During the week prior to Christmas a Bridled Tern was picked up in a back yard at Newell Beach just north of Mossman, no longer able to fly. On close examination three large paralysis (?) ticks were found on it’s legs. Incredibly the largest of the ticks was the size of a five cent piece and the other two smaller. After discussing the incident with a local vet the ticks because of their make up would have been impervious to any effect by the extreme saline environment of Barrier Reef waters. It would also seem that ticks may be a common problem for seabirds in some regions. The tern died the same night. What is the experience of seabird researchers?
Del. Richards, Fine Feather Tours, Mossman, NQ.
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There are approximately 75 species of ticks in Australia so the ticks on seabirds may be a specific species or number of species. It has also been stated that sick animals are prone to become tick infested as they lack the strength to fully groom themselves. This makes it hard to determine if the weakness is due to the tick or a pre-existing illness which may be exacerbated by the tick.
Regards
Greg Dr Greg. P. Clancy Ecologist and Wildlife Guide Coutts Crossing NSW
Del, Ticks are abundant in some tropical seabird colonies. They are thick in the Herald Cays, Coral Sea where a small number of Bridled Terns breed. Presumably als the case on many GBR islands, though I’ve not seen them personally. Yes, ticks are impervious to salt water it seems, though thery possibly prefer the birds that don’t get fully emersed, like bridled terns and frigatebirds, although they can be thick in shearwater burrows too. Not sure they are paralysis ticks, not aware of any ID on the subject however. Why do you think the ticks killed the tern?
David James, in Jakarta burunglaut07@yahoo.com ==============================
________________________________ Sent: Wednesday, 11 January 2012 11:05 AM
During the week prior to Christmas a Bridled Tern was picked up in a back yard at Newell Beach just north of Mossman, no longer able to fly. On close examination three large paralysis (?) ticks were found on it’s legs. Incredibly the largest of the ticks was the size of a five cent piece and the other two smaller. After discussing the incident with a local vet the ticks because of their make up would have been impervious to any effect by the extreme saline environment of Barrier Reef waters. It would also seem that ticks may be a common problem for seabirds in some regions. The tern died the same night. What is the experience of seabird researchers?
Del. Richards, Fine Feather Tours, Mossman, NQ.
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To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
http://birding-aus.org =============================== ===============================
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