Week 4: Research Overviews

UC Library Search: 

Benmazouz I, Jokimäki J, Lengyel S, et al. Corvids in Urban Environments: A Systematic Global Literature Review. Animals (2076-2615). 2021;11(11):3226. doi:10.3390/ani11113226 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8614296/ 

I was initially on Twitter, trying to find some articles and good finds to share in the 39canimals tag, and then starting searching through the #ornithology search, where I was led to one link, and then another, until I found an article that sounded mildly interesting, and available through the UC Library, which was a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t familiar with any of the authors, but was mostly looking for “corvids” and “crows” as key words in my search for articles. I would estimate that the time it took for me to find the article by starting on Twitter probably took less than 30 minutes, since I kept looking at adjacent things of interest. 

Article Summary: Urbanization is a growing problem for our environment since humans began to live on Earth. We crowd out the natural resources with buildings and streets, all while destroying the natural habitat of animals and increasing pollution. But there are species such as corvids which have learned to exploit these structures and the results of urbanization. Living in populous cities, they have managed to thrive from the overabundance of food humans produce, utilize our buildings as nesting grounds, and benefited from the low chance of predation. The study looks at specific corvids that have been affected by humans and how they have adapted to urbanization and compare the success rate and possible reasons for success across multiple species. The scientists conclude that there are a good proportion of corvidae that are successful at adapting to urban environments, and largely credit this to “their high behavioral plasticity and flexible resource use.” 

Takeaway: This study helps us to understand corvids in non-natural environments and especially their behavior in relation to humans. I definitely think this study has the potential to have a story made from it because we can look at corvids in the larger context of birds and how they have developed over time on Earth. I would make corvids the protagonist because if I were to make this article into a scicomm story, I would put their adaptability as their most important trait for their continued survival and success in human environments. 

Internet Search (PLOS One): 

Townsend AK, Barker CM (2014) Plastic and the Nest Entanglement of Urban and Agricultural Crows. PLOS ONE 9(1): e88006. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0088006

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0088006 

My initial start began with looking at the overview of this week’s assignment. PLOS as well as NIH were both linked and so rather than just googling random things without a thought I figured PLOS ONE would be a good place to start. As I was searching, I was using “corvids” and “crows” as keywords to find good articles. It was a bit harder than I expected—while I could find a great deal of articles that mentioned birds and aves to some degree, none of them seemed interesting or very specific. I would find studies that would research birds’ eyesight speed or measure their uric acid levels during flight. I would say it took over an hour to find this article, because this process was more like cold searching, compared to simply browsing on the internet and luckily finding something worth mentioning. 

Article Summary: Compared to marine and aquatic life, it is much more difficult to track plastic accumulation and debris on land animals. A study was conducted in Davis, California that tracked the success of crows’ nests. These nests were checked daily to see if there were any entanglements or anthropogenic materials found in the nests. Scientists conclude that there are both pros and cons to anthropogenic nest material birds may use in their nests, including hazardous entanglements or the utility of materials in areas where natural resources are sparse. 

Takeaway: I don’t think I could tell a story about this study, or think it would be suited for a scicomm article because there isn’t a great revelation of findings or any fact or character that could be made as a protagonist. The main point of the study seemed to focus on bringing more awareness to the subject of plastic in land ecosystems having equal importance and harm to plastic in marine ecosystems. While I do think the article gets this point across, I don’t think the findings themselves are very heavy in material for a story, more than a message that plastic can be harmful in all environments and humans should learn to be more aware of these outcomes.