12,000-year-old swamp brimming with bones reveals the ecosystem of the dodo

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

by Natural History Museum

An 1832 description of a swamp said that that it was so full of extinct animal bones that you only had to stick your hand in the water to retrieve them. Inspired by this a group of international researchers, including the Natural History Museum's Dr. Julian Hume, went in search of it.

Remarkably the team succeeded and in 2015 the swamp was re-discovered near Mare la Chaux in Mauritius. Now, a collaboration between the National Heritage Foundation and landowner Constance la Gaieté Co Ltd. has been set up resulting in the first excavation at the site.

The area has already lived up to its reputation and yielded many bones belonging to extinct Mauritian animals. Incredibly the team have found a huge diversity of species represented in the fossil record and bones at a density of around 600 per cubic metre, much higher than the other known fossil localities on Mauritius.

Dr. Hume says, "This is one of the most exciting fossil excavations I have worked on. We are literally peeling back the history of Mauritius layer by layer. The sheer volume of remains, including extinct giant tortoises, giant skinks and Dodos, a culturally significant bird to Mauritius and global icon of extinction, we have found has been incredible."

Dr. Delphine Angst, a paleontologist specializing in fossil birds from the University of Bristol, added, "This is very exciting because for the first time we have dodo bones that are well-dated and associated through time with other animals and plants."

Continued

How did the Pink Pigeon bounce back from just nine birds?

15 Feb 2019

The Pink Pigeon is no longer Endangered. But how did conservationists achieve this, and is it sustainable? Dr Vikash Tatayah, Conservation Director, Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (BirdLife Partner) reports from the field…

Last year, one of Mauritius’ best-loved birds hit a milestone that delighted the conservation world. In the 2018 Red List update, the Pink Pigeon Nesoenas mayeri was downlisted from Endangered to Vulnerable, building upon the success of 2000, when it was downlisted from Critically Endangered to Endangered. But behind the scenes of this happy news lies over 30 years of gruelling devotion, with conservationists tackling the numerous threats to the pigeon from every possible angle in their bid to bring it back from the brink.

For a while, we were worried it might go the same way as its fellow Mauritian endemic, the Dodo Raphus cucullatus. An even closer relative, the Reunion Pigeon Nesoenas duboisi, went extinct on the neighbouring Reunion Island in the late 18th century thanks to introduced cats and rats. The Pink Pigeon now holds the unenviable title of the last native pigeon in the whole Mascarene archipelago.

Predictably, it was the arrival of humans that heralded the Pink Pigeon’s decline. The species was once widely distributed across Mauritius, but by the 19th century its population had become extremely fragmented and confined to the upland forests. Humans had destroyed native vegetation to the extent that only 1.5% of the original, good-quality forest remained. They also hunted the plump bird and introduced a panoply of predators such as Black Rat Rattus rattus, Small Indian Mongoose Herpestes auropunctatus and Crab-eating Macaque Macaca fascicularis.

Read on

Introducing self-resetting traps to protect endangered birds in Mauritius

6 Oct 2017

By Jean Hugues Gardenne and Obaka Torto

Improving the efficiency of rat control is vital to protect the critically endangered Mauritius Olive White-eye (Zosterops chloronothos) and sustain its population in the Black River Gorges National Park. In line with BirdLife International’s global conservation strategy to Save Species, BirdLife’s Partner in Mauritius, the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation has introduced the use of self-resetting traps to preserve the highly endangered bird endemic to Mauritius.

The Mauritius Olive White-eye is estimated to have an extremely small population that continues to decline rapidly due to predation by mammals such as rats that have been introduced in their habitats. The species also has a very small range as  its habitat is declining in quality and extent. It feeds on nectar, fruit and insects, and travels considerable distances to feed on nutritious flowers. The species has long been protected by law and the Black River Gorges National Park partly covers the species’ distribution.

Continued  

Reintroducing the pink pigeon and echo parakeet in Mauritius

5 Sep 2017

By Jean Hugues Gardenne and Obaka Torto

Re-introducing birds to suitable habitats where species have gone extinct is often a very important and sometimes a last resort to sustain the survival of some threatened Mauritian bird species. The Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF), the BirdLife International Partner in Mauritius, has a long and successful track record of exploiting bird translocation opportunities at any given time.

In recent years, MWF has worked with other partners in the country like the National Parks and Conservation Service of the Ministry of Agro Industry and Food Security, the CIEL Group, the UNDP/GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP), HSBC, Chester Zoo (UK),and the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), to translocate several Mauritian birds, including the Pink Pigeon, Echo Parakeet, Cuckoo Shrike and Paradise Flycatcher from the Black River Gorges National Park in the south west to the east of the island, in Ferney Valley (Bambous Mountains). This strategy has helped to create new subpopulations and increased the total population of some bird species, as it contributes to their distribution, saves them from extinction and loss of genetic diversity.

