User talk:Spc13/sandbox

Article Evaluation of The Wikipedia page Scavenger
Content
 * Overall, everything included in this wikipedia page was relevant to the topic of scavenging and covered two main aspects of scavenging feeding behaviour which were its practice in animals and humans. I felt that there was not enough information on herbivorous scavenging or any examples of animals which practice herbivorous scavenging, which was mentioned in the first paragraph of the page. The page mainly discussed scavenging in regards to animals which scavenge animal material. Though various type of animal scavengers and scavenging methods were discussed, I feel that more examples of animals that practice each type of scavenging would be beneficial to the article. Also, a discussion on the origin or evolutionary history of scavenging would be a good addition to this article. The section under scavenging as a human behaviour entitled occupation was fairly irrelevant to the topic.

Tone
 * The tone of this article was neutral, providing a description of the behaviour in various animal species. I felt that no claims were biased to a particular viewpoint, and no viewpoints were underexpressed or overexpressed.

Citations
 * The article is properly cited for all citations included and each citation links are functional. The majority of the sources are from peer-review papers, which appear neutral in tone.

Talk Page
 * The talk page for this article includes discussions on proper citations for certain statements included in this article as well as protentially providing warnings for graphic pictures in this article. Currently this article is rated as a level 4 vital article in Science, Biology and also as a Start-Class. This article is included in WikiProject Death, WikiProject Animals and WikiProject Sanitation. Though we have yet to discuss this topic in class, I think this topic would be discussed in an animal behaviour perspective with emphasis on animal practice of this feeding mechanism.

Spc13 (talk) 17:54, 23 September 2018 (UTC)

Citation Exercise

 * Scavengers are known to play a role as vectors of communicable diseases due to being hosts for pathogens which can carry out horizontal transmission through the act of scavenging. A disease which is spread through this method is tuberculosis, as the rate of infection spreading has been demonstrated to increase when scavengers of infected tissue become infected themselves.

Spc13 (talk) 23:57, 30 September 2018 (UTC)

Spc13 Peer Review
You've got a very strong introduction that showcases the importance of your topic very well. However, I think it could benefit from you linking some of the terms used to other Wikipedia articles talking about those terms. This applies not only in your introduction but in your article as a whole. Terms such as "Carrion" and "carcass" are keywords in your article and linking these to the Wikipedia article that discusses and defines these terms allows the reader to explore the topics further. In the very last paragraph under the "Ecological importance of scavenging" section, I think everything starting from the line "The presence of both species at carcasses" would be better if moved under the "Transmission of Disease" section and it will better reinforce that section. I would also suggest rewording "The presence of both species at carcasses" in order to make it clearer. The "Transmission of disease" section is very well written and there only a few minor changes id suggest. Like id mentioned earlier moving that little section on diseases from the first section of your article to this one will add more weight to this section as it provides more examples. I also noticed that this line "Likewise, the ingestion of bat carcasses infected with rabies virus by striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) resulted in increased infection of these organisms with rabies virus." does not have a citation. A citation would be beneficial or perhaps provide a different example that can be cited. Your last section "Threats to scavengers" is also well written and adds to the overall quality of your article. I would, however, suggest you use more than one source to back up what your example about vultures just to provide a different point of view and add weight to what you're saying. Having another example in this section will also improve your article. Overall though I am impressed by your article as it properly explains and discusses scavenging and I think with a few minor tweaks it'll be flawless :-). TallGuy117 (talk) 19:04, 7 November 2018 (UTC)TallGuy117.