Table 3: Comparison of median serum calcium (mmol/L), potassium (mmol/L), and total protein (g/L), glucose (mmol/L), cholesterol (mmol/L), and alkaline phosphatase (IU/L) of female harlequin ducks from before (N = 10), immediately after (N = 10), and one day after (N = 9) exposure to a three-day storm (median winds exceeding 15 knots). Calcium (mmol/L) Potassium (mmol/L) Total Protein (g/L) Cholesterol (mmol/L) Alkaline phosphatase (U/L) 2.3 2.4 2.4 2.3 2.6 2.0 2.7 2.7 37 42 39 39 4 Parameter Prestorm Immediately after storm abated 24 hrs after storm abated Baseline 4. Discussion Analysis of blood samples taken from free-ranging wildlife is usually deferred until the samples can be sent to an analytical laboratory. Vagaries of initial processing, storage in the ﬁeld, the unpredictable conditions and hazards of transportation, and storage and delays in the analytical laboratory can introduce unwanted variations in the data obtained. Also, results are typically not obtained until after the ﬁeldwork is ﬁnished. The VetScan analyzer provided immediate results for a useful series of serum parameters. Samples were run as whole blood or serum, with a slightly higher, but acceptable, failure rate when whole blood was used. The small size of the equipment, its ability to use 12 V or 110 V power supplies, its automatic operation, and its durability to being moved and to ﬁeld environmental conditions make real-time screening of surgical candidates possible. For consistency, we chose nonparametric descriptive statistics because the distributions of data for many of the parameters examined were distinctly non-Gaussian. The use of quartiles (25th and 75th percentiles) to establish baseline ranges departs from the more common practice with domestic animals to accept values between the 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles as within reference boundaries [7]. Using quartiles increases the likelihood of a Type I error of excluding truly “normal” animals from a study, but greatly reduces the chance of a Type II error where an abnormal is included in the “normal” cohort. This approach is useful when capture of animals is not the limiting factor in constructing the necessary cohorts for a study, or when signiﬁcant eﬀort is to be invested on an individual based on its presumed physical health or “normality.” Results of serum analyses using the VetScan machine were comparable to results obtained using a laboratory- based machine of a type typically found in large analyt- ical laboratories. The results of our study emphasize the importance of establishing baseline ranges speciﬁc for the instrumentation being utilized. The VetScan analyzer had a greater sensitivity for analysis of samples with very low levels of potassium than did the Monarch analyzer. The VetScan also tended to return higher values for Alkaline Phosphatase, Alanine Transferase, and Amylase. The magni- tude of these diﬀerences arguably would not aﬀect clinical assessment of a patient, but awareness of the technology speciﬁc baseline ranges would reduce the chance of over interpretation. The Creatine values returned by the Monarch analyzer on aggregate were nearly double those returned by Glucose (mmol/L) 18.3 17.7 19.3 18.6 5.6 6.4 4.2 5.6 499.5 666.0 500.0 506.5 Veterinary Medicine International the VetScan, and this diﬀerence would be expected to impact clinical assessment. The comparison of values returned on the VetScan Analyzer from serum and whole blood from the same animal returned generally consistent results. The most marked diﬀerences were observed for the creatine assay, which obtained lower values consistently from serum samples. The diﬀerential in total protein determination we observed was suﬃciently large to impact clinical assessment of a patient, but the variability in the direction of diﬀerence obscured any reliable data transformation for comparison of results between the diﬀerent sample types. The impact of weather on birds feeding at sea is receiv- ing considerable recent attention and thermodynamic /biophysical models suggest that high wind velocity can impact bird physiology [8]. In our study, serum glucose concentrations in ducks captured immediately after the storm abated on the third day were lower than those in birds captured before the storm, but the glucose concentrations of ducks captured a full day after the storm abated were higher than prestorm values. All of these changes remained within the quartiles determined for prestorm birds and for the entire baseline cohort, but there were interesting changes in variability. The data from post-storm birds were essentially uniform, with the quartiles of samples obtained the second day after the storm abated extending less than half the range of prestorm data. This is compatible with the hypothesis that ducks were unable to eat during the storm and were forced by the storm eﬀects to concentrate on feeding immediately after the weather subsided. The increased serum total protein in birds caught after the storm was compatible with storm- induced hemoconcentration due to dehydration. A similar pattern was seen for serum ALT and alkaline phosphatase, which returned to baseline levels in ducks sampled two days after the storm had abated. Serum amylase and total serum calcium were also higher in birds caught immediately after the storm, but continued to increase in birds caught two days after the storm. Serum cholesterol increased, and then fell below prestorm levels. Although the initial eﬀect could also be explained by hemoconcentration, the apparent strong, overcompensating rebound suggests endocrine modulation similar to what has been suggested in captured beluga whales [9]. Serum potassium concentrations were signiﬁcantly lower in birds captured immediately after the storm abated than those of birds captured immediately prior to the storm. Indi- vidual birds in the immediate post-storm cohort had serum