Category: Meeting Minutes

At 7:00 p.m., Vice President Douglas Futuyma called the Society meeting to order.

Vice President Futuyma reminded all LSNY members to renew their annual membership online or by mailing a check.

Motion 1: Vice President Futuyma announced the result of the online vote to approve the December 2023 members’meeting minutes. The vote passed with 153 votes in favor, none opposed, and one abstaining.

Motion 2: The Society voted on the following six applicants for membership, with 154 members voting in favor and none opposed.

• Susan Hallinan, Active Membership, Sponsored by Shannon Kelly
• Kate Byrne, Active Membership, Sponsored by Phil Ribolow
• Douglas McPherson, Active Membership, Sponsored by Amanda Bielskas
• Caz Taylor, Associate Membership, Sponsored by Kristin Ellington
• Amy Cook, Active Membership, Sponsored by Tom Stephenson
• Brian Foy, Lifetime Membership, Sponsored by Tom Stephenson

At 7:05 p.m., Vice President Futuyma introduced the speaker, Dr. Joan E. Strassmann.

Dr. Joan E. Strassmann
Joan Strassmann is Charles Rebstock Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis, where her research focuses on social interactions and mutualisms of amoebas and bacteria. She received her Ph.D. in zoology at the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied social cooperation and conflict among paper wasp families. She haspublished over 250 articles on social interactions in wasps, stingless bees, social amoebas, and bacteria. This work hasbeen recognized by a number of awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

More recently, she turned her attention to stories about birds and the scientists studying them. She recently published Slow Birding: The Art and Science of Enjoying the Birds in Your Own Backyard, and is working on The Social Lives ofBirds, to be published by Little, Brown Spark.

Slow Birding: How Do the Birds You Glimpse Live Their Lives?
Inspired by the Italian slow food movement, slow birding takes a different approach from our typical frenzied search for birds in the midst of migration, when we move quickly from one avian jewel to another, racking up the highest species count possible.

The slow birding philosophy encourages the study of each individual species’ qualities, instead of focusing on thenumber of birds on a list. It involves a kind of meditation that was developed during COVID-19 to enable self-discovery and personal observation.

Dr. Strassmann’s methodology was initially developed while teaching a lab course at Rice University. It used three guiding questions as the core of the curriculum:

1. How do birds use time and space?
2. What are the differences between species and sexes?
3. What else would you personally like to observe and understand?

The class was popular enough that, with the help of her students, Dr. Strassmann started a blog, that eventually becamethe book Slow Birding: The Art and Science of Enjoying the Birds in Your Own Backyard.

In this engaging manifesto, Joan Strassmann “gets under the feathers” to tell heartwarming and intriguing stories, celebrating sixteen of our commonest birds. For example:

• Blue Jays are often unpopular, but Dr. Strassmann appreciates their intelligence and creativity, noting that they are credited with bringing oak forests northward after glaciation.
• Robins have polyamorous lives, but the male robin is willing to care for all the chicks in the nest, no matter the biological father. That said, she notes that the father gives preferential treatment to the birds that hatch from the bluest eggs, signaling the highest levels of health.
• The Snow Goose is known for its faithful pairings, mating for life, and consistently returning to the female’s nesting ground for reproduction.
• The White-throated Sparrow has four distinct sexes.

The illustrations in the book were rendered by Anthony Bartley, a former biology student in Dr. Strassmann’s lab. Already impressed with his fine art, she asked him to create art for her book when he expressed an interest in pursuing medical illustration.

Dr. Strassmann advocated using modern technology, such as eBird and Merlin Bird ID, to learn more about the birds we see in our immediate environment. She noted that adding one’s own data and field recordings to these applications is anessential and enjoyable way to contribute to science.

Ending the evening on an inspirational note, Dr. Strassmann mentioned some of the positive trends in conservation that are happening thanks to the efforts of passionate individuals:

• California is working to open four dams, creating renewed habitat for salmon.
• Electric vehicles are rapidly entering the market, lessening the damage from extraction and use of fossil fuels.
• In Asia, tigers, leopards, and elephants are reversing a historical decline by learning to live with humans.
• Piping Plovers are being seen on Montrose Beach in Chicago for the first time in seventy years.

At the close of the evening, after a fascinating Q&A session hosted by Vice President Douglas Futuyma, the Linnaean Society expressed appreciation to Dr. Strassmann for sharing her engaging book and her passion for birds.

At 7:00 p.m., President Debbie Mullins called the Society meeting to order.

President Mullins noted the fascinating number of rare bird sightings in the area over the past month, including the astounding appearance of the Red-flanked Bluetail in New Jersey. This bird is from Russia and typically winters in southeast Asia. The Black-chinned Hummingbird is still on Randall’s Island thanks to the Parks Department, which has provided a feeding station. In Manhattan, there have been reports of Ash-throated Flycatchers, Dickcissel, and a Western Tanager. Long Island reports list a Tufted duck and a Yellow-rumped Warbler of the Audubon’s subspecies. Additional notable birds include a Mountain Bluebird, several Orange-crowned Warblers, and Painted Buntings.

President Mullins reminded all LSNY members to renew their annual membership online or by mailing a check.

Motion 1: President Mullins then announced the result of the online vote to approve the October 2023 members’ meeting minutes. The vote passed with 130 votes in favor, none opposed, and two abstaining.

Motion 2: The Society welcomed the following two new members, with 132 members voting in favor and none opposed.

• Kenelma Perez, Active Membership, Sponsored by Mary Beth Kooper
• Savannah Conheady, Active Membership, Sponsored by Mary Beth Kooper

At 7:05 p.m., President Mullins introduced the speaker, Dr. Brian T. Smith.

Dr. Brian T. Smith
Brian T. Smith is the curator-in-charge of the Department of Ornithology and associate professor at the Richard Gilder Graduate School of the American Museum of Natural History; he holds adjunct appointments at Columbia University and the City University of New York. He received his B.S. degree and Ph.D. from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, at the Marjorie Barrick Museum. Dr. Smith was subsequently a postdoctoral fellow at the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science. He leads an active research group that conducts expeditionary fieldwork to study the evolution of birds using genomics and specimen-based techniques. By studying birds from around the globe, Dr. Smith aims to discover the patterns and, ultimately, the processes that underlie the origins of birds. He is a proponent of using the global museum to play a fundamental role in the study of biodiversity in the past and present and to build awareness about the natural world and the threats it faces.

Insights into Avian Evolution from Natural History Collections
Dr. Brian Smith began the evening by sharing the vital ornithology work at the AMNH that happens behind the scenes of the public-facing museum. Recent advances in genomic sequencing technology have provided an unprecedented window into the evolution of living birds, and the historical avian collection housed at the AMNH is vital for this contemporary research.

In this presentation, Dr. Smith explored these advances by presenting an overview of his research program, using a series of vignettes to show the demography of extinction in North American birds, adaptation in woodpeckers, the evolutionary history of parrots, and efforts to complete the avian tree of life.

Active research projects
A recent project is a joint venture with the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City to conduct surveys and collect DNA samples in Finca Irlanda and Chiquihuites, both in Chiapas, Mexico. Each location has rich bird diversity, including indigenous and migrating birds. Notable in Finca Irlanda were the Red-legged Honeycreeper and the White-eared Ground-sparrow. Chiquihuites, an active volcano, is the second-highest peak in Central America. The area has distinct elevation bands, each with its own bird species and food sources. The notable species include the Azure-rumped Tanager, Common Chlorospingus, Horned Guan, and Pink-headed Warbler. Well-known migrants include the Black-and-white Warbler, Indigo Bunting, and Tennessee Warbler.

This project is representative of the type of work done at the AMNH. It is essential because it results in modern inventories of birds, provides training opportunities for the next generation of naturalists, and strengthens relationships with international partners that reflect the state of contemporary museum research.

AMNH ornithology collection
The ornithology collection at the AMNH is extensive and includes more than 867,754 individual species covering 100% of the families, 99.1% of the genera, and 93.6% of all bird species. The collection grows by about one thousand specimens per year. Each year, the AMNH lends an average of 62 samples and is featured in 66 publications that leverage data from the collection.

Visiting scholars and other student groups use the collection on an ongoing basis.

Ornithological collections are important because each species has a unique evolutionary history, with genetic variations distributed across the landscape and distinctive interactions with external factors. The team at the AMNH is trying to understand these patterns and how they have arisen.

The three main areas of work are phylogeography, the study of the geographic distributions of genealogical lineages over time; phylogenomics, the family trees of each species; and, where it exists, historical DNA derived from rare samples that are often a century old.

Genetic variation in desert birds
It is well known that birds exhibit broad patterns of genetic variation across ranges and species. Genomes contain clear signatures that help explain how birds have evolved across landscapes. Because of contemporary technology, we can understand why a particular bird shows a particular pattern based on how it is distributed across the landscape, significantly when land barriers restrict it.

One of the many projects of the AMNH is the study of the genetic variation of birds found in the wetter Sonoran Desert versus those of the same species in the drier and more extreme Chihuahuan Desert, separated by the Cochise Filter Barrier. Variation is found in four arenas: first, in the present-day environment; second, by geographic distance; third, through paleo-climate history; and finally, through observing abundance. Researchers have identified informative genetic patterns across these differing landscapes and now have statistical data to allow modeling that determines the most critical factors in explaining genetic differences among populations.

