"Comparison of Bird Carcass Persistence in High Traffic vs. Low Traffic Areas on the University of Minnesota Campus"
Bird carcass persistence has been used to study environmental impact in the past. It was used in this experiment to compare bird-collisions in high traffic vs. low traffic areas on the University of Minnesota campus. Bird carcasses were monitored over the course of one month, with data points collected at six hours, one day, two days, three days, one week, and one month. These data points were then analyzed in R using an adapted version of Schaffer’s log-exposure function. It was found that the longer a carcass stays in one place, the higher the probability it will continue to stay in one place. Carcasses in low-traffic areas have a 95.74% chance of persisting day to day while carcasses in high-traffic areas only have a 87.56% chance. This information can be used to inform methods used in bird-window collision research.