Whether or not “raptors” include owls just depends on whether you wish the word to include owls. The word is derived from the same as “rapture”, one who carries
away (prey). As such it also fits raptors. Years ago I found a mostly decomposed Black-shouldered Kite at Kelly’s swamp (near the hide that overlooks the river). It had an equally decomposed mouse stuck halfway down its throat, head first. The likely scenario
was the raptor choked on its prey attempting to eat it in one go. I (like Mark) suspect a sample size of dead raptors in just one month would be very low.
Philip
From: Con Boekel [
Sent: Tuesday, 2 April, 2019 7:20 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] April 2019 project on Anticoagulant Rodenticides and Raptors
Hi David
Normally I would assume that raptores do not include owls, however there is evidence that owls are being affected by eating rats and mice affected by baits.
Does Jake want dead owls as well as dead raptores?
regards
Con
On 4/2/2019 7:13 PM, David McDonald (personal) wrote:
Greetings. COG has been approached by Jake Gillen, ACT Government Conservation Research Ecologist. He writes:
I work with the Conservation Research Unit of the ACT Government. We are currently running a project through April 2019 which aims to collect dead or euthanized raptors. We will subsequently extract livers and send them to Edith Cowan University for anticoagulant
analysis. The aim of the project is to determine the extent of anticoagulant rodenticides within the raptor population in Canberra.
Would it be possible for you please to alert your members to be on the lookout for dead and relatively fresh specimens throughout April and to keep them frozen until we can collect them? I can be contacted via the email address
and via 6205 5290.
=================
Please contact Jake or his colleague Melissa Snape, phone 0418693723 or email to arrange for them to pick up any dead raptors that you come across this month.
Best wishes - David
--
David McDonald
Canberra Ornithologists Group email lists manager
1004 Norton Road, Wamboin, NSW 2620, Australia
Tel: (02) 6238 3706 | Mobile: 0416 231 890 | Fax: (02) 9475 4274
E-mail:
