Spoonbill and Ibis in Zoo Environment - Research Paper Example

Spoonbill and Ibis in Zoo Environment Introduction When observing birds that are at captivity, this can be such an amazing experience for both the students, young kids and to some mature people. There are so many reasons as to why students carried out the project of the two birds’ observation at the zoo. This majorly gave the students the experience to learn more about the two birds’ species enabling them to acquire more opportunities from the birds unlike their local species and seasonal migrants. While observing the birds, there were a number of characteristics realised. Some of the birds were seen preening where they used their feathers to smooth the body whilst at the trees and at the vegetation grounds. At the same time other birds were not seen moving of performing the preening. Some of them were also spotted standing on the vegetation ground with only one leg. Some birds were also seen cleaning their feathers using there peaks while standing either with both legs or on lone leg. While in the foraging water, some were seen using their peak to have a side to side movement while other having either a forward or backward movements using the head (Sanz & Grajal 2014). Some of the birds had a movement of using both the legs putting the head at an upright position while having a parallel position to the ground. When the birds were flying, their bodies were elevating in the air while using their wings to fly from one place to another. With the null hypothesis no behavior that was an exceptional in the birds. This is a project that entails a lot in the observation of the two species, Spoonbill and Ibis. During the study of the project, students could identify the various common birds in the Zoo and observe their behavior and identify their characteristics. This was also facilitated by the identification in the field guide by the students having a close to the animal species and come out with the best results (Funk 2002). The main objective of the project was to identify the main characteristics of the birds more so the two species of the animals. This could also make the students to understand the main patterns of the birds when they are in the artificial environment rather than in the natural environment. With the general characteristics of the animal species students were allowed to learn the common general characteristics of all the birds and be able to use the vocabularies used in order to describe them including the webbed, lobed, crest, talons perching and the seed eaters. In regard of the project objective, the students were able to identify the sample details which were required in the project including the source of the animals. This made the students to master the required samples in the groups in regard to the project allocation of the students. With the mastering of the bird sources, there is a clear knowledge on the origin of the two animal species. The observable schemes of the two species had some repetition on some of the animal species creating a good pattern of observation for the students to learn (Funk 2002). In this project, there were considerations on the two man birds, the European Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) and the Ibis (Geronticus eremita). The two animal species had a lot in common during the study creating a good time budget project. With the European Spoonbill, it was white in color having a long black mouth. It also had two tall black legs in which around its front end towards its neck it had a fading grayish ring. With the European Spoonbill, it has got a breeding span range that starts from Europe and ends at the north west of Africa of which its number is not such large in the region of Africa (Sanz & Grajal 2014). Some of them can also be found at the Red sea, India and some parts of China. With the birds, they have the wintering areas which include the coast of Europe along the Mediterranean and the Sub Sahara of Africa. Other places include the west part of Asia, Sri Lanka and the southern part of China and Japan. With the better known species of the European Spoonbill there is a threat that their inhabitants which are natural will eventually diminish because of the degradation. With the northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita), it is a fact that they are really decreasing leading into a very small population in the parts of Morocco. With the management in the zoos the number is growing up due to the success in their breeding. It is a recent activity that has been happening in the Zoos of Morocco and by that the number of their colonies has not yet been improved rather increased. Parts like Syria the population of the bird species has decreased greatly affecting the colonies. All this proves that the species is in real threat for the coming years. With the study of the bird close at a 70 cm it is a large Ibis. The bird is black in general having some spots of blue color in some parts of its body (Funk 2002). Some of them do not have only the blue spots but they also have some green and copper spots along their overall body. The feathers of the Ibis have red spots with a naked face and crown. They are long and narrow starting to project from the nuchal and they have a ruff end. The Ibis birds have no noise and they are silent most of the time having several hisses and grunts when they are in the nest and when they are viewed. Historically the birds are known to have originated from the North Africa and extended their visit to the Middle East. Right from the 20th century the Ibis birds are known to exist in two major populations in the land of Africa being in Morocco and at the eastern population of the parts of Turkey and Syria. While in Morocco the birds are found in parts of the Souss national park found within the 338 km square. In the park there are three sub colonies in the park having another at the Tamri whereby the colony is half as much as all the other breeding population. The other two colonies the birds do have very little movements over. The population of the birds has a range of 443 individuals with 74 breeding pairs in the zoo and this breeding pairs also lay eggs to hutch. At present the population is so good having 148 young Ibis birds in the zoo. Another threat by the birds is that the farmers around the park are to be decolonized by the Geronticus eremita. There is an historical background of the birds that in the year 2002 they died leaving the birds to only has a very little colon. In some parts of Syria, they were almost all gone leaving very few birds. After the discover there was a clear thought that the birds were seen to have disappeared leaving only few birds going back to the colon. During the year of 2002 to 2007 there were only six breeding seasons having only three pairs of which there were only 24 chicks hatched by the end of the 2007 year. This left the breeding to be successful creating a new era for the Ibis species. In the year 2009, 5 immature birds returned back to the colony increasing the population of the birds. Adequate Background For the method used in the project, there were a number of samples used in the study. Among the methods used in the study of the animals species of the European Spoonbill and the Ibis is