Begin forwarded message: From: "Cutright.Noel" <[email protected]> Date: July 15, 2005 4:21:42 PM CDT To: "Wisconsin Birding Network" <[email protected]> Subject: [wisb] WNV impacts on crows
During the past couple of years, there has been discussion on what=20 impacts West Nile Virus has had on American Crow populations.=A0 In a=20 recent paper in the Condor (Caffrey, et al. 2005: 128-132 - West Nile=20 Virus devastates an American Crow population), the authors estimate,=20 based upon a marked population of crows in the Stillwater, OK area,=20 that=A0 65% of their population died because of the pathogen in 2003.=A0=20= The total loss was 72% of population members, including 82% of=20 juveniles.=A0 Of the approximately 56 dead crows, they discovered only 4=20= carcasses.=A0 They believe that this suggests that the tens of thousands=20= of carcasses found in NA in the last 5 years might under-represent the=20= number that have died by an order of magnitude and that WNV is likely=20 to cause devastating disruptions to the social organization and=20 demographics of American Crows. Noel Cutright, Ozaukee County.=A0
