Seychelles’ North Island makes third attempt to hunt down the invasive myna

North Island, Seychelles | July 30, 2016, Saturday @ 08:50

University of Reading students and volunteers from the not-for-profit organisation the Green Islands Foundation, GIF have kick-started a project aiming to rid North Island of the invasive Myna. Similar projects which failed to completely eradicate the birds were implemented in 2005 and 2012. (North Island)

A new project that aims to rid the Seychelles’ North Island of the invasive Myna bird is under way, with a secondary goal of boosting the population of an endemic bird species, conservationists working on the island have said.

The project – the third of its kind to be implemented on the island -- is a collaboration between a group of students from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom and volunteers from the not-for-profit organisation the Green Islands Foundation, GIF.

Some 200 Mynas have already been caught through the project, which started a little over two months ago. It is estimated that over a thousand of these omnivorous, dark brown birds with a yellow beak --thought to have been introduced in the Seychelles archipelago in the 19th century -- roam the island.

“We used the birds that we caught as decoys for other birds but we have also been using baits and over 20 traps that have been placed around the island,” Sarah Fenn, one of the volunteers, said to SNA.

North Island is one of many of the 115 islands of Seychelles -- an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean -- that have been invaded by these cunning avian invaders originally from southern Asia.

- See more at: 

Foul Mouth Myna Bird At China Zoo Swears At Tourists

A tough talking myna bird has been put into isolation by zookeepers for hurling swear words at visitors. It looks to be the fault of zoo patrons who taught the bird some very inappropriate language.

An article in The Indian Express writes that myna birds, officially known as Gracula religiosia, are linguistic marvels. Hailing from the hill regions of South and Southeast Asia, the creatures have the stunning talent to accurately mimic the speech and singing of humans.

According to AOL, a Jiufeng Forest zookeeper heard one of the mynas utter an expletive in the presence of zoo patrons. Li Yun , who works as a caretaker at the exhibit, was surprised by the outburst. However, he had previously witnessed other tourists attempting to teach foul words to the mimicking birds.

The Daily Mail reports that the zoo has taken steps to prevent the other exhibit mynas from mimicking the swearing bird. The offending bird has been put into isolation where it is being retrained. Zookeepers plan to have the bird listen to a series of polite words on tape and will withhold food when a curse word is uttered.

Tell us what you think of China’s foul mouthed myna bird.

Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/444494/foul-mouth-myna-bird-at-china-zoo-swears-at-tourists/#KGshp3EH7SHtX3cM.99 

Myna 'guity of evicting Aussie birds'

Debate has raged for more than a decade about the damage caused by swelling myna populations, both in Australia and other countries around the world, leading the pesky bird to be rated No. 3 on the IUCN's list of the worst invasive species. Now a team of Australian researchers has come up with what is thought to be the world's first clear proof that mynas do indeed have a negative impact on native bird numbers. In a long running study, Kate Grarock and her colleagues of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED) and Australian National University investigated 20 birds species round the national capital, Canberra, analysing ornithological records of bird abundance collected by the Canberra Ornithologists Group (COG). COG established the Canberra Garden Bird Survey (GBS) in 1981 in which volunteers surveyed birds in and around the city. Observers survey an area of 3.1 hectares every fortnight for a 120-minute period. A total of 74 492 surveys was undertaken in Canberra over 29 years "We found a negative relationship between the establishment of the Common Myna and the long-term abundance of three Australian cavity-nesting species and eight small bird species," Ms Grarock says. The birds most affected by mynas were cavity nesters like the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Crimson Rosella, Laughing Kookaburra, and small birds such as the Superb Fairy-Wren, Striated Pardalote, Rufous Whistler, Willie Wagtail, Grey Fantail, Magpie-lark, House Sparrow, Silvereye and Common Blackbird. Larger birds like magpies, wattlebirds, galahs, ravens and currawongs appeared unaffected. "To the best of our knowledge, this finding has never previously been demonstrated at the population level," she adds. "It is particularly difficult to track the impact of an invasive species on native wildlife when it isn't an actual predator, as this can take place subtly and over a long time and can vary season by season," she says. "Also you need to know whether it is the invader that is causing the damage – or whether it is simply due to habitat change, such as cities expanding."

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-11-myna-guity-evicting-aussie-birds.html#jCp