Mystery of black-billed gull deaths: What's killing this endangered bird?

27 Jan, 2018 7:30am

NZ Herald

Dead gulls found near Grovers Island, in the Clutha River near Roxburgh in Central Otago, will be tested to establish their cause of death.

Mykayla Robert, of Roxburgh, found the gulls while she was walking last weekend.

Posting on Facebook, Miss Robert commented that she was not sure how they died.

"I found at least 30-40 dead seagulls on that little island, mainly on the Clutha River side," Robert said.

Robert took pictures of the dead gulls.

"As you can see, there was one or two seagulls every metre right along the shore line," she said.

Department of Conservation (Doc) senior ranger, biodiversity, for Central Otago John Keene said a Doc ranger investigated the site that day and estimated up to 40 black-billed gulls were dead.

The ranger did not see any obvious signs on the carcasses of damage from animal predators, Mr Keene said.

The area was known for being a breeding colony site for black-billed gulls, an endangered species.

This was the second time mysterious deaths at the colony had been discovered, he said.

Read on  

New species find in Central Otago confirms link between Australian and South American shorebirds

Date:October 20, 2015

Source:Taylor & Francis

It is commonly known that birds evolved from dinosaurs. But what happened next? Today, shorebirds (otherwise known as waders) live in a wide variety of environments worldwide, from the Himalayas to Antarctica. With their long legs, shorebirds have long been a subject of evolutionary discussion, but where did they originate and how did they diverge into so many habitats across the globe? Due to a poor fossil record, these questions remain largely unanswered. However, a new article published in Journal of Systematic Palaeontology sheds new light on this mystery.

A new piece in this evolutionary puzzle has been presented by an international team of New Zealand and Australian-based scientists, including researchers at Canterbury Museum, who have confirmed that a 19-16 million-year-old shorebird fossil, discovered in Central Otago, New Zealand, belongs to a group of small birds including the Australian Plains-wanderer and the South American Seedsnipes.

The new species, Hakawai melvillei, is named after a 'mystery bird' in Māori mythology and in honour of New Zealand-based ornithologist and ecologist David Melville.

Continued ...