Animal of the Week September 20, 2013 — thrush with a taste for flesh

I often am amazed by just how many bleeding animals there are in the world, and despite my lifelong dedication to finding out about them, I can be totally astounded by something. I came across this week's animal of the week, appropriately enough, through Twitter: last week @BirdLife_News posed the question what's the smallest flightless bird (one extant/one extinct)?

Inaccessible Island rail: Brian Gratwicke

Now, the extinct one I knew, it's the Stephen's island wren, a tiny dot of a bird endemic to an island between the two large islands of New Zealand the last of which was killed by the lighthouse keeper's cat. That's one of the classic stories of extinction, one I'd heard and told many times before. But the living one was completely new to me: the Inaccessible Island rail. Not only did I not know there was an island called Inaccessible Island (part of the Tristan archipelago in the southern Atlantic, but also, I didn't know that living on it was the 17 cm, 30 g flightless relative of coots, moorhens, and the like*. Now rails are one of the most widespread groups of birds with species, some flightless, settled  on islands around the globe.

Tristan thrush: Brian Gratwicke

But it's not even the Inaccessible Island rail that's this week's animal. A quick google led me on a bit of a wikipedia trail. The rail has been able to miniaturise and lose the power of flight owing to the dearth of predators on inaccessible island. But nature abhors a vacuum, and eventually something will fill a vacant niche. And here we meet this week's actual animal, Nesicichla eremita (Tristan thrush; really it should be Turdus eremita, I am  picky). While it's mainland relatives are usually happy eating berries and insects with the occasional snail or worm thrown in, the Tristan thrush has developed a taste for seabirds, eggs, and chicks. Across the archipelago, the Tristan thrush raids the nests of petrels, rails, and even albatrosses (their eggs, not like a whole one); the thrushes have even evolved a brush like structure on their tongues to help them extract the filling of delicious seabird eggs.

Like the vampire ground finch of Wolf Island in the Galapagos, the Tristan thrush is another great example of how life on an island can lead to unexpected behaviour among unassuming looking creatures. Of course, if there was just a pharmacy on Inaccessible Island, the rails could get themselves a tube of canesten to rid themselves of their problem thrush.

*I used to really like coots, moorhens, crakes and gallinules, but not so much anymore. I've gone off the rails.

Animal of the Week August 16, 2013 -- Olinguito

Sorry grouse, but with my history of giving newly described species their dues, you've been bumped. For this week's Animal of the Week is now Bassaricyon neblina (olinguito).

Mark Gurney

While trying to describe the different subspecies of olingos from the collection and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Kristopher Helgen discovered a drawer full of skins that looked substantially different—he described it as a hairs on the back of the neck, spine tingling sort of moment in the news report I saw. Some careful measurements and DNA confirmation later, Helgman realised that the skins and skulls came from a previously unrecognised species.

The four species of olingo and the olinguito are members of the same family of animals as raccoons, kinkajous, and coatis. The olingo is the smallest member of that family, and differs from the olingos by having bushier hair, smaller ears, and living at higher altitudes in the montain rainforests of the Andes. Having found the museum specimens, scientists then went to look for it in the wild, and sure enough, they found one. Based on the specimens collected, the olinguito likely has a range from central Columbia to Ecuador.

Although they belong to the Carnivora group of animals, olingos and olinguitos seem to eat more fruit than anything else, occasionally supplementing their diet with nectar and insects. The label Carnivora links those animals (from seals to weasels, to cats, dogs, and hyenas) all descended from a single ancestor, and doesn't always mean that the animal is a carnivore—just look at that bamboo guzzling idiot the panda.

Several olinguitos have been kept in zoos, so this isn't the case where an expedition has stumbled across an animal new to western science as happened with the kipunji, the world's smallest frog, or this animal of the week from 2005. Rather, it was the recognition that had previously been thought to be one thing, was actually something different, as happened with the Arunachal macaque or the clouded leopard of Borneo...and also with the recognition of orangutans as two species, and African elephants as two species. So while I've personally nothing agains the olinguito, I doubt the story would have attracted so much attention had it happened in any other month than August.

Animal of the August 12, 2013 -- Glorious, for whom?

It may well have escaped your notice that today is August 12, dubbed the Glorious 12th by fans of shooting. Although most shooting seasons will not start until September 1, hundreds if not thousands of this week's animal of the week Lagopus lagopus scotica (red grouse) might have been shot today in the UK.

Red grouse are a sub-species of the willow grouse (or willow ptarmigan), unique to the UK and Ireland—they differ from other subspecies of willow grouse (found elsewhere in the northern hemisphere) in their lack of white markings, their red eye com

bs, and their failure to turn white during winter.

While the hunting of grouse is in some ways pretty good for grouse, as shooting moors are managed to increase their numbers: heather is burned to encourage new shoots that the grouse eat, and medicated grit is left out to treat infection with gut parasites. Moreover, some predators are removed or excluded.

The charismatic birds of prey, hen harriers (named for their supposed predilection for young game birds), should be common across the UK, but their habitat has been fragmented and the most suitable areas for them are managed grouse moors. While it is illegal to kill hen harriers, a protected species in the UK, many suspect that part of the "management" of grouse moors involves killing these birds by shooting, trapping, or poisoning. The numbers of hen harriers in the UK have plummeted in the past century. And this year, of the last few pairs in England, not one bred successfully.

