'Extinct' petrel pops in for visit

[astro]

Interesting story via Fark

‘Extinct’ petrel pops in for visit

Former Department of Conservation (DOC) officer Geordie Murman – now a professional fisherman – was eating his dinner when the opportunity of a lifetime dropped in his lap.
A small seabird thought to be extinct – a New Zealand storm petrel (Oceanites maorianus) – flew inside his boat anchored off Little Barrier Island on Friday night.

Murman snatched a cardboard box and captured the bird so that it could be photographed and a sample of DNA taken.

The DNA might enable the bird to be confirmed as the New Zealand storm petrel, thought for the past century to be extinct, said DOC biodiversity manager Richard Griffiths.

Ornithologist Karen Baird of Kiwi Wildlife Tours and Griffiths identified the petrel as the species that had been photographed from a distance and tentatively identified in 2003 as being the same as three specimens collected over 150 years ago.

The bird was freed although its captors were not able to attach a lightweight tracking device to trace the petrel’s breeding site, which is thought to be in the outer Hauraki Islands.

But the researchers did take notes and measurements, as well as feather samples for analysis, before the release.

AdvertisementAdvertisement"If the DNA matches up then we’ve got a bird that people had believed to be extinct for over 100 years," Griffiths said. “It’s as significant as the rediscovery of the takahe.”

[calm_kiwi]

@astro

Interesting story via Fark

‘Extinct’ petrel pops in for visit

New Zealand IS it’s birds. We don’t have kangaroos or tigers or elephants. We were given birds to look after. The govt takes this resposibility seriously and spends MILLIONS looking after our endangered birds.

Shit, New Zealanders voluntarily name themselves Kiwis, a nocturnal, ENDANGERED, fairly useless bird (NOT the fruit!!!). Any sight of a rare/endangered/thought-to-be-extinct bird will send the govt into a spending frenzy.

Makes me wonder why I didn’t hear about this on the news…I guess I missed the news that night.

[Manduck]

I thought this was funny:

Griffiths said it was a miracle the petrel had landed on a boat skippered by Murman, one of the few people who would have been able to recognise it.

Maybe those birds have been landing on boats galore for 150 years and finally, only now, did one land on the boat of a bird expert.

[Mangetout]

It’s good that they didn’t decide it was so rare and exceptional a speciment that the only thing was to kill and stuff it - which is pretty much what happened with other famous bird extinctions in the past. Maybe there is hope for humanity after all.