HEALTH STATUS OF NAZCA BOOBIES () ON DAPHNE MAJOR ISLAND IN THE GALÁPAGOS DETERMINED BY HEMATOLOGY, BIOCHEMISTRY, AND PHYSICAL EXAMINATION. | LitMetric
Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Colegio de Ciencias Biológicas y Ambientales, Quito 170901, Ecuador.
Published: June 2021
AI Article Synopsis
Article Abstract
Island species are particularly vulnerable to environmental disturbances and introduced pathogens. Conducting health assessments of wild populations in the Galápagos improves the ability of wildlife managers and veterinarians to detect deteriorations in health status. Seabirds in particular are useful species to monitor due to their colonial breeding and wide migration range. Nazca boobies () in a breeding colony at Daphne Major ( = 30) were given physical examinations, and blood samples were collected for hematology and biochemistry using an iSTAT Portable Clinical Analyzer. Female boobies had longer wing length than males, as well as lower blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, and white blood cell counts. This could be attributed to sexual dimorphism or differences in foraging and mating strategies between the sexes. The time between capture and blood collection had a significant inverse relationship on plasma sodium, potassium, hemoglobin, anion gaps, and lymphocyte counts, suggesting that blood sampling in Nazca boobies should be done in less than 5 m to avoid the impacts of stress on hematological parameters. This is the first health assessment on the breeding colony of Nazca boobies at Daphne Major, and the results can inform future monitoring in this species as well as other sulids.
Epidémio-Surveillance et Circulation des Parasites dans les Environnements (ESCAPE), EA 7510, CAP SANTE, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France.
Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite that poses risks to wildlife in the Galapagos, especially due to its spread by domestic cats introduced by humans.
A study examined T. gondii antibody prevalence in Galapagos birds from both cat-inhabited and cat-free islands, finding a range of exposure levels among different bird species based on their diets.
Results showed that the highest infection risk came from eating tissue cysts, followed by eating plants and insects that may be contaminated with the parasite's eggs.
Foraging outcomes dictate the nutritional resources available to an organism and may vary with intrinsic factors, like age. Thus, understanding how age affects foraging performance, alone or in interaction with extrinsic factors (like environmental quality), improves our understanding of aging processes in the wild. We examined how foraging traits, measured across five breeding seasons, change with age, environmental variation, and their interaction in Nazca boobies (), a pelagic seabird in Galápagos.
The manifold differences between the sexes provide wide scope for sex differences in senescence. However, detecting physiological decline in old age and evaluating any sex difference in aging in a wild population can be challenging. This applies especially to long-lived species that require marking around birth in order to recognize elderly individuals, perhaps decades later.
Age and environment are important determinants of reproductive parameters in long-lived organisms. These factors may interact to determine breeding responses to environmental change, yet few studies have examined the environmental dependence of aging patterns across the entire life span. We do so, using a 20-yr longitudinal data set of reproductive phenotypes in long-lived female Nazca boobies (Sula granti), a monogamous seabird breeding in the eastern tropical Pacific.
Island species are particularly vulnerable to environmental disturbances and introduced pathogens. Conducting health assessments of wild populations in the Galápagos improves the ability of wildlife managers and veterinarians to detect deteriorations in health status. Seabirds in particular are useful species to monitor due to their colonial breeding and wide migration range.