Adaptation in woodpeckers
Another benefit of the AMNH collection is that museum specimens can be used in novel ways to address outstanding questions. An exciting project that the collection allowed is the convergent evolution of Hairy and Downy woodpeckers. These birds look nearly identical but are not sister species. They split from a common ancestry over eight million years ago. They mostly live in overlapping territories, and differences within the species are often similar. In the west, they tend to be darker, and in the north, they tend to be larger. This study’s conclusions show that Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers show signs of convergent evolution, including plumage color: they use different molecular pathways to produce similar phenotypes.

Avian tree of life
A third project is the study of the evolutionary history of birds. The team used century-old museum specimens of extinct birds, isolated their DNA, collected genome-wide markers, and characterized the models of their demographichistories. It was determined that the most likely reason for the rapid extension of multiple species of birds was human intervention.

A recent study of parrots was conducted in the Caribbean, combining archeology and paleontology to survey the sub-fossil record of Amazon parrots. DNA from the fossils was sequenced and compared to that of living parrots. The mainfinding was that there was a much more comprehensive and widely dispersed array of species before human colonization.

The evolutionary tree for parrots is now 96% complete, and taxonomic revisions are taking place. Renaming helps create logical names consistent with their location in the tree based on DNA analysis.

Conclusions
Dr. Smith noted that traditional museum research is now more critical than ever. Cutting-edge technology has created the space for new types of research, international collaborations, and the opportunity to train the next generation of scientists. These studies show that missing branches on the avian tree of life can now be confidently and rapidly resolved. He further argued the importance of natural history collections for the continued documentation of biodiversity for current and future generations.

At the close of the evening, after a fascinating Q&A session hosted by Vice President Douglas Futuyma, the Linnaean Society expressed its appreciation to Dr. Smith for sharing the engaging projects and important results produced by the AMNH team.

At 7:00 p.m., President Debbie Mullins called the Society meeting to order.

For those birders who list their sightings, there are some new lumps and splits to announce. The AmericanOrnithological Society (AOS) has re-lumped Pacific-slope and Cordilleran Flycatchers into one species, the Western Flycatcher. The Northern Goshawk has been split into two species, the American and Eur-asian goshawks. President Mullins recommended a podcast about these developments published by the American Birding Association (ABA).

The American Ornithological Society (AOS) announced that they are committed to changing all bird namesderived from people and assembling a diverse group to oversee the renaming process, which it said would include input from the general public. More than 100 avian species across the Americas will be given new names.

President Mullins reminded all LSNY members to renew their annual membership online or by mailing a check.

Motion 1: President Mullins then announced the result of the online vote to approve the October 2023 members’ meeting minutes. The vote passed with 136 votes in favor, none opposed, and three abstaining.

Motion 2: The Society welcomed the following seven new members, with 139 members voting in favor and none opposed.

Gouri Nanjangud, Active, sponsored by Mary Beth Kooper
Malcolm Fenton, Active, sponsored by Deborah Shapiro
Neti Bauta, Active, sponsored by Amanda Bielskas
Barry Elkins, Active, sponsored by Joe DiCostanzo
Kerri Howland Kruse, Active, sponsored by Richard Davis and Shannon Kelly
Kacie Rettig, Active, sponsored by Elise Boeger
Arabella Pajoohi, Associate, sponsored by Mary Beth Kooper

At 7:05 p.m., President Mullins introduced the speaker, Dr. Michael Donoghue.

Dr. Michael Donoghue
Michael Donoghue joined Yale in 2000 as the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He served as chair of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department in 2001–02 and as the Peabody Museum of Natural History director from 2003-08. From 2008– 10, he served as Yale’s inaugural vice president for West Campus Planning and Program Development, and in 2011, he was named Sterling Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He served as director of Yale’s Marsh Botanical Garden from 2015–2018 and as director of the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies from 2019–2021. Until his retirement in 2022, he served as a botany and paleobotany curator atthe Peabody Museum of Natural History.

Donoghue earned his undergraduate degree from Michigan State University (1976) and his Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard University (1982). He served on the faculty of San Diego State University (1982–85), the University of Arizona (1985–92), and Harvard University (1992– 2000), where he was the director of the Harvard University Herbaria from 1995–99. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1997), a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2005), and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2008). His research concerns plants’ diversity, evolutionary history, and connections between phylogeny,biogeography, and ecology. He has been active in movements to reconstruct the tree of life and to link evolution to ecology and biodiversity conservation. He has published over 290 scientific papers and two books and mentored over 50 postdoctoral associates and graduate students.

Donoghue is continuing his research as a research professor at Yale. He currently resides in Tucson, Arizona, where he is an adjunct professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona.

Fleshy Fruits and their Dispersal
Dr. Donoghue is the world’s expert on viburnum, a genus comprising 163 species in the moschatel family Adoxaceae. The species are mostly evergreen, with some deciduous shrubs, and are native primarily throughout the temperateNorthern Hemisphere. They have fleshy fruits and are almost entirely pollinated by animals and insects.

The plants began around sixty to seventy million years ago in tropical biomes, and as they adapted and moved north, the leaves evolved from rounded to toothed edges. The fruits are known as droops, evidenced by fleshy fruiton the outside and a single seed on the inside. An endocarp covers the seed, and the evolution can be traced from a “Batman” shape to a flat, grooved shape that looks similar to a horseshoe and then to a round seed.

Miranda Synod Armstrong, a graduate student from Yale, conducted multiple studies of viburnum fruits that have illuminated many exciting traits of this species. Her first study measured wavelengths to understand the variation infruit color among the different species. Another study revealed the differences in lipid content in the fruit, an essential aspect of the nutritional value to birds and other species. She found that blue fruits are lipid-rich with low moisture and round endocarps, while red fruits are carbohydrate-rich and juicy with flat endocarps. She named this phenomenon the blue syndrome and the red syndrome.

These findings led scientists to hypothesize that the different species might have co-evolved with different sets ofbirds dispersing the seeds. However, it turns out that multiple bird species eat the same fruit, and there is a one-to-many relationship. There is a diffuse co-evolutionary trajectory with the two fruit syndromes and numerous species of birds that eat them.

Typically, a fruit’s color comes from pigmentation, a chemical process. However, some fruits have a different physical nano-structure that causes the eye to see the color as iridescent or metallic. The outside layer of the fruit isthe epidermis, with a waxy layer composed of cellulose called a cuticle. The epidermis keeps the water inside thefruit and reduces cell damage. Inside is a cell wall containing the cytoplasm, where structural differences occur. Within the cytoplasm is a novel layer of structures that have not been previously reported in any other plant or animal.

These structures proved to be lipid droplets that work as a multi-layer reflector that reflects different wavelengthsto increase the brightness and intensity of the color. The more ordered the structures are, the more intense the coloris, resulting in iridescent blue fruit. Miranda conducted further investigations and has proven that this phenomenon occurs in multiple species that evolved independently in distantly related groups of plants.

How does this relate to birds? One hypothesis is that the intense color evolved to signal the high lipid content to birds as an evolutionary strategy for seed dispersal. Although many bird species eat the seeds, the European Robin is considered a key species because their large population is the primary dispersal agent for the seeds. In the United States, it is dispersed by a number of birds, and it is commonly visited and dispersed by the American Robin.

Another critical factor in the plant’s value to birds is that the Viburnum displays sequential fruiting. The fruits mature at different rates, offering food over a more extended time than with plants that fruit all at once. Some fruitsremain on the tree all through the winter, allowing birds such as Cedar Waxwings to have food available duringMarch and April when not much else is available.

Another study revealed more fruit color variation in the tropics than towards the poles. Red fruits are more common at higher latitudes, while the regions closer to the equator are covered with plants producing green, orange, and yellow fruits. The plants closer to the equator also tend to have larger fruits than the red, blue, and black fruits in higher latitudes.

The evening concluded with a fascinating Q&A session hosted by Vice President Douglas Futuyma. Dr. Donoghue noted many interesting and unresolved problems would benefit from better collaboration and communication betweenornithologists and botanists. At the close of the evening, The Linnaean Society expressed its appreciation to Dr. Donaghue for sharing his lifelong passion for evolutionary biology and his essential study of the viburnum.

At 7:00 p.m., President Debbie Mullins called the meeting of the Society to order.

As we gathered online for an update on Great Gull Island by Dr. Margaret Rubega, President Debbie Mullins noted the fall is a time of great peril for migrating birds. A recent New York Times article reported that 961 birds were killed in one evening in one Chicago building because they were confused by the bright lights left on overnight. She informed the attendees that the New York City Council still needed to vote on the lights-out bill and encouraged everyone to contact their representatives. Additionally, President Mullins asked that members contact Governor Hochul’s office to encourage her to sign the Birds and Bees Protection Act.

President Mullins reminded all LSNY members to renew their annual membership online or by mailing in a check.

Motion 1: President Mullins then announced the result of the online vote to approve the September 2023 members’ meeting minutes. The vote passed with 125 votes in favor, one opposed, and two abstaining.

