Vision and foraging in cormorants: more like herons than hawks?

Background: Great cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo L.) show the highest known foraging yield for a marine predator and they are often perceived to be in conflict with human economic interests. They are generally regarded as visually-guided, pursuit-dive foragers, so it would be expected that cormorants have excellent vision much like aerial predators, such as hawks which detect and pursue prey from a distance.

Does exhaustive exercise result in oxidative stress and associated DNA damage in the chub (Leuciscus cephalus)?

DNA strand breaks [as determined by the conventional and formamidopyrimidine glycosylase (FPG)-modified Comet assay] and antioxidant defense status [as indicated by superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and reduced glutathione (GSH) concentration] were evaluated in healthy adult chub (Leuciscus cephalus) after exhaustive exercise [swimming to their critical swimming speed (U(crit)), twice in succession with a 40 min rest period between] vs. confined (unexercised) control fish. The conventional Comet assay revealed significantly higher DNA strand breaks in all the tissues (blood, liver, and gill), with the highest increase over background evident in the epithelial gill cells of swum fish compared to the controls.

DNA strand breaks and adducts determined in feral and caged chub (Leuciscus cephalus) exposed to rivers exhibiting variable water quality around Birmingham, UK.

This study forms part of an investigation into the effects on fish of immersion in three rivers around Birmingham, UK. The rivers Blythe, Cole and Tame exhibit relatively high, intermediate and poor overall water quality, respectively, according to combined levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), as well as heavy metals. Specifically, biomarkers of genotoxicity (DNA strand breaks and adducts) were measured in feral and caged chub (Leuciscus cephalus), complementing another study in which data were presented for a number of other hepatic biomarkers measured in the same animals.