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Texas May Be Feeding its Red Drum Fish More Than They Need, Say Researchers

By Guest PostSeptember 24, 2013Scienceaustin, breeding season, capital breeders, climate change, cynthia faulk, effects of pollution, environmentally friendly, fuiman, lee fuiman, marianna grenadier, migratory patterns, natural population, port aransas, red drum fish, reproductive cycle, spawn, survival rate, university of texas

Austin, TEXAS — It’s not the chicken or the egg, but marine scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have answered a basic question about red drum fish and their eggs that may eventually help save the state of Texas a lot of money in hatcheries management and make fish farming more environmentally friendly.

Every year the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department spends millions of dollars breeding red drum, a popular game fish, releasing between 20 and 30 million hatchery-raised fingerlings into eight different bays and estuaries along the coast. In order to maximize the numbers that survive to adulthood, the practice has been to provide adult fish a diet rich in fatty acids for nine months before breeding season. During breeding season, in order to save money and resources, the diet is less rich. (more…)

Birds choose sweet-smelling mates

By Guest PostSeptember 19, 2013Naturebreeding season, choosing mates, scent based communications, sweet smelling mates

For most animals, scent is the instant messenger of choice for quickly exchanging personal profiles. Scientists, however, have long dismissed birds as odor-eschewing Luddites that don’t take advantage of scent-based communications. (more…)

Native Delaware: Parenting’s toll

By Guest PostNovember 20, 2012Scienceandrew hydrusko, bluebirds, breeding season, chris williams, coverdale farm preserve, delaware nature society, ian stewart, immune system, migratory birds, mike moore, tree swallows

Stewart studies birds to understand trade-offs between reproduction, immunity

Does parenting take a toll on the immune system?

If you’ve ever been the parent of a newborn who demanded to be fed every three to four hours, your gut instinct tells you the answer is an absolute, unequivocal yes.

University of Delaware post-doctoral researcher Ian Stewart is conducting research to answer this question a bit more scientifically. His subjects – tree swallows – make human parents look like slouches. Both the mother and father tree swallow feed their hatchlings every five minutes, 12 hours a day. (It should be noted, though, that their parenting gig is much shorter than ours — after 17 or 18 days the young leave the nest.) (more…)

Tag Archives: breeding season

Texas May Be Feeding its Red Drum Fish More Than They Need, Say Researchers

Birds choose sweet-smelling mates

Native Delaware: Parenting’s toll