Amid sporadic avian influenza outbreaks and isolated human cases in Southeast Asia, countries and health organizations have intensified their efforts against infectious disease outbreaks in the region. The most recent clusters of H5N1 bird flu occurred in Indonesia and Cambodia, where human-to-human transmission is suspected, while two human cases in Guangzhou and Shenzhen are still under inves...

In order for airports to manage the bird strike risk effectively, a risk assessment process needs to be carried out to identify the major hazards at the airport, the levels of risk that they produce, and the most cost effective means of reducing that risk. Despite the fact that bird controllers, managers and consultants make informal bird strike risk assessments throughout their working lives, ...

From February to May, 2013, 132 human avian influenza H7N9 cases were identified in China resulting in 37 deaths. We developed a novel, simple and effective compartmental modeling framework for transmissions among (wild and domestic) birds as well as from birds to human, to infer important epidemiological quantifiers, such as basic reproduction number for bird epidemic, bird-to-human infection ...

Army ants (Formicidae: Ecitoninae) are top predators in neotropical forests. Army ant raids support a community of diverse organisms, including birds that attend the raids to collect prey. While elevation and forest fragmentation influence army ant and insectivorous bird communities, their effects on the interaction between army ants and bird species is unknown. We studied the size and species ...

This paper presents an extension of our recent work on recognition of multiple bird species from their vocalisations by incorporating an improved acoustic modelling. The acoustic scene is segmented into spectro-temporal isolated segments by employing a sinusoidal detection algorithm, which is able to handle multiple simultaneous bird vocalisations. Each segment is represented as a temporal sequ...

The effects of bird feeders on local densities of Ixodes scapularis ticks and prevalence of Lyme disease were examined in residential areas of Dutchess County, NY. Ticks were collected, counted, and analyzed forBorrelia burgdorferi spirochetes in 2001Ð2002 on residential properties with and without bird feeders. Tick densities and infection prevalence were not signiÞcantly different on properti...

Private gardens provide habitat and resources for many birds living in human-dominated landscapes. While wild bird feeding is recognised as one of the most popular forms of human-wildlife interaction, almost nothing is known about the use of bird baths. This citizen science initiative explores avian assemblages at bird baths in private gardens in south-eastern Australia and how this differs wit...

Zoos may play an important role in conservation when they maintain and breed large numbers of animals that are threatened with extinction. Bird conservation is in a privileged situation owing to the extensive biological information available about this class. Annual inventories produced by the "Sociedade de Zoológicos do Brasil" in the years 1981, 1990, 2000, and 2005 were analyzed. Variables, ...

The expression of animals and natural phenomena as simulated by computer graphics can be expected to enhance the realism of landscape simulation, virtual reality, etc. In this paper, a model of bird flight model animated in real time is proposed by taking aerodynamics into consideration. In this model, a bird flies by the wingbeat motion and using its tail feathers. Furthermore, target points a...

The effects of fire on the composition of a bird community were investigated in an Amazonian savanna near Alter-do-Chão, Pará (Brazil). Mist-net captures and visual counts were used to assess species richness and bird abundance pre- and post-fire in an approximately 20 ha area. Visual counts along transects were used to survey birds in an approximately 2000 ha area in a nearby area. Results usi...