• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.189-194
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• 2024

Cinereous vulture (Aegypius monachus) is a large raptor that belongs to the family Accipitridae in the order Falconiformes. It is a migratory bird that returns to Mongolia after wintering in the Korean Peninsula. In February 2015, a cinereous vulture was rescued from Asan-si, Chungcheongnam-do Province as it could not fly. It was transferred to the Chungnam Wild Animal Rescue Center in Korea. It was found to have a closed fracture on the right radius through radiographic examination, a basic procedure. Surgery was performed at the fracture site using a shuttle pin and wire. After successful physical therapy and rehabilitation, the cinereous vulture was released in October 2015. A metal ring (150-00713) and wing tags (G/BL 3) were attached to the bird before its release for subsequent identification. Two years and 4 months later, in March 2018, the cinereous vulture was rescued and brought back to the center. It was diagnosed with secondary pesticide poisoning. After receiving treatment, a radiography test revealed no specific findings related to the previous fracture surgery. Considering that migratory birds travel long distances, it was confirmed that the treatment for reducing the fracture in the radius using a shuttle pin and a cerclage wire was suitable.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.206-211
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• 2014

Anaplasmosis is a rickettsial zoonosis mediated by blood-sucking arthropods, such as ticks, flies, and mosquitos. Migratory birds are common hosts of ticks that are mediators of anaplasmosis, in particular, the tick infection rate in thrushes (family Turdidae) has been known to be high. The main purpose of this study is to survey the occurrence and prevalence of Anaplasma spp. from the migratory thrushes in Jeju island. We collected blood samples from 6 thrushes rescued at the Jeju Wildlife Rescue Center and from 34 wild-caught thrushes on Mara island which is a satellite island of Jeju. As a result, the nested PCR confirmed that seven out of 40 individuals (17.5%) were infected by Anaplasma spp. and all of them were identified as A. phagocytophilum based on sequences obtained from partial 16S rRNA. All the infected birds were on their northward migration in spring, our results suggest that the Turdidae family, which is a common and abundant migrant group passing through Jeju island, may act a role as active reservoir and disperser of A. phagocytophilum causing potential influx of the zoonotic pathogens from its wintering grounds in lower latitude to the mainland Korea as well as Jeju.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.223-229
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• 2017

This study analyzed the relationship between environmental factors and the temporal changes of the bird populations during the every January from 1999 to 2016 (18 years) in Donglim reservoir. 'Winter Waterbird Census of Korea' data by National Institute of Biological Resources were used for the bird population data, and principal component analysis and cluster analysis were used to analyze the changes of annual population. The average temperature of January and the average storage rate of the reservoir were used as environmental factors. According to the results of the study, the population changes in the study area can be explained by the increase and decrease of two water bird groups and a mountain bird group. The average temperature of the years when the population of water bird groups increased was more than $1.4^{\circ}C$ in comparison with the year when mountain birds increased. On the other hand, the influence of the water content was not clear. The visiting of Baikal Teal affected by temperature was a factor affecting the other group of water bird and a mountain bird group. The results of this study suggest that the temperature change affects the global spatial distribution of birds and the migration of large population species such as Baikal Teal affects species composition and populations of birds at local scale. Therefore, understanding of environmental changes at large scale and spatial distribution of species and flock contributes to understand the temporal variation of the bird population at regional or local scales.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.264-272
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• 2015

Understanding bird status is essential for the systematic and sustainable management of the Nakdong River Estuary, taking into consideration the relationship between ecosystems and the bird species. In this study, bird status in the Nakdong River Estuary Bird Sanctuary prior to the Four Major Rivers Project was analyzed using the bird monitoring data (2003-2011) from surveys conducted by the Busan Development Institute. The high percentage of winter visitors in terms of both species diversity (38.36%) and individual bird numbers (63.14%) suggest that the Nakdong River Estuary is an important wintering site for migratory birds. Cumulative numbers of individual birds were higher in Myungji (208,601), West Nakdong River (202,444), Eulsukdo (153,232), and Baekhap Doyodeung (150,595). The total numbers of migratory species were higher in Eulsukdo (171), Ilungdo (124), Myungji (132), and Samrak (121). Among the 232 species found in the Nakdong River Estuary, Anas platyrhynchos (17.71%) was the most common species, followed by Anas poecilorhyncha (8.85%), Larus crassirostris (6.48%), Anser fabalis (6.09%), Anas penelope (5.16%), and Calidris alpina (4.22%). Most bird taxa, except shelducks, showed annual fluctuations in individual numbers, with increasing frequency during survey periods. Of these, cormorants, swans, and gulls showed higher fluctuations than other taxa. Swans decreased drastically in numbers in 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 compared to previous years. Shore birds, gulls, wagtails, and other forest birds were also less common in 2010-2011. These results suggest that there were some environmental changes that might have affected the birds in the Nakdong River Estuary. Overall, the results suggest that habitat types affect the distribution of dominant species.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.165-172
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• 2016

