A great deal has been written on the part which birds play in the dispersal of freshwater fauna. This article summarises literature on the dispersal of aquatic animals by birds and aquatic insects

Thienemann, A.

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F.B.A. Translation (N.S.) No. 57 
THIENEMANN, A. (1950) 
The transport of aquatic animals by birds. 
Binnengewasser, 18, 156-59 
Translated by P. L. Nock 
2. The Transport of Aquatic Animals by Birds. 
A great deal has been written on the part which birds play in the dis-
persal of freshwater fauna. ZSCHOKKE (1900, S. 369-375) has gathered together 
the literature on this subject. We follow him (in parts literally) and 
supplement his data. 
Resistant stages of Protozoa, Bryozoa, Spongillae, Crustacea, Rotatoria, 
in addition to molluscs (eggs and adult animals, especially species which 
occur abundantly on the surface of the water) (BROCKMEIER 1896, 249) and all 
kinds of worms, perhaps also occasionally amphibians and fish (eggs), are 
carried in the plumage and on the feet and legs of aquatic birds. Cladocera 
eggs, statoblasts of Plumatella, cysts of infusoria, and Ostracoda were 
directly observed on the bill, feet and plumage of migrating ducks. Nematoda 
and Philodina could be taken from the particles of mud clinging to the birds. 
One swan was completely covered with statoblasts. Polycelis nigra was carried 
by Fulix fuligula, F. nyroca and Anas boschas, Glossosiphonia complanata by 
Mareca penelope and Anas boschas, Plumatella repens by Ardea cinerea. 
Sphaerium cornum was found clinging to the foot of a snipe (illustration of 
NUSSBAUM-KARSTEN-WEBER, 465), and pond mussels on the webs of ducks. The 
migratory duck with the recent spawn of a freshwater snail on its foot, which 
Tristram shot in the Sahara, at least 100 English miles from the nearest 
freshwater, has become famous (1.c.p. 465). It has been established through 
experiments that the spawn of frogs and toads can also remain in the air in 
smaller amounts for up to four days in a low temperature and misty weather, 
without its capacity for development incurring serious damage, and so the 
conditions for spreading are favourable. (HESSE 1924, p. 56). And PR. 
SCHIEMENZ (1925) showed through experiments on stickleback eggs, that such 
fish eggs are not so delicate that they cannot be spread by aquatic birds. 
Indeed, fish eggs (pike and perch spawn) have also been found clinging to 
aquatic birds (SHIEMENZ). KAMMERER (1907, p. 521) bred, among other things, 
two examples of the small carp Cyprinodon fasciatus out of Adria mud which 
had lain dry for two weeks. Thus the eggs of this fish can also be spread 
by aquatic birds, without their capacity for development suffering by it. 
In addition, Cyprinodonts live in most constricted and remote waters. 
2 
The present-day d i s t r i b u t i o n of freshwater fauna provides indirect 
evidence for the role of t ranspor t by b i rds . In t h i s way, according to D.E. 
GUERNE, the colonisat ion of the freshwater basins of the Azpres i s pa r t ly 
explicable. Santa Maria, one of the smallest and d r i e s t is lands of the 
Azores, lyung nearest the coasts of Europe and Africa and offering a na tura l 
rest ing-place to migrating b i r d s , according to DE GUERNE owes the presence 
of northern entomostraca, such as Cypris bispinosa and Diaptomus se r r i corn i s 
LILLJ. , to water fowl. (For fur ther examples see ZSCHOKKE). Also the 
d i s t r ibu t ion and composition of the high alpine water fauna argues for , and 
not against , the widespread aid of t h i s t ransport (ZSCHOKKE). As evidence 
for spreading in the en t i re region of the Dauphine by b i rds of passage, KEIL-
HACK and others put forward the diffusion of Acroperus harpae and Polyphemus 
pediculus (PESTA 1929, p. 127). 
SCHRODER (1923) d i r ec t ly views wading birds - and amongst these probably 
wild ducks - as the most important factor in the spread of l imnetic organisms 
in the colonisation of newly-made re se rvo i r s . The appeal which the wide 
