Research
Average Daily Food Consumption and Live Bodyweight of Captive Common Buzzards Buteo Buteo
Twenty five common buzzards randomly picked at the reception of the Hellenic wild life hospital and Rehabilitation centre Aegina, Greece were weighed and put in separate well ventilated paper boxes in a large room(30m x 15m x5m). At entry, the birds weight ranged from 499g-796g.They were weighed 4 times during the study at fairly regular intervals. The birds were fed on chicken with bones every morning. A control was set up in a 26th paper box in which the same quantity of meat was placed but without any buzzard. The control was to find out the quantity of moisture lost to the atmosphere through evaporation.The moisture lost daily was recorded and the average computed and corrected for in calculating the average quantity of food consumed by the buzzards.A unit increase in the average quantity of food consumed per day and the initial weight resulted to a corresponding increase of 1.495 and 1.265 respectively in the final weights of the buzzards. The approximate daily food consumed by a buzzard of average weight of 691g was 115.1g which translates to 16.7% of its live body weight. The initial weight is significant in predicting the final weight with the criterion P value < 0.05.The range of weight gain for the studied buzzards was (2.7%-32.9%) with an average of 19.4%. The approximate daily quantity of food consumed by a common buzzard of average weight of 691g was 115.1g which translates to 16.7% of its live body weight.
Behavioural Patterns in Captive Common Buzzards Buteo Buteo
Captive common buzzards develop adaptive behaviors for survival or vices in response to the stress of captivity, reduced living space, regular handling and change in diet and environment. The studied buzzards showed behaviors suggestive of hierarchy, domination and subservience. Strong and dominant birds would walk briskly across the rooms, stepping on others without challenge or resistance. The weak birds lie prostrate and motionless on the floor anytime the dominant bird spurs up aggressively. This investigation sort to find the purpose mews serve buzzards in captivity; the factors that influence them and the number of mews per minute in different circumstances. They were studied in groups in different rooms to find the mew rate with the observer out of sight, in sight and waving hand. Increase in buzzard population did not increase the mew rate significantly with the observer in sight. The observer coming to sight or otherwise produced a disproportionate increase and decrease in mew rate as the population increased. The study shows that mews by captive buzzards are means of communication and signals and their pitch and frequency were positively influenced by sight and movement. The non-parametric methods (sign test) of comparing mew rates with observer waving hand and not waving hand shows that; z-value=2.04 p=0.041 wilcoxon matched paired test z-value=2.04 p=0.028 Both analysis show significant differences as waving of hand triggered off an exaggerated response as it indicates imminent danger attack or disturbance. Buzzards mew in sympathy to themselves and the high-pitched mews may be their defense against apparent treats, invasion or response to movement. The pitches of the mews were higher with the observer in sight and the observer waving hand. The figures recorded with the observer out of sight,in sight and waving hand suggested that there must be a neuro-endocrinal or nervous/humoral interplay which accounts for the exaggerated responses in terms of pitch
