At 15:22 5/02/2001 +1100, you wrote:
>Hi David,
>You wrote of "capture myopathy and drowning" as possible though rare
terminal events in cannon netting of waders. I am (probably like you and
most of us) not against the method, if the loss is minimal and the benefit
in research or conservation is maximised. I'm sorry but I have no idea what
you mean by "myopathy" in this context. As I think your contribution is
useful, I would like to know what you mean.
>The dictionary says myopathy is a "disorder of muscle tissue or muscles".
As these are birds that have flown from the other end of the world and are
very active in their daily feeding and roosting movements, I would think
their muscles would be fairly healthy or at least not suffering muscular
disorder.
>
>How then does the netting procedure contribute to or cause myopathy? Also
what does the statement "we won't fire a net if a flock is too large" have
to do with this?
>
>Philip
Philip and others
Capture myopathy is a condition found in antelope and some waders, [godwits seem
particularly prone to it] where there is muscle damage and wasting following
capture. It seems so be caused by restraining the animals and preventing
them from moving around normally, possibly leading to a build up of metabolites
[lactic acid and others] in the muscles. Used to be called 'white-muscle
disease'
in antelope.
If a flock of birds was too large, I presume that it would take longer to
process
all the birds [or even remove them from the net] and thus lead to a greater
chance
of myopathy.
As others have said, when discussing this one has to way up the potenial
benefits
to the species/population with the harm caused to some individuals.
Don't forget that all bird populations have large mortalities every year, mostly
unheard and unseen, from a variety of causes. Most researchers agree that
the biggest
threat to bird populations is the loss of habitat, which occurs by stealth!
Yours
Pete
Dr Peter Woodall email =
Division of Vet Pathology & Anatomy
School of Veterinary Science. Phone = +61 7 3365 2300
The University of Queensland Fax = +61 7 3365 1355
Brisbane, Qld, Australia 4072 WWW = http://www.uq.edu.au/~anpwooda
"hamba phezulu" (= "go higher" in isiZulu)
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