Seeing the Vultures Through the Trees

I just spent last few months trailing Turkey Vultures, looking for an elusive Black Vulture newcomer and writing about the topic (See SB Independent online Goleta Grapevine Column).

During the process, I came across several interesting references (shown below). Many websites list fascinating facts. However, in some cases I had a hard time tracking down all the primary literature that backed them.

One specific reference is to a 1964 ethyl mercaptan sensitivity study which indicates (apparently, as I didn't get my hands on the actual report) that the substance was added to gas as a means to detect leaks via the use of Turkey Vulture aggregation. However, I'm intrigued by the Smith and Paselk 1986 article whose data seems to contradict the idea that ethyl mercaptan is an attractant (or perhaps their olfactory indicator of altered heart rate is not valid) as well as the seeming lack of related reports.

Other attempts to fact find--how much a Turkey Vulture in the wild consumes in a day, for example--seemed an impossible task. In the 70's it was determined that captive Turkey Vultures eat 140 g per day. Since then much data has been collected in terms of what kind of animals are consumed but quantities apparently prove difficult to determine.

Websites
Rare Black Vulture sighting
Turkey Vulture Society
Stanfordbird Diet and Nutrition
Orange County Project to track Turkey Vultures


Primary Literature References:
Evans, B.A. and Sordahl, T.A. (2009), Factors influencing perch selection by communally roosting Turkey Vultures. Journal of Field Ornithology, 80: 364-372.

Prather, I.D., Connor, R.N., Adkisson, C.S., Unusually Large Vulture Roost in Virginia. The Wilson Bulletin, Vol 88, No. 4: 667-888.

Smith, S.A. and Paselk, R.A. (1986) Olfaction in the Turkey Vulture. The Auk, 103: 586-592.

Review Article:
DeBose, J.L and Nevitt, G.A (2008), The use of Odors at Different Spatial Scales: Comparing Birds with Fish. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 34: 867-881

Resonating References

Below are some research articles relevant to my most recent Goleta Grapevine column, A Resonating Resource which ever-so-lightly touches on neurocognition and music.

Research Articles:

Zatorre RJ. Absolute pitch: a model for understanding the influence of genes and development on neural and cognitive function. Nat Neurosci. 2003

Jul;6(7):692-5.

Cuddy LL, Balkwill LL, Peretz I, Holden RR. Musical difficulties are rare: a study of "tone deafness" among university students. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2005

Dec;1060:311-24.

Patel AD. Language, music, syntax and the brain. Nat Neurosci. 2003

Jul;6(7):674-81.

* Forgeard M, Winner E, Norton A, Schlaug G. Practicing a musical instrument in childhood is associated with enhanced verbal ability and nonverbal reasoning.

PLoS One. 2008;3(10):e3566.

* Ross D, Choi J, Purves D. Musical intervals in speech. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A.

2007 Jun 5;104(23):9852-7.

* Moreno S, Marques C, Santos A, Santos M, Castro SL, Besson M. Musical training influences linguistic abilities in 8-year-old children: more evidence for brain plasticity.

Cereb Cortex. 2009 Mar;19(3):712-23.

Parbery-Clark A, Skoe E, Kraus N. Musical experience limits the degradative effects of background noise on the neural processing of sound. J Neurosci. 2009

Nov 11;29(45):14100-7.

Bowling DL, Gill K, Choi JD, Prinz J, Purves D. Major and minor music compared to excited and subdued speech.

J Acoust Soc Am. 2010 Jan;127(1):491-503. 

*articles are publicly available

Lapses and Invigorations

While I have been preoccupied with employment and parenthood, Stimulating Aliquot, the chickens, garden, compost, zombie novel, sourdough starter, surfing and the like have been somewhat neglected. Fortunately, in February I began contributing to the Goleta Grapevine, a column at the Santa Barbara Independent and, as a consequence, am reinvigorating the blog. Stimulating Aliquot will still relate everyday happens to science news but now will also serve as a supplementary venue for ongoing writing projects.

Note, the URL is now http://stimulatingaliquot.blogspot.com, however, feed burner was altered concomitantly and should pick up accordingly. If it doesn't work, please send me a note. Likewise, feedback, ideas and comments are always welcome and will be addressed promptly.