Avian scavengers, but not conspecifics, feeding on the carcasses of storm-killed Turkey Vultures on the Falkland Islands

No Abstract

Social Scavenging by Wintering Striated Caracaras (\u3ci\u3ePhalcoboenus australis\u3c/i\u3e) in the Falkland Islands

Avian scavengers perform vital ecosystem services by removing waste and slowing disease, yet few details are known about the process of carcass depletion, or the role of social interactions among groups of scavengers. The striated caracara (Phalcoboenus australis) is a social scavenging falconid of the Falkland Islands, whose boldness and reliance on human settlements as winter foraging grounds make it an ideal species with which to closely examine carcass use over the entire period of a carcass’ availability. By providing and monitoring experimental carcasses, we estimated the mass of food consumed per individual during 5-min intervals and compared the rate of group formation in the presence and absence of conspecific vocalizations. We found (1) that food obtained per individual was greater toward the beginning of carcass availability, when competition was fierce; (2) that vocalizations, by birds at and approaching the carcass, preceded periods of faster group formation; and (3) that on average birds would approach a speaker playing conspecific calls more closely than one playing a control recording. Our observations add to those of social foraging in other scavengers, providing a study of carcass use and vocalization at these ephemeral resources

Migration and the Built Environment - Abstract, Projects, Conference Proceedings, Atti del Simposio Internazionale Caumme III/Paumme I, Napoli, novembre 24-25, 2016

The phenomenon of migration is as ancient as human socialization. However, in the last decades both phenomena have become a top political and discursive concern in many countries. The contemporary, more international dimension of migration and the spread of media perfectly epitomizes the “liquid” character of the present: something that changes in a constant fashion, but remains hard to contextualize. The global nature of migrations, linked to their increasing articulation, has been the object of widespread scholarly interest, especially in the humanities, to the point that the social scientists S. Castles e M.J. Miller define the last decades as “the migration era”, even if other, earlier historical periods witnessed even more numerous flows. It is unquestionable that, starting from World War I, migration has assumed a global character that has intensified in the last decade. This global dimension is linked to the host of different places involved in the two directions of the flow, to the formation of multiple migratory systems, to the amplification of the transnational character and, the transformation of the landscape of the transit places. Further, focusing on the long period, the transformations appear to affect even the destination places, as populations bring along their customs, behaviors, cultures and techniques. Such mutations involve numerous aspects beyond the anthropological, physical and spatial ones. They also affect the built environment and the processes of construction and representation of both cities and their architecture. CAUMME III - 2016 addresses a number of relevant concerns regarding the relationship between architecture, urbanism and migrations. What are the relevant impacts of migration on the host communities? What anthropological effects are linked to these phenomena? Are architectural aesthetics, the material use and the building techniques going to mutate under the pressure of migration? How is the urban landscape being transformed by flows of migration? What is happening to the housing environments? What kind of relationships are forming between transformation processes of the built environment and the social system in the presence of migrant communities