<
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-critically-endangered-birds-song-was-about-to-disappear-then-scientists-recruited-some-wild-vocal-tutors-180988415/>
"Less than a century ago, huge flocks of regent honeyeaters flitted all over
southeastern Australia. Today, they’re one of the country’s most endangered
birds. As their numbers dwindled, so did the complexity of males’ song—with
potential consequences to their breeding success.
Now, researchers have restored the regent honeyeater’s traditional song by
bringing in tutors: two wild-born male birds who passed their knowledge to
captive-born birds. The work, described February 25 in the journal
Scientific
Reports, presents a fairly simple way to save animal cultures.
Fewer than 250 regent honeyeaters are estimated to remain in the wild, and past
research has shown that many young males—unable to learn their own song from
older birds—have been singing the sounds of other species or otherwise
incorrect tunes. Meanwhile, captive-born birds have been singing melodies not
heard in nature, which could reduce their chances of breeding and integrating
into the wild.
That’s why a team of scientists worked to reintroduce the regent honeyeater’s
traditional song to birds bred at two zoos in Australia, which took some
trial-and-error. At the start, the researchers played recorded songs to
juvenile birds “every day for about the first six months of their life”—a
method that ultimately failed, says study co-author Daniel Appleby, a
conservation biologist at Australian National University, to Donna Lu at the
Guardian.
So, Appleby and his colleagues gave other young birds real teachers. Two
wild-born males who knew the correct regent honeyeater tune spent their days
alongside captive chicks. This time, the plan worked. “Three months in, we
started hearing our first little renditions of a traditional wild song,”
Appleby tells Emily Anthes at the
New York Times."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
