An Overlooked Cost for the Velvety Plumage of Owls: Entanglement in Adhesive Vegetation

Rodríguez, Airam; Sivério, Felipe; Barone, Rubén; Rodríguez, Beneharo; Negro, Juan J.

doi:10.1676/08-086.1

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…Birds with low weight, wasted muscles (especially in the breast) and without body fat, and without other symptoms of the previous categories, were classified as starving. Some Long-eared Owls (Asio otus), Barn Owls (Tyto alba) and Eurasian Kestrels (Falco tinnunculus) were admitted with plumage damage or inability to fly due to entanglement in the plant burr bristlegrass (Setaria adhaerens; see Rodríguez et al 2009), and were included in the (8) other category. A small fraction of the birds officially admitted to the WRC were already dead when collected by WRC staff or died before arrival at the WRC, but were recorded as admitted nonetheless; these birds were included in our study.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Causes of Raptor Admissions to a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Tenerife (Canary Islands)

Rodríguez¹,

Rodríguez

Sivério³

et al. 2010

Journal of Raptor Research

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ABSTRACT.-We studied the causes of raptor admissions to the only wildlife rehabilitation center on the largest island of the Canarian Archipelago (Tenerife) over ten years (1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007). A total of 2611 birds of prey, belonging to nine falconiform diurnal raptor and four strigiform species, were admitted. The Eurasian Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) and the Long-eared Owl (Asio otus) were the species most commonly admitted and jointly made up 85.6% of admissions. The most frequent causes of admission to the wildlife rehabilitation center were collisions (with cars, high-voltage electric transmission towers, etc.; 42.2%), starvation (5.1%) and entanglement in glue traps intended for rodents (4.7%). Poisoning and shooting were recorded for 2.4 and 1.5% of the birds admitted, respectively. Only collisions increased during the study period. A total of 1010 birds (44.4% of the total) were released to the wild following rehabilitation. We recommend more financial support for rehabilitation centers to develop detailed analytical diagnoses and rehabilitation services.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Causes of Raptor Admissions to a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Tenerife (Canary Islands)

Rodríguez¹,

Rodríguez

Sivério³

et al. 2010

Journal of Raptor Research

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“…Nevertheless, owls collide with environmental objects such as adhesive vegetation ( Palmer et al. 2009 ; Rodríguez et al. 2009 ), or anthropogenic structures such as fences ( Allen and Ramirez 1990 ), and electrical lines (Ii 2005).…”

Section: How Owls Huntmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution and Ecology of Silent Flight in Owls and Other Flying Vertebrates

Clark

LePiane

Liu

2020

Integrative Organismal Biology

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Synopsis We raise and explore possible answers to three questions about the evolution and ecology of silent flight of owls: (1) do owls fly silently for stealth, or is it to reduce self-masking? Current evidence slightly favors the self-masking hypothesis, but this question remains unsettled. (2) Two of the derived wing features that apparently evolved to suppress flight sound are the vane fringes and dorsal velvet of owl wing feathers. Do these two features suppress aerodynamic noise (sounds generated by airflow), or do they instead reduce structural noise, such as frictional sounds of feathers rubbing during flight? The aerodynamic noise hypothesis lacks empirical support. Several lines of evidence instead support the hypothesis that the velvet and fringe reduce frictional sound, including: the anatomical location of the fringe and velvet, which is best developed in wing and tail regions prone to rubbing, rather than in areas exposed to airflow; the acoustic signature of rubbing, which is broadband and includes ultrasound, is present in the flight of other birds but not owls; and the apparent relationship between the velvet and friction barbules found on the remiges of other birds. (3) Have other animals also evolved silent flight? Wing features in nightbirds (nocturnal members of Caprimulgiformes) suggest that they may have independently evolved to fly in relative silence, as have more than one diurnal hawk (Accipitriformes). We hypothesize that bird flight is noisy because wing feathers are intrinsically predisposed to rub and make frictional noise. This hypothesis suggests a new perspective: rather than regarding owls as silent, perhaps it is bird flight that is loud. This implies that bats may be an overlooked model for silent flight. Owl flight may not be the best (and certainly, not the only) model for “bio-inspiration” of silent flight.

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“…In addition to the functions, the color of feathers also has an important role, which is for camouflage to avoid predator in nature (Stevens et al 2014). Owls are known for their silent flight (Rodriguez et al 2009). Several specializations of the feathers have been implicated in the noise reduction (Bachmann et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Morphological description and functions of feathers to support Otus angelinae activities

Saraswati

Yuniwarti

Tana

2019

JABB

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Otus angelinae is an owl that known for their silent flight, capable of flying just inches from their prey without being detected. The quietness of their flight is owed to their special feathers. This study aimed to describe the morphology and function of feathers of Otus angelinae. Two Otus angelinae aged 4 months taken from the wild forest of East Java. Owl were sedated with chloroform, dissected, and then observed to know the morphological of feathers that coat its body. The results showed that each part of the body of an owl composed of different morphology and size of feathers to support the activity of flying.

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An Overlooked Cost for the Velvety Plumage of Owls: Entanglement in Adhesive Vegetation

Cited by 8 publications

References 82 publications

Causes of Raptor Admissions to a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Tenerife (Canary Islands)

Causes of Raptor Admissions to a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Tenerife (Canary Islands)

Evolution and Ecology of Silent Flight in Owls and Other Flying Vertebrates

Morphological description and functions of feathers to support Otus angelinae activities

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