Thursday, March 26, 2015
-- Of Pileated Poopology --
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Back when the major IBWO search was underway one possibility considered was to look for feathers from suspected-activity sites that might prove, through DNA analysis, to be Ivory-billed. I don't recall what, if any other remnants for DNA analysis, were seriously considered at the time? And am not sure how practical it is to tease out from the various DNA in bird droppings the specific bird species involved. Anyway, just passing along this Julie Zickefoose post in which, about half-way down, she instructs on finding Pileated poop below Pileated workings:
http://juliezickefoose.blogspot.com/2015/03/dogbombed-again-plus-pileated-poop-how.html
I've often looked below Pileated excavations myself for feathers without success, and never even noticing poop being prevalent, but will have to look more closely next time.
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1 comment:
Thanks for posting this. We're always on the lookout for both feathers and feces. Over the years, Frank has found a couple of PIWO tail feathers in our search area, but we haven't found any testable fecal matter near our scaled trees. I suspect that what's shown in the blog post would be. Lots of luck involved but perhaps not as much as in getting a clear photo. This inspires me to look a lot more carefully.
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