the cost of searching for patches. This study extends previous work on information spread through avian social networks, by suggesting important links between how animals use information at different stages of the acquisition process and the emerging population-level patterns of patch use.

Linked seasonal outbreaks of Salmonella Typhimurium among passerine birds, domestic cats and humans, Sweden, 2009 to 2016

In 2016, an outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium (STm) with multilocus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) profiles historically associated with passerine birds (2-[11-15]-[3-4]-NA-212) occurred among passerines, cats and humans in Sweden. Our retrospective observational study investigated the outbreak and revisited historical data from 2009–16 to identify seasonality, phylogeography and other characteristics of this STm variant. Outbreak isolates were analysed by whole-genome single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) typing. The number of notified cases of passerine-associated STm among passerines, cats and humans per month and county, and their MLVA profiles, were compared to birdwatchers’ counts of passerines. Seasonal trend decomposition and correlation analysis was performed. Outbreak isolates did not cluster by host on SNP level. Passerine-associated STm was seasonal for birds, cats and humans, with a peak in March. Cases and counts of passerines at bird feeders varied between years. The incidence of passerine-associated STm infections in humans was higher in the boreal north compared with the southern and capital regions, consistent with passerine population densities. Seasonal mass migration of passerines appears to cause STm outbreaks among cats certain years in Sweden, most likely via predation on weakened birds. Outbreaks among humans can follow, presumably caused by contact with cats or environmental contamination.