Mallard and Spot-billed ducks that are typical wintering water birds use the wide rice field in the center of the water system as a wintering ground. I try to figure out the daily movement distance from Home-Range to wintering ground for mallard and spot-billed ducks in Mangyunggang, Dongjingang where located in central region. In 2015 wintering period by using a Cannon-net, I attached WT-300 to 5 mallard and 5 spot-billed ducks. Daily movement distance is an overall average 0.89km, the largest distance was 31.09km. Daily movement distance of mallard was 0.97km, the largest distance was 28.78km. Daily movement distance of Spot-billed ducks was 0.80km, the largest distance was 33.39km. Home-Range analysis is used by the SHP files that is compatible with GIS and ArcGIS 9.0 Animal Movement Extension, it was analyzed using the Minimum Convex Polygon Method (MCP) and the Kernel Density Estimation (KDE). The behavior rights of two kinds of ducks was $490.34km^2$ by Minimum Convex Polygon Method (MCP) ($SD=311.20km^2N=10$), an important habitats Kernel Density Estimation (KDE 50%) was $42.24km^2$. Home-Range of Mallard (MCP) was $568.02km^2$, it is wider than home-range(MCP) of spot-billed duck $397.13km^2$ relatively, the core habitats of mallard is $53.05km^2$, it is wider than mallard's core habitats(KDE 50%) $29.26km^2$ relatively.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.328-334
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• 2016

This study identified the habitat use pattern and migration distance of spot-billed ducks during winter that occur for breed and wintering. The study was carried out using GPS-mobile phone based Telemetry (WT-300) to provide the research results as basic data for protection and management of the habitats of water birds in Korea. The tracking devices (WT-300) were attached to a total of twenty spot-billed ducks collected from the rivers and reservoirs in Gyeonggi-do Anseongcheon, Chungcheongnam-do Seocheongun, Jeollabuk-do Mangyunggang, Dongjingang, and Jeollanam-do Haenamgun. It was found that spot-billed ducks used rivers most frequently as their habitats (47.3%), followed by rice fields, ocean, inland wetlands, and tidal flats. While spot-billed ducks used rice fields at night time and ocean, inland wetlands, and tidal flatss at day time, they used rivers regardless of time. Change rate of habitat use pattern was highest between 6:00am and 8:00am and between 16:00pm and 18:00pm. The average daily migration distance was $0.75{\pm}0.27km$/2hours and accumulated migration distance was 8.95km. Spot-billed ducks covered the longest migration distance between 6:00am and 8:00am and between 16:00pm and 18:00pm; the distance they moved during the periods from 6:00am to 8:00am and from 16:00pm to 18:00pm was 2km but during the rest of the time, it was less than 1km for equivalent durations. The time when spot-billed ducks covered the longest migration distance also corresponds to the time when they showed the greatest change rate of habitat use pattern.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 2019

