A Christchurch researcher is working on a theory that some
New Zealand birds such as kiwi effectively have a target
pinned on their backs because they never learned to suppress
body odours.
Associate Professor Jim Briskie from the University of
Canterbury has been awarded $607,702 over three years by the
Marsden Fund to study whether odours are playing a role in
the decline of native birds.
Behavioural traits, such as nesting on the ground, make birds
vulnerable to introduced mammals -- such as rats, stoats,
cats and possums -- but in other countries, birds manage to
survive alongside mammals.
Prof Briskie suspects the missing link is smell.
Kiwi have been described as smelling like mushrooms or
ammonia; kakapo like musty violin cases -- smells that arise
from the preening oils which birds use to maintain their
feathers.
Birds overseas seem to have less pungent odours, and they
suppress the smelly waxes produced by their preen glands
while nesting.
New Zealand birds and their preen glands will be studied and
compared with related species in Australia that evolved in
the presence of mammalian predators.
Prof Briskie will also carry out trials in the field and in
laboratories to see whether predators use smell to more
easily locate island birds.
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