Bird Thought to Be Extinct for 150 Years Is Rediscovered
09/26/2011
New Zealand storm petrel, Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand, January 2005. Photo: Aviceda via Wikimedia Commons
Storm petrels are nicknamed “Jesus birds” for their habit of seemingly walking on water. Now, the New Zealand storm petrel shares another trait with the biblical figure: It has risen from the dead. Thought to be extinct for 150 years, new evidence proves that the bird is alive.
Researchers compared DNA from birds caught in New Zealand’s Hauraki Gulf to tissue fragments of the "extinct" species housed in British and French museums. The samples from the 150-year-old skins matched blood samples from living birds.
"We found they were one and the same, and these birds are a distinct species of storm-petrel [Oceanites maorianus]," says Bruce Robertson, a University of Otago zoology lecturer who published the findings in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution with co-authors Brent Stephenson of Eco-Vista and Sharyn Goldstien of Canterbury University.
“Since 2003, researchers had largely accepted that the bird was the NZ storm-petrel, but until we had taxonomic certainty, the conservation effort to protect the bird was paralysed,” says Robertson. “There was always going to be this controversy because no one knew exactly what the museum skins were.”
The black-and-white petrel was rediscovered by birdwatchers Ian Saville and Brent Stephenson, near the Mercury Islands in the Hauraki Gulf in 2003.
"It was a complete fluke," Saville told Auckland Now. "We'd seen heaps and heaps of the common storm petrels, the white-faced storm petrels, and then I just saw this little black and white thing. It raced toward the boat, did a quick circle, raced off again and that was it."
Since then, observers have seen the birds in flocks of up to 30 individuals in the gulf from October to April. Yet the birds remain largely a mystery. Their breeding grounds remain unknown, despite failed efforts to follow them to their nests using radio telemetry. And it’s thought that the birds are merely summer-breeding visitors to the Hauraki Gulf, migrating elsewhere for the rest of the year, though no one knows where they go.
“Hopefully now the NZ Storm-Petrel will be given a conservation priority that would be given to a nationally endangered species,” says Robertson. “This will help us to fund further study of the bird, such as where it breeds.”
Finding the breeding grounds would not only help to determine the population size, it would also enable conservationists to protect the site and the elusive birds.
For more on the New Zealand storm petrel, visit birdlife.org.
I love birds and this
I love birds and this article about birds really very interesting for me amazing thanks for sharing this great article about birds
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Well that's a good news in
Well that's a good news in these days. I guess there are many animals which are considered to be extinct but they aren't. jet
I have learn about this bird
I have learn about this bird but i was not believe that this will be alive. Thanks to update my knowledge.
Thanks
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Additionally, these classes
Additionally, these classes of birds are important environmental indicators, thus, forewarning us of imminent ecological problems.
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it would also enable
it would also enable conservationists to protect the site and the elusive birds.
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Every time we find an animal
Every time we find an animal we thought was extinct again, I am thankful for the opportunity we have to correct our past mistakes with respect to that animal. In this instance, it's incredible that it's with us after an assumed/presumed 150 year absence! What an opportunity!
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Storm petrels have a
Storm petrels have a cosmopolitan distribution, being found in all oceans. They are strictly pelagic, coming to land only when breeding. In the case of most species, little is known of their behaviour and distribution at sea, where they can be hard to find and harder to identify. They are colonial nesters, displaying strong philopatry to their natal colonies and nesting sites. Most species nest in crevices or burrows and all but one species attends the breeding colonies nocturnally.