Bird body odour: a link to extinction?
Apparently, New Zealand birds have a body odour problem. This could be a reason why
so many of our native birds are either extinct or on the threatened species list. Associate
Professor Jim Briskie from the University of Canterbury has been awarded a Marsden
grant to study the role of smell in the lives of our native birds.
The birds of New Zealand evolved for millions of years without mammalian predators
such as rats, stoats, cats and possums. Behavioural traits, such as nesting on the ground,
left birds vulnerable to introduced mammals. But in other countries, birds live with
mammals and seemingly behave much as our birds do. So have we been missing
something?
Associate Professor Briskie suspects the missing link is smell. Kiwi have been described
as smelling like mushrooms or ammonia; kakapo like musty violin cases. Many
mammals are especially adept at detecting odours, and a rat or stoat smelling a kiwi gets
a “potential meal” alert.
Preliminary work has revealed that these odours arise from the preening waxes that birds
use to maintain their feathers. Birds elsewhere seem to have less pungent odours, and
they suppress the smelly waxes produced by their preen glands while nesting.
New Zealand birds and their preen gland waxes will be studied and compared with
related species in Australia that evolved in the presence of mammalian predators.
Associate Professor Briskie will also conduct laboratory and field trials to see whether
predators use smell to more easily locate island birds than their continental cousins.
This study will, for the first time, determine whether odours are playing a previously
unrecognised role in the decline of island birds.
Total Funding (over 3 years): $607,702
Principal researcher: Associate Professor Jim Briskie, School of Biological Sciences,
University of Canterbury
Email: jim.briskie@canterbury.ac.nz
Associate Investigator: Professor Bart Kempenaers, Max Planck Institute for
Ornithology, Germany
Marsden Fund Contact: Dr Dean Peterson, Manager: Research Funding (04) 470 5783,
027 500 5553, dean.peterson@royalsociety.org.nz,
http://www.marsden.royalsociety.org.nz