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Faculty and students find silver lining in American robin event
On February 17, 2022, an American Robin (Turdus migratorius) mass mortality event occurred on campus, as 55 birds fell from trees. In the next 2 weeks, the total would sadly reach 80 robins. They likely ate fermented berries from American holly trees on campus, and their falls led to their demise. One might think that there's no silver lining to a story like this, but faculty and students at Radford University have come together in a substantial collaboration to investigate a variety of questions about these robins.
Since fall semester 2022, 6 faculty members (Karen Powers, Sara O'Brien, Matt Close, Jamie Lau, adjunct Katie Gorman, and recently-retired Bob Sheehy) and many students are working with members of the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center of Roanoke and the Fairfield University (CT) to make use of these robins.
O'Brien and Powers were recently awarding funding from the RU Office of Research and Creative Scholarship for their project entitled "Finding a Silver Lining in the American Robin (Turdus migratorius) Mass Mortality Event at Radford University in Spring 2022: Collaborations, Connections, and Student Scholarship."
They are investigating a number of questions and completing a number of museum-based efforts, each with student collaborators:
- Ecto- and endoparasites of a spring flock of robins (students Bianca Plowman, Liliana Dailey, and Tessa Harmon)
- Microplastic loads in the flock (students Victoria Fisk and Katie Wheeler)
- Demographics of the flock (spear-headed by Haley Olsen-Hodges of the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center of Roanoke)
- Taxidermy of nearly 70 birds (to be donated to the Virginia Museum of Natural History)
In the coming months, students will be giving multiple professional research presentations on their findings, and at least 3 projects will be written up for publication (with faculty and student authors). So, despite this unfortunate occurence, faculty and students have come together to build positive collaborations.