How genome research is helping the recovery of the Chatham Island black robin
Inbreeding usually leads to an accumulation of genetic defects, but evolution on a small archipelago may have helped the severely inbred Chatham Island black robin to avoid this fate, shows a new study discussed in The Conversation.
The article is published in The Conversation on 23 November and is written by Nicolas Dussex, Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Zoology and Centre for Palaeogenetics, Stockholm University, and Michael Knapp, Associate Professor in Biological Anthropology, University of Otago.
They write:
“The story of Old Blue and Old Yellow, two Chatham Island black robins that went on to save their species, is one of New Zealand’s best known conservation stories.
Once abundant on Rēkohu/Chatham Islands before European arrival, the black robin population crashed when rats invaded the archipelago. In the early 1900s, 35 black robins remained on a small island (Tapuaenuku/Little Mangere), but by 1976, only seven birds had survived.
They were moved to an adjacent, predator-free island (Maung’ Rē/Mangere) and Old Blue and Old Yellow, the only remaining breeding pair, became “Adam and Eve” for the species.
Conservation biologists worried such an extreme genetic bottleneck would lessen the species’ chances of recovery by leading to an accumulation of genetic defects. But our new genome study shows that, contrary to our expectations, harmful genetic mutations have not increased since the severe decline.”
Read the article published in The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/back-from-the-brink-how-genome-research-is-helping-the-recovery-of-the-chatham-island-black-robin-194319
More articles in The Conversation by researchers at Stockholm University:
https://theconversation.com/institutions/stockholm-university-1019
Last updated: November 30, 2022
Source: Communications Office