Carrion in the form of dead seal pups and algal mats placed on soft bottom habitats at Explorers Cove and Salmon Bay, McMurdo Sound, attract scavenging invertebrates that are driven away by hydrogen sulphide produced by sulphate-reducing bacteria sequestered below a layer of Beggiatoa/Thioploca-like filamentous bacteria. This system is usually found for lipid-rich marine mammal carrion, but also occurred with natural algal mats.

Shark bite marks on mosasaur bones abound in the fossil record. Here we review examples from Kansas (USA) and the Maastrichtian type area (SE Netherlands, NE Belgium), and discuss whether they represent scavenging and/or predation. Some bite marks are most likely the result of scavenging. On the other hand, evidence of healing and the presence of a shark tooth in an infected abscess confirm that sharks also actively hunted living mosasaurs.

We describe pathologies and post-mortem damage observed in specimens of the late Maastrichtian marine cheloniid turtle Allopleuron hofmanni. Shallow circular lesions on carapace bones are common and possibly illustrate barnacle attachment/embedment. Deep, pit-like marks are confined to the neural rim and the inner surface of peripheral elements; these may have been caused either by barnacle attachment or disease. A number of linear marks found on outer carapace surfaces are identified as tooth marks of scavengers, others as possible domichnia of boring bivalves. A fragmentary scapula and prescapular process displays radular traces of molluscs (gastropods and/or polyplacophorans; ichnogenus Radulichnus). These diverse types of bone damage suggest both live and dead marine turtles to have been commonly utilised by predators, scavengers and encrusters in the type Maastrichtian marine ecosystem.

This paper addresses low-power, low-voltage electronic circuit requirements for wireless sensors with energy harvesting. The challenges of start-up for micro-controller unit (MCU)-based energy-harvesting platforms is discussed where a transient, low-voltage (20–1000 mV), low-power (<100 μW) source having a relatively high source impedance (possibly >500 Ω) is used. Efficient converter circuitry is required to transform the low-voltage output from the source to a level suitable for typical electronic devices, 1.8–5 V, and a prototype is demonstrated in the paper. Owing to the limited energy available to deliver to the storage element, the converter output voltage typically has a slow rising slew rate that can be a problem for MCUs. This necessitates a reset circuit to hold-off operation until a level high enough for reliable operation is achieved. Once operational, Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) extracts peak power from the harvester while simultaneously tracking the transient nature of the source. In this low-power application, MCU programming needs to be efficient, while otherwise keeping the MCU in the lowest power standby mode possible to conserve energy. In a fully integrated design, a single MCU may be used for the sensor application, power management, power conversion, and MPPT functions.

In this review, the production of poultry in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) is described. Data from field observations, published works, government and other documents are presented. Some 95% of poultry, which in Ethiopia are overwhelmingly domestic fowl, are kept in villages, mainly under scavenging, systems, and only 5% are in industrial systems. Poultry are kept by about 60% of households. Most households in the highlands keep birds whereas far fewer do so in the pastoral lowlands. ‘Average’ households own a flock comprising 6-10 birds, and genetic resources are almost entirely indigenous in the scavenging system. National poultry meat production is of the order of 76,000 tonnes and egg production approaches 80,000 tonnes. Annual production per bird is 55-80 eggs for scavenging fowl, of which about half are used for replacement and the remainder for consumption and sale. Disease is an important constraint to production. More attention should be given to smallholder producers, as this, together with interventions in housing, sanitation, nutrition and disease control would greatly increase output and have a positive impact on human health and nutrition. Smallholder producers would be the principal beneficiaries of these interventions in improvements to food security and nutritional status and in reduced production risk.

The main objective of this work was to describe the characteristics of and major constraints to village chicken production in Myanmar. Data on village chicken production, health, husbandry and marketing were collected in 296 households in 10 villages in the Yangon division of Myanmar in November 2003. The average flock size in the study area was about 30 birds, comprising 12 chicks, 12 growers, 4 hens and 2 cocks. Disease as a cause of mortality was more prominent in growers and adults, while predation and exposure to unfavourable environmental conditions were major causes of mortality in chicks. The main predators identified were: birds, rats, snakes, dogs and cats in 32, 31, 17, 15 and 3% of households respectively. Two main strategies were identified to improve village chicken production: vaccination as a means of protecting birds against Newcastle disease and confinement rearing and supplementary feeding of chicks, as a means of reducing the attrition rate of young chicks. This is the first survey conducted describing village chicken population structure and productivity in Myanmar.

Excarnation – the exposure of a corpse for stripping and possible dispersal by birds and animals – is a burial rite known from ethnographic analogy. Detecting its occurrence in the past is another matter. Here the author proposes the marking of bones by dogs and other canids as evidence of excarnation, using a British Neolithic case study.

For many albatross species squid are important prey. Whether albatrosses depend on scavenging (e.g. of vomit from cetaceans, post-spawning die-offs or fishery waste) or on live-capture of squid (e.g. via diel vertical migrations in association with aggregations of squid prey) is controversial. This review of the nature of interactions between squid and the four species of albatross breeding at South Georgia uses data on the foraging range, methods and timing of feeding of the albatrosses in relation to the size, distribution, buoyancy characteristics (floaters or sinkers), bioluminescence and prey of the squid and access to fishery waste. We conclude that most evidence for scavenging needs critical re-evaluation; nevertheless, whereas wandering albatrosses and possibly light-mantled sooty albatrosses probably depend significantly on scavenged squid, black-browed and especially grey-headed albatrosses are unlikely to do so.

The principal source of eggs and meat in Bangladesh is the large population of indigenous free range scavenging rural poultry. However their performance is far below that of standard exotic stocks. An absence of varieties that are able to thrive well in the harsh hot and humid environment, poor nutrition and high incidence of disease in the rural areas are the main problems affecting poultry production. Under these conditions the standard exotic stocks suffer most from heat stress, malnutrition and diseases, while among the indigenous varieties Naked neck fowl perform better in terms of egg and meat production, and are more resistant to disease than their fully feathered counterparts. Crosses between indigenous Naked neck fowl and exotic standard breeds also perform better than similar crosses using fully feathered indigenous fowl. However, research has not yet been done to determine the potential usefulness of Naked neck birds in the development of stocks that are better adapted to the needs of the rural farming community. This paper brings together the available information on the performance of indigenous Naked neck fowl in the hope that it will draw the attention of scientists world wide to its interesting characteristics and facilitate future research. This could help in producing improved stocks better suited to the rural communities of Bangladesh and those in other countries where similar physical and socioeconomic conditions are to be found.