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The Effect of Diet in Birds on Basal Metabolic Rate, Introduction…
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Introduction
Question and Hypothesis
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If carnivorous birds are larger than herbivorous birds, then their BMR will be higher.
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Background
Larger animals have a larger BMR (Glazier, 2008).
There are many more carnivorous birds than there are herbivorous ones (Olsen, 2015).
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Approach
In order to determine if there is a relationship between a carnivorous diet and higher BMR in birds, average BMR data for both carnivorous and non-carnivorous birds will be compared to establish a relationship.
Abstract
Background
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Hypothesis: If a higher average body mass correlates to a higher basal metabolic rate, then carnivorous birds will be larger than herbivorous birds on average and therefore have a higher basal metabolic rate.
Basal, or resting, metabolic rate is the rate at which an endothermic organism uses energy while at rest to keep vital functions going.
Results
The calculated average body mass and basal metabolic rate in carnivorous birds was smaller in both categories than herbivorous birds and the hypothesis was rejected.
Methods
Data was extracted from the animal diversity database from the University of Michigan focusing on the average body mass and diets of a sample of 53 different species of birds.
Methods
Design
The control group are the non-carnivorous birds and the experimental group are the carnivorous species.
Subjects
The average mass and BMR were extracted from the data base of a sample of bird species, in a separate column it was noted whether the species was carnivorous or not.
Procedures
The data was separated by carnivorous and non-carnivorous and the separate data sets were compared against each other in two bar graphs representing average mass and BMR
Discussion
First Paragraph
Carnivorous birds are actually smaller, on average, than herbivorous birds
- The average mass of carnivorous birds was 1,544.5 g where the average mass of herbivorous birds was 4,365.18 g.
- The average BMR of carnivorous birds was 3.64 W and the average BMR for herbivorous birds was 5.24 W
Relatively small sample size does not yield the most accurate results. There were a couple of species that could be outliers ih the data that could have skewed averages.
Final, concluding paragraph
Carnivorous birds are more abundant, smaller, and have lower average BMR than herbivorous birds.
Next steps:
- Determine which bird order comprises most of the herbivorous bird population and compare habitat and flying ability to carnivorous birds.
- Compare mass and BMR of insectivores and birds who eat primarily mammals and other birds.
Middle Paragraphs
Herbivory in birds is rare and likely evolved mostly among large, flightless birds due to energetic constraints.
Olsen, 2015; proposed positive correlation in herbivory and body mass in birds. Most herbivorous birds being large flightless and flightless or very weak flying ability.
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Literature Cited
- Speakman, J. R. “Body Size, Energy Metabolism and Lifespan.” Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 208, no. 9, 2005, pp. 1717–1730., doi:10.1242/jeb.01556.
- Olsen, Aaron M. “Exceptional Avian Herbivores: Multiple Transitions toward Herbivory in the Bird Order Anseriformes and Its Correlation with Body Mass.” Ecology and Evolution, vol. 5, no. 21, 2015, pp. 5016–5032., doi:10.1002/ece3.1787.
- Glazier, Douglas S. “Effects of Metabolic Level on the Body Size Scaling of Metabolic Rate in Birds and Mammals.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 275, no. 1641, 2008, pp. 1405–1410., doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.0118.
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