Here, Richard Andrews, graduate student of Iowa 

 State University, and research assistant of the Iowa 

 Unit, conducts tests to determine the presence or ab- 

 sence of Pullorum and Newcastle disease in pheasants. 

 (Photo by Iowa Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit.) 



Some of the waterfowl of various species 

 examined for internal and external parasites 

 were found to be heavily parasitized. For 

 example, a 4-week-old trumpeter swan 

 cygnet taken at the Red Rock Lakes Na- 

 tional Wildlife Refuge, Montana, contained 9 

 species of parasites (4,077 individuals) and 

 a 6-week-old cygnet carried 15 species 

 (1,008 individuals) while a 2-week-old can- 

 vasback had acquired 100 parasites of 8 

 species in its short period of existence. 



Animal damage control 



Animal damage problems are becoming 

 more acute as the competition between 

 man and wild animals stiffens. The need 



for more selective and effective control 

 measures is apparent whether the animal 

 be bird or mamnnal or whether the damage 

 be to forest or range vegetation, to agri- 

 cultural or horticultural crops, to packaged 

 or stored goods, or to aircraft. To develop 

 such control measures many approaches 

 are being investigated: environmental or 

 habitat manipulation; cultural practices in- 

 cluding the development of damage resist- 

 ant strains of crops; scaring devices; chem- 

 ical repellents; electronic, sonic, and 

 supersonic devices; traps; lethal 

 substances; radiation; reproductive inhibi- 

 tors; drugs; and disease organisms, to 

 name some of them. 



Habitat manipulation.- -Laysan Albatross 

 populations at Midway Atoll included a rel- 

 atively low 21,000 nesting pairs on Sand 

 Island and 30,000 nesting pairs on Eastern 

 Island in the winter of 1960-61. The air- 

 craft strike rate remained well below that 

 of the previous year, reflecting the bene- 

 ficial effect of the habitat management that 

 was completed in March I960. This habitat 

 management consisted in leveling the dunes 

 that had provided rising air currents, which 

 in turn had attracted soaring albatrosses to 

 the vicinity of the principal runway. 



A gradual increase in strikes during the 

 spring of 1961 was believed to be largely a 

 result of a rapid increase in the albatross 

 population in a 30-acre area adjacent to the 

 principal runway. Because the increase in 

 this critical tract is expected to continue 

 for several years, it was recommended to 

 the Navy that it be blacktopped or other- 

 wise made unattractive to albatrosses. 



At the Logan Airport in Boston, site of 

 the disastrous airplane crash of October 

 i960, destruction, through the use of herbi- 

 cides, of phragmites cover serving as a 

 roost for starlings has reduced the hazards 

 from these birds, but gulls and shore birds 

 still remain a problem. 



Scaring devices . --A shotgun patrol to 

 frighten gulls away from the Logan Airport 



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