Motion 2: The Society welcomed the following eight new members, with 127 members voting in favor and one opposed.

Christina Dimmick, Active, sponsored by Mary Beth Kooper
Roth Wilkofsky, Supporting, sponsored by Linda Atkins
Julian Batista, Active, sponsored by Mary Beth Kooper
Sandra Beltrao, Active, sponsored by Ursula Mitra
Kristen Bancroft, Active, sponsored by Amanda Bielskas
Shannon Kelly, Active, sponsored by Michelle Zorzi
Susan Eby, Active, sponsored by Maggie Bradley
Jordana Mattioli, Active, sponsored by Eric Ozawa

At 7:10 p.m., President Mullins introduced the speaker, Dr. Margaret Rubega.

Dr. Margaret Rubega
Dr. Margaret Rubega is a Professor and Curator of Ornithology in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut and the Connecticut State Ornithologist. She first set foot on Great Gull Island in 1979, and the experience made her a biologist. She did her graduate work at the University of California, Irvine, on the feeding mechanics and ecology of phalaropes in the context of the legal battle of water rights at Mono Lake, California, and postdoctoral work on shorebird resilience to salinization of wetlands at the University of Nevada, Reno. She approaches avian conservation, ecology, and evolution questions mechanistically, integrating tools from functional morphology, biomechanics, physiology, and animal behavior. She has conducted research on shorebirds, seabirds, hummingbirds, swifts, and a variety of passerines in field sites in the Arctic, Antarctic, and North America. Her recent work on the conservation of terns at Great Gull Island brings her full circle.

Conservation Planning for the Future of Terns on Great Gull Island: What Next?
Dr. Rubega started the evening by recognizing her collaborators and supporters on the Great Gull Island project, including Joan Walsh of Mass Audubon and Peter Paton of the University of Rhode Island. She thanked Cindy Barreto and Jessica Espinosa, doctoral students in her lab. She also noted the hundreds of students and volunteers who have participated and contributed to the work at Great Gull Island over the last fifty years.

Most importantly, Dr. Rubega acknowledged the enormous debt of gratitude owed to Helen Hayes, director of Great Gull Island since 1969, and Joe DiCostanzo, architect of the data collection over the project’s lifespan. Their work resulted in over fifty years of vital data detailing the rebuilding of the tern colony and the ensuing effects of climate change on the population. Dr. Rubega credited the lives of over half of the Roseate terns living today directly to Helen’s vision and leadership. She also noted that Helen inspired the careers of many working on the island and in the field today. The net result is a tern colony of hemispheric importance.

Great Gull Island is a vital nesting location at the mouth of the Long Island Sound. It hosts the federally endangered Roseate tern and the Common tern, a species of greatest conservation need. These two species are interdependent and require year-round paired conservation actions to sustain their populations.

In 1897, the island was host to approximately 7000 pairs of terns before becoming a military base that destroyed the habitat and covered the shoreline and land in hardscape and buildings. In 1949, the American Museum of Natural History purchased the land to reestablish the habitat and encourage the tern colonies to return to the island. For more information about Great Gull Island, Dr. Rubega urged members to review the project’s history captured on the Linnaean Society website, where there is a wealth of additional information, including a detailed chronology of the project authored by Dale Dancis.

Today, Great Gull Island is North America’s second-largest Common tern colony and hosts the largest Roseate tern colony in the Western Hemisphere. There is no other colony like it, and these birds have very little redundancy, meaning if something happens to this colony, there are few other places to go. Additionally, climate change is an existential threat to the island, and steps are necessary to plan for a future with higher sea levels, changes in fish populations, and other potential challenges.

Dr. Rubega’s team is experimenting to develop a roadmap for the island’s future. The first objective is to digitize and secure the historical data collected by Joe DiCostanzo, making it available for further research and study. Another urgent need is to determine the best method to continue to monitor the terns while using fewer researchers on the island.

Since 1949, much of the land has been lost, and storm erosion will continue to increase, so the next priority is determining how much land will remain for another fifty years. Unfortunately, the island is not a good candidate for a living shoreline due to the extreme interventions implemented by the military.

A further question to explore is the changes in the food population due to increases in water temperature. The terns currently eat Atlantic silversides, small cold-water fish that grow no bigger than six inches in length. The team is studying the bird’s feces to determine what else they might be eating and to hypothesize how the tern’s diet might evolve.

Models predict that by 2100, only the parts of the island currently above three meters from where the shoreline now lies will remain above water. Climate change scientists are modeling the predicted change in water depth to determine where investments should be made to build new nest sites. Over the past few years, her team has been experimenting to identify the most productive nest boxes, locations for nets, and the best methods for chick banding.

Avian influenza is of great concern, as it has been rampant worldwide over the past two years. To date, Great Gull Island has escaped this threat, but the team is implementing strict measures toprevent an outbreak. Strict sanitation and bio-security measures require researchers to wear full-body suits on the island.

New measures to manage plants have produced encouraging results, including a program to remove invasive annuals and reseed native plants, providing an enhanced habitat for chicks to nest. An additional benefit is that the newly planted goldenrod offers food for migrating monarch butterflies, another endangered species the island supports.

The evening concluded with a fascinating Q&A session hosted by Vice President Douglas Futuyma. Delightfully, Helen Hays and Joe DiCostanzo joined the conversation to answer the intriguing questions posed by the audience. Dr. Rubega reminded the members that although it is now more difficult to volunteer than in past years, donations are always welcome and can be sent to the Great Gull Island fund at the American Museum of Natural History. At the close of the evening, The Linnaean Society expressed its appreciation to Dr. Rubega for sharing the plans for the future of Great Gull Island. 

At 7:00 p.m., President Debbie Mullins called the meeting of the Society to order.

As we gathered online for the first talk of the series, President Mullins gave a friendly reminder to all LSNY members: “Don’t forget to renew your annual membership, either online or by mailing in a check.” She then advised members to mark their calendars for the much-anticipated annual homecoming picnic set for Sunday, September 20th, at the Heckscher Picnic Area in the heart of Central Park. The festivities will run from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. In case of inclement weather, the rain date is Sunday, October 1st, at the same time and location.

President Mullins then encouraged our membership to take action by composing letters to their respective City Council representatives, advocating for the Lights Out Bill and the Birds and Bees Protection Act – important initiatives for our community.

The gathering also featured the exciting Great Gull Island Birdathon results announcement. The dedicated teams raised an impressive $5,800, doubling the previous year’s total. Heartfelt gratitude was extended to Michelle Zorzi and Debbie Becker for their outstanding efforts in organizing the successful 2023 Birdathon.

Motion 1: President Mullins then announced the result of the online vote to approve the May 2023 members’ meeting minutes. The vote passed with 126 votes in favor and two abstaining.

Motion 2: The Society welcomed the following twenty-three new members, with 128 members voting in favor and none opposed. President Mullins announced that our membership now stands at 700 people.

• Ruth Rioux, Active, sponsored by Meredith Barchat and Russ Comeau
• David Schneiderman, Active, sponsored by Anne Lazarus
• Robert Kenet, Supporting, sponsored by Ken Chaya
• Richard Devereaux, Supporting, sponsored by Barbara Saunders and Nancy O’Keefe
• Noel Comess, Active, sponsored by Michelle Zorzi
• Nancy Tollefson, Active, sponsored by Kevin Sisco
• Barbara Mahoney Kent, Active, sponsored by Kathleen Howley
• Lisa Curtiss, Active, sponsored by Karen Becker
• Ann Woodhouse Plum, Active, sponsored by Mary Beth Kooper
• Timothy Ryan, Supporting, sponsored by Phillp Ribolow
• Yeree Shim, Associate, sponsored by Karen Asakawa
• Tamar Michaeli, Active, sponsored by Amanda Bielskas
• Diane Louie, Active, sponsored by Gabriel Willow
• Darlene McNeil, Active, sponsored by Doug Futuyma
• Gary Himes, Active, sponsored by Ken Chaya
• Anne Himes, Active, sponsored by Ken Chaya
• Rachael Siegel, Active, sponsored by Mary Beth Kooper
• Jeffrey Lue, Active, sponsored by Mary Beth Kooper
• Michelle Yan, Active, sponsored by Barbara Saunders
• Susie Dippel, Active, sponsored by Karen Becker
• Sonja Schmid, Active, sponsored by Mary Beth Kooper
• Marlene Pantin, Active, sponsored by Ken Chaya
• Amy Davidow, Active, sponsored by Mary Beth Kooper

At 7:10 p.m., President Mullins introduced the speaker, Liliana M. Dávalos.

Dr. Liliana M. Dávalos
Liliana M. Dávalos is a professor of conservation biology at Stony Brook University (New York). She focuses on biodiversity and conserving the world’s life-support systems into the future. In her research, she uses genetics, genomics, and statistical tools to discover mechanisms of extinction and survival. She received her B.Sc. in Biology from the Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia, and a Ph.D. in ecology, evolution, and environmental biology at Columbia University. She has published over 90 research papers, including work in high-impact journals such as Science, Nature, and Current Biology. Dávalos is a 2012 National Academies of Sciences Education Fellow in the Life Sciences, a 2013 Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow for an outstanding early career, has advised the United Nations Office of Drug and Crime on deforestation since 2007, and is a member of the Science Panel for the Amazon. She is a co-editor of The Origins of Cocaine(2018) with Professor Paul Gootenberg, a co-author of the 2016 and contributor to the 2022 World Drug Report, and a co-editor of Phyllostomid Bats (2020) with Ted Fleming and Marco Mello.

