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Human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC) has altered landscape processes and negatively impacted many species globally. Some of the most dramatic changes have been in wetlands where flows have been disrupted, and new wetlands have been created to retain runoff. In response to disrupted natural wetland conditions, Wood Stork (Mycteria americana) populations in South Florida have significantly declined over the past several decades. Despite the well-documented sensitivity of Wood Storks to natural wetland conditions, Wood Storks are often observed foraging in roadside created wetlands; however, the availability of prey in created wetlands is currently unknown. We sampled natural and created wetlands to determine aquatic fauna available for foraging Wood Storks. To determine prey use, we collected food boluses from Wood Storks in both natural wetland and urban landscapes. Historical studies found nonnative fish were absent in Wood Stork diet prior to the dominance of created wetlands in the landscape; however, we found nonnative fish frequently in both created wetlands and boluses. Furthermore, urban nesting Wood Storks consumed large-bodied prey species that were more characteristic of created wetlands whereas Wood Storks nesting in natural wetlands consumed large-bodied prey more characteristic of natural wetlands. Overall, Wood Storks consumed prey that were more similar to the fish community in created wetlands than those in natural wetlands. These dietary patterns suggest that Wood Storks have behavioral plasticity in both foraging habitat and prey use to cope with HIREC. Conservation efforts for species existing in both natural and urban habitats should consider the importance of novel prey and foraging habitats, as they may assist in sustaining populations in a rapidly changing world.

Protecting habitats for charismatic vertebrates can provide an ‘umbrella’ for less conspicuous organisms, especially when these are threatened by the same processes. However, such a conservation scheme is vulnerable to the extirpation of the focal species. We studied wider biodiversity values in long protected black stork (Ciconia nigra) nest sites, which were abandoned by the bird and thus legally subject to de-listing. In 20 abandoned nest sites in Estonia, we (i) mapped breeding birds within 600 m from the stork nest, and (ii) carried out time-limited surveys of lichens, polypore fungi, vascular plants and bryophytes in 2-ha plots. The breeding bird assemblages (64 species recorded) included 19 red-listed species, and showed no clear aggregation to the immediate surroundings of the stork nest. We recorded 740 plant and fungal species, of which 134 (18%) were of conservation concern (nationally protected, red-listed or extremely rare). Across the 2-ha plots, the numbers of the species of conservation concern varied more than three-fold (maximum 42 species), being affected notably by dead wood accumulation over time and presence of nemoral broad-leaved trees. The results demonstrate that many abandoned nest sites of the black stork have broader biodiversity significance, both due to the bird’s habitat requirements and the natural development during the protection. Expanding the umbrella function to sites abandoned by a focal species, but intact from anthropogenic degradation, can thus be a cost-effective conservation approach due to its low additional administrative burden. In most jurisdictions, the assessment procedure for such situations should be formalized, however.

Supplemental materials for "The STORK dataset: Linked midwifery and delivery records of the mothers and index children in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Mumme M, Boyd A, Golding J and Macleod J, 2020"

This paper presents information about the possible expansion of the range of the Far Eastern stork