the satellite tagging in order to identify the birds’ migration through the parks. For the Ibis, the birds migrate from the south of Jordan and the Saudi Arabia. It is also known that a number of six to seven birds spend almost a week at Yemen and they winter at the Ethiopian side (Pepperberg 2012). The birds then start the journey migrating back to Syria through Eretria, Sudan and Saudi Arabia. According to the study of the project and in relation to the animals in the study, there were 113 pairs of which mature birds of the Ibis were 226 and they were nested. There were 148 young ones that were fledged in the study. With the observable regimes, the ibis has got a migratory behavior of which the large portion of the birds had a dispersive behavior. The breeding of the Ibis birds occur in the colonies having of a maximum of 40 pairs. This begins in the mid February which leads to the egg lying in the month of March to April (Pepperberg 2014). With the colonies of the birds, the birds vacate from the colonies by the month of July and all the birds wait until august they start to migrate. The number of breeding grounds recorded was around 170. Due to the rains, the ibis can be restricted from the movements but all the breeding birds return to their respective nests by the end of February to March. The birds of the Ibis are known to be gregarious in the entire year creating good loose groups. They are also well spread out in the zoo and they normally are in flocks that are in a number of 100 birds or over. The breeding of the Ibis birds is very important having a very high performance in the following years. Their habitat is also found mostly on rocky places of the zoo with the cliffs and escarpments found in the regions. The birds use the walls, ruins and castles to be as nest sites including at urban areas. Their nests are also found near the Bank Rivers, or near the streams of the zoo including the sandy strips. This can also include the river beds and the sandy banks near the sea shore. The birds also can have the roosts which are located near the trees or be at the cliff edges and even at the field of the zoo (Pepperberg 2012). During the no breeding season the roosts can be found at the mountain meadows, at short grasses and at rocky areas where there is high plateaus. With the European Spoonbill which is part of the family of the Ibises, there was not a constant population. In the zoo the birds were C.50 breeding pairs of which the overall population is uncertain because of the birds decreasing. The Spoonbill has got a breeding style that is migratory (Huber & Gajdon 2006). The bird has a preference of shallow extensive that is below 30 cm. they are normally accompanied with clay and sand that is fine and they normally avoid the waters in the zoo. The bird also inhabits the fresh, and saline. The birds also have the diet of eating insects that are adults and the larvae. This can be the water beetles, dragon and caddis flies, the mollusks, and locusts. They can also take fish that is up to 15 cm long. Methodology Field operations were the most essentials in the project where the two projects were well located by using an observation method of ten minutes at the zoo. In the field study there was the use of the Olympus which is the Dictaphone device which was used in the identification of the behavioral categories of the two bird species. This was a record observed from the twelve birds recorded individually which were chosen from the random method of sampling. Their discovery of the animals was through the number given to them or by the observations of their behaviors. For the accuracy of the identification a 24 hours observation was well detected from the bird species. Ten of the birds from the two species were chosen and measured and observed reading to a 24 birds recording in order to determine and know the weather changes and similarities with the bird species when they are in an artificial environment. Some of the behaviors depicted from the bird species is preening of which the birds were cleaning their feathers using their peaks while they were at specific places like the green vegetated grounds with their two legs on the ground (PE). Some of the birds performed the preening while at on the free land where there is no vegetation or in the water where the limbs could touch the ground (PL), the birds could forage in the water where the head normally touched the water surface and the bird performing some of the movements (FW) or the animals could feed directly either from the vegetation ground of water by having to lean forward (FL). Some of the birds could hide and rest its head along their feathers which was named to be resting elevated (RE). Others had to rest in the same position but they did that on the direct land calling it to be resting on a land behavior (RL). With the locomotion of the birds, some of them did not look for the food and instead they prefer moving around (L) while others opens the wings moving around having a flight tension (F). Some birds had a null behavior that expressed obscurity (F) and those that were out of sight (TO). All the results collected from the project and process it using an Observer XT which helped in the arrangement of the results with the percentage of animals’ behavior in the zoo. Statistical analysis With the statistical analysis, the SPSS20 computer was used in order to get the normality of the data by identifying the mean, median and the durations of the time spent per each bird. In order to identify the rate of the birds’ behavior some tests were carried out like the Mann Witney Test which was followed by the indented T-Test which was used for the analysis of the total duration and the length taken by the birds (Huber & Gajdon 2006). Captive animals For the Platelea Spoonbills they prefer to have a habitat of fresh water rather than the salty water. They can live in both places and survive. Since they are worldwide they are able to spread wide having a wingspan of between 120 to 135 cm and they are of size 80 to 93 cm. Their incubation time lies between 24 to 25 days and their fledging are around 45 to 25 days having only one brood with 3 to 5 eggs. The birds love worm places penetrating into warm places with high temperatures. This is commonly at the coastal regions and they have got very good bill ties to swallow without any problem mostly where there is mud and obstacles. With the group size and composition, they have a range of the habitat quality with a number that can not be clearly known because the birds can spread out any time. The number is not decreasing due to the threshold of the population trend (Herrera & Hennessey 2007). With the description of the statistics, the birds’ food consumptions depend on the time budget of the two species, Platalea leucorodia and Geronticus eremita. This is also accompanied by the activity level of the birds, assimilation efficiency of the birds and the content of the food taken by the two species. The availability of the prey for the two birds varies with the season. Results With the results, there were ten groups from the Mann-Witney test. There was a clear significance from the categories of the test which showed that the RL, RE, PE, PL. this was well shown as the previous order of RL (U= Read More