Phyllostomid Bats are a Unique Mammalian Radiation. Here’s Why

Dr. Liliana M. Dávalos Unveils Caribbean Bat Evolution
Dr. Liliana M. Dávalos presented her research on the evolutionary patterns of Caribbean bats.

The Phyllostomidae family, also known as New World leaf-nosed bats, are among the most ecologically diverse mammal families, displaying more morphological variation than any other mammalian family. This variation is demonstrated by their morphology, diets, and sensory traits. The Phyllostomidae consists of species that have evolved physical modifications for insectivory, frugivory, hematophagy, nectarivory, and omnivory.

Adaptive radiation is defined as a rapid increase in the number of species with a common ancestor, characterized by great ecological and morphological diversity. Dr. Dávalos’ research delves into why Phyllostomidae bats have exhibited this characteristic. She focused on understanding the factors contributing to the distinct bat populations on various Caribbean islands and the reasons behind certain bats inhabiting specific islands.

Over the last two decades, Dr. Dávalos and her team have analyzed living and fossil species of Phyllostomid bats and close relatives in order to discover when, where, and how their diversity has evolved and been maintained. These studies reveal that the family has diversified relatively recently and in tandem with adaptations to frugivory as well as molecular and trait diversity across the family.

This evolution suggests adaptation to establish mutualistic relationships with flowering plants. Together with our knowledge of these bats’ dominance in the night skies of tropical America, these findings have established Phyllostomid bats as a unique adaptive radiation.

Equilibrium Theory of Island Biogeography: A New Perspective on Bat Evolution
The equilibrium theory of island biogeography posits a balance between species immigration and extinction, where over time, the island’s debris of biodiversity remains stable. Curiously, this model was not working as predicted among the Caribbean bats.

Dr. Dávalos’s insights revealed that the missing link was the emergence of new species through local differentiation or isolation-induced speciation. This discovery provided a fresh perspective on the dynamic nature of bat evolution in the Caribbean over millions of years, proving for the first time that there was species equilibrium on the islands across the millions of years of bat colonization.

Species Extinction
Dr. Dávalos and her team made a noteworthy calculation: it would take around eight million years for the thirteen extinct bat species she found to be naturally replaced through colonization and speciation. Interestingly, most of these extinctions coincided with human arrival on the islands, a significant finding in this field of study.

Given the alarming rate of mammal extinction in the Caribbean, Dr. Dávalos collaborated with Bat Conservation International to identify the most threatened bat species. They named the Jamaican flower bat, currently listed as critically endangered by the IUCN due to its restricted range and estimated population of fewer than 250 individuals. This partnership led to a conservation program aimed at preserving the bat’s habitats, ecosystems, and the plants it pollinates.

Bat Diversity: Unraveling the Threads of Evolution
Beyond conventional speciation drivers, Dr. Dávalos introduced a new hypothesis: ecological specialization. According this hypothesis, evolution doesn’t result primarily from geographical barriers but from shifts in behavior. Bats, with their diverse diets, provide an ideal context for studying this phenomenon. The intricate relationship between bats and plants reveal a rich tapestry of species diversity shaped by their interactions.

The evening concluded with a Q&A session led by Vice President Douglas Futuyma. The Linnaean Society expressed its appreciation to Dr. Dávalos for sharing her research into Caribbean bat evolution. Her work sheds light on these mysterious creatures and emphasizes the importance of conserving their ecosystems for future generations.

(Note: This meeting and presentation took place online via Zoom due to social distancing protocols prompted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.)

At 7:00 p.m., President Debbie Mullins called the meeting of the Society to order.

President Mullins noted that many new species had been sighted in Central Park over the past month, including unusualspecies such as a Summer Tanager and a Brewster’s Warbler. Members and non-members are welcome to participate in the weekly Linnaean Society spring migration walks on Tuesdays in Central Park by registering online.

The Birdathon for the Great Gull Island Project will be held on May 13th and 14th. Five teams have registered tosupport this fundraiser, and there is still time to sign up or sponsor a team with a tax-deductible donation. President Mullins thanked Michelle Zorzi and Debbie Becker for organizing the 2023 Birdathon.

The city council has reintroduced a critical bill requiring all New York City buildings to turn off non-essential lights during migration from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. If passed, this bill would prevent tens of thousands of birds from being killed by crashing into buildings. It would also reduce energy usage and help the city reduce its carbon footprint. If you want to contact your city council representative, now is the time. There will also be a rally tomorrow from 12:30 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Broadway entrance to City Hall to focus attention on this crucial legislation.

Motion 1: President Mullins then announced the result of the online vote to approve the April 2023 members’ meeting minutes. The vote passed with 114 votes in favor and two abstaining.

Motion 2: The Society welcomed the following twelve new members, with 116 members voting in favor and none opposed.

• Bruno Babij, Active, sponsored by Mary Beth Kooper
• Emily Southwick, Active, sponsored by Mary Beth Kooper
• Jeanne Ann Karfo, Active, sponsored by Debbie Becker
• Jenn Burland, Active, sponsored by Kathleen Matthews
• Christopher Hamlin, Active, sponsored by Linda Labella
• Yoming Lin, Supporting, sponsored by Richard Davis
• Anne Fearon, Active, sponsored by Kathleen Matthews
• Jill Appel, Active, sponsored by Ken Chaya
• Linda Macaulay, Active, sponsored by Debbie Mullins
• Judith Nelson, Supporting, sponsored by Barrie Raik
• Louise Kerner, Active, sponsored by Lynne Hertzog
• Catherine Ichord, Active, sponsored by Debbie Mullins

President Mullins emphasized the Linnaean Society’s unwavering dedication to fostering diversity within ourmembership. We extend a warm welcome to anyone with an interest in birds and natural history, inviting them to join our ranks. Prospective members are encouraged to use either Debbie Mullins’ name or that of any other board member as a sponsor for their membership application. For further details, please refer to our website.

At 7:10 p.m., President Mullins introduced the speaker, Dr. Pedro Piffer.

Dr. Pedro Piffer
Dr. Pedro Piffer is an environmental specialist with years of experience in the private sector in Brazil. His environmental impact assessment and mitigation work spans many infrastructure projects, including some with high environmental and social risks, such as dams, roads, and mining. He recently received his Ph.D. from ColumbiaUniversity, researching changes in forest cover in tropical regions with a focus on reforestation and carbon sequestration in Brazil. He works as a remote sensing scientist at Earthshot Labs, and is seeking to secure financing for restoration and conservation projects from the voluntary carbon market.

Do Regenerated Forests Survive? Towards a Better Understanding of the Drivers of Forest Regeneration and Persistence in Tropical Regions
Dr. Piffer’s pioneering research delves into the dynamics of tropical forest cover changes, focusing on identifying thecatalysts behind forest regeneration and the critical conditions that support their sustainability. These inquiries holdprofound implications for the provisioning of vital ecosystem services.

Reforestation holds paramount importance due to its role in enhancing carbon sequestration within mature forests.When these reforested areas feature native plant species, they foster a thriving ecosystem that benefits a broad spectrum of flora and fauna. Moreover, working to preserve young forests becomes increasingly imperative as they face heightened threats.

The majority of international treaties and agreements, including prominent ones like the Paris Climate Agreement, the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, and the Bonn Challenge, not only commit to reforestation efforts butalso emphasize the crucial need to curb deforestation. In light of significant challenges faced by countries such as Brazil, the sustainability of regenerating forests over time emerges as a pivotal factor determining their success.

Brazilian Atlantic Forest
Dr. Piffer’s research involves identifying key actions to bolster the Atlantic Forest, an ecosystem marked by significant fragmentation and high population density, with two-thirds of Brazil’s population residing in this region. Despite 35 years of intense forest loss, the Atlantic Forest remains a remarkable biodiversity hotspot worthy of protection and study.

His comprehensive analysis spans three decades (1985-2019) and encompasses deforestation and reforestation, observing native and planted forests. The study revealed an overall 38 percent reforestation rate. However, aconsiderable portion comprises newly planted monoculture forests, susceptible to high failure rates and limited carbon sequestration capabilities.

Forest Transitions Framework
The first fundamental concept in his research is the notion of “forest transitions,” a framework that describes how a region undergoes a shift from a net loss to a net gain in forest cover. This transition often correlates with the migration of rural populations to urban centers, leaving behind farmlands to reforest. It can also result from advancements inagricultural mechanization, where lands less suitable for machinery are left to reforest.

The recovery process can unfold through unassisted natural regeneration, where forests naturally reestablish themselves. In contrast, some countries, notably China, India, and Vietnam, have made deliberate efforts to plant vast acres of trees. Although they have achieved commendable restoration goals, it’s important to note that many of these restored forests consist of monoculture, lacking the ecological richness and resilience of diverse natural forest ecosystems.