Objective: This article aims to analyze the Brazilian scientific production related to communication and the Rede Cegonha, see king to raise questions about the communication process in these which is one of the health care networks present in the daily activities of the family health strategy. Methods: Bibliometric literature review research, searched in the Biblioteca Virtual de Saúde - BVS and The Scientific Electronic Library Online - SciELO.org databases, in the months of August and September 2019, using the key words: Rede Cegonha, Assistência Materno-Infantil(as a synonym of the first) and comunicação through the following peer associations: rede cegonha / communication and assistência materno-infantil/comunicação, through the Boolean operator AND the proximity operator quotation marks (“”), using the second consideringth e use of compound descriptors. Results: After excluding all articles that were not relevant to the topic and with all descriptors, 35 articles were found in the virtual library BVS and SciELO.org, however 18 were duplicated, leaving 17 articles. Regarding these arches performed with the descriptors associations, there was also duplicity, and all articles found were also inserted in the search with the descriptor Rede Stork. There was a tendency for publications to increase between 2015 and 2018, mainly in the VHL. Conclusion: The publication about stork net is still incipient, but with in increase in production in the last four years. KEYWORDS: Pregnant Women, Health Care Networks, Stork Network and Maternal Child Care. RESUMO: Objetivo: Esse artigo tem como objetivo analisar a produção científica brasileira relacionada à comunicação na Rede Cegonha, buscando levantar questionamentos sobre o processo de comunicação nessas que é uma das redes de atenção à saúde presente no cotidiano da atuação da estratégia de saúde da família. Métodos: Pesquisa de revisão de literatura tipo bibliométrica, pesquisada nos bancos de dados Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde – BVS e The Scientific Electronic Library Online – SciELO.org, nos meses de agosto e setembro de 2019, utilizando os descritores: Rede cegonha, Assistência Materno-Infantil (enquanto sinônimo do primeiro) e comunicação através das seguintes associações de pares: rede cegonha/comunicação e assistência materno-infantil/comunicação, por meio do operador booleano AND e o operador de proximidade aspas (“”), utilizando-se o segundo tendo em vista o uso de descritores compostos. Resultados: Após a exclusão de todos os artigos que não estavam pertinentes ao tema e com todos descritores, foram encontrados 35 artigos no total, nas bases de dados BVS e SciELO.org, contudo 18 estavam duplicados, restando 17 artigos. Com relação a busca realizada com as associações dos descritores, houve também duplicidade, sendo que todos os artigos encontrados estavam também inseridos na busca com o descritor Rede Cegonha. Houve uma tendência de aumento das publicações entre os anos de 2015 a 2018, principalmente na BVS. Conclusão: A publicação sobre rede cegonha ainda é incipiente, mas com um aumento na produção nos últimos quatro anos. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Gestantes, Rede Cegonha, Assistência Materno Infantil.

Samsun’da Aralık 2019’da, Kızılırmak Deltası’nda, bir kuş gözlemcisi tarafından bir adet ölü kara leylek (Ciconia nigra) bulunmuş ve ekto-parazitolojik incelemesi yapılmak üzere Ondokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi Parazitoloji Anabilim Dalı Laboratuvarı’na getirilmiştir. Ektoparazitik muayenede 45 örnek (21 erkek, 18 dişi ve 6 nimf) incelenmiş ve tümü Neophilopterus tricolor (Burmeister, 1838) (Ischnocera: Philopteridae) olarak tanımlanmıştır. Bu tür, kara leylek (C. nigra) bit faunası için Türkiye’de ilk kayıttır., A dead black stork (Ciconia nigra) was found by an a birdwatcher in the Kızılırmak Delta near Samsun, Turkey and brought to the Parasitology Laboratory of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Ondokuz Mayis University for ectoparasitological examination in December 2019. During the examination, 45 specimens of chewing lice (21 males, 18 females and 6 nymphs) were collected. All of the specimens were identified as Neophilopterus tricolor (Burmeister, 1838) (Ischnocera: Philopteridae). Neophilopterus tricolor is reported from the black stork (C. nigra) for the first time in Turkey.

The foraging and feeding behaviours of the Asian Openbill Stork (Anastomus oscitans) were observed in several paddy fields in Thailand, on food items not previously reported. Foraging and feeding techniques of the storks were similar to those described in the literature, except at one site where a peculiar new foraging behaviour was observed. Here, the storks fed on exotic Golden Apple Snails (Pomacea canaliculata) by using their bills to puncture the shells for extracting the soft snail bodies. The shells of large snails discarded by storks tended to be more damaged than those of small snails, due to the difficulty of extraction. Analyses of stork’s droppings and their regurgitated food showed that the bulk was of plant materials and shelled snails (mainly P. canaliculata and Filopaludina spp.). Adult storks tended to consume the whole soft bodies of the snails, including viscera, and sometimes the entire snails, including with their hard shells and opercula still attached. Although the storks could feed potentially on the entire snail body, the birds were seen to discard the male’s testes and female’s albumen glands of P. canaliculata at these feeding grounds, also evident in their regurgitates. Crushing of snail shells was not evident, but sometimes, pounding the shell and/or swallowing the entire shell and its operculum were supported by observations.

