A rare bird? Genetic analysis says not so

The endangered bird, known as the alala, is only found in captivity on the Big Island.
The finding, recently published online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, adds a new twist to the ongoing debate about how species are defined and how those definitions are used to guide conservation efforts, said David Mindell, a professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and director of the U-M Museum of Zoology.

"It's important to recognize distinctive species as the focus for scarce conservation funds, but as this example shows, there are cases in which species that were recognized over 100 years ago actually aren't valid species," Mindell said. "In such cases, funds might be redirected to species in dire need."

The birds known as Cape Verde Kites live only on the Cape Verde Islands, about 300 miles west of the African country of Senegal in the Atlantic Ocean. Conservationists have been concerned that habitat loss, widespread use of rodent-killing chemicals and other factors were driving those birds to the brink of extinction and threatening other types of wildlife on the islands. In 2002, biologists captured five birds thought to be Cape Verde Kites and considered starting a captive breeding program.

"That's an expensive proposition, so we wanted to take a look at the Cape Verde Kite to get an idea of how distinctive it was genetically—whether it really was something unique that would justify the effort," Mindell said. Working with U-M postdoctoral fellow Jeff Johnson and Richard Watson of The Peregrine Fund, Mindell performed a genetic analysis on material from contemporary Black Kites, Red Kites and historical Cape Verde Kite museum specimens collected between 1897 and 1924 as well as the five kites captured on the Cape Verde Islands in 2002.

"The bottom line," Mindell said, "was that the few kites that are out there now are not Cape Verde Kites; they're Black Kites, which are widely distributed throughout the Old World and are not in danger. Further—and this was even more surprising—the historical specimens of Cape Verde Kites don't even hold together as a distinct group." On the genealogical tree the researchers constructed, the museum specimens originally identified as Cape Verde Kites are not one another's closest relatives; they're scattered within a larger group of Red Kites.


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Cape Verde Kites, Red Kites and Black Kites are closely related, medium-sized birds of prey, similar in size to red-tailed hawks. Their plumage is mainly brown and reddish, and their tails are forked. All are opportunistic predators, feeding on insects, small vertebrates and carrion.

The researchers' conclusions don't mean that all conservation efforts in the Cape Verde Islands should be called off. Other species on the islands, such as the Raso Lark and the Cape Verde Warbler, are at risk, Mindell said.

In the long view, Mindell believes studies such as this one bolster the credibility of conservation biologists by showing that the scientists are unbiased and willing to accept results that run counter to expectations.

"We're taking a neutral approach by consistently applying criteria for determining what are distinct evolutionary entities, and the results can go either way," Mindell said. "Sometimes we'll find genetically unique populations that are well-justified for conservation efforts. But we might also find some that were misidentified initially, where people thought that because populations were out on some islands or in unique habitats they were reproductively isolated and genetically distinctive. We're very much in favor of conserving species, habitats and ecosystems; but when it comes to recommendations for particular groups of organisms, we need to carefully assess their status as distinctive species."

The University of Michigan Museum of Zoology collections, housed in the Ruthven Museums Building, include about 15 million specimens, representing mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles, fishes, mollusks, mites and insects. Researchers study the materials to learn about and analyze biological diversity and to discover the processes and principles of evolution.


Two bird conservation centers are home to 56 alala. The bird hasn’t been seen in the wild since 2002.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says its five-year plan to restore alala populations includes protection of habitats and management of threats to the species.
Chapter 19 describes in detail the congregating of the community around the radio in the Store to listen to boxing matches. Men, women, and children come to listen and to buy soft drinks; in case of a particularly bloody fight, they also buy peanut patties and Baby Ruths. When Joe Louis becomes the Heavyweight Champion of the World, some people do not return home but stay overnight in town; they are afraid to be on a country road...

birds

Having traveled to and worked in so many countries, I learned how most people struggle with the names of birds in other languages, so I started collecting names of species in local languages. In fact, it is the single most important obstacle for people to learn recognizing different species. How can you remember and distinguish them, if you can't name them. So far we collected the names of birds in some 20 languages, and completing the entire lists of the Birds of the World in Spanish, French, German and Dutch, while some volunteers are currently working on the Between 2002 and 2009, the program supported 295 projects, coordinated by partners in 48 U.S. states/territories and 36 countries. More than $30.3 million from NMBCA grants have leveraged about $134 million in matching funds and $6.6 million in This species is a rarity in Japan. On occasion (as during the 4 years noted above), a single individual winters at Arasaki, on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, with the combined approximately 10,000 Hooded & White-naped Cranes.This is the 2nd rarest crane in the world (after the Whooping Crane of North America). The total population in the wild has been recently estimated as between 1,700 & 2,000 birds.
There is a resident population on Japan's northern island, Hokkaido (in the southeast portion of that island). That is the only place in Japan where the species normally occurs. At one time, it bred on all 4 of the main Japanese islands, but it declined dramatically in Japan in the 19th Century. By 1890, it remained in Japan only in Hokkaido.
In the 1920's, the total Japanese population was only about 20 individuals. Since then, the number in Hokkaido, due to protection and artificial feeding (in the winter), has increased to over 1,000 birds.