surfaces of water in reservoi rs has for birds of passage i s known to be great . 
In this way the crustacean Holopedium gibberum was introduced into the 
reservoirs of Klingenberg and Bergen (Saxony); in 1918-20 MAX VOIGT showed i t 
to be present there . 
The planktonic crustacean Eurytemora velox LILLJ., cha rac te r i s t i c of the 
waters of the North German lowland, only penetrates up the Rhine in unstable 
colonies, at times further south, spread by water b i rds (the island of 
Nonnenwerth in the Middle Rhine, Pool of the Altrhein Stockstadt-Erfelden 
on the Upper Rhine) (LAUTERBORN 1918, p. 71). 
The boreo-alpine crustacean Bythotrephes was spread in only 30-year old 
Silesian quarr ies . 
When freshwater sna i l s such as Limneae ovata DRAP. occur on the Halligen, 
those small i s lands in the Wattenmeer, i t i s very probable tha t they have 
been introduced by ducks (DEGNER 1924). 
That the snai l Pyrgula annulata, otherwise native to the upper I t a l i a n 
and Dalmatian lakes , has recent ly occurred in four small lakes in Trentina 
(Cavedine, Toblino, S. Massenza, Tenne) i s a t t r ibuted to t ransport by aquatic 
b i rds (PIERSANTI, according to BURCKHARDT 1941, S. 216). 
Also animals, whose d i s t r i b u t i o n we can in general understand only by 
the assumption of active migration on t he i r par t , are spread by birds in 
exceptional cases. Thus the incidence of Planaria alpina and Polycelis 
cornuta (which in general are not transported) in a small stream which flows 
into the Laacher See ( E i f e l ) , which has no out le t , by the abbey of Maria 
Laach, i s according to WALTER VOIGT'S view (1910) explicable only through 
3 
transport by b i rds ; aquatic b i rds v i s i t the la rge , open lake in great numbers. 
Also in about 1937 Polyce l i s cornuta ( f i s s ipara) was carried from a spring 
in the Kellersee in Holstein to one in the neighbouring Dieksee (THIENEMANN 
1949 a). 
Finally WEIGOLD (1910) established that the chydorid fauna of the ponds 
and meres of Saxony are r icher in species, the more these waters are v i s i t ed 
by migrating b i rds . In his experimental area i t was c lear ly recognisable 
that "the settlement of isolated waters by Chydoridae takes place almost 
exclusively by t ranspor t on the par t of birds and i s continual process ." 
He remarks of Chydorus sphaericus (p. 109): "Apart from wild ducks, especia l ly 
Anas boschas and querquedula, the coot and moorhen Fulica a t ra and Gall inula 
chloropus especia l ly become potent ia l c a r r i e r s . Then af te r these the Totanus 
species, Tringoides hypoleucus, Charadrius dubius, the wagtai ls , Motacil la 
alba, come under consideration next to s t i l l a few other rarer beach b i rds , 
which along with the above-mentioned prefer to run about on mud and in shallow 
water, and thereby spread the small ephippia with the mud at the places where 
they congregate. In the case of web-footed b i r d s , however, i t i s more 
a question of plumage, on which the eggs of groundlings are caught up between 
water p lan ts . I suppose that i t i s jus t the sandpipers, the wide-ranging 
Totanidae, which have up to now been underestimated as " f a l s i f i e r s of fauna". 
I t should also be explicable through t r snspor t by birds that the purely northern 
cladoceran Limnosida frontosa G.O. SARS suddenly appeared in the ponds of 
South Bohemia near Nauhaus, but thereupon immediately disappeared again 
(SPANDL 1927, p. 69) . ARNDT (1928, P. 163) a t t r i b u t e s the appearance of the 
sponge Heteromeyenia ryder i on the Faeroes to introduction by b i rds of passage 
from the Br i t i sh I s l e s . 
Aquatic animals, however, can be spread not only v ia the body surfaces 
of b i rds . ZACHARIAS has already bred amoebae, infusoria and Ostracods from 
the droppings of seagul l s . In one remarkable case HILBERT (1919) notes t h a t , 
"even large water sna i l s can be swallowed (by water birds) and then removed 
