Summer 2008Quarterly News from the Center for Conservation Biology
For the past year, CCB biologists have been trapping eagles on Aberdeen Proving Ground within the upper Chesapeake Bay to learn more about their movement patterns. Captured birds have been fitted with state-of-the-art tracking devices that record GPS locations every hour, store the information in data files, and communicate the data to researchers via satellite. When completed, this will be one of the largest tracking studies of bald eagles ever conducted. 
CCB and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Virginia successfully used a state of the art satellite transmitter to track a whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) from Virginia to western Canada, then Alaska, and recently Minnesota. This event documents an unknown and unexpected migration route between the mid-Atlantic coast and the northwestern Arctic. The whimbrel completed the apparent nonstop flight from Virginia to Alaska's border, more than 5,000 km (3,200 miles), in 146 hours.
In recent decades, managing conflicts between wildlife populations and humans has become a growth industry. Whether it is the impact of expanding deer herds on agricultural crops, or cormorants depleting southern fish farms it is increasingly difficult for managers to strike a balance between social interests and the health of wildlife populations. The Center for Conservation Biology is partnering with Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Virginia state office of U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services to collect and analyze data on black vulture populations.
Consumer protection from food-borne illnesses is an ever-growing concern for our society. Each year, there are a growing number of outbreaks of human illness from food contaminated by biological pathogens. CCB has entered into a 2-year cooperative study funded by the United Stated Department of Agriculture that also brings together food safety science experts from Virginia State University (VSU) and farm management researchers at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) to investigate the factors associated with the transmission of pathogens from wild birds to farm animals.
Fish consumption advisories have been established based on human health concerns associated with mercury in aquatic ecosystems, but the impact of environmental mercury on wildlife populations is still poorly understood. CCB has partnered with the U.S. Department of Defense to investigate mercury levels in bald eagles, since the species relies heavily on aquatic prey and therefore may represent an important biological indicator for mercury.
Colonial waterbirds are important biological indicators for the health of aquatic ecosystems. During the 2008 nesting season, CCB's funding partners included the NOAA Coastal Zone Management Program administered by the Virginia Dept. of Environmental Quality and also by the Virginia Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and The Nature Conservancy. CCB biologists lead an effort by air, land, and sea to survey and map waterbird colonies. The 2008 effort is the latest in a long series of benchmark surveys stretching back to the 1970s.
The black rail (Laterallus jamaicensis) is one of the most endangered and least studied birds along the Atlantic Coast. Status information is lacking over large portions of it breeding range. In Virginia, it is generally believed to occur in only 10-20 breeding locations. CCB’s two-year historic survey will be an assessment of Virginia’s breeding population of black rails and a digital atlas of breeding locations.