The Success of Secondary Forests
The other pivotal area of research examines the enduring presence of secondary forests within the Brazilian AtlanticForest. Notably, many of these recently planted forests are harvested for lumber after just eight years, only to be replanted anew, a practice termed “ephemeral reforestation.”

A significant finding was that a failure to differentiate between native and planted forests could lead to overestimating carbon sequestration potential by as much as 70 percent.

Conditions For Success
Regenerated forests thrive when they meet specific conditions, including proximity to existing forests and planting onsteep slopes where agriculture does not readily occur. In ideal situations, forests are near rivers, providing additionallegal protection. A higher per-capita GDP, increased agricultural yields, and reduced rural population density also create the best conditions for success. The longevity of these newly established forests plays a vital role in facilitating the long-term recolonization of this ecosystem by various species, particularly birds.

Conclusions
In the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, regenerated forests increased in size by ten percent between 1985 and 2019. However, a substantial portion of this regeneration is short-lived due to ephemeral reforestation, when forests are re-harvested within a few years. This practice masks the extent of deforestation’s detrimental impact and results in a striking 70% reduction in projected carbon sequestration. This issue underscores a global challenge: the failure to differentiatebetween planted and native forests, leading to overestimating the beneficial effect of reforestation, resulting in a substantial misjudgment of carbon sequestration rates.

The key takeaway is that global organizations and accountability mechanisms must prioritize forest regeneration and reforestation’s enduring, long-term sustainability to reach the full potential for carbon sequestration.

Vice President Douglas Futuyma hosted a robust Q and A session, and the evening concluded with the LinnaeanSociety thanking Dr. Piffer for sharing his fascinating and essential research.

(Note: This meeting and presentation took place online, via Zoom, due to social distancing protocols prompted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.)

At 7:00 pm, newly elected President Debbie Mullins called the meeting of the Society to order.

President Mullins noted that there were 50 attendees at that morning’s Central Park walk. Participants logged 50 species, including many migrating birds, five warbler species, and a first-of-spring Hooded Warbler. Members and non-members alike are welcome to join these walks by registering online.

The Birdathon in support of the Great Gull Island Project will be held on May 13 and 14. All members received an email with instructions for registering and donating to support this fundraiser.

Transactions, Volume XI, the research journal of the Linnaean Society, has been published, and a small number are available for purchase. Members may also read a free online version of the publication. The issue is dedicated to Dr. Helen Hayes for her work at Great Gull Island and includes the results of her studies of the Common and Roseate Terns.

Motion 1: President Mullins then announced the result of the online vote to approve the February 2023 members’ meeting minutes. The vote passed with 152 votes in favor and four abstaining.

Motion 2: The Society welcomed the following nine new members, with 156 members voting in favor and none opposed.

• Junuen Cho, Active, sponsored by Kathleen Matthews
• Cheryl Morrison, Supporting, sponsored by Nick Dawson
• Katharine Wodell, Supporting, sponsored by Carine Mitchell
• Hector Cordero, Active, sponsored by Ken Chaya
• Barbara Scaturro, Active, sponsored by Debbie Mullins
• Janel diBiccari, Active, sponsored by Ken Chaya
• Irene Liberman, Active, sponsored by Chuck McAlexander
• Liz Garn, Active, sponsored by Mary Beth Kooper
• John Coons, Active, sponsored by Susan E. Schuur

President Mullins noted that the Linnaean Society is committed to the diversity of our membership and thateveryone is welcome to join. Any person interested in membership may use her or any other board member’s name to sponsor their membership. More information can be found on the website.

At 7:10 pm, President Mullins introduced the speaker, Dr. Danielle Whittaker.

Dr. Danielle J. Whittaker

Dr. Whittaker is an evolutionary biologist and managing director at the Center for Oldest Ice Exploration (COLDEX) at Oregon State University (Corvallis). Her research focuses on the forces influencing animal behavior, mate selection, and evolution, from gibbons in Indonesia to the Dark-eyed Juncos of North America. Dr. Whittaker was previously managing director of BEACON, the Center for the Study of Evolution in Action, at Michigan State University.

Dr. Whittaker, author of The Secret Perfume of Birds, will discuss several studies that have contributed to debunking the long-standing myth that birds have no sense of smell and will describe the many ways that scent enhances avian life.

Using Common Scents: How Songbirds Communicate With Odors The Sense of Smell

Smell has been called the most ancient sense, and songbirds, like many other creatures, make abundant

use of it. Most birds’ primary source of odors is preen oil, secreted by the uropygial gland and used by birds to groom and maintain their feathers. By smelling this oil, birds can recognize and assess potential mates and rivals.Recent evidence suggests that the odors are produced not by the birds but by symbiotic microbes associated with the uropygial gland. Birds’ social behavior affects the composition of these microbial communities, which results in birds from the same group having a similar odor.

The chemical senses, which include taste and smell, are the most ancient and universal, and they are found in alllife forms on this planet. Even bacteria display chemotaxis, which is how they respond to chemicals in their environments. When the tobacco hornworm starts to feed on the tobacco plant, its saliva mixes with a chemical on the leaves, which then release an airborne chemical that attracts the big- eyed bug, a predator that feeds on the worm. Salmon follow pheromone trails in the water during the breeding season, and we’re all familiar with the ideathat dogs have a very good sense of smell. Smell is a power that is found in all life on Earth. And yet, there is a common misconception that birds are an exception to this rule.

This has been true for a long time. John James Audubon is one of the earliest sources of this myth. In 1826, he published a paper hypothesizing that Turkey Vultures have excellent eyesight due to an evolutionary trade-off thatinvolved losing their sense of smell. Unfortunately, although the experiments with which he backed up this theorywere poorly designed, it resulted in the persistent belief that Turkey Vultures only use their eyes to find food.

Another group of birds well known for their sense of smell is Procellariiformes, a.k.a. tube-nosed seabirds. Forexample, an albatross will fly hundreds of miles over the open ocean, guided by the smell of dimethyl sulfide from phytoplankton, to find the fish and other animals that comprise its diet. Likewise, petrels use their sense of smell to locate their ground burrows at night, even though they are sited among hundreds of other nests.

Songbirds

Historically, it has been thought that songbirds have a poor sense of smell, given their tiny nasal passages and the small olfactory bulbs in their brains. In 2006, Dr. Whittaker joined Ellen Patterson’s lab at Indiana University,where she studied Dark-eyed juncos, a widespread North American species with multiple sub- species. A prior study had discovered that Red Knots change their preen oil after laying eggs to hide their odor and make their nests less obvious to predators. Because juncos are also ground nesters, they are often the target of predation by snakes, chipmunks, and other birds. So the lab ran a similar test to determine if juncos also changed their preen oil during reproduction. What they found was the exact opposite. This inspired Dr. Whittaker to learn more about how songbirds use odor in social contexts.

Mate Attraction

Unlike moths, birds do not use pheromones to attract mates. Instead, in birds, there is a mixture of compounds thatis both species specific and individually specific. As with bird song, each species has a similar, recognizable mix, but there are differences from bird to bird.

Her first research project was designed to determine whether birds within the same species can tell the difference between male and female preen oil. The results did not show a clear attraction based on the odor ofpreen oil. Dr. Whittaker then looked into the possibility that the scent does not create the initial attraction but is used in choosing a suitable mate and avoiding the wrong one.

In many species, including humans, it has been proven that individuals are attracted to those with different MHCgenes than their own. This attraction is determined through smell. The theory is that a more diverse set of MCHgenes allows offspring to fight disease better, and several studies show that this is related to how humans smell and what smells we are attracted to.

In Beth McDougal Shackleton’s lab at Western University in London, Ontario, a study with Song Sparrowsmeasured whether preen oil odor choice reflected the difference in MHC genotype. They found a significant correlation between attraction and MHC-dissimilar, opposite-sex birds.

Reproductive Advertisement

Female chemical signals may function as reproduction advertisements. For example, female juncos’ preen oilpeaked during fertilization, showing that females use this odor to signal to males that they are ready. A similar experiment with chickens showed that female preen oil might stimulate testosterone production.

Aggression and Assessing Rivals

Dr. Whittaker conducted a study to measure aggression in Dark-eyed Juncos using a simulated territorial intrusion. The study found a strong correlation between the odor of a foreign junco and aggression, especially in males. It is understood to be related to testosterone and androgen receptors in the pineal gland.

Kin Recognition

Several studies show that parents and nestlings can recognize each other by smell—for example, adult petrels. Other studies have been conducted with songbirds. Zebra Finch chicks recognize the scent of their genetic parents, even if foster parents raised them.

It is not just chicks and parents that can identify one another. Birds can distinguish between unfamiliar kin and non-kin by smell, even if they have never met. Therefore,

Why Family Members Smell Similiar

Dr. Whittaker teamed up with a microbiologist, Kevin Tice, who studies scent glands in hyenas. Kevin pointed out that scent glands are full of bacteria, and the bacteria are actually what give the odor that hyenas and other mammals use to communicate.

The study examined the bacteria in junco glands to determine whether they produced unique odors. It was found that the closer the genetic relationship, the more similar the smell of the birds. Additionally, the mothers’ scents are more similar to those of their offspring because they are the only ones sitting on the nest. The males interact with the nestlings by feeding them, but they’re not sitting on them and physically sharing bacteria all day long.

