Good news indeed, zosterops. Since this is the first sighting in 40 years I'm interested to know on what they base their estimate of 400 of this species left.
Population justification Given the scarcity of recent sightings the population is thought to number fewer than 250 mature individuals (A. Kirconnell in litt. 2009, A. Mitchell in litt. 2009), and so is placed in the band 50-249 mature individuals. This equates to 75-374 individuals in total, rounded to 70-400 individuals here.
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70-400 birds is quite some difference, I'd have thought. maybe the 400 estimate includes juveniles, rails often have large broods and this species is evidently difficult to see though still it seems to bit optimistic to me.
I also thought it interesting that introduced catifish are suspected to feed on the birds...
Good news indeed, zosterops. Since this is the first sighting in 40 years I'm interested to know on what they base their estimate of 400 of this species left.
I thought that curious also, Woko.
An investigation of their (Birdlife International's) own website revealed
http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/factsheet/22692737
Population justification
Given the scarcity of recent sightings the population is thought to number fewer than 250 mature individuals (A. Kirconnell in litt. 2009, A. Mitchell in litt. 2009), and so is placed in the band 50-249 mature individuals. This equates to 75-374 individuals in total, rounded to 70-400 individuals here.
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70-400 birds is quite some difference, I'd have thought. maybe the 400 estimate includes juveniles, rails often have large broods and this species is evidently difficult to see though still it seems to bit optimistic to me.
I also thought it interesting that introduced catifish are suspected to feed on the birds...
Not to mention rats & mongooses. Throw in dry season burning & it's to the credit of the species that it has survived this long.
Indeed, sounds like the hallmarks of an environmental disaster to me...
Let's hope this sighting brings action to help ensure the species doesn't follow the fate of the 15 other rail species into oblivion.