This article examines institutional activism between 2011 and 2018 in two Brazilian government programs, ‘Green Grants’ and the 'Stork Network’. Institutional activism is defined as collective acti...

The Greater Adjutant Stork (Leptoptilos dubius), locally known as Hargila (the bone swallower) is an endangered bird with an estimated global population of less than 1200. Habitat loss, poisoning, and poaching have caused large declines in populations of this stork in South Asia, with the Brahmaputra valley in Assam in northeastern India now the last stronghold for the species. The stork nests colonially in privately owned trees within thickly populated villages. Tree owners would cut down trees to prevent rotten food and excreta of this carnivorous bird from falling into their backyards. A change in attitudes of the nest-tree owners towards keeping their trees and towards Greater Adjutants has been the key to stork conservation. A conservation project involving community development, education and outreach, interlinking storks with local traditions and cultures, and capacity building of local communities was initiated in 2007. A rural women's conservation group named the Hargila Army was instituted and strong feelings of pride and ownership for the storks by the villagers have been generated. Cash incentives for nest protection were deliberately avoided, with schemes that indirectly contribute to the livelihoods of nest-tree owners and other villagers introduced instead. The success of the conservation program is shown by the increase in the number of nesting colonies in the village area of Dadara, Pachariya, and Singimari in Kamrup District in Assam from 28 nests in 2007–08 to 208 nests in the 2019–20 breeding season, making this the largest breeding colony of Greater Adjutant Storks in the world.

Information on the distribution of the Vulnerable Lesser Adjutant from Sindhuli District is scarce. Here we report the investigation and observation a total of 12 individuals and two active nests of Lesser Adjutant in five different locations of Dudhauli and Kamalamai Municipality in Sindhuli, Nepal to reduce the information gap between Triyuga watershed, Siraha District and Chitwan. Further systematic studies are recommended to find out the total population of the species.

Introduction The soft tissue envelope around the knee can have an impact on the ease of performing surgery such as total knee replacement (TKR). BMI is often used in planning theatre time but may be a poor indicator of the soft tissue around the knee due to varying distribution of adipose tissue. Radiological images directly show the soft tissue. We therefore aim to develop a method of quantifying the soft tissue envelope around the knee using radiographs. Method Plain weight-bearing radiographs were used to measure the total knee (soft tissue and bony) width at the level of the epicondyles of the knee and the bony epicondylar width of the femur. The ratio of the two widths was defined as the Soft Tissue Radiological Knee (SToRK) Index. The validity of the index as a true measure of soft tissue envelope was assessed using cross sectional areas on axial MRI cuts at the level of the epicondyles. The inter-observer reliability was assessed using the intra-class correlation coefficient. SToRK Index values were correlated with patients’ BMI, gender and operative time. Results The results show there is a close correlation between the ratio of cross sectional area of MRI axial cuts at the level of epicondyles and the ratio of linear widths measured on plain radiographs, validating the SToRK Index as a measure of soft tissue envelope. There was also good to excellent inter-rater reliability of measurements of these widths. There was a close correlation between BMI and SToRK Index with differences between men and women. Discussion We believe the SToRK Index is a validated method of quantifying soft tissue distribution around the knee and gives surgeons a better descriptor of the knee envelope than BMI. It is easy to use, needs simple investigations and is reproducible.