Now, I'm in no way against game shooting and that sort of whatnot. While it's not something I'm necessarily keen to have a go at, I don't mind hunting as long as it's done responsibly and safely, and potentially game animals have had a slightly more enjoyable life than your average broiler. Furthermore, protecting areas for game can be part of conservation—but only when managed responsibly, and when all the inhabitants of the area are allowed space. Perhaps grouse moors should be managed for both the grouse and the hen harrier, so that they would remain even more exciting places to visit all year round, not just in the open season for the shoot?

So, the glorious 12th is probably only really glorious for the estate managers who charge per the bird shot.

Animal of the Week May 20, 2013 -- Congratulations! It's an egg!

c Kallerna

After several hundred years, this week's animal of the week, Grus grus (common crane), has laid it's first egg in the southwest of England. A tremendous success for the Great Crane Project, which has been re-introducing the birds since 2010, releasing chicks that have been hand-reared by people dressed as cranes.

Cranes are some of the largest birds to be found in the UK. At up to 120 cm (4 ft) tall, they stand head and beak above any heron, and with a wingspan of around two-and-a-half metres (8 ft), they match the white-tailed sea eagle. Copy in their shaggy tail of feathers and ear-splitting krrruuuhuu-krrrruuu trumpeting, and they are truly impressive birds. It's the bright red bald patch that makes me particularly fond of these birds (kindred spirits).

While not globally endangered (thousands upon thousands live in Europe and their stronghold Russia), the draining of wetlands and hunting led to the extinction of these magnificent birds from these shores. A few have naturally colonised the east of the country, with as many as 20 breeding pairs to be found in East Anglia and around. But the Great Crane Project was established to reintroduce cranes to the Somerset levels; so OK the breeding pair have nested at the carefully managed Wildfowl and Wetland Trust at Slimbridge in Gloucestershire where they were reared as chicks, but that was their choice to go "home".

Although this is eggciting news, hopes should not be raised too high for this years egg as birds do not usually breed successfully until they are five years old—and this pair is graduates of the 2010 release. However, just as failed nesting attempts for former AOTW great bustards pressaged future success, the same can be hoped for the west-country cranes.

Some urban animals

Please note, I have written three columns for the wonderful Kentishtowner. Visit these, like them, share them...and enjoy the Kentishtowner

Foxes

Tube mice

Parakeets

Animal of the Week April 10, 2013 -- Possibly the rarest animal in the world

Red-River giant softshell turtle, IUCN

I often wonder to myself "What's the rarest animal?" Previous animals of the week have explored the theme, with the baiji and Pinta island giant tortoise having breathed their last since this blog started, and the Iberian lynx being vanishingly rare... but then this week's animal is even rarer still, sitting right on the fence between extant and extinct: Rafetus swinhoei (Yangtze giant softshell turtle, Red-River giant softshell turtle), one of the largest freshwater turtle species in the world of which only four known individuals remain.

The four turtles are found in three different locations: two (probably males) live in different lakes in Hanoi, Vietnam, and a male and the only known female are kept in Suzhou Zoo, China. Conservationists hope that the Chinese pair will breed; but despite attempts at mating, of the 100s of eggs laid over the past few years, none has hatched—many are unfertilised, and any that begin to develop stop at a very early stage. The male is at least 100 years old and the female 80, while turtles can live for a long time, these are no spring chickens.

The species has become rare through the familiar depredations of habitat destruction and exploitation. Within their native range, various species of softshell turtle are popular on dinner tables. Some smaller species are farmed, but over the years, many have been taken from the wild, and larger slow-breeding species such as the Red-River giant are particularly vulnerable.

A few years back, a flood washed one of the Vietnamese turtles from its urban lake home into the garden of a local fisherman. After an extensive search the fisherman came forward asking for over $1000 dollars for the turtle to be returned rather than sold to a restaurant that had offered over $4000 for it.

Efforts to save the species include surveys of suitable habitat, but the last specimen in the wild was caught in 1998. Local conservationists have also been looking for specimens in food markets, but until recently the only criterion for identification of potential specimens has been that they are looking for massive turtles, so any adolescents might still have passed under their noses and ended up in cooking pots.

Given that animals were in the wild in the 90s, one might realistically hope that some young wild turtles remain in the native habitat, but if these cannot be found and protected, with each passing year that the pair in China don't produce offspring, the future for the species looks to be fairly short.

Animal of the Week March 15, 2013 -- Twit-whoooo's laughing now

Bad news for this week's animal. At a Bangkok meeting, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) struck several extinct species of the antipodes off its register. So, the crescent nail-tail wallaby (an animal whose bones passed through my calipers during my MSc; extinct 1956) and the Tasmanian tiger (1936) are no longer on their watch-list, and neither is Sceloglaux albifacies (laughing owl; 1914).

The laughing owl was one of two species of owl native to New Zealand, but unlike the morepork, the soft 'ruru' call of which still echoes across the country's green spaces, the laughing owl, like so many other of New Zealand's birds succumbed to the introduction of alien species with the arrival of man.

Unlike Haast's Eagle these owls were not a victim of Polynesian colonisation, they perhaps even experienced a boon following the introduction of the Polynesian rat, to which they took a liking. Rather, their habit of hunting for their prey on the ground left them vulnerable to cats and stoats introduced by Europeans in the mid-1800s, which not only killed the owls but also competed for their prey.

The laughing owl was still common at the time of European colonisation of New Zealand, its cries were described variously as "A peculiar barking noise ... just like the barking of a young dog" or "A melancholy hooting note". Presumably at times their calls were also like laughter. My favourite description, clearly from someone who has spent time in a sizeable gay bar before it fills up: "Precisely the same as two men "cooeying" to each other from a distance".