Quantifying Shrinkage of Morphometric Measurements: Museum Specimen Versus Livetrapping Specimen of Bulbul (Family: Pycnonotidae)

• Main Author: Floyd, Florence
• Format: Final Year Project Report
• Language: English; English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS) 2015
• Subjects: Q Science (General); QL Zoology
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/32667/1/Quantifying%20Shrinkage%20of%20Morphometric%20Measurements-Museum%20Specimen%20Versus%20Livetrapping%20Specimen%20of%20Bulbul%20%28Family-Pycnonotidae%29%20%2824%20pgs%29.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/32667/4/Floyd%20Florence%20ft.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/32667/

Bulbul (Family: Pycnonotidae) are monomorphic birds. Frequently morphometric study was conducted by using museum dry specimen of bulbuls. As body measurement of museum specimen tend to shrink, it is unwise to ignore it. This study was design to compare whether there are significant different in shrinkage between live and museum specimen. Seven external morphological parameters of bulbul were measured. Live and museum number of sample was equaled using Random Number Generator from Microsoft Excel and all the body measurement were analysed using SPSS software using independent t-test and Mann-Whitney U test. The significant difference were found in bill width and head bill of olive-winged bulbul (P. plumosus), bill length of puff-backed bulbul (P. eutilotus) and bill length, bill width, bill depth and head bill of yellow-vented bulbul (P. goiavier gourdini). As for the amount of shrinkage, it were found ranging from 0.35% to 15.48% for olive-winged bulbul, -14.32% to 10.04% for puff-backed bulbul and 1.52% to 37.80% for yellow-vented bulbul.