A population crash to fewer than 300 is breaking apart the song culture of a bird species.
In healthy populations, adult male regent honeyeaters have long, complex songs. But in small populations, the song is diminished. Often, the birds adopt songs of other species. It makes males less attractive to females. No mating means population extinction in a few years.
Researchers have monitored the critically endangered nectar feeding songbird since 2015. Extensive postwar land clearing has destroyed their habitat, causing populations to plummet. Could captive-breeding programs help restore the population? Researchers showed that captive-bread birds had shorter, simpler songs compared to their wild counterparts, and this could affect their breeding success.
Apart from conservation and addressing climate change, the study urges us to preserve important animal cultures like singing but also migration routes and feeding strategies to prevent future extinctions of Earth's wildlife.
Original article:
Only the lonely: an endangered bird is forgetting its song as the species dies out
Original study:
Loss of vocal culture and fitness costs in a critically endangered songbird