In South Korea, six large outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) have occurred since the first confirmation in 2003 from chickens. For the past 15 years, HPAI outbreaks have become an annual phenomenon throughout the country and has extended to wider regions, across rural and urban environments. An understanding of the spatial epidemiology of HPAI occurrence is essential in assessing and managing the risk of the infection; however, local spatial variations of relationship between HPAI incidences in Korea and related risk factors have rarely been derived. This study examined whether spatial heterogeneity exists in this relationship, using a geographically weighted Poisson regression (GWPR) model. The outcome variable was the number of HPAI-positive farms at 252 Si-Gun-Gu (administrative boundaries in Korea) level notified to government authority during the period from January 2014 to April 2016. This response variable was regressed to a set of sociodemographic and topographic predictors, including the number of wild birds infected with HPAI virus, the number of wintering birds and their species migrated into Korea, the movement frequency of vehicles carrying animals, the volume of manure treated per day, the number of livestock farms, and mean elevation. Both global and local modeling techniques were employed to fit the model. From 2014 to 2016, a total of 403 HPAI-positive farms were reported with high incidence especially in western coastal regions, ranging from 0 to 74. The results of this study show that local model (adjusted R-square = 0.801, AIC = 954.5) has great advantages over corresponding global model (adjusted R-square = 0.408, AIC = 2323.1) in terms of model fitting and performance. The relationship between HPAI incidence in Korea and seven predictors under consideration were significantly spatially non-stationary, contrary to assumptions in the global model. The comparison between global Poisson and GWPR results indicated that a place-specific spatial analysis not only fit the data better, but also provided insights into understanding the non-stationarity of the associations between the HPAI and associated determinants. We demonstrated that an empirically derived GWPR model has the potential to serve as a useful tool for assessing spatially varying characteristics of HPAI incidences for a given local area and predicting the risk area of HPAI occurrence. Considering the prominent burden of HPAI this study provides more insights into spatial targeting of enhanced surveillance and control strategies in high-risk regions against HPAI outbreaks.

• Korean Journal of Ornithology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.117-125
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• 2018

The Grey-capped greenfinch (Chloris sinica) is a polytypic species that exhibits complicated geographical variation in morphology. This study provides an intraspecific phylogeographic variability of C. sinica populations in Korea with their morphometric data. The observed morphometric variations were that Ulleung island population was morphologically distinct in bill length and depths as compared to the mainland populations. Phylogenetic relationships among mitochondrial COX1 regions provided evidence for genetic differentiation between Ulleung and mainland populations. However, their genetic distances and nucleotide diversities were very low, highlighting their recent divergence. The needs for additional research is heightened to substantiate if the genetic clines in different localities may arise in C. sinica subspecies, each of which could have different breeding and wintering habitats, distribution patterns, and migration pathways.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.282-285
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• 2016

Peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) are listed as endangered species and Natural monument #323 in Korea, and this study examined the possibility of extinct of peregrine falcon in Jang Hang wetland near Han river using with the application of Population Viability Analysis (PVA) technique. In Jang Hang wetland areas population was monitored during 1999-2005 averaging 10.8 individuals and PVA analysis was done for the 5 years (2015-2020) using the average population size. Using the initial population was estimated 20% of extinct rate during the time. This estimation was quite low considering water pollution and loss of habitat. Also PVA only used population size lacking in other life history information. Nonetheless falcon population can be in risk of extinction if the current construction of crossovers in the river, cement bank are maintained. Long term information regarding life history needs essential.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.305-315
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• 2013

This study is aimed to provide the preliminary data for conservation and management of wintering site for Anser fabalis population in Cheongna Area, Incheon Free Economic Zone, Korea through analyzing the relationship between the biotop structure of its wintering site and behavior characteristics. The main types (size and ratio) of the biotope in Cheongna Area, Incheon Free Economic Zone are reed wetlands ($6,093,762m^2$, 47.8%), rice fields without rice straw ($2,927,916m^2$, 23.0%), and rice fields with rice straw ($1,915,655m^2$, 15.0%). According to the survey carried on 13th Feb., 2013, total 33 species and 6, 535 individual birds were observed and among of them, the dominant bird was Anser fabalis showing 5,128 indiviuals, 78% of total population. As the result of analyzing the migratory route of Anser fabalis, the bird moved from roosting site to foraging site before and after sunrise and from feeding site to roosting site before and after sunset. According to the analysis of interrelation between habitat characteristics and biotope types of the bird, population density was the highest in reed wetlands among habitat types and individual appearance was the highest in water-filled rice field melting ice. The bird ate the roots and bulb of hydrophytes in reed wetlands and showed various behaviors like eating dropped grains, resting and sleeping in water-filled rice fields and eating dropped grains and resting in rice fields with and without rice straw. It is shown that the number of Anser fabalis appearing in rice fields is depended on the presence of dropped grains than types of rice field.