The Earth Story

.

Want some vomit with that kiss?

Kissing is strange when you think about it. We mash our lips and tongues together and exchange up to 80 million bacteria in the process. But it does have an evolutionary function: it is thought to help us decide on a potential mate by assessing their taste and smell. Kissing behaviour is shared among our closest relatives - chimpanzees and bonobos - and also one species of bird. However, this bird tends to take kissing a bit further than simply locking beaks.

The White-fronted parrot (Amazona albifrons) is a small parrot commonly found across Central America and Mexico. Their mating season falls between the months of February to July, during which they select a mate. However, mate selection is rigorous. Before the parrots can decide on one for certain, they engage in a long kissing session; locking their beaks together and playing with each other’s tongues. Much like apes, this is thought to allow the parrots to assess each other’s fitness (in evolutionary biology, fitness refers to reproductive success and the probability of descendent survival, in accordance to physical or behavioural traits). But after a little while, the male bird will regurgitate into the female’s mouth.

The fact that female giraffes urinate into the male’s mouths to assist mate choice might lead you to think that male white-fronted parrots are regurgitating into each other’s mouths for similar reasons. However, biologists believe that the males are doing no such thing - instead, they are simply gifting the female with some regurgitated food. I guess that makes a thoughtful gift. Who doesn’t like food?!

This behaviour strengthens the bond between the pair, which is important as these birds mate for life. Regurgitation occurs throughout their union - from sitting on eggs to raising their young once they've hatched.

VP

References: http://bit.ly/1UR2n5c (paywall access) Image credit: Nathan Rupert (https://flic.kr/p/dc4r6v)

On the Edge of Extinction: The tale of the Kakapo

With only 126 known individuals, the Kakapo is one of the most endangered bird species in the world. Indigenous to New Zealand, the Kakapo is a bit of an oddball when it comes to the parrot family due to a list of often eccentric sounding traits.

Firstly, the Kakapo is the heaviest parrot in the world, with some males having been weighed at over 2kg. This exceptional weight is attributed to the fact that the Kakapo is the only land bird capable of storing large amounts of energy as body fat.

Possibly unsurprisingly the Kakapo is flightless, although this doesn’t stop them getting from A to B as individuals have been known to trek several kilometres in a single night. The birds are even adept climbers although any attempts to fly from tree to tree usually cumulate in a large degree of flapping and not much else. It is thought the bird’s nocturnal nature was a method of remaining undetected (and therefore uneaten) by the now extinct giant eagle that used to roam the islands of New Zealand.

Another unique feature about the Kakapo is that it is a lek breeding parrot. This means the males of the species will dig holes or burrows into the ground and then entice females to the site to breed. However, it can often be quite hard to find the perfect mate when its pitch black outside, so the males have a special call known as “booming” which can reach females several kilometres away. Probably a good job they can walk long distances in a single night then.

So why is the Kakapo in trouble? Unfortunately for this eccentric parrot the problem is twofold – they keep getting eaten and they reproduce pretty darn slowly. Problems for the Kakapo really started in the 1840s when European colonists not only hunted the bird but started burning and clearing the areas in which the Kakapo lived. As if this wasn’t enough, they also introduced a host of new predators to the island which the parrot just wasn’t able to evade.

Due to the history of giant eagles being the main threat to the kakapo the birds had built their nests on the ground, rearing their chicks on the forest floor. This made easy picking for the new stoats, rats and cats that prowled the area. Worse still, the poor parrot had developed the defence mechanism of freezing at any sign of danger; this method works fine when your hiding from a predator that depends purely on sight to locate its prey (like the giant eagle) but is possibly the worst thing to do when being hunted by a foe that can sniff you out even in the dark (like mammals). To add insult to injury, the female alone takes care of the chicks meaning not only is the chick rearing process long (and therefore smelly) but the chicks are often left unattended.

In the 1890s an attempt to protect the Kakapo from its newfound foes was made and the birds were relocated to Resolution Island. Unfortunately, having seemed to have developed a taste for the poor birds, stoats made it to the island by swimming out from the mainland and the population was once again decimated. A small glimmer of hope for the Kakapo was held on Stewart Island with over 220 individuals known to exist there. Then someone introduced cats and the whole situation took a turn for the worst. If it wasn’t people unleashing their pets killing off the poor kakapo it was the new found predators being very resourceful.

The individuals today all live on uninhabited islands surrounding New Zealand, having been relocated from the small areas of Stewart Island and Fiordland where they had managed to hold out. Originally there were only 49 birds and it is only due to intense conservation efforts by volunteers of Kakapo Recovery that the population has improved. Due to the birds only reproducing when the Rimu trees fruit (once every 2 – 4 years) and only laying 1 – 4 eggs at a time, population growth has been slow. Volunteers help by minding the nests, feeding chicks and ensuring rat populations are kept at bay. While problems such as lack of genetic diversity still leave questions about the Kakapo’s future, at least for now they seem to be doing well.

Thank-you to Andrew Kukor for bringing this enigmatic bird to our attention, hopefully by sharing this post we can raise awareness about the Kakapo's plight and help it on the road to recovery!

References:

http://bit.ly/1GnmmUx

Further Reading:

http://bit.ly/1RT4YZb

Image Credit: Don Merton, Department of Conservation http://bit.ly/1RT4YZb