Chemical immobilisation and satellite tagging of free‐living southern cassowaries

Campbell, Harry F.; Dwyer, Ross G.; Sullivan, Scott; Mead, Daniel W.

doi:10.1111/avj.12193

Cited by 4 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Cassowaries are challenging animals to capture and handle. They have a large 'dagger claw' (+12 cm) that they can use to good effect when stressed and any manual restraint or handling requires chemical immobilization (Campbell et al, 2014). Anaesthetics are highly likely to affect foraging activity for the proceeding 24 h, and because we wanted to assess foraging activity, we developed a telemetry device that a cassowary could swallow without requiring physical interference by humans.…”

Section: Animal Biotelemetrymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii) remains an important disperser of native plants in fragmented rainforest landscapes

et al. 2023

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Large-bodied frugivores are essential to the ecological function of rainforest communities. The southern cassowary (Casaurius casuarius johnsonii) is the only large frugivore in the tropical rainforests of Australia. Here, we assessed whether cassowaries remain important to native plant seed dispersal in areas where the rainforest is highly fragmented, and exotic fruits are abundant. To do this, we developed a tri-axial acceleration logger integrated with a motion sensor and VHF radio transmitter. The telemetry device was small enough to be hidden inside a native fruit. The cassowaries ingested it, transported it and defecated it up to 24 h later with the seeds from the fruits they had ingested during the tracking period. The telemetry device was then located by VHF radio and collected with the scat. The distance travelled, activity profile, consumed fruit diversity, and scat energy content were assessed for cassowaries inhabiting regions with different degrees of urbanization. We found that cassowaries inhabiting more urbanized areas consumed the greatest proportion of fruits from exotic plants (~30%) but still incorporated a significant proportion of fruits from native plants in their diet. These individuals existed in higher states of activity and rested less than individuals inhabiting more intact swathes of rainforest, actively moving between urban gardens and the rainforest. The study shows cassowaries have a flexible foraging strategy that has enabled them to persist in rainforest-fragmented landscapes. They remain a significant disperser of seeds from native plants between rainforest patches, and as such, cassowaries remain essential in maintaining native plant diversity within these fragmented patches.

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Section: Animal Biotelemetrymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cassowaries confine their daily movements within a defined home range of <1 km 2 (Campbell et al, 2014). They appear to have a good cognitive map of the resources within their home range and move along defined pathways between roost sites and fruiting trees (Crome & Moore, 1990).…”

Section: Responsementioning

confidence: 99%

The southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii) remains an important disperser of native plants in fragmented rainforest landscapes

et al. 2023

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“…OzTrack was also employed to monitor the success of a rehabilitation and release scheme for southern cassowaries (Casuarius casuarius) [38]. OzTrack's configurable permission tool allowed the raw locations, movement metrics and home range estimates generated from GPS-tagged birds to be shared between project collaborators (Figure 3).…”

Section: System Uptakementioning

confidence: 99%

An open Web-based system for the analysis and sharing of animal tracking data

et al. 2015

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Background: Improvements in telemetry technology are allowing us to monitor animal movements with increasing accuracy, precision and frequency. The increased complexity of the data collections, however, demands additional software and programming skills to process, store and disseminate the datasets. Recent focus on data availability has also heightened the need for sustainable data management solutions to ensure data integrity and provide longer term access. In the last ten years, a number of online facilities have been developed for the archiving, processing and sharing of telemetry data. These facilities offer secure storage, multi-user support and analysis tools and are a step along the way to improving data access, long-term data preservation and science communication. While these software platforms promote data sharing, access to the majority of the data and to the software behind these systems remains restricted. In this paper, we present a comprehensive, highly accessible and fully transparent software facility for animal movement data. Results: The online system we developed (http://oztrack.org) offers a set of robust, up-to-date and accessible tools for managing, processing, visualising and analysing animal location data and linking these outputs with environmental datasets. As OzTrack uses exclusively free and open-source software, and the source code is available online, the system promotes open access not only to data but also to the tools and software underpinning the system.

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“…A study conducted in North Queensland describes the chemical immobilisation, transport and post-monitoring of adult and juve-nile southern cassowaries, captured and released from their natural environment. 3 The birds were administered tiletamine-zolazepam intramuscularly using an injector pole or dart, falling into lateral recumbency in <3 min, and 20 min later, diazepam was administered to control ataxia during anaesthesia recovery. The authors note that keeping the birds cool and in a ventilated box, and carrying out the procedure in the late afternoon, also contributed to the smooth recovery.…”

Section: Wildlife and Zoosmentioning

confidence: 99%

In this issue – July 2014

Cabral¹

2014

Aust Veterinary J

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Chemical immobilisation and satellite tagging of free‐living southern cassowaries

Abstract: The described methods have improved the management and research opportunities for the southern cassowary and may be transferable to other species of large ratite.

Cited by 4 publications

References 21 publications

The southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii) remains an important disperser of native plants in fragmented rainforest landscapes

The southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii) remains an important disperser of native plants in fragmented rainforest landscapes

An open Web-based system for the analysis and sharing of animal tracking data

In this issue – July 2014

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