The Marabou Stork Leptoptilos crumenifer is a large wading bird that occurs extensively throughout sub-Saharan Africa in savanna and wetland habitats. Despite its widespread occurrence in southern Africa, the number of known breeding localities and the numbers of nests are limited. We report on large, dispersed nesting colonies in the greater Gorongosa landscape in central Mozambique. We counted the number of active Marabou nests in Gorongosa National Park and adjoining areas by conducting annual aerial (helicopter) surveys between 2016 and 2019. The Muaredzi colony within Gorongosa National Park has been expanding annually from 82 active nests in 2016 up to 258 nests in 2019. Similarly, the Mussicadzi colony has increased from five nests in 2016 to 81 nests in 2019. A total of 373 active nests were recorded in 2019 in Gorongosa National Park. Since 2017, a small number of additional nests were also observed in the Coutada 11 and Coutada 12 hunting areas, adjacent to Gorongosa. The total count for the greater Gorongosa landscape was 380 active nests in 2019. This represents the first formal record of what appears to be the single largest breeding assembly of Marabou Storks south of the Zambezi and Cunene Rivers. The observation of a significant number of active Marabou nests in the greater Gorongosa landscape has important conservation implications. French Title: Le Marabout d’Afrique Leptoptilos crumenifer se reproduisent dans le grand paysage de Gorongosa, Mozambique Le Marabout d’Afrique Leptoptilos crumenifer est un grand echassier qui se trouve partout en Afrique subsaharienne dans des habitats de savane et de zones humides. Malgre sa presence etendue en Afrique australe, le nombre de localites de reproduction connues et le nombre de nids sont limites. Nous faisons etat de grandes colonies de nidification dispersees dans le grand paysage de Gorongosa, au centre du Mozambique. Nous avons recense le nombre de nids de Marabouts actifs dans le parc national de Gorongosa et les zones adjacentes en effectuant des releves aeriens annuels (par helicoptere) entre 2016 et 2019. La colonie de Muaredzi dans le parc national de Gorongosa s’est developpee chaque annee, passant de 82 nids actifs en 2016 a 258 nids en 2019. De meme, la colonie de Mussicadzi est passee de 5 nids en 2016 a 81 nids en 2019. Un total de 373 nids actifs a ete enregistre en 2019 dans le parc national de Gorongosa. Depuis 2017, un petit nombre de nids supplementaires a egalement ete observe dans les zones de chasse Coutada 11 et Coutada 12, adjacentes a Gorongosa. Le nombre total de nids actifs dans le grand paysage de Gorongosa etait de 380 en 2019. Il s›agit du premier enregistrement officiel de ce qui semble etre le plus grand rassemblement de Cigognes Marabouts nicheuses au sud des rivieres Zambeze et Cunene. L›observation d›un nombre important de nids de Marabouts actifs dans le grand paysage de Gorongosa a des implications importantes pour la conservation de la nature. Keywords: breeding colony, conservation importance. scavenger, Southern Africa

Wetlands are an important habitat for all kinds of dependent water birds. They are vital habitats for resident as well as migratory birds for foraging, roosting and breeding activities. Kopra wetland is an important and suitable bird habitat for both resident and migratory birds in Chhattisgarh. This wetland fulfills the need of water for the surrounding agricultural land and it also acts as a site for food as well as a roosting ground to many resident and migratory bird species. Every year a huge number of birds including Waterfowl, waders and Terrestrial Birds migrate to this wetland between the months of October to March. A study was carried out to estimate the avifaunal diversity during three consecutive winter seasons from 2016 to 2018 and estimated 133 avifauna species belonging to 18 orders and 47 families. Out of 133 avifauna 80 resident and 53 migratory species were recorded, including four Near Threatened species which are Painted Stork (Mycteria leucocephala), Black-headed Ibis (Threskiornis melanocephalus), Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata), Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa limosa) and one Vulnerable (VU) Woolly-necked Stork (Ciconia episcopus) and one Endangered (EN) Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus).

By 1971, the breeding populations of the oriental stork Ciconia boyciana in Japan had become extinct in wild. After long-term conservation efforts and breeding projects, Oriental Storks have been continuously reintroduced to the Toyooka Basin, their final habitat, since 2005. The restoration of shallow wetlands in river areas and paddy fields is urgently needed in the Toyooka Basin, because these areas represent the major foraging habitats for reintroduced Oriental Storks. However, limited information is available on their feeding habits prior to extinction in the wild and, thus, it is difficult to plan specific restoration targets for these foraging habitats. In the present study, we used stable isotopic analysis to compare the nutritional status of the reintroduced populations with that of the extinct populations using preserved (stuffed) specimens. The δ15N values in the extinct populations were higher than those of the reintroduced populations. The diet proportions of the extinct populations were calculated to be equally comprised of five prey items (brackish water fish, freshwater fish, amphibians, insects, and crustaceans), while the contribution of insects was remarkably higher than that of the other prey items in the reintroduced populations. We suggest that these stable isotopic trends and diet proportions reflect a decline in the trophic level of the reintroduced populations owing to the reduced prevalence of high-nutrient prey animals caused by the loss of healthy wetlands after the 1960s in the Toyooka Basin. To increase the abundance and diversity of natural prey species available to the reintroduced Oriental Storks in the Toyooka Basin, more eco-friendly paddy fields and restored wetlands are required in the current paddy and river areas, which would secure the continuity of these wetlands from sea areas to paddy areas using fishways. However, the sampling size of the extinct populations was limited and information about historical baseline changes in prey items was insufficient. Therefore, new approaches using reintroduced populations are required to plan future reintroduction projects for Oriental Storks.