Conclusion

Songbirds give off an odor that is present in their preen oil. These odors might be significant in mate assessment, giving information about the candidates’ quality and MHC genotype. Females can advertise through scent their reproductive readiness to get males interested in mating. A bird’s ability to assess odor can also be essential for evaluating the likelihood of aggression from a rival. An individual might choose to stay away from another bird who smells aggressive. Scent is also vital for recognizing relatives and avoiding mating with them.

The evening ended with a Q and A session hosted by Gabriel Willow, after which the Linnaean Society thanked Dr. Whittaker for sharing her fascinating research.

(Note: This meeting and presentation took place online, via Zoom, due to social distancing protocols prompted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.)

At 7:00 pm, President Rochelle Thomas called the meeting of the Society to order.

President Thomas reminded everyone of the annual meeting on March 14th at the Liederkranz Club. The Society will be hosting this event in person for the first time since 2020 and will celebrate this year’s Eisenmann medalist, Dr. Scott Edwards. This event is for members and their guests only, so if you still need to renew your membership, now is the time.

President Thomas has formed a nominating committee to lead the search for new board members to replace those whose terms are ending: Mary Beth Kooper, Debbie Becker, Amy Simmons, and Michelle Zorzi. She thanked these members for their service to the board. The nominating committee consists of Kevin Cisco, Evelyn Wong, and Miriam Rakowski, 

President Thomas thanked attendees for participating in the recent membership survey, to which over 230 people responded. 

She then reported the passing of Matthew Cormons (1941-2022). Matthew participated in the Great Gull Island community and was a Linnaean Society member for nearly fifty years, joining in 1973. Joseph DiCostanzo wrote a lovely celebration of his life, which is posted on the Linnaean Society website. 

President Thomas then announced the result of the online vote to approve the January 2023 members’ meeting minutes. The vote passed with 130 votes of approval. 

At 7:05 pm, President Thomas introduced the speaker, David Parra-Puente, whose topic was “Fundación Jocotoco: 25 Years of Habitat Conservation in Ecuador & the Discovery That Sparked a Movement.”

David Parra-Puente is the director of conservation for Fundación de Conservación Jocotoco. He is a biologist with a master’s degree in economics; his work focuses on ecology, sustainability, and community outreach. David’s passions are research, conservation, drawing, mathematics, and nature.

Ecuador is one of the world’s most biodiverse countries, but its small size and extremely high rate of deforestation are pushing species to the edge. Fundación Jocotoco’s mission is to protect some of the earth’s most threatened species and habitats. The foundation purchases properties to establish private, strictly managed, protected areas; restore degraded land; and help communities protect their natural resources. The presentation will review what Fundación Jococoto has accomplished since its founding 25 years ago and what it takes to protect some of the world’s most threatened species and habitats.

BIODIVERSITY IN ECUADOR
Mr. Parra-Puente began his talk by stating that Ecuador is one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet. With only 0.17% of the earth’s surface, Ecuador is home to one out of five butterfly species, one of seven bird species, one of ten amphibian species, and one of ten plant species. 

Why is this so? The tropics, in general, are more diverse than other landscapes, and Ecuador lies in the middle of the tropical zone. Three distinct mountain ranges contribute to diversity, including the Andes, which create a barrier between the east and west of the country. In addition, the country lies near unique ocean currents: the Humboldt Current brings cold water from the south, and the Panama Current brings warm water from the north. In addition to the Amazon River hotspot, two areas of biodiversity cover the rest of the country: the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena hotspot and the Tropical Andean hotspot. The Galapagos Islands are also part of Ecuador.

Fundación Jocotoco focuses on the areas that host the most endangered species: in the northwest, where the Chocóforest and Andean forest meet; and in the southern ecosystems, which are an unusual mixture of  dry Andean and low, wet forests. Ecuador is a perfect place to do research because the diversity is very high, but it’s also tricky because resources are limited, and priorities must be determined.

FUNDACIÓN JOCOTOCO’S CONSERVATION EFFORTS
Fundación Jocotoco was founded because of the Jocotoco Antpitta – a highly range-restricted bird species with fewer than 1,500 individuals that was discovered in 1998 in the Tapichalaca Reserve. Other rare birds that the foundation studies and protects are the Pale-headed Brushfinch (found on the Yunguilla Reserve), the El Oro Parakeet (Buenaventura Reserve), the Black-breasted Puffleg (Yanacocha Reserve), and the Blue-throated Hillstar (Cerro de Arcos Reserve).

Umbrella birds were selected for conservation because protecting them also indirectly protects many other species that make up the ecological community of their habitat. The foundation has expanded its work to enhance habitats for species such as Spectacled Bear, Jaguar, Baird’s Tapir, and many more. Its conservation efforts also include plants and migrating birds such as the Cerulean and Blackburnian Warblers. In addition, special programs have been implemented to save species like the Blue Whiptail Lizard, which was thought to be extinct. 

Another interesting project involves protection of sea turtles, which began as an outgrowth of a hummingbird project. Turtles such as the Hawksbill, the Green, the Olive Ridley, and the Leatherback lay their eggs on the beach where the hummingbird project was initiated—now known to be one of the most important beaches for sea turtles.

PROGRESS SO FAR
Since its founding, Jocotoco has established a network of 16 conservation reserves totaling over 23,000 hectares (57,000 acres), protecting some of the world’s most endangered species by saving their remaining natural habitats. The foundation focuses on species and habitats not already protected by Ecuador’s extensive national park system (20.3% of its terrestrial area and 12.07% of marine territory), complementing the government’s efforts to protect Ecuador’s globally significant biodiversity. Its efforts so far include the following:

• 15 reserves
• 28 target species
• >20 target ecosystems
• >30,000 hectares
• >1,032 plant species
• >105 mammal species
• >120 reptile species
• >125 amphibian species
• >1,072 bird species

The guiding strategy of the foundation has been to work at the ecosystem level while providing efficient and effective management.

The evening concluded with a rousing Q and A session hosted by Douglas Futuyma, after which the president thanked David Parra-Puente for sharing his fascinating research. 

The Linnaean Society of New York
General Meeting Minutes
January 10, 2023

(Note: This meeting and presentation took place online, via Zoom, due to social distancing protocols prompted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.)

At 7:00 pm, President Rochelle Thomas called the meeting of the Society to order.

President Thomas reminded everyone of the annual meeting on March 14th at the Liederkranz Club. The Society will be hosting this event in person for the first time since 2020 and will celebrate this year’s Eisenmann medalist, Dr. Scott Edwards. This event is for members and their guests only, so if you still need to renew your membership, now is the time.

The board is in the final stages of preparing a survey to learn what our membership values and prioritizes. Please be on the lookout for an email with the link to the survey.

President Thomas then announced the passing of Alan Messer. Alan was a former Linnaean Society president (2005-2007), recording secretary (1999-2001 and 2003-2005), and longtime Central Park birder. His artwork graced many of the Linnaean Society publications.

Motion 1: President Thomas announced the results of a new-member vote, which passed with 170 votes of approval and 0 opposed.

The Society welcomed the following four new members:
Samari Weinberg sponsored by Karen Asakawa
Beth Labush sponsored by Ken Chaya
Corey Farwell sponsored by Ken Chaya
Ian Bell sponsored by Miriam Rakowski

Motion 2: President Thomas then announced the result of the online vote to approve the minutes of the December 2022 members’ meeting. The vote passed with 176 votes of approval and 2 abstentions.

At 7:03 pm, President Thomas introduced the speaker, Dr. Meredith VanAcker.

Dr. Meredith VanAcker is a disease ecologist working as a George E. Burch Postdoctoral Fellow under the Smithsonian’s Global Health and Movement of Life programs. Her work integrates methods from wildlife movement and ecology to examine how animals’ responses to land-use change impact the distribution and prevalence of zoonotic pathogens and infectious disease risk for humans. Dr. VanAcker completed her Ph.D. at Columbia University, where she worked with wildlife populations in New York City to determine the ecological drivers of urban tick-borne disease risk. She now examines multi-species movement and contact to examine how these interactions determine the risk for pathogen spillover in Nairobi, Kenya.

Wildlife Movement and Infectious Disease Emergence in Complex Urban Ecosystems

Dr. VanAcker began by defining terms used in disease ecology:

• Infectious Disease: Illnesses caused by pathogenic microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, parasites, or fungi, that can be spread directly or indirectly from one person to another or from an animal to a human.
• Zoonotic Spillover Event: Describes the transmission from vertebrate animals to humans.
• Vector: Living organisms that can transmit infectious pathogens between humans or from animals to humans. Common examples are mosquitoes, flies, or ticks.
• Reservoir Host: The habitat in which the infectious agent normally lives, grows, and multiplies. Reservoirs include humans, animals, and the environment. The reservoir may or may not be the source from which an agent is transferred to a host. Infection is typically asymptomatic or non-lethal to the host.

The majority of emerging human infectious diseases are zoonotic. It’s estimated that 71% of the infectious diseases experienced by humans originated from animals, and emerging zoonoses in the future are most likely to be viruses. Today’s discussion focuses on the global burden of zoonotic diseases, the current status, and where we are heading.