Continued  

Island expedition for Tom to save rare birds

A zoo keeper in Devon is travelling to Mauritius to help set up a breeding station for endangered birds.

Paignton Zoo’s senior bird keeper, Tom Tooley will be taking part in a two month long expedition to build a breeding station for the endangered pink pigeon of Mauritius.

Mr Tooley has worked at Paignton Zoo for 16 years and the majority of that time has been spent working with the pigeons.

Having never taken part in anything like this before, Mr Tooley said: “It’s going to be an experience.

“Bringing a chick through is satisfying, it’s rewarding. It’s not easy – you need to be patient, precise and very well organised.”

Mr Tooley will be working alongside the Mauritius Foundation for Wildlife in preparing the aviaries for the new birds.

Mr Tooley’s speciality is hand-rearing and he will be working the field and sharing his skills.

Before deforestation in Mauritius, the pink pigeon, scientifically named Nesoenas Mayeri, was thought to be very common.

Since 1840 the pink pigeon has been regarded as rare and in 1990 it was thought that only around ten pigeons were still in the wild.

The population has now grown and there are currently around 400 free living pink pigeons living in Mauritius. The pink pigeon has a reputation of being very aggressive and therefore each bird needs its own aviary.

Pigeons are considered to be clumsy birds and poor nest builders, which supplies a challenge for any aviculturist.

Read more: 

Liverpool pigeon found to be related to iconic dodo

After 200 years of being somewhat of an enigma, and having unknown provenance, the extinct spotted green pigeon has been found to be related to the iconic but extinct, flightless dodo.

Scientists in Australia analysed tiny DNA fragments extracted from feathers of the only remaining specimen (which is on show in the World Museum in Liverpool) and found it to be related to the nicobar pigeon of Indonesia and distantly related to the dodo of Mauritius.

Clem Fisher from the World Museum said: "We are very pleased that the extinct Spotted Green Pigeon has its correct place in the world of birds finally, after more than 230 years.”

The bird is often referred to as the 'Liverpool Pigeon' after the city in which the specimen is kept, but it would have come from either the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia or Oceania.

Leading scientist Dr Tim Heupink, from Griffith University in Australia said: "This study improves our ability to identify novel (new) species from historic remains, and also those that are not novel after all. Ultimately this will help us to measure and understand the extinction of local populations and entire species."

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/Liverpool-pigeon.html

Mauritius Kestrels Show Long-Term Legacy of Human-Made Habitat Change

Date:

February 20, 2014

Source:

Cell Press

Summary:

The widespread loss of forest to sugarcane fields on the island of Mauritius has forced kestrels living there to survive by speeding up their life histories, according to a report. By getting an earlier start, the birds are managing to have just as many offspring, even though they die sooner. Those changes to the kestrels' life history are apparently driven entirely by their early life experiences, the researchers say. The researchers analyzed 23 years of longitudinal data on the Mauritius kestrel to find that females born in territories affected by habitat change shifted investment in reproduction to earlier in life at the expense of late life performance.

Read on

The REAL Angry Birds: Extinct relation of the pigeon was 'built for fighting'

By VICTORIA WOOLLASTON

PUBLISHED: 17:24, 24 May 2013 | UPDATED: 17:26, 24 May 2013 

· Researchers from London's Natural History Museum have discovered that the small 'musket ball' knobs found on the wings of the now extinct solitaire bird were used for fighting 

· It is thought that the knobs were a result of fighting and the Mauritian birds then evolved so the knobs developed naturally 

· The solitaires became extinct at the end of the 1700s but were genetically similar to modern-day pigeons 

A now extinct giant flightless pigeon from Mauritius used its small but deadly wings to fight off competitors and communicate with mates, according to new research published this week. 

Researchers from the Natural History Museum in London studied fossils of the solitaire, officially known as Pezophaps solitaria, and in particular the unique ‘musket ball’ structure on the bird’s wing. 

They discovered that the birds used the circular nodes as a way of fighting with other birds and fending off prey. 

Writing in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, ornithologist Julian Hume from the Natural History Museum said: ‘We know from detailed historical notes from eighteenth-century sailors that the birds were aggressive. 

'They also describe a musket-ball-like bony growth on the wings, which was originally thought to be the result of injury. 

When we compared the wings of solitaire fossils from the caves of Rodrigues, an outer island of Mauritius, to modern birds we found that these growths were largest in adult males. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2330392/The-REAL-angry-Birds-Archaeologists-aggresive-giant-birds.html#ixzz2UExlKRsb