by Ryan Ponto | Jul 9, 2017 | Bird Netting
A Missouri man has a fish story that he will likely be telling for years.
Monroe MacKinney, 22, was fishing at his parents’ pond on My 31 when he caught a most unusual bass, reports the Daily Mail.
When he went to remove the hook, he noticed something peculiar inside the fish’s mouth.
“I went to lip him so I could remove my hook and that’s when I saw something in its mouth, MacKinney explained. “I didn’t know what it was and I almost dropped the fish back in the water. I was hesitant to remove the hook, but upon further inspection I realized it was a mole inside the fish’s mouth.”
The rodent was fully intact, looking like it just emerged from its hole. Except that it was dead.
“I had no idea how the bass got ahold of a mole,” the young fisherman continued. “I was speechless – I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I knew I had a once-in-a-lifetime catch, and I couldn’t pass up the chance to get a few pictures of it.”
Fish that feast on land animals is rare, but not without precedent.
For example, there are catfish in Australia who have been known to eat pigeons, reports an article in New Scientists. “Lesser salmon catfish,” as they are called, occasionally ambush pigeons at the water’s edge. But more often they eat animals when they drown.
In a survey of 18 lesser salmon catfish from Ashburton River in northern Australia, almost half had mice in their stomachs.
Two of the fish had three animals each in their stomachs, and some fish had up to 95 percent of their stomachs filled with small mammals.
The primary prey in these cases was spinifex hopping mice, which do not enter water voluntarily. “These mice often live in small colonies within a single burrow system,” says Erin Kelly of the Centre for Fish and Fisheries Research at Murdoch University, Perth, who led the research. Therefore, “collapse or flooding of one or multiple burrow systems along the Ashburton River could have inadvertently introduced them into the water.”
And though a few freshwater fish species are known to dine on land vertebrates — African tigerfish have been filmed plucking a swallow out of thin air, for example — it is rare for them to eat so many.
But the lesser salmon catfish aren’t the only fish who have been reported to eat non-aquatic animals.
Trout in Idaho have been found with rodents in their bellies. In a trout population survey done at the Silver Creek Preserve, biologists catch trout to get their weight and measurements, reports the website Cool Green Science.
During each survey, the researchers sample the contents of select trout stomachs to see what they have been eating. As they opened brown trout stomachs during a survey in 2013, they found montane voles, which are small rodents common along Silver Creek.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Ryan Ponto | Jul 8, 2017 | Bird Netting
She came out vehemently against a proposed pigeon cull in Vittoriosa but animal rights campaigner Moira Delia now welcomes the mayor’s change of heart and the drive to tackle this problem in a more humane way on a national level.
Interviewed on Times Talk, the television presenter laments the lack of enforcement of animal welfare legislation as she speaks of dog micro-chipping, horses in the sun and the use of chains as dog leashes.
Ms Delia also raises the concerns of animal lovers who would wish to keep their pets’ ashes after they die, after the closure of a small-scale crematorium that was operated illegally by a non-governmental organisation.
She also has her say on whether Animal Rights Parliamentary Secretary Clint Camilleri, a hunter, has a conflict in occupying that role.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Ryan Ponto | Jul 7, 2017 | Bird Netting
When a tiny lizard is moved away from his territory and placed in a new “mystery” location, can he find his way back? If so, how?
Yellow-bearded anoles are territorial species, with males staking out a tree as home turf. Researcher Manuel Leal, a behavior ecologist from University of Missouri who studies anoles in Puerto Rico, attached miniature tracking devices to 15 male anoles, walked them to a new site while disorienting them, and tracked them to find out if they could make their way back to their home-turf tree within 24 hours.
What happened is surprising and creates a new set of questions about the abilities of animals to navigate despite overwhelming odds that should leave them lost for good.
The experiment focused on yellow-bearded anoles, but this impressive ability isn’t exclusive to these tiny lizards.
Homing pigeons are also famous for this ability. And a new theory for how homing pigeons find their way home is that they use sound waves that emanate from the Earth itself.
Popular Science describes the theory put forward by U.S. Geological Society geologist John Hagstrum: “The idea is that pigeons use these low-frequency infrasound waves to generate acoustic maps of their surroundings, and that’s how they find home even when they’re released miles from where they dwell. The theory not only explains how pigeons make their way home almost every time, but why they sometimes get lost. (High winds, supersonic jets and various other phenomena can disrupt these infrasound waves, disorienting the birds and setting them on a false course for home.) So while it’s by no means conclusive, this new theory seems at first glance a very tidy way of explaining a mystery that has baffled avian biologists for generations.”