The annual mortality rate of viral disease epidemics is 3.3 million lives. Researchers predict disease events using a global database and predictors that span human activities, like deforestation and agricultural intensification, and animal characteristics, like biodiversity and phylogenetic proximity. Areas with high biodiversity and land-use change correlate with disease emergence.

Equally important, massive inequities in healthcare access and in the degree of surveillance of infectious diseases exist between high- and middle- to low-income countries, exacerbating the burden of zoonotic diseases. In addition to human losses, zoonotic outbreaks have significant economic impacts. Putting prevention strategies into place could reduce the likelihood of outbreaks. For example, a 10% reduction in infection can reduce the expected deaths by 300,000 people and save up to $2 trillion USD annually.

There are multiple pathways to zoonotic spillover, where pathogens move from animals into humans. These pathways describe the ecological interactions that underlie the spillover event.

• Pathogens released through an animal’s natural excretion.
• The distribution of reservoir hosts and the intensity of infection within those hosts.
• Pathogens transmitted through a vector, like a mosquito or tick, that acquires the infection when it feeds on the host.
• Human exposure to environmental pathogens through butchering or eating infected meat, or through being bitten by an infected vector.

All factors must align, both in space and time, for spillover to occur. Environmental changes impact these pathways and can accelerate spillover events.

• Land-use change is one of the dominant ways the pathways can be disturbed.
• Climate change can alter the range and survival of vectors such as mosquitos, which can then spread mosquito-borne disease more broadly.
• Agricultural intensification changes pathogen infection dynamics through inflating animal densities by holding many livestock in a small space. It also presents more opportunities for human exposure through slaughter.
• Wildlife trade can import known and unknown pathogens into naive populations, altering the pathogen movement and geographical distribution.

Dr. VanAcker’s focus is on the impacts of land-use change, specifically on zoonotic spillover. One of the dominant types of land-use change is urbanization.

Cities are home to 55% of the world’s population; this number is expected to increase to 60% by 2015. Urbanization can facilitate zoonotic disease emergence and spread through land-use alteration, environmental stressors, and human population dynamics. Environmental stressors like food scarcity or clustering of wildlife around resources can increase susceptibility to infection. With land-cover conversion, humans may contact animals more frequently along edge habitats, potentially increasing the transmission probability.

In the last twenty years, New York City has experienced increased vector-borne diseases from ticks. The most prevalent tick-borne diseases in New York are anaplasmosis, babesiosis, and Lyme disease. On its own, a tick only moves one meter vertically in space. However, one deer can feed up to 500 ticks, and each tick can lay up to 2000 eggs, making deer vital for tick population establishment.

Nairobi, Kenya, is very different from New York City. Nairobi’s population is estimated at 8.5 million, and is growing at roughly 4% each year. Further, 60% of the population occupies only 6% of the land, primarily slum areas. The slum population is expected to double in the next 15 years, creating a high demand for animal products. This will bring livestock into close contact with humans, making zoonotic surveillance very important for the city.

Nairobi’s elevation gradient encompasses both socio-economic and ecological variation. High-income areas align with higher elevation as well as high tree cover. In these areas, there is more biodiversity, lower human density, and less livestock. Conversely, in low-income areas, there is higher human and livestock density in addition to more land use by humans, as well as rats and raccoons living in close association with people. This close contact and attendant potential for pathogen transmission are what Dr. VanAcker will be focusing on in her upcoming work.

Wildlife that interacts closely with humans, livestock, and livestock waste may be exposed to more antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. A team studying multidrug-resistant E Coli across many different wildlife groups in Nairobi found that fruit bats and seed-eating birds were significantly more likely to carry multidrug-resistant E Coli than other wildlife, including rodents and primates. This data implies that wildlife and livestock are coming into close contact.

Dr. VanAcker’s upcoming book will focus on how livestock contact with wildlife affects virus transmission in Nairobi’s rapidly developing urban area. Her research includes using lightweight proximity sensors to study fruit bats, house sparrows, and Marabou storks. She is assessing the frequency of indirect human-to-wildlife contact through fruiting trees and manure piles near households. Oral and rectal swabs and blood samples will be obtained from these animals to determine the diversity of viruses being shared and spread around the city by investigating their genomics. Looking at this social network will provide information to the community and public health officials working in urban development. Dr. VanAcker’s publication will be released in a year and a half.

In summary, urban zoonotic surveillance and prevention should be addressed with a multi-hazard lens. By studying the ways that diseases are spreading, scientists can determine how to manage zoonotic hazards in cities.

Equally important is the education of the human population. It is vital that we continue working towards preventing deforestation, making urban growth more sustainable, and reducing agricultural expansion so that pathogens circulating in nature remain contained in nature. This isn’t just for the benefit of humans, as it is also extremely critical for wildlife conservation and health.

The evening ended with a rousing Q and A session hosted by Vice President Gabriel Willow, after which the Linnaean Society thanked Dr. VanAcker for sharing her fascinating research.

(Note: This meeting and presentation took place online, via Zoom, due to social distancing protocols prompted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.)

At 7:00 pm, President Rochelle Thomas called the meeting of the Society to order. After welcoming the meeting attendees, she reminded members of the upcoming beach cleanup at Cedar Grove in Staten Island. President Thomas also noted that members who have yet to pay their dues could do so online or via mail.

Motion 1: President Thomas announced the results of the online new-member vote, which passed with 146 votes of approval and 0 of disapproval.

The Society welcomed the following eight new members:

1. Annie Wilker, Active Member, sponsored by Miriam Rakowski, Evelyn Huang
2. Sarah Lisciandro, Associate Member, sponsored by Asta Skocir
3. Paul Bovitz, Active Member, sponsored by Lenore Swenson
4. Hannah Cui, Active Member, sponsored by Ronnie Almonte
5. Aris Concepcion, Active Member, sponsored by Sylvia Alexander
6. Ho Kei (Heidi) Ng, Active Member, sponsored by Amanda Bielskas
7. Marie Cohen, Active Member, sponsored by Leslie Fiske
8. Paul Cohen, Active Member, sponsored by Leslie Fiske

Motion 2: President Thomas then announced the result of the online vote to approve the minutes of the September 2022 members meeting. The vote passed with 144 votes of approval and two abstentions. The final copy has been updated with member suggestions.

At 7:03 pm, President Thomas introduced the evening’s speaker, Roger Pasquier.

Roger Pasquier is an associate in the Department of Ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History. A member of The Linnaean Society of New York since 1968, his career has been in ornithology and conservation at the American Museum of Natural History, the U.S. National Museum, the World Wildlife Fund-U.S., the Environmental Defense Fund, and the National Audubon Society.

Birds in Winter: Surviving the Most Challenging Season

Effects of Winter
Winter affects about a third of all the world’s bird species. The season is colder, windier, and much longer than the breeding season. Birds must survive with less food, light, and time for foraging, in addition to longer nights. During this time, some birds stay put, but many others migrate south. In the Western Hemisphere, birds migrate to a winter range that is much smaller than their summer range, which leads to increased competition for resources. Southern migration typically brings the additional challenge of more predators and resident species on the winter range.

Types of Migration
There are many types of migrations, including partial migration, where some of the population moves from an area while others remain. Some migrations are short-distance, typically a few hundred miles, while on long-distance migrations, birds travel much farther, usually to a tropical zone or beyond. Altitudinal migration occurs in the Appalachians and, more commonly, in the Rockies.

Non-Migrating Species
Feeders
Many people are interested in the impact of feeders. For chickadees, feeders have little effect. However, feeders can be essential for species like the Carolina Wren, for whom one peanut is a third of the daily metabolic need.

Scatter Hoarders
Chickadees cache food using a scatter-hoarding technique. They store different foods in various well concealed locations for later retrieval, often weeks or months later. Every fall, the chickadee’s hippocampus (the part of the brain dealing with memory) expands to contain the many locations of the hidden food and then contracts again at the end of the winter. Blue Jays store a wide variety of acorns; one of the ways oaks increase their range is by germinating from the acorns that the jays have never retrieved. Red-bellied Woodpeckers hide fruits such as crabapple, apple, or cherries in the deep grooves of the bark of locust trees. White-breasted Nuthatches store seeds and other little bits, usually in cracks in tree bark, sometimes in the ground.

Larder Hoarders
Owls and kestrels are examples of larder hoarders. These birds have a single cache to store food after they catch and kill it. These hoards are usually temporary, as the food would decompose if left for a long time.

Short-Distance Migrants
Distribution
The Dark-eyed Junco displays a variety of migration patterns based on latitude, age, and gender. Generally, the adult males winter farther north than the females and younger birds. However, some young males winter even farther north than adult males, ostensibly to reach desirable breeding territories before the adult males arrive.

Eruptions
Everyone’s favorite erupting species is the Snowy Owl. Recently it has been determined that these eruptions occur when food has been particularly abundant during the previous breeding season, resulting in a higher number of young birds. This population increase causes food scarcity in the usual range and necessitates a wider dispersal of birds during the winter.

