Bird ringing

Bird ringing or bird banding is the attachment of small, individually numbered metal or plastic tag to the leg or wing of a wild bird to enable individual identification. This helps in keeping track of the movements of the bird and their life history. It is common to take measurements and examine condition of feather moult, subcutaneous fat, age indications and sex during capture for ringing. The subsequent recapture or recovery of the bird can provide information on migration, longevity, mortality, population studies, territoriality, feeding behaviour, and other aspects that are studied by ornithologists. Other methods of marking birds may also be used to allow for field based identification that does not require capture.

History

The earliest recorded attempt to mark a bird was made by Quintus Fabius Pictor. These Roman officers, during the Punic Wars around 218–201 BC, were sent a crow by a besieged garrison, which suggests that this was an established practice. Pictor used a thread on the bird's leg to send a message back. A knight interested in chariot races during the time of Pliny (AD 1) would take crows to Volterra, 135 miles (217 km) away and release them with information on the race winners. L'Ecuyer went on to mark hundreds of crows in his lifetime while Pictor's interest quickly waned.

Bird

Birds (class Aves) are a group of endothermic vertebrates, characterised by feathers, a beak with no teeth, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a lightweight but strong skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the 5 cm (2 in) bee hummingbird to the 2.75 m (9 ft) ostrich. They rank as the class of tetrapods with the most living species, at approximately ten thousand, with more than half of these being passerines, sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds.

The fossil record indicates that birds are the last surviving dinosaurs, having evolved from feathered ancestors within the theropod group of saurischian dinosaurs. True birds first appeared during the Cretaceous period, around 100 million years ago, and the last common ancestor is estimated to have lived about 95 million years ago. DNA-based evidence finds that birds radiated extensively around the time of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event that killed off the non-avian dinosaurs. Birds in South America survived this event and then migrated to other parts of the world via multiple land bridges while diversifying during periods of global cooling. Primitive bird-like "stem-birds" that lie outside class Aves proper, in the group Avialae, have been found dating back to the mid-Jurassic period. Many of these early stem-birds, such as Archaeopteryx, were not yet capable of fully powered flight, and many retained primitive characteristics like toothy jaws in place of beaks and long bony tails.

Ohio Dominican University

Ohio Dominican University is a private four-year liberal arts institution, founded in 1911 in the Catholic and Dominican traditions. The main campus spans over 75 acres (300,000 m²) in the North Central neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio, United States just minutes from Ohio State University and Easton Town Center. The university has just over 3,000 students and offers undergraduate degrees in over 50 majors as well as six graduate degree programs.

History

Ohio Dominican University is a private Catholic liberal arts university, guided in its educational mission by the Dominican motto, taken from the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, "Contemplare et contemplata aliis tradere," which means, "To contemplate and to share with others the fruits of this contemplation." Today, embracing the Dominican ideals of "Veritas," or Truth, the University holds to a slightly modified motto, "To contemplate truth and to share with others the fruits of this contemplation." The Dominican tradition of spirituality is rooted in common life: liturgical prayer and meditation, study, and ministry of the Word. These values continue to guide the steps of faculty, students and staff at Ohio Dominican University.

Dominican University

Dominican University may refer to:

See also

Environmental science

Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physical, biological and information sciences (including ecology, biology, physics, chemistry, zoology, mineralogy, oceanology, limnology, soil science, geology, atmospheric science, and geodesy) to the study of the environment, and the solution of environmental problems. Environmental science emerged from the fields of natural history and medicine during the Enlightenment. Today it provides an integrated, quantitative, and interdisciplinary approach to the study of environmental systems.

Related areas of study include environmental studies and environmental engineering. Environmental studies incorporates more of the social sciences for understanding human relationships, perceptions and policies towards the environment. Environmental engineering focuses on design and technology for improving environmental quality in every aspect.

Environmental scientists work on subjects like the understanding of earth processes, evaluating alternative energy systems, pollution control and mitigation, natural resource management, and the effects of global climate change. Environmental issues almost always include an interaction of physical, chemical, and biological processes. Environmental scientists bring a systems approach to the analysis of environmental problems. Key elements of an effective environmental scientist include the ability to relate space, and time relationships as well as quantitative analysis.