alive out of the animal 's crop through regurgi ta t ion . Three years ago (1915) 
an acquaintance of mine shot a duck on the Pregel near Konigsberg i . Pr . -
a duck whose crop contained eleven la rge , adult specimens of Paludina fasc ia ta 
MULL, which were a l l unharmed and lived protected by a t i gh t l y closed cover. 
A l iv ing specimen of the snai l Hydrobia ulvae PENN. was found in the crop of 
a sandpiper (Cal idr i s maritima BRUM.). I t often happens that an aquatic 
bird which has been shot vomits up the contents of i t s crop, so that s n a i l s , 
which had previously been taken and which are s t i l l jus t about a l ive , gain 
t he i r freedom again (BOETTGER 1931, p. 273). 
4 
HUITTELD-KAAS (1924, pp. 235, 236) mentions the widespread d i s t r i bu t ion 
of f ish by f i sh-ea t ing bi rds such as "Lumme"*, seagulls and ospreys, e t c . 
I t i s not impossible tha t when foraging the parents l e t a f ish f a l l here 
and there, pursed by a bird of prey of busy foraging for themselves. Such 
an isolated instance na tura l ly could not be s ignif icant for the general 
p ic ture . 
3. Transport of Aquatic Animals by Insec ts . 
Plying insec t s also serve as vehicles for aquatic animals. The snai l 
Ancylus has been repeatedly found fastened to the wing cases of bee t les ( e .g . 
Colymbetes). Small mussels have also been found already adhering to insec t s ; 
a water-beetle (Dytiscus marginalis) carried a Sphaerium on i t s l egs , a water-
bug a pea-shell (Pisidium). Ostracoda (Cyclocypris l a e v i s , serena) were 
spread by f lying aquatic insec ts (such as Notonecta glauca). Small specimens 
of Gammarus were carried by Dysticus, and water bee t les and water-bugs are 
vehicles for vor t i ce l l ae and Carchesium (ZSCHOKKE *900, S. 375; HESSE 1924, 
S. 5 6 ) . 
Water-mite larvae are transported regular ly by flying in sec t s , on which 
they are p a r a s i t i c , In 1937 MUNCHBERG gave a survey "on the parasi t ism of 
water-mites on f lying i n sec t s " , to a great par t on the bas is of unique, 
voluminous and painstaking experiments (further l i t e r a t u r e in t h i s work). 
Larvae of Arrenurus and George11a species are p a r a s i t i c on dragonfl ies . Other 
Arrenurus species are attached to Chironomidae and Culicidae; Arrenurus 
larvae have also been found on water bee t les (Hydrophilus). Hygrobates 
longipalpis larvae l ive on Chironomidae and Corethra; the same goes for 
Diplodontus despiciens , whose main host i s Corethra. Chironomidae are a l so 
parasi t ised by the deep-water Hydracarina of our North German lakes , Huit-
feldia rec t ipes , as well as Fiona conglobata. Thyasinae prefer semi-aquatic 
Tipulidae, but also occur on other , pa r t ly genuinely aquatic Diptera. Water-
mite larvae are fur ther known from Plecoptera and Trichoptera. The p o s s i b i l i t i e s 
for the spreading in stagnant water of Hydracr inae , whose larvae are para-
s i t i c on flying in sec t s , are of course much be t t e r , than those of the species 
without larval paras i t i sm, which therefore can act ively migrate only on water. 
In the small basin in a garden a t Plon, mentioned on p. 143, during the 
four years of observation, 18 species of Hydracarina, tha t i s 18%. of the 
macroscopic animal species observed overal l in the basin, were introduced by 
flying insects (midges/gnats/mosquitoes) (THIENEMANN 1948). 
* ? Cormorants 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Notice 
 
 
Please note that these translations were produced to assist the scientific staff of the 
FBA (Freshwater Biological Association) in their research. These translations were 
done by scientific staff with relevant language skills and not by professional 
translators. 
 
 
 


The transport of aquatic animals by birds. [Translation from: Binnengewaesser 18, 156-159, 1950.]

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The transport of aquatic animals by birds. [Translation from: Binnengewaesser 18, 156-159, 1950.]

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