All our data, be it from the field, kept birds or from the laboratory, are stored in a relational data warehouse. This enables the linking of data on all levels, from genes to populations.
The department of Animal Ecology has several databases on our long-term studies of hole-nesting birds and waterbirds but also on budburst data of trees in our study areas as well as on data on the food for the wild song birds: caterpillar biomass and beech crop. We also have an extenive database on our winter moth work with egg hatching dates from the wild and the laboratory.
The hole-nesting bird long term database of AnE is one of the largest relational databases of its kind in the world. It contains data of hole-nesting birds of which the great tit is most represented among other species like blue tit and pied flycatcher. Data collecting started in 1955 on four study areas: the island of Vlieland, National Park “De Hoge Veluwe”, Oosterhout (near Nijmegen), Liesbos (near Breda). More areas were gradually added of which Warnsborn, Westerheide and Buunderkamp are most intensively used.
In all areas during the breeding season adults and chicks are ringed and measured in over 2100 nest boxes. In the last 15 years in most areas also blood and feather samples have been taken for DNA research. Outside the breeding season birds are caught and taken for one day to the lab mostly for personality testing. Roosting controls in winter complete the data sampling in which all birds in nest boxes during the night are measured and get a ring/color ring for next breeding season. Since the 80’s birds are also kept in captivity in aviaries and climate controlled aviaries for research purposes. All field- and research data is collected in books and put in the large database. At the moment the hole-nesting bird database contains over 50.000 broods, 350.000 individuals and 675.000 catches.
The waterfowl databases contain data on migrating swans, ducks and geese. The data on swans have been collected since 1995 and will be incorporated in the large hole-nesting bird database. The data of the 2011 started waterfowl research projects on swans and geese in captivity in the new NIOO facilities in Wageningen are directly put in the hole-nesting bird database. This has many advantages in transparency in the newly raised demands on research done on animals in captivity in the Netherlands.
