birding-aus

RE: House Crow

To: "Philip A. Veerman" <>, "birding aus" <>
Subject: RE: House Crow
From: "Scott O'Keeffe" <>
Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2001 00:29:01 +1000
Philip-
 
Yes, Hawaii does get some international bird migrants.  Some of these are the same sorts of international 'travellers' that we get here.  Wandering Tattlers for example.  Perhaps in Australia, there exists some local tolerance of the potential diseases that regular international migrants carry.  If they have been migrating here for x thousands of years, this may have occurred.  House Crows are not 'natural' migrants, and it is perhaps possible that they may carry something (parasite or pathogen) which local birds cannot tolerate.  Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems likely that the air sac mites threatening Gould's Finches had their origins in exotic cage birds.  I do not think that disease or pathogens can be entirely disounted as a risk.  Given the stresses placed on many native species by removal or alteration of habitat, a newly arrived exotic disease may be the additional factor that tips the balance towards decline.
 
Scott O'Keeffe
-----Original Message-----
From: Philip A. Veerman [
Sent: 07 February 2001 22:32
To: Scott O'Keeffe; birding aus
Subject: Re: House Crow

A fair point, however Australia as a continent that gets a large number of international bird migrants is not so likely to suffer ill effects from that cause. The bird fauna here has probably long been exposed to most such nasties. Hawaii, which is a tiny set of isolated islands is in a different situation, smaller gene pool of virtually all species, so probably less resistance and - well I don't know - does Hawaii get international bird migrants? 
<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU