Tweet
I had a feeling I was onto something when I chose the mejiro to be my avatar.
Alien birds save Hawaiian natives
Not all alien species deserve a bad press: birds introduced to Hawaii are saving rainforests by dispersing the seeds of native shrubs.
Because so many of Hawaii's native fruit-eating birds have gone extinct through disease, habitat loss or predation by exotic mammals, rainforest shrubs have lost their usual way of sending seeds to new sites, says Jeff Foster from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Enter the Japanese white-eye and red-billed leiothrix. Foster analysed their stomach contents and discovered that they snacked extensively on native fruit, while seed traps revealed that the birds are dispersing the seeds widely, allowing native shrubs to reclaim the "understorey" of Hawaiian forests (Conservation Biology, vol 21, p 1248).
"People tend to think of native species as good and exotic ones as bad, but it's just not that simple," says Foster.
(New Scientist)
Not all alien species deserve a bad press: birds introduced to Hawaii are saving rainforests by dispersing the seeds of native shrubs.
Because so many of Hawaii's native fruit-eating birds have gone extinct through disease, habitat loss or predation by exotic mammals, rainforest shrubs have lost their usual way of sending seeds to new sites, says Jeff Foster from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Enter the Japanese white-eye and red-billed leiothrix. Foster analysed their stomach contents and discovered that they snacked extensively on native fruit, while seed traps revealed that the birds are dispersing the seeds widely, allowing native shrubs to reclaim the "understorey" of Hawaiian forests (Conservation Biology, vol 21, p 1248).
"People tend to think of native species as good and exotic ones as bad, but it's just not that simple," says Foster.
(New Scientist)