Jump to content
Ornithology Exchange (brought to you by the Ornithological Council)

After 10,000 years of inbreeding, endangered flightless parrots from New Zealand are in surprisingly good genetic health


Recommended Posts

Before humans made their way to New Zealand, the critically endangered flightless parrot known as the k?k?p? likely numbered in the hundreds of thousands. By 1995, their numbers had dwindled to just 51 birds, including 50 isolated on tiny Stewart Island and a single male, known as Richard Henry, all alone on the mainland. Today, those numbers have grown to about 200 individuals. Now, the first genome sequencing of the species offer some surprisingly good news: despite 10,000 years of island isolation and inbreeding, the k?k?p? appear to have lost potentially deleterious mutations rather than accumulating them. In fact, they now carry fewer deleterious mutations than now-extinct populations on the mainland once did.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/sciencedaily/plants_animals/birds/~4/B155abU7-c0

View the full article

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...