Post by Deinobrontornis on Feb 23, 2012 21:37:24 GMT -5
Boiled-to-death penguins are back from the brink
The boiling of millions of penguins on a remote Antarctic island triggered one of the first international wildlife campaigns. A century on, DNA analysis proves it has been a success. Now, Macquarie Island's king penguins must face rampaging rabbits.
A hundred years ago, New Zealand blubber merchant Joseph Hatch made his fortune on Macquarie by boiling 3 million penguins to extract oil for lamps. Large colonies of king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) on the island, halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica, seemed doomed. By the time an international campaign put an end to the carnage in 1919, there was just one colony of around 4000 penguins left.
Today, numbers are back above half a million, and this week, DNA analysts report that the genetic diversity of the population is close to preslaughter levels. "It is remarkable that a nearly extinct population has recovered levels of past genetic diversity in only 80 years," says Tim Heupink of Griffith University in Nathan, Australia.
Heupink's analysis compared DNA in flesh from the feet of 17 live king penguins with shavings from the bones of 1000-year-old penguins dug up at a former colony.
It brings hope that, properly protected, other beleaguered populations of birds and mammals can swiftly regain not just their numbers but also their genetic diversity – which is vital to long-term survival.
The birds owe their recovery to the hunting ban and reduced fishing in the area, says Heupink. But the island remains very disturbed.
Victorian visitors brought rats and mice to the island. Their successors brought cats to eat the rodents and rabbits for food. Each in turn ran riot. Recently, a campaign to eradicate the cats has caused a rabbit boom. The rabbits have eaten so much grass that they are exposing penguin chicks to attack by skua birds. Their grazing has also triggered landslips, one of which partly buried a penguin colony in 2006. So, last year, Tasmanian scientists began eradicating rabbits. The carnage continues.
The boiling of millions of penguins on a remote Antarctic island triggered one of the first international wildlife campaigns. A century on, DNA analysis proves it has been a success. Now, Macquarie Island's king penguins must face rampaging rabbits.
A hundred years ago, New Zealand blubber merchant Joseph Hatch made his fortune on Macquarie by boiling 3 million penguins to extract oil for lamps. Large colonies of king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) on the island, halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica, seemed doomed. By the time an international campaign put an end to the carnage in 1919, there was just one colony of around 4000 penguins left.
Today, numbers are back above half a million, and this week, DNA analysts report that the genetic diversity of the population is close to preslaughter levels. "It is remarkable that a nearly extinct population has recovered levels of past genetic diversity in only 80 years," says Tim Heupink of Griffith University in Nathan, Australia.
Heupink's analysis compared DNA in flesh from the feet of 17 live king penguins with shavings from the bones of 1000-year-old penguins dug up at a former colony.
It brings hope that, properly protected, other beleaguered populations of birds and mammals can swiftly regain not just their numbers but also their genetic diversity – which is vital to long-term survival.
The birds owe their recovery to the hunting ban and reduced fishing in the area, says Heupink. But the island remains very disturbed.
Victorian visitors brought rats and mice to the island. Their successors brought cats to eat the rodents and rabbits for food. Each in turn ran riot. Recently, a campaign to eradicate the cats has caused a rabbit boom. The rabbits have eaten so much grass that they are exposing penguin chicks to attack by skua birds. Their grazing has also triggered landslips, one of which partly buried a penguin colony in 2006. So, last year, Tasmanian scientists began eradicating rabbits. The carnage continues.
