Avian Energetics Laboratory

Bird Studies Canada’s Avian Energetic Lab is managed by the Long Point Waterfowl and Wetland's Research Fund.

Avian energetic studies broadly deal with bird physiology and their energetic gains and losses throughout annual cycle.  Birds obtain fat, protein, and minerals from the foods they consume throughout the year.  These nutritional constituents are subsequently incorporated into body tissues or are stored so they can be used by birds during times of heightened energetic demand.  For example, birds may mobilize fat, protein, and minerals to provision eggs during breeding or metabolize fat as an energy source during migration.  Changes in body and reproductive components of birds over time can reveal relatively short-term environmental, habitat, or food-based changes or can elucidate energy storage, molt, growth, survival, and breeding strategies of birds shaped by longer-term processes such as natural selection.  Thus, avian energetics has been, and remains, an important and relatively well studied aspect of avian ecology.

Kerrie Wilcox, AEL Manager, checks a subsample of carcass homogenates that were previously weighed and then placed into the fat extraction apparatus.  The solvent within the apparatus removes fat from the carcass homogenate sample.  After a specified period of time, Kerrie will re-weigh the samples, enabling a determination of the relative amount of fat originally present in the sample, and then use that information to calculate the fat content for the entire bird. 
Photo: Ron Ridout

Determination of fat, protein, and mineral content of birds and their eggs are a central part of many energetic studies.  Few laboratories are capable of making these precise determinations because they require trained, expert staff and very specialized equipment.  Dr. Dave Ankney developed the Avian Energetics Lab (AEL) in the late 1970’s at the University of Western Ontario (UWO) to advance his research interests and those of his graduate students.  Through the years AEL evolved and began to provide services to other university researchers and graduate students studying numerous aspects of avian ecology.  In October 2003, Dr. Ankney retired from UWO and transferred the laboratory and its equipment to Bird Studies Canada (BSC) so this valuable scientific service could continue indefinitely.  To that end, since the AEL moved to BSC it has completed 14 contracts to date, some of which included determining composition of Yellow-shafted Flicker eggs collected in Saskatchewan, molt scoring Northern Fulmars from Nunavut, and determination of body composition of Common Eiders from the Belcher Islands, Hudson Bay.

As of May 2005, BSC transferred management of the AEL to the Long Point Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Fund (LPWWRF).  The AEL provides unique services that are not offered commercially anywhere else in North America.  Under LPWWRF management, the lab will continue to provide top-quality scientific services to researchers and graduate students throughout North America and the world.  The AEL currently offers the following services: body or specific tissue composition (fat, protein and ash content), custom dissections, internal / external body measurements, dietary intake determination, feather molt scoring, reproductive tissue / egg composition analysis, and data entry and calculations.  Having the AEL more closely allied with LPWWRF will strengthen its connection with the UWO, primarily by graduate research opportunities through LPWWRF adjunct and teaching appointments.  We also plan to increase training opportunities for students interested in gaining experience with laboratory techniques related to energetic and dietary intake studies.  Over the past several years, LPWWRF was a major client and will now be in a better position to greatly increase the number of staff and graduate student research projects that will utilize the AEL services in upcoming years.

Work Slated for 2005

Presently the AEL has three major contracts slated for 2005.  First, Mark Mallory, Seabird Biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service, has contracted the lab to determine body and egg composition and molt scores for his research on Northern Fulmars.  As part of his most recent Northern Fulmar contract, staff will also be developing a standard AEL protocol (based on existing published techniques) for determining the amount of time required for yolk deposition into eggs; as of 2005, this will be a new service offered by the AEL.  Second, Michael Anteau, a graduate student at Louisiana State University, will have the lab determine the body condition of spring migrant Lesser Scaup so he can assess whether birds are arriving at breeding areas in poorer condition now than in the past, which may help explain the currently low population level of this species.  Third, LPWWRF will complete body and egg composition analyses for Mute Swans collected on the lower Great Lakes, which is one component of a much larger study examining their population status, diet, contaminants, and interactions with other waterfowl.

In the past, the majority of work done by the AEL was on waterfowl related research projects.  Thus, LPWWRF is well suited for managing the day to day activities of the lab and for increasing its exposure and business potential.  LPWWRF staff have previously conducted numerous avian energetics studies and have a broad network of contacts within the wildlife and waterfowl research communities.  We hope to increase the number of contracts coming into the AEL over the upcoming year by advertising its services at professional conferences and in a major scientific journal, the Wildlife Society Bulletin.  

To learn more about the Avian Energetics Lab, please contact: 

LAB SERVICES

Data that the Lab Can Provide:

Energetics 

• Whole body composition energetics, ie.,fat and protein analysis. 
  The lab also specializes in composition of specific tissues i.e., 
  breast muscle, leg, and liver.

Weights

• thawed weights

• plucked weights

Morphological Measurements

• head: length, width, height

• skull: length, width, height

• culmen: length

• tarsus length,

• keel length,

• total body length

Organ Masses

• salt gland, heart, spleen and adrenal gland wet weights

 Reproductive Tissue

Feathers

• wet, dry, water, protein weight

Molt Scoring -to your specifications

Gastrointestinal Tract

• esophagus: full and empty wet weights
• gizzard: full and empty wet weights
• small intestine: length: full and empty wet weights
• large intesting: length; full and empty wet weights
• caeca: full length: full and empty wet weights
• total ingesta wet weight,
• ingesta-free body weight

Selected Publications from work processed in the 
Avian Energetics Lab

Scott Petrie spetrie@bsc-eoc.org
Kerrie Wilcox kwilcox@bsc-eoc.org
Shannon Badzinski sbadzinski@bsc-eoc.org