Background Recursive movement patterns have been used to detect behavioral structure within individual movement trajectories in the context of foraging ecology, home-ranging behavior, and predator avoidance. Some animals exhibit movement recursions to locations that are tied to reproductive functions, including nests and dens; while existing literature recognizes that, no method is currently available to explicitly target different types of revisited locations. Moreover, the temporal persistence of recursive movements to a breeding location can carry information regarding the fate of breeding attempts, but it has never been used as a metric to quantify recursive movement patterns. Here, we introduce a method to locate breeding attempts and estimate their fate from GPS-tracking data of central place foragers. We tested the performance of our method in three bird species differing in breeding ecology (wood stork (Mycteria americana), lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni), Mediterranean gull (Ichthyaetus melanocephalus)) and implemented it in the R package ‘nestR’. Methods We identified breeding sites based on the analysis of recursive movements within individual tracks. Using trajectories with known breeding attempts, we estimated a set of species-specific criteria for the identification of nest sites, which we further validated using non-reproductive individuals as controls. We then estimated individual nest survival as a binary measure of reproductive fate (success, corresponding to fledging of at least one chick, or failure) from nest-site revisitation histories during breeding attempts, using a Bayesian hierarchical modeling approach that accounted for temporally variable revisitation patterns, probability of visit detection, and missing data. Results Across the three species, positive predictive value of the nest-site detection algorithm varied between 87 and 100% and sensitivity between 88 and 92%, and we correctly estimated the fate of 86–100% breeding attempts. Conclusions By providing a method to formally distinguish among revisited locations that serve different ecological functions and introducing a probabilistic framework to quantify temporal persistence of movement recursions, we demonstrated how the analysis of recursive movement patterns can be applied to estimate reproduction in central place foragers. Beyond avian species, the principles of our method can be applied to other central place foraging breeders such as denning mammals. Our method estimates a component of individual fitness from movement data and will help bridge the gap between movement behavior, environmental factors, and their fitness consequences.

An observation on avian species composition, density, and diversity was carried out at three selected water bodies of Khanapur Taluka, Belagavi District, for a period of 11 months in 2014. During the study, a total of 28 species belonging to 12 families from five orders were recorded. Of these, Ciconiiformes was represented by seven families followed by Coraciiformes by two families while Anseriformes, Charadriiformes and Gruiformes were represented by one family each. Among the three water bodies studied, maximum species composition (26 species) was recorded from Nandgad pond which also hosts Lesser Adjutant Stork and Wooly-necked Stork categorized as ‘Vulnerable’ and Painted Stork, River Tern and Oriental White Ibis as ‘Near Threatened’ by the IUCN Red List. Bidi Minor Irrigation Tank stands second with 17 species while the minimum was recorded at Hebbal Minor Irrigation Tank with 11 species. Based on our observation, a smaller habitat with habitat heterogeneity can attract more assemblages of avifauna and also result in increased species richness and diversity.

The Saddle-billed Stork Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis exemplifies a case in conservation research in which a species is assessed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and the resulting consideratio...

