Experimental evidence of dispersal of invasive cyprinid eggs inside migratory waterfowl - Behind the scenes
Recently, our team published results of an experiment, where we demonstrated that fertilised eggs of two invasive cyprinid fish survive passing through the digestive tract of waterfowl. And yes, this is no joke guys, these fish eggs were consumed by mallards (with a little help), some of them were pooped out intact and some hatched and grew like nothing happened to them. Here we want to present the work in pictures and share some details that could not be shared in the published work. The authors One might ask, where this crazy idea was coming from. In 2013-14 Ádám was visiting Andy Green in Spain within the framework of a scholarship and they worked on exploring what organisms are transported by waterbirds in the Doñana National Park. During one of the field trips Adam collected shorebird pellets on the field. These pellets are material that the bird can't digest, usually indigestible plant material, bones, hairs, invertebrate exoskeleton, etc. But in these pellets Adam discovered...