Might anoles also use such sound waves? Or could it be another sense that picks up the cues to lead them home again, even when they’re quite lost?
The research that will give us the answers to these little lizards’ navigation abilities might also help us unravel other mysteries about animal senses.
“Leal says there are many reasons why anoles are a great system for studying evolution,” explains the University of Missouri website. “There are hundreds of species, they have colonized a diversity of habitats, and they exhibit a wide range of complex behaviors.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Ryan Ponto | Jul 6, 2017 | Bird Netting
It’s a bird-eat-bird world out there!
The sinister squawker is shown going full “Temple of Doom” on the poor pigeon as it writhes on the cement at the Kings Highway station in Brooklyn.A ruthless raven was caught on camera ripping the beating heart from a half-alive pigeon on a New York City subway platform.
“Only in New York City. It’s either eat or get eaten,” the video’s narrator says. “Yo, that’s a raven. He just ate his homey!”
The bird then tears out the pigeon’s gizzards as it flaps its wings one final time, the wild video shows.
Observers joked the ominous bird-icide is a metaphor for competitive life in the Big Apple — and the embattled New York City subway system itself, according to Gothamist, which first reported the video.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
by Ryan Ponto | Jul 5, 2017 | Bird Netting
Shoalhaven City Council is taking action over a building it owns in the Nowra CBD which neighbouring property owners have described as a “health hazard”.
Following complaints about the Betta Electrical building in Berry Street, council’s maintenance team started work securing the building to stop pigeons from gaining access and roosting.
Local solicitor and CBD property owner David Nagle described the building as a “health hazard”, saying the property had become the home to numerous roosting pigeons, which were defecating all over the area, including the three-storey building he owns on the corner of Berry and Junction streets and Egans Lane.
Mr Nagle said pigeons were clearly getting into the building’s roof cavity, which had led to an associated rat infestation.
Council purchased the former Betta Electrical building as a viable commercial property for $1.05 million in December 2007 but the building has sat virtually vacant.
Council’s director Assets and Works Ben Stewart said talks were being held with property owners in the Nowra CBD and a team of council builders were securing the building.
“We are working to try and deter the pigeons from entering the building,” Mr Stewart said.
“We are also talking with neighbouring properties owners about the problem.”
On Monday morning council teams arrived on site, erecting scaffolding to gain access to the roof area and erected another set of scaffolding on a neighbouring property to allow work on the southern end of the building where the pigeons were gaining access to the building.
The Register understands a piece of guttering had fallen off the building, taking the fascia board with it, which provided access for the pigeons.
“We have had similar problems with wild pigeons on other buildings, such as the School of Arts, and we will be working on similar methods we used there to prevent pigeons landing or roosting on building surfaces,” Mr Stewart said.
“We will also look at other measures like installing spikes and mesh to stop roosting opportunities.”
He said council was looking into control methods for the pigeons.
“Once the work is complete we will also be looking at other pest control measures,” he said.
“Everyone is aware with pigeons comes other vermin and that is a problem not only in this city. It is a problem in other states and countries.”
He said the Betta Electrical building was one of a number of strategic properties council owned throughout the city.
“The block of land was part of the Egans Lane expression of interest process to activate the area through a proposed development in 2016,” he said.
“Council is still considering that plan and looking for alternative proposals from interested parties, with the objective to see the commercial/retail development of the site.
“Staff will be reporting back to the CBD revitalisation committee regarding the future of the site.
“Twelve months ago we opened up the thoroughfare access from Berry Street to Egans Lane based on feedback to make a user friendly, community, passive recreation space.
“There are a number of strategic sites in the Nowra CBD council has been looking for opportunities to activate, including areas like Stewart Place and Egans Lane. Council owned properties are critical to any future proposals.”
He said council’s carpentry staff had recently been focused on community assets, such as public toilets, halls and libraries.
“In the recent one year rate increase, $200,000 will go towards the maintenance of buildings,” he said.
“Council manages more than 1400 buildings and structures ranging from gazebos to the Betta Electrical building and through to the entertainment centre.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Contact Info: 1- 877– 4– NO-BIRD (www.pigeonpatrol.ca)
