Native Forest Birds in Hawaii in Unprecedented Trouble, page
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Topic started on 20-1-2012 @ 11:26 AM by Thermo Klein
Although we might naturally assume, as this is on ATS, that this unprecedented trouble might be due to climate change or Fukushima or some other manmade attrocity ... but you'd only be slightly correct.

Native birds at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge are in unprecedented trouble, according to a paper recently published in the journal PLoS ONE. The paper, titled "Changes in timing, duration, and symmetry of molt of Hawaiian forest birds," was authored by University of Hawai'i at Mānoa Zoology Professor Leonard Freed and Cell and Molecular Biology Professor Rebecca Cann.


It is taking many Hawaiian birds much longer than normal to molt (lose and replace their feathers). Scientists have found this is due to significant loss of available food. It seems that the food supply is down to about 60% of normal ... based on previous experiments where they starved birds for comparison... (all in the name of science right?)

The scientists have placed the blame for this on man's intentional introduction of the Japanese white-eye (Zosterops japonicus) bird, in 1929, to control the insect population.

Science Daily: Native Forest Birds in Hawaii in Unprecedented Trouble

Usually birds molt the same primary flight feathers on the two wings at the same time to maintain maneuverability. However, by 2002, all species had asymmetric molt of these feathers. This is the first time asymmetric molt has been documented throughout a community of birds. This molt was experimentally seen previously in food-limited birds. In laboratory situations, starvation of birds to 60% of normal diet leads to the changes in molt that Freed and Cann observed in nature.


so it's not all doom n gloom but in the end "man" messed with Mother Nature and now there's a price to pay.


This is the Hawaiian Creeper, already on the endangered species list. It's seeing some of the most severe molting issues.


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