Dead as a dodo? Rare Samoan species spotted

[Still Waters]

A team of government researchers in Samoa has announced that it has finally sighted a juvenile Manumea bird (also known as the tooth-billed pigeon or little dodo) during an intensive field search in the forests of Savai'i, Samoa's northern island.

http://phys.org/news...are-samoan.html

[+DieChecker]

A team of government researchers in Samoa has announced that it has finally sighted a juvenile Manumea bird (also known as the tooth-billed pigeon or little dodo) during an intensive field search in the forests of Savai'i, Samoa's northern island.

http://phys.org/news...are-samoan.html

The next step for researchers is to survey Samoa's southern island, Upolu, where some anecdotal reports have been collected. More fieldwork is needed to get the full picture, they say.

Wait.... Following up on anecdotal reports? I thought crypto-skeptics said that that doesn't happen?

They would also say this bird does not exist because there is estimated to be only 200 members left. Which is less then is required for a breeding population.

Edited January 25, 2014 by DieChecker

[Sundew]

I don't know the archipelago's makeup, but what Australia and New Zealand have done in some cases is to take an offshore island, survey it for suitable habitat, remove any non-native feral animals (rats, domestic cats, goats, etc) and the introduce a small breeding population of the endangered wildlife they are trying to protect. From what I have read the animals or birds are first brought into an intensive captive breeding program and their offspring are then released in stages into the new habitat and closely monitored. I suspect that, like the Dodo, this bird had no natural enemies and with the arrival of man with his dogs, cats, rats and man's appetite for fresh meat, when into decline. Perhaps Samoa has some smaller uninhabited islands that would work.

[aquatus1]

That thing looks less like a little dodo and more like a little vulture.

[Eldorado]

That thing looks less like a little dodo and more like a little vulture.

It looks a little my ex mother-in-law!

[Twin]

Mmmmmmm Manumea.

[aquatus1]

Why do I have the KFC theme song running through my head?

[+DieChecker]

Extinct-o-lishous?

[Myles]

Wait.... Following up on anecdotal reports? I thought crypto-skeptics said that that doesn't happen?

They would also say this bird does not exist because there is estimated to be only 200 members left. Which is less then is required for a breeding population.

Notice that the pictures are not extremely fuzzy.

[Xynoplas]

It's rare or endangered. Not quite a cryptid, you know.

[JGirl]

Extinct-o-lishous?

lol

love it

[Calibeliever]

That thing looks less like a little dodo and more like a little vulture.

That was my first thought.

[+DieChecker]

Notice that the pictures are not extremely fuzzy.

Yes, taken in a bush by bush search for the bird.

Which was spurred by civilian eyewitness reports.