Effect of Deer Density on Breeding Birds in Delaware

Previous research has suggested that high deer densities negatively impact bird communities. Most of this research was conducted using a very high deer density compared to no deer. Our research investigated deer impacts across a density gradient to determine an appropriate density for deer management efforts. Using Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data from 2005- 2006 and Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) deer density data for the same time period, we compared avian richness and relative abundance for BBS points to deer density in Delaware. We divided deer densities into 3 categories: low (\u3c12 deer/km2), medium (12-23 deer/km2) and high (\u3e23 deer/km2). We placed birds into the following deer-sensitive guilds: interior obligates, forest ground nesters, shrub nesters, ground gleaners, low canopy foragers, and tropical migrants. The species richness of ground gleaners was higher in high deer densities (F1.36 = 17.05, P = 0.0002). No other guilds\u27 species richness was affected. The relative abundances of ground gleaners (F1.36 = 25.60, P = \u3c0.0001) and tropical migrants (F1.36 = 4.11, P = 0.0501) were lowest in low deer densities. Relative abundance of wood thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) was also lowest in low deer densities (F1.36 = 21.60, P = \u3c0.0001). Richness and abundance of all guilds were positively influenced by the percent forest cover within a 50 m buffer. The effects of deer density on these bird communities were generally opposite of what past literature has suggested. In order to better understand this trend I have also conducted 618 of my own point counts and corresponding vegetation surveys throughout Delaware. This data was collected from May- August 2008 and will be repeated in the summer of 2009

Paris 1889

The 1889 Exposition Universelle, like all other nineteenth century fairs, was mainly concerned with the progress and modernization the "civilized" world had undergone. While many exhibits like the Exposition de l'Economie Sociale and the Galerie des Machines demonstrated new social and economic breakthroughs, others were devoted to the past and to less "developed" cultures. The Street of Cairo exemplified this dichotomy, but a better example was Charles Garnier's Histoire de l'Habitation Humaine. Garnier was a French architect, born in 1825, best known for his design of the Paris Opera House. He was also recognized for his extensive work on the Histoire de l'Habitation Humaine; a subject on which he wrote a book published in 1892, explaining motivation and purpose for the exhibit. According to Nils Muller-Scheessel, who has studied the representation of prehistory at the world's fairs, "Paris 1889 became the international exhibition of prehistoric archaeology" (Muller-Scheessel 2001)