I took this picture of some ducks for you to identify. In the image, there are a few identifying characteristics that are unique to this very unusual species. On Friday around noon, I will reveal the species.
Hint: It’s not a North American species.
Update: These are pink-eared ducks (Malacorhynchus membranaceus)
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Hummingbirds are some of the smallest warm-blooded creatures on the planet. As a result of their tiny existence, hummingbird adaptations and physiology are unique and remarkable. For example, according to Jeanna Bryner at LiveScience.com, “Hummingbirds have the highest energy expenditure of any warm-blooded animal, with a heart rate of up to 500 beat-per-minute, blindingly fast wing beats and sustained hovering. So this bird is nearly always on the edge of starvation, needing to slurp up more than its body weight in nectar each day.” Since hummingbirds are susceptible to starvation, they “generally enter torpor when unable to consume enough energy.”
Despite their hardiness, hummingbirds are sensitive to environmental degradation and loss of habitat. For example, the mangrove hummingbird (Amazilia boucardi)—a mangrove specialist as its common name suggests—is endangered due to development and pollution. The unique hummingbird’s population is decreasing and fewer than 10,000 individuals remain.
If you want to learn more about hummingbirds, I recommend “Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air,” which was aired by PBS’s ‘Nature.’ You can watch the full episode below or at PBS’ “Nature”:
One of my favorite snippets from “Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air” explored the “hummingbird’s aerial agility.” Via PBS on YouTube:
Biologist Doug Altshuler has turned his lab into a kind of hummingbird training center, where he can test the limits of their aerial agility. The key, he says, is hovering.
More about hummingbirds from Science Daily:
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Photo source for attribution here and here. The authors or licensors of these images do not endorse my work or me and their images are protected under an attribution license.
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New Zealand is an island of birds, since it was originally devoid of mammals—except bats and a few species of pinnipeds. However, the arrival of human beings changed New Zealand’s unique ecological landscape forever.
As a result of both Polynesian and European settlers, many species that evolved in the absence of predatory mammals became extinct. Some examples of species that went extinct after the arrival of Polynesian and European settlers include the New Zealand Swan (Cygnus sumnerensis), the Auckland Island Merganser (Mergus australis), the Stephens Island Wren (Traversia lyalli), all species of moa (although some people believe at least one species of Moa still exists in remote parts of New Zealand), and the Haast’s eagle (Harpagornis moorei). Most likely, the Haast’s eagle was a moa specialist, so having depended on the moa as a food source, it probably went extinct when moas became scarce or extinct.
Humans and the introduction of cats, dogs, rats, and various species of mustelids have decimated another unique bird species—the kakapo (Strigops habroptila), which is a flightless cryptic parrot. The video below provides an excellent historical reference of the kakapo and one man’s efforts—Allan Munn—to save this unique parrot species from extinction.
More on Richard Henry, the only surviving Fiordland kakapo, and another kakaop named Rangi from Stuff.co.nz:
A Momentous Waitangi Day on Whenua Hou/Codfish Island has seen a male kakapo rediscovered 21 years after vanishing and world-first artificial insemination using the sole surviving Fiordland kakapo.
Rangi’s miraculous find by kakapo ranger Chris Birmingham boosts the critically endangered endemic parrot population to 91 and potentially adds important genetic diversity.
The flightless nocturnal bird was one of four male kakapo released on the 1400ha conservation sanctuary, near Stewart Island, in 1987 without a transmitter. He had not been seen since.
Birmingham told the Sunday Star-Times he was surprised to hear a male booming, its unique resonant mating call, near South Bay, where no kakapo had been detected before.
“I followed the booming sound and eventually spotted him. He bolted so I followed him through the supplejack and ferns. Finally, when it was safe, I managed to grab him.”
It was only then that he realised the bird’s significance because it wore a numbered metal band on his leg. Incredibly, Rangi survived two aerial poison drops during Codfish Island’s rat eradication in 1998.
Once Rangi’s vitals were checked, showing he was in top form, sperm was collected from him before he was carefully carried back to home territory and released. He vanished within seconds into the island’s thick undergrowth, but has now been fitted with a transmitter to ensure his days of anonymity are over.
Tests later that day at a makeshift laboratory on the island showed he had high quality sperm. DNA research was also planned.
Rangi’s discovery could improve the species chances if he is genetically different to the other birds, the kakapo team’s technical officer, Daryl Eason said. “Every kakapo is important. Rangi was a founder bird and he could be a very important bird.”
Meanwhile on Friday, Richard Henry, the only surviving Fiordland kakapo (the rest were caught on Stewart Island or were their descendants), gave what could be his last shot at fatherhood.
For the first time ever, sperm was collected from the bird, which is estimated to be at least 70 years old.
Although checks showed it to be poor-quality, it was used to artificially inseminate a female kakapo to try for more offspring with his valuable diverse genes.
On the Net:
Hat tip to @burdr via Twitter
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Photo source for attribution. The author or licensor of this image does not endorse my work or me and their image is protected under an attribution license.
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