Another tool in the tool box
Dear Rainbow Lorikeet Observers,
There have been a couple of exciting developments this week.
We have been contacted by mapping specialist who will be helping us to map the distribution of land use and vegetation to the distribution of the lorikeet paralysis cases. He will be working with Lauren after the first of the year.
We also just got our first results back from Rachel Wilson, a scientist who can explore the DNA sequences found in bat and now lorikeet poo and determine what they have been eating. We got back our first results from 8 birds and can clearly see what species of plants they fed on in the day before they developed the lorikeet paralysis syndrome. We will be meeting with Rachel next week to expand the study and include control samples from birds that present for reasons other than lorikeet paralysis syndrome.
Again thank you all for your many observations and continued support of this work.
Have a great week,
David,
Lauren
Maya