Long-Distance Migrants
There are 40 species of warblers that migrate into the narrow range of the Caribbean Islands, parts of Mexico, and down through Colombia. A few, such as the Blackpoll Warbler, go even farther. 

Non-Overlapping Territories
Some of these species share breeding ranges but have discrete winter ranges that are non-overlapping. During the spring and summer, the Bay-breasted Warbler and the Cape May Warbler reside in a vast and almost entirely overlapping range in the boreal forest, while they winter in completely different locations—the Bay-breasted in mainland Panama and Costa Rica, and the Cape May in the Caribbean Islands.

Overlapping Territories
A lot of these warblers have overlapping winter ranges. For example, 18 warbler species spend the winter in Jamaica, and another twelve migrate through. During the breeding session, the Louisiana Waterthrush favors running water, while the Northern Waterthrush favors still water and boggy areas. Where they overlap in winter, they stick to those same habitat choices. The Black-and-white Warbler feeds entirely on the bark of trees, so it doesn’t care what other warblers are around during the winter. The Worm-eating Warbler has a specialized winter diet that it accesses by probing into curled-up dead leaves and flowers.

Species Hierarchy
Some birds in overlapping areas practice domination over other species. For example, the Yellow Warbler is dominant over the Magnolia Warbler. Others have hierarchies within their species, such as the male redstart, which in the Caribbean inhabits the bug-rich mangroves and wet areas, while female and young redstarts use the the scrub and drier habitats.

Habitat Specialists
Other warblers, such as the Kentucky, are habitat specialists who spend the winter in the deep forest. The Chestnut-sided Warbler stays at the forest edges. The Tennessee Warbler moves around and has a flexible territory.

Territory Sequence
There are a few North American birds that winter in the tropics using a sequence of territories. Veeries move around the Amazon basin, looking for unflooded areas. The Purple Martin has a three-part migration: some go to Colombia, some to Amazonian Brazil, and others farther south to Bolivia—a tactic to avoid overcrowding, it is thought.

Migratory Connectivity
All Wood Thrushes display migratory connectivity, meaning that birds from a particular breeding region also stay grouped together on their wintering grounds. This creates a conservation imperative to preserve the habitat in both locations.

Territorial Hierarchy
The Yellow Warbler is a long-distance migrant with wintering territory across Mexico. Males have been observed driving away as many as 29 other species. Male yellow warblers inhabit the canopy while the females remain in the understory, indicating that there is territoriality and hierarchy not only among species, but also within species.

Floaters
There are floaters, such as Wood Thrushes, who never establish a winter territory but drift around the margins of other species’ territories. These birds have far lower over-winter survival rates than those that maintain territories.

Flocks
Some species spend the winter in flocks, which provides safety in numbers. Flocking species often feed from fruit trees that are not easily defended, or in locations where the food is very patchy. Since this requires them to move around, they have no need to defend a territory.

Aerial Migration
Another reason some birds stay in place is that roosting sites are scarce. Some shorebirds spread out at low tide while feeding and form flocks in the air at high tide. Sanderlings, Dunlins, and other sandpiper species spend the hours of high tide flying over the sea in what is called aerial migration. This behavior lessens the danger of being caught by a predator.

Competition
It is unclear how much competition there is between North American over-winterers and resident birds of the tropics. A study in Venezuela, where North American migrants coexist with tropical resident birds, showed that the smaller resident Turkey Vulture retreated when North American vultures were present, conceding the more open areas to the migrants. When the migrants left, the resident vultures returned for their breeding season. Among migrating warblers and resident insect-eating birds in the tropics, most migrant birds take smaller prey, work harder to find the prey, and are often still feeding when the resident birds have finished and are taking shelter. They also tend to eat ants and beetles that the residents find distasteful.

Survival
During the winter, finding food and avoiding predators are the primary activities that occupy  birds. Warblers who winter in the tropics have a 90% survival rate, much higher than for those who do not migrate.

Shifting Diets
Many migratory species shift their diets on their winter grounds. Kingbirds become specialists in one type of tree, and they follow it from Bolivia all the way through Colombia and then into Panama at the exact time when it comes into full fruit. The kingbirds devour the fruit, disseminate the seeds, and move on to the next crop. Among birds that don’t winter so far south, the Yellow-rumped Warbler and the Tree Swallow shift their diets from insects to Bayberry.

Acclimation
Another way that birds survive the winter is by acclimation rather than migration. For example, Snowy Owls have feathers down to the tips of their toes. Smaller birds can fluff their feathers, trapping air to keep them warm. Most birds eat more at the end of the day, when they need fuel to carry them through the long and cold winter night. Some birds adjust their behavior during the day. For example, chickadees move more slowly and go to roost earlier in extremely cold weather to save energy.

Roosting Habitats
Roosting habits also change during the winter. Ruffed Grouse roost in snow burrows, as do many small birds, including Snow Buntings, redpolls, and wrens. They use high-velocity flight to project their bodies into the soft snow, which then collapses into the hole behind them, thereby leaving no visible entrance for a predator to find. The birds work their way back out of the snow in the morning, sometimes using a different exit. Other birds roost in cavities that keep them warm and protected from predators. Many birds roost in groups during the winter, further insulating them. Bluebirds often group together, and as many as 89 Winter Wrens have been found occupying a single cavity.

Hypothermia 
Some birds use hypothermia to survive the cold. For example, chickadees automatically drop their temperature at night by about 10 degrees Celsius to reduce their internal fuel consumption. Hummingbirds and sunbirds do this during the day at high latitudes in the summertime. The whip-poor-will can sleep for several days without moving and without feeding. It is suspected that other nightjars may also do this, but nothing conclusive has been found.

Conservation
HIPPOIt is essential to understand which seasons and locations impact the survival and reproduction of bird populations. To support this, E.O. Wilson devised the conservation acronym HIPPO, which stands for Habitat, Invasives, Pollution, Population, and Overharvest.

Habitat LossIt is well known that the Bachmann’s Warbler became extinct because its wintering habitats in Cuba and the Isle of Pines were completely lost during the 20th century. The near-threatened Piping Plover is difficult to protect because we do not have a clear understanding of its wintering habitat.

Modified Habitats
We do know that some birds can adapt to modified habitats. For example, the Cerulean Warbler does very well wintering in the shade trees planted at Colombian coffee farms. Unlike coffee trees, these trees provide enough insects for the Cerulean Warbler without displacing the resident birds. This strategy might also be better for the resident birds, but at the moment the focus is on increasing the wintering habitat for migrants.

Invasive Species
There are many invasive plants and animals that threaten birds, but one of the most challenging is cats that spend time outside. In the US alone, cats kill one to four billion birds annually—more than pesticides, collisions with buildings, or other causes. Cats are highlighted as a winter problem because birds tend to stay in suburbanized and cat-filled areas due to feeders.

Pollution
Pollution is global, but a good example of how it directly influences bird species is the case of the Whooping Cranes that winter in the Texas Gulf Coast. Unlike their pristine Canadian breeding habitat, the southern wetlands are contaminated with effluent from the surrounding areas, including pesticides, herbicides, petroleum, hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and industrial pollutants.

Population
Human population poses a threat during the winter because humans occupy winter breeding grounds, especially beaches and mountain resorts where people are vacationing.

Overharvest
While most people think waterfowl hunting is fairly well regulated, there is a particular problem in the length of the season. By the last months of the hunting season, in January and February, birds are already paired for breeding; if one of the pair is killed, there is often not enough time for the surviving bird to find another mate. The more serious problem of overharvesting is that seabirds are often caught in long fishing lines and gill nets that run for miles in the winter, when more birds are out in the open ocean.

Climate Change
Climate change is another form of pollution that exacerbates all other aspects of HIPPO.  Impacts on habitats include sea level rise, which reduces coastal wintering areas; snow cover contraction, where precipitation decreases in subtropical zones and increases in high latitudes, causing prolonged and intense droughts; and severe storms stretching farther north.

Wintering Habitats
A good example of a change in wintering range is provided by the American Robin, which used to be considered a harbinger of spring. These birds now live here throughout the year because there’s less snow and less reason to migrate. Many other birds are also spending less time on their wintering range. Golden Eagles in Michigan and Minnesota have been observed arriving up to a month earlier than historically documented.

Physical Adaptations
In addition to behavioral adaptations, scientists are also seeing physical adaptations to the changing climate. In the last few decades, warblers have had an average weight that is less than it used to be. This is in response to the warmer environments in which they live; smaller birds dissipate heat faster than larger ones.

Phenological Disjunct
Because spring is coming earlier, birds that winter in the tropics are starting to migrate north earlier. Trees are leafing earlier, and insects that feed on those trees emerge sooner. The European Pied Flycatcher, which winters in Africa south of the Sahara, is now having trouble when it arrives at its breeding grounds: by the time it gets there, resident birds have already consumed the caterpillars it typically eats in the spring, leading to poor breeding productivity and population decline. Canada Jays store food during the winter because when they begin nesting in late winter, there is little food available to feed their young. Recent winters have been so warm, however, that the food caches are rotting, resulting in a lack of food for their young at the end of winter and in early spring.The evening ended with officers of the Linnaean Society thanking Mr. Pasquier for sharing his fascinating knowledge about birds surviving winter.