According to a new study, New Zealand’s famous parrot species, the kea, can make a wonderful live anywhere in the entire island nation and people supposedly have moved to the mountains.
The kea is the world’s only alpine parrot and is considered one of the smartest birds. Researchers are well adapted to endangered species, and this trait could help survive climate change as well.
Researchers say that Kea was widespread throughout New Zealand. This was also confirmed by analysis of fossil remains and DNA sequences. However, it is currently known as the high mountain parrot. Scientists believe it could also be an endangered bird’s lifeline, as it would be better able to survive the loss of its habitat as well as increased competition, the research told The Guardian.
Animals adapting to an alpine environment, including kea, may become particularly vulnerable to climate change, and as the planet warms, more competitive lowland species will invade the highland environment. According to a European study, for example, up to 22 percent of species studied on glaciers in the Italian Alps will disappear as the glaciers melt.
Researchers at the University of Otago, by comparing the genomes of kea and similar forest parrots, found that there was no particular alteration in kea due to life in the Alps. They concluded that Kea could live anywhere and moved to high mountains because, for example, he wanted to avoid the deeper, man-made countryside.
Michael Knapp, one of the lead authors of a study published in the scientific journal Molecular Ecology, asserted that kea can live anywhere from sea level to high mountains. However, he considered that the idea that kea moved to mountains specifically to avoid humans was still speculative and that there was insufficient information to establish a causal relationship between the expansion of human settlements and the migration of birds to mountainous regions.
However, since Kea was physically able to survive in different habitats, it is worth rethinking what distinguishes high mountain habitats from the open, lower open habitats of New Zealand. It is suggested below, where agricultural production takes place, that the human influence is most distinct.
Kia has come into conflict with human societies in New Zealand several times. The Guardian reports that the intelligent, particularly naughty, and inquisitive race has also become notorious for its preference for attacking the inflatable wipers of mountain visitors’ cars. But they also wrote about them because they took items from the tourists’ bags. The farmers were angered by the sheep attack.
Until the 1970s, the process of eliminating them was supported by the government, during which about a hundred thousand heads were killed. According to Conservation New Zealand, kea is now protected nationwide, with only 3,000 to 7,000 specimens left.
The bird’s plumage, which is more than 40 cm in length, is brown, olive-green and orange in color, and the beak is curved gray-brown. It is carnivorous and mainly feeds on roots, leaves, berries, and insects.
