Category: Articles

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COPYRIGHT 2004 Plenum Publishing Corporation

KEY WORDS: birds” nests; tragedy of the commons; common property resource management: Malaysia; Sarawak.

INTRODUCTION

The exploitation of birds’ nests as food has a long history, dating back to the sixteenth century. Its trade from Borneo to China was already in existence when Dutch merchants began operating in the Malaysian and Indonesian region (Cranbrook, 1984, p. 150; Koon and Cranbrook, 2002, pp. 64-65). The nests are made out of the saliva and feathers of swiftlets. Once processed to remove the feathers, the nests are consumed in soups that are believed by many people (mainly Chinese) to have rejuvenating and cosmetic virtues. In Malaysia there are two main species of birds that produce edible nests: Aerodramus fuciphagus (producing the highly valued white nests) and Aerodramus maximus (producing black nests) (Koon and Cranbrook, 2002, pp. 2-16). They inhabit limestone caves, such as the Niah caves, which are the object of this study. In the Niah cave, the exploitation of black nests began fairly recently, less than 200 years ago (Harrisson and Jamuh, 1956; Koon and Cranbrook, 2002, p. 68; Medway, 1958). It soon became a major center of black nest production, which peaked at 18,500 kg per year in 1931 (i.e., 70% of the total production of black nests in the state of Sarawak; Cranbrook, 1984, p. 155). The fame of the Niah cave owes a lot to this huge production of nests, and also to the archeological discovery of the oldest human remains in South-East Asia (Harrisson, 1958). To protect this unique archeological site, the caves were made into a national heritage site under the authority of the Sarawak Museum, and later into a national park under the authority of the National Parks’ administration. Recently, the swiftlets have become a protected species.
Read more about Chronicle of a foreseeable tragedy: birds' nests management in the Niah Caves (Sarawak) (1) …

pubmedcentral.nih.gov P L Lee, D H Clayton, R Griffiths, and R D Page Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. Abstract Swiftlets are small insectivorous birds, many of which nest in caves and are known to echolocate. Due to a lack of distinguishing morphological characters, the taxonomy of swiftlets is primarily based on the […]

lifeofguangzhou.com Besides sharing an exorbitant price tag (not surprising considering that the first is made from the hardened saliva of the swiftlet bird, while the second requires days of preparation before arriving at the pharmacy) both of these exotic foodstuffs are reputed to be good for complexion and help skin grow.  Fortunately so is the […]

blinkbits.com

Many; see text.

The swifts are birds superficially similar to swallows but are completely unrelated to those passerine species; swifts are in the separate order Apodiformes, which they formerly shared with the hummingbirds.

The resemblances between the swifts and swallows are due to convergent evolution reflecting similar life styles based on catching insects in flight.

The family scientific name comes from the Greek απους, apous, meaning “without feet”, since swifts have very short legs and never settle voluntarily on the ground, perching instead on vertical surfaces. The tradition of depicting swifts without feet continued into the Middle Ages, as see in the heraldic martlet.

Swifts are the most aerial of birds and some, like the Common Swift, even sleep and mate on the wing. One group, the Swiftlets or Cave Swiftlets have developed a form of echolocation for navigating through dark cave systems where they roost.

Like swallows and martins, the swifts of temperate regions are strongly migratory and winter in the tropics.

Many swifts have a characteristic shape, with a short forked tail and very long swept-back wings that resemble a crescent or a boomerang. The flight of some species is characterised by a distinctive “flicking” action quite different from swallows.
Read more about :For other meanings of the word Swift see Swift (disambiguation) …

glycob.oxfordjournals.org
Hiroki Nakagawa 1, Yoichiro Hama 2, Toshihisa Sumi 2, Su-Chen Li 3, Karol Maskos 3, Kittiwan Kalayanamitra 4, Shuji Mizumoto 5, Kazuyuki Sugahara 5, and Yu-Teh Li 6 *

1 Department of Biochemistry, Tulane University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112; Department of Applied Biological Sciences, Saga University, Saga 840-8502, Japan
2 Department of Applied Biological Sciences, Saga University, Saga 840-8502, Japan
3 Department of Biochemistry, Tulane University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112
4 Department of Biochemistry, Kobe Pharmaceutical University, Higashinada-ku, Kobe 658-8558, Japan
5 Department of Biochemistry, Kobe Pharmaceutical University, Higashinada-ku, Kobe 658-8558, Japan; Lab. of Proteoglycan Signaling and Therapeutics, Faculty of Advanced Life Science, Hokkaido University, Frontier Research Center for Post-Genomic Science and Technology, Kita 21-jo, Nishi 11-choume, Kita-ku, Sapporo 001-0021, Japan
6 Department of Biochemistry, Tulane University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Yu-Teh Li, E-mail: yli1@tulane.edu

Read more about Occurrence of a non-sulfated chondroitin proteoglycan in the dried saliva of collocalia swiftlets (edible bird's nest) …

The Mercury (subscription), South Africa – Oct 25, 2006

October 25, 2006 Edition 1

At last people are talking sense about the plight of the barn swallows at the Mount Moreland roosts (The Mercury October 19).

In the past even some ornithologists have been heard to say that the swallows don’t matter, but put in the context that the roost accommodates at least 13% of the known population makes the threat to the roost, if Dube Tradeport goes ahead, an international crisis.
Read more about Thanks for recognising plight of the barn swallows …

By Alan Hamilton
Times Online, UK – Nov 14, 2006

NATURE, red in tooth, claw and sometimes rump, is a cruel beast.

Birdwatchers who flocked with their high-powered binoculars, telescopes and long lenses to see a rare Mediterranean visitor to Lunan Bay, near Montrose, got more than they bargained for. They watched in horror as the red-rumped swallow was attacked and eaten by a Scottish sparrowhawk.

Local enthusiasts spotted the swallow, which had taken a wrong turning on its migration route from southern Europe to its wintering grounds in Africa. Word that it had arrived on the East Coast of Scotland spread quickly, and a large crowd had gathered to watch it flying over the beach. Read more about One swallow, and it was gone… …

ingentaconnect.com Author: Joseph J. Hobbs1 Source: Biodiversity and Conservation, Volume 13, Number 12, November 2004, pp. 2209-2226(18) Publisher: Springer Abstract: Due to the value of their nests, there is great pressure on the populations of black-nest swiftlets (Collocalia maximus) and white-nest swiftlets (Collocalia fuciphagus) in the Malaysian provinces of Sarawak and Sabah. The problems are particularly […]

Graham 2006 indonesianow.blogspot.com When Achmad Basuni and his wife Siti Mariah were building their new house in 2000 great good fortune swiftly flew in the window. Literally. A pair of swallows darted into the half finished kitchen and cast knowing eyes around the walls and rafters. Like all astute real estate buyers they knew exactly […]

glycob.oxfordjournals.org Hiroki Nakagawa 1, Yoichiro Hama 2, Toshihisa Sumi 2, Su-Chen Li 3, Karol Maskos 3, Kittiwan Kalayanamitra 4, Shuji Mizumoto 5, Kazuyuki Sugahara 5, and Yu-Teh Li 6 * 1 Department of Biochemistry, Tulane University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112; Department of Applied Biological Sciences, Saga University, Saga 840-8502, […]