Wildlife professor John Marzluff will present a program on recent work in Yellowstone National Park that looked at interactions between ravens, wolves, and people. York County Audubon will host the program online on Tuesday, May 18 at 7 p.m.

Ravens are known to scavenge food from wolves and people, but the relationship has not been well studied. In 2019 Matthias Loretto and presenter Marzluff began tagging ravens in Yellowstone with radio transmitters that are similar to the transmitter in a mobile device.

After tagging and following many ravens they were able to relate raven’s movements to the activities of people and wolves. From this, the scientists gained a better understanding of the degree to which ravens rely on people and wolves. Ravens have extensive knowledge of the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. The audience may be surprised at the diverse ways they take advantage of human activities within the 6,500-square-mile area.

For decades, Marzluff has done research on corvids, a family of birds that includes ravens, crows, jays, and magpies. His work has benefited birds all over the world, from pinyon jays in Arizona, ravens in Greenland and golden eagles and prairie falcons in Idaho to Washington State’s goshawks and the endangered Hawaiian hawk, one of the rarest birds in the world.

Marzloff is a professor in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the University of Washington. He is the author of several books, including “In the Company of Crows and Ravens,” “Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans” and “Welcome to Subirdia: Sharing Our Neighborhoods with Wrens, Robins, Woodpeckers, and Other Wildlife.”

There’s no charge to participate, but advance registration is required. To register, visit yorkcountyaudubon.org, and click on the link. After registering, a confirmation email will be sent with information about watching the program.

Southern Maine Health Care earns safety recognition

Southern Maine Health Care received an “A” grade in the spring 2021 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, a national distinction recognizing SMHC’s achievements protecting patients from errors, injuries, accidents and infections. It is the seventh consecutive “A” designation for the hospital.

“The dedication of our teams to patient safety and quality, even in the most challenging of times in healthcare is impressive, said Nathan Howell, SMHC president, in an April 29 news release. “SMHC care teams work daily to back up our promise to provide the best possible health care to the communities we serve.”

The Leapfrog Group is an independent national watchdog organization committed to health care quality and safety. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade assigns an “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” or “F” grade to all general hospitals across the country and is updated every six months. It is the only hospital ratings program based exclusively on hospitals’ prevention of medical errors and other harms to patients in their care.

“An ‘A’ safety grade is an elite designation that your community should be proud of,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, in an email. “The past year has been extraordinarily difficult for hospitals, but Southern Maine Health Care shows us it is possible to keep a laser focus on patients and their safety, no matter what it takes.”

According to the email, the grades are developed under the guidance of a national expert panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses up to 27 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,700 U.S. acute-care hospitals twice per year. The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.

SMHC was awarded an “A” grade when Leapfrog updated grades for spring 2021. To see SMHC’s full grade details and access patient tips for staying safe in the hospital, visit hospitalsafetygrade.org and follow The Leapfrog Group on Twitter and Facebook.

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