Morphological characterization of swiftlet species (collocalia sp.): beak, nest and saliva
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Date
2005-03
Authors
Aziz, Norazlin Abdul
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Pusat Pengajian Sains Kesihatan, Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
Swiftlets are special kind of swift which is known to be the commercial
edible bird's nest builder. This rare delicacy, which is famously known as the
'Caviar of the East' has very high value in the market were made up of
glutinous strand of muciginous saliva secretion of the swiftlets. Seeing that not
much effort has been done to characterize or properly identify the anatomical
and morphological features of the bird's nest and the swiftlet, this pilot research
was conducted as preliminary work towards developing this field of research
into further studies. This research conducted utilized a very high tech probe,
VPSEM incorporated with EDX to yield a morphological topography as well as
trace element analysis of the subject concerned in the study. Before this
approach was taken, we concluded to believe that the vast salivary secretions
of the swiftlets actually come from the paired sublingual gland. However,
results of the study showed that there are many other interesting and
predominant features that may alter this fact as well as providing an insight
towards understanding the nesting behaviour of the species. As a conclusion,
these features found during the pilot research were bound to be suggestive of
certain characteristic of the swiftlets species that may have not been
discovered by any researcher before.
Description
Keywords
bird's nest