At the time of the first FONT tour in Japan, in 1993, there were 569 resident Red-crowned Cranes in Japan on Hokkaido. Just over a decade earlier (when Armas Hill made his first visit to Hokkaido to see the Japanese, or Red-crowned, Cranes), there were 281. The following list shows how the population has changed (grown) in Japan since then.

The Siberian Crane is now classified as "critical" because it is expected to undergo an extremely rapid decline in the near future, primarily as a result of the destruction and degradation of wetlands in the areas of its migration and wintering grounds. The wintering site, holding 95% of the population, in China, is threatened by changes that will come about with the Three Gorges Dam project.
The total population of the species is between 2,500 & 3,000, making it, at this time, the 3rd rarest crane in the world nonmatching funds. Projects involving land conservation have affected about 2 million acres of bird habitat.Portuguese names. I have also put a lot of effort to have at least some key texts in some of the more common European languages. This has been criticized at times by some, always being native English speakers, who of course are completely happy being served in their own language. Well, sorry Anglos, there are more languages around than you learned in schoolThe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (Service) Division of Bird Habitat Conservation (Division) is responsible for managing the Act’s Grants Program. Applicants submit project proposals to the Division during the program’s one funding cycle per year, and the proposals are reviewed for eligibility by program staff. A panel of Service staff reviews eligible project proposals and makes recommendations for funding to the Service’s Director. The Director approves the projects for funding on behalf of the Secretary of the Department of the Interior. The Division administers the grants for all approved projects.

birds in japan

birds in japan

According to a report in Discovery News, the world's first pterosaur tracks from Japan, documented in a new study, suggest these Dinosaur-Age flying reptiles not only coexisted with birds, but that the two groups also hung out together when they weren't soaring the Cretaceous skies.
A lone siltstone slab contains the fossilized footprints, made by pterosaurs, birds and amphibians.
It provides a literal slice of what prehistoric life was like in Japan around 127 million years ago.
"I think that a group of small pterosaurs was feeding together near a pond or near a lake," lead author Yuong-Nam Lee told Discovery News, adding "there are lots of feeding beak marks."
The scientists identified a total of 64 imprints made by five to six individuals that "show a clear quadrupedal gait pattern" with feet bearing curved "hook-like sharp" claws.
"The high density of the tracks suggest gregarious behavior, but the random orientation of the trackways does not show that they were moving in the same direction as a herd," Lee said.
He and his team instead think the pterosaurs and birds randomly gathered to feed.
The eating marks consist of "small round depressions on the slab," possibly where the animals repeatedly pecked away for food.
Since the tracks don't match up with any other known pterosaur prints, the researchers believe they were made by a new species, called Pteraichnus nipponensis.
The only other evidence for pterosaurs in Japan is an incomplete spinal column bone and a single print set, not yet fully documented, from another location.
Nevertheless, this evidence and the siltstone slab prints suggest that multiple tiny pterosaurs called Japan home from at least 113 to 127 million years ago.
Evidence for small pterosaurs at that time has also been found in Spain and Korea.
Since the tracks are similar, yet appear to have been made by different sized individuals, David Unwin, a senior researcher in paleobiology at the University of Leicester, said that it is possible "that pterosaurs of widely differing growth stages visited/walked around in the same small area."

Of Gould's various works, the works in which birds found in Japan appear most frequently are The Birds of Europe (5 vols., 1832-37) and The Birds of Great Britain (5 vols., 1862-73). Works in which Japanese birds occasionally appear are A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains (1 vol., 1831-32) and The Birds of Asia (7 vols., 1849-83). Works in which they rarely appear are The Birds of Australia (7 vols. & 1 suppl., 1840-69) and The Birds of New Guinea and the adjacent Papuan Islands (5 vols., 1875-88).The reason why so many birds found in Japan appear in The Birds of Europe and The Birds of Great Britain is because many Japanese birds come from the Eurasian continent. Many migrating birds come to Japan from the continent, so there are many common species between Japan. The west part of Eurasia is Europe, and many birds in Britain come from the European continent. Thus many Japanese birds can also be seen in Britain. However, although there are many common species, the colour of their feathers are not necessarily the same.If we take a sparrow from Hokkaido and another from Okinawa and compare the colour of their heads, we will discover that their colours differ considerably. However if we examine specimens starting from Hokkaido, then the northern part of Honshu, then the Kanto region, then Kyushu, then the Southern Islands, we would find that the colours of sparrows' heads gradually and continuously change from north to south, and consequently would feel no such incongruity. In the same way, if we compare the sparrows found in Japan with those from Britain, we would feel that the features differ a little, but that they are sparrows just the same. If we examine Gould's works from this viewpoint, we can find many Japanese birds in his illustrations.

Unwin was also struck by the presence of the bird tracks.
He indicated that scientists have long puzzled over the relationship between birds and pterosaurs, wondering if they enjoyed "a long peaceful coexistence, or protracted competition."
The former now appears to be the case.