Conservation of biodiversity alongside agriculture is now a global priority. Tree-nesting waterbirds have a tenuous relationship with farmlands because their survival requires farmers to retain trees and wetlands amid croplands. Research on such birds is rare on tropical and sub-tropical agricultural landscapes where high human densities and intensive farming ostensibly deteriorate breeding conditions. We explored breeding ecology and nest site selection by the single-nesting Woolly-necked Stork (Ciconia episcopus) in Haryana, north India using 298 nests from 166 locations discovered between 2016 and 2020. We determined the relative strengths of association of nest locations with natural features (trees, wetlands), human presence (habitation) and artificial water sources (irrigation canals) to understand cues used by breeding storks to situate nests. Woolly-necked Stork brood size from 42 successful nests was relatively high (3.1 ± 0.9 SD), with nests close to human habitation and wetlands having smaller broods. Storks showed high nest site fidelity (44.5% of sites used > 1 year), rarely nested on man-made structures (electricity pylons; 8.4%), and distributed nests in a clumped pattern. Woolly-necked Storks situated nests ambivalent to natural features but associated strongly with man-made features (positively with irrigation canals; negatively with human habitation). Contrary to expectations, most nests were not on the tallest trees but on the medium sized, native Dalbergia sissoo though storks situated nests on two tall trees (native Ficus religiosa and exotic Eucalyptus sp.) far more than the trees’ availability. All three tree species were favoured either for traditional agroforestry or local religious beliefs. Traditional agriculture in Haryana supported a substantial breeding population of Woolly-necked Storks facilitated by agriculture-related components rather than existing natural features. This novel scenario contradicts conventional narratives that suggest multi-season small holder tropical and sub-tropical agriculture degrades breeding conditions for waterbirds. Our findings in Haryana reiterate the need to assemble a diverse conservation toolkit of different locally relevant mechanisms supporting biodiversity amid cultivation.

Behavioural thermoregulation could buffer the impacts of climate warming on vertebrates. Specifically, the wetting of body surfaces and the resulting evaporation of body fluids serves as a cooling mechanism in a number of vertebrates coping with heat. Storks (Ciconiidae) frequently excrete onto their legs to prevent overheating, a phenomenon known as urohidrosis. Despite the increasingly recognised role of bare and highly vascularised body parts in heat exchange, the ecological and evolutionary determinants of urohidrosis have been largely ignored. We combine urohidrosis data from a scientifically curated media repository with microclimate and ecological data to investigate the determinants of urohidrosis in all extant stork species. Our phylogenetic generalised linear mixed models show that high temperature, humidity and solar radiation, and low wind speed, promote the use of urohidrosis across species. Moreover, species that typically forage in open landscapes exhibit a more pronounced use of urohidrosis than those mainly foraging in waterbodies. Substantial interspecific variation in temperature thresholds for urohidrosis prevalence points to different species vulnerabilities to high temperatures. This integrated approach that uses online data sources and methods to model microclimates should provide insight into animal thermoregulation and improve our capacity to make accurate predictions of climate change’s impact on biodiversity.

Celem artykułu jest analiza występowania słownictwa misteryjnego obecnego w tłumaczeniu Septuaginty. W czasie, kiedy to tłumaczenie powstawało, greckie kulty misteryjne były bardzo popularne. Pewna ich część pozostawała tajemnicą, ale słownictwo, symbolika i część ich ideologii były szeroko znane, także izraelskiej wspólnocie żyjącej w diasporze aleksandryjskiej. Nie jest zatem niczym dziwnym, że w tekście LXX spotykamy słowa związane z kultami misteryjnymi. Tym, co jest zaskakujące i co zachęca do podjęcia badań nad tym zagadnieniem jest to, że w LXX są miejsca, gdzie greckie słowa związane z kultami misteryjnymi tłumaczą słowa hebrajskie w sposób niewłaściwy oraz zmieniają znaczenie i wymowę tłumaczonego tekstu. Z taką sytuacją mamy do czynienia np. w księdze Ozeasza, gdzie spotykamy misteryjne słowa „światło” i „wiedza”, podczas gdy tekst hebrajski przedstawia obrazy rolnicze, oraz w księdze Zachariasza, gdzie hebrajskie słowo „mirt” jest tłumaczone jako „góra”, a słowo „bocian” jako „dudek”. Artykuł podejmuje analizę takiego postępowania tłumaczy LXX oraz motywów ich działania. Możemy tu zaobserwować polemikę z kultami misteryjnymi, prowadzona na dwa sposoby: 1) przez prezentowanie kultów misteryjnych i ich uczestników w złym świetle; 2) przez unikanie możliwych skojarzeń kultu prawdziwego Boga z symboliką misteryjną.