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Published (Version of record)CC BY V4.0, Open Access
Published (Version of record)CC BY V4.0, Open
Journal article
Identifying the stressors impacting rescued avian wildlife
Animals, Vol.10(9), pp.1-9
25/08/2020
PMCID: PMC7552254
PMID: 32854307
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Abstract
Urbanisation exposes avian wildlife to an array of environmental stressors that result in clinical admission and hospitalisation. The aim of this pilot study was to conduct a retrospective analysis of clinical data and characterise this based on categories of stress experienced by avian wildlife patients. The results from this study indicated that impact injuries (n = 33, 25%) and vehicle-related injuries (n = 33, 25%) were the most common occurring preliminary stressors that resulted in the hospitalisation of avian wildlife. The most common outcome of avian patients that suffered from vehicle-related injuries was euthanasia (n = 15, 45%), as was avian patients that suffered from impact injuries (n = 16, 48%). Immobility (n = 105, 61%) and abnormal behaviour (n = 24, 14%) were the most commonly occurring primary stressors of avian patients. Finally, trauma (n = 51, 32%) and fractures (n = 44, 27%) were the most common occurring secondary stressors in avian patients. The most common outcome of all these stressors was euthanasia. This study provided further evidence towards the notion that human- and urbanisation-related stressors are the main causes of hospitalisation of avian wildlife, but also indicated that birds admitted as a result of human-related stressors are more likely to be euthanised than released. This study also provided a categorisation system for the stressors identified in avian wildlife patients (preliminary, primary and secondary) that may be used to monitor the stress categories of wildlife patients and gain a deeper understanding of the complex notion of stress.
Details
- Title
- Identifying the stressors impacting rescued avian wildlife
- Creators
- Kimberley Janssen - Western Sydney UniversityCrystal Marsland - Western Sydney UniversityMichelle Orietta Barreto - University of QueenslandRenae Charalambous - University of QueenslandEdward Narayan - Western Sydney University
- Publication Details
- Animals, Vol.10(9), pp.1-9
- Publisher
- MDPI
- Grant note
- Research was supported through Western Sydney University and the University of Queensland start-up funds for Edward Narayan.
- Identifiers
- 991013269109002368
- Copyright
- © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Science and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article